Chapter 451: The Viscount Daldorf Mansion

I had been waiting with a tense, unsettled feeling for enough evidence to apprehend the Viscountess of Daldorf, and the moment I heard the High Priest say "Very well," I burst out of the High Bishop's room. Accompanying me were my guard knights and Hartmut, who insisted that "As High Priest, I believe it is an important duty to recover the Holy Book that is so precious to Your Ladyship the High Bishop."

"My book must be recovered, after all."

"Yes. The Saint requires her Holy Book."

At times like these, Hartmut was a reassuring ally. I further reinforced my body with Magic Power and took off running at full speed. The moment I stepped outside, I was already out of breath and panting, but I couldn't afford to falter now.

...For the sake of recovering the Holy Book, I would not hesitate to stage a full-on bloody carnival!

I mounted my riding beast, gripped the handle firmly, and braced myself to charge forward—then stopped. This was a problem. I desperately wanted to rush off and recover the Holy Book immediately, but I didn't know where the Viscount Daldorf mansion was.

"Um, High Priest? Where is the Viscount Daldorf mansion?"

"What!? You rushed out without even knowing where it is!?"

"The spirit of wanting to recover the Holy Book is what truly matters, Ewigeliebe."

As the guard knights around me drooped their shoulders in dismay, the High Priest—somehow able to keep up with my full speed at just a brisk walk—wore an exasperated expression as he began moving his riding beast.

"Stay behind me. If you got there first, it would be exceedingly troublesome."

The Viscount Daldorf mansion appeared to be under surveillance by knights, because the moment we arrived, two knights approached the High Priest. "It seems only the Viscountess is indeed present," one of them whispered.

Daldorf, which was quite close to Illgner, was not in the southern region where snow still fell. The family was apparently still at their summer estate.

"Could it be that she's acting alone to avoid any taint reaching the family, or to ensure no one interferes...?" the High Priest murmured as he issued further instructions to the knights. I watched from the corner of my eye while stepping up to the front door and having Hartmut knock the door knocker.

...I had Hartmut do it because the High Priest would scold me with "A lady of your standing..." if I knocked myself. It wasn't because I resented being too short to reach the knocker. It really wasn't!

As I glared at the door knocker—an animal resembling an ox mounted high on the door—the door opened. A serious-looking man who appeared to be the head attendant widened his eyes, scanned the retainers, then fixed his gaze on me, blinking several times.

"Your Ladyship Rozemyne? The Gieb has not yet returned, and I have received no prior arrangement from my mistress. What business brings you here?"

Since I had come to arrest her, I naturally had no appointment. I smiled brightly at the head attendant.

"I would like to see the Viscountess of Daldorf. Could you show me to her room?"

"I cannot let in an unannounced visitor. Surely you understand that, Your Ladyship Rozemyne?"

He spoke with polite formality but a stern expression, so I immediately bound the attendant with a band of light from my schtap. The High Priest had told me I could bind anyone who resisted. Anyone who tried to impede my recovery of the Holy Book could be bound and disposed of.

"Your Ladyship!?"

The head attendant, suddenly bound and unable to maintain his balance, toppled to the floor with a thud. He wore a bewildered expression, clearly not understanding what had happened. I questioned the attendant once more.

"Tell me—where is the Viscountess of Daldorf's room?"

"I cannot answer that."

Even bound, the attendant stubbornly kept his mouth shut. What admirable professional discipline. No matter how much I asked, it would be pointless. I immediately gave up on extracting information from him. I stepped past the bound man and strode into the mansion.

"It's a shame you couldn't tell me. But noble mansions are all built similarly. If I search through the lord's residential wing from one end to the other, I should be able to find it."

"Even if you are the Lord's adopted daughter, Your Ladyship, do you truly believe this sort of discourtesy is acceptable—entering another's mansion and binding their servants while the lord is absent and no arrangement has been made?"

Even lying on the floor, bound, he gazed up at me with eyes that held an intense light as he voiced his objections. I looked down at him on the floor, chuckled softly, and began flooding my body with Magic Power.

"My, how frightening. But isn't this simply the Daldorf way? The Viscountess of Daldorf had no arrangement, yet she bound the gatekeeper at the Temple—where the lord was absent—and broke in, stealing something precious to me. I've gone out of my way to adopt the Daldorf approach, so I hardly think I can be faulted."

"You—!?"

I applied a light magical pressure on the wide-eyed man. Only light—this man was no enemy of mine. He was an important source of information.

"Where is the Viscountess of Daldorf's room? Will you tell me?"

"Guh... gah!?"

Even though I had only applied light pressure, he foamed at the mouth and lost consciousness.

...Well, whatever.

His losing consciousness didn't change what I needed to do. I made my way toward the third floor, where the mistress's room would be, laboring up the stairs.

"Rozemyne, wouldn't it be faster to use your riding beast?" the High Priest asked in an irritated tone. Just then, from above came a tremendous BANG! BOOM-BOOM!—sounds that could never occur in a noble's mansion.

"What was that!?"

"It came from the mistress's room! Hurry!"

"Ewigeliebe and Angelica—stay with Rozemyne!"

The High Priest left only two of my guards behind and led the rest of the guard knights charging up the stairs. I hurriedly summoned my LESSERUS, mounted it, and chased after them.

"Eckhart, do it!"

"Yes!"

While the guard knights readied their schtaps, Brother Eckhart sliced through the door with his sword and kicked it open—I caught up to the others just at that moment.

The next instant, a nauseatingly foul stench wafted out of the room. I could see the High Priest and Brother Eckhart, who had been standing before the door, their eyes widening in shock.

"Step back, Rozemyne!"

"Yes!"

At the sharp command, I immediately pulled the LESSERUS backward, retreating from the doorway. Brother Cornelius and Damuel, who were positioned where they could see inside the room, looked pale.

"What's in there?"

"Bodies. Three women are dead on the floor, surrounded by copious blood spatter and pools of blood. All three appear to have had their heads essentially blown off."

"Kyah! I didn't need a description that detailed!"

I immediately turned my face away and squeezed my eyes shut. My idea of a bloody carnival was never this gory.

...The bloody carnival had concluded beyond anything I had imagined!

"They noticed us and killed themselves? That's far too decisive," the High Priest sighed, then stepped into the room. Justus and Brother Eckhart, along with my male retainers, followed him. The female knights remained behind in the hallway corner, where they couldn't see inside the room, shaking and trembling as they guarded me.

...A real bloody carnival is genuinely terrifying.

"Your Ladyship, this appears to be a letter left by the Viscountess of Daldorf."

Hartmut brought back what was essentially a scrawled note. It contained resentment toward the family, along with the extremely provocative words: "I will not hand over my memories. Search for them if you can."

If the Holy Book couldn't be found, the Viscountess could posthumously smear mud on the faces of the High Bishop and High Priest who had ordered Shikikoza's execution, and cause tremendous trouble for the Aub—the family had only one Holy Book, after all. Apparently, being able to achieve even that much was enough to satisfy her.

She seemed to have despaired over her family's behavior at the time of Shikikoza's execution, and even if her entire family was destroyed, she wanted revenge on me and the High Priest, who bore responsibility for the situation. Even the paper itself, speckled with blood droplets, conveyed her intense hatred and emotion.

"...The entire family has been dragged into this as collateral."

"The attendants who died with her were likely involved as well. The letter suggests measures were taken to prevent their memories from being read, meaning the attendants also participated in this scheme."

It seemed she had killed not only herself but everyone involved in the Holy Book swap. This meant the Holy Book would certainly not be found easily.

"The trail of the Holy Book has gone cold."

I had thought that capturing the Viscountess of Daldorf would lead us to it, but that lead had been completely severed. We had absolutely no idea where the Holy Book was.

"Given the Viscountess of Daldorf's sudden suicide, our movements must have been entirely unexpected. There's still a possibility it remains somewhere in this mansion, and even if she moved it elsewhere, there may be traces," Hartmut said. However, I thought searching for the Holy Book without any clues whatsoever would be extraordinarily difficult. Without the cooperation of Viscount Daldorf, we couldn't open the Viscountess's hidden room, and extracting testimony from those highly disciplined servants would be difficult too. There was the option of peering into their memories one by one, but that would inevitably make this matter public.

...What to do? We absolutely need Viscount Daldorf's willing help in searching for the Holy Book, but there's no way he'd cooperate, is there?

"Rozemyne, ask the knights outside to assist us here, then take your guard knights and go to the castle. Arrange a meeting with the Aub, explain the situation, and summon the Gieb. I will preserve the scene and gather information here. The deaths have been confirmed, but we still need to verify whether these bodies are truly the Viscountess of Daldorf."

After issuing his instructions, the High Priest returned to the Viscountess's room. Moping about here wouldn't bring out the Holy Book. I immediately sent an orandum to my adoptive father requesting an urgent meeting, and sent another to Richarda informing her to return to the castle. Then I asked the knights keeping watch outside to help the High Priest, and headed to the castle with my guard knights.

The theft of the Holy Book and the capture of Egmont had been reported by the High Priest after sending everyone away, and information had also been conveyed through Father's memories. My adoptive father must have realized from my orandum that an emergency had arisen. The moment I arrived at the castle, I was summoned, and by the time I reached the office, everyone else had already been cleared out.

"What happened?"

My adoptive father scanned me and my guard knights with his sharp, deep-green eyes. I stepped forward and spoke.

"The Viscountess of Daldorf and her attendants are dead. They apparently blew their own heads off to prevent having their memories read."

"What did you say?"

I hadn't seen the scene in the room myself, so I could only relay what the High Priest had told me. Upon hearing this, my adoptive father closed his eyes tightly, then slowly exhaled.

"I must summon the Gieb immediately, investigate the family's involvement, and deal with them accordingly. ...My winter schedule is going to be thrown into chaos."

He had said the purge of the former Veronica faction would take place in winter. If the Daldorf family were punished now, it would inevitably affect the former Veronica faction somehow. My adoptive father looked displeased because he couldn't predict how this would impact his winter plans.

"Adoptive father, are you going to punish the entire Daldorf family?"

"They stole the Holy Book and attempted to assassinate the Lord's adopted daughter. Collective punishment is only natural, wouldn't you say?"

"Perhaps it's only natural, but if we continue punishing people through collective punishment even when they bear no direct guilt, won't we end up just like the current Yurgenschmidt—short on nobles and unable to manage the territory?"

We ourselves had said it was stupid to execute so many nobles through purges that the nation couldn't function properly. Doing the same thing ourselves seemed even more foolish.

"...Then what would you have me do?"

"Could we not use the Shield of Schutzaria to verify whether they harbor hostility or ill intent, bind them with a name-pledge, and allow the family to continue?"

Just as the Aub had magical tools that only he could operate, the Gieb who governed land had magical tools that only they could operate. The number of people with increased Magic Power thanks to the compression method had grown, but Ehrenfest didn't have that much room to spare in terms of nobles.

"At the Royal Academy, the children avoid collective punishment through name-pledges, correct? Then I believe there should also be a path to salvation for adults, provided their hostility has been verified."

It wasn't my adoptive father who shook his head firmly at my words, but rather my father, the Knight Commander.

"But then it would set a poor precedent for all those previously punished through collective punishment."

"Father, just because one member of a family harbors hostility doesn't mean every single one does. Please make crimes the responsibility of the individual. Otherwise, I believe the cycle of malice and hatred can never be broken. Since the Shield of Schutzaria can verify the presence of hostility, we should stop inflicting unnecessary punishments that breed ill feelings toward us."

If we couldn't know what people were thinking inside their hearts, that might be one thing—but with the Shield of Schutzaria, we could determine whether someone held hostility. I believed we should make active use of it and increase the number of nobles we could save.

"But an attempted assassination of the Lord's family—that warrants a harsher punishment than..."

"Father, have you forgotten? Once the Holy Book is recovered, this entire incident can be made to have never happened. If that's the case, there's no need to publicly press charges. We can handle it secretly through name-pledges, and that will be the end of it."

My adoptive father pondered my words for a moment, then stared at me intently, as if trying to discern something. The Lord's expression on my adoptive father's face made my spine straighten involuntarily.

"Rozemyne, you yourself were the target of an attempted assassination by the Viscountess of Daldorf—why are you going out of your way to protect the entire Daldorf family? If you leave them be, you could end up in the same situation again. Crushing them would be for your own safety."

"If there's a path to salvation for the family, they'll search for the Holy Book with genuine earnestness."

If their fate was already sealed, we couldn't be sure how seriously they'd cooperate with questioning the servants, searching the Viscountess's hidden room, or investigating the mansion. But if a path to salvation were offered, their level of commitment would be entirely different. The entire family would search with all their might.

Rather than us—people who knew nothing about the Viscountess of Daldorf—searching blindly, those who knew her relationships, personality, and preferences would surely be far more efficient.

"Punishing those who currently harbor no hostility would be a mistake. I believe the best approach is to offer a path to salvation and have them work as hard as they possibly can."

Executing them might easily eliminate the source of worry, but I believed the downsides were equally significant. If the entire family faced collective punishment, some might become desperate and unpredictable. But if they knew a path to salvation existed, the Gieb—whose duty was to protect the family and the land—would do everything in their power to save them.

My father wore an exasperated expression at my argument, but my adoptive father's lips curled upward at the corners with interest.

"...Very well. Frankly, reducing the noble population too much by eliminating the former Veronica faction has been a headache. I'll have you use your Shield of Wind to sift through them and offer a path to salvation."

Since we didn't want to make the theft of the Holy Book public, the meeting with Viscount Daldorf had to be conducted in secret. My adoptive father said he would move to the mansion. Since he would be slipping out discreetly, we arranged to meet in a particular room.

"You said the Aub would shake off his retainers, but how can he possibly manage that?" Leona asked with a puzzled expression. I didn't know my adoptive father's escape techniques either. I waited in the designated room as instructed, gazing outside. The meeting point was a guest room, and beyond the large balcony, the sky was bright and clear.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Let's go."

There wasn't even a sound of the door opening, yet suddenly my adoptive father and my father appeared.

"Where in the world did you two come from?"

"A combination of the servants' shortcuts and emergency exits accessible only to the Aub. You lot couldn't pull it off."

He puffed out his chest with a "Hmph," but was that really something to boast about? As I stared at him in exasperation, my adoptive father threw open the large French doors leading to the balcony and turned back.

"Now, Rozemyne. Summon your riding beast. Mine would be too conspicuous, so Karlstedt and I will ride yours."

The three-headed lion was indeed a riding beast used only by the Aub. It was conspicuous and would make the Aub's movements completely obvious. I enlarged the LESSERUS slightly and let my adoptive father and my father—his guard knight—board.

"Ohh!"

My adoptive father's eyes sparkled as he peered about in every direction, though with Ewigeliebe sitting in the passenger seat, he was exercising considerable restraint to maintain some semblance of aub-like dignity. Without Ewigeliebe, he probably would have barraged me with questions.

After making sure both of them had fastened their seatbelts, I took off in the LESSERUS.

"Aub Ehrenfest, what is the meaning of this!?"

Responding to the Aub's emergency summons, Viscount Daldorf and his heir had returned on their riding beasts, only to find the Lord sitting in the guest room of their own home. Their eyes went wide with shock. And no wonder—their Lord was sitting inside a translucent hemispherical shield.

"Your wife broke into the Temple and committed theft. She swapped a fake in place of the Holy Book, coated it with poison, and plotted to assassinate Rozemyne. The evidence is irrefutable. I had previously warned you to never involve yourself with Rozemyne again. If you cared for your family, why did you leave your wife unchecked, Gieb Daldorf?"

At my adoptive father's words, Gieb Daldorf immediately dropped to his knees, his face turning ashen. His lips trembled and he shook violently. The man kneeling beside him—apparently the heir—ground his teeth and accused his father, Viscount Daldorf.

"I told you so, didn't I, Father? I said she was too emotional and her behavior as a noble was abnormal. I told you to lock her away somewhere before her actions brought harm upon the entire family because of a good-for-nothing like Shikikoza. After Mother's passing, I opposed even treating that woman as the first wife."

"You—are you the heir?"

"...My name is Jeremias. Until she caused this disgrace, I was the heir."

Jeremias made an expression as though swallowing a surge of purposeless rage, then smiled as if he had given up on everything.

"He may yet remain the heir."

At my adoptive father's words, Jeremias's eyes widened and he straightened his posture. Gieb Daldorf also fixed his gaze on my adoptive father.

"Ehrenfest's Saint is exceedingly merciful. The crime should belong to that individual alone. She beseeched me to find a way for others to avoid losing their lives through collective punishment."

"Could it really be true... that such a thing is possible!?"

Stunned, the two men looked between my adoptive father and me. Their expressions suggested they suspected they were being deceived. Being doubted at this point would only stall progress, so I put on my most Saint-like smile and spoke.

"Gieb Daldorf, I simply want the stolen Holy Book returned. That is enough. I do not wish for the entire Daldorf family to suffer."

Whether my Saint-like smile succeeded or not, the two men's faces filled with shock, joy, and hope as they gazed up at me. However, the head attendant who had been bound and intimidated by me upon my arrival wore an expression filled with shock, suspicion, and anxiety.

...I'm not actually deceiving you, so please don't say anything unnecessary.

When I smiled at him, he shrank back in fear, his shoulders trembling as he took a step away.

"However, as much as she has beseeched us, considering those who have previously been punished through collective punishment, I cannot simply accept Rozemyne's demands without conditions. Surely you understand."

My adoptive father addressed the two men in a measured tone.

"To avoid collective punishment, you must first recover the Holy Book, then have the absence of hostility or ill intent verified, and finally pledge your names to me as the Aub."

"A... a name-pledge, you say?"

"Yes, that's right. It's not something one can do with half-hearted resolve. However, if Gieb Daldorf and the heir Jeremias are prepared to pledge your names, I intend to honor that resolve and make this crime solely that of the Viscountess Daldorf."

A name-pledge was never supposed to be made under conditional terms like this. And if they truly understood what it meant to pledge one's name and be bound by it, they wouldn't be able to decide so easily. The sound of the two men swallowing hard echoed loudly.

When we went to the Viscount Daldorf mansion, the bloody carnival that awaited us exceeded anything I had imagined.

Our search for the Holy Book was back at square one, but a path to salvation for the former Veronica faction had been created.

Next, I will do my utmost to find the Holy Book.