Chapter 35 Translator: XZY Chapter 35: Denise (1) ***
'I knew it would come to this.'
Lady Denise of the Beltus family read the letter sent by her father, her eyes narrowed into crescents.
It was something she had predicted ever since the duel between Lady Elente and Lady Aiseline a while ago.
Whether it was the Margrave of Belmeade or the Grand Duke of Duplein, they were all people who would rush in like mad when it came to matters involving their own children.
If Aiseline and Elente began to engage in a war of nerves to recruit a single master to their side, this matter was highly likely to develop into a problem between the families.
"Bella. When did this letter arrive?"
"It arrived early this morning. It's been a while since the head of the house sent a letter himself, so I remember it clearly."
"For a person who usually doesn't even ask how I'm doing to look for me so urgently like this, it seems his feet are on fire."
Even though the sun was high in the sky, Lady Denise was lying down in her bed in her private chambers. Eventually, she let out a 'heekyaak' sound and stretched once.
Her pajama attire, with decorative lace here and there, made it seem as if it were the middle of the night, but in reality, she simply hadn't gotten out of bed because she was lazy. On her days off, she often didn't get out of bed until late in the afternoon.
This was because she was tired from acting like a pretty and gentle noble young lady all week long.
Head Maid Bella would let out a sigh of worry every time she saw her like that, but as the years passed, she now took an attitude of not caring. Denise was not a person who would change just because someone nagged her.
She lifted the letter with its neat handwriting while lying in bed and read it over a few more times.
It was quite a long letter, but there was not much substantial content. Denise casually tossed the letter towards the tea table, let out a deep sigh, and said.
"Today, I was determined to finish reading the great author Sir Reilley's ..."
"Are you going to get up? Then I will have them prepare a meal."
"I have no appetite... Isn't there anything simple? I want to eat cherry pie..."
"Please take care of your nutritional balance as well. If you get any skin trouble, I will be the one who gets whipped..."
Head Maid Bella was a servant who had been with Denise since her childhood.
Due to the difference in status between a noble and a commoner, the distinction between formal and informal speech was clear, but since the two had lived together for almost their entire lives, there was no great formality between them.
Denise pushed her sluggish body up with a 'keu-eoeo' sound.
"Ugh... it feels like all the muscles in my body are stiff."
Denise, who had forced her body up like that, lifted her head with her eyes narrowed into crescents.
The Grand Duke of Beltus had ordered her to ask around the social circle for information about Derek and, if possible, to recruit him. Denise already knew this would happen.
She hated troublesome things, but she also couldn't deny the fact that it was better to deal with unavoidable things quickly. Therefore, Denise had proactively moved first and finished asking around about Derek.
It was Denise who had been the first of the three great families to send a request letter to the Veldern Mercenary Corps, and it was also Denise who had been observing Derek's movements from a distance.
If she had moved more actively, she might have been able to make direct contact with him, but in truth, if she had made any more moves than that, there was a high possibility of alerting Elente or Aiseline.
Therefore, Denise had made all the preparations she could at this point.
Now that the order had come down from the Grand Duke of Beltus, she just had to quickly finish the rest of the work.
"If you are going to get up, I will open the window. I need to air the room out in advance."
"Kyaaaak! My eyes!"
As Bella pulled the curtains open, Denise, surprised by the sudden rush of light, rubbed her eyes.
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'I hear that man is 1-Star, but from what I've seen, it wouldn't be strange for him to be over 2-Star. Otherwise, there's no way Lady Aiseline would try to ask for his teachings so eagerly.'
Denise left the noble district with two guards and three servants.
Since it was rare for a noble young lady to come out of the noble district, she was receiving the gazes of the Ebelstein citizens all to herself wherever she went. Denise let the hem of her well-tailored dress hang down, smiled elegantly, and walked calmly towards the tavern street.
The reason she had not come by carriage was because she wanted to organize her thoughts while heading to the tavern street.
'Since it's been about a week since he went missing, the Belmeade family and the Duplein family must have also started their investigations in earnest to find that wandering mage. I'll have to move quickly.'
Denise was a person born with an exceptional talent for transmutation and detection magic.
In particular, when it came to detection magic, she had already almost reached the realm of 2-Star. However, she had not told anyone except for her childhood friend, Bella.
Receiving all the attention like Aiseline might be an important thing in noble society, but sometimes, hiding one's skills was more efficient.
In particular, Denise, who hated getting involved in useless matters here and there, hid her own skills more often.
Nevertheless, she was one of the trio of the Rosea Salon.
If she completely neglected her duties as a noble young lady just because everything was a hassle, she would be treated as a nuisance in the family, so it was important to maintain a proper line if she wanted to live comfortably and suck the honey.
In the end, there were times when she had to roll up her sleeves and do things, crying and eating mustard, like this.
Denise let out a deep sigh, led her servants forward, and organized her thoughts.
A flicker of life momentarily appeared in her always-languid eyes.
Her figure, walking calmly with her chin propped on her hand, was like a small bisque doll, so the passing pedestrians looked back at her several times.
The road from the noble district, across the commercial district, to the tavern street.
Since the city of Ebelstein itself was so huge, it was bound to take a considerable amount of time to travel on foot. However, during that long time, Lady Denise did not change her posture once and was lost in deep thought.
Lady Denise had only seen the real man named Derek from a distance just once. She had never exchanged a single word with him.
However, she could deduce his character as much as she wanted through the descriptions of Lady Aiseline and Lady Elente.
Seeing that he taught a noble young lady without hesitation despite his commoner status, he was surely a person with strong confidence in his own skills.
And seeing that he produced results worthy of it, he was also a person of outstanding ability.
His build was not large, but seeing the fine muscles and veins visible beyond his elbows, he was a person who used his body every day.
He was not a particularly prideful person, and he was a person who knew how to bow and bend his head when necessary. He also seemed to like money.
And yet, he had a strong desire for achievement. It seemed he had not been lazy in his own magic training while teaching Elente and Diella.
And yet, he knew how to maintain a minimum of dignity. Lady Aiseline did not prefer vulgar people. Surely, he would know a good deal of noble etiquette.
He had a calm disposition and deep inner beliefs. However, it seemed he would rarely reveal them.
He was skilled at hiding his thoughts using a blunt expression as a shield. If one peeled back a layer, there was a high possibility that there was a considerable emotional part.
An outline of what kind of person the man named Derek was began to form in Denise's mind.
Surprisingly, the sketch drawn through a series of deductions and speculations was almost identical to the real Derek.
'He's not a person who dislikes money, so there's no reason for him to be stingy with requests from noble families. But is there another reason to refuse noble family requests to the point of disappearing like this? If I can pinpoint that reason, I think I can get a rough picture.'
To find a person's tracks, one ultimately had to be able to read that person's way of thinking completely.
"Lady Denise. This is the tavern street from here. It is not a safe place, so please stick close to the guards."
"..."
"Lady Denise?"
Bella, who was following Denise with a demure appearance, asked again.
However, no answer came back from Denise. Denise was quietly propping her chin on her hand and muttering to herself.
Bella, who saw that, came to the conclusion that it would be better to urge the guards to be on high alert.
'Desire for achievement.'
Denise was already following more than half of Derek's footsteps.
Although no one had told her, she was guessing the character of the person named Derek on her own and pinpointing the principle of his actions.
'For that magic master who doesn't refuse money to value something more than money, that's the only thing it could be. However, it's a strange thing.'
'Either he found a good magic master, or he got his hands on a decent grimoire... in any case, it's clear that some kind of event that would help his own mastery of magic has occurred. If not, this kind of disappearance is not well understood.'
'But... wasn't he a person who came running out of the Duplein family's estate, saying he would train in magic on his own? It doesn't seem like he would be so easily engrossed by an ordinary opportunity...'
He was a boy who had even kicked his way out of the Duplein estate, where a 5-Star mage resided, to learn magic in his own way.
What kind of master could teach him, and what kind of grimoire could excite him this much?
Lady Denise's head began to spin.
From here on, she had to assemble all the scattered information into one. Each and every piece of information piled up in the world, which seemed to have no connection, entered and left Lady Denise's head.
The things she had seen in the newsletters. The news about the duel between Lady Elente and Lady Aiseline. The news about the tariff agreement between the three great families, the market price information of various goods, the rumors about a certain mage that circulated among the high nobles...
All the news that Lady Denise had heard from a distance for the past week, and all the information she had grasped, were lumped together and then scattered, and they were assembled and then disassembled here and there.
Even when she had reached the front of the tavern 'Veldern's Tear' like that, Lady Denise was just quietly propping her chin on her hand and muttering to herself. At this point, she had set up a hypothesis.
"Lady Denise. We have arrived at our destination."
"Hmm..."
Lady Denise entered Veldern's Tear without changing her expression.
It was the headquarters of the mercenary corps where that magic master was said to be affiliated.
Creak~
"Welcome... my, a precious person in such a humble place..."
"..."
As she opened the tavern door and entered, the owner, Jayden, greeted her with a smile.
It was rare for a noble young lady to come to a tavern located deep in such a rough place. However, Jayden did not seem as flustered as one might think.
For the past few days, there must have been more than one or two noble family investigators who had visited, saying they would find that wandering magic master.
He must have been very surprised at first, but now he might be getting used to it and be sick of entertaining nobles.
In fact, as soon as he saw Lady Denise, he quickly poured cold water into an elegant and clean glass and offered it to her.
"Aren't you the young lady of the Beltus family? It is a great honor to meet you in person."
"..."
Denise had walked all the way inside the tavern, but she had not uttered a single word.
Jayden also had a slightly awkward expression. For the past week, several people from noble families had visited to find Derek, but this was the first time someone had just stared at him for a long time like this.
If Lady Denise did not speak first, Jayden did not have much to say either, so he was just giving an awkward smile like that.
Jayden had already predicted how the conversation that would follow after this would flow. They would ask this and that about Derek, but there was almost no information that Jayden could confidently confirm.
After asking this and that like that, they would ask where Derek's residence was and then go to investigate it.
Since he was used to the series of events, Jayden was not saying much.
Surely, she would ask about Derek at length.
However, the question from Denise that followed was completely different from Jayden's expectation.
"─Did a mage named Drest Wolftail come to this tavern?"
It was a surprise attack that seemed to pierce his lungs.
It was a question that had pierced his chest like a dagger that had suddenly flown in, but Jayden only showed a slight tremble at the tip of his finger that he had placed on the table, and a very brief silence that was less than a fraction of a second.
Jayden's expression did not change.
It was a very brief gap that ordinary people would not have felt any sense of incongruity from. However, Denise did not miss that brief gap.
Before Jayden could even answer, she raised the corners of her mouth and said.
"He did, didn't he?"
At the sight of her quickly cutting off Jayden's escape route, even that old, battle-hardened veteran had to swallow a dry gulp of saliva for a moment.
If he rashly denied it now and it was revealed to be a lie, the matter would become difficult to handle.
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After that, it was a smooth process.
The next place Lady Denise, who had left Veldern's Tear, headed to was the Coachman's Guild in the commercial district.
She casually donated dozens of gold coins to view the internal data. Since even ordinary noble family investigators did not move with this much conviction, the guild staff made a dumbfounded expression.
Among the high nobles, the rumor that the 6-Star detection mage Drest was wandering around Ebelstein like a wandering spirit was already rampant.
There was no way that he, whose relationship with the nobles was complicated, would be wandering around the noble district, and it was clear that he would be wandering around the commercial district or the slums at best.
Derek was a person who had even kicked his way out of the estate where the 5-Star mage, the Grand Duke of Duplein, was staying. To fascinate such a person, it was clear that it would only be possible by bringing in, literally, a 6-Star mage.
Therefore, Denise had set up a hypothesis. Could it be that his disappearance was related to the 6-Star mage Drest Wolftail?
After confirming that her hypothesis had gained some strength from Jayden's reaction, she immediately looked at the list of carriages that had gone out of Ebelstein.
If Derek had really met Drest, there was no way the two of them would have remained in Ebelstein.
Drest was a person whom many wanted to meet. If he had decided to pass on some magic to Derek, he would have had to go to the outskirts of Ebelstein, where there were few people.
However, the number of requests to go out of Ebelstein was over a hundred a day.
The list of requests at the Coachman's Guild was also so vast in its data that it could not be easily examined. However, Denise sorted through all that vast data at once.
In any case, the carriages that went out of Ebelstein were almost all peddler's carriages that followed a set trade route. If one added the other routine trade business and the carriage requests for external business, almost 90 percent of the data became meaningless.
There was no way that Drest and Derek would have followed a trade route that everyone else took to go and train in magic secretly. It was clear that they would have headed for a 'special' place that ordinary people would not bother to go to.
The time frame was also somewhat set. It was the time of his disappearance, roughly a week ago.
The time frame was clear, the content of the request itself was unusual, and she knew the appearance of the clients well.
At this point, it did not take that long to sort out the meaningful data.
After sorting through the data with her servants for about two hours, a rough outline emerged.
'The Raspa Great Cave on the outskirts of Ramhel Hill.'
It was the record of a coachman who had gone out after receiving a request from a boy and an old man in robes, exactly a week ago.
The destination, the reward, the time it took to arrive, the date, and information about the clients were briefly written down.
Denise, who saw that record, smiled.
It had been exactly half a day since she had rolled up her sleeves to find Derek's whereabouts.
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"Bella, no matter how much I think about it, I think I'm too competent. What should I do?"
"..."
"If you're too competent, you just get caught up in a lot of troublesome things, so sometimes you have to be a little incompetent... sigh... what to do..."
The demeanor Denise showed at the Rosea Salon was always elegant and aristocratic, but her private appearance could not be more annoying.
Bella also had to admit what she had to admit. Denise was good at taking action, had a quick mind, and even had good intuition.
Even if one considered her ability to appropriately classify data, to read others' expressions without difficulty, and to proceed with work with drive as her ability, the way she had linked the rumors about Drest with Derek's desire for achievement was almost in the realm of sense. She was a person born with a strangely good intuition.
Inside the carriage heading to Ramhel Hill.
Denise, who was lying on the magnificent and luxurious seat and being fanned, said in a satisfied voice.
"I have to finish this quickly and go read the new work of the great author Sir Reilley. By this evening, I'll have to win over that magic master fellow and make him a person of the Beltus family. Father will probably be satisfied and won't bother me for a while."
"But... even if we go, can we meet him easily? If he is really accompanying a 6-Star detection mage... if they are determined not to meet us, we have no way."
"Don't worry. You think they won't even show their face once if we go all the way to such a remote place and make a fuss?"
Lady Denise laughed with an 'ehem' and spoke as if she had a plan.
"Even if we can't meet, we can at least leave an impression. If we go so far as to search for a secluded training ground where he has hidden without telling anyone, he'll at least feel our sincerity, right?"
"Still, he is a person whom even Lady Aiseline or Lady Elente could not easily recruit... will he be easy..."
"Don't worry, Bella. Didn't I say I have a plan?"
"May I ask what that plan is?"
If Denise was determined and rolled up her sleeves, results were guaranteed to come out.
Although she knew that fact well, Bella still had an anxious expression. This was because her drive, once she had rolled up her sleeves, sometimes went in a strange direction.
"A honey trap."
"..."
"As you know well, Bella, if I fascinate him with this seductive appearance of mine, he'll fall for it somehow. As everyone knows, I am a charming woman."
"...You do know that Lady Aiseline and Lady Elente are your rivals, right?"
"So what, I'm prettier than them."
To be able to put on a full-faced smile like this even in front of Lady Aiseline, who was like a single lily, or Lady Elente, who was like a gorgeous rose, was certainly not something anyone could do.
Where on earth did this self-esteem spring from? It was Bella's oldest question.
"I feel sorry for Lady Aiseline and Lady Elente. But... human relationships are also like the wild, so it's natural to take and be taken from. Ahem."
"..."
"It's an unavoidable choice from the position of representing the Beltus family, but it would be troublesome if our relationship sours, so I'll have to think about how to conduct myself.... The Rosea Salon must always be harmonious..."
"..."
Bella did not bother to refute her.
Although they were childhood friends, they were still in a relationship of a noble young lady and a maid.
It felt like any more would be rude, so she had to shut her mouth quickly.
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"Someone has come."
A clearing deep in the cave. Drest Wolftail, who was coordinating his mana with his eyes slowly closed on a rock, said in a low voice.
Derek, who was concentrating on the flow of his mana on the other side, also slowly opened his eyes.
He had eaten almost nothing for a week. The food pouch was already becoming empty.
He looked quite haggard, and since he couldn't wash properly, his hair had become completely shaggy.
Derek, who had been buried in detection magic all day long without even distinguishing between day and night, was a mess, no different from a ruined person.
Even so, the vitality in his eyes made him feel as if he had returned to his slum days.
He was a person who was used to this environment. Hunger and thirst were things that had to be endured as a matter of course when going on expeditionary subjugations.
"Someone has come? At the cave entrance?"
"It seems to be someone from the Beltus family. It would be good for you to go out and meet them. It's about time for some fresh air, anyway."
"..."
As Derek got up from his seat, his whole body was about to scream.
It was the aftermath of having trained by pushing his mana sense to the absolute extreme for a whole week. His level had risen to a point that could not be compared to when he had trained Elente.
Derek slowly closed his eyes and tried to emit his mana.
Even though he had not activated the Darkvision magic, the structure of the nearby cave was engraved in his senses without difficulty.
He had already reached a higher level.
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