Chapter 38

There was no way Civelli would even imagine someone might be watching.

But there was no need to take an unnecessary risk.

If Lyssel had been at her side, it would've been a different story, but an aging butler and an escort knight she'd only just hired weren't quite the lineup for it.

"Let's head back for now."

---

She paid the hired escort knight a hefty sum to keep his mouth shut.

He'd seemed to sense there was something to it and tried to swagger, so she threatened him with the Lecashe name.

The instant she threw the threat at him, he tucked his tail and vanished.

The butler had watched the whole thing with a look of utter disbelief.

"What do we do."

Watching that knight, finding someone trustworthy didn't look like it was going to be easy.

Anyone reliable to begin with wouldn't be working as a short-term hire — they'd belong to some house.

"Times like this, the restriction on us forming a knight order really stings."

If only she had someone who could handle a sword, or if she herself had the skill to do something — but no, she was nothing but weak.

"How about we look into when Civelli is reliably away from the estate?"

"Hm?"

"There has to be a time slot when he's out of the manor."

"Ah!"

"You've got an in through the marquise, after all."

The way she and Emily had parted at the party had been weighing on her anyway.

She had sent a note after getting home saying nothing had happened.

"And you've got plans to meet her, conveniently enough."

The moment Emily had read that letter, a reply had come back, and Emily was set to visit the estate today.

The timing couldn't have been better — no sooner had they finished the conversation than a servant came to announce Emily's arrival.

---

Thanks to Emily's help, she got Civelli's schedule. She arrived at the shabby building down the narrow alley at a time when he'd be at the estate.

With a newly hired escort knight in tow.

Going without one had felt too uneasy.

In any case, even a glance told her the only people who ever passed through this alley were either beggars or skin-and-bone children.

She'd wondered if there might be someone keeping watch, but there was no one.

The butler and the knight went in first to check.

"…Why aren't they coming out."

A long stretch of silence after they'd gone in had her on edge, but soon enough the butler poked his head out and beckoned.

"Put this on, first."

"A gas mask? Did you set off sleep incense?"

"Yes. There were people standing watch on the outside, though, so dealing with them took some time."

"Are you all right?"

"Of course. The knight handled the ones up front."

"Good thing we came prepared."

"Yes, but we haven't checked the inner sections yet."

{In for a penny, in for a pound.}(#19sysdr56xlw)

Iberin nodded slowly and moved deeper inside.

Going in, she saw a fair number of people collapsed from the sleep incense.

Definitely more than a handful out front.

"…It goes pretty deep."

"It does. There were a lot of stairs going down to the basement, too."

From the outside, it had looked like a shabby building, but inside it was sizable and looked sturdy. It had clearly been made to look run-down on purpose.

From the upper floors down to the basement.

The upper floors seemed to be where the handlers stayed — nothing in particular caught her eye. She gave it a quick once-over and headed down to the basement.

When she went down the basement stairs, prison cells came into view.

"Ugh."

The moment they opened the basement door, everyone clapped a hand over their nose.

The smell rolling up from inside was vile.

"…I'll take the lead."

The knight stepped up and went down the stairs again.

The further down she went, the more the stench stabbed at her nose.

The smell of ammonia mixed with blood.

All of it combined with the dank, musty smell of the basement into something wrong.

"What in the…"

When she finished going down the stairs, between the bars packed close together side by side were…

children.

The children studied them with faces full of wariness at the unfamiliar strangers.

"They're new faces…"

When one of them muttered it as if puzzled, others who hadn't been paying any mind suddenly snapped their heads up.

"Are you… are you kids okay…?"

Iberin asked.

The children just clamped their mouths shut, watching her warily.

The one who seemed to be their leader hesitated before opening his mouth.

"How'd you get in here? You don't look like you know anything — go back."

"What is this place?"

"Go. Hurry."

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she started making out the child — he was covered in wounds.

"You…"

When Iberin moved closer in alarm, the child curled in on himself and snapped his eyes up at her, sharp.

"Go!"

"…Is Marquis Civelli the master of this place?"

The child, who'd been bristling, went wide-eyed in surprise.

"You knew, and you came? You're one of his too?"

"No."

"Then what are you?"

"Not someone he's on good terms with. If anything, someone who wants Civelli wiped off the face of the earth."

"…You look like a noble anyway, and this isn't a place for people like you. Go."

"But the kid next to you looks badly hurt."

The child was a mess of slashes that looked like sword cuts, his body steeped in dried blood.

He was breathing in ragged gulps, like a fever was burning through him — leaving him like that wasn't going to end well.

The boy in front of her wouldn't be unaware of that.

For an instant his face crumpled with grief, but he covered it with a flat tone right after.

"That's just his fate. Bad luck."

"…What?"

"Whether you're his enemy or whatever, this conversation isn't going anywhere."

"You don't want to get out?"

"Do you have any idea how many kids are in here? He ended up like that because someone tried to run. And the runaway died."

"…That's horrible."

She had no idea what this place did.

Asking didn't seem like it would get her any answers.

But there was no question it was an illegal operation.

And there was no question the master of this space was Roto Civelli.

She couldn't tell what he was doing with the children, but with that many wounds, maybe he was raising assassins.

Or maybe he was training them as practice to sharpen his hypnotism skills, or grooming apprentices.

"I don't think we'll get another chance like this."

Iberin muttered.

"What?"

The butler reacted reflexively, then frowned when he saw what was in Iberin's hand.

"Can't I use the teleportation scroll?"

"But that…"

"Walking out of here and coming back later doesn't add up either. Look at the people we knocked out on the way in. There's no way he won't know someone was here."

No matter how she looked at it, now was the moment.

The butler and the escort knight knew it too, and they hesitated — until they settled on respecting her decision.

Getting all of them out themselves wasn't possible, so they were going to use the teleportation scroll.

"You brought the keys, right?"

"Yes."

"Let's open it."

The cell door swung open, and even with the door open the children stayed put, wary of them.

"Are you going to live like this and die here? Or are you going to leave? You decide."

Iberin handed the choice to the children and pressed the scroll into the hand of the one who'd seemed to be in charge.

By a quick count, there were about twenty or thirty children.

"Are there more kids besides you?"

"No…"

"Then it's just all of you?"

"Yes. As of recently."

"Recently?"

"…There were others until a little while ago, but they all left. I don't really know where they went, either."

"…So you might get moved out too?"

"No. I've been here the longest, and little kids like me mostly leave dead."

"…Can I ask why…?"

"…I figure dying one way or another, I'll tell you. We're Marquis Civelli's hypnotism dolls."

Hypnotism dolls.

Slapping the word dolls on people and practicing on them.

Handing them the scroll had been the right call after all.

What kind of hypnotism practice — the kids' wounds answered for him.

It absolutely wasn't anything normal.

"If you tear that scroll, you'll be moved to the territory I live in. It'll be safe there, so don't worry."

"…Tear it?"

"Yes. Hurry, before Civelli comes."

As he'd said before, going by the look of resignation — figuring he was going to die either way — the child did as Iberin said. He even rallied the kids who'd been hiding and refusing to budge, and once they were all out, he looked Iberin dead in the eye and said,

"I don't believe you. I'm just doing this because I can't imagine anywhere worse than here."

"That's fine."

Riiip —

The sound of the scroll tearing was followed by a burst of pure white light.

By the time it faded, nothing was left where the children had stood.

After a thick silence, Iberin spoke.

"…They made it, right?"

"They should have."

"Shall we head out too?"

She'd combed through the building, but there really didn't seem to be anyone else still trapped.

---

After the kids had been spirited away, Emily passed along that the marquis was looking on edge.

Whatever he was up to, he was barely coming home.

"It's blown wide open."

In the meantime, Emily had filed the lawsuit she'd been preparing.

A divorce suit.

The capital was loud enough about it after that to reach even Iberin's ears, holed up in the estate as she was.

"It's all thanks to you, Ibel."

"Me? What did I do? I got Emil's help too, you know."

"Even so, without you, I'd have ended up doing nothing about it."

"Let's stop slathering each other's faces in gold."

"Pfft."

Word came that the staff in her territory were looking after the children she'd sent over.

Then, from the boy who'd been in charge, came a letter.

It was very short.

I think I'll be plenty useful when it comes to taking Civelli down. I'll be getting ready to head up to the capital.

Honestly, the evidence was overflowing.

Iberin decided she was going to have Civelli's head.

He had to be plenty rattled by now.

Of course, public opinion was still on Civelli's side.

Emily's history of behavior had a lot to do with it.

"How's the place you're staying in?"

"It's nice."

After learning what Civelli had been doing, Emily had walked out of the house, saying it gave her chills to live with him.

Iberin had agreed with that and helped her find a new place.

This time Iberin wasn't directly filing the suit, and since it was Emily's personal case, the emperor was still keeping his hands off it.

That this wasn't a simple case — that was something he'd only be able to guess at once things had blown up to a certain point.