17 - Marquis Maron
- Early Summer, "From today, I am the Marquis of Maron."
Cardinal Eugene Widemark arrived in Selbon before sunrise, in the early dawn.
The bluish mountain path was filled with a cool air. As soon as Eugene reached the entrance of the village, he dismounted and looked around.
His aide approached and said, "You have been marching all night, so you should rest at the inn, even if only for a little while. There happens to be an inn in this small village."
"Send two Holy Knights with soldiers to the logging site where Reikart Winter was sighted. Station men at the entrance of the village to control entry and exit, and have the investigation team interview every single villager."
"Understood."
"You come with me to the inn."
The aide, who had been following him with a bright face, thinking that Eugene would finally rest, straightened up and stood by his side as soon as they entered the building.
Eugene grabbed the innkeeper and asked, "Has a tall, blonde man come here recently? He would be skilled with a sword and have the air of a nobleman."
"What is this about?"
Fatima, the innkeeper, looked at Eugene, his aide, and the Holy Knights standing outside the door, and asked back with a hardened face.
"Are you from the Order? Even if this is just a rural village inn, I can't just talk about my guests without knowing the reason."
"How dare you! Do you know who this is!"
The aide scolded, and Fatima flinched and stepped back.
"W-Who are you...?"
"One of the five pillars of the Order who upholds the will of God, Cardinal Eugene Widemark!"
"Ah..."
Eugene gestured to his aide to stop, but she was already terrified.
"Do not be afraid. The man we are looking for is Reikart Winter, a wanted man from the Kingdom of Nieve. It is important to identify his whereabouts, so please tell us the truth."
"What crime did he commit?"
What crime did he commit? Eugene closed his mouth with a strange expression. What crime did Reikart Winter commit, anyway? In fact, he had committed no crime other than losing in a war between families.
The reason Eugene was looking for him was solely because of his connection to Hayley. So, it seemed better to approach him in a different way than creating a crime that didn't exist.
"We are not looking for him to punish him. We simply need information that he knows. It's a dangerous matter, so I can't tell you everything."
"So, it's not a bad thing?"
Fatima finally relaxed and lowered her shoulders. She thought that since he was a Cardinal, he wouldn't be a thief at least. She took out a treasure she had hidden in the corner of the kitchen and held it out in front of Eugene.
It was an item that Hayley had left by Reikart's bedside while he was asleep, but he had left behind.
"Actually, I don't know who he is either. He just came and stayed one night a while ago. I was wondering how to return this since he left it behind."
"This is..."
"Is it expensive?"
It was a very old bracelet. It was a bracelet that wrapped around the wrist by a hand span, with small jewels attached to it. Even someone who was not familiar with treasure appraisal could tell that it was a very expensive item.
The bracelet had five black jewels attached like leaves in a red groove that ran across it. Onyx, or black sapphire, perhaps.
Eugene did not touch the bracelet and only examined it with his eyes. Then he asked Fatima.
"Was he carrying this on his person?"
"No. He saved a poor girl, and she gave it to him as a reward. She was very thin and seemed to have a story, but she must be the daughter of a wealthy family."
"A girl?"
"Yes, with long black hair like this..."
"Black hair? Not red?"
"It was black hair. She just ate and went into the forest in the middle of the night without staying. She said she had to go back quickly."
"Didn't she say her name?"
"Hey, why are you really doing this?"
Fatima grabbed the bracelet and stepped back slightly. Eugene was pressing his face close to hers and interrogating her.
"That's all I know. Hey. If you're going to stay at the inn, please tell me in advance. I need to prepare the meal."
Eugene took a slow, deep breath.
A woman who gave Reikart Winter an old treasure as a reward. It was too suspicious.
The Reikart he knew was always alone and not a man who had the capacity in his heart to save or help anyone.
Moreover, seeing that he rushed into the depths of the Contaminated Zone, abandoning even the treasure.
Hope and anxiety sprouted in Eugene's heart at the same time. His purple eyes lost their way and wandered around before finally regaining composure.
"Cardinal, what should we do?"
Just then, the aide asked. Eugene stood in the middle of the inn and ordered her.
"Completely seal off Selbon, and if anyone has ever witnessed Reikart Winter and his companion, find them all. Investigate even the smallest detail without missing anything, and if they are hiding anything, you must find out by any means necessary."
"A-Alright. But..."
"Disobedience will not be tolerated. We are the ones who carry out God's will."
"Yes, yes!"
The aide straightened up and saluted.
'Carrying out God's will.' She knew very well what happened when the Order said that. When judging those who were rebellious, unbelieving, or disloyal, the Order always invoked God's will.
She immediately went out of the inn and ordered the Holy Knights to seal off Selbon and interrogate the residents.
She told them not to miss even the smallest clue and to find out about the two strangers who had appeared in this village, and the Holy Knights asked with serious faces.
"Is it an Inquisitorial Tribunal?"
Inquisitorial Tribunal.
The aide, who hesitated while looking back and forth between Eugene and the Holy Knights, came to her own conclusion and nodded her head greatly.
"...Perhaps."
The changes in Maron Keep towards civilization were fast and noisy.
After hunting and Purifying the nearby forest for a few days, I inevitably had to worry about duck farming.
I was afraid that the ducks I had worked so hard to catch would run away, so I put them all inside the castle walls, and these ducks wandered around and ruined the garden.
When I woke up, our precious garden was a mess and had become a playground for the ducks. The last strawberry was crushed and fallen among the duck droppings and feathers, and some of the potato sprouts were trampled and barely visible.
Doraji wept.
"My potatoes! My strawberries!"
I didn't know that ducks were animals that ate anything so well. Or that they were so active. Or that they were so noisy.
While my fairy and I were glaring at the ducks waddling around with mixed feelings of love and hate, Reikart came and said that he needed to go buy a hunting bow.
We couldn't hunt properly with the makeshift slingshot. And since we were out of butter and sugar, we had been chewing on raw vegetables and tree fruits since morning and were feeling gloomy.
I thought the butter would spoil if left at room temperature, so I only bought a little, and my fairy and I, who were addicted to sweets, secretly ate the sugar alternately, and that's how it happened.
Suddenly, a deep sense of shame came over me.
I had been trying to maintain a primitive and frugal life for the past year, but was my will so easily broken? Why am I so weak to meat, flour, butter, and sugar?
Do I have to go out again?
That's how the taste of civilization is. It's hard to muster the courage at first, but once you put it in your mouth, it's so sweet that you can never go back to the way you were before.
"Let's go."
The decision was difficult, but the execution was quick.
After receiving a promise from Doraji three times that she would not catch and eat the ducks by herself no matter how hungry she was, I took Reikart and headed back to Selbon.
