Chapter 80

“If you have to ride out fatigue from the journey, how about examining the dungeon tomorrow?”

At the Baron’s words, the expression of the assistant who was eating contorted slightly.

We traveled in an instant with teleportation magic, so what fatigue from the journey?

However, it was difficult to refuse someone who was welcoming us with a beaming smile and open arms. After all, he was a lord and noble of the Empire, recognized by the Emperor.

It was still better than a certain young man who was forced to sit next to the lord, just picking at his food.

“Is the food not to your liking, perhaps?”

“No, it’s delicious.”

I hurriedly denied and repeatedly exclaimed how delicious it was.

It wasn’t intentional, but somehow I ended up being in charge of marking the lord.

There were other nobles among the students, but the reason was that Evan had come last night and personally asked them to take good care of me.

“A dungeon in your fief, you must have a lot on your mind.”

“That’s true. Really, I went to all the trouble of hiring laborers for the construction, and it all went to waste.”

“The residents of the fief must be anxious too.”

“Exactly!”

The lord smiled brightly and nodded his head repeatedly.

I, too, had to smile silently and swallow the food that didn’t suit my palate.

* –

“Ugh!”

As soon as the meal was over and I was shown to my room, I emptied my stomach first.

“Ugh.”

Just chiming in from the side is no easy task.

Besides, the food wasn’t that delicious compared to the dormitory food, and it was like sitting on a bed of thorns.

“Shall I give you a sedative?”

“Please.”

Perhaps because I had emptied my stomach, I felt a burning sensation.

After chugging down the yellow potion Senior handed me, my stomach quickly settled down.

“How is it?”

“It tastes like apples.”

This is delicious. And the effect is quite good too.

The queasiness in my stomach settled down immediately—

“Is this an Elixir?”

“It’s not the finished product. It’s closer to a panacea than a cure-all.”

Still, that’s something! That alone is amazing enough.

It might be different for an incurable disease, but doesn’t this mean it can cure most illnesses!

“It’s still lacking a lot.”

From an omniscient alchemist’s point of view, I guess it’s still a bit lacking.

“It feels like a few ingredients are missing. I’ve been trying combinations I can get on the market, experimenting with the ingredient order, and trying whenever I have time, but it’s difficult.”

“It looks amazing enough as it is.”

From the perspective of a non-major like me, ‘what is that, I don’t know, it’s scary’ automatically came out.

Senior Lerwon smiled silently, as if he wasn’t too displeased with the compliment.

Come to think of it, Lerwon has become quite expressive.

As if he had noticed my sudden thought, Lerwon explained, a little shyly.

“No matter how much I try, the clear golden color of the Elixir just won’t appear, so I’m a little anxious. Anyway, if you’ve calmed down a bit, drink this too.”

This time, what Senior handed me was a potion with an ominous green color.

What is this now? Is this an assassination attempt?

“A medicine to neutralize the sleeping pill. You vomited it all up, but it’s not the kind that disappears completely just because you vomit.”

“I… took a sleeping pill?”

When on earth? The question is meaningless.

The one who gave me the sleeping pill was Baron Belmir.

“Why?”

I took the potion Lerwon handed me and drank it.

Unlike the panacea that tasted like apple juice, a bitter taste swirled in my mouth. It was a taste that made me want to wash my tongue with water.

“You should have given me the panacea first.”

Then I could have neutralized the bitter taste with the sweet apple flavor.

“Then the effect of the neutralizer would decrease, so I can’t.”

Damn it! I struggled until the bitter taste in my mouth subsided, and finally came to my senses.

“Baron Belmir, don’t you think he’s suspicious, no matter how you look at it?”

“…You think so too?”

“One more very obvious reason was just added.”

First was his attitude of relief when my father didn’t accompany us.

No matter how burdensome a noble of a higher rank than himself might be, feeling a sense of relief because my father was ‘not there’ was clearly strange.

“Usually, when a dungeon appears, there’s chaos, but the lord was too calm.”

“And he’s not in any particular hurry.”

This time, it wasn’t a case where a gate opened in a place untouched by people, like the abandoned mine the Academy managed, and turned into a dungeon, but a case where it appeared by pushing away the mass itself.

In other words, an illegal structure suddenly appeared on the lord’s land.

Could there be a calm landowner when an illegal structure suddenly appears on their land overnight, making it unusable?

I heard that if the lord is a mage, like my father, they might be happy about it, but Baron Belmir was obviously not in that category.

“Rather than trusting the Academy, he seemed to be postponing it with a ridiculous reason like fatigue from the journey.”

“I know, right. He is suspicious.”

“Then a night stroll is the answer.”

“Didn’t the assistant tell us not to cause trouble?”

“Hey, this is an investigation! The two are clearly different!”

If the other party is acting this suspiciously, it would be rude not to investigate.

Let’s go right now! The moment I opened the window, I barely managed to swallow the scream that was about to escape.

I quickly stepped back and pointed at the person who had suddenly appeared at the window with a trembling hand.

“Wh-why are you appearing here!”

“It’s been a while, young master?”

It was the return of the Sword of Doctrine, Ferdiel, who I thought would be away for a very long time.

* * *

“Why did you suddenly appear here?”

“I was on my way back to the Academy, and I heard that some Academy students had come to the Belmir Barony.”

“How on earth do you get such information?”

I sighed and quickly brought Fel into the room, in case anyone outside heard.

Is information warfare a basic for Heretic Inquisitors?

Laughing heartily, he glanced at Lerwon behind him. It was a bit of a problem that Fel had come to visit when I was with Lerwon, of all people.

For now… I should try not to pay attention to Senior as much as possible.

“So, how was Sir Hartain’s reaction?”

“It’s a pain to even talk about. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Tan so happy, it was a new feeling.”

He smiled as if it were nothing, but a smile lingered on Fel’s lips.

Thinking about this guy’s past, it was a statement that tugged at a corner of my heart.

“So what’s the reason for appearing through the window in the middle of the night?”

At first, I was a little flustered because he appeared so suddenly, but I wondered if I could use this to my advantage.

Unlike the Heretic Inquisitors in popular culture who say, ‘Let’s kill them first, and God will judge them!’, the Heretic Inquisitors in this world were different.

They would slowly infiltrate the surroundings of a person suspected of heresy, investigate them thoroughly, and if they were a heretic, they would report them, and if not, they would disappear quietly as if nothing had happened.

In the original story, they were described as boasting a 92% arrest rate.

In other words, the Heretic Inquisitors of this world are specialists in infiltration!

“The lord’s behavior is a little strange.”

“Which part?”

As expected of the Sword of Doctrine. As soon as he heard the word ‘strange’, his eyes sharpened as if nothing had happened.

I told him the suspicious circumstances in detail.

“Sleeping pills? Did he really put sleeping pills in? Can you prove it?”

“Yes, I can prove it. It was a sleeping pill made by mixing the juice of Moonbeam Flower and Sliteye Grass with Dreamnight Herb.”

“If Viden’s disciple says so, then it’s definitely credible.”

Apart from her madness and flawed personality, no one in the Empire would deny Iris Viden’s alchemy skills.

And Lerwon is her direct disciple who has inherited her secret techniques.

The problem was that he had received education he didn’t even need to learn.

“Alright, then it’s worth investigating. I’ll help you.”

“Huh? Really?”

“You’d get caught soon enough if you went out alone anyway. The surveillance is quite tight!”

Ferdiel gave me a thumbs-up with a bright face and punched me in the solar plexus.

Why is everyone around me like this?

Is this truly the karma for my actions at Lapis Academy…

“Then, Senior, please stay in the room and observe the situation.”

“Will you be okay?”

“Fel is a trustworthy person, and I’d like for him to stay here so the lord doesn’t get suspicious.”

Lerwon hasn’t fully returned to being human yet. It would be more of a problem if we got caught while traveling together.

Lerwon nodded his head as if he understood.

“Then I’ll cast the spell right away.”

Fel skillfully drew a magic circle.

The magic circle, drawn in an instant, clung to my body.

“It’s a spell that hides your presence. You know that situation. Ah, you were here?

That kind of feeling. Be careful, because if you make a sound, the spell’s influence will decrease significantly.”

I nodded at Ferdiel’s instructions.

Ferdiel, who had also used the magic on himself, and I immediately began to investigate the mansion.

It seemed that all the seniors who had come with us from the Academy had fallen fast asleep under the influence of the sleeping pills.

What on earth is all this about?

[This is definitely strange. Is there a reason to put all the students dispatched from the Academy to sleep, not just one or two?]

[Was this the reason he was relieved that my father wasn’t here?]

…Could it be that the reason my father couldn’t accompany us is also related to this?

If so, I have an ominous feeling that things are going to get bigger.

For now, we searched the mansion thoroughly, but no particular evidence came out.

It was then.

《I feel a suspicious aura from over there.》

Albedo, whom I had been carrying in my pocket, muttered softly, as if he had just woken up.

He had been sleeping for almost a day, so had something stimulated him?

[Ah, this is getting really ominous. I think something’s suspicious over there. Let’s go that way.]

[Alright.]

Following Albedo’s guidance, we slowly moved towards the place where the suspicious aura was getting stronger.

What on earth is happening within the Belmir fief?

[Certainly, something is strange.]

Ferdiel, who had followed me half-heartedly at first, also furrowed his brow and quieted his footsteps, as if he too had felt something ominous.

[I’m curious, can you still tell if someone is lying by their heartbeat or something like that?]

[If I strengthen my body with holy power. It was naturally possible when I was blind, but it’s impossible now.]

Doesn’t he have more than enough holy power to strengthen his body for 24 hours a day anyway?

The problem would be that his body can’t handle Ferdiel’s immense holy power.

[Still, it’s better than not being able to see.]

At the unusually desolate voice, I neither denied nor affirmed.

We didn’t walk for that long.

《This is the source of the suspicious aura.》

[It seems our destination is here.]

A village below the Belmir lord’s castle. It was the central downtown area with the most people.

And what stood before us was—

[The Corridor of Light.]

Commonly known as a church or cathedral.

In other words, it was a place where the worship of the Church of Light was held.

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