Chapter 100. The Vanished Wife
The sound of hoofbeats echoed through the night forest where the cries of beasts could be heard, and soon five mounted men came into view.
They stopped their horses in front of a villa situated in a secluded forest. At their center was Herdin.
As Herdin dismounted and approached the villa, the men guarding the entrance came forth to receive him.
"I will escort you inside."
Herdin gestured to stop the Delmark knights who tried to follow him, then entered the villa alone.
In the darkened interior, only a single lamp on the center table was lit, and at that table sat a man with his robe pulled over his head.
Herdin placed a note he had taken from his inner pocket onto the table.
It was the note that had arrived for him an hour ago.
[The deaths of Your Excellency's father and mother twelve years ago were not an accident, but an intentional murder.]
...So began the note, which ended with a statement that this was not a matter to discuss through documents and that the sender wished to meet face to face.
"Unless you have a death wish, there's no way you'd bring up someone else's family affairs for amusement."
Herdin's voice was nonchalant as he spoke, but his eyes held a cold killing intent as he looked at the man.
The man flinched momentarily, overwhelmed by that intensity, but soon answered respectfully.
"My status is not reputable enough to visit you directly, and I feared that sending documents to the ducal residence might be seen by others, so I had no choice but to invite you to this humble place. Please forgive my rudeness."
"Spare me the excuses and explain. What the content of this note means, how you came to know of it, and how far your knowledge extends—everything."
Without further ado, the man handed Herdin a document. On the front page was a magic circle.
"This is a document we recently acquired. Upon briefly reading it, it seemed to concern the Delmark ducal family. I thought it would be faster for you to see it yourself rather than hear about it."
Herdin looked at the man and the document he offered with suspicious eyes, then picked up the document.
But the moment he discovered the handwriting written beneath the magic circle, Herdin's previously indifferent eyes shook violently.
[It is said there exists a black magic that reconnects the second constraint of the contract with the Divine Beast, which was severed long ago. Perhaps....]
It was a familiar handwriting.
The script that filled the letters that arrived like salvation every day to him, who had lost his parents at a young age and was spending painful times.
It was Esmeralda's handwriting.
Suddenly, the words Blair had spoken after waking up following the kidnapping incident came to mind.
'It wasn't the day of the accident, but a memory of seeing Her Majesty the Empress hiding something in the bedroom. ......In the end, that document was lost, though.'
He had a premonition that the document now in his hands was that very document Blair had lost at that time.
"......Where did you obtain this document?"
"A few months ago, a gambler who frequented a gambling establishment said he found it on the street. Knowing that the magic circle drawn on it was black magic, he was terrified and sold it off for drinking money before leaving."
The timing roughly coincided with the period when the kidnapping incident had occurred.
Herdin quickly turned to the next page.
[......Perhaps Kasion and Eloise were not simply killed in an accident, but were victims of an intentional murder.]
It was the same content written on the note he had received from the man.
Below that, Esmeralda had written her personal investigation into the full circumstances of Kasion's rampage incident, and the deductions she had drawn from it.
[As the heirs of Delmark carry the danger of rampage, they train from childhood to control their own power.
From a young age, Kasion had demonstrated such outstanding ability in wielding and controlling the power of the Divine Beast that even the elders acknowledged him.
For such a Kasion to lose control while facing a mere demonic beast...... when he had handled countless such creatures before?
From my position as that child's sister, having watched over him for many years, this is an utterly incomprehensible incident.
My investigation began from this doubt.]
The point where Esmeralda harbored doubts was the same part where Herdin had also felt suspicious.
Herdin continued reading the document, following Esmeralda's thoughts.
[......After investigating numerous possibilities like that, I learned of a black magic that reconnects the second constraint of the family's power, which was said to have disappeared.]
When the heir who inherited the power of the Divine Beast first lies with the person they love, if that person also loves the heir in return, an imprint is carved upon them.
It may sound romantic at first glance, but the reality was the opposite.
This imprint becomes a conduit that shares mana, allowing the wielder to draw forth stronger power using the other person's lifespan as collateral.
Since those with great power inevitably face many dangerous situations, from that point on, one would be weighing the life of their beloved against the safety of many other lives.
One of Delmark's ancestors, who found this abhorrent, completely severed that constraint, and the descendants, in exchange for giving up stronger power, no longer had to suffer the tragedy of placing their beloved's life on the scales.
This was what Herdin knew about the second constraint.
But to think there was a black magic that could reconnect that severed second constraint.
[If you use this black magic, an imprint is carved upon your beloved just like the original second constraint, and from then on, you can use stronger power with the other person's lifespan as collateral.
However, since it reconnects an already severed constraint through abnormal means, there are side effects.]
Originally, the second constraint was based on the principle that the descendant who inherited the Divine Beast's power could share mana with their imprinted companion, making it possible to use stronger power.
But the second constraint reconnected through black magic was incomplete, and it was said that once you crossed that constraint, it was difficult to stop midway.
In other words, one of the two had to die in order to stop the second constraint.
In particular, the document in Esmeralda's handwriting continued, stating that the descendants of Delmark who had lived for a long time forgetting the second constraint were unaccustomed to sharing mana, and thus the likelihood of them being unable to withstand the side effects and going berserk was great.
[However, this is merely my conjecture. For a hypothesis to be truth, there must be evidence to prove it.
Thus, after searching for that evidence, I secured testimony from a priest who treated Eloise when she visited the temple on charitable grounds a few months before Kasion's rampage incident and sustained a minor abrasion, stating that he seemed to have seen that black magic circle on her.]
Herdin's eyes wavered aimlessly after reading that far.
The fact that someone had seen a black magic circle meant that someone had already reconnected the second constraint, and just as Esmeralda had hypothesized, his parents were not killed in an 'accident' but were 'murdered.'
[Who on earth killed Kasion and Eloise? I do have someone in mind who might be responsible, but......]
With those words, the document came to an end.
However, judging by the shape of the very back of the document, it appeared that there had been another page attached that was now missing.
Herdin looked at the man across from him and let out a cold smile.
"How much are you planning to sell the next page for?"
"Regrettably, what I have given you is all there is."
"I don't particularly care for this kind of bargaining."
The merchant's intentions were obvious. He was holding out hoping for a larger sum.
While it was contemptible to try to do business with someone else's family affairs, the fact that he had brought this document to him rather than someone else was enough to warrant paying a high price.
"Name your price. Whatever you ask, I'll pay that much."
But the answer that returned was no different from before.
"I apologize."
Herdin let out a hollow laugh, and his expression hardened. It meant that truly, this document was all this man possessed.
"If you're not after money, what's your reason for giving this to me? Performing an act of pure goodwill for someone else without any purpose seems quite suspicious from my position."
"......If I said it was to repay a debt of gratitude received from the late duchess, would you believe me?"
At those words, Herdin had no choice but to accept.
Indeed, even now, more than ten years after Eloise's death, there were many who still honored her grace.
Herdin, who had been gauging the man's sincerity with cold blue eyes, swallowed a sigh and rose from his seat.
Though there were still parts that remained unclear, it seemed there was nothing more to be gained from the man before him.
"If you discover the remaining pages, bring them to me."
"Of course."
Herdin left the villa, leaving the man behind.
As the man watched the retreating figure with tense eyes, his master's voice came to mind.
'Just hand this to the Duke of Delmark. Tell him you don't know the whereabouts of the remaining pages.'
The man's master, Mikhail, had said so while taking the remaining pages.
Having delivered the front pages to Herdin as commanded, all that remained now was Mikhail's part.
"......Everything according to the Master's will."
* * *
By the time Herdin returned to the ducal residence, the dawn was just beginning to break.
Going up to his office, Herdin placed the document he had brought into his desk drawer and locked it. But he could not immediately leave the office and remained sitting there blankly.
The facts he had learned overnight were confusing.
The emptiness of knowing that the father he thought he had killed with his own hands had actually been murdered, the self-reproach of having been manipulated by that scheme, and the guilt toward Esmeralda who must have struggled alone to uncover that truth in place of her broken nephew—various emotions pressed down upon him.
The days that had felt nothing when he stayed up nights watching over the sleeping Blair suddenly felt overwhelmingly exhausting today.
"......"
Herdin, who had been swallowing his groans while leaning back in his chair, swept his bangs up haphazardly and, as if out of habit, took out a cigar from the drawer.
Just as he was about to light it, Blair's face came to mind. And the promise he had made with her.
He had to return to the bedroom.
Because today was the day he was supposed to go out with Blair.
Feeling his sunken mood lift slightly, Herdin set down the cigar and left the office, making his way to Blair's room.
But the moment he stepped into the room, the cold air that enveloped him created an inexplicable sense of unease.
Driven by that unease, he entered the bedroom and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him.
"......Blair."
In the room where the dawn light seeped in, there was no one on the bed where Blair should have been sleeping.