7. Invitation>Veronica looked at Raka
-Doom and asked.
“They say it’s classified. Is it really all right for you to tell us all this?”
“Well… this much is fine. To begin with, wouldn’t it be stranger for an organization on the level of the Great Law Assembly not to have one or two secret projects? I simply can’t talk about the technology used in it, the people involved, or its location. Did you think that the moment you heard something was classified, everyone involved would be locked up and then killed off the moment they came out?”
“…
I suppose not…….”
“If they did that, hundreds of people would die every time they ran a classified project… and the kind of talent good enough to be brought into a project of that caliber isn’t talent they can use as disposable goods. That’s why I can’t even say the name of that child Veronica’s younger sibling right now, because of that miracle.”
Perhaps frustrated that he had been unable to say Veronica’s sibling’s name all this time, Raka
-Doom wore a stifled expression.
“Whew… Is my sibling doing well?”
“Well… in my eyes, he seemed a bit like a moth flying into a flame… but he was doing well.”
Since that did not sound at all like he was doing well, Veronica asked urgently.
“What do you mean by that?”
“He was overdoing it. Maybe because he had no blood relatives around and was stuck in an isolated place, he was devoting himself entirely to completing the project. He slept about… one or two hours a day? That was three years ago, so I don’t know how he is now.”
Seeing Raka
-Doom speak so calmly, Veronica cried out with an urgent expression.
“Please tell me where it is!”
“I know, but… didn’t I say earlier? I can’t tell you the location. The miracle prevents it. And what would you do if you went there? The security there is no joke. If you try to trespass, you’ll be riddled full of holes.”
The strength of a confidentiality miracle varied wildly depending on the level of the caster. And as was usually the case, this sort of miracle was far more difficult to undo than to cast. Raka
-Doom’s confidentiality miracle had been performed by a first-class lawmage. That was the same as saying that there was no one on the continent capable of removing it.
Since there was nothing wrong in Raka
-Doom’s words, Veronica looked as though she might cry.
But she could not simply sit still. At the very least, she had to let her sibling know she was alive. If that child knew that a blood relative was alive, his actions would clearly change. At the very least, he would no longer devote himself to research while burning away his own life like that.
“Veronica…….”
Lian looked at his wife with a pained expression.
Suddenly, Veronica rose to her feet.
“I can’t do this. I’m going to find my sibling.”
“How on earth will you find him when you don’t even know where he is?”
Lian spoke with a sorrowful expression, but Veronica replied with a resolute look.
“I’ll somehow solve that with my ability.”
“And what will you do about getting inside once you find it?”
“That’s…….”
While everyone was offering their opinions, Sian, who had been standing blankly to the side, casually spoke up.
“Mm… so, you want to let your younger sibling know that you’re alive, right?”
“That’s right.”
“But the problem is that you don’t know the location and have no way to approach it. You could probably find the location with Sister-in-law’s ability, but you wouldn’t be able to break through.”
“That’s correct.”
Sian looked at them with a strange expression. That was truly a last resort. Why would they use such a difficult method?
Looking at Veronica, who was gazing at him, Sian offered a simple solution.
“Can’t you just ask Uncle Narasha to write one letter?”
“Mm?”
“I mean… even if he’s such a top-secret person that his very existence has been erased, if you go at them with this much clear knowledge, wouldn’t they at least be able to deliver a letter? And it’s not as though Uncle Narasha is someone they can simply ignore.”
At those words, everyone nodded at the simple method none of them had thought of.
Now that they heard it, he was right. When things had been uncertain, even if the Law Assembly was hiding Rimainu, they could not press them too strongly. But if they were certain, then having a single letter delivered should not be difficult. No matter how supranational an institution the Law Assembly was, it was not easy to ignore a king. Especially if the request was not even a difficult one.
“Well… to be honest, I don’t know whether it’ll work or not either… but if it’s that Uncle Narasha, he’ll probably know. He’s on his way here, so if he’s coming by carriage, he should arrive soon. Ask him then.”
“Mm? Sian, how did you know that?”
Lian looked at Sian with a puzzled expression. They had received word that the king would attend, but Sian had absolutely no interest in such things and should not have known. Yet he spoke with such certainty that it seemed strange.
“I felt him come out of Ra
-Shar
-Roa. If that’s all settled, I’ll be going now. Heh heh.”
Satisfied that he did not have to step in himself, Sian turned and left, while the remaining people wore dazed expressions.
“…
Is there perhaps a Ra
-Shar
-Roa in the front yard here too?”
Raka
-Doom asked in a tone of disbelief.
“…
The one Father-in-law came through is the only Ra
-Shar
-Roa in this area…….”
“That’s the one that takes ten days by carriage, right?”
“…
Yes.”
“Ho ho… Well, now…….”
Raka
-Doom gave an empty smile.☆ ☆ ☆“Hmm… I understand. If it’s that much, I think it can be done. I’ll try sending it. But I don’t know the detailed circumstances of the Law Assembly, so I can’t be certain.”
After hearing the whole story, King Narasha answered with an expression suggesting it would likely not be much of a problem.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“It’s nothing. It isn’t such a difficult matter.”‘Compared to that child Sian suddenly popping out, it’s truly nothing at all…….’Originally, he was not someone idle enough to attend a banquet like this. However, the moment he heard that Sian had emerged through Ra
-Shar
-Roa, he had hurriedly rushed over.
People did not change easily, but they also changed easily. And if Sian had changed in a bad direction, Narasha would have to revise all the plans he had been making until now.
“By the way… where is that child Sian?”
“Mm…….”
Seeing Lian turn his face away awkwardly, Narasha urged him on as though it was fine.
“It’s all right, so tell me.”
“He is probably… lying on a hammock in the inner castle.”
“Good. Very good.”
Lian wore a strange expression, unable to understand the words King Narasha had blurted out without thinking, but King Narasha was sincere.‘Very good. He’s still lazy.’It would have been even better if he had abandoned the secular world entirely, but since Narasha had never expected him to abandon his family and do such a thing, he decided to be satisfied with this much.
If someone heard him, they might call him petty, but King Narasha was sincere. After seeing the incidents Sian had caused while wandering around, King Narasha had been utterly appalled. Even if Sian himself had not intended them.
In truth, the five years without Sian had been extremely peaceful. Although a great deal of damage was occurring because of the Harijan, even if all the damage from the past five years were combined, it would not amount to even a third of the damage caused during the single month Sian had traveled.
Moreover, lately, Narasha had begun to wonder whether even the Harijan invasions were connected to Sian. In fact, over the past five years, the frequency of Harijan invasions had gradually increased, and recently—more precisely, after the report came in that Sian had awakened—it had grown even worse. If they had not surrounded all the walls with Gaira, they would have suffered quite a bit.‘They match each other perfectly. He and the goddess of disaster make a very fitting pair.’Narasha inwardly grumbled as he recalled Stantal I, who had appeared five years ago to threaten him, then noticed the gazes of Lian and Veronica on him and answered with a smile.
“Do not worry too much. How could I not do at least that much for Sir Lian? Go out and enjoy the banquet. Your younger brother has returned; how can the elder brother be absent?”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
And so, the people moved to attend a peculiar banquet from which Sian, the main character, had slipped away entirely.☆ ☆ ☆“…
They ignored you?”
“To be precise, the Law Assembly says they truly cannot find such a person.”
Lian spoke with a grave expression.
King Narasha had used various channels to ask that they be allowed to contact a blood relative of a man named Rimainu, who had appeared.
However, the Law Assembly stubbornly denied the fact. They claimed they did not know any such person at all. To begin with, they said that the lawmage named Rimainu had left the Exile Great Law Assembly five years ago, and that they knew nothing about him afterward. It could not possibly be difficult to deliver a single letter, so their response was far too excessive.
“Surely… he isn’t dead, is he?”
Veronica’s eyes filled with tears, and beside her, Kukraksha and Cora
-Doom watched the scene with pitying expressions.
“For now… let us look for another method.”
Their progress had stalled, but nothing was certain yet, so Lian persuaded Veronica to search for another way, and Veronica agreed.
However, they did not need to find another method.
Because someone came to them in person.
“Greetings. Are you Miss Veronica?”
“…
Who are you?”
“Ha ha. Were you not desperately searching for us?”
“…
I don’t know anyone like you.”
If suspicious people one had never searched for suddenly visited and demanded to know whether one had not been ardently courting them, anyone would be bewildered.
Even more so if those people had climbed through the window in the dead of night, when no one was around.
However, Veronica did not panic. Judging by the fact that her special ability,
“Mm… Then how would it sound if I said I had come looking not for Miss Veronica, but for Miss Riminia?”
“……!”
“My, both you and Mr. Rimainu have difficult names.”
“…
Did my younger sibling send you?”
The only person who knew her real name was her younger sibling. If so, these people must have come because they were somehow connected to him. That was why Veronica could not drive these suspicious people away even as she looked at them.
“Mm… Rather than saying your younger sibling sent us, it would be more accurate to say we came to implement company welfare. Ha ha.”
“…….”
“And it is troublesome if you search for us through such official channels. Mr. Rimainu belongs not to the Great Law Assembly, but to us, so it would be useless anyway. Though thanks to that, we did come here.”
“…
What are you going to do to me?”
If they had not come openly and properly, then they must have some scheme, so Veronica asked with an anxious expression. At her words, the man smiled and said,
“Your younger sibling cannot leave the place where he is working right now due to certain circumstances… but if we prevent you from meeting, you will keep searching and digging around, won’t you?”
“…….”
“Well, it doesn’t matter much, but if you even mobilize the king to stir things up, it becomes a bit bothersome. That is why I have come. I will let you meet him.”
“Then… am I going to be dragged away right now?”
Even though such a suspicious man had barged into his wife’s room, neither her husband nor her father-in-law had come to this room. They were in places not far from her room at all.
That meant this man either possessed means beyond anything her husband or father-in-law could imagine, or was far stronger than them. Whichever it was, it was not good.
“Ha ha. Aren’t you seeing me as far too barbaric?”
“…….”
It was absolutely not something a man who had barged into the room of a woman alone in the middle of the night should say, so when Veronica stared at him with an incredulous expression, the man seemed embarrassed and added one more thing.
“To be honest… from our perspective, it would be much easier to handle things barbarically. It’s not as though some great incident would occur just because one daughter-in-law of a count’s family dropped dead.”
“…….”
Even though the man was openly looking down on the Roman family, Veronica could not refute him. She strongly felt that his words were true.
Looking at the silent Veronica, the man smiled and continued.
“But if we did that, a truly barbaric person would likely come after us. And that would be a very serious problem.”
“Surely that barbaric person you speak of is not me, is it?”
At the sudden voice from outside the window, Veronica was startled and looked out.
There, gripping the window frame and glaring at the unidentified man from outside the window, was the young master.
Late at night, in the reception room of Ravilan’s inner castle, all the members of the Roman family had gathered.
Count Roman, Lian, Cora
-Doom, Kukraksha, Veronica, and even Sian…….
In a way, it was an ordinary gathering no different from usual. Though it was the dead of night, it wasn’t exactly something one could call strange.
But the fact that one unfamiliar person was mixed in made it different from the norm.
A figure of unknown identity sat in the drawing room, sipping his tea.
That much was fine, but the unidentified proposal he brought was the major problem.
“Hmm… the tea is quite delicious. Which region is it from?”
“It is a specialty of the Rotan region. But please, continue the story from earlier.”
Count Roman spoke with a stiff expression. For words directed at an uninvited guest, it was overly polite, but from Count Roman’s position, it couldn’t be helped. ‘…Haven’t there been only twelve superhumans in the past thousand years? No… if you include that Granain, fourteen, and if you include his son, fifteen. Even so, I’m seeing them far too often.’
“Hmm, very well. So… isn’t Lady Veronica, who is to become your daughter-in-law, looking for her younger brother? We mean to bring him to you, that is what I’m saying. Ah, but may I speak casually? I am much older, after all.”
“I think honorifics would be better.”
Sian spoke, tilting his head. His fist twitched as well. Seeing that, the man sighed and spoke.
“Sigh… well, fine. Speech isn’t what’s important. Let us get to the main point. Currently, Rimainu is in a situation where it is rather difficult for him to come outside. Ah, please don’t misunderstand. It is not that there is a problem with his health, but because the project he is working on has reached a very important stage, so he is busy. Rimainu is a very precious talent to us as well. We cannot treat him carelessly.”
“Hmm……”
“So we have decided. If left alone, Lady Veronica would be heartbroken, so in order to realize our motto of doing our best for our employees’ welfare, we shall let them meet. I’m sure Rimainu will be overjoyed to learn that his blood kin is alive. Haha.”
“Are there no conditions?”
For a proposal made by a mighty one, it was far too generous. Thus, Rian asked again with a suspicious expression.
“Well… the truth is, I came here to kill two birds with one stone. The person we have business with is Mr. Sian standing over there.”
“……?”
When his name suddenly came up, Sian’s expression took on a strange hue.
“You have business with me?”
“Of course. I have been interested since five years ago, but you suddenly disappeared without a trace, so I could not find you at all. I had given up, but then you made such a grand entrance, even holding a banquet, so how could we not come? Haha! Actually, does it make sense for me to come for such a matter? I am monumentally busy. It is only because it is someone of Mr. Sian’s caliber that I have come like this.”
‘And instead of Lady Steel, who was supposed to come, some squid-like fellow shows up…….’
Watching the man spout nonsense about fate and the heavens’ arrangement, Sian muttered inwardly but did not show it outwardly.
“Business with my younger brother… what kind of business?”
Rian asked again. But the man answered with a broad smile.
“It is a secret. There is much to talk about, after all. Huhu, you will learn of it while coming with me.”
“……”
“After all, wouldn’t it be too worrisome to send only Lady Veronica with us? Even if all of you followed along, you would only be in the way. Wouldn’t it be much cleaner if just Mr. Sian and Lady Veronica came with me?”
Each word pricked at their hearts, but Count Roman and Rian could say nothing.
“How can we believe that following you won’t be dangerous? Couldn’t the young master be put in harm’s way?”
Kora
-Doom looked into the man’s inner self and realized those words were all true, yet worry prevailed, so he spoke up.
At that, the man burst into guffaws.
“Hahahahaha! Who would do what to whom?”
“……”
At that reaction, everyone else wore bewildered expressions. Though Sian was mighty, hearing the story, the superhuman before them and the organization Rimainu belonged to did not seem ordinary either. Was a superhuman not speaking right in front of them at this very moment?
They had been so worried that Sian could easily be endangered, but seeing the man laugh, they realized they were somehow mistaken. The man, having laughed too hard as he looked at their expressions, wiped away the tears pooling at the corners of his eyes and spoke.
“Ah, I’m going crazy. This is why humans are truly…….”
“……”
“I don’t usually like supplementary explanations, but I suppose I ought to speak so you can understand. I’m sending off a lovely family, so I should do at least that much for you.”
“……”
“From your perspective, Mr. Sian and I must look like we’re on a fairly similar level, mustn’t we? Well, I understand. When you look at the sky from the ground, can you tell which is higher? It’s all the same from down there.”
“Hmm……”
Even though those words were polite, they dripped with contempt, yet the people could not retort. Not because they were overpowered by his momentum, but because they had finally realized what the man was trying to say.
“Mr. Sian is almost a superhuman even in the eyes of me, a superhuman, from your perspective. That is why I came to propose this to him. But why would I kill whom? Haha! I have no such intention whatsoever.”
The people looked at Sian upon hearing those words. They were curious whether those words were true.
Sian did not answer that gaze but spoke other words.
“Then… I shall go and return with Veronica, my sister-in-law. I am personally curious as well.”
There were almost no people who knew of him, but listening to the man speak, he seemed to know quite a lot about Sian in detail, so Sian became curious.
And he also felt uneasy about sending his sister-in-law alone to such a dangerous place, so Sian decided to go. ‘There are things I want to ask about, too…….’
“Sian…….”
“Don’t worry and stay here. It won’t take long.”
Sian smiled at his family members looking at him with worried expressions and stood before the man.
“Well… if there’s no reason to delay, let us depart at once.”
“No, but……”
Looking at the man trailing off, Sian asked again with an expression that asked what the problem was.
“Did you not say to go? I am ready.”
“No, that’s not it… does Lady Veronica not need to prepare?”
The man smiled and pointed behind Sian, and Lady Veronica opened her mouth with a flustered expression.
“Ah… I’ll go prepare quickly. Please wait a moment.”
“We shall help too.”
After that, the family members who had gone upstairs did not come down even after an hour had passed.
“……”
“Did you see? Huhu. Women are known to take a long time to prepare. To think you wouldn’t know such a thing. It seems the rumors were true.”
The man spoke with a broad grin. At those words, Sian asked back.
“What rumors are you referring to?”
“They say that Mr. Sian has been single since birth……. I didn’t believe it, but seeing you now, it seems those words were true. Hahahahaha… kek!”
Crack!
“Huk?”
Sian was startled when the man beside him suddenly let out a deathly scream as his jaw twisted. Coming to his senses, he found that he himself had clenched his fist and twisted the man’s jaw.
Bewildered by the disaster his unconscious mind had wrought, Sian looked around and gently laid the man down on the sofa.
“Whew… I couldn’t prepare much because I was in a hurry, so I’m uneasy, but… have a safe trip, sister. If anything happens, stick close to the young master.”
“Yes, Sister. Thank you.”
“But I’m worried we might have kept them waiting too long.”
“From the looks of it, that man seemed to have something to talk about separately with the young master, so wouldn’t it be fine?”
The family members, who had spent a good two hours preparing and exchanging farewells upstairs, came down while chatting about this and that.
“Sian! Sorry to have kept you waiting so long.”
“It’s fine. Why, isn’t it a given that a lady’s preparations take a long time?”
Not seeing the suspicious man, Rian asked Sian with a questioning look.
“But… where did that man from earlier go?”
“Ah, he’s right here.”
So Sian pointed to the man lying on the sofa.
Rian was surprised by two things upon seeing the man sleeping on the sofa.
One was the man’s thoughtlessness in being able to sleep in such a place.
The other was the man’s realm, in that he showed no presence whatsoever despite lying right before his eyes. ‘As expected… he is a superhuman. But…….’
“Sian.”
“Hmm?”
“…What have you done.”
“I didn’t do anything? Why, Hyung.”
But Sian, looking at where Rian was staring intently, realized his mistake. On the man’s jaw that Rian was staring at, there was a deep blue bruise. ‘Huk…….’
“…Hurry and wake him.”
Count Roman, who had been watching the scene, spoke with a sigh. In truth, he had anticipated this situation from the beginning.
The unidentified superhuman had shown utmost respect only to Sian while treating the rest of them almost like ants. He had been emitting an intense air of ‘I’ll treat you to some degree since you’re Sian’s family, but don’t expect more.’
Other superhumans were like that from the start, so there wasn’t much strange about it. Stantal the First had also emitted such an air. Though he had been far more courteous than this man.
But the man seemed to have overlooked that Sian was a peculiar superhuman.
Sian was not so good-natured as to gently overlook someone acting cocky towards his family. He probably thought himself good-natured, but his hand would shoot out first to anyone who crossed the line.
Watching Sian kick the man awake with his foot, Count Roman felt relieved nonetheless. If it was that child, he would protect Veronica well.
“I must revise my assessment of Mr. Sian.”
“……”
“You are far more wild than I expected. Goodness, it reminds me of primitive times. To twist someone’s jaw without a word.”
“…Stop teasing. And who told you to act so cocky like that? It’s karma.”
“It’s only because it was me that it ended with just a bruise. Had it been an ordinary person, their lower jaw would have probably flown off entirely.”
“……”
“Lady Veronica should be careful as well. If Mr. Sian would do this even to me, a first-time acquaintance……”
The man who introduced himself as Ragaope seemed to pass over the light incident in the drawing room as no big deal, but while heading somewhere aboard a bizarre mode of transportation, he relentlessly teased him the entire way. ‘Shall I twist it one more time…….’
Seeing Sian clenching and unclenching his fist, Ragaope cut his words short. And opened his mouth.
“We have arrived. Everyone, please disembark.”
The place they had gotten off with Ragaope was near the County of Celline’s La
-Shar
-Roa.
“…Surely you don’t mean there’s some secret base underground here, or something like that?”
“Haha, not at all. It’s not that small a size. We rode transportation up to here for Lady Veronica’s sake, but from now on, we shall ride La
-Shar
-Roa.”
Then Ragaope began walking toward La
-Shar
-Roa. Watching this, Veronica whispered.
“It’s strange.”
“What is, sister-in-law?”
“The places near where La
-Shar
-Roa connects are all major cities. If what the man called Ragaope said is true, it should be quite large… but I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Now that you mention it, you’re right.”
But since pondering it wouldn’t solve anything, Sian and Veronica shrugged their shoulders once and followed in Ragaope’s footsteps.