Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“What kind of scary words are those...?”

“Yes, no. There’s something I’m waiting for.”

I secured the assets, prepared the equipment. I also handled the old enemy that would become troublesome if postponed.

The time that flowed in the process was about a year and a half.

Originally, it was time that would have been left even after finishing training and returning.

Then why hasn’t ‘that incident’ that made me lose all my mansions and assets still happened?

“Is it because I didn’t go out?”

“Family head, are you trying to go into the forest for several months again and not come out? It hasn’t been long since you returned, has it?”

Morris doesn’t know the fact that I went all the way to the Marquis territory and came back.

He must be feeling that something is strange, but he would find it hard to imagine that I secretly slipped out of the territory through the cliff of Ascar Forest.

He couldn’t gauge at all why I was committing such eccentric acts, but Morris had already given up on understanding me from the time I disposed of everything except the forest business.

Even so, he maintains loyalty and helps with the work to the end, so he is indeed an excellent butler.

“More than that, how did the thing I asked for go?”

“Restoration magic spell scrolls are hard to find on the market, and I can bring a professor from Valdemar Academy who will use magic. I also couldn’t find a witch skilled in rituals.”

“Keep inquiring about the witch and spell scrolls.”

“Understood.”

There was only one way to use the Red Moon Stone.

Sending it back to the red moon.

That was the preparation for it.

At that time, the sound of knocking on the door was heard.

“Who is it?”

“Is Ronan there?”

Morris opened the door with a brightened face.

“Young lady Seara.”

A smiling woman and a dog entered inside.

It was a hunting dog with fur color exactly like its blonde owner.

Both seemed to have come out of the forest and had some dust on them, but they overflowed with vitality without any sign of fatigue at all.

“Ta-da, a friend has come.”

I let out a hollow laugh looking at her waving her hand.

She was a playmate before the age of eight, before going to the sword family, because the viscount fathers were acquainted.

That means I hadn’t seen her for 9 years already, but after I moved to the hut, she suddenly visited like that, emphasizing that she is a friend and greeting.

Of course, she didn’t come just to greet.

As can be known from coming with the hunting dog, she was a hunter.

“What did you catch this time?”

“A gray bear. Can I disassemble it a bit in the corner over there? I’ll cut some meat and go.”

This was the reason she emphasizes ‘friend’.

It turned out that even in the previous life, she used the fact that she was my friend without me knowing, and frequently used one side of this lumber camp like her own hunter’s campsite.

Remembering me for a long time with such solitary memories, she heard my name during mercenary life and came looking.

Even then, she greeted casually like that and asked if there was anything she could help with.

Above all, she was a person who knew how to surely take care of her own life, so there was no need to worry even if we went together.

The assistant from the time I was paying monthly rent, and in the later years the deputy director of the office I set up, truly a long relationship and a real friend.

“You came at a good time. It’ll be good if you do it.”

“What?”

“Go outside the Count’s territory pretending to be me and come back.”

“Really? Is that possible?”

I knew the reaction would be good.

Why is the young lady of the Viscount family acting as a hunter?

Because the her of this time is a troublemaker who terribly doesn’t listen to adults’ words.

“There’s a way.”

“How?”

I said to her who was sincerely curious.

“You said you caught a bear? Let’s handle that first and talk.”

“Okay.”

As she turned to go out, her dog approached slouching and rubbed its body against my leg.

“Charlie? You have to behave politely?”

I smiled slightly and waved my hand.

“Seems thirsty, I’ll give some water and send it.”

“Will you?”

She laughed heehee and closed the door and went out.

I crossed the hut, took the kettle and bowl, and placed them in front of Charlie.

“I was also Charlie not long ago.”

After petting the guy drinking water a bit, I opened the Trial Journal that had been covered on the desk.

“...”

The slurp slurp sound disrupted concentration.

Rather than the noise being the problem, it was because there was something that came to mind when thinking of a dog.

[Looked into the dog’s eyes. Talked about the false people of the world.]

“...Shall I try?”

Just once. Thinking of it as being fooled.

“Charlie.”

The guy stopped drinking water and looked at me.

Meeting the round eyes, I slowly brought out the words.

“There are really many liars in the world.”

“...”

For a moment, only Charlie’s panting breath was heard.

And before long, the slurp slurp sound began to be heard again.

Nothing happened, and Charlie was drinking water again.

I gently closed my eyes.

“Yeah, there’s no way it would work with something like this.”

And shaking my head, I checked the Trial Journal again.

But the letters don’t enter my eyes.

“Hmm...”

I covered the book again and turned my body.

“Charlie.”

Those black eyes look at me.

To a human it thinks of as a companion, it looks with those eyes.

Eyes that truly contain deep trust.

I quietly retraced the Baron’s words.

‘Perhaps you need experience of being greatly betrayed or scammed.’

If it’s something like that, I’m also an expert.

In the fixer industry I was in for a few years after discharging from the army, betrayal and fraud were as everyday as daily life, and even in the detective days, I met formidable swindlers.

Come to think of it, something comes to mind.

“What I liked about getting involved with the church was that I thought it would be different there.”

Pant—

“But the holy knight I first received a request from stiffed the money.”

“Woof!”

“You find it absurd too. I found the base of the bandit group that was active in the area for that guy. At the time I was a fixer, so I guided from the side and also fought together. But it turned out they were crazy guys who stole a holy relic.”

“Slurp slurp—”

“That itself was a fraud. Because it was a request different from the talk. I barely survived. The Holy See praised, and the guy got promoted for the merit of retrieving the holy relic.”

“Slurp slurp slurp——”

“What’s funnier is that that guy’s aura didn’t fade even a little. A guy who goes around committing fraud. Seeing him fight demons, it was completely flawless and pure white.”

“Woof!”

“When he came to request later, he was succeeding and even rose to Holy Knight Commander. I tried to refuse cleanly. When I talked about the matter at the time, the excuse was funny. He said he used the money to give me for performing a sacrament to erase the evil deeds piled up in front of me.”

“Slurp slurp—”

“Who wanted that at that time? I said I wanted to set up the office as soon as possible. But the words he brought out were somehow unsettling...”

I chuckled recalling the trigger for starting to search for Demon King followers.

It could be said to be an ill-fated relationship that made me stiff the money and spend the later years of life in worry and tension, but even so, he was a hero who tried to save the world to the end.

Once my words were blocked, I didn’t feel like talking to Charlie again.

Pant—

Charlie, who seemed to have finished drinking the water and had the empty bowl in front, met eyes with me and tilted his head.

I also found it funny myself and shook my head.

And again grabbed and opened the Trial Journal.

“Yeah, there’s no way it would work——”

A single red thread hung down from the ceiling.

The moment I recognized the thread, the world stopped.

Only the red thread naturally shook as if blown by the wind and touched my forehead.

The stop was released and time began to flow.

Crash—

The chair fell backward, and my body began to float.

“Woof! Woof!”

Charlie barked frantically.

My body was hanging in the air relying on the thin thread that touched my forehead.

The door burst open.

“Family head...!”

“Ronan?”

Light came down along the thread.

Brilliant red light permeated the head.

A moment of darkness came.

Opening my eyes, I was standing on the floor.

“A Blessing...!”

“Ah!”

The red thread that conveyed the Blessing scattered and lost its form.

I pressed my glabella hard.

A strange sensation that is neither touch nor pain.

Something settled in the body, and like when I regressed, I could clearly know what I obtained.

...The eye that looks down on the world.

The red moon that honors heroes declares.

You can know the falsehood contained in words.

“Are you all right?”

Morris approached and tried to support the body.

“I’m fine. Other than my head throbbing a bit, it’s nothing.”

When I raised my hand to stop him, Morris made a relieved expression.

“Congratulations, family head.”

“Wow, so this is a Blessing. It’s my first time seeing one.”

She continued speaking with cheeks flushed as if excited.

“Suddenly red light fell down to the house, so I thought someone threw a fireball with magic. So I ran and opened the door, and you were hanging on the thread. Light was coming along that thread, so if what you received is a Blessing, that means you were connected to the moon at that time, right?”

“Seara.”

“Yes?”

“Say you want to get married.”

“...Are you confessing? Suddenly?”

She decided her occupation as a hunter early, saying she didn’t want to live as the mistress of some family.

And she actually proved it wasn’t just words by catching beasts and selling them like that.

But the adults of a historic family wouldn’t watch such a her to the end.

In the end, they tried to forcibly marry her to a noble of the Count’s territory, and she fled the Count’s territory and lived as a mercenary.

So, it means she has that much rejection toward marriage.

“No, just try saying it.”

“I don’t want to get married...”

“Just say the words.”

“I want to get married.”

I laughed.

That her words were false was felt all too clearly.

***

I called Baron Fallos.

He was an elderly man with white hair.

“Family head. I had sent letters several times saying I wanted to visit in the meantime... You’ve finally called me. I will do anything for the revival of the Viscount family.”

“I called because there’s something to ask.”

“Yes, please speak.”

“By any chance, have you recently thought of wanting to steal the Nibispine and run away?”

The small white pine that magic practitioners seek when raising their realm.

The Snow Pine, one of the four great woods as a heavenly treasure. A spiritual tree named Nibispine is growing in a secret place of Ascar Forest.

Around the spring where mana gathers, precious spiritual herbs and medicinal materials, insects are growing, and this area was called the Spirit Vein Forest and made an expert manage it.

The one who hereditarily manages this Spirit Vein Forest was Baron Fallos.

The Baron made an expression as if shocked.

“...No. Not at all. Those who want the Snow Pine are mostly renowned magic practitioners. I have neither the confidence to divert such a heavenly treasure and sell it at a proper price, nor the confidence to protect my life in the process.”

He said in a trembling voice.

“I have not the slightest thought of changing the tradition of the family that has guarded several Snow Pines generation after generation. My life’s goal is to fulfill the duty entrusted to me, and later pass this position to my sufficiently grown son. I don’t know if someone tried to slander us, but please withdraw your suspicion, family head.”

Surprisingly, all the words he said after meeting were every bit true.

Originally, nothing progresses with just one simple question like this.

But a Blessing was such an amazing and convenient thing.

“Let’s do one job together with me.”

A few days later, the story was conveyed that Viscount Gradias returned to the sword family.

But I was still inside the Count’s territory.

The Viscount Gradias who exited the city gate instead of me was Seara.

Since I gave her enough pocket money to go to a nearby village and play comfortably, she must be playing enjoyably.

“It seems they learn even that at the sword family.”

Baron Fallos looked wonderingly at me who had become a herb gatherer.

With a slightly bent body, red hair color, thinned eyebrows, even a slightly bent nose tip, I had become a completely different person.

It had all the features that would make one think it’s of the Fallos family bloodline, an appearance that one could guess without introduction that it’s some collateral relative of Fallos.

“Sword family? I don’t know such a place?”

When I winked, Baron Fallos cleared his throat and nodded.

“Ahem... Let’s go to the Spirit Vein Forest today too.”

“Yes. Teacher.”

Baron Fallos acted quite well.

Rather than acting, he was walking the forest as if to a son and explaining what that grass is and what that tree is.

“This would be good to transplant to the Spirit Vein Forest.”

Then he sometimes dug some herbs himself and put them in the basket I was carrying, or scraped mushrooms attached to trees and put them in.

Until entering the Spirit Vein Forest, he worked like that, and after entering inside, he asked for a place to stay quietly and sat.

Unless an expert, staying still is helping.

While the manager took care of the plants, I leisurely read the journal lying down, and when the day darkened, went down and slept at the Baron’s house, and about three days of such a life had passed.

The footsteps of uninvited guests were heard in my ears as I lay in the Spirit Vein Forest.

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