Chapter 56

In the meantime, the time to prepare gifts for Astel and participate in boring meetings continued.

Whenever the war against monsters was discussed at the meeting, the Emperor, who was the supreme decision maker, was openly afraid and disgusted with monsters.

It looked insignificant, but because of that, he was quite generous in giving out human rank knights and supplies, so the Duke managed to overlook it.

A new meeting was held today as well, and fortunately, it was ending in a positive way regarding compensation for damage from the monster war.

After that, while smoking a cigar and killing the rest of the boring time, a messenger bird flew towards the Duke.

The bird’s feathers were red, so it was Retro’s.

Duke Anais, who caught the bird’s tail faster than anyone else, checked the letter hanging from its leg.

「Your Excellency, Duke of Anais,

Astel’s friend has arrived.

Was it possible that her friend’s entry into the Duke castle was permitted by you, Your Excellency?

I’m sorry for saying this, but I have some questions.

Please check the details when you get back…」

It was just a simple reminder.

The other day, Astel wanted to invite her friend to the Duke’s Castle, and the Duke readily agreed.

But it’s strange…

When I read the subordinate’s report written in an excessively restrained, and vaguely written way, an instinctive feeling of displeasure arose.

I gently rubbed my wrist, which Astel had previously touched for treatment.

What’s certain was that there’s no problem at all with the state of our imprint at the moment..

But I must go back. I had an ominous feeling.

❆

Early in the morning, Astel was at the entrance of the hill in Thelma Village.

Sir Retro must have slept poorly last night.

He looked sleepy at first glance, and dark circles under his eyes were quite thick.

“Why are you here?” He yawned and asked Astel.

“Oh, because I have a customer for ‘Grow Your Hair.’ Didn’t you sleep last night?”

“Oh… Yes, there has been a recent murder of a burglar from a noble family. It’s difficult to catch him, he’s very clever.”

Retro sighed, rustling the leaflet in his hand.

I saw the word ‘Great thief Ybor’ written on the leaflet. At first glance, a blurry montage could also be seen.

The great thief Ybor…

‘It looks like a cucumber. He has a lot of tattoos and scars on his face… It’s a typical criminal image.’

I nodded inwardly and drooled. Even when I was in the treatment center, I had heard about the notoriety of ‘Ybor’.

‘First of all, it must be really hard to catch the great thief Ybor.’

Even with the information I know, Ybor was not captured until the end of the original work.

I said cautiously, staring at Retro with wistful eyes.

“Ah… Then, take a moment to look for him here. I’ll look for him with you later, let’s find Ybor!”

“Oh, you can’t do that, you dare to be like me! Anyway, go ahead and get in. I’ll stand guard.”

Retro, whose veins burst in his eyes, shook his head and stood in front.

“Yes, Thanks.”

As I thanked him, I remembered a letter from Warret, the artifact appraiser, before entering the garden entrance.

「I’m supposed to meet you at the Duke’s Castle, but I don’t think it’s possible,

Just bring an escort and sneak in. This artifact, no matter how I look at it, it’s unusual.」

A letter with serious content no matter how I read it.

I was in a hurry to teleport to the garden with a lot of protective magic on my body.

I left my nephew with a bunch of protective gear hanging around, and Sally and Jenny would take good care of him, but I was impatient.

‘I have to break through it quickly in an hour!’

Retro nodded as if he knew at once.

“Then Miss Astel, are you going to go buy a gift for the Duke right after finishing your business with your customer?”

“Ah, a gift, yes! that’s right!”

…For now, sneaking out on the pretext of giving the maids a present and a gift for the Duke.

ㅡ’Well, I’m buying a gift for the Duke, but I’m embarrassed to take a lot of people with me…’

ㅡ’That’s romantic! It’s alright! Just take Sir Retro!’

…Thinking of the maids who were very gullible, I felt guilty.

With an innocent expression on his face, Retro held his hand together and nodded.

“Well, I admire your hard work.”

Seeing him restless like a dog that needs to poop, I entered a small cave in the hill, with Sir Retro standing guard at the entrance of the hill.

Warret greeted me with an anxious expression. “Welcome, Miss Astell.”

“What’s wrong?” Astel asked back.

He nodded and pointed to the center of the artifact.

“Look at this artifact first. Now that the analysis has been completed.”

A small triangle was drawn in the center of the burnt brooch artifact.

“First of all, there’s a triangle here at the center.”

“Ah, yes.”

He coughed and pointed his index finger at each vertex of the triangle.

“Each end of the triangle contains three special abilities: ‘Fraud’, ‘Disguise’, and ‘Fear’.”

Located at the far left vertex, the ‘Fraud’ had a black line drawn.

“For now, this ability has been destroyed.”

“Exactly. It seems that this is the artifact that stands for ‘Fraud’.”

I was deep in thought after hearing the explanation of Warret.

It seemed to refer to Sam’s ability to carry the brooch artifact.

Because of that, everyone was deceived and everyone fell for him.

“The other main abilities are ‘Disguise’ and ‘Fear’.”

“Yes. But I don’t know yet in what form it will appear.”

If so, the owners of each artifact would have the ability for disguise and fear.

As I pondered about it, Warret finished his speech with a serious expression on his face.

“But, I think someone wants to know about the location of this artifact.”

He whispered low as he showed a slightly burnt contract.

“I see.”

“Do you know that this contract is not to be known to others?”

I smiled as I pulled the corners of my lips.

Everything was as I expected.

It was self-evident that those who were digging into Sam’s case and looking for his artifact did not know that the contract between me and Wallet was made into a ‘magic contract’.

“Yes, it’s fine.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. It’s fine for us.”

Warret, who was still unaware of the ‘Magic Contract’, tilted his head.

But I was a little excited.

The person currently tracking this artifact was probably a spy within the Duke’s Castle or someone closely related to it.

If that’s the case… I hope he’ll try to figure it out soon.

There’s a very nice secret hidden in this contract that Warret doesn’t know.

The more the spy tries to find out about our contract, the more anonymous it would become, the more it would take his breath away.

“Let’s exchange now, shall we?”

I held out the hair growth agent ‘Grow up, My Hair’ towards him.

He received the hair growth agent with fluttering eyes, and after thinking for a while, he implicitly opened his mouth.

“In fact, I have another secret.”

“…?”

He went on, jawing at the artifact.

“There was a reason why I didn’t want to enter the Duke’s Castle myself.”

“…What?”

He held out the brooch artifact, showing the other side of it.

There was something I hadn’t seen before.

“There’s an ancient language written on it.”

I narrowed my eyes looking at the back of the artifact.

Although it’s an ancient language that was difficult to decipher, I have been learning the ancient language since I found out that I was reincarnated in this world.

“Below one, but above all. Isn’t that… a story referring to the ‘Duke’?”

“…”

“He who has this artifact has something to do with the Duke, doesn’t he? It wasn’t a matter of entering the Castle and discussing such things.”

In the original story, it was stated that analyzing the three artifacts would reveal the final villain.

So, I couldn’t just take the meaning of that phrase lightly.

But I spoke carefully.

“…It’s not necessarily referring to the Duke of Anais. First of all, there are two Dukes in the Empire.”

There were actually two Dukes of the Empire, and it wasn’t known that the Duke referred to by this artifact was the Duke of Anais.

“Well, indeed, that’s true… Hmm.” Warret nodded moderately and said.

But my heart was not at ease. Because I know the fact that I still don’t know who the final villain was.