By Zephyria 
For a long time, Rubel always paired up with me.
It was natural, as the premise was that he couldn’t leave his newly acquired wife alone at home, so he brought her along. Therefore, if I wasn’t by his side, Rubel couldn’t follow the group.
So, should I take care of the child?
However, Rubel had no talent for stealth at all. Even if he shed those cumbersome clothes, it would be the same. A dog cannot imitate a cat. If he followed me, not only the child but also Rubel and I could be in danger.
After a moment of thought, Rubel swept his face down beneath his veil and let out a sigh.
“I… can just stay alone in the inn room, can’t I? I am, after all, a top-tier Sword Expert…”
“That won’t do. Why do you think you’ve come all this way?”
Hugh Benson was right.
Regardless of Rubel’s skill level, if we were to weigh the importance of catching the Black magician against protecting Rubel, protecting Rubel was a hundred or a thousand times more important. The reason we went to suppress the canyon instead of ascending the Yuil Mountains was for that very purpose. Coming to Owen in disguise, without even entering the Widdrow Duchy, was for the same reason.
“…But.”
“No matter what reason you give, we cannot leave Rubel alone.”
I cut off Rubel’s attempt to say more. Rubel quickly became quiet.
Now, the problem was who to leave by his side.
Tedros would be of no help in terms of combat, so leaving him behind would be pointless. Marianne had to leave to read the traces of Black Magic from Lady Diamang. Since a large area needed to be surveyed in a short time, we couldn’t just send Hugh Benson alone to the annex.
Considering all this, only Elvin and Benjamin remained.
If I had my way, I would have wanted to keep Elvin, a Sword Master, right by Rubel’s side. However, that would mean sending Tedros, Marianne, and Benjamin together into the main building. We couldn’t send children who had only recently graduated into enemy territory without any safety measures.
On the other hand, Rubel only needed to stay put in the lodging for at most half a day. It was a lodging Tedros had carefully chosen. As long as he didn’t come out of the room, there was no reason for anything major to happen. He was a cautious and deep-thinking child. If he locked the door and sat quietly, he would do fine, wouldn’t he?
Benjamin was outstanding in both strength and skill among the top-tier Sword Experts. He was more than enough for half a day’s escort. It seemed the others thought the same as me, as their gazes fell upon Benjamin one by one.
Although Benjamin appeared quiet normally, he had a strong competitive spirit and never shied away from any task. I worried that the words “leaving him alone in the room with Rubel” might sound insulting, but the child, as always, nodded with a calm expression.
“…Yes. Then I will stay.”
“I’m counting on you, Young Master Claudian.”
“Don’t worry.”
Just as Benjamin had asked for my permission regarding my whereabouts, I entrusted Rubel’s safety to Benjamin. Benjamin’s attitude, shrugging his shoulders and speaking little, was sufficiently trustworthy. Rubel, as if to comfort me, squeezed my wrist once and let go, saying,
“Nothing will happen. I’ll be waiting well.”
“Yes.”
It was a land where few people knew us in the first place. If someone who had tracked Rubel, whose identity was unknown, had appeared, the others would have noticed. It was more reassuring to leave the child in the safest place and search suspicious areas among ourselves.
The grand operation was set for the day after tomorrow. Hugh Benson needed time to contact Raul, and Tedros needed time to procure items and send a message to the Diamang mansion.
As if unaware of my worries, Rubel, whenever we were left alone, would act spoiled, saying he was scared or sad. His appearance was so pitiful and cute that my heart and hands were busy comforting him.
However, his ploy of asking for one more kiss because he was scared was quite bewildering.
After much deliberation, I gently reasoned with him and refused. That fellow was truly cunning. I had no idea where he learned such tricks.
❖ ❖ ❖
The vast mansion was a testament to a successful lord. Only those who possessed a large territory and the confidence to defend it would have such a grand mansion. Perhaps that was why the Diamang mansion was far more splendid than I had imagined.
Elvin was placed in the driver’s seat, and Tedros and Marianne were inside the carriage. Hugh Benson and I were attached to the underside of the carriage, ready to move separately from the group inside the carriage when the opportune moment arrived. Consequently, the appearance of the ground caught my eye before the structure of the building.
Dozens of defensive and alarm magic spells were layered thickly on the walls surrounding the mansion. In the vast garden, rare flowers and herbs, rarely seen in Owen, were arranged in Sierren’s style.
Mana Stone fragments, not sharpened to a point, lay scattered as garden decorations. The sight of the rockeries, stretching for over ten minutes from the grand gate to the carriage, was truly magnificent.
Listening to the servants chatting, I overheard things that would have been difficult to notice otherwise. There were five buildings, one main building and four annexes? Still, most were single-story buildings, so the sky beyond was clearly visible. It was only a pity that the trees didn’t seem very old. And so on.
I also used my Qi sense to survey the surroundings.
The level of the knights patrolling the mansion was higher than expected. Roughly Peak… top-tier Sword Expert, at least. Furthermore, I was quite surprised to see several Sword Masters in the direction of the main building. I wondered if Diamant’s power was that great.
After all, it was a world where Sword Masters were more common than in the Central Plains. Given that the Mana Concentration in Owen was twice as dense as in Sierren’s capital, it was natural to have more skilled individuals.
Of course, I could handle a few skilled knights on my own, but I couldn’t afford to cause unnecessary commotion by sending the group to the main building.
I concealed my presence as much as possible and held my breath.
At one point, a soft thump. A small Mana Wave sent by Hugh tapped my fingertips.
I immediately moved to the side and hid myself among the tree shadows.
The carriage slowly moved in the intended direction. The children would entrust the carriage to the servants who came to greet them and then go to meet a woman named Lady Diamang. Their task was theirs to handle.
I focused on what I could do first.
With four annexes, the question was which one to examine first.
Hugh Benson and I exchanged glances. That way? No, too far. This way. Once we decided on a direction that made it easy to move between shadows, Hugh Benson vanished with a whoosh. His Stealth technique was so superb that even though I knew it was coming, I momentarily lost track of his movements. I followed immediately.
This was my first time hiding in someone else’s house in this life. The building structures and hiding spots were vastly different from those in the Central Plains. I followed the path Hugh Benson took.
The first building we entered appeared to be a space for guests. Ornate tapestries and carpets caught the eye. Centered around a large hall, seven spacious rooms were lined up along a semicircular corridor, and each door was adorned with patterns representing the worship of various gods.
I knew that the First God was depicted as a Goddess, but the appearance and form of the other gods were not precisely known. We could only infer they were not human by their larger stature than the figures depicted as humans, and the sun-like radiating pattern behind their heads.
Carefully opening the door with its ornate pattern, the room I entered contained two beds. Two beds were placed in the spacious room, with a round table in the center. It was similar to an inn room.
The windows were small and high for the room’s size. It was difficult to look out from inside, and difficult to look in from outside. However, the room did not feel dark, as the colorful Mana Stone decorations illuminated it with dazzling light.
Red and blue light slowly crept across Hugh Benson’s pale cheeks.
Outside the building, there was the presence of guards walking along the path, but the inside of the building was empty. Even if guests weren’t staying immediately, a building of this scale should have at least fourteen servants, male and female, yet it was empty. Whether it was because there were no valuable items or because they lacked the capacity to employ people, I couldn’t tell.
Unlike me, who was observing the personnel moving outside the building, Hugh meticulously examined the room. He stopped, picked up a vase that had no flowers in it, and checked inside. He rubbed the dust beneath the bedside table with his fingertips. Seeing his expression grow increasingly somber, I also tensed.
“…What is that?”
“I was just checking if there were any traces left by guests who came and went. It seems there were some drug users.”
“Drugs?”
“Yeah. Mana Stone powder… and things that make you high.”
“…Hmm.”
Seeing my expression, he quickly changed the subject.
“You don’t need to know. Just don’t touch it.”
“Yes.”
However, I already knew.
When I took classes on poisons, I had learned about hallucinogenic plants. I remembered that one of those plants only grew in Owen. Although I couldn’t recall its name, the A-11 Poison remained in my memory.
The fact that such a thing was being used illicitly within the Diamant family struck me as unusual. I made a firm note to inform the group later.
We then headed to the second building.
It was the same here. There was a hall and seven rooms, identical in form to the first building we entered. Building symmetrically was an aesthetic choice, but having the interior decorations be this identical was unheard of in Sierren. It was simply strange.
Hugh Benson found the same thing in this building as well.
Since there were no people, it was not difficult to check all seven rooms. They were all the same. It would be utterly absurd unless they were regularly gathering drug users for business. How could such a thing be happening in the mansion of a lord ruling an entire territory?
We headed to the third building.
The building’s appearance was the same, but the security was much tighter this time. Eight knights stood outside the building, and two knights patrolled inside, surveying the surroundings.
Raul had said that eleven mercenaries were inside the Diamant family’s annex. Were they all here?
In the Central Plains, when such situations arose, one would usually kill the enemies stationed outside first. The houses I infiltrated to investigate were mostly those of the Evil Sect, and while some had lesser crimes, none were innocent.
However, these were individuals hired by a noble family or raised as their knights. I couldn’t harm them arbitrarily. Seeing my hesitation, Hugh Benson signaled me with a glance.
He closed his eyes, then opened them, pointed inside the building with his index finger, and held up two fingers. He touched his chest with one hand and mine with the other, using his index fingers. I quickly understood the signal exchanged in a very short moment.
The meaning was to sneak in and silently subdue the individuals inside, one by one. I nodded in agreement.