༺ Finding A Place Is Hard! (7) ༻
“Ladies and gentlemen, and distinguished guests from all over the world, welcome. I am the Duke of Freesia, the owner of this palace. It’s a modest place, but please make yourselves comfortable─.”
A blonde dwarf climbed onto the stage and started shouting something.
It wasn’t particularly important news to me.
What was important was that the chocolate fountain at the party was overflowing.
“…A chocolate fountain! Naru’s never seen anything like this before!”
Naru held a cup to the fountain and guzzled down the chocolate.
The mages in dresses murmured as they watched.
“Whose kid is that?”
“Was there a kid like this before?”
Naru was popular even in a place filled with mages.
Naru soon shouted as if she had discovered something.
“Ah, look over there! There are lots of kids about Naru’s age!”
There truly were a lot of kids where Naru pointed.
Judging by the mage hats and magic wands they held, they seemed to be young mages.
Probably the sons and daughters of the wizards attending this party.
“Huh? Tywin! Tywin’s here!”
Naru waved her hand around.
“Oh, holy shh…! Tywin! Good to see you!”
Looking at where Naru was pointing, there really was Tywin Cladeco.
A girl with a princess power of A was hard to miss after all.
She originally was an A+, but her power dropped to A-. Still, it was amazing to see she had started to recover already.
“My goodness, I can’t believe I have to deal with Naru even here.”
“Miss Tywin, do you know that Barbaroi girl?”
Tywin wiped her forehead.
The children, next to her, chattering even more.
Tywin shook her head.
“I don’t know her. How could someone who’s not even a mage get an invitation to the party…”
“Oh, holy shh…! Tywin forgot Naru’s name! Tywin has a bad memory! It’s okay! Naru is Tywin’s friend! I understand!”
“……”
Tywin closed her mouth.
Naru, looking at Tywin, pulled my sleeve.
“Dad! Naru will be playing with Tywin!”
“Is that so? Then go ahead.”
My daughter, Naru, who was only in the first grade of elementary school, would be bored following adults around.
It would be better to be with her peers.
Hug—
With a big hug to my leg, Naru ran towards the children.
I quietly watched her small back disappear into the crowd of children and suddenly realized that I was left alone in this place.
So what should I do now?
I actually did receive an invitation and came to the palace of the Duke of Freesia.
“Where is Brigitte?”
I looked around.
I couldn’t tell where Brigitte had disappeared to because everyone was wearing wizard hats.
As I was looking around, I heard someone giggling.
Soon there was a cough, and someone spoke to me.
It was a man wearing glasses and holding a thick book.
“I’ve always attended Walpurgis Night, but I’ve never seen your face before. Excuse me, but which faction are you from?”
Which faction?
I don’t really have one.
Then I heard a giggling laughter next to me as I frowned.
“How could a savage have a faction?”
“Who invited such a guy?”
“At least his outfit looks decent.”
Indeed.
So this was the rudeness that Brigitte was talking about.
I did feel out of place here.
Like a honey bee that had wandered into an ant’s nest.
Yes, that’s exactly how it felt.
Then someone shouted.
“Isn’t that Judas? My goodness, I didn’t recognize you, dressed like a newlywed groom. Gosh, I wouldn’t have expected to meet a nobleman at a place like this.”
Who was it?
An unknown man.
He was rather handsome, but I didn’t recognize him.
However, his voice spread among the crowd, creating a small stir.
“Isn’t Judas a thief?”
“So that man is… As I thought, he’s not an ordinary savage…”
“…Let’s run away before we get into a fight.”
The magicians soon retreated, clearing their throats.
As I was pondering the strange situation, the handsome man approached me and spoke in a low voice.
“Judas, what are you doing here?”
“Ah, are you Salome? What are you doing here? I didn’t recognize you in this disguise.”
“I’m tracking a certain ‘book’. It’s highly likely to appear at this banquet today. Judas, aren’t you here for that book too? Otherwise, why would you come to a banquet with these tasteless mages?”
A book.
Could Salome be after the book “God” by Platan?
It’s quite difficult to steal the goods she is after.
“Is the book’s name ‘God’?”
“No, that’s not the name of the book I’m after. But I heard it contains incredibly valuable information. I heard you could buy a castle with that one book.”
What!?
Buy a castle with one book!?
I was really surprised.
I was so surprised that I unintentionally leaped to the ceiling and crawled over it on all fours!
“There’s a man clinging to the ceiling!”
“What, what is that…! I can’t believe my eyes!!!”
“Gyaaaak! He must be possessed by a demon! Someone!! Call an exorcist…!!!”
“Judas, come down right now! Why are you using ‘Ceiling Crawling’? You shouldn’t show off such high-level skills so casually!”
After Salome’s quiet reminder, I was able to calm down a bit and come down.
Anyway, I was really surprised.
Buy a castle with one book?
Would even a Demiurge’s artifact like ‘Yachbach’s Spear’ or ‘Epar’s Necklace’ be of similar value?
My thief’s blood was boiling with excitement.
Soon Salome clicked her tongue.
“But those wizard guys are really bad luck. A bunch of nerds who like to babble in a language only they know. Anyway, I’m leaving. If I talk more with you, It will look suspicious.”
Pop—
Salome disappeared into the crowd.
And just as I realized I was alone again, the stage lit up with a few pops—.
“Greetings, everyone. I am Elle Cladeco.”
In that light was Elle Cladeco with a microphone.
The woman standing next to Elle Cladeco was the same person I met this afternoon.
“Cladeco the Golden, is it? And the one beside her must be Ms. Friede, who inherited the ‘White’ color through her ‘Theory of Relative Magic.'”
“Incredible. Achieving color assignment signifies reaching the pinnacle in one’s field, doesn’t it? Witnessing both of them together like this, the Walpurgis Night is truly remarkable.”
“Absolutely! It marks the inaugural collaboration between the West’s Magic Tower and the Graham Academy’s research lab.”
People loudly chatted with each other.
Pat—
Soon another light came on the stage.
The one who revealed herself under that spotlight was Brigitte.
“Is that Brigitte?”
“She’s the Black Wizard, isn’t she?”
“The Black Wizard is attending this Walpurgis banquet? Isn’t this the first time?”
The crowd’s buzz turned into a strange feeling.
Wasn’t Brigitte’s appearance quite unexpected?
“Can we even classify those ‘Black’ individuals as wizards? They’re more like destroyers.”
“Exactly. It contradicts the very essence of Magic. Magic is a miracle harboring the secrets of world creation. To wield it solely for destruction…”
“Shh, you shouldn’t say such things. She is one of the heroes who defeated the Demon King after all.”
“But the truth is the truth.”
Very noisy.
Brigitte was not only praised among the people.
It seemed that the wizards thought magic was inventive and creative.
So they must have been jealous of Brigitte being awarded a ‘color’, which was all about destructive magic.
Losers who would never achieve anything were picking faults with her.
I didn’t care.
And I knew Brigitte herself wouldn’t care either.
* * *
“I’m going to die-.”
Brigitte, who came down from the stage, sighed towards me.
I offered her a glass of grape wine.
“You gave a good presentation.”
“It was just so-so. What about Naru?”
“She’s playing with the kids.”
“Really?”
“Besides, they say that your family is presenting a book worth as much as an artifact today. They say it’s a book that could buy a castle.”
“…Was there such a thing? I highly doubt anyone in the family possesses the ability to create such a work. The Walpurgis are a fading lineage, incessantly boasting about being descendants of the Primordials.”
Brigitte clicked her tongue.
She looked around and added.
“It’s all a façade. They care more about how they look to others than about magic. It’s been this way from the start. Nothing but a bunch of hypocrites..”
“Hey, what are you saying about the family you were born into?”
Someone spoke sharply.
When I turned my head, I saw a woman with glasses.
There were freckles on her face, but she was quite a beauty.
Her hair was white.
Her tightly pressed chest was quite large.
There was a bandage on her face as if she had been slapped by someone.
Brigitte frowned at the sudden appearance of the woman.
“Gudrid?”
“It’s Sister Gudrid to you, your third sister! And when attending an event, it’s only proper to extend greetings to the head and mother first, isn’t it? Right, Mother?”
The woman called ‘Gudrid’ turned her head.
An elderly woman with a fan in her hand met her gaze, her once-blonde hair now touched with white, her face pallid, and her lips adorned with red makeup.
The blue eyes behind the glasses were unusually cold.
She perfectly embodied the archetype of a first-generation chaebol’s stern mother-in-law.
She knew how to overwhelm people with her gaze.
That must be a real ‘noble.’
When the lady looked at Brigitte, Brigitte was taken aback.
“You are…”
“Brigitte. It’s been a while. You look healthy. But you seem to have forgotten your manners. You seem to have some bad friends too.”
Bad friends.
I looked around.
I was the only one who could be called a bad friend.
But the lady was wrong.
“I’m not a bad friend. I’m the damn bad friend.”
As I chuckled, the woman called Gudrid raised her hair like a cat struck by lightning.
“Wh-Who do you think you are, thief?! This is Lady Batory Von Walpurgis! The great hostess of the family! To think─.”
“Enough. It’s foolish to preach manners to those who don’t know them.”
Swoosh—
The lady raised her hand as Gudrid was about to say something.
Gudrid shut her mouth.
The lady, now known as Batory, slowly examined Brigitte and me.
Then she calmly said in an emotionless voice.
“Brigitte, let me cut to the chase. Stop your little rebellion and come back to the family.”
“Rebellion…?”
Brigitte scrunched up her face.
Her expression revealed a feeling of absurdity.
“It’s funny to hear about rebellion from someone who didn’t even let me dine with the family. Was I ever your family to begin with? You abandoned me because my hair color was different!”
Brigitte screamed.
Soon, the noisy people around started to look at us one by one.
As I began to feel flustered, the lady said without changing her expression.
“Forget the past. The important thing is what we can do from now on. Brigitte, the head of the family has prepared a place for you. If you behave, you will soon have a marriage proposal.”
“What? Marriage? Who decided that?”
“You are twenty-five years old. We can’t delay any longer. Your sisters are already married and have children of their own. Even your older sister Gudrid had a baby at twenty.”
Batory’s daughters seemed to marry early.
I vaguely understood why Brigitte was a bit self-aware of being twenty-five.
“…Sigh.”
Brigitte seemed to want to say something, but she couldn’t get the words out because of her anger and disbelief.
Without giving Brigitte a chance, the lady added.
“You are my daughter. You have a duty to obey me. That’s how the relationship between a mother and a daughter should be. You will realize this when you have your own daughter.”
“I’m not going to get married!!! I’d rather die than have a child!!! I’d rather bite my tongue and kill myself than become like you!!!”
Brigitte was fuming.
Soon, Brigitte tugged at my arm.
“I was a fool to think I could do something here. Judas, let’s go! We don’t need to waste our time in a place like this!”
Shall we go?
Should I call Naru—I was thinking that when everything was in chaos, the lady said.
“Today, in cooperation with Graham Academy, the prestige of Walpurgis will rise to the sky once again. Brigitte, your role here is somewhat important. We are going to study Homunculus.”
“…What!?”
“Speaking of that, Brigitte, I want to talk about this book. There were quite a few phrases I couldn’t interpret. I’m sure you know, Brigitte. Especially about ‘Aru’.”
Aru?
Whoosh—
The old lady pulled out a book from the bag she was holding.
It was a pretty thick book.
“Well, it’s your diary. It’s about the study of the legendary Homunculus. When I found this, my head and my mind were buzzing with excitement. Beyond the realm of magic, the domain of creation. The hope of our Walpurgis family. If we join hands with the Graham Academy, creating a Homunculus is not a dream─.”
“Hey, give that here!!! Why are you looking at my diary without my consent!!!”
Thud—
Brigitte snatched the book.
Of course, the old lady was relaxed.
“That’s just a summary of the main content. The original is with the head of the family.”
“……!”
Brigitte’s face right now was perfectly described by the phrase ‘silent scream’.
Then she quickly came to her senses, pulled my hand, and spoke in a desolate place.
“This fucking-!”
“Wow. Calm down.”
“I can’t calm down! It’s the worst. Especially…. Judas, we have to steal a book. The book that the head of the Walpurgis family has!!!”
Brigitte was grabbing my clothes.
She seemed to be out of her mind.
This is the first time I’ve seen her this flustered.
She was more composed than this even when we faced the Demon King in his castle.
At this point, I had to ask.
“What the hell is a Homunculus? What is Aru? It sounds similar to Naru.”
A moment of silence filled the space between me and Brigitte.
As the chatter of the people in the banquet hall noisily echoed around-.
“……”
Brigitte took a quick look around.
And then she spoke quietly.
“A Homunculus refers to an artificial creature made with magic in legends. And Aru is… my family. My only family in the world…”
She looked quite confused.
There’s only one thing I should say here.
“My fee is high. After all, I’m the King of Thieves. But you bought expensive clothes for Naru and I, so I’ll let that slide. Okay, I’ll steal it for you today.”
I started to feel strangely concerned.
About Aru and Naru.
And about Homunculus.
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