EWEML 30

Chapter 30

―Click, thud.

The sound of the door closing echoed through the room.

Now, only Dielo, the members of Argenta’s intelligence unit, and the two traitors remained in the room with the bathtub.

―Drip, drip.

Other than the sound of water droplets falling from the traitors’ wet hair, there was nothing but silence.

Dielo slowly turned his gaze toward the two traitors.

His mind was still dominated by the lingering impression left behind by Crua.

‘Yes, you’re the head of the family, Dielo.’

That whispering voice. The hand that had gently patted his shoulder.

Dielo smiled without realizing it.

If he truly had been a ‘pure’ person, perhaps he might have willingly allowed himself to be stained.

His bride seemed to adorably believe that he was still a pristine, soft blanket of untouched white snow that no one had ever stepped on.

But she was wrong.

He was the one who would turn even those who approached him completely black.

It was a delightful misunderstanding.

―Click.

He slowly approached and stood in front of the bathtub.

“Are you telling me to deal with them myself, or…”

As he drew closer to the bathtub, he could smell the water.

Perhaps because Crua had touched it, the scent did not bother him.

―Splash.

Dielo dipped his hand into the water and flicked some of it.

Perhaps because it was water that had been infused with Aloze’s mana, he felt a tingling resistance at his fingertips.

And yet, strangely enough, he liked the sensation of the rippling water.

Even though, as an Argenta, it should have been nothing but unpleasant for him.

“Is this because you’re too gentle to actually take their lives?”

he murmured.

As he felt the water, his thoughts were on Crua.

In his eyes, the truly pure white one was Crua.

There was no way someone who had never casually taken another person’s life could hide it.

He could tell simply by looking at her through Dielo’s eyes, accustomed to blood.

He smiled silently.

He was certain.

Compared to him, his bride was an incredibly pure and white person.

“Phew.”

Meanwhile, the traitors seemed somewhat relieved after the woman known as the wicked woman, Crua, had left.

If they had been Argenta members from the fourth floor, they would never have made the foolish mistake of feeling relieved just because they saw Dielo’s face.

But unfortunately, these were Argenta members from the third floor and below, whose access to information was limited.

They were people who did not know Dielo’s true nature.

They seemed to think that, just as he presented himself to the outside world, he was merely a soft-hearted man.

So they immediately tried to persuade him.

“Please, please just spare us, Your Grace.”

“If you spare us, we’ll live as though we were already dead!”

They looked up at Dielo with desperate expressions.

Dielo smiled faintly.

“I can’t simply ignore what my bride taught me.”

The traitors hesitated at his smile.

Was he really going to spare them?

Just like that?

“It seems that Crua left you alive because she wanted to teach me mercy.”

he said in a gentle voice.

A glimmer of hope appeared on the traitors’ faces.

Dielo patiently waited until that spark of hope spread across every corner of their faces, until it completely heated their minds.

Then he continued in a soft voice.

“But unlike what my bride expects, I’m not an elegant creature. I’m a beast.”

“……!”

The traitors’ faces hardened.

There was nothing more he needed to ask them anyway.

The thirteen names they had confessed.

The location where the list of traitors was kept, as well as the information that this annex was one of the traitors’ main meeting places.

He had learned everything he needed to know.

They were useless now.

“Still, my bride told me that I don’t need to cut people down with my own hands.”

He had to follow what he had been taught, didn’t he?

Besides—

“If she saw me behaving like this beast, she would be frightened.”

He leaned toward the traitors.

―Whoosh!

Flames appeared in midair, despite there being nothing there to burn.

Fire above water.

It was a bizarre sight.

But Argenta’s flames made it possible.

―Fwoosh!

The bathtub caught fire.

Dielo turned around.

“You can choose one of two ways to die: drown in that water, or burn to death.”

Surely he had to carry out the mercy his bride had taught him.

The flames gradually began spreading along the walls of the room.

He frowned at the sight.

An Argenta who wielded fire.

He was the head of the Argenta family, a man who had nothing to fear within flames, but he did not like being surrounded by fire.

So he quickly turned around.

“W-What is this…?!”

Although they were floating in the water, the traitors’ hands and feet were bound, making it impossible for them to escape.

Dielo turned away and spoke.

“Tell them a fire broke out in this room due to an unfortunate accident. And bring the list of traitors they mentioned to my office.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

The members of the intelligence unit bowed their heads.

“W-What the hell is this?!”

The traitors, who had only ever seen the gentle Dielo Argenta, struggled in terror.

But it was already too late.

“It’s only the knights from the first floor again.”

I rubbed my chin.

I was on the first floor of the main building.

Just before I realized Mirta’s betrayal, there had definitely been knights from the fourth floor here.

The movement of troops was an important matter.

Besides, the Argentas below the third floor and those who stayed on the fourth floor were clearly treated differently.

There had to be a reason why fourth-floor knights had specifically been stationed here.

“What is inside if we go farther in?”

In response to my question, Fielle answered.

“There is a passage leading underground.”

“Underground?”

What was in the basement of the Argenta main building again?

It had not been particularly described in the original story.

[It was a special area that servants were not allowed to enter.]

That was all that had been written.

If it was an important place, fourth-floor knights would have guarded it normally as well.

So why had fourth-floor knights been stationed here only on that particular day?

Was there something important inside?

What could be important to Argenta at this point in time?

It was at that moment that I tilted my head.

“Have you heard the story of the mad count who told his wife that she could go anywhere else, but she must never enter the basement?”

A gentle voice came from behind me.

I turned around and saw Dielo.

I blinked.

“Is that Dielo supposed to be the mad count?”

In other words, he was saying I shouldn’t go into the basement?

At my words, Dielo lightly corrected me.

“I’m a mad duke.”

So he was saying he was mad?

I raised an eyebrow.

Then I turned around.

If it was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to enter, I had no intention of going in.

I’m the kind of person who hates it most when someone in a horror movie says “Hello?” and walks into an abandoned house.

If you’re told not to go somewhere, why would you go?

At that moment, Dielo suddenly spoke.

“Would you like to take a look?”

I turned back toward Dielo.

“The count in the story was trying to keep the door from being opened.”

“I’m a duke, you see.”

Dielo opened his hand.

Apparently, unlike the count in the story, he was a duke, not a count, so he wasn’t going to stop me from going down into the basement?

What an absurd line of reasoning.

……But I was curious.

If he wanted to show me, there was no reason to refuse.

“Okay.”

As soon as I answered, he held out his hand.

When I took his hand, he gently stroked the back of mine and led me forward kindly.

“……”

The door opened among the first-floor knights, who quietly bowed their heads.

Just as Fielle had said, there was a staircase leading underground behind the door the knights had been guarding.

―Fwoosh!

As soon as Dielo entered, the candles in the dark basement lit up on their own.

And when we descended farther down, what appeared before us was—

“……A statue?”

There was a statue of some kind.

Dielo smiled faintly.

“It is a statue dedicated to the Sea God.”

Why was it here, in the Argenta estate?

And not just anywhere, but in the basement of the main building?

Had Argenta really placed this much importance on worshipping the Sea God?

It was at that moment—

“Welcome, Madam!”

A strangely cheerful man suddenly sprang out.

The man with dark green hair bowed deeply to me.

One hand was placed over his chest.

“I am Rick, a faithful servant of Argenta.”

Rick? This was him?

I knew his name.

Those in Argenta who actually knew him properly called him a ‘bright-eyed lunatic.’

He was in charge of Argenta’s intelligence department and possessed absolute faith.

But that faith wasn’t in the Sea God standing here……

……It was absolute faith in Argenta itself, wasn’t it?

“It is truly an honor to meet you, Madam!”

“Nice to meet you.”

I barely managed to pull my hand away from Rick, who was shaking it so enthusiastically that it felt as though he might rip my arm off.

At the same time, I glanced sideways at the statue of the Sea God.

Rick smiled brightly.

“I was praying to the god I serve. Please protect Argenta before the sea today as well.”

He bowed his head.

[Please protect Argenta before the sea.]

But in the original story, the person Rick addressed those words to wasn’t the Sea God.

It was the head of the Argenta family.

In other words, Rick was lying right now.

Had there really been an altar here from the very beginning?

“Since my bride seems to want to take a closer look, go outside.”

Dielo gestured toward him.

“Yes, sir!”

Rick saluted and quickly disappeared from sight.

“As far as I know, I heard that Duke Dielo doesn’t believe in the Sea God.”

After all, Argenta’s family tradition placed particular importance on abilities and did not allow them to rely on gods.

At my words, Dielo nodded.

“Yes. So originally, there was a dungeon here.”

……A dungeon in the main building where the head of the family lived?

Well, perhaps it was only natural to place a prison in the place where the strongest person in the estate resided.

“Then why is there an altar here now?”

“I thought perhaps Crua might want one. Aloze believes in the Sea God.”

Dielo smiled faintly.

In the original story, Crua Aloze was indeed someone who believed in the Sea God.

Considering that she was a member of a family born with the power of water, perhaps it was only natural.

In his own way, Dielo had apparently put a great deal of thought into preparing this gift.

“I was going to show it to you once everything was ready, but it seems that I—or someone else……”

Dielo narrowed his eyes as he looked up the staircase we had descended.

“……must have done something to make Crua concerned.”

More precisely, I had only noticed that the knights had been replaced.

I shook my head.

“That wasn’t it.”

“Then that’s a relief.”

Dielo smiled beautifully.

There was something about that spotless, innocent smile that bothered me.

The mad count in the fairy tale had kept the basement firmly locked with a key to hide a secret that had to remain concealed.

Of course, just as he said, Dielo wasn’t the mad count.

But his most powerful key was guarding this place.

Wasn’t that an excessively powerful key just to hide a gift?

I remained silent as I stared at the statue once more.

And that night, I heard the news that a fire had broken out in the annex.