Chapter 174: Eyes
For now, we decided to move and hear the details from Ash and the others—up to the point where they could talk.
The location was the second floor of my house. Dinoss passed through the house as he went to call Ash and the others.
I started a fire in the fireplace and boiled hot water for tea. The plates and cups I prepared were pure white; I had recently succeeded in having porcelain made.
I scooped a generous spoonful of strawberry mousse onto a simple white plate topped with yogurt cake. Fresh strawberries were also ready—though the noise outside was quite distracting.
As I went downstairs, I sensed a heated argument at the door. The voices of the butler and Dinoss mixed with Reed’s.
“I was asked by Lady Lilith. If I am to meet someone whose background is unknown, even if they are a neighbor, I would like to be present,” Reed insisted.
Wow, I could feel the troublesome nature of Chris’s younger brother flaring up.
“They are not dangerous, nor are they involved with the kingdom. The reason their background cannot be disclosed is that they are an adventurer,” Dinoss replied.
“My brother, I am also acquainted with this person,” Chris tried to soothe the situation.
“I at least want to meet them and see their face.”
While it might be very correct for a guard to act this way, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were really guards. And were they stronger than Dinoss and the butler duo?
But from the client’s perspective, it must be reassuring.
“Here’s my face,” I said, stepping out to break the deadlock. It was good that I had tidied up the first floor; opening the door only revealed the stairs.
“You are Ruta’s—ah, I see. If you are Ruta’s owner, then there is no mistake. My apologies,” Reed conceded easily.
Everyone fell silent as they watched his retreating figure. Chris followed Reed, glancing back at me and offering a one-handed apology.
Why is the trust in Ruta so high? Sure, Ruta is cute, but to an outsider, he looks like a wild horse!
“Have you met him before?” I asked.
“Yeah. I ran into him this morning while checking on Ruta,” Ash replied.
We went up to the second floor, where I served the yogurt cake to each of them. The butler was already preparing coffee.
“That was helpful. He can be quite stubborn,” Ash said.
“His demeanor is gentle, though,” I noted.
“True, but it seems to be only when he’s keeping a promise to someone. Lilith must have asked him quite insistently.”
Lilith is that red-haired woman.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had Gene’s sweets. Is it alright if I eat while we talk?” Ash asked.
“Of course,” I replied as the butler served the coffee, and I took a bite of the cake.
Yeah, this is good.
“If you want it sweeter, pour this on,” I said, placing the strawberry sauce in front of Ash. If it’s just right for me, it probably won’t be sweet enough for him.
“Thank you. It’s delicious,” Ash said, savoring the cake happily.
“It’s fluffy and smooth—and quite cold,” he added.
“Yeah. It’s tasty, but it’s probably best not to ask how I made it,” I said. I should probably just serve them room temperature milk jelly from now on.
“I had Az communicate with Lilith,” Chris said.
“Huh?” I replied, intrigued.
While Az isn’t a powerful spirit, he’s fast and skilled at moving, being a bird.
The Merchant Guild and Adventurer’s Guild also use spirits for communication, so while the movement of people and goods is slow, the transfer of information is relatively quick.
“After I left the kingdom for a while, things gradually started to go wrong. Lilith didn’t write to me about it, but from my perspective, everything felt off, and it only got worse,” Chris explained.
“Yeah,” I nodded.
“Something similar happened here, right? I thought that my exile and my father’s illness were related to that. In that kingdom, only my father and I could see spirits without a magic circle.”
So he suspected something was being done using spirits. Dean’s sister was unaware, but this seems to be a calculated act.
“There is a kingdom called Torm. It has slightly more power than my kingdom, and it has been annexing the surrounding small nations by taking advantage of the chaos in Nakahara. Their method is to provide aid when a country is weakened, causing the citizens to lose faith in the royal family. Even countries not involved in the war struggle to receive supplies, leading to many impoverished nations. It’s not uncommon for small nations to collapse, so I didn’t think much of it, but it seems I was mistaken.”
“I’ve confirmed that as well. They’ve been targeting the surrounding nations for quite some time,” the butler interjected, bowing slightly.
Small nations are so numerous that I could become a lord over one, so there are plenty of towns and even villages. They were probably preparing to take down Ash’s relatively large kingdom while picking off the smaller ones.
“It’s highly likely that they also cast a suggestion to avoid any effects from being undone, so I had Az bring holy water to Lilith. The results were as expected, and Lilith has been secretly working to gradually restore the sanity of some high-ranking nobles.”
Ash added strawberry sauce to his cake. The viscous red liquid flowed slowly from the white milk pitcher.
“The one who claimed to be my brother was captured, and my father was rescued. It seems he had indeed been poisoned; he still can’t get up, but he is recovering.”
That sounds rather old-fashioned, but “keeping” means administering poison or drugs.
“That’s good to hear.” I didn’t know what kind of poison was used, but this is a world with recovery potions. There shouldn’t be any aftereffects—probably.
“Not only did I receive a letter from Lilith, but a return order from the royal family also arrived. They likely want this eye,” Chris said.
He usually maintains eye contact while speaking, but now he was staring at the spreading sauce. The last red droplet fell with a soft plop.