TAPGB - Chapter 37
The Abandoned Prince's Ghost Bride
"Then, I'll be back!"
[Be careful on the way. You have to come in before the sunset. got it?]
"Huh! I will definitely convince Dio! Thanks for the snack!"
Lucian packed the snacks I gave him and quickly left the mansion. I waved my hand behind his back, very excited. Then, Caesar came up next to her.
"What are you really going to do if Lucian persuades Dio?"
[That won't happen. It's too absurd to believe.]
"Poor Lucian. Does he know that you're convinced it won't work?"
[Why is this like this? I told Lucian to persuade Dio. Now, bringing Dio is entirely Lucian's ability.]
Caesar looked at her with disgusted eyes, asking if she was saying that now.
"You have a worse personality than me."
[Thank you for the compliment.]
Caesar was indignant, wondering how he could not say a word. Leaving behind him, who was fussing, I entered the mansion.
[While Lucian has gone to town, let's prepare for what's to come.]
"... You didn't recklessly trick Lucian, did you?"
[Of course. If you're in the mansion, you'll quickly notice something strange about me. I've been lucky so far.]
"Why don't you just say it? You're not gone forever, you're just gone for half a day."
[Even if nothing happens, I don't want to make Lucian anxious. Lucian will suffer from anxiety every day knowing that I could disappear. You don't want to do that either.]
"... Sigh. If you say so."
[Thank you for understanding. Now, shall we begin?]
The two's job is to figure out what's strange based on my diary.
I handed it to Caesar because I thought it would be better for someone else to see it rather than having to double-check it myself.
"Mr. Woo. Why do you curse at me so much? "You've been swearing at me like this all this time, right?"
The plain writing in the diary made Caesar sulk.
[Don't look for anything strange, just check properly.]
"Well, the little lizard will take care of it."
Even though he was pouting and grumbling, he soon focused. How much time has passed like that?
I couldn't find any significant income. I was just confirming what I had figured out before.
"I am certain that the residents here have gone missing while you have been unconscious."
[Also...]
In the diary, it was written that after seeing the people who disappeared within a day, I decided that they were dead a few days later and organized their belongings. Thinking about it now, it seems very suspicious, but at that time, I naturally accepted their disappearance as death. What is the reason?
"I see. There are a total of 5 people listed in your diary. Do you remember who everyone is?"
[Then, remember. Because they were all weirdos.]
They were all masters in one field. However, for some reason, he came to live in this mansion and disappeared overnight.
"I checked the date when humans entered the mansion, and none of them have been there for more than 10 years."
[What? Really?]
"Okay. Minimum 3 years to maximum 9 years. Without fail, if the year ended in 7, they all disappeared."
[...]
"And look here. This phrase is particularly annoying. What do you think?"
I looked at the phrase pointed to by Caesar. The very next day after the fourth person written in the diary disappeared.
Leah thought he was dead and cleaned out his room. What's wrong with people having tuberculosis?
The bedding was a mess, and things were scattered around in a haphazard manner as if they had been swept away with an arm. Just like a person struggling before dying.
For a moment, my heart cooled. I looked at Caesar and he nodded.
"This isn't just something that went missing. He was kidnapped."
[...Oh my God.]
"I don't think there was a bloody fight on the spot. I think he was at least kidnapped or murdered. What do you think?"
[Okay, let's check other things as well.]
We also checked the remaining four residents, but could not find anything as unique as the first mentioned human.
"Others didn't know they were being kidnapped or murdered, but this person knew someone was targeting him. Do you remember anything about this person?"
[... He was the only one with armed forces. Weapon Master. All the weapons in the training ground warehouse belong to this person.]
"Oh, really?"
[I never carried a weapon when I was inside the house. Of course, I carried at least a dagger for a year after I first came in.]
Sensing that there was no threat within the mansion, I began placing my weapons one by one in the training area or warehouse.
Although I had a longing for nothingness, as the years passed, I seemed to have resigned myself, and the number of times I took up arms gradually decreased.
[I'm not a person who can be easily defeated.]
It was already over 100 years ago, so my memory was vague.
"...You said you collected items used by these humans, right?"
[Uh? Oh, right.]
"Did you happen to have a diary among them?"
It was a completely unexpected idea. I quickly spun my head, tracing my memories.
[He didn't write a diary... No, he wrote about three!]
"Good. Then let's check it out."
I went to the warehouse and found their diary. That's how they were able to look through the diary and learn surprising facts.
"In effect, he was sent into exile."
[It was out of the emperor's eyes. Looking at it this way, it seems like he was framed and sentenced...]
"Why were they exiled here instead of prison?"
No matter how much I think about it, it's strange. If he was falsely accused to this extent, it would mean that someone had tried to get rid of the interest immediately, but the punishment was too light compared to that. Not only were there no other people residing here, but it was stated that they were supplied with supplies every time, and there was no harsher punishment than that, other than being cut off from society.
"Weapon Marston or something says that the Auror has been sealed away."
[It doesn't seem like the other people were restricted as much since they weren't armed...]
Did you give up because the Aurors were sealed?
The Weapon Master, who had been looking at the weapons forlornly, suddenly came to mind.
"Leah, look at this."
Caesar, who was looking at the Weapon Master's diary, called out to me.
"He was attacked while writing his diary."
The last part of the diary was not finished. It was cut off in the middle, and this phrase was written on it.
I feel a suspicious presence. In the seven years I've lived, I've never once had someone break into this mansion.
The big thief who went to the emperor's mansion probably didn't intend to rob it, but he must have come at someone's instigation.
Damn, there's strange smoke coming in.
There was no further continuation after that sentence. Since smoke was mentioned, it must have been smoke that someone smoked to put him to sleep or kill him.
"This is going to be difficult."
[...Lucian may be in danger.]
I and Caesar made eye contact.
"The times are all different, but they all went missing around -7 years. It means it was done in a planned manner."
[Not only that, but it seems to have some degree of force. Otherwise, there is no way you can kidnap the Weapon Master.]
"When was the last human to stay before Lucian?"
[... About 50 years ago.]
"That person also evaporated overnight."
If only one or two people did it, all the residents went through the same thing and disappeared.
There is a period of at least 20 to 50 years between each event. That period of time was enough time for the generations of the human world to change over and over again, and it was horrifying to see them all go through the same thing.
"This has been going on for over 200 years. It's something that a group, not an individual, has done from generation to generation."
Caesar seemed to have felt that as well and shared the same thoughts as me.
"What these guys have in common is that they were falsely accused and sent into exile here. There are two things we can infer from this."
One is that there is an imperial family behind it. Another thing is that maybe Lucian can escape the serial kidnapping.
[Since it was the imperial family that sent all the residents here, it was also the imperial family that kidnapped and murdered them?]
"That makes the most sense right now, right?"
[Then why can Lucian get away with this? Because he wasn't falsely accused and sent here as an exile?]
"Yes. Besides, no matter how much he was abandoned, Lucian is still a Prince. It seems that not many people know of the Prince's existence, but he still can't be kidnapped or killed without permission."
[There are subtle similarities between sending each brother here as an exile and Lucian being sent here under the pretext of a soul wedding...]
"Seeing as Lucian is still alive, the imperial family probably had no intention of killing him in the first place."
[Huh? How can you be sure of that?]
"Lucian is the Crown Prince's twin brother."
When I asked what that had to do with it, Caesar explained the twin tales he had known.
"The perception of twins within the empire is very poor. It is said that when twins are born, the family is devastated, bad news strikes, and the food that was supposed to go together is split into two, so one has to be killed unconditionally."
[What? Nonsense! That can't be possible!]
"It's almost like a fait accompli. And they said they usually kill the twin brother. But look at Lucian now. He's alive, not dead."
I thought it was strange that the Prince, Lucian, had been living alone and left alone, but I never thought there was a hidden reason for that.
[... So you're saying the imperial family really had no intention of killing Lucian in the first place?]
"Yes. No matter how imperial the family was, many people would consider it ominous if they found out that the Crown Prince was a twin. But they raised Lucian while hiding his existence, and sent him here without killing him, right?"
[Maybe I was sent here to save Lucian.]
"For that matter, I almost left it as if death was okay."
[... Still, it's unclear whether Lucian will be safe. What if the same thing happens to Lucian like they kidnapped the humans who lived here?]
"Then what are you going to do? Are you planning to send Lucian out?"
[That...]
"Don't worry, just trust me. I will uncover your secrets and keep Lucian safe."
If he says that much, you have no choice but to trust Caesar. My face hardened and I organized in my head what I had discovered so far.
[... Caesar, maybe this one. It might be related to the basement.]
After thinking about it, I said something I had not been able to say before.
[I thought there was nothing I didn't know about the mansion after living here for 300 years. But now, like these, the only thing I don't know about is the basement.]
"... It's definitely strange to hear what you're saying. Maybe the guys who kidnapped the residents here came in through the underground. Because there was a big tunnel in the basement."
[Do you know where it leads?]
"No. I haven't checked. However, it looked like a tunnel connected to somewhere, like a mine. And..."
Caesar grabbed his throbbing head. What happened in his basement two years ago remained a trauma to him.
However, Caesar tried to hide it and barely remembered what he saw right before he fell.
"Magic circles are drawn on the floor and door. It's clearly a magic circle that's interconnected. maybe... If a sacrifice is made from one side, it will be absorbed into the other side."
[Are you sure?]
"99% sure."
No matter how much he didn't want to remember that day, Caesar didn't forget that magic circle. To be more sure, he would go down to the basement and check...
"There's no way something like that won't happen again."
[I don't want to go that far. I don't want you to get hurt either.]
Caesar smiled wryly and said thank you for understanding.
Thanks to this, I was able to learn about things I didn't know before and new things I realized.
[Perhaps the missing residents were sacrificed to the magic circle.]
"Isn't that going too far?"
[No, think about it. Last time, you said that the blood powder you collected from the magic circle belonged to several people. And the periods are all different.]
Perhaps there are more victims than just the residents here that they know.
If, as Caesar said, the magic circle was created as a sacrifice...
[Disgusting bastards. What kind of nonsense are you doing in my mansion?]
"A door with the same magic circle drawn on it. It must be to maintain something beyond that. Should I go down and come back..."
[Caesar.]
Caesar looked at me.
[Don't do anything dangerous. What I want is everyone's safety, I don't want to take risks and uncover secrets.]
"...Okay. Then I won't do it."
[Still, I learned more than if I had thought about it on my own. First of all, what we need to be most careful about is...]
"A possible threat to Lucian, and the basement."
[Okay. Also, please check to see if anything happens when I disappear. Since you are a great dragon, it is possible, right?]
Caesar said triumphantly, raising the corners of his mouth and crossing his arms.
"Of course! This body is the genius of the century! Because I'm the Red Dragon Caesar!"
I and Caesar exchanged looks and grinned.
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