Chapter 55: City of Canals (part two)
At the time when Leandez Magic Academy was celebrating All Souls’ Day, there was an outbreak of young women from distinguished families being spirited away.
In the bustle, the dead body which flowed to the riverbank was one of the students who was being spirited away, it was Erica Aurelia.
The heroine, Chloe, searched for the truth of the case with her redheaded classmate Harold.
This was the rough plot of the third scenario ‘All Souls’ Day’s Spirited Away Case.’
Now then, what kind of person was Harold Nibelheim which was the capture target?
Burning red hair made into a ponytail, dark green eyes.
Among the capture targets, he was tall enough to compete as being the tallest one.
The protruding tooth that looked like a fang and the scar on his right cheek gave the viewer a wild impression.
An outlaw with a bad atmosphere and a cynical view against the world.
Harold entered as a King’s Scholar, a scholarship system for civilians.
But, originally he should have been a nobleman who was the successor of Count Nibelheim.
This was a point in common with Chloe who enrolled as a King’s Scholar while being a duke’s daughter.
It was also a few points of contact for Chloe regarding Harold’s secretiveness.
Harold was a western noble, but the blood of Visitor’s Clan was diluted inside him.
He was the descendant of indigenous people who dominated the mountainous region of northwest before the Visitor’s Clan arrived in this place.
Although the indigenous people were in harmony with the Visitor’s Clan, they didn’t lose their identity and still maintained their cultures and pedigrees.
This was why there were more red hair than blonde in the north-western part of the continent.
Although it was not as good as the four royal houses, Harold had a good life as the son of an old noble family.
His fate, which was originally supposed to have a stable life, would change completely on a certain day.
The cause was that his father, Count of Nibelheim, had been found guilty of a silver vein fraud.
Immediately after that, as an additional blow, the market price of silver made abnormal fluctuations due to the fine silver circulated from other territory.
Through these two incidents, the production of silverware, which was the main industry of the territory of Nibelheim, was hit hard.
Even though he was struggling to prevent the inevitable destruction somehow, it was all in vain, and the Count of Nibelheim was bankrupt.
Count of Nibelheim gave up his peerage together with the territory which he couldn’t rule anymore.
Due to being overwhelmed by the mental and physical stress resulted from this case, Harold’s father died of illness in despair.
Ruined, Harold who became a shell of his former self enrolled in Leandez as a scholarship student after the hardship.
That was where my knowledge of the game ended.
I hadn’t been aware of the truth of the case because I was killed in the middle of playing through the third scenario.
What was something related to Harold that became the cause of my death?
If it was the usual, after his downfall, Harold would unleash some type of monstro.
Then, I guessed the one who would be murdered first was me.
Anyway, drowning seemed to be tremendously painful so I really wanted to avoid it.
It was too much to drink plenty of cold river water in autumn and floated on the riverbank.
Aside from that.
The County of Nibelheim was a land bordering Lucanrant.
It was far from the Duchy of Aurelia and it would be difficult to always keep an eye for the fraud.
However, just working directly on the capture target didn’t immediately mean death flag avoidance.
The Trade City of Knot Reed where the launching ceremony would be held was adjacent to that Nibelheim territory.
It was my opportunity to destroy the death flag.
On this occasion, we would collect information on the fraud while we were in Knot Reed, and prevented the downfall of the Nibelheim family.
The main plan this time was to catch the con artist.
Of course, I was also going to check out the local phantom beast that was likely to be the direct cause of my death.
☆
Under the gray sky.
A pure white sail was billowing as it was being blew by strong wind.
It was the first time for me to travel by boat, so my heart was beating fast indiscretely.
While drawing a white wake on the dark green surface of sea, the large merchant ship owned by Duke of Aurelia went north to the north-western coast towards Knot Reed.
This route was said to be an old route of history which had been used since the opening port of Knot Reed.
The required number of days from departure until arrival was about ten days.
It took a few days to bypass the waters where the flock of krakens that exist in Knot Reed’s ocean were living.
Still, routes that diverged largely via the open sea had been favoured by safety-conscious traders.
I was walking on the deck with phantom beasts disguised as a cat and a small golem.
In this case, amidst the howling of the wind and waves, the creaking sounds of the hull, and the yelling of the sailors, our conversation wouldn’t be heard unless we were approached.
Thinking that way, we dared to stand in an open place like this for our secret conversation.
“In other words, don’t let Count Nibelheim get scammed, so that he won’t fall into ruins.
We should also make sure that Harold doesn’t make contact with the eidolon even in the worst case.”
『Erica, I feel like you are making a sloppy strategy the same as last time.』
He pointed out my sore spot.
Certainly I was a little sloppy, and there was a part in the plan where it was too optimistic.
“In order not to be too late, this time we will take countermeasures against the eidolon from an early stage, so it will be fine.”
『Umu. That is fine.
I feel uneasy that we have no guide who is familiar with the lore of the north-western land.』
On the Island of Messenger, thanks to Auguste, I could do it with ease.
But, because I didn’t have any acquaintance in Knot Reed, it wouldn’t proceed that smoothly.
In any case, I had no choice but to investigate on our own.
“There is no choice but to do a literature research and a field study steadily.”
『Then, after all, I should handle the field survey as a light muscle workout for my feet.』
“Sorry, Palug. Even though I already asked you to substitute for me.”
It seemed that I would be asking for a rather tough job on the wounded Palug.
She would be my substitute during daytime and survey the surrounding areas at night.
『Don’t mind it. Because it is my wish to help my master.
Besides, because there is something I want to investigate, it is better for me to be free to move around.』
『It’s about the altar of Ignitia, huh.』
The altar for Ignitia’s rituals was gathering magical powers derived from the faith of their God’s believers in the surrounding.
The collected magical power was converted into the power exclusively for the eidolon beasts that had been transformed into angels and distributed them evenly.
It almost seemed like a system.
It was said that the power of faith obtained from the altar had gradually decreased in recent decades.
When Palug was on the Island of Messenger, she was presuming that it might be caused by people’s beliefs were getting away from their only God and angels.
She also had no way to confirm it because her contact with other angels dispatched to various places had also stopped.
With loneliness and anxiety building up, she was convinced that she was gradually being forgotten.
However, in fact that was not the case.
The people’s beliefs in their only God and angels were still strong as ever.
『In the vicinity of Ignitia, there is no outright decline in faith and the altar is well maintained.
Within the range confirmed in the last few months, there are no problems around Spring Palace and Autumn Palace as well.
Then there is a possibility that the important altar in a remote place had been destroyed.』
“Destroying the altar of the religion of the religious country, Ignitia……if that is true, then it seems politically problematic.”
『Well, it is not urgent because my existence is stable with the power I received from you now.
If I can make a light investigation during my stay, that is enough for me.』
I nodded to the opinion of Palug.
If it wasn’t something impossible, I had no reason to object.
If she had a free time, that could be a way for Palug to spend it.
Now then, back to the topic in hand.
I would summarize the key points of our schedule of actions again during our stay in Knot Reed.
“There are two priority action targets.
First is to find the fraudster and stop the downfall of Count Nibelheim.
The other is to investigate the local beast in the north-western part and if possible, negotiate whether we could settle this peacefully.”
『What if the eidolon was hostile?』
“First of all we will regroup. The policy would be forcing it to accept our demand with force.”
『It’s our turn……was what I wanted to say, but now that we are weakened, I feel uneasy depending on the identity of our opponent.
The wands that you have would be damaged or consumed, is that fine?』
Certainly, I think that it would be necessary for me to cover Tirnanog and Palug’s blind spots with wands.
However, a lot of my supplies had been decreasing during the two consecutive warfare of the Ruins of Visitor and the Island of Messenger.
For that matter, I was thinking about the measures for the time being.
“I planned to charge the wands and purchase some materials in the city of Knot Reed.
There seems to be many skilled wandmakers over there.”
Actually, I was secretly looking forward to shop for alchemy-related things.
According to the information I got beforehand, it seemed that it was a city with a fine selection of goods.
Suddenly the hull was shaking, Palug turned her head towards the end of the sea.
Tirnanog also climbed onto the railing and stared at the same direction.
『Ah, are we almost there? It smells of people and metal.』
『Certainly, the smell of human activities is drifting through the wind. I’m used to this, this is the smell of alchemy.』
“I only smell the tide……”
Since they were phantom beasts, both of them had an amazing sense of smell.
When the two of them were pointing their line of sights towards that direction, a small shadow emerged from the horizon.
Sea birds cried in the distance.
As the ship approached, the shadow became bigger and the shape of the land gradually appeared clearly.
Within the canals that spread out like a mesh, numerous merchant ships and cargo ships were coming and going.
Beyond the fog which was covering the city a little, the fire of many lighthouses was flashing.
The Trade City of Knot Reed.
The only wide area river located at the mouth of the Varnalis River, the oldest port on the west coast of the Ichthyes continent.
If it was a legitimate item, it was said that there was nothing you couldn’t buy here, this was the center of logistics.