“Okay then, let’s go right now,” I said, standing up again.
But Larna quickly stopped me. “We should wait for daybreak. The mansion is somewhat far from the town of Noir. It’s practically on the outskirts.”
And so Larna convinced me to wait, and we soon returned to our rooms for some rest. Honestly though, even though I knew I should, I didn’t think I’d be able to fall asleep. After all, Keith had been kidnapped... possibly by a Wielder of Darkness. I had no idea what kind of danger he might be in.
All I could think about was Keith. Even after I curled up in bed, I couldn’t fall asleep. This was the first time that had ever happened; even when I myself was kidnapped, I had fallen asleep easily.
Eventually the tiredness from the day of travel caught up with me, and I found myself drifting away. And then, I had a dream.
A boy was hugging his knees and crying. With his flaxen hair, he looked exactly like Keith when he had been little. He was crying with such sorrow, it was too sad to watch. I tried my best, everything I could, to comfort him. But it was like he couldn’t hear a single word I said. I would try to reach out and hug him, but I couldn’t touch him, even if I reached out.
There was nothing I could do. All I could do was stand and watch as the boy continued to cry.
As the sun rose, and I woke from my shallow sleep and realized that my cheeks were wet. It must have been because of that terrible dream.
Under normal circumstances, I would forget about dreams like that right away... but I resolved to engrave that dream into my memory, so that I would never forget.
I had realized that the boy in my dream was Keith... and my heart ached.
Chapter 3: Bravely Toward the Enemy
The sun had risen. Normally the breakfast table was full of lively and cheerful conversations, but today a tense aura hung in the air, and everyone ate their food in silence.
Soon enough, we all finished our preparations. We headed to the area pointed out to us by the bear — the place we were told of yesterday that supposedly held Keith. Although the location was in the same town of Noir, it was somewhat far away from our inn. We boarded our carriage, but planned to disembark when we were halfway there and travel the rest of the way on foot.
This was natural. If we went with an entire horse-drawn carriage, the perpetrators would definitely notice us. For some reason, we were also using a different carriage than the one we’d arrived in yesterday; this one was a lot more beaten up. Maybe this was also to deceive our foes. But I learned later that this wasn’t the only reason.
“How... How horrible...” I muttered. It was the only response I could think of as I looked at the scenes outside through the carriage’s window as it rumbled along.
Larna raised her eyebrows slightly and turned to me. “This part of town has always been lawless. Honestly, places like this should have been cleaned up a long time ago. But geographical influences on its culture are strong, since it’s so close to a foreign nation. Try as we might, the security around these parts has stubbornly refused to improve.”
Staring out of the small window, I saw people dressed in filthy clothing sleeping by the side of the road, next to mountains of rubbish. These people were so dirty that it made them hard just to look at, and some of them were also terribly thin.
“If we had gone through here with that borrowed merchant’s carriage of ours, we would have stood out too much. Don’t look outside too much, Katarina. They don’t let you go once your eyes meet.”
Taking Larna’s advice, I peeled my eyes away from the window. It felt real to me now — the fact that this was a lawless, dangerous place.
We eventually reached a point where the carriage, shabby as it was, would still stand out too much. Larna gave me a cloak of some kind to wear as we got off, and I obediently put it on. The fabric was dirty and thin, but wearing it was necessary to blend in. The clothing we were normally wearing would have drawn attention to us.
And so the five of us, all dressed in dirty hooded cloaks, grouped up and were led by Larna toward our destination. I was told that I should never meet the eyes of any of the people sleeping on the street, and that I should never turn around. All I could do was stare blankly ahead as I walked silently. It was a suffocating feeling.
“I can see the place now,” Larna said about ten minutes after we’d started walking.
I looked up ahead of us. In the distance stood a grand mansion that stuck out like a sore thumb around its filthy surroundings.
“...That place?” It was so big that, as we approached it, it became harder to look at the entire building. It really didn’t suit its surroundings at all. It was too extravagant, and too quiet. “Why is there a mansion like that in a place like this?” I muttered, confused by the contrast.
“It’s the mansion of whomever rules over this area, I suppose. I can’t imagine that any respectable person would be living in a place like this. Take a look, the security is tight.”
I looked where Larna had pointed. Sure enough, there were a few bulky, muscular men positioned around the place, keeping a sharp eye on their surroundings. As I looked around more, I saw that there were a lot of them positioned around the mansion. It made sense that a fancy house in such a crime-ridden place had to have some type of security, but this was a bit much; it was overflowing with guards. There was no way we could approach easily.
“Last night, I knew I couldn’t get any closer without causing a scene,” Larna said, turning toward everyone and then addressing Maria and Sora. “But if you two can’t get a good idea of the situation from here, I could cause a distraction so that you can. What do you think?”
Maria shook her head. “No, that is quite all right. This will do.”
“Can you see anything, then? Or should we...”
“I see it. The presence... very much like what I saw yesterday.”
With Maria’s confirmation, the party collectively tensed. Larna turned to Sora. “Do you see it too, Sora?” she asked.
“Well... not as well as Lady Maria, no. But I can sense that something is lurking there.” Apparently Sora, being a Wielder of Darkness, could feel what Maria had too. So there was no doubt about it. This was the place.
“Then Keith is in there! We have to save him, quickly!” I said, ready to dash into the mansion.
Jeord quickly restrained me. “It would be impossible to run head-first into such a heavily-guarded mansion, Katarina. Take a moment to calm yourself,” he said strictly. There was a hint of anger in his voice.
I guess he’s right... I thought as I calmed down. “...Yes. Sorry...”
Seeing that I had changed my mind, Jeord nodded. “All right then.” He was definitely acting as my guardian at this point. “But yes, I see now that there is a high possibility of Keith being held in this place. What shall we do, Lady Larna? Break in?”
Larna placed a hand under her chin, deep in thought.
“U-Um...” Maria interjected, stuttering.
“What is it, Maria? You don’t look so well. Would you like to return to the inn?” Larna was right — Maria was pale, even paler than she’d been yesterday.
But Maria shook her head. “No... I will be fine. However, everyone, I really do not want you entering that mansion...”
“What do you mean?”
“The presence I can see... the presence of darkness that’s emanating from there... it’s abnormal. I said as much yesterday, but this is a truly fearsome presence. It is more terrifying than anything I’ve seen before. And that feeling fills the entire mansion, as if the building itself is engulfed in darkness...” Maria looked at the building once again, only to start shivering once more. She soon wrapped her arms around herself to suppress her shivering.
Even I froze at Maria’s words. But Sora was quick to follow up on her point. “I agree with Lady Maria, too. That mansion really does not feel right. While I may not be able to visually perceive it like the lady does... I feel shivers run down my spine. It is indeed a very dangero
us place, I’m afraid.”
Our party fell silent. A mansion filled with Dark Magic... I had never heard of anything so frightening. Maria’s pale face and Sora’s severe expression were more than enough to convince me to be wary of this place.
“...I suppose we have no choice, then. If it really is such a dangerous place, I don’t have any plans or strategies to offer, for now. In any case, we should put some distance between us and the mansion, and then contact the Ministry.”
Agreeing with Larna’s decision, our small group quickly distanced ourselves from the horrible place.
Larna had mentioned contacting the Ministry, but for some reason, she led us to a tall building and went inside. We waited for her to return, waiting silently until finally Jeord spoke.
“Lady Maria... if it does not distress you, I would very much like to know. How was that presence at the mansion different from what you have seen up until now...?”
“Well... I find myself unable to explain it very well. But... if I had to put it into words... it was a very thick, heavy darkness.”
“A thick darkness, you say?”
“Yes... The Dark Magic I saw before was almost a solid, black haze... a mist. And I have only seen it so concentrated in the small room where Raphael was during the school festival. That haze was dark and dense. It felt terrible. But this place...”
“Is worse, I gather?”
“Yes. The black haze I just saw simply dwarfs anything I’ve seen before. It is... incomparable. Terrifying,” Maria said.
Sora quickly added his observations. “I, too, felt an incredible sense of danger from the place. Something that seemed to be telling me that I should not be anywhere near it.”
“I see.”
I quietly listened to their exchange. A presence of Dark Magic stronger than anything they had seen before. A place that would be far too dangerous to approach...
It wasn’t too long before Larna stepped out of the building. “It is a very dangerous place, yes. I have called in reinforcements from the Ministry,” she said. I had expected this, given how dangerous this whole thing had turned out to be. But then she added, “So we should all return to the inn and wait for them to come.”
“Um, but Lady Larna,” I blurted out quickly. “When will we go back to the mansion, then?”
Larna seemed troubled by my question. “Perhaps tomorrow or later. We have to wait for the reinforcements to get here, after all.”
“...Tomorrow... or later.” This place was filled with intense Dark Magic. Something terrible would happen if we tried to tackle it ourselves. But... if Keith was really being held there...
The image from my dream floated into my mind. The young boy had looked just like Keith. He was crying. While we waited, terrible things could be done to Keith. Maybe he was crying right now, just like when he was little.
“Um, Lady Larna...”
“What is it, Katarina?”
I stared straight into Larna’s eyes as she turned to face me. “I... can’t wait.”
“But... that’s...” Larna’s eyes widened in surprise.
“I understand that it’s a dangerous place. But... But if Keith is really there... there’s no telling what could be done to him right now! We don’t even know if Keith will be alive tomorrow morning!”
“...”
“Something terrible could happen to Keith before we get there... I can’t just sit here and wait. I don’t mind going alone if that’s what it takes. Please, let me do this.” I spoke strongly, in the only way I knew.
Larna seemed distressed, while Maria and Sora looked surprised. Maybe that was because they all knew that I had no real power of any kind. Even so, my dear brother was in trouble! He could be suffering at this very moment! There was no way I could simply wait.
I bit my lip, silently awaiting her response. That was when someone next to me spoke up.
“Lady Larna, please consider it.”
“Huh...? Prince Jeord?” My eyes widened in surprise as I turned to him. After all, wasn’t he absolutely against exposing me to any kind of danger? I would never in a million years have thought that he would approve of my proposal. With my mouth agape, I stared blankly at Jeord, who just gave me an uneasy smile in response.
Jeord then turned to Larna again. “It wouldn’t only be Katarina. I would be with her as well. Please give us permission, Lady Larna.”
“...Are you serious, Prince Jeord?”
Jeord responded to the still-shocked Larna with a serious expression and a nod. “Of course.” Then he looked back at me. “You see, once Katarina has decided to resolve something, there’s no stopping her. Even if you refused, she would surely attempt to break in on her own.”
Jeord hit the nail on the head. I withdrew slightly at his accuracy. “Ugh...” He was right, though. That was exactly what I had in mind. I would have run off on my own even if Larna had refused.
Jeord flashed me a more reserved smile in response. “I understand your thoughts relatively well, Katarina.”
“Hmm...” For a while, Larna was silent, alone in her thoughts. And then she finally said, “I suppose a quick rescue would be better, given how dangerous the situation is... but it wouldn’t do for you two to just run off on your own.” But judging by her expression, she seemed to realize that she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. “All right then. In light of your resolve, I suppose we should break in.”
“Thank you, Lady Larna!” I literally jumped for joy.
“But we can’t go right this second. After all, it’s not like the place looks like it would welcome visitors. We have to survey the site first and identify possible points of entry.” Larna turned to the young man who had been silently observing all this time. “Sora, could you pull it off?”
The edges of Sora’s lips curled up at Larna’s words. “Oh, but of course. Now that we have decided on a course of action, I will do everything in my power.”
With that, Sora set off to scout the mansion and its premises. I thought that going alone would be dangerous, but he told me that he preferred working alone. “I am used to things like this, so leave it to me,” he’d said as he flashed me a mischievous, almost boisterous grin and set off.
From everything I’d heard, Sora lived a life like the protagonist of a spy movie. I supposed it was best to let him do his thing. He’s a useful guy to have around...
With Sora gone, the remainder of our party returned to a spot some distance away, waiting for his return.
“U-Um. Prince Jeord?”
“What is it, Katarina?”
I bowed my head. “Thank you for what you said just now. For... agreeing with what I said.”
“Haha. I understand too well, Katarina, that once you have that expression about you, you are all but unstoppable,” Jeord replied with a soft smile.
“...‘That expression’?” What is he talking about?
“That face you make when it’s time to resolve something.”
“...Huh.” I didn’t understand what he meant. Perhaps my expressions were just easy to read?
Jeord merely smiled at my apparent confusion. “The truth of it is, Katarina... I already knew that you would say as much, when you blurted out that you would rush in and rescue Keith right away. You are, after all, simply that sort of person.”
“?”
“If there is someone in need, someone asking for help... you simply run straight to them, even if you are ill-equipped to handle such a task.”
Does he mean that I’m impulsive? That I fly off the hook too easily? I withdrew slightly, feeling like I was being lectured.
“Ah, I’m not mad at you, Katarina,” he said, still smiling faintly. “I quite like that part of you. For example... if I were the prisoner in question, instead of Keith, you would still rush in to save me in that very same manner, no?”
I still didn’t understand what he was trying to say, but I had an immediate answer for his question. “Of course I would. No question.” I nodded with con
viction.
Judging from his grin, Jeord seemed pleased with my response. “Ah, Katarina. I really do like that about you,” he said as he patted me on the head.
For some reason I found myself blushing, and my heart started beating a little faster.
“Haha... I hope you’ve steeled yourself, Katarina. Once this is all over...” He trailed off and didn’t continue, instead just smiling vaguely.
★★★★★
“So they really came... As I expected.”
“You say something, Sarah?” I asked. Sarah had been staring out of the window and muttering something I couldn’t hear.
She just smiled in that charming way and answered, “Oh, it’s nothing.”
“That right?”
My name is Thomas Coleman. It had been a month since I had met this woman called Sarah. At first I thought she was shady, but now I felt like she was the only one who understood me. I trusted her completely.
I was supposed to be the heir to the Coleman family. I would have been the viscount. I should have been raised like the special guy I was, like the heir I was born to be. But that was stolen from me by my younger brother. They even chased me out of the house.
It was a completely unbelievable thing to happen. In the first place, I didn’t do anything wrong. The reason I didn’t do well in school was because my tutors were useless. And all my servants kept quitting, ’cause they were useless, too. The people around me were no good. I didn’t do anything wrong.
My own father looked at me in shock and said, “How did it come to this?” He looked down on me. Me! It was humiliating to be stared at like that by that man. That womanizer.
And then there was my younger brother, who started following that man around. He looked down on me the same way, even though he should have been following me around. “Why don’t you think about the things you’ve done?” he’d say.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Volume 4 Page 10
