Chapter 21
“How many are there?”
“Huh?”
When I urgently pleaded that I had to find a mage.
Heter suddenly held up three fingers toward me.
“I’ll ask one more time. How many are there?”
Thinking I hadn’t understood, Heter helpfully repeated himself.
‘I’m already frantic enough, so why is he suddenly saying something so utterly nonsensical….’
“My lady!”
“Three! Three, obviously! My eyes work perfectly fine, you know?”
When I answered angrily, he folded his fingers and made the shape of a dog’s face.
“What animal is this?”
“A dog?”
“It’s a wolf, but I’ll accept that for now.”
Then Heter reached out both hands and gently cupped my cheeks.
“This time, close your eyes….”
“Don’t try anything funny.”
“Yes.”
When I warned him coldly, he obediently backed off.
“I’m trying to have a serious conversation here, so what on earth are you doing?”
“Have you calmed down now?”
“…What?”
After listening to him, I did feel as though my head had cooled a little compared with before.
I must have been so flustered because the forgotten contents of the novel suddenly came back to me.
“Now, tell me slowly. Why did you suddenly mention a mage? Why are the guests going to die?”
“Phew.”
I took a deep breath, then began to speak slowly, as he had instructed.
“Do you happen to know about 『Mage Supremacism』?”
It wouldn’t be strange if he didn’t.
After all, the incident that happened today was probably what would cause 『Mage Supremacism』 to become widely known in this novel.
“I do.”
“How?!”
I was genuinely shocked by his answer.
That was because, at this point, information about 『Mage Supremacism』 was known in the original story only to certain people connected to the Imperial Family!
“I happened to learn about it while I was wandering as a knight.”
“What do you mean….”
I couldn’t believe it, but I couldn’t argue with him.
There was no evidence that he was lying.
Even I, who had read the novel, didn’t know everything about this world.
It wasn’t impossible that he had heard about 『Mage Supremacism』 through a route unknown to me.
“Good. Then you know what their goal is, too, right?”
“To have mages take the nobles’ place?”
Correct.
I had wondered, but it seemed his claim that he knew about them hadn’t been a bluff after all.
“Good. Then imagine this. You’re a mage of 『Mage Supremacism』. You can’t stand the nobles, and now most of the North’s nobles have gathered in one place. What would you do?”
“…I’d try to wipe them all out.”
“Then how?”
“….”
Heter thought deeply, then his eyes widened as though he had thought of something.
“Explosion magic?”
“That’s right. They’re going to carry out a suicide bombing with explosion magic.”
Just as it happened in the original story.
“So we have to stop them right now.”
“Now I understand why you were so agitated, my lady. Understood. Where are they now?”
Heter asked me as he drew a sword from a suit of armor displayed for decoration in the hallway.
“I don’t know.”
“…Pardon?”
‘Right, he must think I’m insane.’
Since I was acting certain despite never having actually seen the 『Mage Supremacism』 mage attending the wedding.
If I had been in Heter’s position, I would have reacted exactly the same way.
But I couldn’t tell him the truth, either.
‘The truth is, I have the memories of my previous life, and this world is the world of a novel I read in my previous life.’
Hmm, even I thought that sounded insane.
If I had heard something like that in my previous life, I would have run away immediately.
“Well… the thing is.”
Just as I was hesitating, wondering how to make an excuse and persuade him.
“Understood. We only need to find the mage, correct?”
“Huh?”
“What is it?”
When I faltered, he calmly spoke with his usual expression.
“No, I’m just surprised you believe me when I haven’t even properly explained why.”
“Is there anything strange about that? I am a knight of House Fortune.”
The corner of his mouth, visible beneath the mask, curled upward.
“It is only natural for me to believe what the head of the house says.”
“….”
I was once again amazed by his loyalty.
I was so amazed that… in vulgar terms, the thought briefly crossed my mind that it might be okay to let him have me once.
‘No, what kind of insane thought is that?’
That kind of loyalty on his part was surely only because he wanted to possess my body.
If I thought about it rationally, this attitude was entirely natural.
…Probably.
“Good. Then, as the head of House Fortune, I command you to find the mage who is here right now.”
“Yes.”
However, one problem still remained.
I was grateful that Heter believed me, but how exactly was he supposed to find the mage?
It wasn’t as though mages walked around with the word “mage” written on their faces.
“They do, actually.”
“Huh?”
Ignoring my dumbfounded expression, Heter extended his index finger.
“First difference. Mages constantly use spells such as physical enhancement and expanded vision, so they move differently from ordinary people.”
Their movements were clumsier than a knight’s, but superior to an ordinary person’s.
Apparently, that was how a mage who was using magic moved.
Though I doubted I would be able to recognize the difference.
“Second. Mages can use telepathy magic or clairvoyance to see or hear what is happening in other places, can’t they?”
“Right?”
“As a result, mages inevitably space out often, and at such times, the scenes they are viewing are sometimes reflected in their eyes.”
“…What?”
This was an utterly unbelievable claim.
Images were reflected in their eyes even though they weren’t seeing them directly with their own two eyes?
No matter how I thought about it, it made no sense, but—
‘When you think about it, magic itself doesn’t make sense, either.’
Heter went on to explain other ways of identifying mages, such as recognizing their common habits and the distinctive traces of their mana, but all of them were differences impossible for an ordinary person to notice.
“Can all knights do that?”
No matter how I thought about it, I didn’t think I had ever heard Sir Gold or the old knights of the territory say anything like that, so I asked, and Heter shook his head.
“This is only possible for knights above a certain level. Here… it would probably be me and the Marquess of Drosselmeyer.”
“Then why tell me?”
“Isn’t it better than not knowing?”
“I suppose.”
It was such an obvious statement that I found myself convinced.
‘Come to think of it, he’s subtly saying he’s on a similar level to the marquess.’
After listening to him, I laughed inwardly.
The Marquess of Drosselmeyer.
In the original story, he had been the Grand Duke of the North, and his combat ability made him arguably the strongest person in the entire story.
‘Well, Heter is strong, too.’
Who else would believe him if not me?
“I understand for now. Then I’ll leave tracking down the mage to you. And….”
“Hmm?”
I beckoned to him and told him what I had deduced.
“The mage won’t be alone.”
“…Are you sure?”
At his question, I nodded emphatically.
The incident that had happened today wasn’t described at length in the novel, but logically speaking, its scale was too large for one mage to have caused it.
Besides, considering the nature of 『Mage Supremacism』 as it was portrayed later in the novel, it was obvious that there would be other mages involved.
“Besides that….”
“Mm-hm.”
***
“Phew….”
A room resembling House Fortune’s office, but feeling even more desolate because it had no furniture.
In that room, a man sat in a chair and ran a hand back through his hair.
His name was Alzard Drosselmeyer.
He was the head of House Drosselmeyer and a marquess of the Empire.
At the same time, he was one of the two people at the center of that day’s wedding.
Despite his cold exterior, his heart was already in turmoil with the wedding approaching.
He was troubled by various worries, such as whether he could love his wife in a way different from his father and whether his wife would be afraid of him.
“Haa….”
As though the earth itself were sinking, he continued to let out deep sighs.
Knock, knock.
A knock came from outside.
‘Who is it?’
He checked the clock, but there was still time before the wedding began.
“Didn’t I tell you to leave me alone until the ceremony begins?”
“I’m sorry, but it’s urgent.”
“….”
Hearing an unfamiliar voice beyond the door, the marquess furrowed his brow.
The guards and attendants should certainly have been waiting outside the door.
But why was the voice of a stranger reaching him before theirs?
Shing.
He drew the sword from the scabbard propped in a corner of the room.
Step, step.
Then, he opened the door with the hand not holding the sword.
“…What is it?”
For the first time in a long while, he found himself at a loss.
“Waaah….”
“Excuse me.”
‘What?’
Because there was a weeping woman and a masked man holding that woman by the back of her neck.
“Who the hell are you?”
He was far too brazen for someone attempting to attack him.
Just as he was wondering how to respond—a situation he hadn’t faced in a long time—the masked man opened his mouth.
“I’ve brought you a mage.”
“…What?”
“I need your help, Marquess.”
“….”
The strange man who answered none of his questions and only said bizarre things.
Normally, he would have called for soldiers at once or thrown the man out of the residence himself, but the instinct that had saved him from countless deadly situations was shouting.
This man’s claim that he had caught a mage wasn’t a lie.
Moreover.
“Because it seems there are still more mages.”
This, too, was true.