Chapter . 81
I and Yolande made eye contact. Vincent lowered his eyes. A curse that turns a human into an animal... Is that even possible.
Jerome was a noble from a prestigious family, but as the second son, he didn't inherit property.
Yet lacking talent in martial arts to become a knight, he set his sights on academics and attained a government position, but failed to get promoted. That was when the Duke of Lauderdale approached him, offering to make him a secretary—a position that hires many and doesn't pay much, but is still far better than a low-ranking official—and made him the Empress's spy.
“So you were caught by His Majesty the Emperor and cursed?”
At Michelon's still innocent question, Jerome just hung his head low before continuing.
“I saw a scene I should not have seen.”
“What scene?”
I asked sharply, wondering if he had witnessed Ilaves's end. But Yolande and Vincent shook their heads at me as I looked at them.
Indeed, mages of that caliber had set up a flawless barrier using the Throne Magic Circle, which didn't collapse even as the dragon died. There was no way an ordinary person like Jerome could have seen it by chance.
“…I do not remember……. Just the memory that I saw a terrible sight. I screamed, and thus I was caught. Then, they captured me.”
“Who are they?”
“Mages.”
Jerome cast a fearful glance at Yolande and Vincent.
“And one of them fed me something. It tasted terrible…….”
Surely not Lasilex? Did it react because this man also had mana? If he's a Lagardi, he's related to distant collateral royalty... But wasn't Lasilex restored by the Empress, not Father?
Of course, it could just be a simple potion promoting reaction to magic. However, Father could have researched Lasilex too.
“After that, they cast a spell on me in an ancient language. I also studied ancient languages, so I could understand. The meaning of those words was…….”
“You shall not speak of what you saw to anyone!”
When I spoke, his eyes widened.
“Is that meaning correct?”
“Ye, yes... How do you know?”
“…It just inadvertently came to mind as a story I accidentally found in some ancient book seemed similar to your case.”
The story I mentioned was one of the myths from the old polytheistic religion. I read it unknowingly back then, but later my Master confirmed it.
The legend of a young man who went hunting, peeped at a goddess bathing, was cursed by the goddess, and turned into a stag. Transformed into a stag, he was eaten by the hunting dogs he raised with his own hands.
If what I thought was just a myth back then also involved magic, it cannot be said that it doesn't happen by magic even in the age of the Monotheistic God.
Although I don't even have a guess what magic it is.
“Ah, I think it's that! The fairy tale where the stepmother queen turned princes into swans and chased them away!”
At that moment, Nanette said excitedly.
“That is correct, I was cursed exactly like that and turned into a wolf!”
Tears welled up in Jerome's eyes.
He turned into a wolf and fled. He said it was a night with a full moon. Thinking he had turned into a werewolf, he hid from people's eyes and waited for the full moon to set.
“However... even after the full moon set and the sun rose, I remained a wolf…….”
He tried returning to his hometown, but almost got hunted by his father and eldest brother and ran away.
“I just caught and ate a serf's chicken belonging to my family anyway because I was hungry…….”
The tearful story continued, leading to the part where he reached Mount Petrafis.
“So, being so hungry, did you come to eat people too?”
Although pitiful, he was suspected of harming my estate residents.
“No, it is unjust! Absolutely not!”
He jumped.
“I am a human. Even if I turned into a wolf. Of course, I hunted animals, and when there was really nothing to eat, I caught farm livestock too. But even while doing so, I was afraid I might become a beast forever and live as a wolf for the rest of my life unable to escape. To eat humans, I never even thought about it!”
“Then what happened to the people who disappeared in the mountain?”
“Honestly, one of them attacked me first, and I only defended myself!”
Jerome continued quickly.
“But I didn't kill him either. While dodging the axe he swung, I bit his arm, and he ran away but died because the wound didn't heal. Listening to hunters' talk while hiding, they cursed me saying the wound rotted due to wrong treatment, but how is that my fault! I am a noble, yet I almost died at the hands of a peasant!”
“Is that the only case of death you were involved in?”
“An old woman gathering herbs also died... That is also unjust. I didn't even attack upon seeing the old woman. Seeing me, the old woman ran away, lost her footing, and fell off a cliff. I didn't even chase her!”
Jerome claimed other people on the list were unrelated to him. Examining it, certainly, they seemed like accidental deaths that could sufficiently happen to people living relying on a rugged mountain.
Also, the biggest wolf in the highest mountain would have been enough to cause the fear triggering those accidental deaths. Although it's too early to conclude.
“Then why did the Count of Montova claim there was a mage? Did he see you turn into a human even for a moment?”
“No. I had an acquaintance with Giuliano della Montova. Before he lost his father and went down to his hometown, we used to hang out often. So if there had been even one such instance, would I have let him just go? I would have held onto his ankle and begged him to save me.”
Indeed, if he turned into an animal by a curse, unless he met a mage like me, he couldn't possibly turn back into a human.
“But the Count of Montova said he saw a mage.”
“I am not a mage.”
He was sincere in saying that, but as far as I felt…….
“But I think I know whom Montova is talking about. I also saw that person. It wasn't me, but that person who drew the Knights of Purity to Petrafis.”
“Who is that person? Tell me in detail what they looked like and what they did.”
“I can even give the name. It is someone I know too.”
Jerome, who seemed to have had a wide circle of acquaintances before becoming a solitary wolf of the wilderness, gave an unexpected name.
“Surely not…….”
“It is true, Prince! Please believe me!”
At that moment, outside the castle was noisy. For a moment I wondered if it was the Knights of Purity, but hearing the fanfare announcing the lord's return, I knew it was the Count.
Although I am the lord, it must have been hard for the trumpeter to discard the habit of serving the Count whom he had been loyal to until now.
I hid Jerome first. Immediately after, one of the old lady's maids ran urgently and said.
“The Count has returned! He says he caught the mage!”
Following that, Giuliano entered with his chest puffed out. Behind him, two knights dragged a man tied with ropes.
“Prince Leontes, I, Count Giuliano della Montova, pledging loyalty to Your Highness, capture and offer this evil mage.”
Saying so, he knelt on one knee before me. Behind him, not only knights but also the old lady and maids lined up in unison.
I felt the trace of the Empress in the skillful scene direction. Moreover, the fact that he established merit as soon as I left the Count alone was suspicious.
Could he be a spy the Empress planted in my first estate. Playing with mine and the Count's fate, thinking if it works, good, if not, whatever; it's nothing for Rhiannon.
“My dear Count, I praise your merit.”
I extended my ring-adorned hand to him, and as he bowed and kissed it, I continued.
“Highly appreciating the merit of this matter, I appoint you as the captain of the castle guard. The future of you and your family depends on your loyalty towards me, keep that in mind.”
“Merciful Prince Leontes!”
When the Count shouted in emotion, the old lady wiped tears welling up in her eyes. But feeling my gaze, she straightened her body immediately.
“Prince Leontes!”
“We will not forget Prince Leontes's grace!”
Let's give him a chance for now. Sir Rolf's words aside, that way would be better to test his loyalty.
Above all, if he really is a spy, I must monitor him closely. I can't let him be kicked out of the castle, retreat to a nearby village, harbor dissatisfaction, and plot secretly.
“Now dismiss the people. I will interrogate that man.”
“I told them to prepare the torture chamber. Do you intend to go personally, Your Highness?”
At my order, the Count asked politely. I was speechless for a moment but replied calmly.
“Before torture, listening to the sinner's words first is my trial. You keep that in mind too.”
“Yes, Prince.”
After dismissing the people, the man he dragged before me was suspicious beyond measure.
He wore his disheveled hair long and was dressed in rags. Hanging from the rope around his waist were a weasel skull, dried poisonous mushrooms, dried snake skin, oddly shaped stones, carved bones, and the like.
“Before being bound, he was leaning on this staff, and even attacked us with it.”
The staff confiscated by the Count was not the size of a tree branch like Yolande's or other mages' staffs, but was as tall as him. It looked carved from an old tree struck by lightning, with dried vines wrapping tightly around the wood.
Just looking at it made my head throb. If just three guys like this roamed my estate, they would attract the entire order of Saint Romola Knights. It was a wonder he wasn't caught earlier with this appearance.
“Looks like a witch.”
Yolande whispered quietly.
Witches were different from mages. Reacting against the system of mages who treat magic as an academic discipline, they claimed it should be handled in a unique way utilizing the mage's individual characteristics.
Thus, they gained originality but lost efficiency and had severe fluctuations. Since they also hated belonging to a system, instead of obeying the Imperial Family or the religious order, they hid in forests or mountains and were sacrificed the most.
“But it's a man?”
I asked back, recalling something my Master mentioned once but I didn't pay much attention to.
“Since women widowed by war were mostly driven as witches, such a wrong common name just stuck.”
“…Is he a real witch?”
“…I don't know for now…….”
Even though I have the ability to recognize mages, I didn't get a sense from this person. Jerome, who claimed to be turned into a wolf by magic, seemed more like a mage. Maybe because it's the first time for both me and Yolande to actually see a witch.
“…Raise your head.”
His hair and beard were so disheveled that he looked like an ascetic monk. As if he swore to God never to bathe in his life, or never to cut hair and shave, or both.
Underneath, flashing eyes glared at me. Like a madman.
“Are you truly Baron Harald von Graf?”
At my words, the Count looked at me in surprise. Because I mentioned the name of a famous knight.
Baron Graf was a flower of chivalry who rivaled Duke Grimiati. He was a strong knight, but also famous for his love with his dead lover.
‘Actually, a hundred times better than Grimiati.’
The father of the woman he fell in love with at first sight did not allow marriage between him and his daughter. Because having made wrong investments, he was about to lose his estate. Fortunately, Harald swept victories in every jousting tournament, earned a lot of money, and received permission.
But when the fiancée's father died suddenly just before the wedding, a neighboring lord eyeing the wealthy heiress attacked the fiancée who visited a monastery to pray for her father.
At that time, he participated in a jousting tournament for the last time, heard the news, and returned hurriedly.
‘Although the fiancée had already been forcibly married.’
Such evil deeds were sadly very common. Even an heiress who was the spouse of two monarchs and mother of three monarchs was kidnapped twice and almost subjected to marriage by capture.
Marriages of wealthy heiresses or widows required permission from the Emperor who was reluctant to see overly powerful nobles emerge, but it was enough to pay a fine while pleasing the Emperor.
This is also something I must eradicate when I ascend to the throne.
Graf rallied fellow knights, attacked the lord's castle, and won. The lord, about to die by his sword, pretended to ask for mercy and, seeing an opening, stabbed his own wife in the chest.
He dismembered the lord's body and fed it to dogs, held a grand funeral only for the lord's wife, and then disappeared. Bards sponsored by noblewomen praised him, but as time passed, he gradually faded from people's memories.
‘But to reappear like this now. And in this appearance?’
Honestly, it was hard to believe Jerome's claim. Even if not a lie, maybe he was mistaken.
“…I discarded my worldly name.”
…It is a somewhat plausible answer, but…….
“Do you know Jerome de Lagardi?”
At that name, the Count was surprised again. As if Jerome's claim of being a friend was correct.
“I know him.”
Harald admitted.
“He is my wolf. I cursed him and turned him into a wolf.”
While I was speechless from dumbfoundedness, Jerome, whom I had hidden behind using invisibility magic, rushed out and shouted.
“I knew it, it was him! My becoming a wolf is definitely his plot!”