Chapter 60: The Beginning of The Change (2)
As Duke Ernest walked away, I ran into another group. The hunting ground wasn’t very large, so encountering others happened quite often. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
“You’re amazing.”
This time, it was Arrendt, with a charming smile meant for social purposes.
“That’s quite a compliment.”
“I just saw Duke Ernest riding past me with an angry face. Now I know why.”
I held the corners of my mouth to keep from smiling and pretended to be innocent. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
“Is that so? Ah, I had no intention of offending him.”
Arrendt wore a simple outfit, unlike usual, but still sported ornaments made from mana stones. His appearance remained splendid and without any sense of incongruity.
Usually, only mages carried mana stones. People were often curious about why Arrendt, who was not a mage, always wore ornaments with mana stones instead of gems. Some thought it was just the “geeky side” of the young and capable marquis.
But I knew why Arrendt always carried mana stones.
“I see that the winner of this competition might turn out to be Lady Fiona.”
I shook my head and looked at him. “You have to see the ending to know anything.”
Arrendt didn’t seem to have caught many monsters, probably due to a lack of motivation, despite his high level of power. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
“My Lady, are we going to hunt more?”
“No, not right now…”
I glanced at the knights following me, who looked sick and tired.
“I think I need to rest for a while.”
I, too, had physical limitations and didn’t want to overdo it.
“Is that so?”
Arrendt rode his horse slowly, matching my pace.
“So, I heard Lady Fiona has been fighting monsters for a long time in Heilon.”
“Yeah,” I said with a grin.
“So, I’d like to hear Lady Fiona’s opinion on monsters, if that’s okay.”
“If it’s something I can answer for you.”
Arrendt glanced at me for a moment. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
“Have you ever heard of ‘Darkness,’ My Lady?”
That was a question I somewhat expected. Of course, the ‘Darkness’ he mentioned wasn’t referring to the usual sense of the word.
“Yes, I’ve heard of it.”
The primary reason Fiona became the final boss in the first place was her failed attempt to deal with this “darkness.”
“It is said that the magic in the area where darkness appears becomes more powerful and stronger.”
The darkness was a formless existence. It usually appeared without warning, making it impossible to avoid. When it did appear, the land became desolate, and the surrounding monsters grew more ferocious. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
“Yes, that’s right. Also, the term ‘darkness’ is what the academy scholars named it when they first identified the phenomenon.”
That was pretty much the setup.
Arrendt raised the corners of his lips. “Even so, the scholars are not yet fully convinced about the darkness, because there are no direct firsthand witnesses…”
“There are no survivors.”
“Yes, that’s right. I see you know about it.”
Usually, everyone who came into contact with the darkness died. There was no one who directly witnessed the phenomenon, so naturally, there was very little clear information about ‘darkness.’
But of course, there were people who survived the darkness—right in front of me, Marquis Arrendt Clovis. As a child, he witnessed the moment when darkness appeared and survived. The aftereffects were significant. The reason he always carried mana stones was to slow down these aftereffects as much as possible. He definitely did not enjoy it, as he had been searching for a way to get rid of the aftereffects that had eroded his body and the darkness itself.
Of course, this is the story of Arrendt when he later fell in love with Eunice, the female lead. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
But I pretended not to know anything. “You seem to be interested in darkness.”
“It’s just a small curiosity. A piece of knowledge. But I’m wondering if you know anything else since you’ve been dealing with monsters for a long time.”
“Heilon is also concerned about darkness. But there’s so little information, and what I know does not differ much from what the academy scholars have said.”
However, darkness had never yet appeared in Heilon.
“We urge the soldiers to retreat immediately when they see any dead ground.”
“I see.”
Arrendt looked lost in thought. I pretended not to notice his concerns. Arrendt undoubtedly faced a serious problem, as his life was at stake, but it would all be resolved later. Additionally, the reason Arrendt and Fiona were intertwined in the original plot was because of the darkness.
Arrendt had come up with a hypothesis. At one point, he noticed that mana stones could delay the aftereffects of darkness, though not very strongly. Mana stones are affected by mana, and only mages can have and control such mana powers. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com. So, wasn’t magic and darkness a phenomenon somehow related? After considering this possibility, Arrendt was searching for a very powerful magician—someone with exceptional talent in controlling their mana, who did not die even when touching the darkness. And the mage who met Arrendt’s requirements was Fiona.
Of course, as Fiona, I did not want to take any risks.
“What are you doing here?”
It seemed another person had arrived. It kept happening, didn’t it?
“Your Highness, the Prince.”
I turned my head at Arrendt’s words. There was Sigren.
I followed Arrendt and gave my greeting to the imperial family. Sigren chuckled while looking at me in a strange way.
If there had been no one else around, I would have hit him. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.com.
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