Chapter 53
“Huuuh…”
Ben blinked his trembling eyelids several times and let his gaze drop.
At his feet, pieces of shattered crystal glass sparkled beautifully, unrecognizable in their broken state.
Just moments ago, it had been an intact crystal ornament standing beside him.
“……”
Ben was at a loss for words, his mouth gaping like a goldfish.
Then Rosinell’s laughter cut through the silence and flew across the room.
“Wow, Ben, you’ve really gotten old, haven’t you? Look at you trembling like that. Scared of something like this now?”
So cute.
Ben couldn’t believe his ears for a moment.
The Emperor had just called him “cute”? And he was well over sixty…
“The Kinzelos got the jump on them.”
Click.
Rosinell smoothly holstered the revolver at his waist.
It was a fluid motion, the hands of someone who had handled guns countless times.
“The Holy State… they took the witnesses away before that bastard could get to them. They completely ignored whether the place fell under State jurisdiction or not.”
The Emperor seemed genuinely entertained by the situation.
(Omitted section summary)
The fact that the Kinzelos had even violated the Emperor’s orders amused him rather than angered him. Perhaps he was projecting his own past frustration of being tied between the nobility and the State, only able to act neutrally and politically constrained.
“Rude bastards.”
The handsome, silver-haired young Emperor casually grinned with a dangerously sharp smile as he looked back at Ben.
“Ben, you’d better be careful too.”
“……Excuse me?”
“I’m saying this in advance because of our past dealings.”
“Wh-what…?”
At that moment, the chill in the Emperor’s gaze made Ben feel his heart drop like a stone.
Ah.
So they knew everything.
Then… since when?
Ben’s mind went hazy.
“Behave from now on. Don’t go seeing anything like you did today.”
“……!”
“Or next time, it might be your head that gets shattered.”
The morning after Ivybin and the triplets brought the children from Living Quarter A to the dukedom, an emergency meeting was called at the Kinzelo residence.
Everyone was gathered in the meeting room: the head of the family, Dillon; his aide Bill; the triplets John, Hum, and Dun; Ivybin; and Ron, who had gone into secluded training.
The eldest son, Carl, was away for head-of-family training in the Valley of the Deceased, so everyone else in the Kinzelo family was present.
It was clear that the matter at hand was urgent.
As everyone sat with serious expressions, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in.”
The head butler cautiously entered, having just checked on the children in the annex.
“The children’s condition is generally stable. For any showing panic attacks, we administered a calming medicine separately.”
“Monitor them hourly and continue reporting.”
“Yes, my lord.”
After the butler left, Dillon looked at the eldest triplet, John, with a stricter expression than usual.
“I’ve heard the summary, but go ahead and report it properly, John. Chronologically.”
“During the orphanage evening event, the elder disappeared. Shortly after, a gate opened outside the auditorium. According to the children in the living quarters, Elder Mateo of the State took about eleven children somewhere.”
John’s usually playful demeanor was replaced with seriousness.
“And then?”
“While we dealt with the monsters respawning from the gate, the Saint closed it. Some of the noble patrons were sacrificed, and the children who disappeared in the process remain missing.”
“And this Elder Mateo?”
“The State claims he is currently attending an emergency meeting, but nothing has been confirmed. Some claim the children are possessed by evil spirits and lying.”
“Evil spirits?”
Dillon let out a harsh laugh.
“Are they spouting that insane nonsense again? Damn it!”
His already tiger-like eyes sharpened further, exuding an intimidating aura.
“If those bastards had secured the children first, they would have brainwashed them and shut their mouths by now!”
“But thankfully, we’re protecting them.”
At Ivybin’s words, Dillon’s expression softened instantly into a full fatherly smile.
“Exactly, exactly! How could our Ivybin make such a precise judgment in a sudden situation like this? The greatest blessing of the Kinzelo family is having such a beautiful, smart, fairy-like, wise, and clever daughter. Indeed, indeed.”
“No, Father.”
“Oh? And humble too! Hehe!”
Just as a warm father-daughter moment passed, Dun interjected.
“Father, John, Hum, and I were at the scene as well.”
“What?”
Dillon, who had been smiling at Ivybin, turned to Dun in surprise.
“Haha. We were the first to confront the mimics when the gate opened. Though a few civilians were unfortunately affected, it was a good job overall.”
“……”
“Ah, and before that, I mentioned handling the magical circle in the kitchen warehouse?”
“……”
“And the scrolls we tore while leading the children? Those were mine. They came from my personal pocket dimension. Thorough preparation, you might say.”
Dillon maintained a benevolent smile but there was an unmistakable coldness underneath.
“Haha……”
Sensing this, Dun glanced nervously at his brothers, but John and Hum stared at the ceiling or fiddled with their nails, avoiding interaction.
“So you’re bragging about breaking a few wooden boxes with your supposedly elite training, huh?”
“Eh? Ah, no, that’s not it……”
“See, little Ron, just three years younger than you, was in a deserted ancient dungeon until yesterday, training alone. Even elite troops might not return alive from there. He came back unscathed, and brought a gift.”
“A gift…?”
Dun looked at Ron with unease.
Ron just gave a sheepish smile.
“Haha, he unearthed a top-tier magical core from the dungeon. Hehe.”
“Ha, haha……”
Dun forced a weak laugh after Dillon.
“If we didn’t praise Ron, what makes you think you deserve praise for handling mimics or scrolls?”
The meeting room fell into a tense silence.
Except for Dun, all the children realized he was in serious trouble.
“I’m sorry, Father!”
Dun bowed quickly. If it weren’t for the meeting, he would have likely been hit already.
“You… we’ll talk later, Dun.”
“…Yes.”
With Dun silenced, Bill took the floor.
“Summarizing the situation, since the State did not fully deploy Elder Mateo, it appears he went into hiding without their full awareness. They are probably tracking him diligently as well.”
“Then we should organize our own search party based on the children’s testimonies. The Emperor seems unlikely to intervene until this is resolved.”
The Elder had vanished.
With the children.
Two questions remained:
Were the children truly safe?
And where had the Elder hidden?
‘Elder Mateo…’
Listening to Bill and Dillon, Ivybin fell into thought.
‘In the original story, he was the Saint’s right hand and a spiritual mentor to the paladin Theodore, wasn’t he?’
Moreover, he was the head of a theological foundation.
This foundation, Eternal Faith, oversaw around twenty orphanages, including Werner Orphanage, across the empire. It had grown by gradually acquiring orphanage operations during Gregory’s regency.
In fact, such large-scale care for abandoned children was rare in other countries on the continent.
‘The Elder I saw seemed just as conscientious as Theodore. Or perhaps… more like he had a soft heart.’
In any case, Ivybin believed it was highly unlikely the Elder had killed or abandoned all the missing children.
Then, a thought crossed her mind—something John had said when he first saw the gate at the scene.
