Following Deborah’s sudden disappearance, Seymour literally burst into anger.
As soon as he heard the news of her disappearance and the circumstances surrounding it, Duke Seymour, who was so shocked he was staggering, gathered all the family’s vassals and ordered them.
“Find Deborah right now. No matter how you do it, be sure to do it before the sun rises tomorrow.”
“Montez has harmed Seymour’s direct line of descent. He can’t sit idly by either.”
Rosad stepped forward, trying to adjust the formation. It was justifiable, and Seymour’s pride was at stake.
“Father. It happened due to an ancient artifact, so I’ll start an investigation myself.”
“I’ll lend you all the manpower you want.”
Belreck set up a team of investigators and went back to the scene. His expression was coldly stiff. Despite not having a good relationship with his sister, he felt bad when someone touched her. Family love had long since disappeared, since he and his brother knew they had to trample on each other, even before they lost their baby teeth, so it was a strange thing.
‘Because Deborah is an excellent artifact designer… And I like competent people.’
“Sir Belreck. I see traces of space distortion.”
Feeling strange, he quickly came to his senses and scanned his surroundings meticulously.
‘It seems the artifact connected to the subspace was out of control.’
The more he investigated the scene of the incident, the more he realized how serious the situation was. The distortion field had already closed over time, and the artifact, the only key to the subspace, had also vanished without a trace.
‘How long can Deborah last? There is a high chance that Montez’s heirloom will be connected to the spirit world.’
Fortunately, Isidor Visconti was also caught up in the situation.
‘I think she will intimidate Sir Isidor well to escape this crisis.’
As he worried with uncharacteristic mixed feelings, Belreck noticed that the atmosphere in the house was unusual, even Enrique.
“Sister, where is she?”
Enrique bit his lips so tightly that wrinkles appeared on his chin, desperately holding back his tears.
“Young Master, calm down. The Duke will surely solve this…”
“Tell me!”
Enrique, who interrogated the servant to figure out the situation, was overly nervous as he searched the library.
Seymour used all his strength to find Deborah, while pressuring the Montez family.
“Get Philap out of the Montez’s mansion right now. He’s going to kneel as soon as my daughter comes back.”
Duke Seymour was strongly determined to grab Philap and shake him off. Thanks to the unique waves caused by the destruction of the ancient artifact and various testimonies, it immediately became clear that Philap was the culprit in the disappearance incident.
Philap was currently detained in an underground cell in the family mansion. He was first spotted sneaking off the heirloom by Montez’s private soldier, and Seymour missed him by a close call.
“Philap. What the hell did you do?”
As soon as Duke Montez appeared with a haggard face, Philap, who was restrained, suddenly stood up. Shocked that Isidor was a wizard swordsman, he was not aware of how serious the situation was outside.
“Father! Please listen to me first.”
“Did you do something good, to be raising your head like that? I can’t look at your stupid face anymore.”
Seymour threatened that there would be a war if he did not find a way out of the subspace within half a day. It was also unusual to see Visconti moving, as he was always quiet.
“I was just trying to talk to Deborah. Technically, it was Isidor’s fault that the artifact got destroyed.”
“Stop talking nonsense! Who the hell has a conversation while holding a family treasure?”
He allowed him access to the heirloom so that he could train hard during his probation, but he didn’t expect him to use it for the wrong purpose.
“Deborah refused the marriage proposal, so I wanted to show her the power of Montez…”
“Philap. You have turned two of the founding families into enemies, and you have lost the family’s secret weapon. I can’t believe my biggest enemy was inside my own house…”
“…”
“That ancient artifact has a value incomparable to your life. Do you know that?!”
“How can you say that, when I’m the only successor!”
Duke Montez gritted his teeth.
The only thing capable of increasing the power of spirits was that artifact. Spirits are determined to be low, intermediate, or high level since their origin, and the time they can stay in the human world is limited. Because of that, it was impossible to develop a contracted spirit.
However, the Montez family was able to use an heirloom embodying the spirit world to make their spirits superior to the spirits of other summoners, even if they were of the same class. That was the true reason they were called the ‘Montez of the Spirits’.
‘Why did it have to be that thing!’
The family with a deep history was shaking from its roots because of a son who had been raised without any discretion.
***
“Let’s try it. Getting to know each other.”
“… Yeah.”
Isidor smiled softly, looked at me with his deep, jade-colored eyes, and muttered.
“For some reason, that’s so like you.”
“Huh?”
“I think that side of yours is more attractive.”
“W-Why are you suddenly saying that?”
“… I wanted you to know.”
Suddenly, I thought that this situation was more dangerous than being trapped in the subspace.
“Hm.”
“The fact that you’re embarrassed now and then is also cute. At first, I thought you were angry.”
“T-That’s enough!”
“Alright.”
He smiled softly. I thought he was like a fox that bewitched you.
“W-We have to get out of here first. Right now is not the time to do this. My father will be worried.”
My face kept getting hot, so I hurriedly turned my gaze to another place. When I turned my head around, there was water everywhere.
“… You said it before, right? That it’s safe to drink that water because this is the embodiment of the spirit world.”
“Yes. I’ve heard in the past that the Montez have their own private training methods, and I am convinced this is their training ground.”
“Hmm.”
‘The holy beasts are also half spirit. If Purple comes out, wouldn’t there be a reaction in this space?’
Thinking suddenly, I took out Purple, who was inside my arm in the form of a tattoo. Purple, who was hiding inside its carapace, stuck out its head and looked up at me with moist eyes.
‘Why are you staring at me so enthusiastically as if you saw a magic stone?’
Does it also seem to be moved?
‘Ahh. I get it.’
It seemed like it was because I protected Purple from Philap’s superior spirit.
“Princess Deborah is very popular, even with the holy beast. … I’m going to be nervous when we go out. There are many troublesome things.”
Isidor mumbled something strange. I opened my mouth after pondering.
“Purple, try to attack that water.”
As Purple nodded with a resolute expression and emitted a white energy, the blue slate underneath the floor shone, and water columns began to rise from all sides.
“Oh dear.”
As expected, it was a space that reacted to the power of spirits.
However, my reckless experimental mind seemed to have made matters worse. As I was feeling hopeless, something surprised me. Isidor suddenly pulled me closer.
I felt his hot body temperature and breath behind my back, so I almost closed my eyes without realizing it.
‘I’m going crazy.’
Isidor cast magic in a low voice right next to me, and the water columns, which were rushing with fierce momentum, bounced out due to the shield magic he had created.
“As expected, this slate served as the core of this space. Thanks to the Princess, I became convinced.”
He grinned as he tapped the blue shining slate with his foot.
“Deborah, do you like plays?”
He asked a sudden question amid the whirlpools appearing everywhere.
“… Why?”
Suddenly, the rough waves approached us as if they were going to swallow us, and I bit my lips tightly. He pulled me tighter into his arms as if he were soothing the cowering me.
“Let’s take it into consideration when choosing the place for our next date.”
“Sir Isidor. This is not a place for a date; and whether it’s theatre or opera, I think we should get out of here first and think about it later.”
“Theatre, opera… It would be fine to watch both.”
“… Don’t tell me we’ll be able to get out of here soon?”
“Yes. I was convinced.”
Isidor said in his distinctive relaxed voice.
“That child just completed the defense wall, too.”
Isidor pointed to Purple.
As expected from a turtle with a carapace to protect its body, Purple had the ability to create a shield. A hexagonal-shaped defensive wall, resembling the pattern on Purple’s back, surrounded the slate.
‘Even though it’s my holy beast, I didn’t know it was so powerful.’
While I was admiring it, Isidor spoke.
“That child. Maybe it got stronger while in this space. This is a unique place full of nature’s power.”
Purple’s defensive walls guarded us quite well against the water attacks coming from all sides. Isidor, who confirmed that I was safe, slowly released me from his arms and raised his sword.
Clang! Clang!
Soon, he began to cut down the slate mercilessly with his sword.
“…”
“Hm. I have to go harder.”
As he raised his aura, a gleaming golden energy soared from his longsword. It was a force strong enough to produce wind pressure. His golden hair fluttered around.
As the aura that Isidor exuded grew bigger and bigger, it was as if he had put a small sun in front of me. I could feel a subtle energy that I couldn’t guess the end of, like the sun, so I was in awe.
‘The Golden Visconti…’
Suddenly, I felt that the nickname ‘golden’ did not merely symbolize that he had a lot of gold mines or money. If it was money, the Serig family had a lot of it, and the nobles of this world didn’t value commerce that much.
‘Then what on earth does ‘golden’ stand for?!’
While I was feeling puzzled, the slate with the sword stuck in it slowly split apart, and the space began to crack like a broken mirror. Then there was a huge storm of mana like the one that brought us here.
‘I’m dizzy.’
“Hang in there a little.”
I closed my eyes tightly in Isidor’s hot embrace. While praying that I would see a familiar landscape when I opened them.
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