As Rei and the others had sensed, the Silva family residence was currently surrounded by many adventurers, ready to respond to any problem at a moments notice.
The adventurers looked at Rei’s group sharply as they approached, but as soon as they realised that Rei and the others were the ones who played a big part in yesterday’s fighting, a trusting smile appeared on their stern faces. They admired Elena and Vihera’s beauty, while some of the men looked at Rei, who was between the two, with envy, thinking about how he was more successful than they were.
Rei and the others went over to the main gate without worrying over any of that and, after briefly exchanging words with the familiar gatekeeper, a maid came out from the mansion to guide them inside.
「It’s rare that it isn’t Sanctions doing this.」
Rei spoke casually as they were guided by the maid through the hallways they had visited several times before.
「Yes. Sanctions-sama is currently elsewhere under Vosk-sama’s orders.」
「……So that’s why.」
There was no need to think about what they were doing elsewhere.
No doubt, he was was running about trying to get matters under control as quickly as possible.
Vihera, who had been listening in to the conversation between the maid and Rei, recalled the discussion they had in the carriage as she nodded her head slightly.
「Well, if possible, I’d like them to do their best in taking care of Exil as it is now……do you know what’s going on with regards to that?」
「No, unfortunately, I’m only a mere maid.」
The maid bowed her head apologetically and Vihera shook her head slightly to tell her not to worry.
At the same time, her thin clothes on her body swayed around, catching the maid’s eyes. The maid raised her head while trying not to have her gaze drawn away as she continued to guide them.
Continuing to walk down the hallways, they soon arrived at Vosk’s office, where Rei and Elena had visited several times before, and the maid knocked on the door as she spoke.
「Vosk-sama. I have brought Elena-sama, Rei-sama, Vihera-sama, and Byune-sama.」
Elena reacted with a slight twitch at the maid’s words.
The fact that her name had come up first indicated that the maid considered her the most important person present. Not as Elena, the adventurer, but as Elena Kerebel, the daughter of Duke Kerebel, the General Princess.
However, the maid didn’t seem to show any particular expression as she spoke.
「I’ve been waiting for you. Come in.」
Hearing the voice from inside, the maid opened the door.
Admiring the maid’s actions, Elena entered the office where……
「Wow……」
A voice leaked out from Vihera, who was next to Elena, without thinking.
However, that couldn’t be helped. The first thing they saw when they entered was something best described as a tower or mountain of documents.
「Oh, good to see you.」
Vosk’s voice could be heard from behind the tower of documents.
Vosk couldn’t even see them from where he was and Rei’s group was only able to see Vosk after he stood up.
Looking at Vosk’s current situation, Rei couldn’t help but speak.
「Well, that’s an amazing amount of documents.」
「Yeah……it can’t be helped. After all, the Marschel family have caused many incidents. There was also the matter of the Church of Holy Light, as you know.」
Saying that, Vosk rubbed his eyes, which had been looking over documents non-stop, before heading over to Rei and the others while being careful not to destroy the pile of documents.
「What, you haven’t slept since yesterday?」
「Rest your body, necessary.」
In response to Vihera’s words, Byune went over to Vosk as she said a few words.
Seeing Byune like that, Vosk scratched his head with a wry smile and stroked Byune’s head lightly as he spoke.
「Don’t worry. It’s not like I’ve stayed up all night. It was only for a few hours, but I took a nap. ……However, I was never good at paperwork to begin with.」
「……Eat.」
Hearing what Vosk had to say, Byune put her hand into a pouch at her waist and took out a sandwich wrapped in paper.
Vosk looked surprised for a moment at Byune’s actions, but he immediately took the sandwich with a smile as he ate it.
「Delicious.」
「Mm.」
Byune’s lips changed into a smile, albeit a faint one.
It was hard to believed this was something Byune would do for someone she was hostile against until just a few days ago. But, after hearing from Vosk how he loved her parents and that he had done various things to try and help behind the scenes, it seemed that she had had a change in attitude.
Of course, for Byune, who had endured all kinds of hardships by the age of 10, there was the possibility that everything Vosk said was just to get on her good side.
However, Byune judged that nothing Vosk said was a lie.
The sandwich she had given Vosk was taken out from her small pouch, so it hadn’t been that big. Vosk finished it in just a few bites……before drinking directly from a nearby jug, making him quite satisfied.
「……Well then. I’ll get right to it, but where to start……ahh, before I go any further, here it is.」
Saying that, Vosk reached out for a case in the corner of the room, trying not to knock over any documents.
Moving away from the tower of documents, he sat down on a sofa before opening the case he was holding on the table.
Inside were the paired orbs that they had found in the hidden room inside the Marschel residence the day before.
It was what Rei and Elena had been looking for.
「Is this fine?」
Vosk nodded at Rei, who had asked just to be sure.
「Yeah, there’s no problem. I’ve taken care of the formalities. It was quite the complicated process, so you should be grateful.」
Although Vosk said that, it was actually Sanctions, not Vosk, who had taken care of the formalities.
After all, since returning from the Marschel family residence last night, he immediately had to deal with the documents that had to be sent to the Kingdom, the handover of Exil’s governing work, that had been previously handled by the Marschel family, documents related to the Levisor family, instructions to the guards regarding the Church of Holy Light, and a myriad of other documents.
Compared to those documents, the purchase and transfer of magic items wasn’t as important, so he left that to Sanctions to handle.
Rei, who had no idea about any of that, reached out for the paired orbs and was about to touch them……when Vosk suddenly interrupted.
「Oh, wait. I forgot to ask.」
「……What?」
Rei stopped his hand halfway, unsure whether to continue to reach for the paired orbs or not, as he replied to Vosk.
「Actually, I have a question……see, in yesterday’s battle, you stole Oricule’s arms and stored them into the item box, right? I was wondering if you could hand them over to me. I need to submit evidence to the Kingdom, so there’s nothing better than that, right?」
「……I see.」
Rei paused for a moment at Vosk’s words, before taking out all four of Oricule’s arms from the Misty Ring and placing them on the table.
「I’m sorry. Even if I told the Kingdom about the abnormal human transformation, they wouldn’t believe me with just my words. It would have been a different matter if there was still a corpse……」
Vosk dragged his words out.
In order to defeat Oricule, with his extremely quick regeneration, Rei had anhilated him without leaving a single piece of his body behind, so Vosk thought that it might sound like he was blaming Rei.
「No, I dont’ mind. It looks like it could have been used as material, but it’s nothing compared to proving the dangers of the Church of Holy Light.」
「I’m sorry about this.」
Apologising again, Vosk wrapped up all four arms with a cloth close to the table.
「Then, the paired orbs are officially yours, Rei. Please accept them」
Taking the case presented to him, Rei grabbed on of the orbs.
After touching it and confirm he could pass magic power to it, he handed the other one over to Elena.
「Just to be sure, let’s give it a try.」
「Hm? Ah, that’s right. Okay. Is it fine to use it the same way as a normal magic item?」
Nodding at Elena’s question, Rei immediately poured magic power into his paired orb.
The next moment, Rei’s face appeared inside the paired orb held by Elena.
『In this state, I’m the only one passing magic power to the orb, so you can only hear what I say. If you want your voice to reach me, you’ll have to activate your orb using magic power.』
Nodding at Rei’s words, as his face was reflected in the orb, Elena gently poured magic power into her orb as well.
With that, Elena’s face appeared in the orb Rei was holding.
『Can you hear me?』
「Yeah.」
Because they were using the paired orbs right next to each other, they could naturally hear each other’s voices. However, after confirming that their voices could be heard from the orbs, Elena nodded in satisfaction as she gave a small smile.
Her smile was so beautiful that even Vosk, who knew Elena’s true identity, was distracted.
「Ahem, well, anyway. What do Vihera and Byune plan to do for your rewards?」
Vihera thought for a moment before shaking her head in response to Vosk, who was trying to move away from the fact that he had been distracted by Elena.
「Let me think about it.」
「Mm.」
Byune gave a slight not, as if to say she agreed with Vihera.
「I understand. ……Do you have any other business to attend to right now, Rei, Elena?」
「No. ……Did you need us for anything else?」
「Of course. I need to hear from you about what happened in the Marschel residence before I joined up with you all. ……Normally, this kind of work wouldn’t be done by me, but someone much lower down the ladder……but, it’s you guys after all.」
Vosk let out a troubled sigh.
Rather than all of them, it was mainly Elena who was the problem.
As the daughter of Duke Kerebel, if he entrusted one of his subordinates to question the General Princess……it was clear that people would begin to suspect various things.
Normally, Vosk wouldn’t be concerned about that level of detail, but in the current situation, he didn’t have much of a choice.
Of the three family’s governing Exil, two of them had caused major problems.
The only bright side was that the Silva family, the remaining governing family, and the Fraut family had cooperated to solve the issue.
If it had only been passing adventurers, Rei and the others for example, who had solved the disturbance, the Silva family would no doubt have also received some kind of punishment for not noticing the issues with the other two families despite living in the same city.
「……So, what else is there to discuss?」
Vosk shrugged his shoulders at Rei’s prompt as he turned to Byune before speaking.
「Well, I guess. I certainly don’t like dragging things out either. Let me be blunt. Byune, do you have any intention of reviving the Fraut family?」
「Revive?」
It wasn’t Byune who responded, but Vihera.
Byune herself seemed confused as she prompted Vosk to continue explaining.
「Yeah. As I said earlier, the Marschel family is definitely going to collapse. It’s almost a certainty. I didn’t plan to publicise it……but, honestly, sacrificing people to create gems. If they hadn’t done that, they might still have avoided having their family collapsing. But, news is still starting to spread regardless, albeit slowly, from the adventurers who went to the Marschel residence yesterday.」
I had tried to not let the news spread, Vosk seemed to say with a sigh.
That said, even Vosk, who had given orders not to discuss what had been found, didn’t really think that he would have been able to suppress the spread of information.
If he really wanted to prevent any information from leaking out, he would have had to kill all the adventurers involved in yesterday’s events.
Naturally, Vosk had no intention of doing such a thing, so it was only a matter of time before the information spread.
「Fortunately, there are only a few people who know about it right now, but……considering the information involved, it’s just a matter of time before it gets out.」
「I guess so. ……Ah, I see.」
She seemed to have grasped what Vosk wanted to say. Vihera nodded in agreement while Elena also gave a slight nod.
Rei, who didn’t quite understand, looked at Vosk as he prompted him to continue.
「In other words, the Levisor family might still be able to hold on, but since the Marschel family is definitely going down, there will only be two families governing Exil. The residents will feel uneasy about that. In order to avoid that situation, I want the Fraut family to act as one of Exil’s governing families in place of the Marschel family.」
However, depending on the Kingdom’s decision, that might still be meaningless, Vosk said as he shrugged his shoulders.
「……Think.」
After a few seconds of silence, Byune said a single word.
Giving a sigh of relief at not being refused immediately, Vosk bowed his head.
「I’m sorry.」
There seemed to be various meanings in his words.
To Vosk, who considered Byune as a memento of his benefactors, he really hadn’t wanted to ask her for something like this if it had been possible.
However, considering Exil’s current and future situation, it was also true that this was the best choice.
In the end, because of his position as the head of the Silva family, he choice to raise the Fraut family back to the front stage.
「……Speaking of which, what’s going on with the Church of Holy Light?」
Vosk gave a slight nod and spoke up at Rei’s question, changing the topic.
「For now, we’ve dispatched adventurers belonging to the Silva family as well as guards. For now, it seems like they are being quietly questioned.」
「Then, does the Church of Holy Light have two chains of command even in Exil?」
Rei asked while anticipating that it would be troublesome.
Rei had no intention of getting involved in any religous matters, so he wanted Vosk to do his best.
After that, they ended up discussing things that had to be reported and the handling of the aftermath as more documents were brought in before Rei and the others left the Silva residence.
At that time……
A few minutes after they left the Silva residence, Vihera, who had been walking beside Rei, stoppped before speaking.
「Rei, I’m sorry, but could you fight me? Not just for fun like before, but with all your strength.」
She asked this with serious eyes.
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