The corner of his lips curling upward caught Merrien’s gaze.
“Did you see that alone?”
“…Pardon?”
However, her expectation that he would tease her was off the mark.
Ariel’s eyes were crinkled and his lips turned upward as if he was in a very good mood, but somehow his appearance seemed strangely ominous.
Ariel’s mouth twisted, and he released a menacing aura.
“I asked why you were looking at that.”
“I’m sorry!”
Finally understanding the situation, Seren bowed so deeply that his head nearly touched the toe of his shoe.
Ariel’s gaze, now fixed on Merrien, turned wistful.
“You’ll show it to me too, right?”
There was no time to answer. Ariel looked so pitiful, as if he might burst into tears at any moment, yet his hand naturally grabbed Seren’s hair firmly.
Ack!
In that moment, a groan that sounded like a scream was heard.
Slowly raising his head, Seren’s jaw dropped so wide that drool was about to fall, and his eyes were unfocused.
“What was I talking about just now?”
Seren, having forgotten everything he had just said, rolled his eyes around.
All memories related to the dog collar had been completely erased.
‘He can even erase memories?’
Merrien covered her open mouth at what had just happened before her eyes.
As expected of the Tower Master, he committed the act in an instant without showing any sign of strain.
“Hmm? You’ll show it to me, right?”
And Ariel seemed determined to hear an answer.
“…Sure.”
Though the answer was extracted amid near whining, Ariel beamed with flushed cheeks.
Merrien fidgeted with her ear for no reason. She made a mental note to correct his bad habit of whispering into her ear.
Meanwhile, Seren, having organized his thoughts except for the erased memory, opened his mouth.
“Ah! Agne, no. Master Nes is still investigating, but there’s been quite some progress.”
Thanks to Agnes’s strict instruction to call him ‘Nes’ if Merrien came, he hastily corrected the name.
Only then, remembering the real reason she came to the tower, Merrien checked behind Seren, which had been bothering her all along.
There was no need for Seren to point it out.
On the huge table, there was something like a tower built by stacking small objects neatly. It was as tall as the stone towers people usually stack for prayer.
Agnes was also there, staring at it with a terrifying gaze while crossing his arms.
“Master Nes. The two of them have arrived.”
“Ah.”
He had been so focused that he hadn’t noticed the two people arriving despite all the commotion.
Even after hearing, he merely waved his hand dismissively.
Merrien, momentarily overwhelmed by the enormous tower, hesitated before rushing to Agnes’s side. She even stood on tiptoe to examine the objects closely.
Agnes, who had been immersed in research until now, was startled by Merrien’s bold approach and stepped back. His crossed arms had long since fallen limply.
Merrien had no way of knowing this. She opened her mouth with a deliberately serious expression.
“This… feels exactly the same as the energy I felt from Forcite?”
She pointed at the tower. She had absolutely no intention of touching it.
These small objects were each emitting something black and ominous, but strangely, they all gave off the exact same energy.
As if someone had intentionally created them.
Merrien’s face suddenly drew closer to Agnes, seeking an answer.
Unable to back away any further, Agnes hastily covered his eyes.
“…That’s correct.”
Even in this situation, Agnes answered diligently.
To Merrien, it was a comical sight—a large man with a sturdy build covering his face while only his mouth moved in front of her.
Agnes could sense the puzzled gaze fixed on him, even with his eyes covered.
He slowly lowered his hand and unnecessarily pointed at the tower of objects.
“As I mentioned before, these are found inside the bodies of top-tier magical beasts. The fact that the Second Prince emits the same energy is not something we can take lightly.”
Afraid that Merrien might feel hurt if he suddenly backed away, Agnes pretended to seriously look at the tower of objects while leaning his face backward.
“Saint, look at this!”
Seren, now fully adapted to his erased memory, excitedly squeezed between them.
For a moment, Agnes’s face clouded with displeasure, but Seren obliviously thrust a document forward—right in front of Merrien’s nose.
The document contained various photos neatly arranged: photos of objects freshly extracted from the bodies of top-tier magical beasts that had just died, photos of objects taken from long-dead corpses, and below each, meticulous records of when they were collected.
Seren’s finger turned the page and proudly pointed to the ‘Name’ section.
“It’s cumbersome to keep calling them ‘objects,’ so we decided to call them ‘B’.”
Going well until suddenly calling it ‘B’?
Merrien, who had been focusing intently, suddenly felt deflated.
Merrien let out a hollow laugh. Seren’s expression was too solemn for such a casually chosen name.
By now, Agnes had completely backed away, maintaining distance from the two. Then, as if familiar with such situations, he added without smiling.
“Research has shown that each B has its own command. For example, content like [Move to 00.00 now]. It’s either a magical beast above the top tier or someone who controls minds.”
“Could it possibly be Forcite?”
“I don’t think so. When I met him before, this energy wasn’t felt at all. I suspect he’s joined hands with whoever emits this energy.”
Agnes was convinced that was the case.
Before Forcite was formally adopted as a prince. When he was hailed as the empire’s hero, frantically subjugating magical beasts and waging war against the Kasis Kingdom, the two had a major confrontation.
At that time, Agnes felt that his power was equal to or even superior to Forcite’s.
But when he went to the Second Prince’s palace this time… the thought that he might lose strongly dominated his mind.
Ariel, who had been watching the conversation from afar, approached.
As soon as he arrived, Ariel grabbed Seren’s collar—who was standing quite close to Merrien—and dragged him back.
“Aaagh! Tower Master!”
Seren, though helplessly pushed back, still had enough strength to scream and struggle.
Of course, no one paid him any attention.
“Nes, so you said there’s been progress. Do you have a method?”
“Yes. After hearing that this energy is similar to what’s felt from me, I’ve got some direction.”
Agnes paused mid-answer, glanced at Merrien, and nodded slightly.
“Thanks to you.”
With Ariel watching, he couldn’t call Merrien by name, but he was satisfied with her face, which immediately turned flushed.
At that affectionate gaze, Ariel tilted his head askew.
Ariel not only pulled Merrien’s shoulder into his embrace but also considered covering her eyes so she couldn’t see Agnes as he spoke.
“First, we need to go to the noble trial. It’s absolutely imperative that my identity as Tower Master remains undisclosed.”
“…Right, I know. Of course I know.”
Agnes deliberately averted his gaze and fingered a piece of paper neatly tucked into his waistband.
‘What on earth are they talking about?’
Merrien couldn’t understand their conversation at all.
She looked back and forth between them with a puzzled expression, but neither seemed inclined to explain.
Soon, Agnes began discussing the actual plan to resolve this case.
“So the plan is……”
Today, unusually, Ariel listened well to Agnes without finding fault, and as the conversation was winding down, he stroked his chin with his index finger.
“The Second Prince will try to hold the noble trial as soon as possible. The First Prince already has a poor reputation among the nobles, so he’s out of the running for Crown Prince, and the Second Prince……”
Ariel paused mid-sentence and gripped Merrien’s shoulder tightly.
“Despite some controversies, he was called the empire’s hero, so most nobles will side with him. Especially now that the Emperor has collapsed.”
Although he called it a plan, Ariel didn’t actually have much to do. Instead, Agnes had many tasks.
Regardless of how plausible it seemed, if Agnes failed, it was a gamble that could not only come to nothing but also inflict a fatal wound.
At worst, Ariel would be branded not only as having colluded with dragons to release magical beasts into the empire but also as having sold out the imperial family with a fake contract just to save himself.
Even in the midst of all this, Merrien felt the clinging obsession in the hand embracing her shoulder, as if declaring she was his and he would never let go.
She placed her hand over his.
Although Ariel had been playful about it, there must be a reason why his identity as Tower Master absolutely cannot be revealed.
‘Perhaps Forcite used it for some kind of blackmail.’
From his current actions, there seemed to be a strong desire to thoroughly crush Ariel and House Hartez. To brand them with various infamies so they could never rise again.
It was not just a light thought of extracting her from this place.
Merrien suddenly wondered.
Even if Ariel wasn’t in his right mind, he wouldn’t have killed the original Merrien without reason. Why did he kill her in the original story?
…Could it have been a misunderstanding caused by someone’s scheme, like this current incident?
“Let’s go back.”
Just before being consumed by questions, Ariel whispered.
The hand that had been on her shoulder was now holding Merrien’s hand.
“…Okay.”
Merrien simply gripped his hand tightly.
They teleported back to the mansion.