CH 73.1

Chapter 73.1 : Patronage

TN: HAZARD WARNING!!!

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◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

「In the end, we haven’t found anything, Decius-dono.」

The next day, I heard the results from Decius-dono’s investigation in the guest room of the theatre.

It seems the man called Marchas has yet to return.

After that, Rino and I, who reunited with Reiji and co., decided to stay in the lodging of the theatre.

And then, Decius only came looking for us around noon today.

It seems Decius has been searching till late at night and overslept, resulting in his late arrival today.

「Yes Chiyuki-dono. The investigation should be able to progress if I can enter the staff-only part of the store but…」

Decius spoke in an apologetic manner.

Well, it really can’t be helped.

That area’s public order was quite bad. If Decius forces his way in to investigate the interior of that store by force, he might be killed on the spot.

By the way, that area aside, the overall public order of republic Ariadya was quite bad. Reason being, the Republic of Ariadya was more open compared with the other countries. It was easy for humans to come in and leave this country. But in exchange, it was also easy for bad people to come in.

Though we have no problem in repelling those thugs thanks to our superhuman strength, it is a different story when it comes to the normal people of this world. They might get assaulted when they’re strolling around in the middle of the night.

And yet, despite such a situation, the general who should make his move to increase public safety has yet to make his move.

It seems the reason lies in the lack of authority.

Though the citizen’s rights might be protected by the state, the number of crime cases might only increase if the police don’t do something about this situation.

Despite the sheer number of its citizens, it seems the Republic of Ariadya was lacking experience when it comes to policing.

I think they should do something about the police to increase public order. But, it seems the influential senators deemed that it was too dangerous to give more authority to the already powerful general, thus the situation came into this stalemate.

Though we might be able to use our power and influence to change their decision, our interference might cause another problem in this country’s domestic affairs.

Moreover, we might end up getting caught in this country’s political strife if we meddle with their government.

That’s why there was nothing we could do about this situation.

「Did he escape from this country?」

I heaved a sigh.

Maybe Marchas had quickly left Ariadya after he caused that incident.

「It seems Ainoe-san hasn’t made her move either. What should we do, Chiyuki-san?」

Rino spoke with a vexed tone.

Currently, Ainoe was practicing the script with Shirone.

That’s why Shirone isn’t here with us right now.

The same goes for Sahoko but, well, she was actually brewing tea for us.

「Let see, I don’t want to use forceful method, but can you try to ask Ainoe with your magic, Rino-chan?」

Just as Reiji had said, forcefully extracting information from someone’s heart wasn’t a good thing. But, she might be the only clue we had in order to find Marchas.

「Can’t be helped… and we have no other clues either.」

It was possible to extract the information from Ainoe with Rino’s magic. I didn’t wish to use this method, but we really had no other clues left.

「Uhm, Chiyuki-san. If it’s about clues, there’s the message left behind by Sienna-san, right?」

Nao spoke with a timid voice.

「Ah, there’s also that message. It seems we have to search for the one called the Moonlight Goddess.」

I then recalled the message left behind by Sienna.

「Moonlight Goddess? What’s that?」

「The words left behind by Sienna-san.」

I explained the incident that happened last night.

「I see… A transcendent beauty, is it?」

I nodded to Reiji.

「Well, I can’t say it for sure since we never met the said beauty in person, but Decius-dono seems to know more about her.」

When I said so, everyone’s eyes gathered on Decius-dono.

「Moonlight Goddess? Well, she is…」

Decius then started his explanation.

Though he looks like a serious and diligent person in a normal situation, everyone couldn’t hide their shock seeing his mesmerized expression when recalling his experience with the Moonlight Goddess.

「Hee, is that silver haired beauty more beautiful than us?」

Rino asked so impishly.

「Eh? That’s…」

Even Decius was at a loss for words.

Though it would be alright if he lied and said that Rino was more beautiful, he wasn’t the type of man who could lie.

Well, I knew that Rino was the one at fault for asking such a question.

「Geez, you shouldn’t ask about something like that, Rino-san.」

「Ye~s, I just jealous and curious about what kind of person that Moonlight Goddess is.」

Rino replied with an impish smile as if she was joking, but your real intentions are mixing in there you know.

「It’s worrisome indeed. That beauty wants to meet me right? Then I absolutely have to meet her.」

Reiji spoke with a smile on his face.

According to the Moonlight Goddess’ attendant, it seems his lady came to Ariadya to meet the hero. Reiji was really delighted upon hearing that.

「Geez, Reiji-kun. Look at the situation, that Moonlight Goddess might be our enemy, you know. Her reason to meet you might be to assassinate you!!」

I gave a piece of my mind to Reiji.

Looking at the situation, the silver haired beauty, who got dubbed by Decius as the Moonlight Goddess, definitely related to this incident.

There was a high possibility that she might be our enemy.

「Well, but that’s only one of the possibilities right, Chiyuki?」

「Truly, I’m also curious about that beauty.」

Well it was only natural to be curious about her appearance since the said beauty could even charm Decius.

But, shouldn’t he realize that the very same woman who charmed him might be the culprit behind his sister’s disappearance too?

「Her being the enemy aside, we have to find that beauty first.」

Rino and Nao nodded, agreeing with Reiji.

Well, that’s true indeed.

「Surely, we’ve to find her first, but where do you think we can find her?」

I asked that question to everyone.

We have no clues regarding the whereabouts of that Moonlight Beauty.

「Clues aside, the place I met her was around the neighborhood of wealthy people’s residences. In addition, the quality of her dress is outstanding, definitely not cheap. That’s why, shouldn’t we start searching for her around that area?」

The one who suggested that was Decius.

Decius then pointed at the small hill with beautiful scenery exposed to the sun, the location that he mentioned before. It was definitely a place for wealthy people.

In addition, since he might’ve done a preliminary investigation, he also explained about the number of buildings in that area. He’d even investigated the owner of each mansion.

The reason he overslept might be because of that preliminary investigation.

I got a bit scared of his thorough preliminary investigation.

「Eh? That’s the location of Regena’s residence right?」

Reiji said so upon hearing Decius’ explanation.

Regena was the former princess of Algore kingdom. Her current position was Kyouka’s subordinate.

If my memories serve me right, she received a mansion from Tormalkis.

The area Decius pointed at was exactly the location of Tormalkis’ mansion.

Even though they only conversed briefly, Reiji still remembered Regena, huh.

「Correct. One of the mansions in this area is under the ownership of Hero-sama’s little sister. It seems that it’s being used as Regena-dono’s residence.」

Regena went around, greeting one big shot after another during the banquet since she was the representative for Kaya and Kyouka. It seems she also met Decius during that time.

That’s why Decius was already familiar with Regena.

「Nevertheless, good job in remembering Regena, Reiji-kun. But still, I don’t think that Moonlight Goddess is living in this area.」

「I knew that. I’m just thinking about visiting Regena once this mess ends. Moreover, she might be asking for an unreasonable request from Kyouka. If that’s the case, I want to help her.」

Reiji spoke with a serious expression on his face.

Reiji never lies when it comes to saving women. He might really want to save Regena.

But, something piqued my curiosity.

「Yeah yeah yeah, after this case has ended, let’s go to visit her with everyone. Now let’s go back to the topic of looking for the Moonlight Goddess. Nao-san, please use your ability to investigate the area pointed out by Decius-dono.」

After dismissing Reiji’s plan to have a tryst, I asked Nao to do so.

「It shouldn’t take a long time since the number of mansions isn’t that many.」

Nao replied with a smile on her face.

The investigation of the mansions in that area should end quickly if we use Nao’s ability.

「Please wait a minute. The truth is, there’s an even more suspicious one amongst the owners of the mansions in that area. And that person is the member of senate, Cornes-dono, who also the patron of Ainoe-dono.」

We couldn’t hide our surprise upon hearing that.

Once again, I was marveled by how fast and efficient Decius’ investigation was.

「As expected…. Nao-san doesn’t even get her turn.」

Both Nao and Rino were praising Decius.

「No… in fact, the reason why I stopped with just investigating is because the other party is one of the big shots in this country, a senate member.」

Decius spoke with his head hanging down in shame.

The member of the senate was a big shot in this country. Moving recklessly would only cause political issues, or diplomatic issues in our case.

In addition, the matter of investigation, judgement, and arresting of the senate has to be decided with vote amongst the senate itself.

There was an example case in which a General in the past was trying to seize power for himself being pardoned with only light crime by his political opponent.

For that reason, punishing the member of the senate who committed crime with the law was really difficult.

Some of them went as far as using their own position to deter the law.

Naturally they would be judged if they went too far, but, on the other hand, they couldn’t be judged as long as they could draw the line.

Not even a knight of the law could do anything against such influence.

One needs to use underhanded means to judge them.

The main problem was the fact that the old raccoons couldn’t be judged by the law. Only underhanded means could triumph their protection, such as assassination.

The news about an influential king being assassinated wasn’t big news for me who knew the above fact.

Such political feuds happened so many times in the history of the Republic of Ariadya.

Maybe the anecdote of Damocles’ sword was born from such constant political struggle.

The senate member called Cornes doesn’t seem to have a good reputation.

But, he was still a senate member, that’s why Decius couldn’t progress with his investigation.

「Then, I guess it’s our turn.」