CH 51

“That said, the current Colors Collector is the second or third generation.”

Ursch-kun tells me after I’ve finished reading the report.

“What? The second or third generation? Is the Colors Collector inherited?”

“Yes. I think you said earlier, “There is no money in the viscount family because of the wasteful habit of the former viscount,” but the use of that money seems to be a place of confinement, and it disappeared into the expenses necessary for kidnapping. When the former viscount was the head of the family, there was a disturbing rumor going around the Viscount Hillson family. . . “Viscount Hillson seems to be gathering illegal slaves or kidnapped people.” At that time, they couldn’t investigate the mansion or do anything. He was tested by the military police, but they couldn’t find anything.”

Well, well. In other words, the former viscount was also a colors collector. Is that what you mean?

“But you’re saying that the rumor was true, right? In terms of the flow of the story. Did he move the victims to another place instead of the mansion, or gather them in places other than the mansion from the beginning. . . By the way, where did the rumor spread from?”

“Maybe it was a servant or something that was ordered to take care of the victims at that time? I asked my past servants to see if I could talk to the former viscount’s servants, but I couldn’t find any of them.”

“. . . Let’s hope the servants ran away somewhere and are living quietly in hiding.”

“Also, even if you say the former viscount had a wasteful habit, it doesn’t mean the current viscount is in debt. And with a government post in the royal capital of the Kingdom of Rosarial, he should be able to earn a decent income. But it’s strange that he has so little money that he has to get help from his wife’s parents’ house. It’s extremely unnatural.”

If you don’t have any debt and you work seriously at a government post, will you be able to save money? I certainly think so, but. . .

“I’m sorry Ursch-kun. Basically, I don’t know how much the income of the viscount family is. . . Is it really unnatural to have so little money?”

“That’s right. . . First of all, did you know that the nobles of the Kingdom of Rosarial have a tax exemption called direct tax on the king? Well, if you have a territory, you have to keep a part of the manor tax for the royal family, but Viscount Hillson is a court noble who doesn’t have a territory, so it doesn’t matter. That’s why there is no tax. And his job description is a government post dealing with administration. In other words, he is a high ranking bureaucrat. I don’t know about in other countries, but isn’t it enough for a family of four townspeople to live for a year just from the income of one month?”

Does he make that much money? Then it’s unnatural. Far from barely getting by, it’s a natural income to be able to save money.

“He doesn’t seem extravagant, but he doesn’t have any money. To the people around him it would seem like he’s surrounded by mistresses, or that he is spending money on strange hobbies that he can’t tell people about. Well, it’s right to say that it’s a strange hobby that you can’t tell anyone about.”

“Even so, to think the Viscount Hillson family has been obsessed with people with 12 hair colors for generations.”

I wonder why a decent family head didn’t show up on the way. . .

You don’t have to inherit such a strange hobby.

“What the viscount family was actually after is not the people with 12 colors. The magic they used is what they wanted. The place of confinement was a temporary livestock shed for people who were used as so-called magic materials.”

. . . People who become “materials” of magic?

Are you using the people you gathered as a material?

“Ursch-kun. . . I’ll leave my seat for a moment. I’ll be back soon.”

“What? Yes. Have a nice day.”

When I get up from my seat, I run down the stairs. I just went out of the workshop and took a deep breath. . . I yelled as much as I could.

I roar, scream, and spit out various feelings in my heart. To be honest, if I was in the workshop like that, I could go on a rampage with anger at the viscount and destroy various things. I keep yelling until I calm down.

I screamed until I was satisfied, and when I turned around to go back to the workshop, I met face-to-face with two people. Apparently, Paul-san was having tea outside with my coachman. Feeling a little awkward, I bowed my head lightly to the both of them and went back to the workshop where Ursch-kun was waiting.

Ursch-kun, who greeted me in the workshop with a troubled expression, gently touched my shoulder.

“Isabella, have you calmed down?”

“Yes. I’m sorry for interrupting you, Ursch-kun. I’ve calmed down, so please continue the story.”

When we both took our seats, Ursch-kun continued to talk.

“In the first place, when I first heard about Colors Collector from Isabella, I was wondering, If you’re obsessed with people with 12 hair colors and collecting them, why did you bother to create a place of confinement in the mountains? It doesn’t make sense?”

Why in the mountains. . . Didn’t they choose it because it’s a safe place that you can’t see?

“What’s wrong with doing it in the mountains?”

“It’s not that it’s no good, but. . . If your collection is in the mountains away from the royal capital, you can’t go see it whenever you want, right? This may be my prejudice, but don’t people who collect something want to keep the collection close to them, expand the collection whenever they want, and watch it while drinking alcohol and grinning?”

No. . . I think it’s quite prejudiced, but I know what you’re trying to say. The best part of the collection is to ‘own’ what you like, so it’s tasteless if you’re not in a position where you can get it right away. If you have a government post in the royal capital and have a family in the royal capital, you shouldn’t be able to go to the mountains to see the things you’ve collected. I feel like it’s a waste to manage the things you have risked a lot to collect in the mountains that you can’t easily go to. Besides, you have to hire someone to take care of it.

“That’s why I wondered if they are obsessed or devoted to something that they bring, not the victims themselves. So, the result of the investigation was magic. Look, he also wears a magic tool shaped like a creepy pig’s head on his own head, right?”

“But isn’t he busy with no time to do magic?”

“He’s not going do it. There are sorcerers in the magic division of the kingdom, but there are a lot of magicians, not so legitimate sorcerers, lurking in the underworld.”

The sense of incongruity with the term ‘legitimate magician’ is bad. I have an image that all magicians are lurking in the underworld.

“Well, the magician of the underworld is connected to Viscount Hillson, isn’t it?”

“That’s right. I wonder if it’s a family business that undertakes forbidden magic and curse killing? He was providing them with people that have bright hair colors that he collected as materials. There is something like an old superstition in the world of magicians, black magic and magic using people with colorful hair colors will increase a magician’s power. Actually, it doesn’t matter what your hair color is. Because it’s a small community, I guess that old idea is still rooted.”

“In other words, they believe in superstitions and gather people with 12 hair colors to sacrifice them. . . You’re kidding me.”

I’m annoyed. I stuff the sweets prepared by Paul-san into my mouth, and pour tea in all at once. It’s bad manners, but the bottom of my stomach is boiling so much that I don’t care about that. I want to hit Viscount Hillson and the magicians in the underworld with a large hammer.

“I have more ridiculous news, but. . . Viscount Hillson’s family seems to be in poverty, but in fact, the viscount has the hidden property he gained from the deal with the magicians, so he didn’t need to marry the viscountess for political reasons or get help from the viscountess’s parents’ house.”

“. . . . . . Huh? Then why did he pretend to be in poverty and marry his wife for political reasons?”

“Isabella has seen the viscount sisters in a game right? What did they look like?”

The heroine’s half-sisters, Viscount Hillson’s daughters. Their character design is. . . .

“The sister, Mariana, has dark green straight hair and is tall. The sister, Barbara, has yellow-green. . . green and yellow-green?! It’s two of the 12 colors!!”

“Yes. It’s a stock when you can’t get green or yellow-green. There aren’t many people with green hair or pink hair. . . Blue or light blue. The viscountess has beautiful bright green hair, and the viscount’s down hair is light blonde, so it’s not surprising that the child’s hair color will be mixed with green.”

Did the viscount keep his wife, mistress and real children by his side as if they were stock?!

“So, let’s go back to the beginning of the story. . . I’ll have the viscountess divorce her husband and take her daughters to the Kingdom of Diana. The kingdom of Diana is progressing in medicine and learning about it, so they laugh at the superstition that power is effected by the color of your hair. Isn’t it safer than this country?”

I nod at Ursch-kun’s idea. From what I’ve heard so far, I think that’s the best thing we can do now. I want them to get out of Viscount Hillson’s house as soon as possible.

“And then there’s the heroine and her mother, but in the first place, the heroine’s mother seems to have been thinking of leaving the royal capital with her sister after she gave birth to the heroine. She felt sorry for the viscountess and the children because she gave birth to a married man’s child. But, one day, all of a sudden, her precious sister disappeared.”

She grew up in an orphanage but she had to leave the orphanage at the age of 12. After leaving the orphanage before her sister, she wanted to save money and pick up her sister someday, so she worked as a laundry lady near the orphanage, but then she met the viscount. I don’t know the details after that, but she gave birth to the heroine at the age of 15. Her sister visited from the orphanage every day to see the child, but she disappeared on her way home one day.

“That’s why the heroine’s mother can’t leave the royal capital. She thought that if she left, when her sister comes back to the royal capital she won’t have place to return to. Besides, the viscount is helping to look for her sister. Well, it’s the viscount who kidnapped her.”

I get up and run out of the room, I jump down the stairs and go out of the workshop.

Roaring. . . Shouting, shouting, roaring.

For the mother of the heroine who keeps waiting for her missing sister and continues to stay in the royal capital.

The viscountess who, thinking about the sake of her parents’ house, lives crying without being able to tell anyone about her husband who does wrong.

If Geese was targeted, where did the person with blue hair before that go? What’s more, who were there before that?

Ursch-kun greets me silently when I come back with a tired and exhausted face. When I go through the entrance of the room and crouch on the spot, Ursch-kun strokes my back without saying anything.

“Ursch-kun, I don’t know how I feel right now. It’s a mess, I don’t know how to feel.”

“I see. . . Can you cry? Isabella.”

“No. . . I can’t cry. Because I am just a third party listening to the story. People who really want to cry are putting up with it. People who want to cry, scream, get angry, and go on a rampage are enduring. The right to cry belongs to them. So I shouldn’t cry.”

“Yes, if Isabella decides so, that’s fine. But don’t put up with it too much. Even if it’s about someone else, there are times when you want to cry, and even if you cry, I won’t deny Isabella.”

When he says that, Ursch-kun sits next to me and wraps an arm around my shoulders and head. I’ll have Ursch-kun listen to me while I’m stuck.

“I may have understood Chris-sama’s feelings a little. There were people hurt and in pain somewhere, and I found out about it. I want to help those people, those who are suffering. I wish there was a taste of justice that would save those people.”

“I see. . . . I’m not on the side of justice, but I’m planning to finish this case as soon as possible for my own purpose. So I won’t make any effort to converge this situation. So don’t worry Isabella.”

“It seems that it’s not for people who are hurt and in pain, Ursch-kun. . . . I can’t say ‘I’ll be on the side of justice’ like Chris-sama, and I can’t give up my desire to wait for someone who can do something about it, so I’m not suitable for justice.”

Then Ursch-kun said, “Unlike Chris-sama, we are cunning creatures that can’t live only for others. We are not suitable for the hero or heroine of the story.” I laugh lightly.

Yes, Ursch-kun is a support character and I am the villainess. We can’t be the center of each other’s story, and we’re not suited. Is that all right? Even if you don’t become the protagonist, you have a role. Let’s do our best within that role. Let me show you the strength of the supporting role.

“Come to think of it, what is Ursch-kun’s purpose this time?”

“It is to kick the heroine’s family out of the royal capital so that Isabella doesn’t get involved with the heroine. I’ll clean up all the problems and have them leave the royal capital as originally planned by the heroine’s mother. I can arrange a job. As long as she is in this country, the heroine will enter the magic academy, but at that point the setting of the main character heroine will be far from that of the game, right? I think it’s more effective to change the setting and situation of the main character of the story than to change the surrounding settings and situation.”

Ursch-kun. . . You always act for me, don’t you? Thank you. What on earth can I give back to Ursch-kun?

“I’ve been getting a lot of things from Ursch-kun. Is there anything I can give back to you?”

“It’s good because Isabella has already had a big impact on my life. I thought this was in return.”

No, I didn’t mean to have a big impact. Even if you are influenced, I think that’s the way Ursch-kun receives it himself. When I’m confused, Ursch-kun laughs sadly at me.

“It’s still a secret about what Isabella gave me.”

“. . . Ah, oh.”

Ah. . . . I got a strange reply.

“. . . . . It’s Isabella. . . . . . heh heheh”

Oh no, it’s so embarrassing. . . But is it okay because Ursch-kun laughed at me? Because that sad smiling Ursch-kun was unhappy about something. Welcome back. Ursch-kun’s smile.

. . . But Ursch-kun, stop pointing so much. Shall we stop laughing soon? It wasn’t funny enough to laugh, was it? Right?

“Well, that’s enough for now. . . Shall we ask the viscount to leave for the purpose of ‘us’?”

“Hehe, hehe. That’s right. Let’s make sure to crush him so that it doesn’t get troublesome later.”

I tried to throw it to the adults of the Knights and the Magic Division, but I stopped them. For our purpose, for our wishes. Viscount Hillson, we will definitely crush you with our own hands.

Now, it’s time to get rid of pests.

I am working on getting the issue of the chapters being uploaded to the light novel instead of the web novel on NU fixed, so hopefully that will be taken care of soon. Until then, I can only suggest following them both in order to get notifications for chapter updates.

This problem has hopefully been fixed.

I am also trying to figure out an update schedule, but for the rest of this week I will be updating one chapter a day. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading!