Chapter 219 - A house of dolls

Chapter 219 - A house of dolls: Resurrection

Death Mage 219 – A house of dolls

An invitation to a private tea party held by the earl’s family. The knight who brought this invitation to Vandalieu’s house behaved politely, unlike the time when he was approached in the back alley with an offer of protection.

Vandalieu and his panions were very perplexed by this. They were even suspicious that he might try to assassinate Juliana, as well as Natania who knew her true identity, while hosting Vandalieu and Darcia at the tea party.

But the letter said that it was a very private tea party that would be held at the earl’s secondary residence, and that the earl would be most pleased if Vandalieu and his panions could feel free to attend.

Vandalieu summoned Eleanora to consult her, and she had a look at the letter.

“The business with Juliana is probably a part of it, but won’t he be wanting to talk about Aggar and Joseph as well? I mean, the spies saw Aggar and his panions being teleported away,” said Eleanora.

Everyone present was satisfied by this explanation… except one.

“Impossible… We did not leave a single scrap of evidence. And fortunately, we disposed of them just as Vandalieu was talking to the guards. He has an alibi, so why would the earl connect him to the incident?” said Gufadgarn.

Her shock was displayed through her wide-open eyes and her slightly trembling shoulders and lips. It was perhaps her first time displaying so much emotion in front of anyone other than Vandalieu.

“Could it be that the earl has received a Divine Message with orders from the gods?!” she continued. “No, it is even possible that he is working for the Pure-breed Vampire –”

“Gufadgarn, I believe you are overthinking things. It is merely that the incident is pletely impossible to explain or understand, so he has simply attributed it to Vanda… Van-sama because it is suspicious,” said Bellmond.

“What?!” Gufadgarn exclaimed in surprise, lost for words.

“Even though he’s guessed the truth, it’s rather rude, isn’t it,” remarked Vandalieu, who was being held in mid-air by Bellmond’s tail.

It was a conclusion made without a shred of reasoning other than the fact that it was suspicious.

“It is astounding… to think that he would fear anything that he is incapable of prehending to be of Vandalieu’s will without even attempting to determine the truth with his own knowledge. I see that this Earl Isaac Morksi has begun to understand the extent of Vandalieu’s greatness,” said Gufadgarn.

It seemed that her reason for being surprised was different from Vandalieu’s; her impression of the earl was now leaning towards ‘a new disciple of Vandalieu.’

“No, I don’t think that’s the case… Ah, it’s hopeless. She’s not listening anymore,” Eleanora sighed.

“When I’m talking to Gufadgarn-san, I start to understand how difficult it is for gods to make their intentions known to humans through Divine Messages,” said Princess Levia.

“… Gufadgarn is quite easy to understand. I have received a Divine Message from Hihiryushukaka before when I was still alive, and it just sounded like the roaring of a monster that I didn’t recognize. I failed my mission as a result and Ternecia made me stand around doing nothing for a hundred years as punishment; it was terrible,” muttered Isla, looking away.

“The conversation has gotten off-topic,” said Bellmond as she prepared some tea.

“… By the way, Bellmond, I can’t brush your tail if I can’t move both my hands. Or should I groom your tail by licking it?” said Vandalieu.

“Danna-sama, it would be very problematic if I lost control over my hands while preparing tea, which is why I have wrapped your arms up while I do so. And please never use your tongue,” said Bellmond. “Here you are, Darcia-sama.”

Darcia beamed at the heartwarming conversation between master and servant. “Thank you, Bellmond-san,” she said, accepting the cup from Bellmond. “But it really is a little strange. I should be just as mysterious to the earl as Vandalieu. I was talking to Priestess Paula and some others at the munal Church around the time those people disappeared, so even my alibi is suspicious.”

It would not have been difficult to learn through some investigation that Paula, the priestess of Vida, adored Darcia since her sermon. Assuming the worst, they might have suspected that Paula had provided a false alibi for Darcia.

“I’m new here, but… I think he’d suspect Master more. I mean, it’s hard to describe, but Master is kind of more suspicious than Darcia-san,” said Natania.

She hadn’t been fully tainted by those of Talosheim, so this was the case from her point of view.

“I see. It’s true that Mom only summoned a familiar spirit while I’ve tamed Fang and other monsters, and I’m the one who’s running the food cart. Considering my age, it might be more normal to suspect Mom, but… I’m a Dhampir, after all. How old I appear to be isn’t a good indicator of anything,” said Vandalieu.

Vandalieu looked to be of around ten years of age, and he was actually eleven, but he was developing at the same rate as a Dark Elf – the race of Darcia, his non-Vampire parent. The development of Dark Elves slowed down dramatically after puberty. It wouldn’t have been strange for the earl’s people to suspect that he was actually in his twenties.

“Then it means that the earl feels more fear than suspicion towards Bocchan, and has invited him to his house to question his motives directly under the pretense of having a tea party,” said Saria. “What will you do? I don’t think a ‘moner’ has the ability to refuse an invitation from the earl…”

She pointed at the letter, whose list of invitees was vague: ‘Vandalieu, Darcia and your panions.’

“I wonder what he means by ‘panions?’” said Rita.

If taken literally, this invitation would include Saria, Gufadgarn and everyone else. But in reality, nobody else knew that they were in the city of Morksi.

“I don’t think he’s realized that we’re connected to Van-sama. We’ve been using Gufadgarn’s teleportation when we e and go from this house, after all,” said Eleanora.

“If the earl was capable of noticing our presence, he would have acted more quickly to deal with the criminal comanization that we have taken over to begin with,” said Isla.

It was unlikely that the earl was aware of Eleanora, Isla and Bellmond’s connection to Vandalieu.

“We’re unlikely to have been noticed as well. That time when the spies opened the wooden door and came in, before Natania-san and Juliana-san came here, the Golems in the house quickly noticed them, so we were able to pretend to be suits of armor hanging on the wall,” said Saria.

“We just erased our spirit forms and stood still, though. We were planning to capture them if they tried to go to the basement, but they left right away. They were staring at us a lot, though,” said Rita.

The spies had entered the house on one occasion, but it would have been troublesome down the road if they made the earl’s spies disappear, so they had always planned to just keep watch as long as they didn’t attempt to enter the basement, which contained various things that they could not be allowed to see.