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“… Is that kid some kind of genius?”
In the room of his close friend, in which he arrived  after working late at night because that friend said that he had something he wanted to say, was Carlon Delphine who was sipping a glass of wine and mumbling alone.
Duke Leon, who faced him, pushed the door back and closed it.
“I’m going.”
“Ack!”
The moment he was about to close the door, Carlon Delphine slipped in between limply.
Screaming and wriggling, he let go of the door Duke Leon was holding.
“You’re drunk.”
“Duke, teach me some technique. How on earth should I treat my baby? I was going to talk to her today but I was cut off.”
“Long talk.”
“You’re short.”
“Tell me honestly.”
Carlon Delphine mumbled as he hung from Duke Leon’s leg.
Even though he has weak alcohol tolerance, he drank strong alcohol into a stupor. Duke Leon’s forehead furrowed.
Duke Leon pushed Carlon Delphine’s body and slammed the door shut.
He was surprised that he ended up like that with just one drink.
Duke Leon pulled the drink towards himself and poured it into a new glass. Then Carlon Delphine ran and sat across from him.
It wasn’t fun to drink with this person, so he didn’t usually do it.
“What genius?”
“She’s a genius… she quickly understood and applied what I taught her, and created a new formula.”
“Because she’s smart.”
Carlon Delphine nodded at Duke Leon’s short answer. He leaned against the table with his red-stained cheeks.
She took the class more seriously than he expected, and because of that, he taught her longer than he anticipated.
After teaching all day and skipping dinner, there was actually nothing more to teach.
Once taught the basics, she would be able to apply it, and she will be able to do it herself.
Right from the beginning, he thought that it was great talent to be able to draw an alchemy circle while standing up and create that level of purity.
“I have nothing left to teach her. I’m disqualified as a guardian…”
Duke Leon drank a fairly tasty drink.
Since they had been hanging out for a long time Carlon Delphine’s taste in alcohol had become more sophisticated even though he couldn’t drink that much.
Thanks to this, whenever he came to his mansion, Duke Leon was able to drink alcohol that Carlon had carefully selected, even though he couldn’t drink them.
“It’s precocious. She doesn’t have anything she treasures, she doesn’t want to try to make something her treasure, and she doesn’t like to call other people’s names because she’s afraid that they will die. It seemed like she didn’t want to get attach. I wanted to ask but I couldn’t.”
“What?”
“Are you talking about the dying part, or the person herself? I just told her that I wouldn’t die…”
“That child…”
Duke Leon opened his mouth slowly.
“Doesn’t know herself.”
Carlon smirked at his calm words, then nodded his head as if he understood. Because she couldn’t understand herself, she takes actions as if she’s testing the limit.
He knows that it was inevitable, but he doesn’t know what to do about her inflexibility.
“I keep acting defensively and I don’t know what to do. That was the case this time again, it seems like she was hiding something, but I don’t know what she’s hiding.”
‘… His drinking habit.’
That child-like way of speaking, he alway spoke in an old fashioned way, but as soon as he got drunk, he changed into a child. Even so, it was better for Duke because he became less formal.
Duke listened to Carlon in one ear and poured it out the other while he sipped his drink.
“Hiding?”
“That complicated and twisted Magic Tower’s Master sent an escort to the baby.”
Phew… The smell of alcohol was strong in the breath that he exhaled. It was alway a surprise to Duke that this could happen after just one drink.
“Speaking about the Magic Tower’s Master, he too is a mess… these children… act like they can only get help if they give something in return.”
“…”
Duke tilted his glass without saying a word. They also have to choose whether to just try and fix their rotten insides.
They can only wait for them to realize it themselves. All they could choose to do was to hug them and tell them that it’s warmth. If they don’t do so, the children will never know for the rest of their lives, so they’ll let them know.
This was a warmth and you can accept it. This was because humans do not easily forget what their bodies have experienced.
“He told me not to pretend to be nice and accept it. They are different from us, but do the two of them live in the same world?”
“Probably.”
“Aah… I really want to take you out of your coffin, Count Delight, and put your face in the toilet.”
(PR/N: As do we all Delphine, as do we all.)
The man, who was always watching his words, suddenly spoke some nasty words.
Duke burst into laughter as his shoulders shook.
“Ah.”
Duke exclaimed in a low voice.
“The Magic Tower’s Master… has a charge for murder.”
“What charge for murder?”
“That was the reason for me being late today.”
“Did you come from the scene?”
Duke nodded his head with a drink in his mouth.
That was the reason why he couldn’t sleep properly for a few days and stayed up all night.
He was the Empire’s sword, so he was the first to be called when this kind of problem occurs.
“South Tallos in the south-west village, Northeast village in Missia, Northern Kertonan’s fourth village, West Sicharin’s northeast village. They were all destroyed.”
“… The villages were destroyed?”
“Yeah.”
“Wait. Does that mean that the villagers died? They are all small villages, but they should at least have dozens of people in them, and they’re all dead?”
Duke nodded his head once as he looked up at Carlon, who raised his head as if sobering up from the alcohol.
Carlon Delphine’s expression hardened. He put his hands together and rubbed his face.
“Are they really all dead?”
“Yeah.”
Duke Leon’s resolute words left Carlon Delphine speechless.
Even if there were only at least 30 people in one village, there were 4 villages. This means that at least 120 people have already died.
“Any witnesses?”
“One kid.”
“What did they say? Did you hear it?”
“Red eyes, silver hair.”
Carlon Delphine held back a smirk.
Even so, it didn’t seem like he would kill someone recklessly. He tells him all the time that he would break his neck or kill him, but he never did so.
“Does it really look like it was that child?”
“Not sure. The scene was similar to Count Delight’s”
“It was that cruel? I also read the case file… He assembled some sort of cake. Mutilated corpses rolled all over the mansion…”
The one who visited the scene along with Milrode and escorted him was also Duke.
Unsurprisingly, Duke nodded. He couldn’t bring the case file, but it was also quite cruel from Duke’s point of view.
“… The baby will be shocked if she finds out.”
“Really?”
“Of course! Even though it doesn’t seem like it, she seems to trust him a little bit and they seemed to get along pretty well. Also, since it involves the Magic Tower’s Master, wouldn’t it be quite difficult to work on?”
Nod.
Duke moved his head once again.
Carlon reached out and poured a drink into his glass and drank it in one breath.
“Ah…”
It already happened before Duke could reach out and take it. He stared blankly with his stretched out hand and sighed.
Carlon Delphine’s enthusiasm rose again. His eyes opened in an instant.
“You’re not sure yet, right?”
“The imperial family is.”
“They’re already certain he’s the culprit?”
He leaned his forehead on the table and mumbled, exhaling hot breath.
At the sight of his tongue being loose more than usual, Duke responded by nodding his head.
“Yeah.”
Anyway, even though he showed a mature image, he still turned to drinking alcohol when things didn’t go well. What would he do when passed age forty.
“Come to think of it, there was also something going on with the baby today. Although she didn’t tell me in the end.”
“Something going on?”
“Yeah, the Magic Tower’s Master thinks that something is about to happen and sent an escort to her.”
She didn’t even tell him anything, so even if he wanted to piece things together, he couldn’t.
Carlon Delphine sighed and nodded. If he tells this story to the child tomorrow, he doesn’t know how things would change again.
“I wish she would ask for my help…”
“You have to get used to it.”
“That’s true.”
Carlon Delphine nodded his head in agreement.
“Also, the snow tiger that you gave her is being well taken care of. Although I don’t think she has given it a name yet. But, where did you get it?”
“Cargo ship.”
“Why didn’t you send it back?”
“It got into human hands.”
His short answer could be easily interpreted.
The Duke of Leon, which was created late, was not a family that liked to fight. Perhaps it was because of that, despite not having a lot of agreements within the same rank, they became closer than expected.
“Ah, an animal like that would surely be difficult to return. What would you do if you didn’t give it to the baby?”
“I’d raise it myself.”
Duke Leon poured his last glass into his mouth.
Carlon Delphine vacantly looked at the jacket that Duke Leon had taken off with his chin propped up.
“You’re going?”
“Yeah.”
“Good bye.”
“I’ll come back tomorrow.”
Carlon yawned lightly at the farewell and nodded.
Unsurprisingly, Duke jumped out of the window today as well. Carlon poured the rest of his drink into his mouth and lay down on the bed as if he was collapsing.
“I pointlessly drank.”
He regretted it too late, but it was inevitable.
Eventually, a night filled with silence fell into the mansion.