The Elven Duke Reluctantly Marries The Cursed Lady - Chapter 31
Hydrangea was investigating Tritoma Celsia, the unscrupulous merchant that Syran previously had trouble with.
However, no matter how much he investigated, all he could find was that he was conducting business that just barely boarded on the illegal. Even his villa in the royal capital, known to have housed several mistresses, turned out to be an ordinary house.
Furthermore, Tritoma’s reputation was not bad from the perspective of the people who did not know of his past misdeeds.
Hydrangea also investigated the number of merchant ships that came in and out of the harbor town but found nothing suspicious.
Am I just worrying too much? Although he wanted to think that was the case, his intuition told him otherwise. And so, to learn more about the merchant’s activities, he decided to use a familiar to gather information.
He decided to look into Tritoma Celsia’s main estate, which is located far from the royal capital. Since he could not use the small birds flying around there as scouts, he decided to send out a different existence to gather information for him.
What he took out from his drawer was something called “magic paper” which is paper made from trees that are rich in mana. It was a special paper that could only be purchased from magic shops.
He carefully folded the paper into a bird shape and completed it by spreading its wings and blowing some air into its torso to inflate it.
It was a simple familiar made by Hydrangea.
The mechanism in which it flies to a set destination works similarly to Correspondence magic, but the difference is that it records suspicious conversations through an automatic scribe.
If it senses danger, it will return to its sender even if it is unsuccessful in carrying out its mission.
He released the flying magic tool into the night sky. It flew to Tritoma Celsia’s estate which was on an island far from the royal capital.
The bird returned two weeks later.
When he opened the window, the familiar staggered as it weakly flew in.
I’m sure I infused it with enough magic to fly around for three months, but what on earth happened to it?
Hydrangea picked up the paper bird and unfolded it.
Something astonishing was written on the paper.
— Tritoma Celsia’s estate is surrounded by a barrier that is put up by a mage. Moreover, it also has an active spell that continually absorbs magic.
And the reason why the flying magic tool was almost spent was because it was affected by the mana absorption spell.
So there was a mage inside Tritoma Celsia’s estate.
But what is a simple merchant like him doing by inviting a mage to his mansion?
This incident was something that even the commander of the Magic Division could not overlook. Hydrangea let out a deep sigh at the new problem he discovered.
◇◇◇
The next morning, Violette entered the dining hall carrying only Pomeranian.
She looked as if she had successfully transformed back to her human form from being a cat and her beautiful golden hair was styled in a half updo.
“Good morning, dear wife.”
“Good morning, dear husband.”
Violette’s husband laughed because of how she sounded reluctant to call him her husband.
“Something wrong?”
“No, nothing. Rather, where is Snow White?”
“Still sleeping.”
Last night, it felt like she did not want to be separated from Violette for even a moment. But after one night, it seems she has already calmed down.
“Did she stop sticking to you because you have changed back to human?”
“No. She became indifferent after making a contract with me.”
“No way. Could it be that she only did that to get you to make a contract with her?”
“I don’t think she would be able to think that far.”
Unlike humans, mythical beasts’ minds are already mature to some extent by the time they are born. Therefore, she may have decided that she would be in danger if she was not under the protection of a contract, Hydrangea thought. He wanted to proactively protect the mythical feline beast, so he did not mind that it was a little cunning.
“It seems she has taken a liking to Pomeranian.”
Last night, it seemed like Pomeranian had slept together with them to keep the cub warm.
“So you’re together even at night.”
“Why yes, he is very warm after all.”
