Chapter 58

Part 8: Secret (1)

Late morning meal time.

Before the meal started, Manuel scolded me with a stern face.

"You went out secretly at night? Don't you know that visiting other noble families like that is impolite?"

His voice was low, but he amplified it with mana so everyone could hear.

To others, it looked like a noble's son was scolding his younger brother as a model.

As a result, the baronesses looked at Manuel with surprised expressions, and the baron's son looked at him with admiration.

Of course, I knew that Manuel was trying his best to mimic a duke.

Unlike other times, I bowed deeply to Manuel.

"I apologize for causing you worry. I will be more careful."

"Y-Yeah, that's fine. Just remember it."

His voice wavered slightly at my answer, but Manuel quickly regained his composure and apologized to the baron.

"I apologize for my brother's noise last night."

"Haha, it's fine. Nothing serious happened, and I was just worried that something might have gone wrong."

I slightly raised my head to look at the baron and his daughter.

The baron's expression was much sterner than his words, and his daughter was looking at me with an amused expression.

Oh, our eyes almost met.

I quickly averted my gaze and started eating the food that had just been served.

As I ate, the baron's voice reached my ears again.

"Since it's a long journey, how about staying one more day? The children might need more preparation."

As expected, the baron was trying to make us stay longer.

"I'm sorry, but I would like to stay, but there isn't much time left until the enrollment day."

Oh, when in noble mode, Manuel can really speak properly. His education has certainly paid off.

"Is that so... Then there's nothing I can do."

Surprisingly, the baron gave up easily.

Out of curiosity, I looked at him through the reflection of my knife and saw that he was looking at his daughter while speaking.

It seemed like he still had some ulterior motives.

However, I had already died once and had no intention of watching those plans unfold.

After that, the meal ended normally.

A while later, the group gathered in front of the mansion again.

The soldiers and knights who had stayed in the annex were waiting with the carriage.

The baron's son and daughter said goodbye to their mothers.

The son's farewell was no different from other parent-child goodbyes.

"Take care in the capital, and write if you have any problems."

"I'll be fine, don't worry. And take care of yourself, Mother."

A worried mother and a confident son.

However, the daughter's farewell was strange.

"I'm leaving."

"Y-Yeah, take care."

The baroness stuttered in response to her daughter's farewell.

It was as if she was afraid of her daughter, and there was a sense of relief in her voice.

"Hmph!"

The daughter snorted and turned around.

The son also finished his farewell and headed towards the carriage.

During the farewells, the baron said nothing.

It seemed that the baron didn't have a good relationship with his daughter or other family members.

"Thank you for your hospitality. I will take good care of your children while they are in the capital."

Manuel's farewell made the baron nod in satisfaction.

From the outside, it looked like a satisfactory farewell for the baron as well.

Manuel and I got into the carriage.

Unlike before, four people were riding in the carriage, but it was spacious enough to be a duke's carriage.

"Wow, the great nobles are really different. It doesn't look much different from the outside, but this is what they call substance, right?"

The baron's daughter kept marveling as she looked around the interior.

The baron's son also looked around with curiosity, and Manuel explained various things to them.

As we left the town and traveled for a while, by the time the sun was setting, we had completely left the baron's territory.

"We need to camp for the night."

As the sun was setting, a knight on horseback approached the carriage and told Manuel.

Manuel gave his permission, and the carriage and the group stopped.

The servants and soldiers who had come with us prepared the camp, and we got out of the carriage.

While watching them prepare dinner, I took out the greatsword from the carriage.

"Why did you take out the sword?"

At Manuel's question, I smiled.

"I'm feeling a bit stuffy, so I thought I'd go hunting."

"We have enough food for dinner, and I doubt there's anything to hunt around here..."

A soldier preparing dinner nearby said.

As he said, there were trees here and there, but we were in the middle of a vast plain.

However, I shook my head.

"I'm just using it as training. If I'm late, go ahead and eat and rest."

The soldier and the knight quickly agreed with my words.

During the journey to the marquis's estate, I had often trained and even sparred with the marquis's illegitimate son at night.

Manuel looked displeased, but perhaps because I had bowed at breakfast, he let it go.

"It's the first night, why don't you join us for dinner? Please?"

The baron's daughter pleaded with her hands clasped, but I felt a chill.

"I'm sorry, but I do this often."

I bowed and walked out of the campsite.

As I moved away from the campsite, I gradually increased my speed.

After running for a while and getting far enough from the campsite, I turned around.

My goal was the baron's estate we had left in the morning.

I pushed mana into my legs and kicked off.

Boom!

Since we had traveled leisurely for half a day, I could return in about 2 hours if I ran at full speed.

* * *

I looked down at the mansion from the hill where I had spent the night before.

It took exactly 2 hours to get from the campsite to this hill.

Fortunately, I didn't encounter anyone on the way, and after getting close to the town, I circled around to avoid people and reached this hill.

It was roughly 40 km, like running a marathon.

"If I didn't have mana, this would have been impossible, regardless of my age."

Sweat was pouring down my body, and I wanted to lie down and rest, but I circulated mana instead.

Spreading the mana that had warmed my legs throughout my body, the mana seeped into my heart and lungs, gradually improving my condition.

"Phew..."

A moment later, I took a deep breath. My body quickly returned to normal.

"Good."

Indeed, mana was a cheat.

After checking my condition, I went down the hill.

It was still early in the night, and some rooms still had lights on, but it was a cloudy night, so there was enough darkness to hide.

Avoiding the eyes of the guards at the main gate.

I climbed over the wall again and went to the room where I had slept, bypassing the maze garden instead of the front door.

The front door wouldn't be open at this hour, and forcing it open would definitely cause a commotion.

"Here we go."

I gathered mana in my hands and climbed up the wall.

Thanks to my experience from doing this several times, I easily reached the window of the room where I had slept the previous night.

Next, I placed my hand on the window and pulled it with mana. The window came off with my hand.

Creak.

The window opened with a small sound.

Fortunately, the latch that I had broken in the morning was still broken, as I had expected.

I had broken it before leaving, thinking I might come back.

The window was the same, but the room was neatly cleaned.

I just needed to confirm that no one was there.

I walked through the dark corridor towards the baron's room.

Before leaving, I had memorized the baron's room. It was the innermost room near the daughter's room, and he used it alone like other nobles.

The corridor was quiet.

A day before, or rather, before I died, it was even earlier.

At that time, even if people were sleeping, I could hear some rustling and the sounds of people living with my good ears.

But now, the mansion was immersed in a heavy silence as if no one was living there.

Despite moving cautiously, I didn't see any signs of people until I reached the baron's room.

It was clearly not yet time for people to be asleep...

A moment later, I arrived in front of the baron's bedroom.

After making sure I had a proper escape route, I carefully sent mana into the room.

'Is it empty?'

There were no signs of anyone in the room.

I had heard that the baron was always in his room at this time...

I clicked my tongue and carefully opened the door.

Fortunately, the door was not locked.

When I opened the door, I saw the baron's study and library. The bedroom door inside was half open, but the baron was not there.

Just like I had felt from outside, there was no one in the study or the bedroom.

Did he move because his children were on a trip? But he was always in his room at this time unless something significant happened.

It seemed that all the information I had gathered was in vain.

I couldn't search the entire mansion for the baron.

I was officially 40 km away, hunting in the forest.

If I was caught by someone while looking for the baron, it would be troublesome. At my young age, disguising myself wouldn't work.

Just as I was thinking about returning.

The empty study felt strange.

It looked like an ordinary study, but there was a clear difference from the duke's study or the rooms in the duke's mansion.

'Could it be?'

The same feeling I had in the marquis's mansion with the secret passage.

"Indeed, a proper noble's study should have a secret door or two."

I started searching the study.

There might be nobles with abilities like psychometry to find secret doors or signs of people, but...

Unfortunately, I didn't have such abilities.

However, mana gave me other abilities.

I took a deep breath.

I pushed mana into my ears, eyes, nose, and skin. I filled my senses with mana.

Whoosh.

The dim room became bright, and various smells became noticeable.

Rustle, crackle.

Then, sounds that I hadn't heard before started to reach my ears. The sound of papers rustling in the breeze, the flickering of candles, and the feeling of air brushing past my ears.

Wait? The air is moving?

I had closed the door after entering. The windows in the bedroom and study were also closed.

I stood still, trying to feel the flow of air.

I focused all my senses to the point of feeling the movement of individual air molecules.

I faintly felt the air flowing.

The air was not flowing out from the door I had entered or the closed windows.

The bookshelf?

The direction of the air flow was towards the bookshelf filled with books.

I moved very slowly and carefully towards the bookshelf.

The faint breeze was coming from between the bookshelves on the wall.