Chapter 168

A Certain Household’s Circumstances
"I think this country is messed up when someone steals my cushion, bribes the capital’s gatekeepers, and carts me off like livestock."

Once I was put in the carriage, they took my cushion and I was hauled off to the royal capital. And apparently, the gatekeepers were bribed by Baron Uzal too, so they didn’t even pretend to help me. Even though the king should’ve given orders not to interfere. Normally, they’d hear me out and report to the palace, right?

I was thrown straight into the basement jail of a shabby mansion. That’s strange too. If I were treated as a criminal, I should’ve been handed over to the knights.

And down there, a perverted creep—overweight and wearing nothing but underpants—was waiting with a whip in hand.

When Baron Uzal yelled, “Make her spit out the wyverns!” he clutched his head and ran off.

"And what, exactly, do you plan to do to my lady?"

"Muhh, guuuuh!"

The perverted creep, grunting like a pig, came toward me and Anon—only to be beaten to a pulp by Alicia, who had bent the iron bars and escaped from her cell (she’d already broken the wooden handcuffs with no effort). She then put him on some weird triangular contraption. On top of that, she even hit him with a thick plank—full-on assault.

"Yeah, I think this is all pretty messed up too. But that maid’s not normal either, right? She bent iron bars."

I think she didn’t like that he was holding some small rod-like object. The moment she saw it, Alicia crushed her handcuffs and stepped out of the cell—she went full berserker. Though even if she hadn’t, my spirits were already radiating killing intent, so he wouldn’t have gotten off easy anyway. Still, that thing he had—I’ve never seen anything like it before. It was short, so I doubt it would hurt much even if you got hit with it. Well, Alicia burned it to ashes with fire magic, so I’ll never know for sure. The guy who had it was in no shape to talk either.

“Come on, come on, come on—just tell me what you were planning to do to my lady. I’ll kill you!”

"This is bad, Hollow. That maid’s seriously trying to kill him."

Anon went pale as Alicia’s attacks became increasingly violent. Oh no, now she’s starting to peel his nails—we need to stop her.

"Okay, okay, stop, stop. Just knock him out and toss him in a cell or something."

"No. Please, let me kill just this one."

Alicia’s eyes were bloodshot. And she was wearing that mask (which only the wearer can remove), making her even more terrifying. She looked like a slasher movie villain with a chainsaw.

"I’d rather you didn’t do bloody things in front of me."

"Then I’ll kill him in the back. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure there’s no blood smell and not a single scream."

"Enough already—just patch him up so he doesn’t die and lock him in a cell!"

"Understood, at once."

Alicia quickly backtracked, grabbed the torturer by the head, and dragged him toward the cells.

Then she said, “If you make even a single sound, next time will be much worse,” and shut the cell door. It seems she was showing the bare minimum of restraint—though probably just enough to keep him alive for further torment.

"So, what was that stick thing?"

"You don’t need to know. I will never answer, and you mustn’t ask anyone else. It’s a filthy, disgraceful abomination that would make anyone question your dignity."

With that, Alicia made it clear she had zero intention of explaining. Anon didn’t know either. I decided it must’ve been some kind of torture device. I mean, if he got too close, the spirits would probably kill him, so I wasn’t too curious.

"Alright, time to assess the situation. We’ve been unjustly detained. Now what do we do?"

"If we just head to the royal castle, someone like Baron Uzal would be dealt with in one shot by my dad."

"Let’s dispatch the Secret Service and have him kidnapped to Arland. I’m sure they’d love that."

Anon aside, Alicia’s plan would absolutely make him scream, “Please just kill me!” And our knights and the decent nobles would never let this incident slide.

Well, since this was retaliation for Baron Uzal’s actions, I don’t plan to go public with it. I intend to wrap it up with something like: “An adventurer from Arland was unjustly detained by Ostland.” But still…

"Too bad. First, we explore the jail. There might be a secret passage or evidence of more crimes. And Mr. Coote should be arriving soon too."

Time to investigate! I’m sure there’s some cool hidden passage or something around!

"I doubt a jail would have anything like that…"

"Adventure time! Hollow, you’re a genius. That’s right, we’re lacking in adventure!"

Anon and I shared a firm handshake.

"But it’s dark and dusty. Can you do something about that?"

—Roger that—

—Alice, you don’t belong in a messy place like this. We’ll give it a makeover—

The wind spirits gathered the dust and pushed it onto the torturer. The water spirits cleaned the filth of the basement. The earth spirits expanded the jail into something like an underground hall. Then the light spirits lit the place up, making it bright.

—I’ll go make sure the folks upstairs don’t get suspicious—

The dark spirit placed a suggestion on the mansion’s servants and guards, ensuring no one would come or even question what was going on.

"No secret passages, huh…"

"I mean, normally you’d expect a secret passage. I even made one in the castle for personal use."

"Please stop making weird corridors in the castle. We’ll just have to destroy them when we find them. They’re just for pranks, aren’t they?"

Yeah, it’s scary when Madame or Mother catch me. For the record, my desk in the office has a catapult linked to the rear window. In an emergency, it’ll launch me out to safety. I also have secret passages hidden in the corridor walls and floors. It’s basically a ninja mansion.

"It’s not my fault! Father said I could remodel the castle. Besides, when intruders show up, magic beasts can use the passages to intercept them!"

Having high-level magic beasts coming out from random spots is definitely a threat to any invaders. Especially the Woofers Squad stationed in the castle—they’re effective even in narrow spaces.

"......"

"It's fine!"

—Alice~ We found a weird cell~—

—It's a hidden room, a hidden room!—

As I was persuading the groaning Alicia, the spirits expanding the room apparently discovered a secret chamber. There might be something amazing inside! Like a treasure left behind by a previous generation or even earlier.

"I doubt they'd leave something like that lying around..."

The earth spirits complained that the hidden room would get in the way if they kept expanding, so we decided to check it out.

Beyond a cleverly concealed stone wall was a door. It probably moves when some mechanism is triggered.

"So exciting~"

"So exciting~"

I peeked in from below, and Anon looked over my head. Inside was...

"Oh my, rare visitors."

There was a single noblewoman.

The room was more like a small, private chamber than a cell, with fine furnishings. The door we had entered from looked like a shelf from her side—clearly a hidden door. Ahead of us was what appeared to be the main door, but it was unmistakably the sturdy kind meant to imprison someone.

"Uh, excuse us."

"It's quite alright. I’ve been bored, not being able to talk to anyone for so long. But if there was a secret passage there, I wish Father had told me..."

"Um, I’m..."

"I know who you are. You're the young lady from the Sheffield family, right? You look just like your mother. As for the girl next to you... I don't think I've seen her before."

Anon and I tilted our heads, wondering who she was. But she didn’t seem hostile.

After chatting for a bit, we learned she was Baron Uzal’s wife. Enemy alert! We immediately took a step back.

"Dear, oh dear, you seem to dislike me. I'm not on that man's side, you know. In fact, I was a hindrance to him, which is why I was locked up here... The long history of the Uzal family is probably coming to an end. I feel terribly sorry to my parents and ancestors, though..."

The lady bowed her head with tears streaming down her face. There was clearly more to this story. I decided I needed to adjust my approach and hear her out.

It seemed the Uzal Barony was being taken over from within. A crop failure had once led to famine in their territory. While the kingdom provided tax relief and subsidies to minimize damage, the Uzal Barony suffered catastrophic losses. Their reserves and government aid weren't enough to prevent their people from starving. Apparently the government couldn't cover everything. I suppose getting any subsidies at all was better than nothing.

In desperation, the previous Baron Uzal accepted an offer from a certain duke–financial assistance in exchange for marrying one of the duke's relatives into their family. Political marriages among nobility weren't unusual, and so the current Baroness Maria married the duke's third son. Shortly after the famine passed, both her parents died from illness brought on by their struggles. It all happened so fast.

"That's when the duke's demands started escalating..."

First it was forcing her to accept his retainers, then demanding more authority for her husband. Since Baroness Maria inherited the Uzal title, her husband had no real power. At first they tried working together, but his extravagant spending and womanizing caused so many problems he was quickly removed from territory management. That man now just loafs around in the capital's secondary residence–a worthless freeloader.

The mushroom-head boy was apparently his illegitimate child. Since he and Baroness Maria couldn't conceive, he was trying to make his bastard the heir.

"Of course that's unacceptable. I remain the only rightful head of House Uzal."

Indeed. Only Baroness Maria could authorize such a thing, and she refused to make that incompetent fool her successor.

"If that imbecile became the heir, it would bring nothing but suffering to our land and its people. That's why I've kept refusing what they call 'requests' from the ducal house."

Then the Stampede happened. Baroness Maria apparently has military command experience and managed to protect her territory with minimal damage, though being outside the main monster invasion routes helped.

However, she received word that her husband had been injured. Though she despised the man who'd been holed up in their territory, social expectations forced her to visit him–where she was immediately detained. They'd resorted to the extreme measure of confining her to remove an obstacle. To make matters worse, they spread lies that she'd fallen ill from exhaustion and was recuperating at their capital residence.

Left like this, that man would forcibly seize both her lands and title. She explained she needed to escape and reach the royal castle.

"House usurpation is a grave crime. I cannot let that man and his son take the Uzal name."

"I see. So the territory itself has no connection to that man then?"

"I doubt they could take control immediately. Our retainers, who've served since my father's time, won't obey his orders... Though I can only hope he hasn't been mistreating the villagers..."

Oh he's been plenty awful. Kicking the village chief around. Forcing villagers into his bed. Yeah, we're definitely kicking that baldy out.

I took out my phone and called Arland's ambassador to Ostland.

[Hello?] [Do you know who I am?] [Of course, Your Highness] [I need a favor... You've already been briefed about the railway project, right? I need you to use that for something...]

As I explained the details, the ambassador erupted in anger, but calmed slightly when I mentioned I'd allowed myself to be captured.

[Understood. I'll immediately issue a warning to Ostland and secure Your Highness's release.]

Hang in there, Your Majesty. This might get rough. Let the counterattack begin.