WPVMVA Chapter 52

“Grey.”

“Yes, speak.”

“Is there anything here that looks like a ‘queen surrounded by white soldiers,’ or ‘water that is woefully insufficient to quench a giant’s thirst’?”

“Hmm… I wonder?” Grey leaned against the windowsill and looked around. Her gaze, which was scanning the desk, chair, bookcase, old paintings, and a wall with a map on it, went to the chess table.

At that moment, Grey let out a short exclamation as if she had realized something. She looked at the chess pieces on the chess table with a meaningful expression and said, “I’m asking just in case, but was the card just ‘queen’?”

At her words, Daniella looked down at the card in her hand.

“…Ah. It says ‘black queen’!”

“Then wouldn’t that mean ‘chess pieces’? If you substitute the white soldiers for white ‘pawns’ and the black queen for the black ‘queen,’ it fits perfectly, doesn’t it?”

“You’re right, that seems to be it!” Daniella said with a brightened expression. The two immediately stood in front of the chess table. Daniella first tried to touch the black queen chess piece in the middle of the board. It didn’t move as if it was fixed to the table. Daniella immediately moved the white pawns and placed them as if to surround it.

With a click, the chessboard lifted slightly, and a letter box hidden inside the table was revealed.

“I found it!” Daniella shouted with a smile, confirming that there were letters inside the box. Grey looked back at her with a softened expression and said, “Then there’s only one left.”

“Yes, only the water that is woefully insufficient to quench a giant’s thirst.”

At Daniella’s words, Grey looked around one more time and said, “…Hmm. It doesn’t look like there’s anything related to ‘water’ in here.”

“Alright. When Mella comes to get the rest of the letters, let’s go out and look for it together!”

“Yes, let’s do that.”

A short while later.

Mella, who had carried some of the letters to the carriage, was delighted to hear that they had solved one of the two riddles. However, she refused Daniella’s offer to go find the other clue with them. With a look of disgust, she gestured to the piles of documents and letters that were still left, saying, “No, ma’am. What help would I be if I came along? I’ll just focus on loading all these documents into the luggage compartment.”

“Thank you. And I’m sorry. As soon as we find the same kind of letter box, I’ll come back and help you move these!”

“I’ll see you in a bit.”

Daniella expressed her thanks and apologies to Mella before leaving the study with Grey.

Mella focused on picking up the documents again. Unlike her initial hesitation, she now had no qualms about picking them up and placing them on her apron. Her clothes were already dirty, so getting them even dirtier didn’t make a difference.

With an armful of documents in her apron, Mella went down the stairs and headed to where the carriage was parked.

As she was pouring the documents into the admittedly ugly luggage compartment, someone suddenly spoke to her.

“What are you doing?”

“Aah!”

Mella screamed like a girl and turned around. The person who had spoken to her was the butler she had seen a little while ago from this townhouse. She patted her chest and yelled at him, who had his hands behind his back, “You startled me!”

“I apologize.”

“…Sigh, it’s fine. I’m busy right now, so don’t talk to me.”

Mella cut him off heartlessly and turned around. Just as she was about to go back into the main building, the butler grinned and said, “Oh dear, what a shame. …You should be resting comfortably for a moment.”

“…!”

At that moment, Mella felt a sharp pain at the back of her head, as if someone had hit her hard, and her vision blurred. She desperately tried to keep her eyes open and turned around. The butler was holding a club in one hand and looked at the slowly collapsing Mella with a smile on his face, his voice eerie.

“May you have a good dream for a little while. …Because when you open your eyes, a terrible nightmare will begin.”

“…Ugh.”

Mella let out a small groan and passed out. The butler, with a strength unbefitting an old man, effortlessly picked up Mella and put her in the carriage. He then casually left the area as if nothing had happened.

After leaving the study, Daniella and Grey examined the rooms on the right side of the second floor. They couldn’t find anything related to the remaining clue in those rooms, which seemed to have been made for the ladies and their children.

The two came down to the first floor and began their search. After gaining no special insights there either, they went outside the main building. Daniella sighed in frustration and said, “Where should we go now?”

“…Hmm. It seems we need to find a place related to water.”

“Right? …Hmm, but there was nothing in the bathroom or the kitchen, so would the annex be any different?”

“That’s my thought as well. The annex is even smaller than the main building, so it doesn’t match the word ‘giant.’ It feels like a waste of time to look.”

Daniella once again looked down at the card in her hand and muttered, “Water that is woefully insufficient to quench a giant’s thirst… Is there a place nearby with a name that means giant, or a statue of a giant or something like that?”

“No. As far as I know, there isn’t a place with such a name in this castle… and I don’t think there would be such a statue either. It costs quite a bit to erect a statue, and if they had that kind of money, wouldn’t they have fixed the mansion first?”

“…That’s true.”

She nodded in agreement with Grey’s words. The two continued to walk, deep in thought.

Leaving the mansion, they walked down a narrow path with cracked ground and dry weeds, and they found a well surrounded by empty houses. At that moment, Daniella’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as she realized something.

“Could it be that?”

“…Pardon?”

“That well! We’ve been looking around this area, but there were no geysers, lakes, or springs, right? Did you see any, Grey?”

“No. I didn’t see any, but…”

“So the only thing we’ve seen is that well. If ‘giant’ is a word that refers to this entire Ashland estate, then—”

“You’re saying that the single mouthful of water that is woefully insufficient is that well.”

Daniella nodded, then stood right next to the well and looked inside. The well was wider and deeper than she had imagined. It was deep enough for an adult to fall into by mistake. Daniella frowned, trying to see the deep part of the well where no light reached. Then Grey took a small, pale green stone from her robe pocket and held it out to Daniella.

“Use this.”

“What is this?”

“It’s a mana stone. If you rub it once, it glows, and if you rub it twice, the light turns off.”

“Wow, that’s neat. Thank you.” Daniella rubbed the mana stone once and put the hand holding it into the well. A bright light poured from the mana stone, illuminating the dark and deep well. At that moment, a shabby wooden bucket at the bottom of the well and a letter box inside it came into her sight.

“I found it! It’s down there!”

At her words, Grey also leaned over the well. Grey immediately gauged the depth of the well and said, “Then we need a tool to pull that up.”

“Yeah. Where would we find something like that?”

“Don’t worry. If we search the bottom of the carriage’s luggage compartment—”

Grey’s face, which had been smiling slightly, instantly became cold and rigid. She immediately pulled Daniella behind her and said, “Go to the carriage, ma’am.”

“…What? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Hurry! Don’t worry about what happens to me, just run to the carriage! And get in the carriage and get out of here immediately!”

“Oh, I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”

At that moment, with a man’s taunting voice, armed assassins ran out of the empty houses and surrounded them. There had to be at least twenty of them. Grey, as if to protect Daniella, blocked her with both arms and said in a cold voice, “Who hired you? And how did you know the Grand Duchess would come here?”

“Heh heh. I wonder. If you really want to know, I’ll tell you. …After you and the Grand Duchess lose your lives at our hands!”

The man who seemed to be the leader chuckled as if he was amused, drew the sword from his waist, and shouted. The other men also drew their swords at once.