Episode 8
Since ancient times, a severed finger has been a symbol of warning.
Who in the world sent such a ‘charming’ gift to Winter Winslet?
The problem was that there were far too many candidates capable of such an act, making it difficult to deduce who it was.
Were there only one or two people who held a grudge against Winter Winslet?
Just in case, I asked Dahlia.
“Did you see who brought this box?”
“Yes. I received it directly.”
“Describe their appearance as you remember it.”
“Um… They wore a hooded cloak pulled all the way down, so I couldn’t see properly. They were about this tall, and their build was hidden by the clothes… Ah! But the voice was definitely a woman’s voice.”
There were no particularly useful clues.
But a warning or threat is ineffective if you don’t know who sent it.
They must have left a clue, so I took the finger out of the box and examined it under the lamplight.
“Ah!”
Dahlia let out a short gasp.
It seemed she hadn’t realized the contents of the parcel she received were a finger.
The severed finger was gaunt, with short, neat nails.
The lack of any adornment suggested the victim was likely male… but that still wasn’t meaningful information.
Was the owner of this finger someone from Winter Winslet‘s circle?
Putting the finger down, I turned my attention to the box it came in.
And finally found what I was looking for.
Inside the box, painted black inside and out, was a secret intaglio carving.
The shape I traced with my fingers was a heptagram, formed by seven intersecting line segments.
The Seven Mansion.
It was the same symbol adorning the ring on my right index finger. With this, I could confirm the sender’s identity.
Seven Mangsunghoe.
They were a secret society operating in the shadows of the capital, Lembart—essentially a group collecting the main bosses from Judgment of Candela.
Naturally, Winter Winslet was one of them.
Whoosh!
The moment I identified them, the box spontaneously combusted and vanished.
“Oh my, fire! Did I do something wrong? I was very careful with it before handing it over……”
“No. It was probably designed to do this from the start.”
The one who sent the finger was that thorough about leaving no trace, and I now had an idea which member of the Seven Mansions Society had sent it.
It was time to go meet that bastard.
“Dahlia.”
“Yes?”
“Close all the windows in the house and lock them. Turn away any guests who come after this hour.”
“As usual?”
“…Yes. As usual.”
What I was about to do must not be seen by anyone.
Simultaneously, I needed to be alone to be safe.
The method the Seven Mansions Society used to communicate secretly, away from the world’s eyes.
That method was Dark Magic.
I went up to the study on the second floor, closed the door, and leaned back into the plush resting sofa.
A strong liquor and a crystal glass sat on the table, so I poured myself half a glass.
Downing what amounted to five shots of whiskey in one go felt like it was scorching my throat.
One might wonder why the sudden drinking, but I drank it all because it helped in performing Dark Magic.
In the Judgment of Candela worldview, the three components constituting a human are Body, Mind, and Soul.
Magic that directly affects these three components, or magic that uses life force extracted from these three components instead of magic, is classified as Dark Magic. Thus, strong liquor that dulls the mind served as a catalyst to facilitate Dark Magic.
Waiting for the buzz to set in properly, I looked at my right hand.
The ring with the Seven Mansion symbol on my index finger was a secret token indicating the wearer was a member of the Seven Mansion Society, and it was also a magical tool that allowed even those who couldn’t use magic to activate a specific spell.
The magic engraved on the ring was the spiritization spell.
However, Winter Winslet, with his B-Rank talent in Dark Magic, had no need to rely on a magical tool.
[Cast the spiritization spell.]
Instantly, an illusion of my entire body stretching lengthwise assaulted me, followed by an intense wave of fatigue.
The recoil from using Dark Magic.
Thump. Thump.
My pulse gradually slowed.
Or perhaps time had slowed.
Or I had fallen into such an illusion.
Flicker. Flicker. And Flicker.
My vision changed too.
With each blink, the saturation of my sight decreased slightly.
On the third blink, the scenery of the study had transformed, like a black-and-white film.
The spirit world had no color.
No color, no smell, no tactile sensation, no taste.
But it allowed one to transcend distance.
“You’ve finally appeared, Lord Noble.”
I found myself, without realizing how, standing in the center of a mysterious location, having left the study behind.
The meeting place of the Seven Stars Association.
A place named Disguard, a discarded zone among the countless channels overlapping the spirit world.
“Then let us begin the Disguard meeting.”
The name sounded familiar somehow… Well, anyway.
There were seven seats in the meeting chamber, and besides me, there were two other visitors.
Not all members attended every meeting.
Only those needed at the time showed up.
“This meeting has been convened at the request of the 2nd Angle.”
The man seated in the first of the seven seats spoke.
His name was Olivier Ljungberg.
The primary mediator and self-appointed chairman of the Seven Mansions Society, he was the head of a criminal cartel with branches across the continent, commonly known as the Thieves’ Guild.
And right next to him, in the second seat.
“Is being late a habit of yours, 3rd Angle?”
The man with the sinister voice was Sakis Rubas.
Director of the Foreign Security Operations Bureau of the neighboring Republic of Libron.
In other words, the spymaster.
And I, seated in the third seat, was Winter Winslet.
Just Winter Winslet himself.
Looking at it this way, it was truly a gathering of genuine villainous bastards.
The Seven Manor Society was not a hierarchical group but a loosely cooperative network based on horizontal relationships.
A loose alliance meant they could betray and become enemies at any moment if things went sour.
For them, ‘the chaos of the Kingdom of Laurencia’ was merely a common goal for their respective interests, so cooperation and rivalry always coexisted within the Seven Mansions Society.
So, in what specific ways did Winter Winslet associate with them, and what interests were entangled?
That was something even I, a veteran of Judgment of Candela, did not know.
What kind of dealings had Winter Winslet gotten into with the Thieves’ Guild and spies that resulted in a severed finger being delivered to his home?
“Did you receive the gift I sent, 3rd Angle?” the spymaster said.
‘3rd Angle’ referred to me.
The Seven Mansions Society was an anonymous club, and members called each other by numbers assigned to the seven points of the star.
I asked the 2nd Angle—the neighboring nation’s spymaster, Sakis Rubas.
“Was it you who sent me the finger?”
“It was.”
I elegantly expressed my displeasure at suddenly receiving such an item.
“I assume it was your own finger you pulled out and sent? I was just about to go pull it out for you myself, so this works out.”
“……”
Sakis Rubas let out a deep sigh before retorting.
“That is the finger of a traitor.”
“A traitor?”
“Indeed. Your courier betrayed us. He diverted the goods that were supposed to be delivered to us.”
By this point, I understood that there had been some kind of transaction between Winter Winslet and Sakis Rubas.
“That is… a serious matter indeed.”
I chose the vaguest expression possible.
I wanted to ask what the transaction was about first, but that would surely make them suspicious.
To glean any information, I tried an indirect question.
“How much of the diverted goods are we talking about?”
“When we first confirmed it, the equivalent of three ‘rods’ was missing.”
So the traded goods were in the form of rods, it seemed.
Getting information was good, but the situation itself was very unfavorable for me.
A problem had occurred in the transaction, and they were holding me responsible.
[Notification]
[This character’s Death Flag is active.]
Furthermore, the fact that a Death Flag appeared indicated that Sakis Rubas, my transaction partner, was the kind of bastard who would try to kill me if the problem wasn’t resolved.
How dare?
Amid my annoyance, I squeezed out all the information I knew about the Seven Mansions Society to counter.
“The goods were exchanged through the Thieves’ Guild, correct? Then isn’t it possible the goods were diverted on their end?”
“I shall explain that,” said Olivier Ljungberg, the 1st Angle of the Seven Mansions Society and Master of the Thieves’ Guild, with a displeased sigh.
“In fact, I was the first one 2nd Angle suspected. Given the nature of the goods agreed upon for the transaction, it must have looked like I couldn’t resist my greed and tampered with them. Isn’t that right?”
“I haven’t completely dismissed that suspicion yet.”
Another sigh.
Olivier continued.
“Anyway, to prove my innocence, I had to bear a considerable loss. That cost included the lives of people in my organization. Therefore, if your deliveryman is the cause of this problem, I also have the right to hold you accountable.”
“Oh ho.”
Would you look at this bastard?
His skill at drifting from explanation to accusation is top-notch.
He added.
“Don’t misunderstand. I have no intention of extracting something from you. I merely wish for you to take a step back, commensurate with the concession I made.”
I nodded, giving the impression that I had no choice here.
“Fine. But I must interrogate the traitor myself and confirm the facts.”
“That won’t be necessary. We’ve already obtained a confession.”
Sakis Rubas‘s words made my eyebrows twitch.
“You tortured him? Without my permission?”
“We have many experts experienced in that field on our side. Consider it saving you a tedious amount of time.”
“Where is the traitor now?”
In response to my question, Sakis Rubas pointed his index finger downward.
“At the bottom of the river.”
He had already killed and disposed of him.
Typical criminal bastard.
