The investigation of Marcus’s room continued long after Moritz had left.
"Jin-nii, what is... this?"
Elsa had apparently discovered something.
"Hmm? What do we have here?"
It was a scrap of parchment, but the characters scrawled across it were completely illegible to Jin.
"Reiko, do you recognize this?"
"Please wait a moment... I have identified it. This is the script of the demon race."
"What!?"
"‘Ask kues itsuruto futsugumnas’... It says that something was mixed into wine and given to someone to drink. The parchment is torn, so I cannot decipher anything beyond that."
Reiko had verified the text with Anne via Laojun. Anne possessed a basic understanding of the demon race's written language.
"Arsenic, wine, and now this memo. There’s no doubt now that Marcus fed the Marquis wine laced with arsenic. Nor is there any doubt that Marcus is a member of the demon race."
"A demon!?"
Reinhard was the most rattled by this revelation. Elsa and Mine, however, showed little surprise. Elsa had harbored a suspicion ever since she first confronted Marcus, and she had already shared her thoughts with Mine.
"What was a demon doing here?"
Elsa was the one who answered him. "...Like I told Moritz-niisan earlier, he said his purpose was information gathering."
"Information gathering, huh..."
Reinhard shuddered as he considered the implications. If they were collecting data on humanity, it meant the demon race intended to make contact—and there was no chance such an encounter would be friendly.
"Wait, does that mean they already know about your airship, Jin? And the Mini-Smiths? Have they even seen how strong Reiko-chan is!?"
"Most likely."
"‘Most likely’? Jin, how can you be so—!"
Realizing he was the only one panicking, Reinhard forced himself to calm down. "...I see. For you, Jin, those things are still just the tip of the iceberg, aren't they?"
"Exactly," Elsa said, nodding in Jin's stead. Having been a passenger in his airplane, the fact was self-evident to her.
They soon discovered two more scraps of parchment that appeared to be discarded drafts. When they pieced the fragments together and filled in the gaps, one read:
At the request of Elsa’s father... poisoned... the Marquis.
The other was more chilling:
Human... desires... intriguing... perhaps they can be utilized.
Jin recalled the demon Raldus, who had aided Earl Walter out of what seemed like morbid curiosity. It appeared the demon race was taking a keen interest in humanity.
"I hate to say it, but I suspect my uncle was planning more than just becoming a relative of the Marquis by marriage," Reinhard mused. "He likely intended to poison the Marquis after Elsa became pregnant. If Elsa gave birth to a son, he could have used his position as the child's grandfather to act as a guardian and rule in the young Marquis's stead. Even without a child, being the father of the Marquis’s widow would have granted him immense political leverage."
Elsa visibly recoiled at the thought. "...That’s horrible."
Mine said nothing, silently placing a comforting hand on Elsa's shoulder.
"But with this much evidence, this branch of House Randol is finished," Reinhard continued. "Fritz is a soldier with a solid record, so he’ll likely be allowed to stay in the military, but Moritz..."
Elsa had the skills to survive as a magi engineer, and she would be in high demand as a healer. Even if she chose neither, she could simply live with Jin on Hourai Island or in Kaina Village. Moritz, however, had no such safety net.
"...Niisan..."
"If Moritz is willing," Reinhard said, "I’d actually be very grateful if he’d help me manage my new territory."
Reinhard was referring to the lands he had received from his father. Due to the various legal procedures involved, he likely wouldn't officially take up his post until autumn. He needed to build a reliable staff before then. Moritz was both a familiar face and highly competent.
"I’ll ask him about it later."
Finding nothing else of value in the room, the group followed Elsa back to the drawing room. Moritz was still elsewhere.
"Now then, that leaves one more mystery..."
While the major questions had been answered, a few loose ends remained.
"Does this mean Marcus was the one who brainwashed Mine?"
Mine looked down, overwhelmed by shame, but Jin knew it hadn't been her fault.
"Almost certainly. To ensure Elsa was married off to the Marquis, he likely placed a Seduce spell on you to protect her—making sure no other 'pests' got too close."
That explanation finally made sense of her previous ferocity.
"Mine was terrifying back then," Jin recalled. "She told me, ‘If you try anything untoward, I’ll twist you apart.’"
"Jin-sama, please! It's too embarrassing. Have mercy," Mine pleaded, her face flushing crimson as she looked away.
Aside from those directly involved, only Jin and Reinhard knew that her directive to protect Elsa from "pests" had grown so intense that she had attempted to defect with the girl.
"Back to the point. This suggests the demon race can use spells like Hypno, doesn't it?"
Whether it had been Seduce or Hypno was impossible to tell now, as the effect had been broken when she suffered a severe head injury, but it was safe to assume the demon race specialized in that brand of mental manipulation.
"The other concern... is their level of civilization."
Marcus had been a supreme-level magi engineer. Raldus had possessed an intimate knowledge of magical consumption fever.
"Anne mentioned that the demon race isn't particularly social," Jin explained. "They don't form large nations; instead, they operate in family units. That means while human civilization suffered a massive loss of knowledge after the Great Magic War, the demon race likely preserved theirs. In human society, specific experts pass on knowledge, but if those experts die, the knowledge is lost. For the demons, every family was a backup. Their survival means a vast amount of ancient knowledge probably survived with them."
"That... is a terrifying thought," Reinhard said, his complexion turning pale.
"But until we know what their ultimate goal is, we're just guessing."
Jin also shared his theory that the demon race likely found human lands difficult to inhabit due to the low concentration of free ether. Hearing this, Reinhard finally exhaled a sigh of relief.
"I see. So it’s unlikely they’ll be launching an all-out invasion any time soon?"
"Probably not. But we can't be complacent. Humanity can't afford to keep bickering over petty border disputes in the Allied Kingdoms."
Jin was about to explain his grander vision—the Fusou Island Holy Land Project—when the door burst open.
"Lady Elsa! The Viscount has awakened!"
The maid who had been watching over Elsa’s father reported the news breathlessly. The group rushed to his chambers.
"Father!"
The Viscount lay in bed, his eyes indeed open.
"Elsa... is that you?"
"...Father?"
His eyes were out of focus, and his speech was slurred and difficult to understand.
"I feel... as though... I was having... a terrible... dream..."
"..."
Jin’s heart sank. As he had feared, there were lasting neurological effects. Even supreme-level healing magic could not resurrect dead brain cells. Elsa’s quick Diagnose confirmed the worst: he was suffering from partial hemiplegia.
"What... became of... Marcus?"
"...Marcus has... vanished."
"I see. That... heartless... wretch."
The Viscount’s gaze shifted, spotting Mine standing behind Elsa.
"...Welcome... home."
And with that, he closed his eyes again.
"The brain damage is permanent," Jin whispered after they had returned to the drawing room for the third time. "The first stroke was minor, but this second one was far more severe. No matter how powerful the magic, it can't regenerate nerve cells."
Healing magic functioned by stimulating the natural recovery of living cells; it could mend what was broken, but it could not create life where it had already been lost.
"...Will Father stay like this forever?"
"I’m not a doctor, Elsa, so I can't say for sure. But with proper rehabilitation, perhaps..."
Jin could offer her nothing more than that. The Viscount would never truly be the man he once was.