Chapter 2 — 감찰국

Part 2, Episode 36

Inspectorate

Unlike the gaudy coaches from before, this one was black from hood to wheel.

Even so, the emblem at its heart drew the eye.

A roaring lion.

The Black Lion’s carriage.

“F-Fourth Prince, His Highness!”

“To come all the way here…!”

Reporters who had just been riled up like beasts parted on their own.

They might be vultures, but they weren’t about to offend a prince.

Guards slipped in to either side, throwing up a curtain of steel no one would dare to cross.

A moment later, Cromhel stepped down from the coach. He smiled with easy confidence and waved.

He was used to crowds like this.

One reporter screwed up the courage to ask a question.

“What do you think of Elric Mervingger, who went from ‘friend of the century’ to the Fourth Prince’s sudden sniper?”

Cromhel widened his eyes as if surprised, then answered with a mild smile.

“He is still a friend I treasure beyond compare. There’s been a minor misunderstanding this time, that’s all. It’ll be cleared up shortly.”

Unlike the Mage Tower folks, who hadn’t answered a single question, Cromhel indulged them politely.

That was all it took for the dormant frenzy to reignite.

“Then about the Tower’s actions this time—!”

“How do you explain the Inspectorate’s mistake—!”

It didn’t last long.

“…Huh?”

“Someone else is… huh?”

Another figure was alighting from Cromhel’s carriage.

A woman so beautiful it robbed them of speech.

A waterfall of golden hair.

Blue eyes that glittered.

Her beauty was so arresting that shutters, which had been firing nonstop, fell still for a heartbeat.

And the reporters knew.

This was the prince’s consort they’d only ever heard rumors about—Shiro.

It was the first time she had ever appeared in public.

But the shocks weren’t over.

Another figure stepped down after her, as if to shield her.

“T-The Golden Lion!!”

It felt like a great lion itself had descended.

He rarely appeared in public; people joked he was harder to see than even the Emperor—the Golden Lion.

With him here, the press corps couldn’t help but go wild.

“T-This is front-page material!”

“The Golden Lion at this venue…!”

“Don’t just gape—shoot! Now!”

While the reporters scrambled in a frenzy,

Cromhel offered the princess consort his hand.

When she calmly laid hers in it, Cromhel grinned and glanced back at the Golden Lion.

“Shall we go in, Father-in-law?”

“Mm.”

The Golden Lion gave a short nod and followed Cromhel in silence.

“…What did he just say?”

The reporters watched Cromhel’s party recede with dazed expressions.

Their once-busy hands had long since stopped.

“The Golden Lion is the Fourth Prince’s father-in-law…?”

With that one line Cromhel tossed over his shoulder, the front of the Council erupted into greater chaos.

* * *

“Tsk.”

Sean clicked his tongue, looking down from the third-floor residence window.

In his eyes, Cromhel was smiling brightly as he worked the reporters.

“He’s certainly not that idiot Zeraitz. He knows how to play the press.”

Even though the Inspectorate’s scheming could have splattered mud on him, Cromhel was as unruffled as ever.

No, more than unruffled.

He seemed to be enjoying himself….

And behind that, flickers of a sharp gaze—like he meant to turn this crisis into another opportunity.

“By contrast….”

Sean’s eyes went to Elric.

At some point Elric had undone half the buttons of his dress uniform and finally looked like he could breathe.

Sprawled half-sitting, eyes closed on the sofa, he looked almost indecently relaxed.

“…”

Sean felt that familiar throb building at his temples.

He pressed his brow with a forefinger and barked,

“Hey! What’s your plan for this hearing? Judging by their faces, they won’t be pushovers!”

Worse, the Inspectorate had suddenly set the date, leaving them no time to prepare properly.

They did have a witness, which put them at a clear advantage, but still—the Inspectorate belonged to the imperial household.

They couldn’t take it lightly; they needed to be airtight.

Elric, though, was the picture of contrast to anxious Sean.

“Mm, we’ll keep it moderate? Beating the Inspectorate isn’t the goal anyway.”

“…What?”

Sean’s eyes widened.

If he didn’t mean to beat the Inspectorate at a hearing against the Inspectorate, then who exactly was he planning to beat?

“Then why’d you even request the hearing?”

“That…”

Elric was just opening his mouth when—

Knock knock!

Someone rapped briefly and stepped into the residence.

A Council staffer.

“Your Grace. The councilors have all arrived. Please take your seats.”

“Sure.”

Elric straightened his clothes with a lazy air, rose, and left the residence with Sean.

Sean watched him for a long moment with a curious look.

“What are you scheming this time?”

Even if he was a friend, he was a hard one to understand.

* * *

The hall set for the hearing was steeped in solemnity.

Even the air felt so heavy that breathing seemed a chore.

“Your Grace, this way, please.”

The usher offered Elric a seat in the very front row—reserved in the Council for only the highest nobles. It was treatment befitting a duke.

Elric nodded his thanks and sat, taking in the hall.

On the right sat Cromhel’s people—the Lion Duke’s House and the Inspectorate. On the left, the Mage Tower and the Mervingger faction: thorough neutrals or those checking the Fourth Prince.

A strange little tug-of-war crackled between them.

“Hah! A massacre? Eager to prove your loyalty or not, do you never consider the word ‘line’?”

A voice from the left.

It was barely a mutter, but no one here failed to hear it.

Faces on Cromhel’s side hardened at once.

A high noble of the imperial faction seated by Cromhel sprang up and shot back.

“Duke or no, the Inspectorate is the imperial household’s own intelligence organ! Blocking them and hindering their work is unthinkable! What do you take the imperial authority for!”

The Tower side immediately erupted in rebuttal.

“Even if it’s to stop a massacre?”

The imperial side didn’t budge an inch.

“Yes! Even then! If you recognize that you stand beneath the solemn authority of the imperial house, isn’t getting the facts straight your first order—not standing in the way?”

“How is stopping an Inspectorate that toys with imperial power the same as blocking authority!”

“Toying? Mind your tongue!”

“If I minded it, what then!”

“Watch this fool’s mouth—!”

“Look at you, rat-faced and—!”

“What? Rat? Hey! How old are you?”

“Old enough! Is a long life something to brag about now?”

In a heartbeat, the shouting began to boil over.

It looked like someone might leap across the aisle and grab a collar any second.

Just as the air in the hall reached knife-edge sharpness—

Bang! Bang!

“Order! Keep order! If you continue to disrupt the chamber, I will have you removed!”

Only after the Speaker appeared, pounding the gavel and issuing a warning, did the overheated mood cool in an instant.

Silence blanketed the hall.

Satisfied, the Speaker opened his mouth.

“Good. Then let us begin. First, Black, Director of the First Bureau of the Inspectorate—please come to the podium.”

Step, step—

Black, who had been waiting, strode forward without hesitation.

For an instant, his eyes met Elric’s, looking down from the councilors’ benches.

The briefest of moments.

Mephisto’s mouth curled.

『A nasty hybrid.』

[Hybrid?]

『He bears multiple sigils. Even from here I can see three: concealment, black shroud, and windbinding.』

[…Sigils?]

Elric couldn’t help darting a look at Mephisto in surprise.

A few around them glanced over, wondering what was wrong.

Elric waved it off—but he couldn’t hide the jolt.

[Only our house can absorb sigils, isn’t that right?]

Devour mana.

Swallow mana.

Drink mana.

Those three lines had defined his house since antiquity.

Only the Mervinggers could absorb mana’s power and use it as their own.

At least, that was what Elric had always known.

And yet the Inspectorate’s director—who seemed to have no tie to his house—carried sigils?

If he were a demon, maybe. Otherwise, how was that possible?

『Hmph! If it were so easy, demonkind would have been wiped from the continent long ago!』

[Then what is he?]

『An inferior product.』

[Inferior?]

『Yes. A failed imitation of your power, unable to become the ‘real thing’—a mongrel, and thus a hybrid.』

[…I see.]

Turning Mephisto’s words over, Elric realized—

[He’s a Lilim, isn’t he?]

『Indeed.』

Mephisto’s lips split in a grin.

* * *

Lilith branded her followers with the mark known as “Gimyo” and made puppets of them.

And when a puppet died, Lilith could absorb the abilities that puppet had in life.

『But what if, among them, one had originally been a demon?』

After a beat’s thought, Elric answered Mephisto’s question.

[Lilith could absorb that demon’s sigil.]

『Exactly. And then she could pass the absorbed sigil down to a Lilim.』

The result stood right before them: Black.

But one question lodged like a thorn in Elric’s mind.

[Doesn’t something about that not add up?]

『What doesn’t?』

[If he were demonkind, there’s no way the imperial household or the Tower wouldn’t have noticed.]

Both places were hives of powerhouses.

There was no way they’d miss a demon.

Lilith buying off a portion of the imperial household was one thing, but the Tower not knowing Black’s true nature made no sense.

Elric slid a glance at Gai nearby.

From his expression, Gai knew nothing about Black.

Not just him—the Hexagrams around him hadn’t sensed a thing either.

It had only been a few decades since the Great Demon War.

These people had all distinguished themselves in that war.

Which made it even stranger that they hadn’t recognized Black’s power.

『You could think of it that way.』

Mephisto folded his arms.

He sounded like he knew something, so Elric asked,

[Why? You know, don’t you?]

『Know it? I’d bet on it. It’s probably not a simple master-servant bond but a transactional relationship.』

In other words, they hadn’t accepted Lilith’s power—her “Gimyo.” The sigils had been acquired by a deal.

『If you don’t use a sigil, who would even notice it’s there?』

[Mm. There’s that.]

At that, Elric finally understood.

Why no one had known what Black was.

He couldn’t see the terms of the deal, but one more thing became clear.

The Inspectorate wasn’t completely under Lilith’s thumb; it was an alliance of sorts.

Which was why—

“This is worse.”

Elric’s eyes sank, dark and deep.

The Mage Who Devoured Talent