How About a Refill? ~The Elegant Tea Party of the Grand Witches~ - Chapter 29

Inquiry

The day after Alessia was kidnapped, Leonardo went back to the Caparoni house to ask about the state of affairs there. Miriam also went back with him.

The house looked calm from the outside, but inside was chaos.

“Ah, Leo! Millie! You’re both unhurt right? Let me see your faces!”

When they stepped into the entrance hall they were accosted by Tatiana who grasped their faces in both hands and carefully looked them over.

“Mother! What about sister? Is there still no news?”

“Ah, Millie, you don’t have to worry about a thing. I’m sure Sia will be alright.”

Tatiana hugged Millie to calm her down, then told her to go rest in her room.

“Did you get any letter from father?”

“Yes, we received a missive before dawn. He said he’s going to ride back here on his horse so he should arrive by tomorrow night.”

“Did you find anything about the kidnappers?”

Tatiana shook her head with a strained expression at Leonard’s question.

“Is that so… prince Emilio and the three witches are also lending their support. I’m sure we’ll get her back safely.”

“I, I see. Ah, Sia… she must be so frightened right now.”

Tatiana had a pale face, as if she didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. Leonardo summoned a maid and asked her to escort their mother to her room to rest. Then he headed for Miriam’s room.

“Millie? May I enter?”

Millie invited him in and Leonardo stepped inside.

Miriam was sitting on the sofa after changing into a simple dress.

“How do you feel, Millie?”

Leonardo sat next to her and gently patted her back.

“I feel better now. I’m sorry about creating such a fuss yesterday. I’ll apologize to prince Emilio as well.”

“You don’t have to worry over him. Besides, everyone is helping us find Sia. The witches, and also Emilio.”

“Well… that is really reassuring.”

‘I get the feeling like Emilio expects me to portray him in a good light to Millie…’

“… For someone like Prince Emilio, who’s royalty, to help a mere marquess’s family… as I thought, Prince Emilio must really like sister Alessia…” 

“… what?”

Leonardo couldn’t believe his ears at his sister’s sudden words.

“Ah, um, Millie? Who likes who?”

At Leonardo’s question, Miriam quickly looked down.

“Prince Emilio, he likes sister. I’d thought they didn’t like each other at first, but the other day I saw them talking happily with each other and that’s when it hit me. In fact, they seemed like the perfect match for each other… And I became certain of this during the current events. Prince Emilio is helping us look for sister precisely because he has feelings for her.”

“… poor guy.”

Leonardo covered his eyes with one hand and dropped his head with a sad expression.

“Huh?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

‘Emilio… your feelings haven’t been conveyed at all.’

Leonardo felt a bout of sympathy for his friend who had worked so hard to convey his feelings. However, when he thought of his cute little sister who he didn’t want to be taken away from him, he just shrugged it off while thinking ‘Well that’s that.’

“Anyways, you should stay at home until we can find out more about Sia. I’ll go back to the palace.”

“I understand. Be careful, brother.”

The two hugged each other tightly. After that Leonardo got on his horse and went back to the palace.

　◇

The next day, Leonardo and Emilio went to Beatrice’s mansion to receive the news about their investigation.

“So, the number of magic users seems to be too small for the large magic circle they drew to transport the carriage?”

“That’s riight. It’s nothing if it was us witches doing the magic, but a magic circle of this size is impossible for just 5 to 6 normal magic users.” Beatrice replied to Emilio.

“It’s probable they used the black dragon’s beard, or black magic stones, or both.”

“But I heard the last dragon appeared 90 years ago. Do you think raw materials extracted from its body would still be circulating the market?”

For the immortal witches, 90 years ago felt like it happened recently. But, for normal people it was the time of their grandparents. It would be natural to assume that the materials circulating the market at that time would be consumed by now.

“Actually, a young balck dragon appeared in the valley recently. Ellie took care of it by herself.”

“Oh, by herself!? Didn’t you usually fight it together with the help of the knights from the palace?”

“….hahaha.”

Leonardo’s eyes widened when he heard about Eleonora fighting the dragon by herself. But, the witch just laughed and evaded his question.

“Ah, this is no laughing matter_”

“Hey, blonde idiot, don’t worry about every single little detail.”

Leonardo flinched at Valeria’s chiding but then sobered up at Eleonora’s next words.

“It’s possible the dragon was summoned on purpose by someone. It looks like they wanted to use a young dragon to lure it’s parent out to the valley.”

“Summoned on purpose… by whom, and for what goal?”

“…We’re still looking into that. We’ll let you know as soon as we find out something.”

“And, we think they must have collected the materials to lure it from a young dragon that must have gotten stuck in the barrier.”

Leonardo stroked his chin and wondered if all these events were connected.

“…who are they, and what are they trying to bring about in this kingdom?”

“Well, we don’t know that far. Moreover, we want to look into the ‘organisation of red-robes’ that were witnessed during Alessia’s abduction, so if you have any information about the True Salvation religion then please let us know.”

“They’re a relatively new religious organisation and… several aristocrats of a high status are involved with it, that’s about all we know…”

Knock, knock!

Someone knocked on the mansion’s door.

“I’m His Highness Prince Ivan’s aide, Zalatanov. I heard Lord Caparoni was at the mansion so I came here. If he’s present may I request his time for a moment?”

Why was the second prince’s aide here? They all looked at each other in confusion. Emilio, deciding to listen to him for now, signalled Beatrice with his eyes.

“You may enter.”

“Thank you.”

As soon as he entered the room, the second prince’s aide, Dino, faced Leonardo and fell to his knees.