The Mysterious Child: An Adventure Tale Beginning with Numerology

When Lilith returned to the mansion after a long time, a luxurious carriage was parked in front of it.

Lilith usually lives in the girls' dormitory of the Ladies' Academy. When going outside the premises, she needs permission to go out and must travel by a pick-up carriage according to the rules.

She could only walk to the adjacent library.

Of course, she had to follow the rules even just to visit the mansion. Although it was only about a ten-minute walk from the academy, she got permission and used a carriage to return.

The carriage had the royal family's crest on it, so there was no need to ask who had come.

"Th-this is troublesome! What will His Majesty say?"

"It's fine! If Father complains, I'll take care of it!"

"But Lady Maple, even as an attendant, for a man to stay overnight in a woman's house is too scandalous..."

"We'll get married eventually anyway! It doesn't matter!"

"E-even regarding that matter, I am a knight, and Your Highness is a princess, so—"

Gavin and Princess Maple's voices could be heard from the living room. Although Lilith thought about greeting Gavin since it had been a while, she decided not to intrude and headed directly upstairs.

That tomboy princess has been infatuated with Gavin for a year now. Lilith had heard that she had recently thrown a tantrum at His Majesty and the Prime Minister over Gavin and her father being captured. It was easy to imagine that she had followed Gavin, who was under house arrest, and declared she would stay at their house.

While sympathizing with Gavin and thinking that it was also her job to advise against her lord's reckless behavior, Lilith passed by.

It was certainly not because getting involved with those two would be troublesome. Certainly not.

"Father, I'm home."

"Enter."

"Excuse me."

When Lilith entered her father's study, her mother Rina was sitting on the sofa.

"Mother, I'm back."

"Welcome home, Lilith. I've prepared some tea. Come over here."

"Thank you."

Lilith immediately sat next to Rina.

As expected, the tea brewed by Rina had a very nice aroma. Even using the same tea leaves, Rina had the special skill of making tea more delicious than any of the servants. This was something that even the dexterous Lilith felt she couldn't imitate.

After taking a breath in front of her parents, Lilith started the conversation.

"So, Father, what is the matter you called me for?"

"Of course, it's about that matter."

"I see. Then I'll report."

Lilith straightened her posture and took out some documents from somewhere, placing them on the desk.

"It was as His Majesty anticipated. While you and Brother Gavin were confined, there were three suspicious accounting reports and two personnel transfers within the court. Four of them were within the Finance Department, and the remaining one was in the Education Department. The detailed circumstances are in there."

"I see. The movements seem to have been more subdued than expected."

"Perhaps because the stolen labyrinth core was found earlier than thought, and Lord Cardel's return was also expedited."

Lilith had received a report that the adventurer party [Rozewill] had recovered it. As expected of them.

She couldn't help but smile.

Her father, who was under house arrest, of course, shouldn't know about the details of the theft incident. He frowned.

"What, it had already been found?"

"The adventurers we commissioned were very competent."

"I see. Well, it's good that it was found, but..."

Originally, Cardel was supposed to be away from the court for a few more days.

It was His Majesty the King who had planned to use even the theft of the labyrinth core. As it was a theft incident within the court, it was certain that there was an inside culprit.

Many nobles come and go in the court. The time frame when it was likely stolen was especially complex in terms of people's movements.

Although only a select few, including the heads of ducal families, knew about the existence of the labyrinth core, narrowing down the culprit was an extremely difficult task. There are various factions among the nobles, and the court officers are not united either.

Of course, the current king's faction is the largest, but without some opposing factions, the intentions of the nobles would become completely invisible. Therefore, like other countries, the Kingdom of Mataisa also tolerates a certain degree of factional strife. They even intentionally provoke it sometimes for the sake of appropriate release. The power relationships and interests have become too complex to organize.

Amidst all this, recently, there has been an increase in incidents that couldn't be settled with just small skirmishes in various territories. Many of these involve deteriorating safety on the highways due to hired thieves and the like.

The northern provincial territories were particularly noticeable, and the Muuteru Duchy was also being targeted.

At first, they thought the security had just worsened a bit, but recently, there have been frequent damages that require requests to the Adventurers' Guild. Since the beginning of this year, the number has been particularly notable, with the number of caught thieves doubling compared to three years ago.

Lilith once investigated all the territories using Luney Trading Company's information network. As a result, it was clearly unnatural that the security deterioration in the territories of the current king's faction was worse than calculated from tax revenue, birth rate, and unemployment rate, so Lilith provided this data to His Majesty. It would have been better if it was just internal factional strife, but it was clearly external interference gradually eroding national interests, and there was a possibility that it was the work of another country.

Just then, the labyrinth core theft incident occurred.

Normally, they would have immediately retrieved it using Lilith's information gathering ability, but His Majesty calmly made a plan.

"Let's leave the labyrinth core to Marquis Cardel, and we'll smoke out the internal culprit. I want to entrust Luney Trading Company with information gathering within the court."

However, the court is under the control of the Knights, and three Knight Commanders, including her father who is the head of the current king's faction, are keeping a close watch. Even if there were informants for the thieves, it was unlikely they would slip up.

Therefore, as a special class incident, they arrested her father and Gavin as suspects in the theft case, making it known only within the court, and had the other Knight Commanders leave the court under the pretext of missions.

Although they had imposed a gag order within the court regarding her father's detention, the rumor spread widely due to Princess Maple.

The head of the current king's faction is in jail, and the court magician, who is the most powerful person after His Majesty, is out. As expected, there was some movement during this gap, and thus the smoke-out was successful.

Since the operation was premised on damaging the honor of the Muuteru family from the beginning, it was good that it succeeded.

"Use our honor as disposable as you wish. That is the true meaning of being a knight."

When His Majesty proposed this plan before the operation, her father had immediately answered like this. There hadn't been many opportunities to respect her father until now, but at this moment, Lilith was proud of him.

In any case, thanks to their flashy movements, the informants were also somewhat identified.

The problem is the content.

"...So, it was as you imagined, Lilith."

Her father groaned while reading the report.

"Yes. The informant this time is almost certainly Duke Akuninaru."

"I didn't want to believe it, but the head of the finance officers... But what you had suspected before has become clear. We ended up tarnishing your honor as well. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, Father. I was the one who originally proposed the engagement with the Akuninaru ducal family. I was prepared for the engagement to be dissolved, so it's going according to plan."

"...I see."

When she got to know Savey because she wanted to obtain some information personally, it was convenient that he took a liking to her, and she agreed to the engagement intending to infiltrate the other party's inner circle, as they were both from ducal families and a good match.

Since the heads of the families had been at odds since the previous generation, using engagement as a reason to approach the Akuninaru ducal family was the quickest method.

Thanks to that, she was able to obtain a considerable amount of information in the six months since the engagement. In the process, she found many traces of the Akuninaru family communicating with spies from some country.

The theft of the labyrinth core this time was probably part of that.

As for Lilith, she no longer needed information from the Akuninaru family, so she was already considering breaking off the engagement. She felt a little sorry for using Savey's love, but since Savey had only been looking at Lilith's face and position from beginning to end, she was able to come to terms with it smoothly.

"Also, it seems that several nobles under Duke Akuninaru's wing were cooperating. They apparently informed Princess Maple about you and Brother Gavin, and even told her the location of the special prison."

"And the spread of rumors too?"

"...I don't think factions are relevant to that."

Nobles are gossip-loving by nature. Even those in the same royal faction or neutral faction wouldn't leave such an interesting rumor about overeating alone.

Her father cleared his throat and said,

"But it's always helpful. I'll proceed with the engagement dissolution procedures on our end."

"Thank you, Father."

"Is there anything else you need us to prepare? Although now, the only thing I can do for Lilith is to use my position as a duke."

"That's not true at all."

"It's a fact, isn't it? Even though I'm a duke, there's too much difference in value between me as a knight and the head of the world-renowned trading company. Now Luney Trading Company controls the underside of Mataisa."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration."

Lilith was being modest, but it was half true.

Thanks to Gin's skillful maneuvering, His Majesty the King had somehow come to completely trust the information from Luney Trading Company—through Lilith. If Lilith said something was black, she was in a position where she could make even white things black.

Of course, that's not all. Although they haven't made it widely known, Luney Trading Company, which has nearly half of the domestic trading companies and shops under its umbrella, can be said to control the movement of money and goods. Of course, only a very few people would realize it, but it would be easy for Lilith now to control the prices and logistics of all kinds of things.

If Luney Trading Company wanted to, they could immediately dominate this country's economy.

"...Gin really overdid it..."

Lilith muttered under her breath.

Since this situation was her fault, Lilith reminded herself that it wasn't her responsibility.

"Well then, Father, is there anything else? I've provided all the information from my side, so if there's nothing else, I'd like to return to the academy."

"There's nothing in particular, but you're in a hurry. Couldn't you at least stay for dinner?"

"Thank you for the offer, but I'll decline. I have a dungeon class tomorrow, so I need to go to bed early tonight."

"Oh~ That's a shame. I thought we could have dinner together with Lilith."

"I'm sorry, Mother. I'll make it up to you next time."

Lilith squeezed Rina's hand tightly and smiled.

"A dungeon class, huh... But Lilith, don't you think there's no need to risk danger to raise your level anymore? If you're over level 20, isn't that high for a commoner? Do you understand your own value?"

"Of course, Father. Last year, I certainly participated in classes with the aim of raising my level, but this year, I want to participate because Brother Ruru is the teacher, prioritizing that above all else."

"...Ruruk, huh."

Her father made a sour face.

Lilith knows that her father dislikes Ruruk. She clearly heard the reason when they moved to this mansion five years ago.

It wasn't simply because he was the trigger for losing the first wife.

At that time, her father told Lilith and Rina:

"I've said this many times, but don't get close to Ruruk. He... is not the real Ruruk."

Originally, Ruruk was born with an incurable disease at the cost of his beloved wife's life.

Her father harbored complex feelings of love and hate towards Ruruk, and avoided him by confining him. Apparently, except for the bridge of his nose, Ruruk's delicate and beautiful features resembling a woman were just like his wife's. He avoided Ruruk as much as possible because he couldn't control the complex emotions that welled up when he saw Ruruk's face.

But that changed on the day Ruruk turned 5 years old. In other words, the day Ruruk died once.

"Ruruk certainly died at that time... he died. For some reason, he didn't become an undead but revived, but from then on, he was clearly a different person. He is Ruruk, but not Ruruk. Lilith, Rina... let me be honest. I'm afraid of him. Someone else has been living in Ruruk's skin all this time. Verugana must have noticed long ago... Why doesn't she say anything?"

No matter how much he avoided him, he was his real father.

There was no way he wouldn't notice the change in Ruruk's inner self.

At that time, both Lilith and Rina were shocked.

However, upon careful consideration, Lilith realized that the Ruruk she had come to like was the different person. Thinking about it that way, she realized that she should rather be happy that the inner self had changed. Of course, reading the atmosphere, she couldn't tell her father that.

And now, Lilith understands the circumstances of Ruruk's inner self.

She knows that there are others in similar positions. And that includes her most trusted friend. And those around Ruruk.

Lilith smiled.

"It's alright, Father. Brother Lulu is not an evil existence. He's a bit mischievous and twisted, but he's a kind-hearted person. And now he's become stronger than anyone else. More than that, do you know, Father? Brother Lulu's existence rank is royal! There's no other royal existence in this country. Even looking across the continent, we can only clearly confirm the Dragon King of Bargia and the Guild Master of the Adventurers' Guild. Do you understand how wonderful Brother is, being so strong yet gentle and not arrogant? It's unthinkable that he's evil, rather he's wrapped in a mystery like a messenger sent from heaven, and his heart is like a cloudless blue sky—"

"Rina, please stop Lilith."

"Isn't it fine? Talkative Lilith is cute like a child, isn't she?"

Lilith spoke in ecstasy, while Rina smiled.

Looking at the two of them, her father sighed.