It is my Destiny to be the Savior of the Protagonist

After Ariadne left with the signed contract, the Marquis leaned his head against the sofa.

“Father.”

The Archmage was crumpled in the corner of the sofa like a rag.

“Why, son?”

“How do you feel about meeting your only granddaughter?”

“It was me who brought her, you bastard.”

“She was in pain the entire time she was brought here, so she needed to rest. Isn’t this the first time we’ve had a proper conversation?”

“A smart and grown-up kid, right? She looks a lot like Gloria.”

“Gloria wasn’t that smart. She’s a genius. She resembles me.”

The Marquis looked at his impudent father with astonished eyes, then only sighed. Even if he wanted to laugh at him for saying nonsense,, his father was a real genius and a great wizard. Erich or Ariadne’s cleverness must have been due to the lineage of the Archmage.

“… Anyway, she looks like Gloria too. At first, I thought she was the equivalent of Prince Eldeer, but the more I looked at her, the more she resembled the youngest. Especially her smiling face.”

The Archmage was silent for a while. He looked into the void with a complicated expression and asked abruptly.

“Did you pick out the clothes for the child?”

“No.”

“It’s Gloria’s. It’s her favorite dress when she was little.”

“I know.”

“It suits her well.”

“I think so too.”

“I still need to get new clothes.”

“I plan to.”

“Make a coat of snow fox fur.

“It has to be white like the child, so it’ll look good on her. You’re a good hunter, catch one and make it with its fur.”

“Even if you don’t say that, I will do it. A father should do what a father would do.”

“What do I do?”

The Archmage groaned and averted his gaze. The Marquis clicked his tongue and said.

“Don’t run away. Since you keep avoiding her, I think the child misunderstands you. What are you so ashamed of?”

“Did you brazenly raise your head in front of her? I couldn’t lift my head because I had no face.”

“If you have no face, you have to do better. What can be solved by splashing?”

“I have never had such regrets in my entire life. Just looking at that child’s face makes me go crazy.”

“I’ve never regretted it like this before, so neither will I.”

“No, you don’t know.”

Just as the Marquis frowned and tried to say something, the Archmage added weepingly.

“When she first greeted me, I made a face. I told her to let it go. By the way, that child, to a nasty old man who had never visited her before, who made an impression on me as soon as she saw me, begged me to take her.”

The Archmage rubbed his face with his wrinkled hands.

“It was a scream for help. Geez… It was a scream. I didn’t know until she screamed like that.”

“… Didn’t you understand and bring her?”

“I should have gone sooner. It was late. I’m always late to reach Gloria.”

“… For Gloria is late, but not for Ariadne.”

“She has eyes of not trusts.”

“Of course she can’t believe us. We are still not good.”

“Even when she did that to her hands, she didn’t groan… Even if I fall, I feel like crying but she…”

“It would have been an environment where she couldn’t be a child. So, from now on, you have to allow her to be like a child.”

“Yes, from now on… have to work hard So that she can live without any worries.”

The Archmage looked at the plate Ariadne left behind. There was an almost untouched cake.

“Let her eat more frequently. She is too small and thin.”

“Yes.”

The bartender shook his head and asked casually.

“What will Lord Eldeer do?”

“Whatever, I have to step on it.”

The Archmage laughed fiercely. Marquis Baek, who had been thinking for a while, asked.

“Shall we prepare for the Territory Battle? If the Kings call us, father can take care of it.”

The Archmage put on a face full of spirits.

“You bastard, doesn’t it make sense to start with the Territory Battle first? We should investigate and get custody of the child first.”

“Even if we investigate, it will be difficult to find evidence. The Duke should have pretended to care for his only daughter all this time. Father and I were still fooled, weren’t we?”

“Look at the scars on her arm. Wouldn’t everyone be surprised?”

“Father, if you don’t know anything else, Duke Eldeer is an excellent person in adorning himself. He also makes good use of his own appearance. He would have made up all the excuses, and he would have managed not to testify.”

“So Territory Battle is our better option. Just mobilize the knights and finish it quickly. Compared to the strength of the Golden Horn Knights of Eldere, our Snow Leopard Knights…”

The Archmage rested his chin and looked intently at his ardent son.

“Son.”

“Yes.”

“You are not good in politics.”

“Yes?”

“Who am I?”

“You are my father.”

“Dude, do you think I’m asking that?”

“…You are the Archmage.”

“Is that all?”

“What else?”

“This is why I am telling you not to do politics. Why are you worse than me, who only rotted in the Mage Tower since I was young? You are so good at fighting, you should fight hard for the rest of your life. Make sure to discuss political issues with your wife.”

Seeing his sullen son, he bowed down. The archmage shook his head and continued.

“I am the former royal mage, the current royal mage’s teacher, the highest mage in the Mage Tower, and now a standing member of the Continental Mage League and an advisory member of the Abyssal Royal Family. And you, my eldest, are the Marquis of Weaver, and my second is the owner of the Garcia Troupe. If Weaver says they will stop subjugating the labyrinth, who will suffer the most damage?”

“The royal family.”

“Where do Weavers import most of their food? To Eldeer, the kingdom’s largest food producer?”

“…No, it is the Kingdom of Duridot. It’s closer than Eldeer.”

“I know, you know. Do you know that the Garcia Merchant Company distributes the gold from Eldeer’s gold mine overseas?”

“Of course I know!”

“If you know, what will you do? I don’t know how to use it. Besides, son, tell me who is your wife.”

“Before marriage, she was the daughter of the Marquess of Quiselas and a member of the Royal Guard, and now she is Celiana Quizelas, who leads our family’s Snow Leopard Knights.”

“The lifeline that wets Eldeer’s granary is the Ruoma River. Where is the source of that river?”

“… Quizelas.”

“You bastard, why do you only think of Territory Battle when you know everything? What am I going to do with this big guy? All I can count on is Sally.” added the Archmage who clicked his tongue.

The Margrave shyly shut his mouth.

“I will take care of Ariadne’s custody, so you can do your research.”

“You mean the investigation into the experiments the child was subjected to?”

“Yes, and reexamine Gloria’s thought process.”

The Marquis’ eyes deepened.

“…Investigations so far have yielded nothing. Didn’t father look for it too?”

“I couldn’t find it. It was clean.”

Last year, a contaminated area appeared near the Duchy of Eldeer. ‘Horse Tomb’ was a polluted area built around the labyrinth. They have to clean it but destroying the core within the labyrinth would close the labyrinth. Then the contamination could be prevented from spreading further. Horse tombs were small in scale and it was a simple labyrinth of the lowest level. Eldeer’s Golden Horn Knights subdued the Labyrinth without difficulty. After the subjugation of the labyrinth, the next step was to clean up the contaminated area. The purification work required a large number of priests and spiritists. When the second party for purification was organized, the Duchess volunteered as a Spiritualist. Cleansing the contaminated area left by the lowest labyrinth. It was a relatively safe job, with no dealing with monsters or almost no accidents. It was a rare opportunity. It was only natural that the Duchess wanted to gain experience in spiritism.

For the Duchess, who is new to the contaminated area, the Duke set up a much larger-than-usual follow-up party. Contamination was also strictly prevented. Nevertheless, as soon as the Duchess entered the contaminated area, she showed signs of contamination. In fact, accidents in which people were suddenly contaminated in contaminated areas were frequent. Just like a healthy person suddenly falls ill. The Duchess died just like that.

According to the previous investigation, this was all. Any way you look at it, it was just an unfortunate accident. But now that they had learned what the Duke had done to Ariadne, a vague suspicion arose.

“I will investigate again, focusing on the contamination process.”

At the words of the Marquis, the Archmage nodded heavily.”

“If it’s good enough to experiment with anti-pollution drugs, maybe we can use it as a poison.”

Contaminated water contaminates everything upon contact. The same was true of non-living things. Therefore, it was impossible to feed them secretly by putting them in food or water. It’s because you can’t hide it. It was unreasonable to touch an object buried in it, as the object would change strangely as soon as it touched it. So contaminated water was not used for poisoning.

This was the reason why he did not suspect that Gloria’s contamination was someone’s work. The archmage held up the unfinished elixir bottle that Ariadne had given him.

“With this, it might have been possible for him to contaminate Gloria without anyone knowing.”

“Yes, he could do it.”

“I’ll look into this for now.”

The Archmage packed the elixir bottle and put it in. The Marquis, who was looking at it blankly, asked.

“Father, what do you think of what Ariadne said about the elixir?”