Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 153 (Part 1)

Opening the closet and retrieving the dagger was simple. Erasing any traces didn’t even take five minutes.

‘Hmm?’

Just as Rodin was about to leave Harrison’s room, he sensed someone’s presence. After hesitating outside the door for a while, the person carefully opened it.

‘A maid?’

1 a.m.

At a time when no one was expected to enter, the person who appeared was a girl in her late teens. She wore the uniform of the maids serving the Marquis of Richmond’s household, and there was no notable energy emanating from her.

‘She really seems to be just a maid.’

There were no signs that she had learned any combat techniques. The calluses on her hands were the result of menial labor, not swordsmanship.

The problem was that the girl, who appeared to be a maid, was holding a knife.

Gulp!

The maid hesitated several times as she looked at the sleeping Harrison. She raised and lowered the knife repeatedly, unable to make a decision, stuck in a cycle of hesitation.

‘Looks like she holds a grudge against Harrison.’

Rodin knew Harrison’s true nature. Harrison was the kind of man who roamed around at night, murdering innocent retired mercenaries just to obtain the statue of the Kingdom of Volas.

In front of Rodin, Harrison acted politely, but that was only because he feared the archmage. He was by no means a genuinely courteous person.

‘He’s really committed a lot of sins both inside and outside these walls.’

Outside the lord’s castle, he had been killing retired mercenaries—murders committed using artifacts with special abilities.

Inside the castle, a maid was aiming for his life. Considering the maid’s murderous impulse, it was clear Harrison had done plenty of wrongs to her as well.

‘What should I do?’

Before Rodin could decide, the maid acted first. She raised the dagger high and then forcefully plunged it downward.

Puk!

Under the effect of the Sleep spell, Harrison, unable to resist, was stabbed in the abdomen and remained asleep, unable to wake even during the attack.

‘Will she get caught?’

Rodin couldn’t be sure. He had no way of knowing what evidence she might have left elsewhere.

‘At least I should erase the evidence here.’

It wasn’t out of pity for the maid. Helping her would also erase any suspicion that might fall on himself.

‘If she’s lucky, she might survive without getting caught.’

After standing frozen for a moment, the maid quickly fled from Harrison’s quarters. Perhaps flustered, she had abandoned the dagger used for the crime on the floor.

‘Tsk. She should’ve at least finished the job properly.’

Harrison wasn’t dead yet. He remained unresponsive due to the Sleep spell, but his faint breathing continued.

‘Can’t be helped.’

Rodin picked up the dagger and stabbed Harrison again in the chest. The blade plunged into the same spot where the maid had stabbed him earlier.

He drove it in deep, severing Harrison’s life completely.

Then, using magic, Rodin erased only the memories imprinted on the dagger. The bloodstains were left untouched.

Now, even if someone used magic to read the object’s memories, they wouldn’t find anything from this dagger.

Rodin also straightened the carpet the maid had disturbed while coming and going and wiped away faint marks left on the door.

‘The rest is up to fate.’

This was more than enough. In fact, he had done too much.

Rodin had no idea whether the maid was a good person or not.

Given Harrison’s character, the maid seemed more like a victim, but there was no certainty.

For all he knew, that maid could be an assassin pretending to be clumsy.

Without leaving any traces, Rodin exited the lord’s castle. Along the way, he periodically shared senses with Jito to monitor the castle’s security.

‘It’s quiet. Well, things will get noisy once morning comes.’

The mission was complete. After calling Jito back, Rodin swiftly left the castle grounds and managed to return to the campsite before dawn.

—

By morning, as Rodin had expected, the Marquisate of Richmond was in an uproar. It was a major incident—the heir of the Marquis of Richmond had been murdered overnight.

Due to his poor talent in swordsmanship, he was never recognized, and thus, he was never even called the “heir.” Without any real supporters, he was practically a non-entity.

Yet, despite the neglect, he was still a blood relative of the Marquis. The Marquis of Richmond would not overlook his son’s death.

“Find him! Search the lord’s castle, search the entire territory—turn every stone if you have to, but find the culprit!”

“Yes, Your Lordship!”

The Marquis initially considered asking Rodin for help, but then remembered that Rodin had left the territory the previous day. With no other choice, he sought help from the mercenary guild.

At the moment, the only available mage was the one stationed at the mercenary guild.

“Lord Marquis, has the crime scene been tampered with?”

“Only the body was removed—the scene remains untouched.”

“Hmm… The chest wound was inflicted with this dagger. Normally, in such situations, one would expect the victim to open their eyes or struggle, but Harrison showed no signs of resistance.”

“Could it have been black magic?”

Having previously suffered from black magic, the Marquis couldn’t shake the suspicion that the Rotten Marquisate might be involved. The dagger used in the murder seemed to contain black magic, and the room itself felt cursed.

“Hmm? No, it seems more like a sleeping drug.”

“A sleeping drug?”

“Yes. I can smell alcohol on Harrison’s body, but there’s no way he would have been so drunk as to remain unconscious.”

Rodin hadn’t known this, as he hadn’t cared, but in truth, Harrison’s drunken assaults were quite notorious.

Not only within the lord’s castle but also out in the territory, Harrison had frequently entered taverns to drink. Whenever someone displeased him, he would throw whatever he could grab and curse at them.

Because of this, even the mercenaries had a rough idea of Harrison’s alcohol tolerance.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Considering Harrison’s usual drinking capacity, this amount of alcohol would’ve only made him slightly tipsy.”

“So, someone must’ve spiked his drink with a sleeping drug?”

“Yes. I suggest investigating through the maids first.”

This was something even Rodin hadn’t anticipated. If he had known about the sleeping drug, there would have been no need to use the Sleep spell.

“Hamilton.”

“I’ll conduct the investigation.”

The knights and the territory’s security forces were mobilized to thoroughly interrogate the maids. In the room of a maid named Lishulia, they found sleeping drugs.

They immediately began interrogation and extracted a confession before sunrise. The culprit was indeed Lishulia.

However, during the interrogation, it also came to light that Harrison had repeatedly assaulted and raped the maids. Some of the victims were even married women.

For the Marquisate of Richmond, this revelation caused an even greater scandal than the black magic incident from before.

—