Meanwhile, the Baron

Turning back the clock to just when Emi had begun fighting the Topopolock stampede.

Baron Martz, together with the butler Sneigen, was repairing the barrier stone in the study.

The study looked out on the very grassland of the magic practice grounds...... in other words, the site of the decisive battle between Emi and the Topopolock stampede.

The cries of the Topopolocks, louder than the rain, set the windows shaking and rattling.

Earlier, at the moment the alarm rang out through the mansion.

(Did someone break the barrier stone!?)

That was what the baron thought.

He wondered if it was the work of someone targeting his wife and daughter.

With one incident or accident after another that could only mean someone was after his wife and daughter, such a thought was hardly strange in itself.

But judging by the state of the barrier stone, he had no choice but to reject that idea.

A single crack had formed in the crystal ball portion of the barrier stone.

Because of it, the magic power output had stopped working properly and the barrier could no longer be generated, but......

The barrier stone had been kept under strict security, stored inside the study's safe.

The barrier is the cornerstone of the mansion's defense. As a rule, the barrier stone is installed and operated in a location where no one other than the person in charge can touch it.

And the combination to open that safe was known only to the baron and his wife, Emma.

Since neither of them could be the culprit, he had no choice but to conclude that the barrier stone had cracked by chance, by sheer bad luck, just happening to do so at this exact moment.

And, worse luck still, the spare barrier stone, kept under the same strict security for replacement, turned out to be defective too, and the barrier could not be made to work properly.

(Good heavens...... it's as if fate has forsaken me, there's no other way to see it)

The baron turned pale and broke into a cold sweat.

Still, there was hope yet of restoring the barrier.

For just such a situation, the barrier stone came with a way to repair the crystal ball, though it took a little time.

This crystal ball possessed a self-repair function.

If magic power was poured into it, the damage would be repaired, albeit gradually.

The mechanism was described in the instruction manual, but...... it was far too technical for the baron, a layman, to comprehend.

Regardless, the important thing was that simply pouring magic power into the crystal ball would repair the damage, and the barrier could be used again.

Fortunately, the baron was a fighter who had once made his name as a first-rate adventurer, and he was fairly confident in his magic power.

And so the baron and the butler Sneigen had put their heads together, the two of them pouring magic power into the crystal ball on the desk ever since.

“Disaster...... this is a disaster. This happened because we invited a cursed child into the mansion......”

Sweat beading on his forehead from the unpleasant feeling of magic power being drawn out through the palm he pressed to the barrier stone, Sneigen muttered on and on.

“That talk again, Sneigen? Emi, has nothing to do with this.”

Exasperated, Martz let out a sigh.

“‘Black-haired, black-eyed people bring disaster’? That's just a superstition.”

“My lord, you are mistaken. Even if one cannot explain why, it is a fact. Look: right now, the Salar baronial house is being driven into a corner.”

In truth, most people would have accepted Sneigen's position as the commonsense view.

That was how deeply the loathing of black-haired, black-eyed people had taken root in this world.

Even the baron would have thought the same as Sneigen, if not for ‘a certain incident’ he had experienced during his adventurer days.

“If Emi hadn't been there, Sara and Emma would be lying crushed under the roof board by now, badly hurt, wouldn't they?”

“If that cursed child hadn't been here, such misfortune wouldn't have happened in the first place.”

“You still insist on calling that an accident, I see.”

“What else could it be but an accident?”

“You know, Sneigen.”

The baron paused here...... and swallowed the words that followed.

“......Let's stop this conversation for now. Concentrate on repairing the barrier stone.”

To lay bare what was in Baron Martz's heart: he suspected the butler Sneigen of being the mastermind behind the whole string of incidents.

Whether it was the Carriage Ambush or the roof board incident.

Sneigen's attachment and loyalty to Emma were genuine, but his attitude toward Sara, who had Martz's blood in her, was somehow distant.

The Salar baronial house had a poor relationship with the Count Mades house, Emma's birth family.

And the current head of the Count Mades house...... was not, a very good man.

He did not acknowledge the Mades blood that had spread half against the family's will, and he sought to erase it.

Enough so, at least, that such speculation wouldn't seem strange.

And if the Count Mades house gave the order, Sneigen would no doubt carry out schemes to erase Sara without a qualm, so long as Emma's safety was assured.

Sneigen was the one who had opposed Emi becoming Sara's guard until the very end.

Regarding the Carriage Ambush, as long as he was in league with the thieves, it would be easy to rescue only Emma afterward.

In the roof board incident, the fact that Emma herself had been put in danger counted against Sneigen's involvement, but it was not unthinkable that Sneigen had simply made some sort of mistake.

That was why Martz was keeping Sneigen with him even now, to keep him away from Sara and under watch.

If he showed even the slightest suspicious movement, Martz intended to cut him down.

But, even so.

These were all Martz's speculations.

There was no evidence.

Regarding the current malfunction of the barrier stone, he had suspected Sneigen's involvement at first, but in the end, this was not something caused by human hands, but a trick of fate.

Sowing discord among the household on mere speculation, in the middle of this crisis, would be a mistake.

Right now, he should devote all his strength to repairing the barrier.

The baron shook off the distracting thoughts and poured even more magic power into the barrier stone.

He tried to pour it in.

That was when it happened.

Gii......

The study door opened with a creaking sound.

“!?...... Emma?”

The one who entered was Baroness Emma.

“Stop...... repairing the barrier, right now, please.”

With a pained, bitter look, the baroness uttered those unbelievable words to the baron.

Her complexion was deathly pale, and her voice was trembling.

“W, what are you saying......!?”

The baron was already confused, and the sight of who came in next turned his mind completely blank.

It was his beloved daughter, Sara.

And coming in with her, the blade of a knife held to Sara's throat, was the servant, Mauve.