IMPORTANT:
Edited Chapter 50 & 52
Duke Perrine → Viscount Perrine
Edited Chapter 51
House Hawthorne → Duke to Earl
Syringa’s Crime
The day and a week after the dance party, Torenia-oba-san and Shion-oba-san gave birth one after another.
I stood watch for both their deliveries, and they gave birth without any issues. They’re both energetic boys.
10 days after the dance party, I was informed by Stellaria that Syringa’s information was gathered. Ojii-san, Oji-san, Okaa-san, the Chivalric Order Captain, Stellaria, and I gathered in the castle’s reception room.
“So, it’s about Syringa’s case huh. How was it?”
“Yes. First, after sorting out the official information, Viscount Syringa Perrine has 3 wives of noble birth and 3 wives of merchant birth. They have 2 children respectively, with 12 children in total, and amongst them, there is only 1 boy, who is the child of the merchant wife”
“6 wives and 12 children sure is appalling huh. It is dubious whether or not a Viscount House can adequately feed such a huge family”
“Yes. According to what the merchants that go in and out of the mansion say, it seems their lifestyle is rather frugal”
“I suppose that is only natural huh”
“And what about him selling his children as slaves?”
“Yes. It appears that he has not sold his wives’ children. We verified that they are alive as well. But amongst the merchants’ stories, there was someone who said that girls were dragged away or snatched by Syringa”
“What? That would be abduction, wouldn’t it. Is it true?”
“Yes. 4 girls have been dragged away in that manner. There is the possibility that they are being imprisoned in Syringa’s mansion. The children of those girls may be the ones being sold”
“Have you managed to get the slaver’s testimony?”
“No, as of now, we only managed to hear the plausible stories from the slaver’s servant”
“Hmm. In other words, no evidence huh”
“Yes. That is correct”
“But, if we can secure the girls who have been imprisoned, we’ll be able to charge him for the crime of abduction”
“Yes. But we are unable to charge into the mansion and search if we do not have evidence”
“That is true too. Now then, what do we do……”
“In that case, I shall infiltrate the mansion, find them, and bring them over here”
“Eh? Tsukuyomi-sama?”
“Tsukuyomi!”
Aah, Okaa-san is going to end up worrying huh.
“There’s no way we can rely on Tsukuyomi for something like that”
“But Ojii-sama, we cannot charge into the mansion even with the Royal Family’s authority, right?”
“That may be true”
“Even in the other day’s dance party, that man was plotting to bring back a certain girl. There is no telling whether or not new victims will arise while we are doing this after all, and I am worried about the lives of those who have been imprisoned as well. I think there is the need to rush”
“But how are you going to rescue them?”
“I am capable of Teleportation. If I can just have Stellaria bring me all the way to the front of the mansion, I can use Teleportation if it is to somewhere I can see”
“So I will first enter an empty room in the mansion and search all the rooms while I use See-Through Vision. As soon as I find the imprisoned people, I will transport them here with Teleportation one by one”
“Y-, you can do something like that huh!”
“Eeh, if it is one person at a time, it is the thing I have always been doing after all”
“Tsukuyomi. Is it not dangerous?”
“Okaa-sama. It will be fine. You are aware of my powers, right?”
“That, may be true”
“Well then, we shall set off after dinner tonight”
We can’t let a man like that do as he pleases. Now then, the rescue mission begins.
After dinner, Stellaria and I flew in the night sky with just the two of us.
While being hugged tightly by Stellaria, I fly towards Syringa’s mansion in the night sky. The moon isn’t out tonight. The starry sky is breathtakingly beautiful.
“Stellaria. Are you not scared?”
“Yes. Perhaps because it is dark and I cannot see the surroundings clearly, it is strangely not scary”
“Look up in the sky. The stars are very beautiful, you know”
“They really are. I wonder if it comes off unnecessarily close because we are in the sky?”
“Yeah. There’s nothing around that’s blocking after all”
I flew aiming for Syringa’s territory’s mansion while chit-chatting in order to eliminate Stellaria’s fear. That territory wasn’t that far from the Royal Capital. It’s a narrow territory opposite Duke Webber’s territory, beside Lia’s childhood friend’s Earl Hawthorne’s territory.
It was dead quiet around when we landed quietly outside the mansion.
“I’ll send back Stellaria with Teleportation. Could you wait for me in the castle?”
“Tsukuyomi-sama! I cannot do that. I will stay here. I will charge in right away if anything is to happen”
“Ah! I see. Thanks. Well then, could you stay here?”
“Yes. I will be waiting”
“Un. I’ll be off then”
“Be careful”
I first flew to the balcony of a certain room at the corner of the third floor. I used See-Through Vision on the wall directly without peeking through the window and looked inside the room. I used Teleportation into the room when I confirmed that there was nobody.
Whoosh!
It was a child’s room when I used See-Through Vision on the room next door. I go out to the corridor for once, float close to the ceiling without walking, and make my way while seeing through to the inside of every room.
The children’s rooms and the wives’ bedrooms. And then there was also Syringa’s room. Syringa isn’t asleep yet. He’s doing official duties in the study.
I move to the second floor next. I moved carefully, making sure to not be discovered by the servants. Since the entrance is on the second floor, there’s a reception room, a saloon, a hall, a dining hall, a kitchen, and whatnot. When I go down to the first floor next, there are the servants’ rooms, the laundry room, and the workshop. There isn’t any room where they would be imprisoned anywhere.
When I went all the way to the back of the first floor’s corridor, my eyes stopped on a locked door. There was a stairway that continued underground when I used See-Through Vision inside. Come to think of it, the Moon Palace’s basement was also like that.
I teleport to the stairway on the other side of the door with Teleportation. I then make my way underground while hovering. There was a door at the bottom of the stairway as well.
The room underground was a prison when I used See-Through Vision inside of that. In the 4 cells, a woman was locked inside each. All four of them were in sleepwear, and the cells only had a bed and a toilet. I use Teleportation to the other side of the door.
Whoosh!
“Hii!”
Of the four people, two people noticed me right away and raised their voices. I put a finger on my mouth, going 「shーh!」, and speak to them in a soft voice.
“Don’t let your voice out! I am not anybody suspicious”
“Everybody, were you abducted here? Please keep quiet and nod if that is the case”
The 4 of them nod their head altogether.
“Well then, I will rescue everybody from here on out. I will bring you to Nemophila Royal Castle; please do not raise your voice no matter what happens. Okay?”
They nodded altogether.
I used Teleportation and entered one of the cells. The woman who was surprised by that ended up letting a soft voice out, going, 「hii!」, but she covered her mouth with her own hands right away and held on. The other 3 are also placing their hands on their mouths.
“Well then, excuse me”
I used Teleportation all the way to the Royal Castle’s reception room the instant I said that and hugged the first woman.
Whoosh!
Okaa-san, the Captain, along with several maids were holding blankets and waiting in the reception room.
“There are 4 people imprisoned in the dungeon. I will bring the others over as well right away”
Whoosh!
I continued to transport the 3 people to the castle after saying that and returning to the mansion. And then, lastly, I flew to where Stellaria, who was waiting outside the mansion, was.
Whoosh!
“Stellaria. Sorry to keep you waiting. There were 4 people imprisoned in the dungeon. I already sent the 4 of them to the castle’s reception room”
Stellaria hugged me and sighed loudly.
“You are safe!”
“Un. I made you worry huh. Let’s return then, shall we”
“Yes”
I was hugged even more tightly than usual. We then teleported to the reception room.
Whoosh!
“Tsukuyomi! Welcome back!”
“Okaa-sama. I am back”
In the reception room, there were 4 women covered in a blanket. They were being interviewed while sitting in their seats and drinking tea. All 4 of them were still making worry-looking faces.
According to them, the girls were all in their 10s. It seems they were forcefully dragged away by Syringa, and they became sex slaves and lived in the dungeon ever since. They respectively gave birth to one child, and it seems the oldest woman alone gave birth to 2.
It seems they don’t know the whereabouts of those children, but they said that all of them are girls and were probably sold to the slavers. They were asked whether they wanted to retrieve their children, but none of them answered. It might be inevitable.
When we asked whether they could testify since we would be arresting Syringa and charging him with the crime of abduction from here on out, they explicitly answered that they would testify.
During that time, I used See-Through Vision on the women’s bodies and checked whether they were pregnant and whether there was any visually perceivable illness. But luckily, they weren’t pregnant, and I didn’t find any problem either.
I would very much like to return them home right away, but arresting Syringa comes first. He’ll probably notice that the girls are gone by tomorrow morning at the latest. When that happens, he might go to their parents’ home and take them back after all.
We decided to have the girls take a bath and have a good rest. As for Syringa, the Chivalric Order will head to apprehend him first thing tomorrow morning.
According to what I heard from Stellaria on a later day, Viscount Perrine was convicted right away, and on top of demolishing his house, we seized all his assets. It seems Syringa himself was sentenced to forced labour at the mines until death.
As for Syringa’s wives, they were judged to have been unable to go against Syringa’s tyranny, and they were simply sent to their respective parents’ homes with their children without any punishment.
And then, the 4 abducted girls were returned to their parents, and they were compensated using Viscount Perrine’s seized assets. On top of investigating the children those girls gave birth to, we bought them back from the slavers, and they became the adopted children of noble households that wanted children.
As for Viscount Perrine’s territory, it was delegated to the neighbouring Earl Hawthorne House, and Earl Hawthrone was promoted to Marquis.
As for Viscount Perrine’s mansion, it would be problematic to transfer it to somebody else with the prison underground intact, so it was destroyed. Well, the Feudal Lord is no longer around, so that former Feudal Lord’s mansion is unneeded huh.
Ojii-san suddenly said at the dinner after everything was settled.
“Tsukuyomi. I want to reward you for the massive accomplishment of resolving Viscount Perrine’s case this time; is there anything you want?”
“Ojii-sama. I do not need anything. But if I can make a request, I am wondering if I can have the budget to distribute menstrual products at the shrine for free for the sake of the commoner women who cannot purchase them”
“That, is for the sake of our citizens, and something the country should think about originally, isn’t it. Is there nothing you want?”
“I am already blessed. The proposer fee from bringing Earth’s undergarment over is coming in every month, so much so that I cannot finish using it anymore. There is nothing I desire on top of that. So it ended up with the talk of the menstrual products just now……”
“Aah. Got it. Let’s set aside a budget for that”
“Ojii-sama. Thank you”
“Also, through this time’s incident, I gave it some thought and also asked Okaa-sama about the slavery system, and I have understood that it is not entirely bad”
“But shouldn’t we at least stop the procuring and selling of children of unknown origin like this time? There is no telling whether or not there will be the selling and purchasing of abducted children at this rate”
“I think we should mandate the slavers to verify their origin and record it on the occasion that they purchase slaves, and in the case where it is proven that an abducted child was sold and purchased, we ought to punish both sides”
“You’re completely right. I will send out a decree to the whole country right away”
“Thank you”
“Speaking of which, Armeria. This time around, there was a report from the promoted Marquis Hawthorne; Oscar, his eldest son, is taking Armeria’s maid, Lia, as his bride”
“My! That is something to be happy about. Tsukuyomi. Did you know anything about it?”
“Okaa-sama. It seems the two of them encountered each other at the dance party and went on to date. The fact that they were promoted to the same Marquis as Lia’s House this time around probably set the momentum”
“The result of the dance party is immediately showing huh”
“Yes. It is something to be happy about. And it seems that Mira has also started dating, you know”
“Well then, our maid has ended up becoming just Nina huh”
“We can just have somebody else come again, can’t we”
“Yeah. The happiness of the two of them is more important after all”
“Yes. Okaa-sama”
As I thought, I’m glad I did the matchmaking dance party.
