I Became a Dark Knight the Empress Is Obsessed With

72 – Iscobar Manor – (6)

I searched the rest of the rooms in the main building, but couldn’t find any clues that seemed important. Cleta’s room and the housekeeper’s bedroom were all empty, so he didn’t feel any special emotions.

At first, the main building didn’t seem to have a basement, so I couldn’t even use the key.

Later, when he trudged out to the garden without any income, a woman with purple hair was squatting in the middle. It was Bonama or Eina.

I thought it disappeared during the search on the 1st floor, so was it in a place like this?

Eina was scribbling while holding a branch, and she looked like a child.

Of course, inside he was a 140-year-old old man.

I walked over to him and asked.

“What are you doing?”

“… … .”

Eina glanced at me for a moment, then looked at the ground.

Swish Swish. The branches she held drew letters on the dirt floor.

As I read the text, I suddenly frowned.

“… … warm corner?”

I checked the garden again.

Only then did I realize that the garden of the Iscobal Mansion was in a state of disrepair.

The rotting trees were bent at angles that would never come out of them naturally, and there were several craters on the ground in the garden, hidden by brush.

At first glance, it was a sign of a bloody struggle.

“Did the battle take place here? That, with the foreign church?”

Nod.

Eina said that and wrote again.

“… … Yuriad and the eight Guardian Knights… … With the church, I see.”

Come to think of it, she was also entrusted with the position of a guardian knight of the empire at the time. Of course, he would have participated in the battle in the territory.

I searched my memory. According to the records I read in the Imperial Library… … .

“I heard that half of the eight Guardian Knights died here.”

“… … .”

The moment Eina heard my words, she paused and then nodded.

Then I started writing down their names one by one.

I had never heard of their names, but some of them were still famous as powerful families in the empire.

“Are these four people?”

… … nod

I saw Eina’s expression.

She always had a smile on her face, and as soon as she talked about her dead comrades, she smiled bitterly. Her eyes were wet before she knew it, and she even felt a strange pity.

Perhaps the reason why Eina quit being a guardian knight and became a vassal of Harzfeld was because of the great shock at the time.

To that extent, the rebellion of the Iscobal family meant that it left a huge aftermath on many people.

As an uninvited guest who occupied the body, I felt a little guilty.

“… … sorry.”

When I lowered my head, Eina shook her head, got up from her seat, and tapped my shoulder.

It seemed to mean that there was no need to blame myself.

Before she knew it, she was smiling and looking behind her, and there she saw Millia, who had hurriedly followed, and Todd, who had staggered and fallen over a rock.

“her.”

Looking at Eina’s back as she walked away, I was deeply impressed.

Recovery is also very fast.

*

Then I stood in the garden and closed my eyes.

After entering the grounds of the Iscobal Mansion, I felt various emotions.

In Freed’s room, when he saw Cleta’s portrait, and when he found the gold necklace.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was stuck. It was the same even now. This buzzing feeling. It was unpleasant.

“It’s a basement.”

Hilda handed me the key and said so. It must have been explained that way while entrusting the request. It’s what Fried said before being possessed, so there’s nothing wrong with that.

That means we need to find a cellar hidden in this mansion.

There was nothing in the main building that I searched a while ago. The annex was the same. In other words, the last thing left was the family graveyard nestled in the backyard.

Cemetry. Isn’t this the perfect place to hide something?

In fact, Fried’s senses were also pointing there.

“… … After all, it is only there.”

I made my way through the slowly overgrown bushes. Soon, I entered a cemetery with several old tombstones randomly placed.

When I glanced at the names, it seemed that people from past families and servants had been buried without distinction. Judging by its condition, it must have appeared after being kicked out by the imperial family.

“… … This is a graveyard.”

Milia looked around in disbelief. Well, to the daughter of a duke, such a modest nobleman’s grave would be unacceptable.

Tears almost flowed compared to the imperial mausoleum I saw during the second act. It is the sadness of the fallen nobles.

But even for a while, we found a sculpture standing tall at the end of the cemetery.

“That… … .”

I approached it slowly.

A tomb made of pure white marble. Incongruous with the shabby place, the huge ceiling was blocking the rain, and in the middle of it, the family seal was engraved.

It is an embarrassingly luxurious tomb. There was clearly a suspicious look coming out of it.

Beneath the eaves lay a gold-plated sarcophagus horizontally, with small writing written on it.

Todd read it.

“Chloris… … Iscobal… … .”

“… … .”

I snorted.

The one who didn’t come out of the family picture was right here.

Todd looked quickly in my direction.

“no way.”

“yes. She is my mother.”

It seems that Fried’s mother, who passed away early, was asleep here.

The fact that the tomb was decorated so luxuriously must mean that the relationship between the couple was quite special.

“… … .”

I kept recalling the memory of Fried, who had defeated Atral.

The dying figure of Chloris and the face of Raham, who was trembling as if he had lost the world. And Cleta, who was looking up at her blindly and with a fierce face.

I stumble for a moment from the throbbing wind in my head.

At the same time, I was sure. If Raham hid something, it would be natural to hide it in the grave of the most important person.

rattle.

I approached slowly and brushed the dust off the lid of the sarcophagus.

Then I grabbed the hinge and slowly lifted it up.

“What, what?!”

“Sir Fried! What the hell are you doing!”

Everyone panicked and stopped me, but I didn’t stop.

If the original Fried had been here, he would have done this unconditionally.

The reason is that.

profit.

Eventually, the sarcophagus was opened, revealing what was inside.

And.

“uh?”

Todd, who had been closing his eyes tightly, opened his eyes and let out a shrieking sound. Millia also looked inside the sarcophagus and widened her eyes.

Inside the sarcophagus, there were stairs leading to the basement.

“It’s bad taste.”

You made a secret passage in my wife’s grave.

*

Taktak.

I squeezed down the dusty aisle.

The lantern had been broken by Todd, so the dimly seeping light was the milestone.

Soon after, we reached a section where the stairs ended and the floor leveled out. However, the son-in-law was so thick that he could not even recognize the front.

Eventually, Millia came out and recited a spell, and a magical light came to mind.

“crazy.”

“… … Nonsense.”

And everyone was speechless at the horrific sight unfolding in the cellar.

Millia let out a heavy breath. Todd repeatedly vomited and even vomited, and Aina captured the image of the basement with sharper eyes than anyone else.

Wouldn’t it look like this if the scenery of hell was transferred to reality?

That’s how horrible the basement was.

First of all, the corpses of the witch beasts that had become bodies were scattered all over the place. There were various types, from those with severed limbs to individuals without heads.

Chains hanging from the ceiling were full of things that looked like rolled mummies. A black tar-like liquid dripped through the cloth covering the body, giving off a foul odor even after decades had passed.

At the same time, in the cellar on one side of the cellar, the remains of a creature presumed to have been a human remained inside the bars.

“… … .”

A total of three bones.

The size is not that big.

Perhaps it was the children who were sacrificed to foreign gods, I dared to guess.

“Huh.”

“It’s the worst.”

This is the place where the evil ritual was performed by the foreign cult.

It was literally awful.

Milia grabbed my arm. Her hands were also twitching slightly.

“I hope this is… … Is this where Lord Fried was held?”

“maybe.”

“This is nonsense… … .”

Seeing how Fried’s consciousness reacted, he was probably right.

I felt my lower eyelids tremble.

Rather than anger, it was an emotion closer to visceral fear. A spinal reflex reaction left in Fried’s body during his lifetime. Could it be some kind of PTSD?

Trying to control my trembling hands, I moved on.

Fortunately, I was able to maintain my composure with difficulty. It was one of the few talents I developed after falling into this world.

“It’s inside.”

I stepped slowly and approached the solid iron door at the end of the cellar.

A doorknob with the seal of the family. In the center was a keyhole.

brought the key Naturally, it fit right into the hole. As I slowly turned the key, there was a click and the sound of the lock opening.

“Whoa.”

And my heart started beating like crazy.

what’s ahead of this It was a place that Fried wanted to enter so much. It may be dangerous. When you see the dreadful appearance of the basement, there’s no such thing as an ordinary room popping out.

A feeling of dread rose up inside him, but he shook it off by shaking his head.

Looking back, Millia was drawing her sword. Todd was in a state of hiding from a distance, and Eina was also in a ready posture.

It was definitely reliable power.

that was the strength I took a deep breath and turned the doorknob to push the iron door open.

profit.

A creepy metal sound was heard and the iron door opened, and thanks to Milia’s magic lighting, the interior of the room was visible at a glance.

And what was inside was something more terrifying than I expected.

iron puck. iron puck.

Chiriri.

Gluck.

A series of horrifying sounds were heard.

In front of my eyes, something huge, black, was beginning to make a squeaking noise.

From that mass, which expands and contracts as if breathing or sleeping, a string of viscous liquid stretches throughout the room.

“… … Hmm.”

Millia covered her mouth in a strong shock.

I couldn’t even guess what it was.

However, at the time of the Senate Council, I had already seen a creature similar to that once.

Sepia, a demon from the other world that Arwen commands.

This existence, emitting cosmic and primal fear, was remarkably similar to Sepia.

“Is that the demon you summoned at the time?”

Were you alive and not dead?

why?

“… … .”

My mind goes blank.

Nausea seemed to rise.

I felt like I wanted to turn my back and run away.

And that was the moment.

“I didn’t know you would come.”

A voice like a snake slithering by.

I heard it right behind me.

I hurriedly turned around and saw a woman in black standing at the entrance of the basement.

“Ugge.”

“Don’t struggle. It’s hard to catch.”

And her hand held Todd’s nape tightly.

Shaking the exhausted Todd around, the woman in front of me laughed so hard that the corners of her eyes curled.

“Hello, Iscobal.”

“… … Arwen.”

Arwen, the Apostle of Corruption.

she was in front of me