Chapter 65: Clouds of Doom (2)
Arlene told us all about everything that happened in the city on the night of the ball. It was a quite intense tale of a demon suddenly appearing from within the groups of the CEF, and the murder of all the CEF members.
It was a fairly shocking event. She had had a hard time.
One thing I was confused about was how easily she had been corrupted. But on the other hand, the demon’s nature itself was something unlike anything I had seen.
At a later point, I asked Weiss if she knew what kind of demons these Doppelgangers were, and she denied knowing, as well. Even though Weiss had been giving some magically enhanced seeds to demons, it was not all of them.
"The demon side of the continent is small, but that’s still a big place."
The night went by like that. The next morning came around, and Arlene was still with us.
It felt as if things would now go back to how things were before. The fear and worry we had about the Grim Palace turning into a land of war were gone.
The CEF couldn’t get its information across, nor was the North against us anymore. Things had reached a more peaceful conclusion than I had previously thought.
There was the question of what to do with the demon. It would have been a problem earlier, but now the dukedom could publicly mention the fact that a CEF soldier had turned into a demon and spread it around.
The CEF would lose a lot of influence, and the Reinvelts would have a lot of strength.
I was hanging clothes after laundry when Arlene somehow popped up.
"Hey, Mister Butler."
"Yes, what do you need?"
"Mind if I give you a hand?"
"I insist you do."
"Pfft."
Arlene reached into the basket and started putting up the sheets with me.
"Your name is Phantom?"
"That’s right."
"Like... the thief Phantom. Have you ever heard of him?"
Another smile left me.
"I am him."
"Ah... Sure. Just because I got to see the Witch Queen, you think I’ll believe anything."
I turned to Arlene. This was pissing me off now.
"Do you want proof?"
"What?"
I pointed at her chest.
Arlene looked down. Her face started to turn red. When she looked up, I was spinning the bra she had put on today in my hand.
"W-when?! What magic!?"
"No magic, lady."
She reached out to snatch it back, and I gracefully handed it over, too. Though I was a thief, being a gentleman thief was equally important. I didn’t touch the padding at all, just the straps.
Arlene put her hand under her shirt right in front of me and started putting her bra back on. When she had to check the fit, she turned around. Her ears were red.
"Look down this time."
Her breath hitched.
The girl quickly touched her pants and her hips, then turned back angrily. "It’s still there!"
"Yeah. How would someone steal that? And why?" I said, as if she were being ridiculous.
Hah.
Funny girl.
With that, I returned to hanging the clothes up.
"I still don’t believe you."
"You don’t need to." I had hit the Reinvelt Castle many times when I was younger anyway. It was an easy target.
"Say. What were you doing in Serenia?"
"We came to enjoy the party and buy some things."
"Buy... for money. What do you think of selling the cure?"
It was the next most natural question.
"The nobles or even the empire can pay anything. Whatever you want. I’ll make that happen. We won’t disturb the Grim Palace, either, and get you whatever riches you could possibly need, however you want them."
"You think the potion would achieve peace?" I asked.
"It’s possible."
What a naive outlook.
"Aren’t you a political genius? You said you changed the narrative and everything. You should know better."
"It won’t be easy, I admit."
"A war will break out within days. The people who derive their power from fear will not let this go, especially when the truth that this came from the Grim Palace comes out. The CEF, the Prime Minister, and the nobles close to them—do you think they’ll just sit and watch a cure for corruption go away? It is a tragedy, sure, but for many people, such tragedies become their greatest source of power."
Was there even a need to explain all this?
The cure to corruption could flip the world.
It could, as things were, also ruin it.
Arlene bit her lip.
"Perhaps not now, but eventually, if we have more power."
A sudden realization hit me. I looked into the girl’s eyes. She knew everything. She was saying it as a way of testing me. To get the Grim Palace to support the North in their quest for power—is that what she wanted?
HAH!
"You’re an impressive girl for a noble."
"For a thief, you’re very smart. A little too smart, in fact."
We were both seeing through each other. Annoying. I pointed at her chest again.
Arlene looked down, then lunged at me.
"Give it back! Why would you do it fucking twice!?"
"HAHAH! You were being annoying!"
"Fucking hell, so you’ll take my bra!?"
The two of us played around a little like that. That’s when someone rushed up to the roof. It was Treska.
"S-sir! Sir Phantom!"
Treska yelled. We were in a slightly awkward pose, with Arlene Reinvelt almost on top of me, and me with her bra in my hand. He looked at us, at me specifically, his brows tightened into a frown.
Hey. What the fuck? You’re misunderstanding, brat. Don’t say a word to Weiss, please! I wanted to yell that, but before I could, the kid shook his head and straightened up.
"There’s an intruder!" he said. "An intruder was trying to get into the Grim Palace."
What the fuck?
A second time??
***
The Gardener Gnome was sitting in the hallway of the hotel reception.
The receptionist brought him a cup of coffee. He didn’t have a mouth that opened to drink it, but the gnome liked the "show" of it. People had already become used to having a gnome around in the hotel these days.
Soon, the newspaper delivery came. The receptionist, used to it already, handed the newspaper to the gnome, but she stopped, stunned at the report.
The gnome saw her and took the paper from her hands.
On the first page, in bold letters, was a breaking report.
[Arlene Desmond il Reinvelt is a Corrupt, and the Reinvelt family is hiding her in Serenia]
A bombshell had been dropped.
