Chapter 21: Morg Camus (2)
Camus dropped a bombshell.
"Are you the thief who stole our ruby mine?"
The 8-year-old girl's bold question instantly froze the room.
First, the servants of the two families stiffened on the spot.
"...."
"...."
Even the mighty Morg Adolph stiffened in confusion.
Hugo, too, remained silent, looking somewhat dazed.
"What did I just hear?" is a thought that peeks through his poker face.
The Baskervilles' family room is silent, as if no living thing exists.
The silence is broken once more by the camouflage.
"Give it back, Ruby Mine."
The camouflaged creature strides forward and holds out a white palm in front of you.
Hugo, meanwhile, was still dumbfounded by the glare.
He'd never heard anyone say that to his face before, and even more so when it came from an eight-year-old.
Then. Adolf was the first to realize.
"Hey, kid, what's with the sudden rudeness?"
"I told you earlier, Uncle, that this man stole our ruby mine."
"Hey, hey, hey, rascal, when did I!"
"Before you got out of the carriage. Starting this month, the number of research rubies paid to me will be reduced, and it's all because of that stupid old mustached thief."
"This, this, this, this rascal, me, when!?"
"If you're asking when, about an hour and forty-two minutes ago? Come on, I heard it clearly...."
The camus gets a little sour.
At this point, Adolf felt a cold sweat break out.
He didn't have to look away to realize it. The temperature in the room had dropped several degrees.
"...hmm. An unfortunate mustached old man, and a thief?"
A cold voice came from the front.
Hugo turned to look at it, narrowing his eyes.
Adolf pulled out his handkerchief, covered his mouth, and coughed.
"Hmph. There seems to be a misunderstanding. I'll be sure to clear that up later."
"What does a puppy know? There is no need to explain to me the problem of the house education in the Morg."
Hugo's words were barbed, but he seemed to have already lost his temper.
Adolph turned to the camus, thinking it was an accusation.
"Camus, what a rude thing to say to an elderly member of a friendly neighborhood family."
"But what my uncle said...."
"Even if the servants around you said something bad, you shouldn't pass it on. There are many things in the rumor mill that are inflated... well, there are many things that are diminished."
Adolf and the camus turned to face each other.
Suddenly, Hugo was starting to get annoyed with the whole situation.
His mind flashed back to Butler Barrymore's report the other day.
"First report. About the bloodshed with House Morg at the ruby mines on Red Mountain....'
'We'll have a chance to discuss that soon enough. The Morg will come to me first.'
The ruby mines were actually an old dispute.
On the border between Baskerville and Morgue, the so-called 'Joint Security Zone', there is a mine that pumps out high quality rubies.
The problem is that the mine's entrance is above ground on Morg's territory, while the underground vein runs beneath Baskerville's territory.
Due to the angle of the vein, there is only one mining route that can be accessed from the surface, and that is from the mine on Morg's estate.
However, mining along this vein will inevitably lead to digging beneath the Baskerville estate.
<Imaginary view of Camus mine>
As a result, the Morgue have been trying to find a way around this.
The most tried and true is to secretly dig a tunnel and mine rubies.
However, the Baskervilles' hounds, with their keen sense of smell, picked up on the signs like ghosts and raided the Morg's mines.
There was bloodshed on several occasions, but nothing was ever reported in public, so relations between the two families remained good on the surface.
Even though it was boiling over on the inside.
And so it was that Morgue Adolf, who had come to discuss the friendly competition today, was actually here to talk about the ruby mines and the bloodshed.
So Hugo was prepared for that, too.....
"I want my rubies back! I can't do my research because I don't have enough rubies!"
Little did he know that an 8-year-old girl would be so insistent.
Hugo put his hand to his forehead at her demand.
"'Look at you, Adolf Governor. What kind of disgrace is this on an official visit?"
"Uh-huh. Hmm. I apologize for this, my lord. But I'm afraid I'm at a loss for words, unless she's saying something very wrong again."
"...what?"
"It's the right thing to say, isn't it, though it's crude coming from a child's mouth."
Hugo and Adolf's gazes met in unison.
"...."
"...."
Hugo tried to channel the Swordmaster's superhuman aura to pressure his intestines, but he was distracted by the camus that had stepped directly in front of....
He tries to slow his momentum down enough to make the camus back off.
"What do you think you're doing to a child, the Sword Star of the Empire persecuting an eight-year-old girl?"
That's when Adolf's pinzan comes in.
Adolf wrapped Camus in a cloak.
And Hugo with a scowl on his face.
It's embarrassing for an adult to argue with an 8-year-old, but this Adolf guy keeps trying to exploit her innocence for political purposes.
It was very annoying for Hugo.
Should we reignite the ruby mine issue, which we've been silent about?
For Baskerville, it's a matter of pride, and for Morg, it's a matter of business.
In the first place, rubies are more important to the Morg than to Baskerville, as they are used as a key ingredient in magical experiments.
Hugo is a closed-minded man who doesn't like to interact with other families, so he just wants to keep his mind off the ruby veins.
Training hounds and navigating the black mountains with enemies was enough to give him a headache, and he didn't want to get into trouble with a bunch of kids who wanted to play magic with a red stone that was only used for women's jewelry.
"Give me back my ruby mine. Without the rubies from there, it's hard for me to continue my studies."
"Uh-huh, Camus, you're talking about grown-ups, uh-huh, uh-huh."
I can't even stand to listen to the conversation between the girl named Camus and the guy named Adolf.
'No matter how you look at it, this is a political performance....'
But since the other party is a child, I can't say anything, and I can only boil inside.
Even if the iron-blooded swordsman, who is in a position to recognize things, asks me to stop.
... right then.
A voice made Hugo's ears perk up.
"Don't they teach you not to covet what belongs to others in Morg?"
A voice as cheerful and innocent as an 8-year-old camel.
It was 8-year-old Vikir.
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