A Wish to Grab Happiness - Book 13: Chapter 321

Chapter 321: The Wicked Familiar’s Cheerful Laugh

The prison Lord, Palome Bashar, was alone in his room with his mouth clenching in his teeth. His fingers were tapping the desk as if he was restless. A knock, a knock, a knock echoed through the room for a while.

It was perhaps a habit, he thought. Palome had the habit of being alone while trying to solve a problem, or a future problem.

Palome Bashar didn’t count on anyone else. He was well aware of how vague and baseless human words could be.

People didn’t know much, yet they spoke as if they knew everything. They were like fools who spoke silly delusions as the truth. There were many of them in this world.

Of course, not all vague words were bad. In a sense, socializing was also interesting in allowing such ambiguity.

Joking, making up stories, and talking cheerfully about them, which could be seen as rumors, were probably skills necessary for interacting with fellow humans.

However, Palome was not good at it. As an aristocrat, it was his duty to show at one or two social appointments. However, just swinging ambiguous words around as he pleased was not something that went well with his persona.

Therefore, Palome’s own evaluation in social circles was that of an uninteresting human being.

He was a solid person, but not a person who could say jokes happily.

Palome no longer wanted to fix that habit. He accepted it as his true nature. Scholarly or obstinate. It seemed to be aristocratic just by saying the word noble.

That’s why Palome could think carefully and fully when being alone. He couldn’t rely on other people’s thoughts.

His suspicious eyes moved incessantly under the drowsy eyelids, searching for answers. Then, he let his tightly closed lips open slowly.

「Hey, I guess you are here. Guardian. 」

It sounded like he was muttering to himself, yet it was a voice calling out to someone.

However, no one else entered the room, let alone the chief guard. His voice was so soft that no one could hear it.

However, a well-breathed voice echoed.

「Yes, yes, yes. What should I do, my Lord? 」

It was a jumping, cheerful voice. Even though this Guardian was nowhere to be seen in the room, only its voice resounded through.

It was Palome’s familiar, so to speak. The voice ran around the room, but strangely it didn’t leak out of the room.

「I’ve been here at least a hundred of years ago. I know your father, your grandfather, and all before him. I always had some work to do back then. It’s nice to be comfortable in your generation since I do anything at all!」

Apparently, the owner of the voice seemed to have the nature of speaking repeatedly. After each word, it moved on to the next topic.

This sort of thing was Palome’s worst enemy. If he didn’t try to stop his Guardian’s words, it’d continue to talk forever.

Palome spoke after accumulating annoyance in his chest.

「Isn’t it natural? How can I trust someone like you, whom I don’t even know? I don’t understand how my father, no, all the previous family heads, trust you blindly from generation to generation.」

Palome’s angry gaze was directed into the air. In an empty place where there should be no one. As a matter of fact, Palome had not even considered exactly where the owner of the voice was.

He knew that it could be anywhere as long as it was this prison. That’s what it was.

A long time ago, someone used the essence of magic during the age of the gods and this being came to life.

Palome didn’t know why the Guardian continued to stay in this prison. It said it knew his father, grandfather, and the ancestors.

However, for generations, the Bashar family had treated him as a familiar, and sometimes acted as a companionship. Palome well remembered thinking that he was insane when he first heard the story.

Why were his ancestors able to deal easily with such a strange and unknown existence? Palome couldn’t understand it, even now.

From the beginning, Palome hated witchcraft and magic. What he vaguely understood, he exercised under the law he barely grasped.

No one could give a definitive answer as to why it occurred and how powerful it could be. What a stupid science.

That’s why Palome didn’t trust magical familiars, let alone witchcraft, from the bottom of his heart. He decided to doubt everything until he knew its foundations.

Seeing Palome’s irritated expression, the Guardian said.

「Then why did you choose the path of a sorcerer? 」

Palome responded by moving his distorted mouth.

「It’s because I don’t want to ignore things that I don’t know what they are. Ignorance is not the key. Obviously!」

“I see”, the Guardian replied happily. The cheerful voice did not change its tone from the beginning to the end.

Palome wondered why it was so troublesome to deal with the familiar. Palome spoke while letting out several sighs. His voice sounded like he was thinking hard.

…There is an intruder in the prison. Catch it.

The Guardian, who was a pool of cheerfulness, responded with a surprise tone. Didn’t the reports from the chief guard say there was no abnormality?

Hearing the perplexing tone of the Guardian, Palome shook his head and continued his words.

「People are sloppy. No matter how hard you try to believe, those words are always mixed with lies.」

The chief guard implied that they searched every wagon and sacks, but Palome doubted his words. Was it that accurate as it was?

Considering the personality of the guards, at most just a few people would have checked if there was anything wrong with the cargo. It would be too frivolous to take that report as truth.

One information was not enough. There should be two or three, no more. Otherwise, there was no way Palome would trust it.

So, although Palome hated magic and witchcraft, he sought his familiar.

「Guardian, listen. There must be someone sneaking into this prison. Investigate every corner. Then, if necessary, capture that person or annihilate.」

Palome thought about this matter many times over. But really, he couldn’t believe the story about what happened with the merchants outside.

Even though the merchants were attacked by a large number of night thieves and had their wagons stolen, it was absolutely impossible for most of them to return unscathed. If the other party was the night thieves, it wouldn’t be strange for them to set everything on fire before escaping. The night thieves did that much. At least, the carriages and goods would’ve been destroyed.

Every good was safe. What a luck. No! For Palome, it was unfathomable and suspicious. The same went for the subordinates who didn’t think it was that dubious. Therefore, Palome concluded that something abnormal happened.

Palome was an endlessly skeptical and bigoted person. No matter how much he struggled, he didn’t accept the conclusions everyone had drawn.

There was only one exception. The Guardian of this prison and the only familiar who served him and his family. Palome still didn’t know why, but he trusted this demon, because he knew it wouldn’t make a mistake when taking a task. Of course, Palome didn’t want to admit it in his heart.

The Guardian said in a cheerful, singing voice.

「I understand. I can do that even in my sleep because this prison is like my body. 」

The Guardian’s voice shook the room and then disappeared somewhere.