I Want To Be Your First – R19 - Chapter 98

There was a huge gap between his attitude towards visitors and towards his wife. Violet gave a ridiculous laugh and nodded to Berthwald as if to calm down.

“No, no. The expenses for the search were too expensive then! Isn’t this beyond my control? You should reduce it to that level if you want to commission a guild.”

“Did you have to send fully armed soldiers to search the mansion? I thought I was about to die when a mysterious man suddenly barged into the room while I was asleep. In any case, what brings you here when I’ve already paid for the commission from the other day?”

“You! I’m not here for money today. It’s the truth.”

“Tell me about the entire situation first. I’m unable to believe it since Mother’s fists would fly when it’s unsatisfactory.”

At the cold atmosphere, Ruth looked at Violet, wondering whether he should be holding a sword or not. As such, Violet pulled Ruth back with a smile.

“I’m here to accept your request. The request that Richter sent was from you, right? And well… I also came to see your face.”

“…Me?”

“I’m just curious about you, and the lady you’ve gotten married with.”

Violet placed a hand on her waist and looked at the two with a leisurely attitude. When her gaze reached Ariel’s gray eyes, Violet’s eyes widened slightly.

“Ah. Aha, Hooh….”

Upon seeing Ariel’s face, a look of interest appeared on her countenance.

It was as if she had discovered a new toy, her eyes were full of curiosity and glinting to a frightening degree. Sensing her oddness, Berthwald quickly hid Ariel behind him.

While he had never expected a normal meeting, the way she was filled with interest caused the back of his head to become cold as he got an uneasy hunch.

“Save the greetings for later. If you’ve come for the request… Come this way for a moment.”

Berthwald pointed towards a gazette that was located in the middle of the garden while giving Violet a meaningful glance.

Other than the unpleasantness of Violet, he didn’t want to bring up the topic of wizards in front of Ariel. He was afraid that she would bear unnecessary hope in a situation where there weren’t any clues, and showing her the appearance of requesting things of others hurt his husbandly pride.

“Wife, I’ll be conversing over there, so please wait here for a moment.”

“Yes. Please go ahead.”

Ariel, who sensed the atmosphere and acted accordingly, nodded readily and walked to a nearby bench.

Violet pointed to Ariel with a chin gesture at Ruth, who was looking at them expressionlessly. Ruth mumbled like he wanted to say something, before bowing his head and following Ariel towards the bench.

They left Ariel and Ruth behind just like that, and the mother and son duo took a seat at the negotiating table. Violet opened her mouth first.

“That kid is quite interesting. The only person I’ve ever seen in that family is the Duke of Aegis, but she doesn’t look like the Duke at all. The Young Duke isn’t timid like her, is she?”

“Like a wild horse, Gwenyth Aegis is a strong and boorish woman. She doesn’t look like Ariel at all. My wife… who knows. If I had to say, she resembles the Duchess.”

“Is she really blind?”

Berthwald clicked his tongue at the sudden topic.

From the looks of her insidious expression, it was obvious that she asked despite being aware. Violet was the guild leader of Northride, which none can match in terms of intelligence. Was there anything that she didn’t know about Ariel?

“Aren’t you already aware of it?”

“Was that child the one that you had planted my kids in the duchy for, in order to inspect her? I was wondering what she looked like for you to have got it bad… Berry, so that’s the type that you like. I thought that you’d like sexy women since you look like me, but you actually preferred a more innocent type.”

If only she wasn’t good at talking about embarrassing things. With her chin in her hands, Violet continued with a look as if she was about to die of amusement.

“What part of her made you fall so hard? The instant you announced that you’re about to get married, the guild received a lot of requests. Who’s the first daughter of the Duke of Aegis, and why were you both getting married. It seems that you were quite popular.”

“Thanks to that, you must have collected a lot of commision fees.”

With a corner of his mouth raised, Berthwald spoke sarcastically. Violet smiled and nodded.

“I’ve heard about the news. You’re looking for a wizard?”

When she got to the point, Berthwald’s attitude became even more serious.

“Yeah. I wasn’t sure if the guild member I met secretly could find one.”

“Of course. The Empire was the one that destroyed the wizards, so who would look for a wizard here? The other countries had the tact to suppress wizards after watching the Empire, and there’s but only ten actual wizards that are left in the world.”

“Is it that hard to find them?”

“Yeah. It would be hard for even a senior guild member to find them. Wizards aren’t wizards for no reason. They are naturally talented at erasing their traces.”

Berthwald’s eyes curved slightly and he gave a faint smile.

“It’s more suspicious from the way you don’t have the confidence to find them.”

Violet made a sulky face, with the corners of her mouth drooping downwards. Though she seems to be making her own cute expression, it only seemed ridiculous to Berthwald. Violet laughed dryly and erased her expression, before giving a composed look.

“I’ve never said that I couldn’t find them.”

“Where are they?”

“What about the commission fee?”

Violet asked with a smile, and Berthwald’s mouth curled up gently.

Anyone would find their mother-and-son relationship dreary, but on the contrary, both of them felt that the distance of strictly business association was just right. Berthwald looked down at the table and answered in a low voice.

“The amount I offered that guild member was two million gold.”

“Ohh, two million gold. How impressive.”

If it was two million gold, it was enough to buy five luxury mansions in the capital. It was a huge amount, and was around the amount that highly ranked guild members would accept.

Berthwald leaned his chin on a fist and stared at Violet. Their similar faces were respectively reflected in their pupils.

After finishing his calculation, Berthwald calmly recited the amount.

“I’ll offer you five times that.”

The smile on Violet’s face disappeared as she looked at Berthwald with a dumbfounded expression.

Even if the Janssel family were a wealthy family, ten million gold wasn’t an amount that could be mentioned casually.

Contrary to her surprised reaction, Berthwald was extremely calm. While ten million was a huge sum, it wasn’t a difficult sum to gather. No, it wasn’t even that large of a sum. If Ariel could open her eyes and look at him with a smile, he was willing to pay billions, let alone ten million.

“Ever since you’ve quit being the chief consul, I’ve been wondering if you’ve gone crazy. Are you planning to squander your family’s entire fortune?”

“It seems that the sun will rise from the west tomorrow. To think that Northride’s miser is worrying for the Janssel family.”

“Hah, gosh.”

Violet sighed as she stared at Berthwald with narrowed eyes.

“What are you planning to do when you meet the wizard?”

“Would you at least reduce the commission fees if I told you the reason?”

Violet dismissed those words as nonsense and pressed Berthwald for an answer. Berthwald thought about giving a perfunctory answer, but ultimately decided to be honest. There was not much point in hiding it, since she was an extraordinarily quick-witted person.

“I’d thought that the condition of Ariel’s eyes was natural and thus impossible for it to recover, but I’ve heard an odd story recently. I met a blind man that was like her, and heard from him that it wasn’t a congenital disability, but a curse that caused him to blind.”

“Curse? A curse? What made you believe his words?”

“I was of a similar stance. It’s hard to explain, but… I guess there’s something in common between the people that are cursed. Ariel seemed to trust that man’s words.”

“Hmm…”

“Apparently, Ariel had heard a similar story from a shaman when she was young. She was cursed… If she has a child, the child will suffer from the same curse. From the context, it meant that if she had a child, the child would also be unable to see.”

Violet tilted her head and gave him a suspicious look. It was a gaze questioning whether he believed this.

The Empire drove out the wizards and built a temple in their place.

The Imperial citizens belittled magic and supported God were obsessed to the point of madness with things like curses and demons. Children that were born with disabilities were the devil’s apostles, and those bearing strange talents were burned at the stake as witches.

There’s nothing more powerful in uniting the people than religious brainwashing. However, Violet and Berthwald, who knew the world better than anyone else, didn’t fall for such superstitions. No, it was closer to exploiting it, so Violet being that sensitive to the word ‘curse’ was inevitable.

Berthwald continued calmly without a change in his countenance.

“It isn’t that credible, so you can disregard it. I don’t particularly believe in the word ‘curse’.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, but it’s not like me to disregard it just because it’s ridiculous. I’ve made a promise with my wife that I’ll make sure she’ll be able to see. It’s only right for me to persist till the end, even if there are only small clues.”

Violet propped her head up with a hand under her chin. A mischievous smile appeared on her beautiful face.

“I never thought that my son would have such a spirited side. In any case, what does that curse have to do with the wizard?”

“The man he met was a wizard… Perhaps the person he had met wasn’t a proper wizard, but apparently he found out about the curse after meeting him. He also mentioned that the curse could be lifted if she met a real wizard.”

“A real wizard… Are there any other clues?”

“Another clue… Oh, there was one thing that bothered me. According to that man’s reaction, he seems to refer to blind people as ‘Servant’.”

Violet’s eyes were half-opened as she organised Berthwald’s words in her head. Servant, curse, wizard. As Violet muttered to herself, tapped the table while still propping her chin in her hand.

Even the way she acted as she sank into deep thought was the same as Berthwald. Violet’s smile receded from her face and spoke with the attitude of facing her client.

“First off, in conclusion, there’s no wizards.”