The Girl Who Was Forced by Her Stepsister to Marry the Cursed Duke - CH 34

Chapter 34: 《Duke’s POV》A Request to Fix The Roster

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Any crime related to the 『nobility roster』was regarded as a huge deal. After all, the entry in this roster was a very important source of information for keeping tabs on all marriages between nobles and most importantly, this record was under the management of the royal family so all the entries in this roster was considered as the『absolute truth』…. Or so it was supposed to be.

The reason why marriages between noble was considered as something important was because『magic talent』was hereditary.

Of course on a rare occasion, an anomaly could appear where a children born from commoners could hold a high amount of magic, paralleled to high-ranking nobles. The bloodline of those children tend to be regarded with high respect so much so that when those children were 『adopted』into a noble family, those children would be especially marked as 『magic adoption』.

This trend showed that a lot of noble families held great importance in 『magic power』. In fact, influential duke families were often able to use a special strong magic unique to their bloodline.

In my case, Lönnrot family had 『space-time magic』in our arsenal. Whether you could hand it over to your children or not…. It would greatly impact your children’s future.

Incidentally, even though Miltia’s family, Lyran Countdom, was now a fallen noble family, her family used to be so famous for their magic talent. We could see from the『nobility roster』 that her great-great-grandfather generation had produced a lot of court mages. In her grandfather’s generation, a daughter from her family who was then adopted into a marquis family ended up becoming a saint even.

“Ahahahahahaha! My, as expected from The Patriotic Great Mage-sama! Even though you had secluded yourself in your own house, you could still find a forgery case in the nobility roster? My~ To think that civil officer would actually….”

“Oh? Judging from your words I assume you already captured the perpetrator for this forgery?”

“Yeah, well…..Sort of.”

His answer was very vague.

“……… No? Ars… You actually have already found out who was the perpetrator but he was already assassinated by someone. You were able to stop the crime from multiplying but the mastermind still remains unknown. To make matters worse, there is so much forgery that you couldn’t even pinpoint which one is the forgery and which one isn’t…. Am I right, Ars?”

I stared at my best friend, who was trying to look at anything but me.

“Too bad! He wasn’t assisinated but he committed suicide! But we do know the mastermind is an upper echelon in the Dark Order but still… I’m so glad you’re back!”

I heard that since our grandfather’s era, the Dark Order had been unilaterally casting 『incomplete magic seal』to children born from family famous for their magic talent, gradually bringing those families with high magic talent to ruin.

“I thought the core of Dark Order was destroyed after we defeated the Demon King but… It seems there are still a few branches of the Dark Order remaining…. You see, there’s a ceremony where a newly born child is taken to the『church』to be『blessed』, right?”

“Don’t tell me… They’ve taken root in the『church』as well?! And they use the 『blessing』ceremony as an opportunity to seal the magic in those children…”

“Yes….. They’re really insidious….Especially the『incomplete magic seal』, those things are really tricky….”

In the case of an ordinary『magic seal』, other magicians might be able to notice the seal. In some cases, the seal could be broken by the person on the receiving end of the seal themselves if their magic power became too strong.

However in the case of 『incomplete magic seal』, children born between parents who were highly talented in magic, would end up only be able to have little magic power or moderate amount of magic power. In reality even without『incomplete magic seal』 in the picture, cases where children were born with average amounts of magic power even though both of their parents were very talented in magic, those kinds of cases were not uncommon.

Of course, when those highly esteemed magicians’ families kept on bearing average children after children, they would be forced to let go of the important positions they held in magic departments to other families.

Furthermore, with all these cases of『 nobility’s roster』 forgery, they would be having a hard time choosing the correct family with high magic talent to marry their children to. Eventually, those families would slowly… Slowly but surely fall to ruin.

“It seems like they still couldn’t touch the royal family yet but there are plenty of noble families from marquis rank and below who are terribly impacted by their misdeed, you know? There are at least four highly esteemed noble families full of talented magicians from the time of my grandfather who are experiencing decline in their magic talent. I also have 12 families I think might be the victims of theirs too…. Ah, Miltia’s family, Count Lyran family, is also one of those 4 families.”

“They’ve gone that far already….”

“You see, this roster is written in ink filled with magic power so… Tampering with this roster will consume a lot of magic power. I should be able to follow along the trail left by the magic power they spent when forging the list but… There’s just too many of them in the first place. In order to find the forged part, each document must be checked in detail. You need to find the trace of magic power in every nook and cranny, you know?”

Ars kept on glancing at me warily. He didn’t have the guts to look me in the eyes as he explained the case to me.

It seemed the case of this nobility’s roster forgery… It was not about how the Lyran family had committed a crime but it was more about how Madam Bavalein was actually involved with a criminal organization, far bigger than anyone’s expectation. Otherwise, there was no way a mere count family could tamper with a roster under the management of the royal family.

….. I thought the case of forging the nobility’s roster was their worst crime yet but it turned out… Those toxic parents…. It seemed bad luck was their only forte….

“Ah… So in other words, you want me to help you with checking the roster?”

“I beg you, Maricleeee~ There’s no other magician who’s good at work that requires great detail and at the same time, has a high magic capacity like you! Ah, also, we need to ask Bogil-san to share the work with you I guess? I think even if it’s you, you’d definitely die if you had to check the roster alone.”

How could you make your best friend, who defeated the demon king together with you, take a workload that could actually kill them with a smile on your face?

“…… Haah… I don’t have any choice, don’t I? But there’s no way I will be leaving Miltia alone at night so I will return home punctually, okay?”

“Thank you!!”

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T/N: Maricle be like