* * *
“Then why on earth did Baron Bennet follow the preacher John so devotedly?”
“Baron Bennet was completely silent on that, so we had to question the servants of the Bennet family to get information about the relationship between Baron Bennet and the preacher John. My deduction is that this preacher John figure captured him by tending to Baron Bennet’s inner pain.”
“Inner pain? That uneducated brown bear of a Baron Bennet?”
It was only natural that the Crown Prince would ask that immediately.
Baron Bennet was a tall, massive man, comparable to a male brown bear, and his appearance was extremely rough, like that of a thug.
He was a man who did not share a single physical trait with his only son, Joel.
“Despite his appearance, Baron Bennet seems to be quite tender-hearted on the inside. He cherished his wife deeply, and after she died from illness, he lived by relying on Joel, who resembled her. After Joel was adopted and left for the capital, he suffered from extreme emptiness and depression. He felt significant pain from the absence of his only son Joel, so much so that he even skipped his swordsmanship training, to which he had been devoted his entire life, for three months.”
“Hmm…”
The Crown Prince recalled the image of Baron Bennet, who had rushed over looking ghastly pale when he discovered Joel carried on a stretcher.
It was generally common for men of Baron Bennet’s status to prioritize dignity and not show surprise no matter how startled they were, so considering how he had rushed over anxiously, it seemed that Baron Bennet did hold a deep affection for his only son, Joel.
“Baron Bennet, who was living holed up in his bedroom every day, one day happened to meet the preacher John, who was brought in by one of the tenants, and immediately regained his vigor. After that, he kept the preacher John at the manor and treated him as an honored guest. He seated him above himself at every meal and always addressed him with honorifics and respectful language. Even the act of donating his entire fortune to the preacher John was a decision Baron Bennet made alone, without the preacher John’s coaxing.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake…”
The Crown Prince, having heard Abe’s report, shook his head in disbelief.
At first, the Crown Prince could not understand how Baron Bennet, being a Lord who ruled a territory, could be so utterly lacking in judgment.
But after thinking about it calmly, he thought it might be possible for the father of ‘that’ Joel to be so lacking in judgment.
Through all the past years of being ignored, Joel never gave up on liking the Crown Prince.
And most of the nobles in the capital knew that Joel did not love the Crown Prince for his background.
Joel was too foolish and his intentions too transparent to devise a plan to somehow exploit the Crown Prince’s favor.
It seemed that Joel’s blind devotion came from his biological father.
The Crown Prince, who was habitually ignoring Joel, suddenly felt a sharp, stinging pain in his heart.
“…Ugh.”
“Your Highness? What is wrong!”
As the Crown Prince suddenly clutched his chest and stumbled, Abe and Robert rushed over in alarm.
The Crown Prince vaguely waved his hand to dismiss them.
However, the pain in his chest did not easily subside, and the Crown Prince had to remain clutching his chest for a while, his brow deeply furrowed.
His heart ached and stung as if it had been pierced by a knife. It was not a simple physical pain.
A deep regret and agony, like when he watched his mother pass away, enveloped him.
Trying to suppress the pain, the Crown Prince wondered why he was now so deeply regretting his past of letting Joel be bullied.
Was it because he had genuinely come to love Joel?
Or was it because Joel was carrying his child, and he felt a kind of responsibility toward him?
But no matter how hard he thought, he could not find the reason why the things he had done to Joel filled him with such deep regret.
In fact, the Crown Prince was currently so scared and in so much pain that it was almost impossible for him to think rationally.
The Crown Prince was suddenly seized by a fear that Joel would vanish without a trace.
So, even amidst the agony, he had to crawl to the bed where Joel was lying, gathering all his strength.
He could only finally relax after grasping Joel’s hand, which felt much smaller compared to his own.
But this time, the lukewarm temperature of that hand brought about a new fear, and the Crown Prince brought Joel’s hand to his chest, wrapping his own hands around it.
He needed to warm Joel’s hand immediately with his own body heat.
So that this hand would no longer lose its warmth, so that it wouldn’t chill and chill until it became cold and frozen…
“Y-Your Imperial Highness?”
At the cautious call, the Crown Prince snapped out of it.
Knight Commander Abe was holding his shoulder, looking worriedly at him.
Looking around, not only Abe but everyone gathered in the room was looking at him strangely.
Only then did the Crown Prince realize that he had been acting very strangely.
“Your Highness, what is wrong? Is there a problem…”
“Ah, nothing.”
The flustered Crown Prince immediately let go of Joel’s hand and stood up.
However, even as he did so, he couldn’t deny that the loss of Joel’s body heat escaping between his fingers caused a great feeling of emptiness.
‘Why am I acting like this?’
The Crown Prince tilted his head, unable to understand himself.
Since some point, whenever he stood before Joel, his heart would beat with an unusual anxiety, and he would be seized by a ridiculous fear that Joel, who was perfectly fine, might suddenly disappear without a trace.
No matter how much he thought about it, this situation could only be explained by the hypothesis that something had gone wrong after Joel hit his head with a stone a long time ago.
The Crown Prince once again vowed to definitely get another examination when he returned to the capital.
The Crown Prince quickly returned to his seat and commanded Abe.
“Abe, continue with your report.”
“Yes. So, to summarize, Baron Bennet appears to have been thoroughly brainwashed by the preacher John, and not only Baron Bennet but also almost all of the tenants of his estate seem to be in the same condition. I judge this preacher John figure to be a remarkably eloquent charlatan with exceptional medical skills.”
“What is the evidence to conclude that the preacher John is a charlatan?”
“It is here.”
Abe took the bundle of documents held by a 4th Knight and presented it to the Crown Prince.
Towards the Crown Prince, who questioned what this was with a look, Abe reported, “Since I didn’t think questioning the brainwashed Baron Bennet and the tenants would yield much, I searched the preacher John’s office. The investigation suggests that this preacher John figure had been using Baron Bennet’s study as if it were his own office. It seems he hurriedly packed his things before fleeing last night, but fortunately, a few suspicious documents remained, which I brought.”
“This is…”
The Crown Prince, who was flipping through the documents and checking their contents, furrowed his brow.
The documents appeared to be contracts that the preacher John had concluded with individual tenants, but the conditions that the preacher John was supposed to fulfill were one and all nonsensical and preposterous.
For example, he promised an elderly couple who had grown old without having children that he would enable them to have a child, or promised to completely heal severe burn scars without leaving a trace, or make them ten years younger.
There was even ridiculous talk of allowing someone to meet their deceased mother.
The Crown Prince, quickly scanning the papers, suddenly found a familiar name and frowned.
“Tom?”
“Yes, that is the cripple who injured Lord Joel last night. According to the contract, he swore eternal loyalty to the preacher John, offering his soul in exchange for curing his legs.”
“I confirmed with my own eyes that Tom’s legs were healed… As you say, it can only be explained by the fact that this preacher John truly possesses formidable medical skills.”
The Crown Prince nodded, agreeing with Abe’s statement.
After all, if someone possessed truly outstanding medical skills, enabling an infertile couple to have a child or completely erasing burn scars was not entirely impossible.
As for allowing someone to meet a deceased person again, there was a possibility that he had deceived the person using something like a hallucinogen.
As the consensus moved toward the idea that the preacher John, possessing excellent medical skills, had misled the tenants as if he had magical powers, Robert, who had only been listening to their conversation, strongly protested.
“I repeat, Tom’s illness was absolutely incurable! Didn’t both of you confirm that Tom’s legs were severely deformed?”
“Then are you going to claim that the preacher John truly knows how to use magic? That he really healed Tom’s legs with transcendental power, made an infertile couple pregnant, and genuinely allowed someone to meet the spirit of their dead mother? That is a very credible hypothesis.”
Magic and sorcery were nothing but mere superstitions.
Believing in such things was usually something done by the poor and uneducated commoners.
As the Crown Prince spoke mockingly in a contemptuous tone, Robert could only back down, saying, “Th-That is not what I meant, but…”
* * *
Yup! As more and more chapters unlock, the more that I realize that I was right.