ol li The Baron at That Time/li /ol

    * * *

    Going back to around when Emi began battling the topopolock stampede.

    Baron Martz was working to repair the barrier stone in the study room along with his butler Sneigen.

    The study room faced the meadow used as Sara’s magic practice area…in other words, the battlefield where Emi shed with the topopolock stampede.

    The cries of the topopolocks, louder than the rain, shook the windows with a buzzing sound.

    Earlier, when the rm had rung throughout the mansion…

    (Could it be that someone destroyed the barrier stone!?)

    That’s what the Baron had thought.

    That it may have been the work of someone targeting his wife and daughter.

    With the string of incidents and idents that seemed aimed at his wife and child recently, it wasn’t strange to think that way.

    However, upon examining the barrier stone’s condition, he had to reject that idea.

    A single crack ran through the crystal orb portion of the barrier stone.

    This prevented the magic power output from functioning properly, disabling the barrier…

    But the barrier stone had been securely stored in the study room’s safe.

    As the key to the mansion’s defenses, it’s standard to install the barrier stone where only authorized individuals can ess it.

    And the code to open that safe was only known to the Baron and his wife Emma.

    Since there was no way they could be the culprits, the Baron had to conclude that the barrier stone had simply cracked at this ill-timed misfortune.

    Moreover, the spare recement barrier stone they also securely stored had issues as well, preventing them from generating a normal barrier.

    (What could this mean…it’s as if we’ve been abandoned by fate itself.)

    The Baron’s face paled as he broke out in a cold sweat.

    However, there was still hope of restoring the barrier.

    The barrier stones had a method prepared for such situations to gradually repair the crystal orb, albeit time-consuming.

    This crystal orb had a self-repair function built-in.

    By infusing it with magic power, the damage would slowly mend itself.

    The mechanism was described in the instruction manual, but it was too technical for the amateur Baron toprehend.

    The important thing was that infusing magic power into the crystal would repair the damage and allow the barrier to function again.

    Fortunately, as a former first-rate adventurer, the Baron was a martial artist with confidence in his magic reserves.

    So the Baron pressed his forehead against his butler Sneigen’s as they continuously poured magic into the crystal orb on the desk.

    “Disaster…this is a disaster. It happened because we let that cursed child into the mansion…”

    As magic drained from his palms touching the barrier stone, Sneigen muttered with a sweaty brow.

    “Not this again, Sneigen. This situation has nothing to do with Emi.”

    The Baron sighed, exasperated.

    “‘ck-haired, ck-eyed humans bring disaster’? That’s just superstition.”

    “No, Master, it’s not. Even if the logic is unclear, it is a fact. As we can see, the Baron Sr family is now in dire straits.”

    In this case, Sneigen’s im would likely be epted as the more conventional view by general society.

    Such is the pervasive stigma in this world against ck-haired, ck-eyed people.

    Had the Baron not experienced a ‘certain incident’ in his adventuring days, he may have thought the same as Sneigen.

    “If Emi wasn’t here, Sara and Emma would have been crushed by the roof and gravely injured by now.”

    “If that cursed child wasn’t here, that misfortune would have never urred to begin with.”

    “So you insist that it was an ident, then.”

    “What else could it have been but an ident?”

    “You see, Sneigen.”

    The Baron paused his words here…and swallowed what he was about to say next.

    “…Let’s stop this discussion for now. We need to focus on repairing the barrier stone.”

    Truth be told, the Baron suspected his butler Sneigen was behind the recent string of incidents.

    Whether the carriage attack or the roof incident.

    While Sneigen’s devotion and loyalty to Emma was genuine, his attitude towards Sara, who had the Baron’s bloodline, seemed somewhat distant.

    The Sr Barony did not get along well with Emma’s maternal family, the Mades Duchy.

    And the current head of the Mades Duchy…was not a very good person.

    He refused to ept the Mades bloodline that had spread somewhat against the family’s wishes, seeking to eliminate it.

    Such spection was not unreasonable given the circumstances.

    And if instructed by the Mades Duchy, Sneigen would likely go so far as to try eliminating Sara as long as Emma’s safety was assured.

    Sneigen had objected to the very end about Emi bing Sara’s bodyguard.

    As for the carriage attack, if he was in league with the bandits, rescuing only Emma afterwards would be easy.

    The roof incident put Emma’s life in danger too, which is one point against Sneigen’s involvement, but it could also be exined as him making a mistake.

    Hence, the Baron kept Sneigen by his side under surveince, ready to cut him down at the slightest suspicious move to keep him away from Sara.

    However, these were just the Baron’s suspicions without any actual proof.

    Even with this barrier stone issue, he had initially suspected Sneigen’s involvement, but it turned out to simply be a cruel twist of fate rather than sabotage.

    Bringing disharmony to the household based on mere spection during this crisis would be unwise.

    For now, he needed to focus all efforts on restoring the barrier.

    The Baron shook off his distracting thoughts and tried to further channel magic into the barrier stone.

    Tried to, until…

    Creak……

    The sound of the study room door opening.

    “!?……Emma?”

    The one entering was the baroness herself, Emma.

    “Please stop…restoring the barrier immediately.”

    With a pained expression, the baroness said those unbelievable words to her husband.

    Her face was ashen, her voice trembling.

    “Wha…what are you saying…!?”

    The Baron was dumbfounded, his mind going nk when he saw who entered next.

    It was his beloved daughter, Sara.

    And apanying her, holding a knife to Sara’s throat, was the servant Mauve.