WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
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◈ The Dark Fantasy Doctor Was Mistaken for a Saint ◈
Chapter 55: The Ball of the Stars (1)
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* * *
There was a superstition in the Empire.
They said that if you slept holding someone’s possession, you would dream of that person.
Charlotte Eschenwald was not the sort of person who believed in that kind of superstition.
Still, in a world where magic existed, perhaps there were unknown laws even she did not know about.
That was why she pulled the covers over herself while tightly clutching a silver coin in her hand.
She told herself this was merely an exploration of the unknown, that she was different from ordinary girls.
How much time passed like that?
When she came to her senses, she was looking down at a waterfall.
‘Where is this...?’
The roar of water plunging dozens of meters below mercilessly battered her eardrums.
Spray had turned to mist and risen to her waist.
Within that dreamlike scenery, she spotted a man standing at the edge of the falls.
“Julian Schnabel.”
Charlotte’s lips began moving of their own accord.
At her call, the man standing at the waterfall’s edge turned around.
He looked barely older than twenty.
Raven-black hair covered half his forehead.
Beneath it, cold blue eyes devoid of light fixed on Charlotte.
“You came, Miss Hausen. Or would you prefer that I call you Your Highness Eschenwald?”
Charlotte ignored the greeting.
At some point, she had come to hold a scroll.
The end of the parchment trailed into the mist, disappearing where she could not see it.
Beyond her control, Charlotte’s lips began reciting the contents written upon it.
“Julian Schnabel. Ruler of the Shadow Empire, architect of every unsolved case in this world, and godfather of corruption.”
“You should not leave out the darkest starlight.”
The cold-looking man smiled faintly.
It was the sort of smile that had led countless young ladies to unwittingly contribute to crimes.
Yet Charlotte did not change expression as she continued reciting his charges.
“You steeped the Empire’s living wisdom in lead and turned them into an elderly person with dementia.”
“It was necessary. Humanity cannot learn to walk on its own while it only leans against a pillar. Only after that pillar collapsed did humanity begin standing on its own two feet. The Great Sage saw that as well and chose, of their own will, to remain an elderly person with dementia.”
Charlotte ignored his rebuttal and continued.
“You were involved in the disappearances of ninety-five nobles throughout the Empire.”
“They were people who had forgotten why nobles receive special treatment. You remember, do you not, Miss Charlotte? Some of your clients used beastfolk tribes as targets for magic, then commissioned you to subjugate them after they escaped. I merely removed such wastrels from the stage.”
“You corrupted the 152nd class of Hero Academy.”
“You have the order of events wrong. The world abandoned them first.”
Julian waved a hand and continued.
“I took them in and gave them the chance to display their talents. So calling it corruption is incorrect. They had been my people before they ever entered the academy.”
“...You incited fallen heroes to throw the Empire into chaos.”
“They are the heroes who have opened up more of the Demon Realm than anyone else in human history, and they have earned greater public support than anyone else. Yet if they are branded fallen merely because they offended those in high places, then what exactly is the definition of corruption?”
“You distributed drugs across the entire continent through your own Church and organization.”
“There is no absolute medicine and no absolute poison in this world. Only the dosage decides. I am no different. Evil is merely another form of justice, determined by perspective.”
“...”
The sound of the waterfall filled the space between them.
Charlotte could not deny his final statement.
His words were not entirely wrong.
He was undeniably evil.
Yet he had cut away the Empire’s rotten flesh, and new flesh had clearly grown in its place.
Julian Schnabel was too complicated a person to dismiss as merely evil.
“...”
That was why she chose to throw the warrant into the mist.
The parchment was caught by the spray and vanished over the cliff.
“To be honest, the rest is all insults, defamation, and nobles writing down things to pin their own filth on you. It is embarrassing even to recite.”
“You are finally acting more like yourself, Miss Charlotte.”
The man’s smile changed.
It was no longer the smile that captivated women, but one that seemed glad to see someone dear to him.
Charlotte sighed at him.
“I know you do not harm innocent people. Every one of them was rude. But there were gentler ways. Especially the serial murders... I cannot defend those.”
“Once a tumor grows too large, medicine is no longer enough, Miss Charlotte. There are times when excision is the only option.”
Charlotte looked at him for a moment.
His words were not wrong, so Julian could not refute her, but he had swallowed too much to acknowledge that she was right.
After looking down at her empty hand where the scroll had been, she raised one finger.
“Then I will ask you just one thing.”
“Ask anything, Miss Charlotte.”
“Can you truly say you had no personal feelings while committing all those acts?”
The man laughed.
It was a small, soundless laugh, his shoulders rising once.
“While serving a greater cause, surely I may satisfy a little personal desire and appetite as well. I merely gave rude people the chance to become useful in their final moments.”
“Useful in the sense of being served at a dining table?”
“That is correct.”
“I knew it.”
Charlotte took a step forward.
She moved over the moss-covered rock toward the cliff as though she were sliding across it.
As the edge came one step closer, the spray dampened her ankles.
“You are someone I must stop.”
“It is exactly what I wished for. The Empire’s brightest star is personally declaring herself my adversary.”
The man’s smile deepened.
“But there is one thing you have forgotten, Miss Charlotte.”
“...”
“There was once a girl ostracized at the Imperial Palace. No one approached her because of the eyes that could see into the past. A child steeped in boredom in a corner of the palace.”
“...”
“Who do you think manipulated the Great Sage into teaching that child magic, removed the rude people who stood in her way, and brought her to where she stands now?”
“...”
“You must not forget, Miss Charlotte. You are my work as well. Whatever choice you make, that too is part of my plan.”
Charlotte shook her head.
“No. There is one choice you have not anticipated.”
The moment she finished speaking, she kicked off the ground and rushed forward.
She buried her face in his chest and embraced him.
The rock beneath her feet disappeared.
The sound of water changed into the sound of wind, above and below reversed, and just as she heard the man’s heart racing rapidly,
“Gasp!”
With a dizzying sensation of falling, Charlotte opened her eyes.
What she saw was the familiar ceiling of her room in the secondary palace.
Out of habit, she checked outside the window after waking.
The sun hung high in the sky.
‘...I overslept today.’
She had probably gone to bed too late last night.
But Charlotte did not particularly care.
She was a forgotten royal, a child who had practically been cast aside.
She had little public activity, so there was no problem with sleeping late for one day.
When she threw back the covers, cold air brushed her bare skin and made her shiver.
Then, feeling something hard in her left hand, Charlotte lowered her gaze toward it.
When she opened her fingers, a silver coin lay in her palm.
‘A silver coin?’
At that moment, someone’s face flashed through her mind.
‘...I think I dreamed about that person.’
She could not remember what the dream had been about.
But there was one thing she could be certain of.
Even in her dreams, being by that person’s side could not have been boring.
* * *
Some time after the aftermath of the incident had been settled.
That day, as always, five people sat in the dining room of the Nihirit estate.
While the servants prepared the day’s dishes, our family, already seated at the table, made small talk.
“Brother. At today’s tea party, I heard stories about your accomplishments.”
Young ladies and gentlemen around Freya’s age usually spent time with friends their own age.
I was the strange one.
There were reasons for that. I was not quite on the same level as children my age, and I was busy enough with other things that I had no time to meet them.
And today, Freya seemed to have heard stories about me through those friends.
“What did you hear?”
“They say you saved a baby at Count Bellheim’s estate when even the healers could do nothing, and provided the decisive clue that caught the true culprit.”
According to Freya, figuring out the baby’s symptoms and treating them first had become the crucial clue to solving the case.
Using that process as a lead, Inspector Hausen’s daughter had finally reached the truth.
‘It seems Miss Charlotte explained it well.’
The rumor was exactly the right degree for me.
Since I had not solved the case directly, I did not need to worry about political pressure. At the same time, it was known that my contribution to the case had not been insignificant.
On top of that, it highlighted my skill as a doctor even more, so it could not have ended better.
“Brother, you really are amazing. Did you know you have an epithet now?”
Freya said, her eyes sparkling.
In this world, high society liked to give epithets to sixteen-year-old noble children who stood out.
It was much like giving honorary titles to promising young talents in martial arts stories.
“It means that a hidden genius has finally soared into the sky...”
Oh. Something like Sleeping Dragon?
Right. If I was the protagonist, I should have at least one epithet like this...
“They call you the <Black Swan>.”
“...Black Swan?”
“They say swans are ugly when they are young, then suddenly become beautiful as they grow up. That is why they gave you the epithet. Your hair is black, too, and your face is also...”
Freya trailed off.
I could not hide a little disappointment at that explanation.
I wanted to be known as a genius, not for my appearance.
“As expected of you, Brother. They say that even if a gold coin is mixed among silver coins, it cannot help but stand out. I knew you would make a name for yourself right away.”
Still, seeing how delighted Freya was made the title feel less bad.
“But I heard that some spice was the poison in that case...”
“Star anise.”
“That is right, star anise. Is that spice so dangerous?”
“No. Star anise itself is not the problem. It was an accident because it resembles a poisonous plant. Mushrooms can be like that too, you know.”
“I think I understand. Then do you know how to tell them apart?”
“Just be careful of star anise that comes from D Sector.”
At those words, Eri let the water she had been drinking dribble back into her glass.
She looked at me with a shocked expression.
“Huh? I ate star anise every day when I lived in the alley.”
“...How did that happen?”
“I was hungry, so... I just picked it up when it was lying in a corner of somewhere like a slaughterhouse.”
“Why?”
“Well... It smelled kind of like what restaurants use when they make Dongpo pork sometimes... I thought it might be leftovers from cooking, and I was hungry...”
Good heavens.
“How much did you eat?”
“A lot? Too much to count?”
“Did you know that was rat poison?”
“No wonder. My mouth felt a little numb whenever I ate it.”
“Did you ever vomit?”
“No? Other than my urine turning black.”
I could set the dark urine aside as a chronic condition for now.
“Any other symptoms?”
“I cannot think of any?”
What?
Charlotte and Eri alike.
Were girls from this world all born immune to poison?
“Ahem.”
At that moment, Father cut off our conversation with a cough.
The food was beginning to arrive.
We stopped our pre-meal conversation and focused on the dishes being placed before us.
Today’s menu was butter-sautéed calf thymus.
It was a dish called sweetbread, or ris de veau.
Naturally, I had made it.
Who in this world would cook with something like this?
And naturally, I had made it with the attitude that they could do their worst even if my parents caught me.
The plating style was different from our household chef’s, to begin with.
Sure enough.
Father’s eyebrows twitched as he looked at the unfamiliar dish on the plate.
“...Julian.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have no intention whatsoever of hiding it?”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
This was my new strategy.
Push ahead shamelessly.
No one had ever seen me going in and out of the kitchen, so all I needed to do was play dumb.
“...”
Father glared at me, but I placed my napkin on my lap as though nothing had happened.
However, what Father said next was more than enough to make me freeze in place.
“Never mind. Since your marriage match has already been decided, there seems little point in stopping you now. That family probably will not care even if you cook. From now on, do as you please.”
...Pardon?
I nearly let out something stupid.
Clang.
Freya, seated beside me, dropped her fork.
Ignoring Freya’s reaction, Father moistened his lips with his pre-meal drink and continued.
“I was going to tell you after the meal, but since the subject came up, I will tell you now. Julian, your engagement has been decided.”
“Suddenly?”
I had only just turned sixteen.
I had not even had time to make an impression.
Was it not supposed to happen a year later?
“It is not sudden. You have met the other party before, have you not?”
“Who... Ah.”
A woman’s face suddenly flashed through my mind.
A peculiar detective with blonde hair and golden eyes.
“Surely you do not mean Miss Hausen?”
“Yes. I hear that young lady has become quite taken with you.”
The moment Father finished speaking, Freya’s gaze stabbed into my temple.
“Brother, you never told me that you met a young lady there!”
Freya puffed out her cheeks.
They were large enough to make me want to poke them once.
“Didn’t you hear in the rumors that Inspector Hausen’s daughter solved the case? Since I provided the clue, would I not have met her?”
“Th-that is... I was not interested in stories about other young ladies, so I did not listen properly.”
Oh dear.
It seemed Freya, like me, was the type to listen only to what she wanted to hear.
I hoped she had not learned that from me...
Then perhaps she became curious about her future sister-in-law, because Freya suddenly began questioning us.
“I have never even heard of House Hausen, Marquessate. Is there something wrong with that house?”
Father, not I, answered.
“It is only natural that you do not know them. They are an inspector family. Inspectors have a duty to maintain political neutrality. They cannot join any faction, and they rarely show themselves at social gatherings. House Hausen is a newly established house even among such inspector families.”
“Newly established?”
“The current head’s unique magic and talents suited the work of an inspector, so they were elevated straight to the rank of marquis. However, little is known about them because of their work. Even I have only exchanged greetings with them a few times in the course of business.”
Something about that answer displeased Freya, and she pressed her lips together.
After thinking deeply for a moment, she asked Father again.
“Then what could a family like that possibly lack that they chose Brother? Does that family have some kind of problem?”
“That is a sharp question, Freya.”
“W-What? There really is?”
“Yes.”
Father paused for a moment and looked around the dining room.
After checking each servant standing in the room, Father spoke again.
“Their young lady has circumstances in several respects.”
“Circumstances?”
“Her personality is rather unusual... Apparently, other houses are seldom eager to become close to her.”
At those words, I had no choice but to nod.
Charlotte was unusual.
She would uncover your entire past through deduction the moment she met you.
Most nobles had their own private circumstances.
Among married couples, there was an unspoken convention that leaving such private circumstances or secrets alone was a form of respect.
In such an era, Charlotte, who could discover everything about someone merely by looking at them, could not help but make people uncomfortable.
And if Charlotte had the personality of some great detective...
‘Hmm. It is certainly something to consider in a marriage partner.’
Great detectives might look cool from a distance, but as people to live with, they were not exactly good company.
Even those who rushed forward after seeing the marquis’s title would probably take one look at Charlotte herself and retreat, thinking, ‘This is a little...’
“Then why would you give Brother to a woman with so many problems...!”
“When I saw them last time, they got along remarkably well. Perhaps not with anyone else, but I thought Julian would have no issue with her.”
Hmm. That was true too.
Great detectives tended to have somewhat troublesome personalities as roommates.
But I was not the type to care too much about such things.
“Look at your brother’s room, especially. I have not known that young lady long either, but I imagine it might be similar to Julian’s room.”
“...”
“Inspector Hausen also seems to have highly regarded Julian’s accomplishments from this one incident alone. Becoming a marquis at that age was clearly no accident.”
From my perspective, these were ideal conditions.
A marquis. A marquis.
Just one rank below a duke.
A ducal title was granted to houses that had achieved feats no less great than those of my master, the Great Sage.
Naturally, it was a position ordinary nobles could not even dream of.
That was why marquis was the highest title a noble could realistically reach.
‘The marquis thinks highly of me.’
Honestly, I did not know which part of me had caught their attention.
But when had the protagonist of a misunderstanding story not been recognized without realizing it?
Besides, it was not all bad news for me.
‘An engagement to Charlotte...’
Her status as a marquis’s daughter was important, but what I liked even more was the fact that the other party was Charlotte herself.
Though we had met only briefly, meeting her had been more than worthwhile.
At least to me, she seemed like quite an ideal partner.
‘If it truly does not work out, we can simply break off the engagement.’
There was also the option of breaking it off.
An engagement was not as light as dating, but neither was it as absolute as marriage.
The institution of engagement existed in the first place so people could see whether there were any issues before getting married.
Therefore, it was not especially strange to break off an engagement if they did not get along or circumstances were bad.
The cases of my biological parents and my current parents proved that well enough.
More than anything, in the world of noble engagements where people had no choices, this was honestly the best outcome possible.
“I understand.”
“Good. We will coordinate a date with the marquis and simply have a meal together.”
Father spoke calmly as he wiped his mouth with his napkin.
Beside him, Mother gave a small clap, saying that we had found an excellent match.
Only Freya looked a little gloomy in the dining room.
Clatter.
Then Eri, who had finished the food on her own plate and reached toward another, spoke.
“Um. Do I need to come along too?”
“You should. You are part of our family now as well.”
For now, we needed to make it clear to them that Eri was part of Baron Nihirit’s household.
Especially if marriage was viewed as an alliance between nobles.
Eri muttered around the fork in her mouth.
“Nobles are complicated. Preparing for marriage at this age already. Well, as long as I get to eat delicious food, that is all that matters to me.”
“Big Sister... Haah...”
Freya sighed deeply beside Eri.
Eri snickered as she looked at Freya.
And so, dinner ended with talk of the engagement.
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