After having concluded matters with the Withersworths, Scarlett and the others stayed in Autumnwell for three more days. The old couple was generous enough to let them stay as guests during that period, and surprisingly, Leon had also asked to remain with them for that time. That was despite what he’d previously said about having other things to deal with before he was sent off on whatever assignment his order had gotten.

She suspected he had been looking for more opportunities to figure out what was up with her and why she seemed to have changed so much.

Or maybe he just enjoyed going around dungeons.

Whatever his motives, Scarlett had little reason to deny him at the moment.

With his aid, they had cleared two more dungeons in the Autumnwell area these past days. She had been hoping they would have time for more than that—there were at least four dungeons relatively close to the city which she had been aiming for—but the others had been harder to find than expected.

Considering the gains they got from just Abelard’s Doll Mansion, though, she wasn’t complaining too much.

In addition to assisting them on their excursions, Leon had also kept his promise to spar with both Fynn and Shin the previous day. That event had caused a bit of fuss among the group. Scarlett hadn’t seen it herself, but from what she’d heard, both of the young men had impressed the knight after they fought him together.

Of course, they hadn’t actually beaten Leon. Neither was close to that level yet.

But it was good that they were developing, and spending some of their free time on things like this, even if Scarlett didn’t have much interest in the particulars of how those things went.

At the moment, she was sitting in a small guest office in one of the Withersworth mansion’s wings. The [Bag of Juham] and [Pouch of Holding] were placed on the side of the desk in front of her as she had been recording their contents. For the last three days, whenever she had nothing else to do, she had been going through these items.

She could just leave it to the servants when they returned to Freybrook, but it felt like a decent idea to get a grasp of what they had actually gained from all this.

That being said, there was a lot of it. The [Bag of Juham] had an impressive amount of storage space, and they had ransacked a whole mansion, so that was about what one would expect. There were also a couple of crates on the floor that they had bought here in Autumnwell, which carried some of the extra loot taken from the latest two dungeons. The carriage’s trunk would be cramped on the way back.

She really had to get a larger carriage in the near future. With the money that was about to roll in, they could definitely afford it.

By now, she had gone through roughly seventy percent of all the loot, but that was only a basic register of things. Most of which she had no clue as to the worth, like old vases and jewellery of different sorts. Actually evaluating everything would have to wait till another day. The same went for many of the artifacts.

While she had written down the name and description of each game item—as well as some personal notes regarding what effects she knew of or suspected—she would leave the actual deciding of what to keep and sell until she had more detailed information.

As the time neared noon, she put down her pen and stretched her shoulders. Then she looked over everything one last time before returning it to its place. Their trip back to Freybrook was scheduled in two hours. She would have to call Fynn over to carry the crates back out to the carriage, then pay a last visit to Lady and Lord Withersworth to say goodbye. After that, all of her business here in Autumnwell would be finished.

Now that they had a large influx of money coming in, and the Hallowed Cabal issue handled for the time being, things were looking to be somewhat calm upon her return this time. No fires to put out any longer.

The thought of it made a small smile creep onto her face.

Leon gazed out the carriage window as it approached the large mansion in the distance. The vehicle rolled up to the low stone wall that surrounded the place—he could never understand why almost all the nobles in Freybrook had those things around their estates when they served no real purpose other than to deter onlookers, of which there were none—and was soon let through the gates by the two guards keeping watch.

His eyes passed over the two men as the carriage rolled past, noting the swords at their sides. He hadn’t thought much of it before, but was there a reason Scarlett had her guards be armed with swords when there were barely any threats in this district of the city? Most nobles would satisfy themselves with having footmen with cudgels, if even that. Most of the time, they weren’t there for more than scaring away any daredevils.

Shaking his head at it all, he leaned back in his seat as they traveled up a gravel road towards the Hartford mansion. There was no telling what went through Scarlett’s mind with these things. It could be she genuinely feared some threat he wasn’t aware of. He had noted that the ‘restructuring’ that the mansion’s courtyard was going through looked suspiciously like it might have covered over the scars of a conflict of some kind.

It could also simply be her acting overly paranoid, being concerned about her people’s safety, or actually just wanting to scare others away. There was no telling what the truth was.

If these past few days had taught Leon anything, it was that he didn’t know this current Scarlett nearly as well as he thought he did.

The carriage soon reached the mansion, stopping in front of the archway that led into the courtyard. Scarlett and the other members of her group exited the carriage, and Leon followed shortly behind.

A pair of servants had already hurried out to greet their mistress, and Leon watched as the red-haired noblewoman started giving out orders for how the materials that she had rounded up during their time in Autumnwell should be handled. After that, all of them moved into the courtyard and entered the mansion’s foyer.

There, Scarlett looked back at Leon. “Now that we have returned, my first order of business will be to meet with my sister and apprise her of the happenings while I was gone. I suppose you will be leaving soon, now that matters have been concluded. Before that, do you care to join me and my sister for some refreshments?”

“Alright. There is still some time before I have to return to the capital.” He turned to the others, giving them all a nod. “It has been interesting meeting all of you. I never would have expected Scarlett to move around with company like this, but I have both been surprised and genuinely impressed with what all of you were capable of. I hope that we all get the opportunity to meet again in the future.”

“It’s been an honor meeting you, Sir Leon,” Allyssa replied with a smile.

Shin nodded alongside her. “It has. And I am thankful for the pointers you gave me.”

“Yes, I enjoyed fighting you,” Fynn said in that blunt, almost casual manner that Leon had learned was just how the strange young man was. “Bye.”

With that, Fynn sent a brief look Scarlett’s way before turning around and climbing up the set of stairs behind him, disappearing around a corner on the second floor. A couple of sighs left the others.

Rosa turned to Leon with a smirk. “If you ever feel like the life of a celebrated and respected knight doesn’t cut it for you anymore, I’m sure you can ask Scarlett and she’ll let you join our ragtag little band without ado. You gave our group that extra little zest which can be hard to find, you know?”

He glanced at Scarlett. “…I’ll keep that in mind.”

He doubted she felt the same.

“Then we will take our leave for now,” the woman in question said. “As for the rest of you, we will go over everyone’s performance on this excursion later, as well as arrange it so that you have the opportunity to try some of the new equipment that I will provide. Until then, you may all do as you wish with your time.”

With that, Scarlett left the foyer, evidently expecting Leon to follow her. He sent a look towards the others, giving them one last goodbye, before moving to catch up.

Soon enough, they reached the reception room he had been led to the last time he visited. There, Evelyne—Scarlett’s younger sister—was already sitting on a red leather sofa. A table filled with refreshments stood in front of her, with another sofa opposite her.

The auburn-haired woman looked up at their entrance, a brief look of surprise visible as she spotted him.

“Uh, Sir Leon? You’re still here?” Evelyne’s gaze moved between him and Scarlett, seemingly trying to figure out what was happening.

Leon could understand her confusion. He had felt it several times lately.

He moved over to sit on the sofa opposite the young woman, and Scarlett sat down in an armchair to his right.

“I thought you would only be joining my sister in Autumnwell for a day or so,” Evelyne said as they had gotten themselves settled. She leaned forward to pick up a small confection from the table. “Is there a reason why you’re still here?”

“I judged I could afford to stay with Scarlett and her group for a while longer,” he answered. “And considering the nature of what we encountered in Autumnwell, it seemed like a wise choice to do so.”

A mansion cursed by a long-since dead archmage wasn’t the kind of thing you overlooked. It also gave him a chance to see what Scarlett was up to, so in the end, he thought it was the correct decision to make. After they had exorcised the old mansion, they had moved on to explore both an abandoned mining system that was overflowing with Glass Basilisks and a hidden forest copse that had been home to an undead coven of witches. It seriously put into question exactly how Scarlett learned of these places, as well as her motivations in clearing them out.

From what he could tell, the answer to the latter appeared to be simple greed. Scarlett had taken enough materials from these places to support a small noble household. Which, he supposed, was exactly what she intended to do.

“Doesn’t that conflict with your other responsibilities?” Evelyne asked, pulling Leon out of his thoughts.

He shook his head. “My other plans weren’t anything that couldn’t be delayed. And the order won’t be sent out on our assignment until tomorrow, so I still have some time remaining. I will be accompanying one of my comrades who’s traveling back to Elystead this evening.”

“Oh, well, that’s good to hear,” the young woman said. She seemed to study him for a moment before glancing at Scarlett. “Actually, since you brought it up, what exactly did you encounter in Autumnwell? I was pretty shocked just to hear you would join my sister on the trip, but I didn’t know much more than that you’d help her clear away ‘pests’ from some place?”

“We ended up visiting more than one location,” Scarlett said. “However, our primary goal was acquiring an artifact present in what was once the residence of an old mage who dealt in artificing and necromancy. Sir Leon was helpful in dealing with the threats that we faced in that place, as well as in the other undertakings that we carried out after that.”

The red-haired woman’s hands moved to her waist, where she pulled out a stack of papers from the small spatial bag she always seemed to carry. She handed the papers to her younger sister.

“This is an incomplete compendium of the items procured during these past days, as well as a brief summary of each location they were found at in case that will prove relevant.”

Evelyne eyed the papers in Scarlett’s hands for a moment, then reached out to accept them.

“You said necromancy was involved?” she asked as she started looking through the papers. She stopped, eyes widening, before hurriedly flipping through the rest of the sheets.

“Wait, wait, hang on a second.” She turned her head up to stare at Scarlett. “You’re saying this is just some of what you’ve found?”

The woman gave a nod in response. “That is correct.”

Evelyne looked down at the papers again, searching through all of them once more as she read Scarlett’s writings. “…You can’t be serious. It almost looks like you looted someone’s mansion.”

“That is not too far from the truth,” Scarlett said.

The younger woman froze at the words, slowly looking up at her sister, then at Leon. “Tell me she’s lying.”

“She’s not,” he said, “but—”

“What?”

Leon paused for a moment, eyeing Evelyne. The expression on her face made it seem like she was legitimately afraid Scarlett had gone to Autumnwell and robbed someone’s mansion, which told him about as much as he needed to know about the two sisters’ relationship. He’d thought it odd how cooperative the two of them had appeared just now, but clearly, not everything in the world surrounding Scarlett had turned upside down.

“Wait, wait, no.” Evelyne creased her brows. “You’re an imperial knight, aren’t you? There’s no way you would have helped my sister loot a mansion.”

“You would expect me to, if not for his presence?” Scarlett asked.

Evelyne blinked, furtively looking away from her sister. “I’ve been by myself in this mansion for a couple of days now, and the way everybody’s acting differently made me feel weird. I might have been thinking up some strange things lately and overreacted. Forget I said anything. Please.”

“It was an abandoned mansion,” Leon said. The embarrassed expression on Evelyne’s face surprised him a bit. “One belonging to the Withersworth family. They had lost access to it generations ago because of the actions of one of their ancestors, and Scarlett convinced them to leave what was inside to her if she removed the cause of the curse that plagued the place.”

He wasn’t sure, but he felt like he saw Evelyne let out a small sigh of relief at his words.

“I see. That makes sense. I’m sorry for getting a bit…heated.” The young woman sent a mild glare Scarlett’s way. “But you could have been more clear to start with.”

Scarlett met her sister’s eyes for a few seconds, then gave a slow nod. “I suppose I could.”

Her tone implied she didn’t actually mean it, but that she allowed a comment like that to slide at all was the most shocking to Leon.

He observed the two for a moment. Perhaps he’d been too hasty with his earlier judgement. He had never interacted much with Scarlett’s younger sister before, nor had he seen the two of them in the same place on more than a few occasions, but he did know their relationship wasn’t supposed to be this close. And while there certainly was a distance between them here, the interaction just now was not something the Scarlett he knew would ever allow.

Or at least the Scarlett he thought he knew.

But just like everything else he’d seen lately had shown, Scarlett had clearly changed. Or he had never known her as well as he thought he had.

…That, or this was another of her ploys, and he was once more falling for her calculating schemes.

He shook his head. Even for Scarlett, that would be too much. All of her recent actions couldn’t be part of one large scheme. They were all too sudden, disjointed, and unpredictable to be because of something like that.

He hoped.

“Do the two of you usually work together in matters like these?” he found himself asking.

The two of them turned to him, then glanced at each other.

“I think it would surprise a lot of people if they saw this,” he said.

“…Appearances can often be deceiving,” Scarlett said. She studied him, giving him that same sharp look he remembered hating. The one that made it seem like everything was a transaction to her. “Whatever people might believe, Evelyne and I remain sisters and members of the same house. There are many topics where our interests align. It is only natural that we cooperate and share information when possible.”

Leon looked at Evelyne, who seemed slightly surprised by her older sister’s words.

“But what people think of us shares no relevance to our current matters.” Scarlett turned back to Evelyne. “As Sir Leon described, the mansion we provided help in clearing belonged to the Withersworth family. It was with them that we resided during our stay in Autumnwell.”

“Did you know them from before?” Evelyne asked.

“I did not,” Scarlett answered. “One could say I have forged a connection with them through these events. At least with Lady Withersworth, it would appear. They have also agreed to provide payment for the assistance our house provided.”

“Really? How much?”

“The exact figure has yet to be decided; however, I do not believe it will be any less than four hundred thousand solars.”

Evelyne stared at Scarlet. “…Four hundred thousand?”

“That is what I said, yes.”

The woman reached up a hand to pull at her ear. “Could you repeat that one more time, please? I want to be sure I didn’t hear it wrong.”

Scarlett arched a brow at her sister. “Four hundred thousand Solars.”

Evelyne blinked several times. “…What the Blazes could get them to pay that much?! Was there some treasure or something in this mansion?”

“There was plenty of treasure, but none that they cared for,” Scarlett said. “They simply needed it dealt with. If you want further details, I can ensure that they are provided to you at a later time.”

Evelyne touched her forehead as if she was getting a headache. “That’s a massive amount of money to pay for something like this, though. That, along with this…” She waved the papers in her hand. “If things continue in this manner, we’ll have more funds in a couple of months than father ever had during his time as head.”

“That is a good thing, no?”

“It’s insane, that’s what it is. Just a few months ago, we were at risk of not affording to pay our staffs, and now we’re suddenly like this…?”

Leon observed Scarlett.

This was the first actual confirmation he got that they’d been having financial issues. She had been hiding it well up till recently, so it seemed strange to him that she didn’t mind him hearing about it now. This was exactly the kind of thing the old Scarlett would have liked to sweep under the rug, so no one ever learned about it.

“I will introduce you to the Withersworths when the opportunity arises,” Scarlett said.

Evelyne gave a slow nod of appreciation to her sister. “That would be helpful, thank you. But I’m not sure when I would even have the time to go over to Autumnwell for anything like that.”

“They will be attending the Tyndal Ball, so it might be appropriate to do it there.”

“Really? Alright then.”

“So you’re actually attending the Tyndall Ball, Scarlett?” Leon asked.

She turned to him. “I am, yes. Is it that surprising to you?”

“I wouldn’t even have thought you were invited. Even I know most people are trying to distance themselves from you at the moment. The amount of jabs I’ve had to ignore this last month just for being your fiance numbers higher than I can count.”

“I have other ways of ensuring my attendance.”

He furrowed his brows as he considered her words. If there was anyone he knew that might have connections like that, it wouldn’t surprise him if it was Scarlett. Perhaps she was close to one of Duke Tyndall’s daughters?

The woman gave him a curious look — or what counted as one for Scarlett, at least. “Will you be attending as well, Sir Leon?”

“We’ll see when the time comes,” he said. “Things aren’t looking good across the empire right now, so there’s no guarantee that I won’t be busy when the ball is held.”

His mother would probably try every trick up her sleeve to get him to go, but he would prefer not to. And with the Tribe of Sin’s worrying movements around the empire, he doubted he would have the chance, anyway. Not to mention that there were reports of those behind the Tribe finally rearing their heads…

They would know more after this upcoming assignment was finished.

But none of that was anything he could share with Scarlett or her sister. While he knew their father had fought both the Tribe of Sin and the Undead Council back when those groups last made their moves—and that Scarlett was a surprisingly capable fighter, with access to magic he hadn’t seen before—this wasn’t something the two of them should get involved with.

“What I do know,” he continued, “is that—”

He interrupted himself as a strange presence appeared somewhere in the mansion.

Frowning, he turned his attention towards the ceiling.

What in Ittar’s name was that? It was unfamiliar, yet familiar at the same time. Like an icy blade pressed against his neck.

Suddenly, it intensified. The hairs on his neck stood as all of his instincts screamed at him. Before he knew it, he was standing up, his aura having exploded forth to cover him in its golden light to protect from threats.

Whatever this was, it was in opposition to what he knew. It was dangerous.

He turned to Evelyne and Scarlett, both of who were giving him confused looks. Ignoring that, he forced his clenched teeth open as he fixed his gaze on the only person who could be responsible for this. He had gotten too lax around her.

“What the Blazes have you been hiding here, Scarlett?”