As Duke Ernest went away, I ran into another group. Well, the hunting ground was not a very large place, so running into other people would happen quite often.

“You’re great.”

This time, it was Arrendt. The charming smile for the social purpose was on his face.

“That’s a big compliment.”

“I just saw Duke Ernest driving his horse past me with an angry face, now i know why.”

Oh, I see. I held the corners of my mouth to not rise up and pretended to be innocent.

“Is that so? Ah, I’ve had no intention of offending him.”

Arrendt wore a simple outfit, unlike usual. However, he was still wearing some ornaments made by the mana stones. And because of his gorgeous appearance, there was no sense of incongruity. Rather, he looked splendid.

Usually, only mages carried mana stones. Because of this, people were always curious as to why Arrendt, who was not a mage, always wore ornaments with mana stones instead of gems. Some of them just thought it was just the “geek side” of the young and capable marquis.

But I knew why Arrendt always carried a mana stone.

“I see that the winner of this competition turned out to be Lady Fiona.”

I shook my head and looked at him. “You have to see the ending to know anything.”

Arrendt didn’t seem to have caught many monsters. Probably the reason was due to lack of motivation as his power actually was quite a high level.

“My Lady, are we going to hunt more?”

“No, now…”

I glanced at the knights who were following me with sick and tired faces.

“I think I need to rest for a while.”

Well, I also have physical limitations, so I didn’t want to overdo myself.

“Is that so?”

Arrendt drove his horse slowly, following my speed.

“So, I heard Lady Fiona has been fighting monsters for a long time in Heilon.”

“Yeah.” I grinned.

“So, I’d like to hear Lady Fiona’s opinion about monsters, is that okay?”

“If it’s something i can answer for you.”

Arrendt glanced at me for a moment.

“Have you ever heard of ‘Darkness’, My Lady?”

That.., was a question that I somewhat expected.

Of course, the ‘darkness’ he spoke of did not mean the other word used in the usual sense.

“Yes, I’ve heard of it.”

The biggest reason Fiona became the final boss in the first place was that she tried to deal with this “darkness” but failed.

“It is said that the magic in the area where the darkness has appeared becomes more powerful and stronger.”

The darkness was a formless existence. It usually appeared without a sign, so there was no way to avoid it. However, when it appeared, the land became dry, and the surrounding monsters became more ferocious.

“Yes, that’s right. Also, the word ‘darkness’ is what the academy scholar named it when they first identified the phenomenon.”

That was pretty much the setup.

Arrendt raised the corners of his lips. “Even so, the scholars are not yet convinced about the darkness, because the direct firsthand witnesses…”

“There are no survivors.”

“Yes, that’s right. I see you knew about it.”

Usually, everyone who came into contact with the darkness died. There was no one who directly witnessed the phenomenon, so naturally, there was very little clear information about ‘darkness’.

But of course, there were people who survived the darkness. Right in front of me, the Marquis Arrendt Clovis.

As a child, he witnessed the moment when darkness appeared and survived. And the aftereffect was not small. The effect was the reason why he always carried the mana stones. The mana stones slowed down the aftereffects of the darkness as much as possible. But he definitely did not enjoy it, as he’s been looking for a way to get rid of the aftereffect that eroded his body, and the existence of ‘darkness’ itself.

Of course, this was the story of Arrendt when he later fell in love with Eunice, the female lead.

But I pretend not to know anything. “You seem to be interested in darkness.”

“It’s just a small curiosity. For a short piece of knowledge. But I’m wondering if you know anything else because you’ve been dealing with mosnters for a long time.”

“Heilon is also concerned about darkness. But there’s so little information, and those that I knew do not differ much from what academy scholars said.”

However, darkness had never yet appeared in Heilon.

“We urge the soldiers to retreat immediately when they see any dead ground.”

“I see.”

Arrendt looked lost in thought.

I pretend not to know his worries. Arrendt has no doubt had a serious problem as his life was at stake but it will all be resolved later. In addition, the reason Arrend and Fiona were intertwined in the original plot was because of darkness in the first place.

Attend had come up with a hypothesis. At one point, mana stones could delay the aftereffect of darkness after seeing it on himself, even though it was not that strong. Another point, mana stones are affected by mana. And only mages who could have and control such mana powers. So, wasn’t magic and darkness a phenomenon that was somehow related? After he thought about this possibility, Arrendt was looking for a very strong magician. Someone who has a great talent controlling their mana. Someone who did not die even when they touched the darkness. And the mage who met Arrendt’s requirement was Fiona.

Of course, as I am Fiona now, I didn’t want to take any risks.

“What are you doing here?”

It seemed another person appeared. It kept coming, didn’t it?

“Your Higness the Prince.”

I turned my head around after hearing Arrend’s words.

There was Sigren.

I also followed Arrendt and gave a greeting to the imperial family.

Sigren chuckled while looking at me in a strange way.

If there were no other people around, I would have hit him.