Heya, here’s the continuation! Hope you enjoy it!
TL: clover
ED: eristol (will be edited)
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I concealed my shock and asked Citrouille as calmly as possible.
“Um, by Military Order of Útför, you mean the chivalric order under the direct command of the northern Deputy Governor-General, right……?”
“AH! Aah~~~ this is bad……!”
Citrouille covered his mouth hurriedly in an exaggerating manner.
“So, are you a retainer of the infamous Margrave of Urs?”
I decided to question him further while pretending not to realize its significance.
Citrouille answered in a panic.
“That, that’s confidential. If my affiliation is exposed, it will be difficult for me to move……!”
“My, my, what kind of movement are you involved with?”
“I was originally sent to cooperate with the investigation of the kidnapping cases a while ago, but, um……”
I see, so the northern people were working on the kidnapping cases.
The matter about the increase in the number of members dispatched from the military order was also due to these circumstances, huh.
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However, for him to be that Harlan’s subordinate, he must be a dangerous person.
Something like being involved with the inquisitions, and willing to confine and torture people, among other things.
Uwah, how scary.
“About that matter, my brother has also agreed to it then.”
“So far, Sir Eduard has been tasked with doing extensive investigation. That’s why we, the Military Order of Útför, now lend our strength to the treatment of Sir Eduard.”
“……Is that so.”
Uuh, it seems dangerous to investigate via the Military Order of Útför.
My brother would be fine, but I’m worried.
“I don’t know about the people who are working on other duties, but at the very least, I am on Sir Eduard’s side.”
Even though he said that, I can’t rest assured now that I know he has something to do with the Inquisitors.
I’m really glad that the principal concealed the truth about the Bloody Saint!
Now then.
This is a rare-to-come-by opportunity, so should I get information about Harlan from Citrouille?
Since I have nothing to lose, let’s try it out.
“But……is there a secret order from Sir Harlan?”
“No, no, no, I’m at the bottom of the pack, I’ve never even met Sir Harlan face-to-face nor have I been addressed by him directly.”
Harlan Slayson.
I feel like his shadow has been looming over me for the past several years.
“Speaking of which, I heard that Sir Harlan is a gentleman with severe features similar to that of a wolf, but……”
“Those rumors are nonsense. Sir Harlan wears a silver mask and doesn’t even show his face.”
And so Citrouille told me about Harlan’s appearance.
The infamous Harlan Slayson, who was surrounded by rumors reeking of blood.
He reportedly had a serious injury on his face more than a decade ago.
It is said that the bone on his frontal lobe was crushed by a stray shot.
Or that his whole face was horribly burned.
Or that his face has been distorted by a curse, and many such rumors, but the truth is uncertain.
Harlan left his injury as is in order not to forget the humiliation and his desire for revenge.
It was necessary to conceal his much-too-unsightly face, so Harlan began to wear the wolf mask.
“Please keep this story a secret. He’s a notorious and difficult person.”
“I have heard that he’s a daring and resolute gentleman, but does he have an ill repute?”
When I feigned ignorance and asked again in return, Citrouille pursed his lips and scratched his cheek.
“Ah—……if you don’t know, then you are better off not knowing.”
Citrouille looks awkward.
As expected, I can’t extract information about Harlan anymore.
Alright, then let’s start probing from another direction.
“By the way, are there perhaps, a lot of people like you who infiltrated the academy unbeknownst to us?”
“Uuh……my apologies. Even if it’s only things about me, if the fact that I leak information were to be known, my head would fly……”
Citrouille muttered something disturbing with lifeless eyes.
By ‘my head would fly’, there’s no way he meant that literally, right?
After all, Lucanrant is not a land of demons, is it?
No, wait, it is a dangerous country1 though.
The fact that there is the matter about the Headless Prince, kind of sealed the deal.
“P-p-please, keep it a secret……!”
“I understand. I’ll keep this in my heart. In exchange, I’ll leave my brother in your hands. And also the students of this academy.”
“Y-yes! I promise! I will definitely protect them!”
With seemingly honest eyes, Citrouille said words that sound sincere.
He doesn’t look like a bad person, should I believe him for now?
Just as I was thinking about that, I heard the sound of knocking on the door of the infirmary.
The one who entered the infirmary was Brad Clochydd.
“Clochydd-sensei……?”
“Erica Aurelia. So you were here. Sorry, but I’ll borrow your brother.”
Brad walked quickly to the bed where my brother was sleeping.
He tore the blanket off of my brother who was sleeping soundly.
“……?”
“Ed, wake up. You are not free enough to be leisurely sleeping in this place, are you?”
My brother slowly opened his eyes.
Perhaps due to being awakened abruptly, he looked around with a surprised expression.
“Oya……Erica……and Brad, did you come to visit me? Thank you, I’m happy.”
“Who is that man? If he’s a suspicious person, I’ll have him removed from now on, that would be fine, right?”
Brad asked my brother without glancing at Citrouille even for a moment.
“You’re a worrywart as always, I see. This is the dispatched insurance healer, Jack Citrouille.”
“……A healer with mixed blood of the South and the North, is it? Of all things, did they have to bring in an outsider at this time?”
Brad glared at Citrouille with a piercing gaze.
With a forced smile on his face, Citrouille asked my brother for help with his eyes.
“He has good skills and is very trustworthy. You can rest assured because I can guarantee it.”
My brother defended Citrouille while rearranging his disheveled collar with his left hand.
“You’re Earl Brad Clochydd, right? Sir Brad, pleased to meet you.”
Brad rejected the hand that was offered by Citrouille.
“I have a principle to not trust others easily. Even if it is not the case, I do not intend to deepen my friendship with anyone.”
“Ah— um……I see.”
Citrouille retracted his hand with a bitter smile.
Seeing that, Brad deliberately had a nasty and aggressive smile on his face.
“You came here for treatment purpose, right? If so, you should finish your job quickly and return to where you came from.”
“It depends on the physical condition of Sir Eduard. I also want to finish my job as soon as possible, but he’s not yet ready to accept the full-scale treatment.”
“Do not sniff around the academy except to do your job. The academy is currently in a delicate situation.”
“Haha, I have no idea what the situation is. But, I understand. I will be careful not to get in the way.”
The two of them began to exchange barbed words.
It is a battle of wits while hiding their circumstances.
“Brad.”
My brother who got up from the bed raised his voice.
He forced his way through between Brad and Citrouille.
For a while, my brother and Brad stared at each other silently.
It was just a few tens of seconds, but it felt like the time had stopped.
It was my brother who broke the silence.
“By the way, Brad, didn’t you have a business with me?”
“The principal has called for you. Let’s go to the Principal’s Office right now.”
After saying so, Brad got out of the infirmary briskly with a swish of his black robe.
“I’m sorry, Erica. You have come all the way here, but I have to go. And please accept my apology about just now, Citrouille.”
“Don’t worry, Onii-sama.”
“I’m fine. I will be waiting for your return here. I’m used to waiting anyway.”
My brother also quickly put on his jacket and followed Brad after taking his luggage with him.
After seeing them off, Citrouille sighed loudly.
It can’t be helped, as soon as he transferred here, his secret was leaked out to me and he was told off such things by Brad.
“Well, how scary. Are those two on bad terms with each other?”
“I wonder. I don’t think my brother is the type of person who hates others though.”
My brother is gone, so should I go to my next class?
I thought so and stood up while taking my bag.
“Ah right, is Sir Eduard right-handed?”
“He used to be left-handed, but he practiced and became ambidextrous.”
Right now he mainly uses his right hand, but it seems he’s still good at using his left hand.
That’s why sometimes he uses his left hand.
“When using wands, he mainly uses his right hand, but he’s better at using knife with his left hand.”
“Heeh, I see.”
But, I wonder why he asked this all of a sudden.
This time I questioned Citrouille.
“But why do you ask?”
“I couldn’t grasp which one is his dominant hand from his movement, so I was curious. If that is the case, then it’s understandable.”
Citrouille, Harlan’s subordinate who is an undercover investigator who infiltrated the academy.
He must have had sharp, observant eyes.
I wonder if he exposes vampires from such a small amount of information.
“But well, he’s a clever guy, that Sir Brad.”
“Do you think you’ve already been found out?”
“He seems to have figured out about half of it, huh~ aah~ how scary.”
Citrouille laughed while rubbing the back of his head.
If he got found out by that Brad from the very first day, it will be difficult for him to investigate further.
“His face looks severe, but I think he may be seriously worried about my brother and the academy.”
“But, you know……he’s also a person surrounded by various rumors, that Sir Brad.”
“Rumors? That Clochydd-sensei……?”
I was surprised, but I shouldn’t be.
Because he is one of the capture targets of the otome game 『Liber Monstrorum』.
I wasn’t able to gather information during my personal investigation, but of course he’s not an ordinary person!
“Officially, he was born to the Earl House of Clochydd but he was actually adopted, and it seems that his true birthplace was concealed.”
“I’ve heard cases where they take custody of the illegitimate child after adopting them as a related lower nobility but……”
I answered while thinking about Beatrice’s case.
This is especially true for noble mages whose pedigree tends to influence their abilities.
“It is said that the reason why he’s at this academy is because he has been receiving treatment for some kind of curse that he had for a long time.”
“No way……”
Information that I didn’t know came out of his mouth.
Thank you for letting me use this information.
But this Citrouille, he has a very loose tongue, huh.
I wonder if he would be able to keep his duty of confidentiality.
“Oops, I’ve talked too much. Please, keep this a secret.”
Citrouille smiled as if he felt my distrust.
This person is not a bad person, but I feel like he is not a good person either.
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A warning bell rang in my mind.
Citrouille did not inadvertently leak information.
Is he trying to get information out of me by giving out information as if they were baits?
Rather than a boneheaded spy, he’s a scary adult.
“Citrouille-san, please be careful about your talkativeness, okay?”
“Yes, of course!”
Citrouille responded with a radiant smile like the blue sky.
He is an unfathomably dangerous person, but it is not enough to be considered an enemy.
I went to the afternoon class while feeling a bit anxious.
1 In both of this sentence and the previous sentence, it is said ‘修羅の国 (Shura no Kuni)’. Translated literally, it means land of demons/country of demons, but it is also a slang for ‘dangerous place’.
In this chapter, Brad reminded me of a stray cat whose safe haven has been breached by other cat lol. And the suspicious character keeps getting even more suspicious.
I changed school’s healer > insurance healer, since it seems the first one is a typo in the JP raw.
Join the discord chat to discuss the novel~
Starry Night Translation 
Finally we get some info on that bloody margrave. So he has that kind of back story? I am now feeling more curious since the fact that he is a vampire hunter came as a surprise since I actually suspected him of being one back in arc 3. This Citrouille felt like a clumsy guy who got played around by Erica, at least that’s how I felt until he opened his mouth about Eduard’s dominant hand and that shady info about Brad. The moment he did that I almost felt a sense of crisis, this guy is definitely dangerous and good at acting. His sharp info leaks near the end felt as if he is goading for his opponent’s weakness in order to take advantage of it. It’s good that Erica’s senses have become better compared to way before.
Also, Brad was like a mother hen, I agree with the stray cat statement wholeheartedly. I look forward to the next update, thanks for the chapter.
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Well, hopefully Citrouille doesn’t realize how deliberately targeted Erica’s questions were.
As is, he hasn’t really got any reason to suspect her of fishing for anything in particular, since her part in killing the vampire was hushed up and he’s therefore unaware that a vampire told Erica her brother is a particularly annoying vampire hunter. He might be wary of Erica just on the strength of her being related to Edouard, though—he’s obviously got cause to know that Ed is tough and smart no matter how ridiculous his facade is; he may figure like brother like sister.
My newest theory on the margrave is that it’s actually Chloe’s brother wearing a mask!
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But the margrave is 26 years older than Erica but Chloe’s brother is 12 years older.
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He could still be faking it, but that is a pretty solid reason to think they’re not the same person.
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Yes, I mean as a character, Jack was really annoying the way he was presented and acted. A man in his late thirties that supposedly worked as an investigator for the Inquisitors, being played around like this by a fourteen year old girl. It made the whole threat of the Inquisitors feel like a joke. However hints as well as Erica’s reaction at the end thankfully suggest that everything about Jack really was a lie. “Jack” knew exactly what kind of girl Erica was, so he played at bein mark in order to find out what she was doing and what she knew. See every question she asks could potentially tell him exactly what she knew and what she was after.
That said, “Jack” is in all likelihood count Margrave himself.
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Gahhhh ahhhhhhhhhh
I dont like Jack. Don’t like him at all.
What a scary guy…
I wonder if Eduard’s dominant hand is actually something important?
Hmmm … gahck-
Thank you for the chapter!
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As Erica mentioned during her fight with Chloe, Lucanrant’s people tend to seal the movement of a suspicious person, so they probably aim for their dominant hands and legs joint so that their opponent can’t move, it might be a basic fighting technique for them so perhaps that’s why he asked.
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Or maybe he simply is looking for discrepancies in case Eduard has become a vampire.
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Thanks for the chapter!
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Thanks for the chapter! Since the last vampire, I’m starting to be more paranoid about each new character…
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Thanks for the chapter~
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Thank you for the update!
I’m getting serious “bad-guy behind a good mask” vibes from Jack and if only Erica took a bit more thought into his dominant hand question and actually thought about it’s implications… Tsk tsk.
This guy is an enemy, I’m fairly sure, but up until the turning point I think the author will make it seem like he’s an ally. There will probably even be like one scene where it practically guarantees he’s an Ally, but at his heart he’s a liar. Idk I hope I’m not condemning an innocent but I get bad vibes…
Wayy to many trusting MCs get tricked by thinking Y person’s totally dependable after X dangerous event only to get backstabbed.
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He is an inquisitor, there is no way he is a good guy although how not good he depends on how fanatical he is, if Jack is totallly nuts believer then probanly he vehemently believes his crimes are for the good.
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Once again this point is highlighted in the story, the inability of humans to distinguish vampires if not for the fact that they are hard to kill. After so many years and with so many cultures with a vast set of skills is actually possible that no one has found a method to recognize a vampire without inflict fatal injuries to the suspect?
Thanks for the chapter.
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Even fatal injuries might not work as they could just not regenerate and play dead. And then there are the bodies that get controlled remotely too. The only test might be the Infinite Corridor as it has a barrier for subspaces and forcing though will only make a black hole.
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Actually no, in case you guys haven’t noticed but not all vampires have infinite space inside them, it is a special trait exclusive only to the Bloody saint, a creation of Cain called “One who covets death”. If we are talking about regular young vampires they can be killed if all the souls they intook are destroyed first. Cain created a few special vampires through strange experimentations, the Headless Prince being another such example. Regular vampires probably have a limit to how much they can eat at a time, which is why the northern and eastern people have been able to hunt them down, something like Liévre is a difficult target to bring down since she can just swallow everything up. Erica got lucky and I think that spacial collapse was the only way to bring it down as is.
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That sounds like a good idea, since vampires in the story are like spirits possessing corpses, cut the suspect to any instance of the spiritual plane, like a pocket dimension.
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I’ll just call this guy Citrus,aad he is definately the enemy!!
btw even though im a guy…im detecting sobre vibes of Tomoya Yukito here….a little sister featuring a series and her older brother with a suspicious relationship with a guy….ugh…
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This Jack reminds me of the minstrel from Arslan Senki. A highly suspicious guy and annoying jackass, but you can turn them in to an ally.
Given that Brad’s father is possibly from Hafan or Hafan descendant, he doesn’t have a say in other people mixed race.
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If the mask thing is true… could Harlan be a vampire? Who would suspect him? He would be in a position to eliminate all worrying individuals that might be a threat… I used to think he was someone thats a bit of a Tsun, but now I’m not so sure… hmmm interesting…
Perhaps he goes after stray vampires to keep them under control, so they don’t reveal his true identity or something… who knows… As for our little loose lipped friend… he seems to be a bit too stupid to be considered a threat… he reveals too much and puts you on guard far too easily… there is no incentive to trust this guy at all… but he has managed to gain Eduarts support, whether that is forced or not is unknown… so curious… gaddmit author! so many questions upon questions! I hope they all get answered!
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That’s a method to make people to lower their guard.
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What if Citrouille is actually the Margrave? From what we got a few chapters ago, it seems that the Margrave was paying a lot of attention the the Bloody Saint case that he even met Eduart in person and questioned him. Say, if would it be too far fetched if he actually followed Eduart all the way to school as an undercover to observe him? Besides we only know based on his info that the Margrave wears a mask because of his scars, but what if he actually doesn’t have any, and the mask is just to make it easier for him to hide his identity?
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The margrave has a lot of duties to tend to so it might be difficult for him to pose as a doc and follow Eduard around 24/7, but good observation.
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No, if “the Margrave” always wears a mask, he could have any number of trustworthy allies play the part of being him while he himself is put and about hunting vampires. We already have an example of something similar you know? Erica had Plague transform into her and pretend to be her while she was out gathering information herself.
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Margrave rarely leave their land given their job is to protect the country, so that no threat enter the country via his land. Unless he has another job that requires him to be outside of his land.
If he has somebody who can masquerade as himself when he goes undercover, won’t he be suspicious of that guy as a vampire?
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That is correct, as the lord of a frontier they wouldn’t normally leave their territory. By the way, in the 1st arc it was mentioned that Harlan was 34 years old, now after 6 years, he would be 40. Is it a sheer coincidence that Citrouille’s age also just happens to be around 40? Dead suspicious if you ask me.
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This guy could even be Harlan himself, that’s the advantage to hide their real face always, no one will be able to recognize you…the disadvantage is that a freaking vampire can usurp his place and no one would notice.
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Somebody’s jeeeeaaaalllous. 😏
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Thanks for the chapter.
I was thinking of the implications of Citrouille question about Edward dominant hand. And, If Citrouille was a vampire, it could be a way to investigate Edward habits to later take his place. Moreover it would explain how Jack would be a great actor.
Then we hypothesize that all the inquisition are actually vampires and that the Margrave is Cain.
I mean why not ?
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I was re-reading this chapter, and now I think all that attention to Eduard’s being left or right handed ties back to chapter 133, when Brad visits Ed while Ed’s imprisoned on suspicion of vampirism, and Brad uses hand signals to pass info to Ed about the academy and Erica. Here, Ed had just vouched for Jack’s harmlessness and then Brad turned so completely hostile that Ed climbed out of bed to physically get between the two, before Brad dragged Ed off to a place with more witnesses. It makes sense if Ed had just signaled to Brad that Jack was a threat.
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