Chapter 262 – Inducer
Carl looked at his fiancée with surprise and horror.
“This can’t be true? This isn’t possible.” He muttered as several pairs of eyes turned to him. “We made sure, we made sure, right?” He muttered, looking at the prince who had a grim face.
“BE SILENT!” Growled Archduke’s voice, shaking the room and his son to the very core, stopping his mutter.
“Why? I would love to hear his words until the end.” Said Lord Belmont, looking at Archduke with a raised eyebrow.
Archduke did not say anything, just stared at the wailing fiancée of his son.
“Oh, well.” Said the Royal Investigator before turning to Noah. “For now, let me ask you one question: what magic did you just use, Count McDaniels? I believe I have not seen anything of the like before this day. I believe it was a kind of mind magic, but it had a restorative feeling rather than manipulative, restrictive, or destructive as mind magics tend to be. I assume it helps restore hidden or suppressed memories; is that right?”
“Mind magic?! That’s it! He must have done this to her; this must be some fake memory!” Shouted Carl.
The Archduke tsked with annoyance and muttered something under his nose before his son’s mouth shut itself, allowing him to only voice a muffled “mMmm” sound through his closed lips.
“I am afraid that is not possible, child.” Said Lord Belmont turning to Carl once again. “Implanting fake memories is akin to creating new neural synapses. It needs tremendous effort, even more tremendous skill and experience, but most importantly, time. New memories have to be implanted slowly over time. Yes, time is the issue here. The human brain stores memories in electrochemical reactions. This process takes time. Time that is impossible to skip. When you try to skimp on that, your attempt to implant a memory will hundred percent fail in two ways. It will either stay at the forefront as a picture you just saw without any feeling that it was something you’ve lived through, and feel alien and strange, making you immediately recognize it as fake. Or it would kill the subject by overloading the brain. I do not know what skill the young Count used, but what I do know is that it is simply impossible to implant a memory this quickly. It is not about the skill. It is about the human brain's limitation.
Carl’s eyes went wide as he heard this.
“Yes, the fact that Lady Fertile is alive and well proves it is not the case.”
“Killing the subject?” Asked Prince, clearing his throat, suddenly feeling his voice going dry.
“Yes. Creating so many new neural links in the brain is a tremendous load on the brain. This load alone is already too hard for an untrained and unprepared brain to withstand, and if it is not spread over a long period of time, leaving time for the brain to rest and restore, it will lead to overload, killing the person in the process. Also, when you do it on a conscious person who understands that something has been done to him or her, the brain will start rejecting it, fighting with itself, and the person would simply die from overheating his head. The subject’s mind has to be dulled or put to sleep when it is being done.”
“If Count McDaniels were able to pull it off this easily, breaking both principles, there would be no way for us all to speak of it here. With such God-like skill he would easily hypnotize everyone in this room, making us all believe we just drank tea with cakes and nothing strange happened.”
“I…see.” Said the prince glancing at his friend's fiancée. The girl was alive and well and, ignoring her breaking down like that into cries, she seemed totally fine.
“But let's discuss that and what you meant by the words 'you made sure' that you mentioned earlier after we questioned Lady Violette.” Said Lord Belmont, glancing at both Carl and Kevin, who now had uncomfortable expressions on their faces.
“Lady Violette Fertille, as a Royal Investigator, it is my obligation and duty to clear this matter; I ask you for your full cooperation. Please answer me, have you really been under someone's influence?” Asked Lord Belmont.
“Yes.” Whispered back Lady Violette through her hands covering her face.
“Do you remember who did this to you?”
“Yes.” Answer Lady Fertille once again.
“This person, the culprit, can you name it for me?”
“It was Anita. My maid. It was my maid Anita. She… She was telling me to… Oh my god! How could she? She made me skip the contraception magic. She forced me to get pregnant.” The girl said, falling into wails once more.
“Now that we know a culprit is not someone in this room, may I suggest we take Lady Violette to another room to calm down?” Said Theressa.
“This maid? Do you know her?” Asked Lord Belmont, looking at Carl. When Carl nodded and looked back at his grandfather, the Archduke muttered something and the silence spell was released.
“Yes. She is the Fertille family’s maid. V brought her to the academy as her entourage. They have been together for years, at least as far as I know.” Said Carl.
“You know where she is now?” Asked Lord Belmont.
“She stayed back in the academy. Vi said she felt unwell right before we were about to travel.” Said Carl.
“I see.” Said Lord Belmont, then looked at Theressa and nodded, giving her his approval, before leaning back into his chair and picking up his teacup.
Priscilla and Brianna took Violette by the hands, pulled her up, and moved the crying girl away from the table.
“V…” said Carl, shaking off the hand of his grandfather that now eased his grip. He stood up, looking at his fiancée, but she did not look in his direction, only starting to cry harder from hearing his voice.
As she and the two ladies left the room, he fell back into his seat and pressed his face into his palms.
“What the fuck?” He muttered.
“So, now I would ask you two: what exactly did you mean by saying: 'we made sure' ?” Asked Lord Belmont after taking a sip of his tea and looking at the two young men.
“We tested her…” muttered Carl.
“I tested her.” Interjected the prince. “It was my idea. I suggested it and pushed Carl to do it.”
“Test her?” Asked Archduke.
“I wanted to be sure about the girl my friend fell for, so we subjected her to a mind-spell check. But it was clear. Nothing was found. We even had a strong argument with Carl because of that. I don’t understand how this is possible.” The prince explained.
“How did you subject her to a test without her knowing?” Lord Belmont asked.
“I drugged her on one of our dates and... And we tested her while she slept. I know it was wrong, and I feel bad for doing it; we even had a fight with Kevin after that, as he said.” Said Carl. “I was opposing the idea, but he insisted that he needed to be sure as a member of the royal family.”
“Testing for mind spells is quite a difficult task. Out of academy study, I would say. And I believe it is not something you two could do on your own. You used someone’s help?” Lord Belmont asked.
“I asked for help from one of the royal mages.” Said Kevin
“Which royal mage exactly?” Lord Belmont asked.
“Third Royal mage, Sir Oliver Birchash.” Kevin answered.
"Hmmm.” Voiced Lord Belmont thoughtfully. “Sir Oliver is renowned for his honor, sense of duty, and loyalty to the royal family and the King. Also, he is a top-tier specialist in mind magic. If he performed the test, we can be sure he did it to the best of his abilities. Which makes me wonder how he could not find what young Count McDaniels had noticed with just a glance. To be honest, although I did not look into her deeply, I did use my spirit sense just now, but not even I noticed anything.”
Everyone looked at Noah at that moment, who just shrugged his shoulders.
“One of my skills pointed it out.” He answered it without any further explanation.
“And what skill is that?” Asked Archduke looking at him with a dark expression, not caring for any rules of privacy. Someone tried to make a hit on his family, and he needed to find the truth.
“The girl…” Said Theressa interrupting the Archduke, “the maid. You said she stayed back in the academy because she suddenly got sick?” Said Theressa putting down her teacup and crossing her hands on her knee. "Have you mentioned that Lord Belmont the Royal Investigator would travel with you?”
“Now that you said it… right before the departure I did mention that Lord Belmont would accompany us. And at that time she felt uncomfortable about it. We did not put much thought to this back then. But the next day, when the flying ship arrived, Vi turned up at the port without the maid and said the girl got sick all of a sudden.” The Prince said.
“Could she have been afraid I might expose her on the trip? Hmmm, interesting. But this does not make much sense…” He muttered, drumming his fingers on the table.
“Why is that?” Asked Archduke.
“If it was a spirit magic charm I would notice it immediately, trace the culprit and arrest her before we departed. In that case it would have been smarter for that maid to disappear altogether the night before, making a run as far as she could, instead of simply staying back at the academy till the morning and pretending to be sick. That would just waste her precious time for making a safe escape. And as I said, I see no traces of anything suggesting any spirit magic had been performed on Lady Violette, which leaves only a magic spell.”
“However her action makes even less sense in this case. To expose a mind magic spell, you’d need to perform a mind search test, just like His Highness insisted on doing to find it. It's a long and tedious procedure that requires the subject to lie down and not move. Obviously you would need a strong reason to do something like that. If she felt that she gave out that much it was even more logical for her to run away long ago, as I’d probably already have an inkling of the suspect and it would be easier to surround and catch her in the academy instead of trying to lure her to the ship.”
“In other words, it does not make sense for her to be afraid of being exposed. After all the spells are already cast. Lady Violette is already under their influence and if you do not suspect anything there is no way to expose it without a thorough check. So, as long as she just performs her duty as a maid and stays at Lady Violette's side, doing nothing suspicious, there would be no risk of exposing her. It does not make sense for her to beware of an unknown method that the young Count used that even I am not aware of. Her staying back does not make any sense. She should have either run away or come with us on the trip. What could have spooked her?” Said Lord Belmont as if talking to himself before taking another sip of tea.
“There is another method of mind control, am I right?” Said Theressa with a slight smile, taking another sip of tea.
“The system skill, you mean. All skills are a combination of both magic and spirit charm. If it was used, I would be able to expose the same as a spirit magic…” Said Lord Belmont and suddenly stopped his word as an idea came to his mind. He looked at Theressa and saw her smile widen.
“Tell me, Young Lord Carl, has your fiancée been acting differently while on this trip?” She said to Archduke's grandson while intently watching Lord Belmont's reaction.
“Now that you mention it, she was quite unusually capricious on this trip.” Carl said.
Lord Belmont closed his eyes for a moment, leaning back in the armchair. “So she knows that much. As expected from this sly woman. Even state secrets are known to her.” He thought.
“The quarreling you two had the entire trip. It isn’t actually something usual for you, is it?” Said Lord Belmont.
“Umm, no. I don’t really know what came up on her, but ever since we stepped on the ship she’s been unusually irritated.” Said Carl.
“As I thought. His Highness tried to explain it to us, but we foolishly ignored it, passing it on to youthful inexperience in the relationship.” Said Lord Belmont, opening his eyes and glancing at the Archduke, who had an expression of confusion.
“I do not understand where you are going with this.” The Archduke said. “What does it have to do with mind magic?”
“There is a kind of system that fits the picture. It would explain why the girl did not get on the ship and why the young couple became so irritated toward each other on the trip. But it is not my place to speak of this openly. After all this is a state secret. And only our lord Royal Investigator here may decide whether we are allowed to speak of it.” Said Theressa.
“Which makes me question, how does someone like you know of it?” Lord Belmont asked, gazing at her suspiciously.
“I have many ears, and know what to listen for.” Said Theressa raising a finger, and a small startled spider ran around it, quickly hiding in her dress. Everyone except Lord Belmont looked at it with confusion, yet Lord Belmont creased his eyebrows, his face darkening.
“If this concerns my family, I have to know.” Said Archduke.
Lord Belmont nodded, sipping his tea once again.
“The system, Countess Threadweaver mentioned, is called - Inducer. It is a rare system of a special type. Meaning it has a special condition for advancing other than just killing monsters and gathering experience. There are only a couple of its possessors born every few decades. And with certain limitations it is capable of influencing the minds of people similar to mind magic, while being able to stay unnoticed for both mind search and spirit senses.”