[V8C17] Secrets of Frederik Lange
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the Boundary“I was worried about you, Tia! Wren!”
It was Sevil who embraced Tia the moment she arrived at the Lange manor a little before sunset.
Sevil rubbed Tia with her cheeks, and Tia was so happy she nuzzled her cheeks into Sevil as well.
“Are you hurt anywhere? What about Wren?”
As she spoke, Sevil directed her attention towards Wren, who was being carried on Frederik’s back.
Wren passed out after encountering the spider Monsters and witnessing the gruesome carnage and he’d remained unconscious since.
Frederik adjusted his grip on Wren as he gave a gentle response.
“No serious injuries. They encountered some Monsters on their way back, and it must have been a scary experience for them.”
Sevil let out a sigh of relief at Frederik’s answer.
Then, a middle-aged man came running through the halls, shouting “Frederik!” with agitation in his voice. It was a tall man with light brown hair. Judging by the way he was dressed, he was probably a member of the Lange family.
“Uncle, I have returned.”
“I heard a spider Monster appeared!”
“Yes, I eliminated two of them. They could understand human language, but they did not appear to be Greater Monsters.”
“…I see.”
The man Frederik called his uncle glanced at Tia and Wren.
It looked like his eyes were observing Tia and Wren with suspicion, and Tia felt that it was not just her imagination.
The man lowered his voice and asked Frederik in a whisper. Of course, Tia’s good ears could hear him loud and clear regardless.
“Those two are the kids who went missing, right? If they’re marked, then you should bring them to a different room and…”
“It’s okay. I’ve confirmed it myself.”
There was clearly a deeper meaning to that exchange.
Tia stared at him, causing the man to avert his eyes in discomfort.
“I’ll find a place for that boy to rest, then.”
Saying that, the man took the unconscious Wren from Frederik.
Without missing a beat, Sevil announced “I’m going with you.”
She got a shifty feeling from that man, so she was grateful to Sevil for not letting Wren be alone with him.
Frederik’s uncle and Sevil took Wren into another room, while Tia and Frederik headed together to the meeting room. From here, they would share the information they gathered.
But before discussing in front of a large crowd at the meeting room, there was something Tia wanted to confirm first.
“Frederik.”
“Yes?”
“What does ‘marked’ mean?”
Conflicted, Frederik’s gaze wandered.
Tia knew. This man was horrible at lies and misdirections.
Frederik opened a door just before the meeting room. This led to a small room that seemed to be used as a storage room. This must have been something secret.
Once they were both in the room, he closed the door.
“Sorry to pull you into a place like this. It’s something I’d rather people… something I’d rather people from the Wedge Tower not hear about.”
With that preface, Frederik started to explain.
“Among Monsters, there are some out there who don’t kill their favorite prey. Instead, they just wound them or leave some kind of mark on them, right?”
The Primordial Beast was famous for this. Any humans it liked enough to want to fight again, it wouldn’t kill. Instead, it would leave a huge X-shaped mark on their face.
It was a visible sign that they were one of its favored prey.
The Primordial Beast would leave an easy-to-understand, obvious mark so that other Monsters don’t interfere with its prey.
But there were also some Monsters who left much more subtle marks; ones that only they could understand.
“People who’ve had those marks placed on them like that… In our family, we call them the ‘marked.’ The marked draw in Monsters. That’s why…”
Frederik’s face twisted. Painfully.
“In the Lange Family, we have a rule that those who’ve been marked… Are used as bait.”
Those words didn’t come as much of a surprise to Tia.
Using the weakest one in your flock as bait when hunting — That was a common occurrence.
But Frederik must have found that way of doing things very distasteful. That was why he’d denied it so strongly when Tia and Wren were suspected of being marked.
(Frederik hates that kind of thing, huh.)
Frederik was supposed to be the Lange Family’s (Nominal) Master. Regardless, he didn’t have the power to decide the ways of his family.
Tia could kind of understand that feeling. After all, Tia herself was the (Nominal) Queen of her flock of Harpies.
The (Nominal) Queen was just a little stronger than the other Harpies out there, but she didn’t have any power to actually decide how the flock lived their lives.
“…It’s gross, isn’t it? This kind of thing is common in old families like mine. I’ve heard the famous Ohlendorf Classical Magecraft Family tends to lock away or even kill anyone who gets marked.”
Even though they were all humans, different places and different organizations had different ways of thinking and different ideas of ‘common sense.’
That held true for Monster Hunters and the Lange Family.
At the Wedge Tower, they did not use marked people as bait, nor lock them away, nor kill them. If anything, they see it as a sign of strength such as in Dammer’s case.
Tia felt like all the pieces were fitting together in her mind.
“I see… So that’s why you came to the Wedge Tower then?”
“Eh?” Frederik let out a weak voice.
Tia’s amber eyes peered up into Frederik’s.
“After all, Frederik. You’re bad at lying and secrets. If you were at home, I’m sure someone would have found out.”
“…What are you talking about?”
Frederik’s eyes twitched. His voice wavered nervously.
“Oliver’s marked, isn’t he?”
While some marks that Monsters left were obvious, like with the Primordial Beast, others were not visible at a glance.
Oliver was probably in the latter category.
Some Monsters didn’t just eat peoples’ bodies. They could also suck human blood, or feast on someone’s dreams or memories.
And there were some Monsters who preferred to eat emotions.
“I bet it was his ‘fear’ that was eaten, right? Oliver’s sense of fear wasn’t just numbed, it was eaten, wasn’t it?”
“……”
“You wanted to hide that, right Frederik?”
With a tense expression, Frederik leaned back on a shelf behind him.
His face was rich with the colors of exhaustion, and if she looked closely, she could see bags under his eyes. He’d probably not slept at all since the Monster attack began.
“…I don’t have any proof. But I’m certain.”
Whispering that, Frederik dropped to his knees.
Frederik’s little brother Oliver was an ordinary kid.
He didn’t have any particular talents, but he cared about his family and was always a hard worker.
Frederik was well aware that Oliver’s reputation for bravery was not an inherent trait that he was born with, but a consequence of having a weak, cowardly older brother.
When they were kids, Frederik was terrified of Monsters, hated training, always sobbed uncontrollably, and ran away from the adults whenever he had the opportunity.
“I don’t wanna be a Monster Hunter. I’m sure some day I’ll be eaten by a Monster and die! … Ahh… I don’t wanna…!”
“It’s okay, Brother! I’ll be with you, Brother! I’m not afraid of Monsters at all! I’m the man who knows no fear, after all!”
Whenever Frederik hid in his room and whined, Oliver would be there to encourage him.
Always insisting that he was strong, and unafraid of anything.
“Oliver was just a normal kid. A totally normal…”
As he whispered, Frederik thought back. To when they were still young.
When a rabbit jumped out ahead of them as they were walking around at night, Oliver jumped in surprise, falling back on his butt. With tears in his eyes, he insisted “The ground’s real slippery around here. You better walk carefully, Brother!”
On days when lighting struck, Oliver would suddenly cover his ears and start singing. According to him: “The weather is so great, I just felt like singing!”
At night, when Oliver was afraid to go to the toilet by himself, he wouldn’t ask his brother to go along with him. Instead, he tried to run through the halls as fast as he could, inevitably tripping and wetting himself, leaving a puddle in the hallway.
“…He was just acting strong, but he really was a coward deep down.”
Sitting next to him, Tia stared at Frederik.
She did not sympathize, nor offer words of comfort. She didn’t even radiate curiosity either.
“When you were little, did you and Oliver get along well, Frederik?”
“…I wonder. Well, I won’t say we got along poorly.”
There were times when he, who didn’t want to be a Monster Hunter at all, found his extremely motivated little brother annoying.
It also pained him to see his little brother forced to push himself so hard because he, the older brother was too much of a coward.
He had all of those complicated feelings, but if you asked him to sum up his thoughts, he felt like his answer would be a generally positive “Well… I guess he’s an alright little brother.”
All of that was in the past. He can’t recall those feelings with much clarity anymore.
“When did Oliver change?”
“Around the time our father was killed by a spider Monster… I think.”