Becoming the Villain’s Family - Chapter 325
Chapter 325
“They are all real.”
No way!
Brian was so shocked that he even hiccupped, but Chrono remained calm. He couldn’t have grown his slavery to this size if he panicked at every unexpected situation.
“Let’s postpone your scolding for now and focus on damage control first.”
“Yes…”
No matter how well-connected and renowned the Tartan Merchant was, there were lines that shouldn’t be crossed. What if a noble feud erupted, or worse, rumors spread that they had kidnapped a noble’s child? Their patrons would all desert them, and the Merchant’s fate would be sealed.
Chrono scrutinized Elaina as if examining her piece by piece.
“Black hair.”
Not common, but not particularly rare either.
“Her eye color is unusual, pink…”
While Chrono was knowledgeable about the nobility, he didn’t recognize Elaina, who had the distinctive appearance of Grand Duke Valentine.
He had never even seen the Grand Duke’s shoelaces, let alone met him. The Valentines rarely appeared at social gatherings, so even other nobles had little opportunity to encounter them, and no daring artist risked painting and selling portraits of Grand Duke Valentine.
Though they certainly existed, the Valentines were more like mythical figures known only by reputation.
“So, what is your name?”
“…”
Elaina, still being dangled by her nape, kept her mouth firmly shut, following the adults’ teaching never to respond to personal questions from strangers.
“Hey, Father is asking you! Can’t you answer quickly?”
Brian nagged her. He was like a swaggering underling hiding behind his boss’s authority.
Elaina threw insults at him with her free hand.
“Has she lost his mind!”
“Tsk.”
Raising a hand to her now would only decrease her ‘market value,’ a basic thing understood by any slave trader.
He picked up a communication device and called someone. Shortly after, a figure cloaked in a pitch-black robe appeared.
“Here it is.”
“Is it a premium item?”
“Of course. You can see it’s engraved with the Valentine symbol, can’t you?”
Valentine?
Elaina shuddered at the familiar name and looked up as Chrono held a crystal-clear orb, inspecting it closely.
“What a marvelous object this is!”
The hooded figure began to exclaim with awe in his voice before receiving a chilling look and coughing awkwardly to explain.
“This was crafted by the great sorcerer Carlin himself, one of the few precious items we’ve managed to obtain.”
“Hmm.”
The object Chrono had instructed to be brought was a sphere containing a brainwashing spell. Because using magic instantly sends signals to the Magic Tower, attracting surveillance, those in their line of work often resorted to sorcery instead.
However, competent sorcerers weren’t common and were hard to find, so they frequently relied on items made by infamous sorcerers.
Chrono held the crystal in front of Elaina. Inside the transparent orb, thick red smoke billowed. It was a spell meant to coerce confessions.
“I’ll ask again, do you have a surname?”
“…?”
Expecting something frightening to happen but strangely feeling nothing, Elaina tilted her head and responded.
“No.”
“So, you’re not nobility?”
“Yes.”
“…Is the effect guaranteed?”
“I stake my life on it, it is certain.”
Just a commoner, then.
The child had already seen their faces. If they let her go now, even if ‘Nameless’ was influential, releasing her would put a severe dent in the reputation they had built.
If she had been a noble’s child, they might have sent her back unharmed, but not in this case.
Even if she was just a child, this was not a situation that could be passed off as a mere prank.
“How did you bring her here?”
“As Father instructed, of course. No one knows.”
“Anyone know your face?”
“Just the girl’s brother. But he wouldn’t know I gave her the teleportation scroll. Even if he suspects something and comes looking, there’s no evidence, so I can just deny it.”
After a moment’s gaze at Elaina, the man decided on her fate.
“We’ll either erase her memory or make her mindless before she passes through the trade network and then sell her to a foreign land.”
“A foreign land?”
“I’ve heard of a barbarian nation to the west of the continent that strictly limits interaction with the outside world. In that country, black, like this child’s hair, is considered a divine color.”
Elaina didn’t quite grasp what it meant to be made mindless, but she understood perfectly when they mentioned erasing her memory. She vividly recalled how Lloyd had once lost his memories and the way he had looked at her then.
“Father, as expected!”
Briain exclaimed with admiration, his face lighting up with a smile. No matter the trouble he caused, his father always had a quick solution, and he admired him immensely for that.
“Go instruct them to prepare the medicine.”
“Yes!”
Briain dashed off energetically. He was happy by the thought of completely crushing the life of the impudent child who had dared to hit him. The pain from the earlier punch seemed to vanish with his resolve.
Left alone, Elaina curled up and trembled.
She was certain that mere self-defense tactics like hair-pulling and punching wouldn’t be enough to escape them.
It wasn’t long before Briain returned with a man in a white coat who had a disagreeable face. The man began to pull out several bottles of medicine as he explained,
“This one is the most potent, but it also has the most severe side effects. It can make one unaware of even the objects right in front of them. If taken continuously without proper detox, it can cause permanent damage.”
He tapped his head as he added.
“Are you planning to use this on the kid? She’s so young, it might kill her.”
“Do we have another option?”
“The only alternatives are treatments that take several months to administer.”
“We can’t afford to wait that long. Use that one.”
Before ‘Nameless’, Elaina’s parents, could detect anything amiss and come looking for her.
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