The Werewolf Count and the Trickster Tailor, Volume 2

by Yuruka Morisaki

  With the basic greetings out of the way, Ebel cut straight to the point.

  “I would like you to visit my father’s grave with me first.”

  He gestured toward the carriage waiting in the garden. Iniel, the coachman, waited with two horses in front of the carriage Rock had just taken to the manor.

  “Our destination is the holy church district, where the Mateus mausoleum is located,” Ebel said before glancing at Johanna. “I would love to treat you to a meal afterward. My maid went to great lengths to make the arrangements.”

  Johanna repeatedly nodded again. From the way she nodded so hard, Rock feared her head might pop off. It seemed Ebel wasn’t exaggerating the lengths she went to.

  Rock had no objections to that plan. She wanted more time to chat with Ebel, and the tea cakes Johanna had treated her to before tasted heavenly.

  Most of all, she was terribly concerned about the new information Ebel had mentioned in his letter.

  “It’s just the two of you going to the grave, right?” Phoebe asked Rock. “I’ll wait for you here.”

  “You aren’t coming, Phoebe?” Rock inquired, getting the most inscrutable grimace in return.

  “The late Count Mateus probably wouldn’t be too happy to see me. He’d be like, ‘What’s some mercenary doing here?’” He shrugged and added, “Besides, I hate gravesites.”

  Very few people actually enjoy graveyards, but Rock wasn’t going to force Phoebe to join them if he didn’t want to.

  “Okay. In that case—”

  “I’ll brew a cup of tea for you then, Master Phoebe!” Johanna slipped in between them and wrapped her hands around Phoebe’s arm as if this was her moment to shine. “How about I continue your tour of the manor?!”

  “…Any chance I can spend this time alone?” Phoebe groaned, annoyed.

  “Johanna, let our guest enjoy his time as he pleases,” Ebel said with a laugh.

  “Aw…if you say so, Your Excellency.”

  “You’re in charge, Ludovicus. We’ll be back before sunset.”

  “Safe travels, Your Excellency.”

  Ebel boarded the carriage accompanied by Rock.

  The carriage departed Mateus Manor and quietly proceeded down the gorgeous landscape of the aristocrat district.

  Rock and Ebel sat side by side on the velvet seat. It was nowhere near as small and narrow as a fiacre, but there seemed to be little space between them. Perhaps the glass windows on either side of them inside the state-of-the-art carriage made it seem more confining.

  To make things even more awkward, every time Rock glanced sideways, she received a passionate look from Ebel in return.

  Unsure of what to do with herself, Rock frantically searched for a topic and brought up the first thing that came to mind.

  “I-I’m really glad everyone seems to have recovered.”

  Today was the first time Rock had seen the Mateus servants since that chaotic night. She was impressed they’d all returned to their jobs without letting their injuries bog them down.

  “Thank you for worrying about them.” Ebel happily spoke on this topic. “Everyone getting off with light injuries was a real miracle. I couldn’t protect anyone—and we all struggled to protect ourselves that night…” His expression crumpled for a fleeting moment before he continued to keep the mood from souring. “But we are all in good health. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

  “Yes, I completely agree,” Rock said from the heart. “Especially Johanna. She’s even younger than me… I was worried the experience had scarred her, even if the physical injuries didn’t.”

  Rock couldn’t forget her tears after that crazy night had ended.

  Johanna was an emotional girl who always overreacted, but her tears were genuine and warranted. She’d gone through such a traumatizing experience and must’ve been relieved enough to cry after they made it through alive.

  Rock was inspired and impressed that the young maid returned to her duties as if nothing had happened.

  “That’s true. It may have been hard on her,” Ebel said, a smile edging its way onto his lips, suggesting there was more to it. “I don’t think I’ve told you this yet, Roxy, but Johanna is no ordinary village girl.”

  “She’s not?!”

  Rock was surprised to hear that.

  Then again, maybe it was stranger for a “normal” girl to work at a werewolf’s mansion and be expected to keep her master’s secret.

  “The Brutus family is an old family dating back to the Ancient Empire.” Ebel grinned like a boy about to pull a prank on the girl he liked. “And they used to be a family of werewolf hunters.”

  “They hunt…werewolves?”

  Rock was even more surprised to hear that and gawked at Ebel’s face. The werewolf count’s golden eyes shimmered with mirth. Who would’ve thought a werewolf would employ a hunter?

  “You didn’t expect that, right?” Ebel let out an amused chuckle. “In Ancient Empire times, a group of werewolves lived in this part of the imperial capital. Oppressed for being peasants, they decided to turn on the emperor. Your father might have told you how they were the ones who made those statues.”

  “Yes, my father did tell me that.”

  Phoebe had told Rock the story of how the people suffering under the tyrannical rule of the emperor clung to the werewolf curse stored in the werewolf-shaped statues. The statues had slept untouched for hundreds of years in the ancient ruins, only to be brought into the present-day imperial capital by skilled mercenaries.

  “The Brutus family is said to have smoked out and hunted members of the Brotherhood.”

  “Then wouldn’t that make them the enemy of werewolves?” Rock asked anxiously.

  She didn’t doubt Johanna’s loyalty to Ebel for a minute. But it was hard to believe werewolf hunters now served and worked alongside a werewolf.

  “They used to be, yes. None of them have seen a werewolf in centuries. They have simply passed down the stories to their descendants,” Ebel replied quite casually. “But my father said it would be easier to find an accomplice in someone who knows about werewolves to some extent rather than someone who doesn’t know a thing.”

  His golden eyes softened with nostalgia.

  “I needed to hire a new maid after I was cursed. They needed to be someone who knew about werewolves or would easily believe me without being scared. Thinking someone from a clan of werewolf hunters would be perfect for the job, my father searched until he found Johanna.”

  “I see…”

  Unfamiliar scenery started rolling past the windows just as Ebel was happy to see Rock was convinced by his story.

  As the name suggests, the holy church district was where all the religious organizations congregated inside the imperial capital.

  Cathedrals of various sizes lined the streets, and this was where imperial citizens often came for everything from daily worship to religious festivals. In addition, there was a vast cemetery on the outskirts of the district, housing many mausoleums built by wealthy families.

  Obviously, Rock had never visited before. There wasn’t a single place of worship located in the slums, and even if a caring priest came to spread the wonder and majesty of his faith, few cared to listen. Worse yet, many scurried back home after being deprived of all their possessions.

  Rock was fully aware she wasn’t a believer.

  But, just for today, she wanted to genuinely pray for Ebel’s father to rest in peace.

  The carriage came to a halt and Rock stepped out with her hand resting on Ebel’s.

  A faintly sweet-smelling breeze blew over the cemetery filled with moss-covered mausoleums and an endless sea of tombstones on the outskirts of this district.

  While the imperial capital’s ordinary citizens were laid to rest under weather-beaten tombstones, people from certain families—rich ones to be exact—were allowed to build mausoleums instead. Not that they were immune to weather; they all looked just as old as the tombstones they overshadowed.

 
Moss grew on their stone walls, vines crawled up their pillars, and the coat of arms carved into the doors to indicate which family they belonged to had been scraped away by wind and rain.

  “It’s this way, Roxy.”

  Ebel escorted Rock to one particular mausoleum.

  The Mateus family mausoleum showed its age just like the other ones they’d passed. The stone door was engraved with the same family crest as the carriage, and Ebel unlocked it without a second’s hesitation.

  “Please come in. Candles have been lit, but watch your step.”

  This was Rock’s first time entering a mausoleum.

  There weren’t any in the rural village she’d grown up in. Her mother Vale had been laid to rest in the communal grave at the edge of the village, and Rock hadn’t been back to see her since moving to the imperial capital.

  Feeling guilty for leaving her mother alone all this time, Rock followed Ebel inside the mausoleum.

  “Wow, it really is bright inside…”

  Rock accidentally let that comment slip out because the interior was far better lit than she’d expected.

  Lanterns had been mounted in all four corners of the mausoleum that was bigger than her apartment, making every detail visible.

  There was only an altar carved with statues of God on the stone wall with no casket in sight. Flowers and lit candles decorated the altar, and the length of the candles and freshness of the flowers indicated they were likely laid out that morning.

  “I told the caretaker I would be visiting today,” Ebel told Rock, responding to the surprised look on her face. “I didn’t want to bring you to a mausoleum that hasn’t been opened up in ages.”

  Now that he mentioned it, the air inside was unexpectedly clean and fresh. There were no unpleasant odors—on the contrary, it actually had a refreshing scent reminiscent of a forest.

  “It’s such a curious place,” Rock marveled, giving her honest opinion.

  “Right?” Ebel gave a small laugh. “There’s no casket even though it’s a grave, after all.”

  “There’s none at all?”

  “Strictly speaking, it’s hidden behind this altar.”

  Ebel pointed to the other side of the altar. Of course, that side was blocked by the altar and the stone wall, making it impossible to see anything.

  “We aren’t allowed to touch the bones.” Ebel’s golden eyes narrowed on the wall as if he could see what was blocked from view. “This is considered the boundary between the living and the dead.”

  “But it’s not a scary place, is it?”

  Rock had imagined a more frightening place when she heard it was a mausoleum. But it was actually more comfortable inside here than outside with the sea of tombstones.

  “No, it’s not. A mausoleum is a place to think about those who are no longer with us.”

  Ebel walked up to the altar and pointed to the newest name engraved at the foot of the stone deity. His finger gingerly traced the letters.

  “Cyrille Mateus. That’s my father’s name.” He turned toward Rock, his eyes imploring her. “Roxy, won’t you please pray for my father?”

  “Of course. I came here to do just that,” Rock replied, bowing her head, eyes closed, in front of the altar.

  Rock wasn’t religious, but she didn’t mind praying for the dead.

  She wasn’t acquainted with Ebel’s father. She’d only a vague idea of him from what she’d been told. But she was motivated to pray sincerely for his soul to rest in peace because she knew how much Ebel loved him.

  Rock was able to reunite with her father while he was still alive. And if that wasn’t a great enough blessing, she was now living with him, enjoying fairly peaceful days under his loving protection.

  On the other hand, Ebel’s father had passed away, leaving a chasm of unhealed hurt between them. They could no longer make up for the regrets they each held.

  So Rock prayed for the soul of Cyrille Mateus to rest in peace.

  I will take over caring for Ebel now.

  So, please be at peace.

  “…I wanted to bring you here at least once.” Ebel took a deep breath after praying for much longer than Rock. “I’m aware this isn’t a proper place for a date. Thank you for accompanying me anyways.”

  “I’m happy to have had the opportunity to meet him.”

  “It means a lot to hear you say that.” Relief washed over Ebel’s face as he smiled at Rock. “I’m also grateful you met my father. I’m so glad I could introduce you.”

  When he put it that way, Rock couldn’t help being a little bothered by her quickly assembled dress. If only she had more time, she could’ve put her heart into making a piece that would show off her skill to his father.

  “To be honest, I wish I could’ve introduced you in person…” Ebel muttered, the pain and loss evident in his tone. Then he shook his head as if he’d decided to look at it another way. “I know what he would’ve said if he met you. That’s enough for me.”

  Rock’s curiosity was piqued by that comment.

  “I wonder what he would’ve said about me.”

  As Ebel had said himself the other day, Rock was truly an enigma.

  She was a slum-dweller, a village girl, and a cross-dressing tailor. Her father was a cross-dressing former mercenary, and her mother was the daughter of a nobleman who’d fled home.

  If they’d had the opportunity to meet and talk, he definitely would’ve been entertained by her personal history alone.

  “My father would definitely have liked you,” Ebel asserted with confidence. “And like I said before, ‘You are very much like your father.’”

  “…There’s no higher praise than that.”

  A bashful, girly smile blossomed on Rock’s face.

  From the way he said that, she could sense how much Ebel trusted his father and the depth of his connection with her own father. She definitely felt a bond established with this man she’d never met from visiting his grave.

  “Would you like to come with me to visit my mother’s grave someday?” she asked as the idea hit her.

  “Of course, I would love to,” Ebel agreed on the spot. “Please take me with you next time.”

  “Thank you. She was buried outside the capital, so we’ll have to travel some distance to get there.”

  It took about half a day by carriage to reach the farm village where she was born and raised. That was one of the reasons why she hadn’t visited her mother’s grave. But it wasn’t the only reason—Rock didn’t have a single pleasant memory with anyone from that village except her mother.

  “Then shall we make it an overnight trip?”

  Ebel’s enthusiastic voice cut through the dark memories permeating Rock’s thoughts. Her eyes went round as she registered his suggestion, and he winked suggestively at her.

  “Did I say something funny, Roxy?”

  “N-No… I-I don’t think so,” Rock hastily denied it, realizing she was overthinking things.

  ♚♚♚

  THEY left the mausoleum and returned to the tombstone-lined cemetery.

  “By the way, do you remember the other matter I wrote you about?” Ebel asked in a quiet voice as Rock blinked against the sweet-smelling wind.

  “…About Krister?” she asked back in a whisper. He nodded.

  “I have something to tell you about him. Are you all right if we go for a short stroll?”

  “Yes. Where to?”

  Their destination mustn’t be far if he was choosing to leave the carriage behind.

  “To a church right around the corner,” he answered gently.

  Rock fought not to let her internal disgust show. But her attempts ended in vain as Ebel burst out laughing.

  “Please don’t look so miserable. I know it’s not your preferred destination, but I have good reason to take you there today.”

  “I-I don’t hate it that much!” Flustered by her blunder, Rock quickly tempered her voice to calmly ask, “What reason do we have to go?”

  Ebel qui
etly answered her as he began to walk in the direction of the church. “Did you notice the smell inside and around the mausoleum?”

  Rock kept pace beside him as she drew on the still-fresh memory.

  “It smelled good. Like a spring forest…”

  “Exactly. The caretaker burned incense before we came.”

  Rock frowned at him mentioning incense.

  “Incense? Don’t tell me—”

  “It’s as you’ve guessed. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it the other day…” Ebel groaned, pressing a hand to his forehead. “Burning incense isn’t limited to the pastimes of the rich and famous. It’s also used by priests and caretakers to remove unpleasant smells or for more religious reasons.” His expression turned grim. “Isn’t it possible that Krister Gionet was visited by a priest who uses incense daily at work?”

  If that was true, then it connected with other clues Rock had come across.

  The wealthy customer had ordered robes from Krister. Clothes that didn’t show the body’s shape were out of style and not used for everyday wear. But there were places that wanted clothes tailored specifically not to draw attention to an individual’s figure.

  “Are there any clergymen who wear blue robes?” Rock asked. Ebel swiftly shook his head.

  “None in the imperial capital as far as I know. Everyone who serves God wears purple robes.”

  A white limestone church with a towering steeple came into view, and a past-middle-aged priest welcomed them at the door.

  “Thank you for coming all this way, Count Mateus.”

  The priest greeting them with a jovial smile wore a robe dyed a stunning shade of indigo-purple. From the gold-thread embroidery work and the regalness of the holy sigil hanging from his neck, it could be inferred that he was a high-ranking priest.

  “I just finished visiting my father’s grave and would like to rest here for a spell,” Ebel explained.

  “Our doors are always open,” the priest said warmly. “May you rest well in God’s holy light.”

  The sanctuary overflowed with multicolored lights filtering in through the stained-glass, fixed-frame windows depicting various religious figures and spilled onto the pews below.

  Only one middle-aged man had his head bowed in prayer inside the gorgeous sanctuary. Perhaps that was why the priest personally showed Ebel and Rock around.