The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound
chapter-21

Episode 21 Morgue Camille (2)

Camille dropped a bombshell.

“Are you the thief who stole our ruby mine?”

The 8-year-old girl’s bold question instantly froze the room.

First, the Yang family servants stiffened on the spot.

“…….”

“…….”

Even the mighty Morg Adolph stiffened in confusion.

Hugo, too, remained silent, looking somewhat dazed.

“What did I just hear?” is a thought that peeks through his poker face.

The Baskervilles’ family room is silent, as if no living thing exists.

The silence is broken once more by the camouflage.

“Give it back, Ruby Mine.”

The camouflaged creature strides forward and holds out a white palm in front of you.

Hugo, meanwhile, was still dumbfounded by the glare.

He’d never heard anyone say that to his face before, and even more so when it came from an eight-year-old.

Then. Adolf was the first to realize.

“Hey, kid, what’s with the sudden rudeness?”

“I told you earlier, Uncle, that this man stole our ruby mine.”

“Hey, hey, hey, boy, when did I!”

“Before you got out of the carriage. Starting this month, the number of research rubies paid to me will be reduced, and it’s all because of that stupid old mustachioed thief.”

“He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, when?”

“If you’re asking when, about an hour and forty-two minutes ago? Come on, I heard it clearly…….”

The camo gets a little sour.

At this point, Adolf felt a cold sweat break out.

He didn’t have to look away to realize it. The temperature in the room had dropped several degrees.

“……hmm. An unfortunate mustachioed old man, and a thief?”

A cold voice came from the front.

Hugo turned to look at it, squinting.

Adolf pulled out his handkerchief, covered his mouth, and coughed.

“Hmph. There seems to be a misunderstanding. I’ll be sure to clear that up later.”

“What does a one-day puppy know, you don’t need to explain to me the state of House Morg’s home education.”

Hugo’s words were barbed, but he seemed to have already lost his temper.

Adolph turned to the camel, thinking it was an accusation.

“Camo, what a rude thing to say to an elderly member of a neighboring family.”

“But what my uncle said…….”

“Even if the servants around you said something bad, you shouldn’t pass it on. There are many things in the rumor mill that are inflated…… well, there are many things that are diminished.”

Adolf and the camel turned to face each other.

Suddenly, Hugo was starting to get annoyed with the whole situation.

His mind flashed back to Deacon Barrymore’s report the other day.

“First report. About the bloodshed with House Morg at the ruby mines on Red Awl Mountain…….’

‘We’ll have a chance to discuss that soon enough. The Morgans will come to me first.’

The ruby mines were actually an old dispute.

On the border between Baskerville and Morgue, the so-called ‘Joint Security Zone’, there is a mine that pumps out high quality rubies.

The problem is that the mine’s entrance is above ground on Morg’s territory, while the underground vein runs beneath Baskerville’s territory.

Due to the angle of the vein, there is only one mining route that can be accessed from the surface, and that is from the mine on Morg’s estate.

However, mining along this vein will inevitably lead to digging beneath the Baskerville estate.

<Imaginary view of Camu’s mine

As a result, the Morg have been trying to find a way around this.

The most tried and true is to secretly dig a tunnel and mine rubies.

But the Baskervilles’ hounds, with their keen sense of smell, picked up on the signs like ghosts and raided the Morg’s mines.

There was bloodshed on several occasions, but none of it was reported in public, so relations between the two families remained good on the surface.

Even though it was festering on the inside.

And so it was that Morg Adolf, who had come to discuss the friendly competition today, was actually here to talk about the ruby mines and the bloodshed.

So Hugo was prepared for that, too……..

“I want my rubies back! I can’t do my research because I don’t have enough rubies!”

Little did he know that an 8-year-old girl would be so insistent.

Hugo put his hand to his forehead in response to her demand.

“Evocio Adolf Gazoo. What kind of disgrace is this on an official visit?”

“Uh-huh. Hmm. I apologize for this, my lord. But I’m afraid I’m at a loss for words, unless she’s saying something very wrong again.”

“……what?”

“It’s the right thing to say, isn’t it, though it’s crude coming from a child’s mouth.”

Hugo and Adolf’s gazes met in unison.

“…….”

“…….”

Hugo tried to channel the Swordmaster’s superhuman aura to pressure his intestines, but he was distracted by the camouflage of…… that had just stepped in front of him.

He tries to slow his momentum down enough to make the camo back off.

“What do you think you’re doing to a child, the Sword Star of the Empire persecuting an eight-year-old girl?”

That’s when Adolf’s pinzan comes in.

Adolf wraps his cloak around his camouflage.

And Hugo with a scowl on his face.

It’s embarrassing for an adult to argue with an 8-year-old, but this Adolf guy keeps trying to exploit her innocence for political purposes.

It was very annoying for Hugo.

Should we reignite the ruby mine issue, which we’ve been silent about?

Even agreeing to talks is an embarrassment to Baskerville, and a boon to Morg.

In the first place, rubies are more important to the Morg than they are to Baskerville, as they are used as a key ingredient in magical experiments.

Hugo is a closed-minded man who doesn’t like to interact with other families, so he just wants to keep his mind off the ruby veins.

It was enough to give him a headache training his hounds and navigating the black mountains with his enemies, and he didn’t want to have to deal with a bunch of kids who wanted to play magic with a red stone used for women’s jewelry.

“Give me back my ruby mine. Without the rubies from there, it’s hard for me to continue my studies.”

“Uh-huh, Camo, you’re talking about grown-ups, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.”

I can’t even stand to listen to the conversation between the girl named Camo and the guy named Adolf.

‘No matter how you look at it, this is a political performance…….’

But since the other party is a child, I can’t say anything and can only boil inside.

Even if the iron-blooded swordsman, who is in a cognitive position, asks me to go.

…… right then.

A voice made Hugo’s ears perk up.

“Don’t they teach you not to covet what belongs to others in Morg?”

A voice as cheerful and innocent as an 8-year-old camel.

It was 8-year-old Vikir.