As expected, the youngest daughter of Viscount Rosenberg was staying in Brutein, so I quietly took a seat in the mansion hall and waited for her to come in.
'There is no need to prepare another corpse.'
A luxurious coffin lay on the floor.
We will duke it out with the corpse of Isabel Ron-Pierre Genova.
After all, as neither of us has used Isabel's corpse before, there is no affinity with the cadaver.
Knock Knock.
Just as I was getting tired of waiting, the door opened with a formal knock and the youngest daughter of Viscount Rosenberg entered the room with her servants in tow.
"... "
The aristocratic society is a very stressful place for Ferzen due to his condition, so it is no surprise he never attended a ball or other social events.
That's why, even though this was our first encounter, her appearance immediately caught my attention.
'Is she an albino?'
Albinism.
The term refers to a genetic disease, in which the skin and hair turn snow-white due to a lack of pigmentation in the body.
"Greetings… I, Laura… De Charles…Rosenberg…am here for the duel…"
Her tone was akin to a slothful tortoise crawling a mountain. Her voice paused with each word.
"Nice to meet you. You are really taking your time to convey your words. Is that really how you normally speak?"
To be honest, I expected something completely different from a person who challenged me to a duel. My image of a proud and confident aristocrat shattered like a glass.
"I'm sorry.. sorry… ple-please do-don't hurry me up… my stutter gets even worse…"
Perhaps because she was an albino, her face, which is currently blushing from embarrassment, turned crimson.
"I see. I'm sorry for not noticing your 'condition' right away. I have disgraced you, and for that, I sincerely apologize."
I've heard rumors that Viscount Rosenberg doted on his youngest daughter to a fault because of her naturally weak constitution.
In addition to her stuttering, she is an albino. Albinos are famous for being vulnerable to the sun and getting tired rather quickly.
She is really pitiful to have been ill from birth.
'However… '
My sympathy ended when I saw the way her hair was tied.
one tailed hairstyles are rather infuriating to see.
Even when I tried not to focus on it, that kind of feature caught my eye right away, and my compulsion began to act up, making me want to grab her hair and untie her ponytail hairstyle.
Crack!
'I can handle this much.'
After clenching my fists to hide my trembling hands, I calmly spoke to her.
"To challenge me, you must be very ambitious… would you like to start the duel right away?"
She nods her head in agreement, exposing her fair and slender neck, which looks like it will snap the moment one grabs it.
"You must be a Keter-class* Warlock, so in the spirit of fairness, I will match my magic power to your level. So don't worry about it and just do your best."
"W-who.. will you use?"
"We shall both use Isabel's body for this duel."
I smiled and looked at Laura.
Assuming that both of us consume the same amount of mana, the rate of comprehension of the corpse will be greatly affected by our degree of understanding of who 'Isabel' actually was.
The familiarity with one corpse generally accounts for a large part of your performance in manipulating the said corpse, except for the blood ties, of course.
So the key is understanding.
The warlock's ❰Corpse Affinity❱ technique revolves around employing the corpse's abilities from when it was still alive. It is like you're embodying the corpse's essence.
What kind of personality did it have?
What were its habits?
What did it like?
What did it hate?
As the warlock better comprehends and recognizes the various elements of the corpse, his ability to synchronize also increases.
Among the previous heads of the Brutein family, who left a journal or kept a diary, the difference between said corpse's performance was significant.
And as Isabel Ron Pierre Genova was a famous witch, there were many reports and documents related to her, so Laura could and would have used these to form her foundation for understanding Isabel's corpse.
'I wonder how much the synchronization rate will be… it won't matter even if I handicap myself. After I win the duel, I should use this as an excuse to untie that horrible one tail of hers.'
As such, I finished organizing my thoughts and stared at Laura, who opened the coffin and immediately began to cast her magic.
"Laura De Charles Rosenberg."
"Y-Yes?!"
"Aren't you going to do other checks?"
"Yes…"
She seemed rather confident.
Even if I was aware of Isabel's information through the documents I got, I would still have to go through the process of analyzing her body. After all, the devil is in the details.
'Sure Enough… '
『Synchronization Rate: 12.9%』
When I activated ❰Digitization❱ just in case, Laura's understanding of Isabel caught my eye.
Sure enough, since it is still in the early stages, her Synchronization rate continued to increase at a fast pace
『Synchronization Rate: 18.7%』 『Synchronization Rate: 21.9%』 『Synchronization Rate: 24.3%』
And finally, when Laura turned her head toward me, the Synchronization rate shown was 27.3%.
Isabel is an Apollyon-class Elemental Wizard, so at 27.3%, Keter-class elemental wizard abilities can be used almost perfectly.
If someone other than Ferzen saw this, they would claim that the girl's talent was a gift from the very heavens.
From the progress Laura displayed, it is possible she had a similar talent to Ferzen's ❰Corpse Affinity❱.
"Are you done?"
"Phew, d-do your best... I did m-mine…"
"Now the result of our duel shall be decided by whether or not I succeed in understanding the corpse. This won't take long, so bear with it."
Contrary to my expression, I was truly anxious about whether or not I would win, but nevertheless, I approached Isabel's corpse.
"Wha-What are you do-doing…?"
Seeing me grope Isabel's corpse, Laura inquired about the meaning of my actions.
"Isabel Ron Pierre Genova's body was kept in stasis from the moment she was killed up to the auction… therefore her corpse contains clues that can provide information about her."
The corpse's right index finger was discolored.
'She must have smoked a lot of tobacco.'
Her finger is discolored to a pale yellowish color, and it's predominantly on its right side, so naturally, she used this as support for the tobacco lotus*. (TL note: lotus were the hookah dispensers of the time)
Also, seeing the large white half-moon pattern on her nail indicates she had a habit of biting her nails, a sign of mental stress.
Twitch
I could feel my synchronization rate with Isabel's corpse rising from the extremely subtle spasms she was having.
This is a technique where you can receive immediate feedback about the synchronization rate of the corpse.
Because of this, skilled warlocks who are knowledgeable in black magic tend to hold a plethora of knowledge in their heads.
Even the most random stuff.
"... "
"Ah... "
"What are you doing?"
"Tha-Tha-That... "
"Put your hands away."
When I tried to touch Isabel's lower body, I frowned as I watched Laura interfere.
"T-that, though... "
"Laura De Charles Rosenberg. Didn't you read documents and reports related to Isabel and gathered information about her life in advance? But now you're trying to hinder me while I'm in the middle of gathering information?"
"S-sorry, s-sorry... Gasp, gasp, continue … "
"Well then."
Biting my tongue, I sighed.
"I won't go too deep." (TL note: bruh)
In order to control the corpse perfectly, the warlock must understand the corpse as much as possible.
But of course, in the process, there were cases where warlocks developed an affection for corpses they were working on.
In fact, there are cases when some warlocks married the corpse they were examining, and there are others who killed a person because they 'harassed' the said corpse.
"No matter how you look at it, this woman is already dead. She is now just a pile of flesh and bones. She is no longer human."
"... "
Seeing Laura lowering her head, perhaps convinced by my words, I took off the pants that Isabel's corpse was wearing and continued my examination.
"It seems that she's still a virgin. It's not even discolored yet…"
"..."
And after I was done, I reached out and put my hand on Isabel's head.
Ferzen may be very intuitive, but this is irrelevant when examining a corpse.
To accurately explain ❰Corpse Comprehension❱, it's psychometry that can only be invoked once on a corpse.
Of course, using this ability will only show fragments of the core memories that molded the now deceased persona.
As an example, if one uses this ability on Ferzen's body, it will show them the memories of him trying to kill his older brother or another harsh action derived from his compulsion.
'…!'
And on Isabel Ron Pierre Genova's case…
Those memories showed me events from Twenty-four years ago, and I had to cover my mouth in order to endure the rising nausea caused by those memories.
' I now understand why the Genova family were a secluded bunch. Isabel was a murderer, that was indeed a fact. However, different from her kin, she didn't find 'pleasure' in it.
Twitch!
As I watched Isabel's memories that formed the core of her personality, the synchronization rate soared exponentially.
"W-what? Oh! Ah…uh, uh… ?"
In addition, my talent ❰Corpse Affinity❱. which allows any corpse I control to have the same performance as a previous head of the family, so as a result, I was able to seize control of Isabel's body completely.
"T-this.. can't be right… uh, no…"
"Laura De Charles Rosenberg."
"... "
"It's still too early to start screaming."
Even though I said that I was drenched in cold sweat.
Because there must have been a lot of fake information on reports and documents about Isabel.
Therefore, it would explain the rate of 27.3% that Laura achieved.
Her talent may be similar to Ferzen's ❰Corpse Affinity❱, due to which she must have received some sort of bonus from manipulating corpses.
If Laura's information procured by reports and documents was 100% correct, I would have lost this duel after giving her a handicap by restraining myself to match her level.
"C-come on, hold on, wait… can't lose now…!"
"If there had been an advantage, it would have been on your side, but nevertheless, it is too unsightly to refuse to accept your loss."
"... "
"Or do you think I wasn't fair?"
"If y-you were trying to inspect and acquire information... Uh, why didn't you check t-the torso as well?"
Does she think that the process of examining Isabel's body was a ruse or some kind of trickery?
No, this is a surprisingly good hunch.
But if one asked me why I didn't examine her upper body as well…
It was because I couldn't just rip off her only remaining breast to make her torso symmetrical.
But of course, I can't tell her that.
"You raise a good question, but what clues do you think I found after looking there?"
I countered.
Hm, indeed this answer is quite convincing, so it should be safe.
From what I could gather, Isabel was single until her death, but I don't know if this is true.
Therefore, I tried to see if she indeed had any experience with the opposite sex while examining her lower abdomen.
But what about her single breast?
"I think I already explained myself to you. Now stop being a bother. I just returned from a long trip and the first thing I did after arriving was to meet you before I could even get some rest."
"Tch, thank you..."
"And with this."
I reached my hand towards Laura's hair, which to be honest has been bothering me since the beginning of this duel, and untied her hair, releasing her one tail style.
"In the future, when you come to my lectures, don't wear something like this on your head. If you do, I will give you constant seminars to present to the entire class."
Since she's a person with a speech impairment, if I threaten her with enough public exposition, she will never use this annoying hairstyle in my presence again.
It doesn't matter as long as both sides are tied, but this current style does her justice more than the typical twintails…
'Ah… '
Come to think of it, what should I do if the number of students taking my class is not symmetrical?
Perhaps I could make one or two give up the lectures…
'Yes, Let's do that... '
As I struggled to calm the multiple thoughts that came to my mind, compelled by my obsession, I laid Isabel in her coffin and stored it in my subspace.
Then, after leaving the mansion hall and taking a clean bath to relieve the accumulated stress, I went to see Euphemia to fulfill my promise to show her around Brutein.
1. The Rankings of Wizard are slightly inspired from SCPF
The ranks for wizards from strongest to weakest (that was shown up to now): Apollyon>Euclidean>ketter
2. Lotus were hookah dispensers of that time