Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 120: Under A Spell

Chapter 120: Under A Spell

"How did they die?" Arabella had to know or else she wouldn’t know what to say to Nadia.

"Starvation and torture, Your Majesty."

Arabella was wide-eyed at this. Not only were they staved, but they were also tortured. Dempsey clearly did it out of hatred and grudges.

"Was the death of his first wife and first son investigated?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. To prevent further conflict and misunderstanding, investigators and knights from Dempsey were allowed in Mt. Esme to ensure that the mother and son were indeed attacked by beasts."

They ruled out that the Safiro Chief’s and warriors’ claims were true. The deaths of the mother and son were indeed due to beasts.

However, Count Dempsey did not believe them and said that they were probably threatened by Safiro when they went into Mt. Esme.

"According to the elders, Count Dempsey raised the issue and requested investigators and knights from the capital of the then Arno Kingdom."

Thus, investigators and knights from the capital of Arno even came to investigate. But they gave the same ruling. The death of Count Dempsey’s first wife and son were both due to beast attacks not by human intervention.

Dempsey had no grounds or justification to have taken revenge on the Chief or Safiro as a whole. It was all because he refused to accept the truth that was right in front of him.

Arabella gripped at the hems of her dress and bit her lip at this. Her situation in her past life was somewhat alike to Count Dempsey’s. She also refused to think otherwise once she believed it was Ferdinand who had their son killed.

Was she also in denial? The whole time? Did she actually know the truth deep inside but refused to accept it in order to have someone to blame and let out her frustration on?

No, in her case, she was naive and fully trusted Renee’s words and the false proofs she provided. She believed in lies.

[She looks pale. I probably shouldn’t tell her that Count Dempsey let them be bitten by starving hunting dogs before letting them rot in prison to continue to suffer from pain and hunger.] Alwin thought, not knowing that by thinking about it, he informed Arabella indirectly.

’How terrible!’ Arabella braced herself.

She glanced at Ferdinand when he held her hand. He didn’t say a word but he was trying to comfort her.

[I didn’t bring her here in Valeria nor married her to show these things. I wanted her to live in comfort and luxury not with all these issues to trouble her. I don’t want to keep making her feel terrible because of this. She’s already so pale. Maybe she should return to her chambers and rest. Should I tell her I will take care of everything so she doesn’t have to worry anymore and just wait in her chambers for the reports?] Ferdinand wondered and Arabella instantly straightened up and tried to look as calm as she could.

"I’m fine. Thank you," she quickly said so Ferdinand wouldn’t send her away. "I just felt bad for Nadia and her siblings who had been hoping their father and eldest brother were still alive."

[Right. It was because I failed to ensure no territory was in this state in the first place. She probably doubts I am truly doing what I should do. She cannot trust my words because she kept on seeing terrible things in Valeria so she wanted to be present to ensure these problems would truly be resolved.]

It became a matter of trust to Ferdinand when Arabella just wanted to see this through to the end to have some peace of mind.

She knew she probably wouldn’t be able to sleep at night and would just have nightmares again if she didn’t participate in resolving the problems in Safiro after she saw it with her own eyes.

"Are you sure, you’ll be fine?" Ferdinand was just worried about her though.

"Yes," she smiled to assure him so Ferdinand had no choice but to retreat in defeat since she was adamant to stay.

Alwin then continued with his reports.

"Dempsey’s men who had been taking charge of Safiro were all under a spell," Alwin revealed. He said it was probably the doing of Dempsey’s magician.

"Once they come back to Dempsey county, all they knew they had been doing was guarding and patrolling the borders with the knights. They cannot remember that they were in Safiro nor what they had been doing in or seeing there."

Dempsey’s men were a mixture of mercenaries and villagers in his county. They were allowed to join the knights in patrol with Count Dempsey’s orders.

"So they are not aware of Safiro’s state?" Ferdinand asked to verify.

"They are not, Your Majesty."

[This magician seems to be more troublesome than he looks. He has to be caught immediately. We would have to depart as soon as Alwin was done with his reports.]

Alwin explained that all of Dempsey’s men that they spoke with (in disguise) did not even remember seeing Safiro.

Meanwhile, the knights guarding the borders were able to remember being in Safiro but only at the last battle between Arno and Safiro years ago where they had joined the call to arms. But after that, all they knew was they were guarding the borders.

"The spell was probably done to prevent any of them from contradicting Dempsey’s actions or reporting it to Duke Arno. After all, they also had families so they would likely sympathize with Safiro if they were on their right mind."

Now they were finally getting answers to why this issue didn’t get exposed and never reached Riva.

’That’s right. Why would they just watch children of a young age work in the mines and even give them little food? It was totally inhumane.’

Arabella was somewhat relieved that at least the people of Dempsey were not consenting to the Count’s actions of their own free will.

If they did, it was simply too much. How could they just watch other people suffer so much and even make it worse?