"Sir, what are you doing?! The master has already been laid to rest. Doing this will invite gossip from the townsfolk." Early in the morning, Calibo had chased after him from home.
Today, Sean was leading his men to dig up his father's coffin. Such an act, no matter the circumstances, was considered a grave transgression. Even Igunia had tried to persuade him several times, wondering if her words from yesterday had stirred something in Sean.
"As long as you don't tell, and I don't tell... who else would know? And I need to confirm this to get to the bottom of things. I believe he would understand me," Sean said, continuing to direct the household servants to dig.
"What exactly are you trying to find out, sir? We all watched when the master was buried!" Calibo didn't know how to dissuade Sean and even urged Igunia to help talk him out of it.
After all, the deceased deserved respect. When the burial took place, nearly every adult in the town had attended the funeral, and the cement seal had already been set. How could it possibly be lifted now?
Standing nearby, Igunia was also troubled. She wanted to step forward and advise him, but seeing the firm look in Sean's eyes, she dared not speak.
She had seen that kind of determination once before...
It was during the civil unrest in Koga City, when he said the final answer would be at the Earl's mansion, wearing the same expression.
She could only silently blame herself for talking too much yesterday!
But in truth, whether Igunia had spoken or not, if Sean had been more observant, he would have noticed something was off.
The previous Viscount Weigel's coffin had only been buried for a few months, about half a year. After the funeral, winter had set in, and the heavy snow made it easy to overlook the condition of the soil. Besides, Sean's level was low back then, and he couldn't see many attributes clearly.
Of course, the main reason was that he had just arrived in this world at the time...
Excitement, confusion, and curiosity about the unknown had overshadowed his feelings then. He remembered never visiting the cemetery during that period. Many in the household assumed he was too grief-stricken to come.
But now it was different. Sean had gradually developed a sense of belonging to this world and had accepted his identity as a member of the Weigel family.
If he didn't investigate now, he would never know what had really happened back then...
Ever since leaving Tellamian, he had realized that Koga City wasn't far away. Trade between the two places might have been beneficial, so why hadn't the previous Viscount Weigel thought of that?
Even if knowledge limited his thinking, the Weigel family was still a vassal placed by the Grand Duke on the border. Could he have had no ideas at all?
So Sean had found it strange back then, and now, with the discovery of evidence that his 'mother' was a witch, it cast an even darker shadow...
"Dig faster. Pry open any spots sealed with rock," Sean shouted.
Behind him, Calibo and Igunia knew they couldn't talk Sean out of it now, so they could only stand by anxiously.
He crouched down and grabbed another handful of soil...
It still showed:
【Withered...】
This wasn't a magical display but an indication of a mixed state.
Like murky water, as he examined the soil in his hand and looked around, even the trees in this area seemed withered. He had never noticed this before. Shouldn't a cemetery have grass? And the soil was loose like sand, clearly abnormal.
"Sir! Come look!"
Just as Sean was thinking, a servant digging suddenly shouted.
A crowd gathered around...
What had been unearthed was Viscount Weigel's coffin. Though Tellamian was a small place, nestled among the mountains and forests, the coffin was no less quality than those used by other nobles, made from carefully selected fine wood.
But now, after only half a year of burial, the entire coffin had become abnormal...
"How could this happen?!" Even Calibo noticed the problem.
The coffin was made of top-quality wood; it couldn't have rotted into this state in such a short time. It had turned completely black, like charred coal.
Compared to others' 【Shock!】, Sean seemed quite calm, as if he had already anticipated something like this in his mind, and now it was just coming true.
"Just as I thought," he muttered to himself.
He reached out and touched the edge of the coffin. It was like truly dried-out wood; with a little force, he could crumble the boards.
"Sir, what's going on? Why has the master's coffin turned like this?" Calibo asked in confusion from behind.
There was only one possibility for this to happen: the body inside had likely been 'dried out' by some very special method. The soil in this area had probably been 'dried out' by that energy, turning it into sand-like material.
"This is..."
"Do you know anything about this?" Sean turned to Igunia beside him and asked.
But she shook her head.
"I've never seen anything like this. It feels like it's been cursed!"
"Cursed!"
The other servants exclaimed in fear.
The townsfolk living in Tellamian had never seen magic before. Hearing the word 'curse' naturally terrified them.
But if it were a curse, Sean would have seen it long ago. He had possessed the ability to see curses since his first day here, or else he wouldn't have spotted the curse on Danti back then!
"Don't worry, it's not a curse. And it won't affect anything around us now," Sean said.
So much time had passed; whatever effects it had were probably long gone.
"Calibo..."
"Sir!"
"Did my father have any contact with anyone in his final days?"
"Are you suspecting..."
"I'm not suspecting anyone. I just want to know what happened back then." Seeing the 【Doubt!】 and 【Suspicion!】 states around him, Sean didn't want this matter to spread throughout the whole town.
It seemed this wasn't as simple as Sean had imagined...
Right under his nose, or perhaps just before he arrived in this world, the Weigel family might have experienced even greater events.
Could it be that before he came here, 'Sean' had already died? Lying in some coffin like his father?
It was unclear.
But everything before him seemed to tell Sean that the Weigel family had once been secretly assassinated.
"I remember there weren't many people around. The master always stayed in his room... sometimes looking at paintings, other times strolling around town, and occasionally taking you, sir, for walks in the back mountain garden."
Sean naturally didn't remember any of this, but the current situation might be even more complicated.