Chapter 35
10 p.m.
Well past curfew, Vieta went to Laura’s room, realized she was gone, and immediately sought out Fulcare.
The moment Fulcare saw Vieta, he let out a short sigh. It wasn’t that he disliked her; he had simply sensed that something had happened.
At first glance, Vieta’s flushed face made her look excited, but tears glistened in the corners of her eyes.
Fulcare fastened the shirt he had been about to take off and tossed Vieta a spare tunic.
It was a little long for Vieta because of their difference in stature, but she should be able to wear it well enough if she cinched it at the waist.
“Captain, what happened?”
“…Laura’s gone.”
Vieta caught the tunic in midair and went behind the partition in one corner of the room.
While she changed, Fulcare paused to think.
‘Laura’ was a name he was hearing for the first time. Given the size of the pilgrimage, it was impossible to memorize everyone’s name.
Still, judging by how tightly Vieta’s nerves were wound, it was probably the black-haired maid who had recently been spending a lot of time with her.
‘Why was a maid kidnapped?’
Had the Kardu lot seen Vieta taking Celine away?
Things had become absurdly tangled. Fulcare clicked his tongue as irritation welled up inside him.
Knock, knock.
While Fulcare waited for Vieta to finish changing, someone came to his room from outside.
“Chief, are you in?”
It was Alos, the commander of the First Knight Order. Fulcare quietly tipped Vieta off before opening the door.
To prevent Alos from noticing Vieta’s presence, he used his body to block the gap in the slightly opened door.
“A maid from the Department of Magic is missing. Do you happen to know what happened?”
At 10 p.m., Alos, who was in charge of security, made his final check of the lodging’s occupants.
“Ah, I sent her on a brief errand. I forgot to mention it beforehand.”
Pretending to run a hand through his hair, Fulcare quickly glanced sideways at the parchment Alos was holding.
Vieta’s and Laura’s names were written side by side on the parchment. The only difference was that two lines had been drawn across Vieta’s name. It seemed they had confirmed that Vieta had returned through the main entrance.
“Are you sure?"
Alos looked at Fulcare suspiciously.
“Yes, the maid named Vieta has returned, hasn’t she? I sent both of them on errands, but it seems they’re running a little late.”
After checking the list written on the parchment, Alos nodded with a displeased expression.
“It has indeed been confirmed that this maid returned. Since it concerns you, Chief, I won’t interfere further, but I’d appreciate it if you told me ahead of time if something like this happens again. As you know, His Highness the Prince’s safety is at stake.”
“I’ll be more careful from now on. By the way, Commander Alos, are you in charge of Prince Roen’s security tonight?”
“Not only tonight—always. Did something happen to His Highness today? I was just on my way to his room….”
“No. His Highness returned with me, so he should be in his room now.”
That was a relief. He and Vieta would both clearly be away tonight, and only someone of Alos’s caliber made it possible to leave with any peace of mind.
It would have been useful to have Blanc’s shadow, but unfortunately, the prince had severed his own shadow in Contium. He had done so because it got in the way whenever he visited a mage’s subspace.
When Fulcare closed the door and turned around, Vieta cautiously peeked her head out from behind the partition. With only her eyes visible as she blinked, she seemed to be asking whether she could come out.
“Are you done changing? If you are, come out. Alos has left.”
The moment Fulcare finished speaking, Vieta approached him and held out a torn scrap of clothing.
“This was caught on the window. I don’t know whether it’s a piece of Laura’s clothing or something belonging to whoever kidnapped her….”
Vieta could not finish speaking and clenched her teeth. Whatever emotional change had occurred while Fulcare dealt with Alos, her face had now gone deathly pale.
Fulcare silently picked up the scrap of cloth. A moment later, countless white spheres rose from his fingertips and began flying away.
***
At the farthest edge of Bingsho’s slums stood an earthen house on the verge of collapse.
Ever since its inhabitant had died of a strange illness, the house had been called cursed and had remained vacant for a long time.
That house, the subject of ominous rumors, was one of Kardu’s outlying bases.
The entrance had been deliberately smashed to deter strangers; once someone passed through it and activated the hidden magic circle on the living-room floor, a passage leading to an underground chamber revealed itself.
Laura was imprisoned inside a narrow iron cage underground, curled up like a shrimp.
Seemingly conscious again, Laura shifted restlessly before beginning to retch.
“Be quiet.”
As Laura continued retching, the man watching her in the basement shouted.
The thought of someone vomiting in a poorly ventilated basement made his stomach turn.
“Shut up!”
When Laura could not hold it in and retched once more, the man finally kicked at the iron cage.
The woman’s strange condition was caused by the drugs used during her kidnapping, but that was of no importance to the man.
“Just lie there quietly. Don’t lift your head—keep it down!”
The man was the one who had failed to kidnap Celine that day.
Kardu promised enormous wealth to those who succeeded, but showed no mercy to those who failed.
So the man had kidnapped Laura. He needed an excuse to claim that the commission had not failed.
A short while later, rough footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor, and three hooded figures appeared in the interrogation room.
They wore long black hoods that covered them from head to toe; Kardu’s emblem was emblazoned on the hems.
When he saw the three-snake emblem that only those of executive rank or higher could wear, the man swallowed involuntarily.
“…Who is this bitch?”
The cross-shaped scar beneath Tuang’s left eye twitched.
No matter how he looked at her, the woman in the cage was not the Celine they had been searching for.
“The woman who was with her disappeared after taking the target.”
The rest was obvious without even needing to hear it.
“So you’re saying you brought her here as bait?”
Tuang irritably rubbed the back of his neck.
“Yes. I tried to follow the green-haired woman who took Celine, but she vanished in an instant.”
“In an instant?”
“Yes. At first, I thought she had been swept away by the crowd, but when I checked, I sensed a flow of mana.”
After hearing his subordinate’s report, Tuang furrowed his brow and fell into thought.
If his subordinate was telling the truth, then Celine must have been accompanied by a skilled mage.
However, a mage who wouldn’t even speak to someone without being handed at least one gold coin would never show kindness to a beggar woman for no reason.
There had to be another reason. Tuang instinctively sensed that things had become hopelessly tangled.
“When was this woman brought here?”
“A little after six p.m.”
It was now eleven p.m.—more than enough time for the bait to get a bite.
At Tuang’s gesture, a huge magic circle appeared across the entire basement.
The pressure of the commission had left him somewhat anxious, too.
Kardu was an organization made up of criminals and exiles; such people were governed not by rules or morality but solely by power and money.
To lure in chess pieces attracted to money and power, Tuang had accumulated wealth by completing commissions through any means necessary.
However, he had already failed twice to complete commissions for a big shot, and had even lost the chess pieces Giselle and Noe.
If only he had taken charge himself from the beginning. He had never expected his absence while dealing with another commission to come back and hinder him like this.
“From now on, only the people I name are to remain in this basement.”
After inspecting the magic circle, Tuang gave a new order.
If their opponent was a powerful mage, there was no need to keep small fry around.
He had considered using them as meat shields, but he could not casually waste even the most useless chess piece. If left alone, each would surely find a use somewhere.
“Piolkan, I’ll entrust the prince to you.”
A short while later, only one person remained at Tuang’s side in the interrogation room.
The remaining men took up positions in the corridor to ambush them, while the rest scattered to deal with Prince Roen.
“Chief, what will we do if the woman who took Celine doesn’t show up?”
His subordinate was loyal, but sometimes fretted over pointless concerns.
“Then we’ll go find her ourselves.”
The moment Tuang finished speaking, a loud rumble reverberated through the basement.
“But I doubt that will happen.”
Near the earthen house, a flock of crows took flight with a loud chorus of caws.