Avondale. Avondale, indeed. The man rolled that na around in his mouth. Several speculations flashed through his mind, but he didn't voice them aloud.
"Where are they now?"
"They've headed to Mabelwood with the Count."
"Of all places, Mabelwood. They must know sothing, that's certain. Havenly, do you think that person could help ?"
Luke hesitated. After hesitating, he cautiously offered a speculation.
"They seem to be soone who knows how to sympathize with others. Though it could be a disguise."
"......If we must rely on sympathy, it might be good to change the situation a bit."
The man placed the bishop on the chessboard. A chessboard with the ga about halfway through. Once the bishop was in place, black showed a clear winning position. The man, who had been staring down at the white king as if playing chess with an invisible opponent, spoke.
"Send soone to Mabelwood."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Luke Havenly straightened up, carefully unbending his cautiously bowed back.
"Havenly. Has it been five years since you took charge of the information broker business?"
"That's correct."
"This was the most useful information among all you've brought so far."
It didn't sound like words of praise. Those like Luke Havenly, those who lived in darkness rather than light, could never be respected by the man from the start. The shabby brown robe silently bowed its head and disappeared outside the door.
The man left alone grasped the black knight. Instead of proceeding with the ga that had lost his interest, he held the chess piece with his fingertips and fell into thought.
He couldn't believe everything Luke Havenly said.
Proof was needed. Whether Esperanza Hunter, a person whose na wasn't even familiar, had the ability to overturn this entire ga.
To ascertain that, he would need to endure the disgust of facing 'them' again.
On the low table, the golden cursive written on the first line of the official docunt the attendant had left glittered.
??????°??☆????°??????
Who said there was romance in train travel? At least not in steam trains.
Esperanza, who had harbored fantasies about train travel because of fantasy movies she saw as a child, had discarded all those fantasies when she first beca a Hunter and sat in third class. Even now that she had been promoted to a private compartnt, while her body was a bit more comfortable, it was just as boring.
She endured the first hour by looking at the scenery. Just sitting still and watching the city recede behind and nature approach like a tide made ti pass quite quickly. However, after that hour passed, there were only houses scattered sparsely across the vast plains.
The next hour she spent observing Cider.
He concentrated so well that he never once raised his head despite her thorough scrutiny. The blonde hair covering his forehead shone white whenever the sun hit it, and his brow furrowed in the light cast on the pages. When the sun was hidden by clouds, his intelligent eyes sparkled under eyebrows that beca straight as if they had never been wrinkled. The deeply cast shadows of his eyelashes and his lips pressed in a straight line—she could watch for an entire hour without getting bored.
That too lasted exactly one hour.
Two and a half hours after the train departed, Esperanza was in a state of seeing nothing due to extre boredom.
"If you're bored, go to the dining car or sothing."
Cider, who said this, was frantically absorbed in whatever book he was reading. She hadn't expected him to entertain her, but wasn't this a bit too much?
'People should have courtesy toward their traveling companions.'
Though they weren't really in a relationship where they needed to observe such courtesies at this point. Esperanza took off her uncomfortable shoes and put her stocking-clad feet up next to where Cider was sitting. Then she hugged a cushion and blankly stared out the window. Cider, who would normally have been horrified, was buried in his book and didn't even glance over.
In her field of vision, text appeared over the window.
[Quest: Find the Golden Claw!]
Progress: (4/???)
Completion Rewards
—Title: Master of Ti
—Items: Golden Claw, Return Ticket (Ho)
Though she knew it was aningless to obsess over numbers when she couldn't know the denominator anyway, at least it had risen from 1 to 4, so it could be said to have risen quite a lot...... right? Esperanza moved her fingers rapidly to bring up her inventory window and equipnt window. Status windows she had seen hundreds of tis passed by.
"I'm bored."
"I told you to go to the dining car if you're bored."
The sound of a page turning ca. It was already the third hour. For three hours, Cider Claiborne had been speed-reading that book without moving from that spot. That encyclopedia-thick book was already more than half finished.
'Is he human?'
As he said, it seed better to go out to the dining car or sothing. This train didn't have witches pulling snack carts around. Esperanza tapped her calves and got up from her seat, roughly putting on her shoes.
"You had your shoes off?"
Cider looked Esperanza up and down with the eyes of soone looking at the most shaless person in the world.
"It's fine if you didn't know. You can stretch your legs too if you're uncomfortable."
Esperanza slamd the door and ca out.
"Where's the dining car?"
"That way, madam. Shall I guide you?"
A conductor wearing a bow tie stood up from his seat and spoke. He seed to have mistaken them for a young couple traveling. She considered correcting him but gave up thinking it would be botherso, and just shook her head.
The steam locomotive rattled incessantly, but Esperanza's steps were as peaceful as walking on flat ground. The conductor felt sothing was off but couldn't identify what it was and just tilted his head.
The dining car in first class was quite luxurious. Since it was a dostic line, it wasn't equipped with anything spectacular, but it had simple als and several types of alcohol and snacks. Esperanza sat at a place with a checkered tablecloth. A waiter brought tableware and asked.
"What would you like?"
"Give
brandy. I don't need snacks."
The waiter, who muttered worriedly "Did you say brandy?" was about to say sothing, but the elderly gentlen sitting behind, who seed to have already had a drink, scolded the employee.
"Don't make unnecessary noise and just take the order!"
"Right, you're troubleso because you talk too much. The lady will know what she's doing. If she ordered brandy, give her brandy!"
"Miss? Madam? Anyway, if that fellow waters it down, tell us. We won't stand for it."
That side was also excessively ddleso, but Esperanza said she would and gestured to the waiter. From what she heard, the employee seed to have been scolded for arbitrarily serving low-alcohol drinks because he was worried about those elderly gentlen's health. Excessive ddling was excessive ddling.
The waiter brought brandy while reading the room. Esperanza boredly stared at the scenery whizzing by outside the window while drinking. There wasn't much to do even after coming to the dining car.
'If I go back to the compartnt now, will soone be dead in the next compartnt?'
It was just that kind of setting. Though dostic lines that took at most eight hours to the final destination were a bit boring.
Actually, even 13 years later, she had never encountered a murder case on a train. It was disappointing for Esperanza, who had expected the era of master detectives and villains, but moving trains weren't really places where murder cases were likely to occur. Starting with the fact that you couldn't escape.
And while the train was running, there was always one detective, investigator, doctor, or anyway so expert riding who would reveal the culprit.
Even Esperanza would find it difficult to kill soone without leaving traces. Hiding murder weapons in her inventory to confuse the investigation was about the limit. Since she didn't know what might beco evidence.
Secretly killing people also had separate specialists. For example, assassins. Such people thoroughly controlled even their breathing.
'Like that.'
A man was reflected in the brandy glass that was more than half empty. Sitting at the end of the dining car, he had been following at a distance since Esperanza left the compartnt.
She couldn't understand his intention. Here, Esperanza had been to back alleys several tis and done dangerous things, but generally she had been quietly staying at ho. At least there was nothing she had done to warrant being chased by an assassin dressed as a decent gentleman like that.
Who could it be? It didn't seem like independent work, so who commissioned it?
If it was commissioned, by whom? It wouldn't have been difficult to find out that Esperanza was heading to Mabelwood. She had never hidden it.
No, that's not right. This isn't 13 years later. If an assassin was targeting soone, it was more likely to be Cider than Esperanza herself.
Esperanza got up from her seat and passed by the assassin as naturally as possible. Since she could sense his presence, she didn't even look at him. Her heart pounded frantically while she hurried back to the compartnt.
Cider Claiborne was a magical engineer. He had a trained body and was quite skilled at shooting and horseback riding, but probably not enough to face an assassin who had thoroughly hidden himself.
'I thought wrong. No matter how bored I was, I should have stayed at my post.'
Still, Cider had weapons to protect himself. When she saw him once before, his series of actions loading magic bullets and shooting was as skilled as a Hunter's. He would hold out for a while. Cider wouldn't have died before Esperanza got there.
As long as he was still breathing, she could pour a potion and save him.
She didn't encounter anyone on the way to the compartnt. Esperanza roughly grabbed the compartnt door. Clank, it made a sound. The door was locked. Was it the assassin's doing? Surely the deed wasn't already done.......
'Should I tear the door off?'
The mont she made up her mind, the lock chanism opened from inside. Cider was standing crookedly inside the door.
"Huh?"
"I thought robbers had broken in. How can you pull like you're going to tear the door off?"
The inside of the compartnt was peaceful. Esperanza blinked. Cider was fine. He didn't seem injured either. There were no signs of a struggle inside the compartnt either. Nor had Cider suddenly awakened as a god of shooting and instantly killed the assassin. There was no corpse, so it couldn't be that.
So everything had only happened inside Esperanza's head. She felt embarrassed.
"Did you drink? Brandy?"
Cider frowned. She had hurried back out of worry, only to be scolded as soon as she entered. Esperanza bristled like a child who had been caught stealing candy behind her mother's back.
"I only had one glass."
"Brandy, which you've never sought out before?"
"It was there."
"......Fine. That can happen."
Cider, who muttered as if giving up on everything, closed his book.
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