“I am a messenger from the East Tower. The healer is looking for you.”
“……Me?”
“Yes.”
According to the data Ebony investigated, this person did indeed work at the East Tower.
His name was likely Heinz.
Moreover, since I had seen him there myself last time, there was no room for doubt.
“She did not provide a detailed explanation.”
“Hmm.”
She had visited me directly sometimes, but had she ever called for me?
Or was the matter that urgent?
“Then, lead the way.”
“Yes.”
First, I dragged my foot to leave a mark on the ground as a sign that I had returned here and then left.
I followed him, and his pace was quite fast, as if the business were truly pressing.
He moved almost as if flying, likely drawing on experience jumping through unrefined bushes and rocky crevices.
“……This isn’t the direction of the East Tower.”
But before long, I felt something was wrong.
With prominent towers rising at both ends, no one could fail to notice that the path had deviated.
At that moment, his step faltered.
The expression he wore as he looked back held an awkward smile that looked ready to crumble.
“We need to talk privately…… She is waiting in another location.”
“Is that so?”
Was it because I had been around people who were experts at acting?
I could immediately detect the tension that flickered across his face.
I hadn’t even looked his way because I was so suspicious of Rodney.
Was he actually not just an ordinary person?
“If it is difficult for you, I can support you.”
“No, I’m fine.”
Even as I said that, I walked a few more steps and then shook my body as if I had misplaced my foot.
If I stumbled the moment the words were out, it would be too suspicious.
Even if his gaze was forward, the sound of my precarious footsteps would sound labored to his ears.
If he was going to try his hand at acting, however clumsy, it was only polite for me to respond in kind.
I could see guards passing by, but no one looked at us strangely.
He was a person who worked at the East Tower, and I frequented that place quite often.
Furthermore, there was no dangerous atmosphere in the air.
As we crossed the path and reached the outskirts of the castle, I saw a woman waiting for us.
“Are you finally here?”
“I came as fast as I could.”
Of course, she wasn’t a healer.
But her face, too, was somehow familiar.
Another person who had her name in Ebony’s report.
The mage from the West Tower, Heather.
To think the harmony between the East and West towers, which aren’t very close, would be achieved here.
‘Should I be moved?’
I was so moved I was practically speechless.
Heather glanced this way.
Her eyes, which flowed like a snake’s, circled the air once, and when they returned, they were filled with a kind smile.
“Follow me.”
When I faced that smile, only one thought came to mind: her acting is terrible.
If she wanted to fool me, she should have taken acting lessons from Klen.
Not that I had any intention of allowing that, of course.
“Where is the healer?”
“Ah…… she moved on ahead.”
“To where?”
“This way. Please follow us.”
She turned around quickly as if I had to move when she did.
However, her steps were headed toward the base of a towering castle wall where no path could be found.
I stood at a crossroads: should I follow while pretending to be fooled, or should I voice my doubts?
Of course, there would be no problem regardless of which path I took.
But I couldn’t give the image of being both fragile and stupid, could I?
I didn’t have much time to deliberate.
In the end, without moving a single inch from where I stood, I asked:
“She rarely leaves the tower.”
“……Well. That’s.”
“Furthermore, you call me out to such a remote place and she moved on ahead without even showing herself?”
“Wasn’t it because the matter was that urgent?”
“Can such an incident happen within the castle without being known at all?”
“…….”
At that, Heinz shut his mouth tight.
It made no sense that something important enough for the castle’s only healer to move personally would happen without a single rumor circulating.
He, who worked at the East Tower, would know that better than anyone.
“Whew.”
A change occurred in Heather, who had been standing still and watching me.
She twisted her lips into a smile.
Unlike before, it was a smile that lacked even a hint of softness.
She looked like a venomous snake biding its time for the hunt.
“Stop it, Heinz. It seems he’s not quite that stupid.”
Soon, sparkling light gathered around her, and several flames flared up.
“There’s no time to waste. A naive young master wandering along to a place like this at a time like this. It would have been better if you were just a bit more naive.”
Whoosh—
A single flame flew toward me and flared up brightly.
The flame, which emitted intense heat and light before vanishing, didn’t burn anything, but it contained a clear warning.
However, part of what she said was wrong.
I wasn’t a naive young master who followed without knowing anything; I followed because I discovered suspicious behavior.
“Don’t be like that. What if the young master cries?”
“…….”
In times like this, Heinz—who mocked me while pretending to stop her—was more annoying than Heather, who openly ridiculed me.
Even though the title ‘young master’ as the son of the Count was familiar to me, hearing it from their mouths felt strangely unpleasant.
Seeing me frown, Heather responded with a bright smile instead.
“We need to buy some time, you see.”
“It’s the final mission of a long, long job, so please cooperate. Young master.”
Catching these two here would be simple.
Magic was flaring up right in front of me, but such things were useless before Levatein.
There were plenty of ways to escape this situation.
But the reason I didn’t move immediately was that I was curious about their purpose.
Buying time.
For what?
“What do you intend to do?”
“For starters, we intend to kidnap the young master.”
“……Kidnap?”
Kidnap. That word circled in my ears and my head.
‘So, you mean you’re going to use force to drag me away? Me? ……Kidnap me?’
Because they were saying something so novel that no one had ever thought of before, my mind was thrown into confusion, and I could only blink.
Are they serious?
Is this a conclusion they reached in earnest?
Do they truly believe they can kidnap me?
“Hey, stop it. If he collapses because of that, it’ll be hard to take him.”
“……Has he been shocked already?”
It seems our interpretations of the shock I felt are different.
No, they are definitely different. Completely different.
