As I went out the door, leaving behind the sleeping Ercia, I saw Ian waiting nearby. As soon as he saw me, he smiled and approached me.
“Wait? I told you to go and rest.”
“In order to have a peaceful time with the family, I checked the security to prevent anyone from entering.”
I can’t win. I chuckled and thought about what to say to Ian, but then I stopped. In fact, he had a lot of things he wanted to say. He started by supporting me, standing by my side when I was having a hard time, waiting for me, and protecting me. I was grateful for everything and he was grateful too. However, it was somewhat embarrassing to express such feelings, and there was another important problem. He withdrew his smile and slowly opened his mouth.
“…Have you checked the bomb?”
“Wow. It was definitely a working bomb. If I hadn’t received the bomb at that time, it would have exploded right away.”
My body trembled at the worst that might have happened if I rushed to Elsia.
“What happens now?”
“I have sent it to the principality to investigate. Rodilla and her colleagues will go together and investigate, and a report will come soon.”
“What about that man?”
“Teses….. The man is still being investigated. He also gave instructions to look for information about an unfamiliar cult called the Frei Terry Tom, so it will get better with time.”
A man who disappeared without a trace. Information about him was also quite important. He’s the guy who mentioned the ‘door’ to me, so he probably has some important clues. I didn’t really care how I got back to the past, but after going through this, I thought maybe I had forgotten something important.
By the way, Ian… he must have had a lot of questions, but he didn’t ask anything and just waited. I was grateful for his thoughtfulness, and once he had gathered his thoughts, he changed the topic, thinking that he should mention it later.
“What should we do about Beralt and the Crown Prince??”
“I have to think about it. First of all, I guess I should send an unofficial letter to the Alpensia family and ask for an explanation about this incident.”
“Shall they admit it?”
“Even if there is a middle-class person, alchemists and witches are not trusted people, so their testimony will not be effective. I wonder if there is any evidence…”
“What about the bomb?”
“If you just shake your head and say you don’t know where the bomb was made, it’ll be over. We’ll trace it with the recovered counterfeit currency disks, but since the guy we caught before committed suicide, we don’t have any relevant information. For now, we’ll put pressure on him unofficially…”
Ian spoke leisurely, rolled his eyes, and looked out the window.
“Still, you have to pay for your sins. We have to warn the Alpensia family and the crown prince who played with tens of thousands of lives as collateral. If they are going to do anything in the future, risk their lives.”
Ian, captivated by the cold voice, pushed the corners of his mouth into laughter and then looked at me again.
“Until then, we should make our own plans for the future, right?”
“Plan?”
“Did you forget? We have to get married.”
Ian stretched out and leaned his weight on my body. “Now, wait a minute… it’s heavy!”
“Look at me. I’m tired because I haven’t slept in days. Can you give me a hug like this?”
“What are you going to do if someone else sees it…!”
“Well, I guess they will think we are a nice looking pair of lovers.”
“Ian!”
“Or should we go to bed?”
As my body stilled, Ian grinned and rested his head on my shoulder again. I felt a faint, faint scent. It is probably not an illusion to think that his body, which always felt solid, is very soft. I remembered that I wasn’t the only one who had been having a hard time. The sky was clear. It makes me want to go for a walk outside right now and lie down on the grass. Who is the victim of this incident? Are they the children of the Marquis Bepis, the alchemist and witch who died after being used? Are these soldiers who moved for several days without being able to sleep properly? Could it be Ercia who revealed her own feelings that she had lied about her entire life? Could it be her grandfather who suffered injuries at her hands? Or is it me and Ian? Who is the victim? I can not know. But the villain was clear.
‘Beralt’
It seemed clear now what that guy was thinking. At least one thing was clear that he wasn’t smart enough to resolve it through conversation. It was at this point that it became increasingly clear that the crown prince behind him was also an enemy I would have to deal with in the future.
* * *
The alley was very dark. Even though it was broad daylight with the sun high in the sky, it was truly a dark area as it was located between tall buildings so dense that they swallowed up the light. There was no sign of popularity. Two people were walking quietly through an alley in an abandoned city where even rats and wild animals had given up living because there was nothing to eat. As quiet as it was, the sound of shoes and the footsteps of military boots that followed them rang very loudly. The person wearing the robe was relatively shorter than the person behind him. Thanks to the robe that revealed the lines of her body, I could roughly tell that she was a woman. The man standing behind him had a tall, muscular body. The sword on one side and the shield hanging behind him showed that he was a warrior. The man looked around him and followed the robed woman. A woman walking silently down her alley glanced up at her Hanol and lifted the hood of her robe. Her dark blue hair and gray eyes. Although she still had a youthful appearance, as if she had just become an adult, she was quite a beauty. She was so beautiful that it was hard to find her even in the imperial capital. He was a person who did not fit into the dark alley at all.
She looked around her, sighed, and then opened her mouth.
“Hector.”
“Yes, miss.”
The woman turned her head after hearing her deep voice.
“Where exactly did Theses tell you to go?”
“He is a person who likes to talk vaguely, so it is impossible to confirm exactly where he is.” The woman clicked her tongue lowly and placed her hands on her waist. Her eyes were full of dissatisfaction as she looked around her.
“Which of the alleys and buildings are there that all look the same? Why does that person choose this place every time we meet? Is he a new kind of pervert?”
“Well…”
“It’s annoying. Even if it wasn’t the brothers’ will, I wouldn’t mind excommunicating a guy like that as much as I want.”
The man looked troubled. He rang his hand, pulled the string from around his neck, and held his seal in his hand. Then he muttered his name in a low voice and put it back into his clothes. The woman, looking at the figure, clicked her tongue lowly.
“I prayed for a hundred days, but God didn’t answer. It’s been over a hundred years since I haven’t heard your voice. Don’t you remember?”
“For some, it may only be a moment.”
“Unfortunately, it’s not a moment for me.”
She looked the man up and down, then clicked her tongue lowly.
“Sometimes I wonder. I wonder if you are really my grandson.”
If someone were to ask a passerby which of these two people looked older, they would all point to a man named Vector, regardless of whether they were an old woman, a child, an adult, a woman, or a young man. Even if his appearance wasn’t everything, he looked like he was in his mid-30s, or early 30s at a young age. It wasn’t something to compare to a young-looking woman.
“It’s absurd that I have a grandson when I’m not even 20 years old, but it’s someone older than me. It’s crazy.”
“Time is a strange thing.”
“Stop talking like an old man…”
“It’s just a doctrine.”
“Are you trying to preach old-fashioned doctrines to me?”
“Even though I am your grandson, I think it is possible because my knowledge is superior.”
She opened her mouth slightly with a puzzled expression on her face, and then she walked up to him and kicked him in the shin. Oh my! As he lowered his upper body with a groan, she struck him again on the back of the head with her palm, and then the woman gritted her teeth.
“Be careful what you say. Breaking the rules of the family and doctrine is taboo.”
“…sorry.”
Hector was the one who got hit, but the woman was angry, and he had to put the apple in her mouth. As she scanned the vector with her eyes, she clicked her tongue lowly and turned her head.
“How long has it been stopped?”
“In current time, it’s about a year, but in total, more than a hundred years have been frozen.”
“Because of the door?”
“yes.”
She scratched her head in frustration. She frowned slightly and clicked her tongue lowly.
“The door needs to move again quickly so we can send this big grandson back.”
“I want to go back too. Grandpa Fervi was a very sweet and kind person.
“Am I the Fervi grandfather in front of you?”
He responded bluntly without changing his expression.
“Only the name is the same. He is not this fair-minded person.”
“What?”
“For your information, this remark did not violate doctrine, so you have no right to discipline me.”
Fervi lowered her palm, which was ringing without realizing it, and tasted her. Hector sighed slightly.
“And since Theses seems to have noticed something about this matter, I think it would be a good idea to meet him and ask him about it.”
“Ha.”
Pervi pressed her finger to his wrinkled brow and looked around again. No matter where he looked, he could see buildings that looked like they were about to collapse at any moment. They all looked the same so he couldn’t tell which was where. The crazy man who asked to see her in a place like this bit her lip, thinking that she must be really sick.
“From next time, that crazy guy…”
“Sorry, but I’m not completely crazy.”
Fervi rolled his eyes at the voice coming from the dark, narrow alley. A man wearing a white robe walked leisurely in the darkness. He also didn’t seem to be very suited to this place.
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Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on May, 15.
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