The Duke’s Mansion was quiet after Ciello left. The blind servants on the first floor were slowly dismissed, and now there was not a single one left, and the servants with their eyes covered were also sifted several times, reducing their numbers. It was Estribal’s choice to avoid being caught by the Emperor in the future.
The orders always clashed. The Emperor ordered that the opposition must be purged before the founding ceremony, and the Princess resolutely shook her head, saying she could no longer lose power.
Therefore, Agent Estribal’s night was split in two. He moved for the Emperor on some nights, and on other nights, he moved for the Princess.
Estribal swung his sword incessantly to make the Emperor trust him. And then he moved those who were wounded back into the arms of the Princess. It was somewhat fortunate for him that the Emperor did not use ‘orders’ to deal with the riffraff.
He occasionally dreamed of his body splitting along the scars drawn on his body. In his dreams, Ciello was always there, so he felt pain. However, it was not a nightmare.
But Estribal did not resent the Princess’s orders. No, he rather welcomed them. It wasn’t because he thought the Princess’s people were worth protecting. To him, the nobles of the empire were equally worthless.
[The Duke is a wise loyalist. I request your protection. I have enclosed a smuggling ship’s secret mark, please ensure safe exile.]
There was only one reason he welcomed the Princess’s orders.
[Ciello’s skills have improved greatly. Both the duration and accuracy are stable. We discussed fixing my leg right now, but this is evidence of the Emperor’s perversion. Therefore, the healing will be carried out publicly at my coronation. This will help not only the legitimacy, but also the honor of Peregrine and Ciello.]
The Princess always ended her letters with a story about Ciello.
“Thank you, I will definitely return and become the strength of the Princess.”
The Duke, with his sky-blue hair hidden in his hat, bowed respectfully, but Estribal nodded expressionlessly. The Duke and his followers boarded a small boat. The boat slowly disappeared, hiding in the darkness. Estribal, holding the Princess’s letter in his hand, stared at the sea for a moment, then climbed into the carriage that had brought them.
The place where Estribal arrived was a communal cemetery for the homeless, which was eerily quiet. Even the horse seemed to feel the ominous atmosphere, neighing softly and scraping the ground with its hooves. Estribal quietly got out of the carriage.
“I’ll be right there. Wait.”
Estribal went into the cemetery alone. He passed by the grave without a tombstone indifferently. The place he arrived at was the gravedigger’s hut. When he knocked on the wooden door, a hunched gravedigger came out.
“Come this way.”
Estribal followed the gravedigger to the crematorium behind the hut. The smell of the living and the dead rotting together was enough to turn his head, but Estribal’s expression did not change.
“This seems to suit your temperament. Will you take over when I die?”
“Not a bad idea, but I’ll pass.”
Estribal responded indifferently to the gravedigger’s lame joke and entered the mortuary.
“Pay.”
The gravedigger held out his wrinkled hand. Estribal placed a pouch of gold coins in his hand. But the gravedigger shook his head.
“Give me more. It was hard to get three sky-blue hairs.”
Estribal didn’t vomit but took out another pouch. Only then did the gravedigger, seemingly satisfied, accept it and went deep into the corpse storage, chuckling. While waiting for him, Estribal wondered what kind of figure God would be.
“Well… I’ve kept it specially, it’s very fresh. The arms and legs are well attached too.”
The gravedigger came out dragging a heavy sack. Estribal lightly slung the sack over his shoulder.
“But where do you use this? It doesn’t seem like you’ll use it. The tastes of the noble lords are inherently dirty…”
“Seems like you’ve already chosen someone to inherit the gravedigger’s position. Is this a good place for a grave?”
At the cold retort, the gravedigger closed his mouth. Estribal silently left the mortuary and loaded the sack onto the carriage. At least it was certain that there was no God here.
Estribal’s carriage headed back to the Duke’s Mansion. The empty mansion was appropriately broken due to the previous commotion, so it was good for decorating the traces of the purge.
He placed the corpse in an appropriate place and sprinkled blood from his arm where it was lacking. His world was faded back to gray, so there was no pain.
Before leaving, he bowed his head quietly in front of the gruesome scene he had created. It wasn’t a prayer to God.
“…At least promise to bury me under a tombstone.”
It was an apology to the dead. These were things he had never done before.
****
After finishing all the work and returning to the mansion, Estribal washed his body and headed to his office. His originally neat office was now almost empty. This was also to avoid the Emperor’s pursuit in the future. Only a basin for washing hands was casually placed on the empty desk.
As soon as he opened the office door, he collapsed onto the chair.
His body was not tired, but mentally, he was almost at his limit. He had vomited all the food he had eaten at the servants’ pleading, and even if he tried to sleep, only nightmares without Ciello tormented him.
It wasn’t just because of the orders. Over the past years, he had performed countless more brutal tasks. There was only one reason he was breaking down.
“…El.”
Too exhausted to call out all the letters of Ciello’s name, he rolled the single letter he had given in his mouth. Ciello, since that woman was gone, he began to fall apart. Unbelievably fast.
Getting Ciello out of the mansion was something that had to be done before the founding ceremony, but he hadn’t thought it would proceed so suddenly.
She was a slick woman who got along well anywhere. So she must be adored among the Liberation Force members and the Princess’s followers. Maybe that place is better than this prison-like mansion.
Estribal scraped together what little sanity he had left and convinced himself to send Ciello. But because he did so, he couldn’t be sane now.
He didn’t send her away for good. He just entrusted her for a while. How could that be? Nonsense. It was just for a moment of safety, once the operation was all over, he would definitely have Ciello by his side.
If she says that place is better, he will make this place as Ciello wants, and if she still rejects him, he will make all other places places that Ciello does not want.
It would be unthinkable if he were sane, but how could he be sane now? He, who had lost his light, was again miserable and damp. There was only one reason he was enduring in the darkness.
Estribal opened the drawer with a tired face. In the drawer, as empty as the desk, there was a small box. He carefully opened the box. Inside it was full of letters sent by the Princess.
[Ciello has arrived safely. She was pleased with your plan.]
[There is no problem with her ability. She can move accurately.]
[She seems to like the food, she is very healthy. So you should also be faithful to your mission.]
She was pleased. Estribal’s gaze lingered longer on those words than any other important word.
“…She was pleased. She was pleased. Ciello…was pleased with the plan.”
He muttered these words over and over every day. One day until the founding ceremony. This was the only thing like a spell that had kept Estribal going since Ciello left.
‘The plan must succeed. Because Ciello is pleased.’
Estribal got up from his seat, clutching all the letters. It was time to tidy these up too.
He brought a chair in front of the fireplace and burned the letters one by one. The flames devoured the thin paper. Now the only letter left in his hand was one.
[She was pleased.]
Estribal hesitated for a long time with that letter in his hand. Before he knew it, the dawn was faintly brightening. He got up with the letter he couldn’t burn in the end.
Estribal put the letter in the basin. The ink dissolved in the water and scattered like gray smoke. After waiting a moment, the letter became an empty paper with a gray stain left.
He pressed the paper with a handkerchief to dry the moisture. The stain of the ink that had not completely disappeared was left on the handkerchief. He looked at that stain for a moment, then folded the handkerchief with the paper and put it in his pocket.
“Duke.”
A servant’s voice was heard outside the door. Estribal spoke briefly.
“If it’s not important, don’t come in.”
“The founding ceremony is tomorrow. Dare I say, shouldn’t you rest? You’ve been skipping meals and not sleeping for days…”
“I heard you, now leave.”
Estribal spoke briefly. The outside was quiet again.
Estribal approached the window. It was a white dawn, without the moon, the sun, or even darkness. The distant roadside was already bustling. Ribbons and banners were hung on the street trees, and peddlers began to set up their stalls. Vagrants lurking nearby fled in all directions at the sight of the security guard’s baton.
Normally, he would have had no interest in such a scene, but he was unusually captivated by the view. It was because of the thought that Ciello, too, must have lived like that, being chased and running around before meeting him. After Ciello disappeared from his sight, he saw Ciello in everything in front of him.
What would the world that the Princess is trying to create, and the Peregrine that the Liberation Force wants to revive, look like? Can they really make everything perfect so that such situations do not occur? Can they make it so that someone like Ciello does not exist?
Estribal still doubted the choice of the Princess and the Liberation Force. He did not think this choice was the best. Rather than awkwardly fixing what is already wrong now, wouldn’t it be more proper to turn back the moment of the wrong past? And that was something that only Estribal, only he, could do in this world.
But.
[I’m fine with the way things are now.]
Ciello’s affectionate voice echoed in Estribal’s head. Estribal shook his head.
“How can you…say that you’re fine with the present?”
Just a petty orphan pickpocket. A lowly life begging for life while being chased by debt. Estribal still couldn’t understand why Ciello loved the present.
Estribal simply joined the operation to maintain this present because Ciello wanted it. For the foolish Ciello, who took on the sins of a friend who betrayed her, a force trying to kidnap her, and fake parents, and said it was okay as it is, and moved her steps with difficulty.
Yes, anyway, if the operation ends as Ciello wishes, things will get better. Estribal was ready to kneel completely in front of that salvation.
‘But what if the operation doesn’t end as planned?’
Estribal slowly closed his eyes. If something goes wrong, could he abandon his foolish god? His god with red hair.
Before he knew it, the morning had dawned. The trumpet announcing the founding ceremony sounded everywhere.
Finally, it was the day to meet the god who had left him.
