Chapter 93 Gotcha, Proof!
The carriage made a sharp turn and headed for the town of Cadelli, where Veronia’s office was located at the crossroads. Veronia’s colleagues were delighted to see her arrive.
“Nia! Welcome home!”
“It’s been a long time, Nia!”
“You must have been well rested, you look so much better!”
They were happily greeting each other. As the commotion outside grew louder, Veronia’s teacher, Marco, came out to greet her. But his welcome was very different from that of his colleagues.
“You’re just in time, Nia,” he said, “we’ve had a lot of children with colds lately, and I’d like you to look after them. Do you have time?”
“Of course, that’s what I’m here for.”
Veronia smiled as she quickly accepted the white coat Marco handed her.
There was no lie in Marco’s words about the number of children with colds. Veronia had to treat patient after patient, never taking a break.
‘It’s more fun after all these years. I feel proud.’
She’d always loved this job, but it was even better after all these years. There was a reason she thought it was her vocation.
Children suffering from coughs and fevers soon relaxed under her care.
It was rewarding to see their eyes and mouths open, and once again she thanked Jediel and the Goddess for the gift of this ability.
By the time she finished treating all the patients, the sun had already set.
“Thank you for your work today, Nia! It would be nice if you could drop by like this more often, though I’d prefer you to go to work.”
Hehehe, Marco laughed. Veronia was thinking the same thing, but she held her tongue, not wanting to make a rash decision on her own just yet.
“I think I’ve done a person’s work today for the first time in a long time, so it was rewarding and nice, I’ll come back another time.”
“It was really nice of you to come today, Nia. Maybe another time.”
“I’ll be waiting for you, Nia, you’re always welcome.”
Veronia took the warm greeting and left the council chamber. She was walking down the sunset-reddened alleyway towards the carriage house.
Suddenly, several people she didn’t recognize appeared in front of her, more bewildered than frightened by the suddenness of it all.
Veronia looked up and saw them. There were five masked men in all.
They cackled and chuckled as they slowly approached her. Their sinister laughter vibrated unpleasantly against her eardrums.
‘This… scene looks familiar… You’re always the same old pattern, Caspian, and that’s why I call you stupid!’
Clicking her tongue, Veronia pulled a metal stick out of her handbag. It was a self-defence weapon she always carried with her, just in case.
‘I can’t believe I’m finally going to have to use it, and against Caspian!’
She flicked it into the air, and with one swish, the stick, which had been a foot long, was five times as long.
“Oh, so you’re a lady who carries such a thing! We underestimated you.”
“But what can you do with such a thin stick, ha ha!”
They laughed at Veronia and her metal stick. But Veronia fought back, remembering that she had heard somewhere that it was important to outmanoeuvre them in a situation like this.
“I’d rather have five of you against one than five of you against me!”
Veronia raised her voice to hide her nervousness. But she couldn’t help the slight tremble at the end of her voice.
“I may not be able to take on all of you, but I’m sure as hell going to break one of your bones!”
But the masked men were still busy snickering and laughing at her.
“Ow, be scared!”
“Oh, I see you’re not an ordinary bet as expected, Lady!”
“Well, I suppose you’ve got the nerve to take on a commoner on a commoner subject.”
The masked men drew closer, their dark shadows slowly covering Veronia’s body.
“But today will be the last time you’ll be able to show that irritating attitude.”
“And the last of the Lord Chancellor’s fiancée, too. He might like a brash commoner, but not a crippled commoner.”
“Well… I don’t know, a nobleman’s tastes can be very eclectic.”
“Well, yeah, I guess if he likes women with scars on their faces, he might like women with missing limbs even more.”
Hahaha! The men started laughing as they grabbed their stomachs, and Veronia couldn’t help but giggle.
It was the best she could do, she thought, using her words to manipulate people. The problem was, it was all she could do.
“You guys talk too much, so I can tell you’re the noblemen who came to the engagement party. I can see you’re stupid, so why don’t you keep talking, and what proof do you have? No! How about you give me your names, one by one, so I can throw them in jail right now.”
“What, what? Are you stupid? How dare you speak to a nobleman!”
The masked men, momentarily losing their cool, charged at once. Veronia didn’t back down, swinging her metal stick wildly.
“Argh!”
“Argh!”
The men screamed, and one by one they fell to the ground. But it wasn’t Veronia’s skill, for out of nowhere, a masked knight, who had appeared as silently as smoke, stood in front of her, brandishing a sword.
“Um…?”
Unable to comprehend what was happening in front of her, Veronia could only watch the knight fight in a daze.
The knight’s swordsmanship was so skilful, and the masked men were just a bunch of clowns, that even to Veronia’s untrained eyes, the fight looked like a blur.
The knight swung his sword slightly, and somewhere on one of their limbs was cut, and blood spurted out.
“Ugh!”
“Argh… arghhhh!”
Screams erupted here and there.
The knight seemed to be targeting the men’s faces this time, for with each stroke of his sword, the black masks fell away, one by one, leaving tiny, comb-like marks on the faces of the men, like a stamp.
The unmasked faces were all familiar to Veronia.
‘Caspian and his group!’
She was not surprised, for she had almost certainly recognized them. They were merely amused at the ridiculousness of it all.
The unmasked party scrambled to their feet in panic.
“Holy shit!”
“Hey, hey, run!”
“It’s dangerous!”
They limped away, clutching their sword wounds.
But Veronia would not let them go. She grabbed Caspian’s wrist.
“Let go of me! How dare you a commoner!”
Caspian snarled, his eyes wide as he tried to flee from the knight’s thrashing. But to Veronia, it was a mere mockery.
She lowered her voice to a whisper, but continued to speak, each syllable hanging in the air. So that even Caspian’s excited ears could hear her clearly.
“You don’t even have a puppet to cover up your misdeeds anymore, and you’re still doing this!”
For a moment, Caspian’s eyes widened to the point of bulging.
The look in her eyes, the tone of her voice, the way she carried herself, was overwhelming. It was not an aura that a commoner could exude. No, not even nobles, and most of them couldn’t do that to him. And the bigger problem was elsewhere.
‘What the… You’re talking to me like you’ve known me for ages. Who are you?’
The fact that he knew him inside and out, and he didn’t know her at all, was a terrifying state of mind.
“You, what are you, who are you?”
Caspian’s voice trembled with panic. Veronia smiled broadly at his question.
“Well, who is it?”
“Tell me, tell me who you are!”
“Who could it be, just a lowly commoner with a ghastly scar on her face, is it?”
I know all about you, but you don’t know me, do you? Veronia looked at Caspian with a sneering gaze.
This glare… It’s a look that he’s sure he has seen before, very, very long ago… But he can’t remember who it was… Caspian’s eyes twitched as if in agony as he racked his brain for an answer.
Mocking and anxious gazes met and tangled in a head-on collision.
“We have to go, come on!”
Then one of the men tugged on Caspian’s arm.
Eventually, Caspian turned away from Veronia and ran with the group to the other side of the alley, a brief flash of blue light indicating that they had used a teleportation scroll.
Veronia didn’t chase after Caspian’s group. She didn’t need to, she already had what she wanted.
“Gotcha, Proof!”
She looked at the bracelet in her hand and smiled. It was engraved with the sun, the emblem of the imperial family.
‘I have evidence, I have witnesses, I am resourceful, but where is the knight…?’
By the time Veronia regained her senses, looking towards the alleyway the Caspians had fled, the mysterious knight had vanished. As silent as smoke when he appeared, as silent as smoke when he disappeared.
Veronia looked around, scratching her head.
‘Who is he? He appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as suddenly. I wish I knew who he was so I could thank him…’
