Chapter 55
55. Clue
-It will be like a maze. The fire will go out quickly, so it's useless. You have to count your steps carefully. You can't tell the direction, so you have to rely entirely on your steps.
Klima told Liene the way to the castle in great detail. Liene didn't know that the basement of Nauk Castle was so wide and deep, or that there was such a path.
-Kleinfelter doesn't know either.
Knight Hinton was the one who knew this path. It was said that he used it when he ran away with Prince Fernand in his arms. Considering that Knight Hinton was a Guardian Knight of the Gainus Family, it must have been something they shared only among themselves. It might have been a secret passage that could only be used in a crisis situation for the Gainus Family.
“Since all the Guardian Knights of the Gainus Family died back then, there wouldn't be anyone else who knows.”
Except for two people. Now there were three, including herself. The endless path was scary and narrow. And there were some strange structures left that were a bit odd to call simply a path.
“It's neither a door nor a wall. Why on earth is something like this here?”
It would be nice if she could see it more brightly and in more detail, but unfortunately, it was too dark.
“Even if I look through the records, there won't be anything left about this. It was a story passed down only by word of mouth.”
Liene withdrew her gaze, which had been groping at the faintly revealed silhouette, and counted her steps again.
“Has the fire gone out completely……?”
Klima said that the fire he set as bait to attract attention wouldn't be a very big fire. That was a bit of a relief.
“Still, everyone must have had a hard time. They would have known I disappeared, um…….”
So what happened? She was afraid to even think about it.
“……”
Suddenly, Liene's ankle faltered, and she stopped walking. But she had to think. Black didn't know the exact reason why Liene had disappeared. He was trying hard to find her, but he hadn't been caught yet. He wouldn't believe it if she said she disappeared on her own. But if she said the Sectarian kidnapped her, the Sectarian's crime would be even heavier. Did that man know that Knight Hinton's family was still alive? He wouldn't know. If he knew that Knight Hinton's son was being held by the Kleinfelter Family and working as an assassin, he would have done something by now. So should she hide the Sectarian's identity? Her head started to throb. Liene tried to calm her breath, which was jumping erratically between fast and slow. Yes, she had to hide it. If she said she had met the Sectarian, he would guess that she had heard his real name. She didn't know Prince Fernand. That man's name was Tiwakan. And quickly…… let's hold the wedding. And then hand over the ruling power. That's right. That's what she had to do. To do that, she had to overcome the mountain called the Lisebery Treaty. Kleinfelter had to disappear. Kleinfelter was the center of the Seven Families. If they disappeared, the power of the remaining families would be reduced by half, not from six out of seven to five. She felt like she finally knew the reality of the Lisebery Treaty. It was a debt attached to the crown. The crown that the late King obtained was the price of treason. The Seven Families were the ones who allowed him to wear that crown. From that moment on, the Arsak Family's crown was no longer a crown. It was no different from a leash. Liene now realized everything about why the late King was so entangled with the Seven Families.
“So…….”
……that's why Kleinfelter could act like that. As if to say, who do you think you are? To them, she was not royalty but an accomplice.
“……That's right. So I'm going to break free.”
From the shackles of sin she had been wearing since 21 years ago. The Seven Families, no, the Seven Families had to pay the price for the sin they had committed back then. Liene clenched her fist tightly. She would fix it with her own hands. That was her atonement. Perhaps it was a resolution that should be called affection rather than atonement that painfully gripped her heart.
* * *
“You're wrong, my lord. I don't think she's here either.”
“……Is that so?”
Black looked around the huge mansion once again, where even the last barrel of alcohol stored in the warehouse had been overturned. A day and a half had passed since Liene disappeared. During that time, Tiwakan searched tirelessly for places where people could hide. The first place he overturned was the temple. It was certain that Kleinfelter had done it. Therefore, he judged that he wouldn't have hidden her in his own house as if to show off. At dawn, he thoroughly ransacked the temple, which had no defenses, and confirmed that there was no trace of Kleinfelter's errand boy, the Sectarian, or Liene. In the meantime, the stairs, which had barely reached a third of the way up, were completely destroyed again. Next was the Rosadel Family. The head of the Rosadel Family was the one who came to visit Kleinfelter with Ellaroiden. He was planning to overturn all the places connected to Kleinfelter in that way. As he headed to the Rosadel Family, the Rosadel's soldiers, as if they knew, rushed out and blocked the way, babbling about the Lisebery Treaty and whatnot. It was the only moment Black smiled, even if it was a small sneer that others wouldn't notice, he literally laughed at the naivety of those who blocked his path with that number. They didn't seem to know the meaning of the name Tiwakan yet. It was clear that they had never thought about why the head of Tiwakan was called the bastard born by the god of war.
-Don't interfere.
With those words, Black drew his sword. Fermos sighed and moved the mercenaries back.
-Are you going to do it alone? It would be refreshing for us to see, but don't use too much strength. They're not worth it.
The mercenaries rattled their swords for no reason, expressing their disappointment. The number of soldiers sent by the Rosadel Family was sixteen. You could tell their skills just by looking at the hands holding their weapons. In Black's eyes, the sixteen soldiers were children who didn't need to use any strength.
-Ugh…….
The time it took to slaughter sixteen people was very short. If it had been a battlefield, he would have naturally taken useful weapons and belongings from the corpses, but no one was foolish enough to try to do that here now.
-Hey, there's one alive. The guy with the dangling arm. Are you just going to leave him?
One of the mercenaries asked. Black answered directly. By turning the sword, which had been shaking off blood droplets, back around and cutting off his neck.
-We're going to the Kleinfelter Family.
Black changed his plan.
-If I destroy that place, anyone will crawl out on their own.
Whoever was holding Liene, if he clearly showed his intention to cut off all their heads, they would bring her on their own. He had tried to avoid war with the Seven Families out of respect for Liene's wishes, but now that meaning had disappeared. He should have gotten rid of them sooner. He should have persuaded Liene that getting rid of them was the only way to end it. Liene wanted to prevent Nauk from being split in half, but there were times when the rotten parts had to be cut off decisively. When the Tiwakans arrived at the Kleinfelter Family, they started smashing the door without even asking them to open it. The door, which had been damaged once before, was opened in an instant this time. Those who dared to defend the ownerless mansion had their necks quickly cut off. They were like children as well, but it took a little longer because there were quite a few of them. Still, it didn't take more than three hours to take over the Kleinfelter Family's mansion. The front yard of the Kleinfelter Family had become like a small battlefield with the corpses of those who had been beheaded, those who had been lucky enough to survive, and the resident workers who had rushed out in confusion.
“Find those who will open their mouths. Tell them that even if the name Kleinfelter disappears from this land, their heads will be spared.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The Tiwakans were swift. The most important thing in finding a missing person was speed. He had taken and found hostages countless times while moving around battlefields for ten years. The method Black chose was the fastest and most effective.
“I actually thought that the Sectarian might have been hiding here all along.”
Fermos approached and opened his mouth.
“…….”
“The fact that he's not here even after searching this much means that he's in a place we wouldn't think to look. I was guessing that the people who contacted Kleinfelter in prison came here and conveyed the message to the Sectarian, and that's why the Sectarian did this.”
Fermos's guess was not wrong. It was just that the place where Klima brought Liene was not the Kleinfelter Family.
“It would be nice if he was a simpleton who would think of coming back here.”
There was no confidence in his following remarks.
“But that guy…… it seems like he's been trained. The skill he used to deal with the Cardinal seemed to be one of two things. He was either very lucky, or he was too skilled at killing.”
“…….”
Black's brow furrowed. Seeing that, Fermos hurriedly added a word.
“Well, just because he's been trained doesn't necessarily mean he's smart. If he was even intelligent, he wouldn't have disguised his identity and worked as an errand boy for the Kleinfelter Family. It didn't seem like there was that much reward.”
“…….”
To Black, who knew Klima's identity, those words came with a more complex meaning. Even if Manau hadn't pleaded, he had no intention of killing Hinton's eldest son. Hinton had shed too much blood to save the life of a royal. Among them was the blood of his second son. Whether he liked it or not, as long as he was alive and returned to Nauk, the debt was a debt. He had no intention of not repaying it.
“……Can't be helped.”
But the story changed as Liene became involved. Hinton or whatever, the weight of the debt disappeared.
“What do you mean can't be helped?”
It was when Fermos asked that.
“My lord! We found something!”
Finally, news was delivered. Whoosh! Before Fermos could feel relieved, Black was already running with the sound of the wind. * * *
“It's here.”
Bang! What the Tiwakans found was a hiding place in the detached building. It was more of a torture chamber than a hiding place. The space, which was made under the bed in a small, shabby room used by the workers, was a little wider than a coffin and seemed difficult to breathe in. When the door, which looked like a lid, was fully opened, there was a prayer book and a whip with split ends neatly placed inside.
“It's certain that this is the Sectarian's hiding place.”
Fermos clicked his tongue as if he was dumbfounded.
“Who is the person who uses this room? Go and bring them here.”
“I've already prepared it. Hey.”
When he gestured towards the outside of the cramped room, another mercenary grabbed a woman by the arm and dragged her in.
“She said she's the owner of this room. But it might be difficult to get an answer. They said she's not in her right mind. She rarely opens her mouth.”
Thud! When he let go of her arm, the woman collapsed to her knees. The woman was too thin at a glance. She was terrified and out of her mind even though she wasn't being treated roughly. Her hair was white and the wrinkles around her mouth were deep, but Black recognized who the woman was. It was Mrs. Hinton. Perhaps that was the reason why Kleinfelter was able to use Hinton's son as an assassin. Black's eyes turned even bluer.
“……Where is your son?”
“……?”
Mrs. Hinton lifted her head as if she'd been struck.
“Ah, no… No…”
“Just tell me if he’s here or not. Then I won’t ask any more questions.”
“……!”
Mrs. Hinton opened her mouth wide. But no sound was made. Mrs. Hinton also recognized Black. The small, young prince who had disappeared 21 years ago, wearing her son's clothes and led away by her husband's hand. There would be no way in the world to forget those pale blue eyes.
The child with those eyes was wearing the clothes her second son had worn for the last time. If it weren't for those eyes, she might have just believed he was her second son. While believing that the child, whose heart was pierced by her husband's sword and bleeding, was Prince Fernand. So she couldn't forget. She couldn't fail to recognize him.
