Ch#24
Red Glove Inn's basement tavern.
“Basto! Don’t you have any shame? You show up after ages and the first thing you ask is about those damn Holy Knights?!”
A burly mercenary slammed his orc mug down with a bang.
Basto's eyebrow twitched.
But before he could open his mouth, Veil stepped in.
“What a clown. So we gotta get your permission to ask anything? Gotta raise our hands first or what?”
“You, who the hell are you? Never seen your face before.”
“Then it's a first-time face, not a second-timer, genius. Crazy bastard, you know every face in the world? Cocky little shit.”
“N-no, I...!”
“Shut it. If you know anything about the Luminen Family, spill it quick. Didn't you hear me say I'm in a hurry?”
The burly mercenary hesitated, picked up his orc mug again, averted his eyes from Veil, and spoke.
“Th-the Luminen Family, y'know, that Holy Knight family...”
The mercenary's face grew complicated.
Luminen Family.
A place teeming with men worthy of being called the Empire's strongest Holy Knights.
The family head, Valentis Luminen, had four sons.
And each held major positions within the Holy Knight Order.
“Lemme see, eldest son Edmund Luminen is a tactical advisor. Second is a brigade commander, I think? Third's head of the medical division.”
“That's all? You talk like you got some hot info, but you're just full of useless crap.”
“No! There's more!”
The flustered mercenary hurriedly added.
“The fourth! The youngest Luminen son's been missing lately. In secluded training or something?”
Basto and Veil exchanged glances.
Trading looks, they asked in turn.
“Why. He got a kid or something?”
“Got a woman? Had a kid with her. About four years old?”
The mercenary's eyes bulged in bewilderment.
“What the hell? A kid with that fresh-faced brat?”
He counted on his fingers for Veil and Basto, as if to prove his point.
“The Luminen runt just came of age last year or so. For him to have a four-year-old... the math doesn't add up.”
“Not the youngest, then.”
“Yeah, not the baby.”
Basto and Veil's eyes sharpened again.
“What about the other sons?”
“Other sons? First, second, third?”
“...You absolute dimwit. Excluding the youngest, who else? You got a brain in there? Huh?”
“I-I was just checking, y'know!”
The sheepish mercenary groaned again.
“Sure, they're more marriageable age. But no rumors of any starting families or having kids.”
The Luminen Family was a great noble house.
Always on friendly terms with the imperial family, and above all, the core leading the Holy Knights called Guardians of Light.
“If the Luminens had a joyous event like that, we'd know. They'd have thrown a massive wedding in the Capital City, no doubt.”
“...Yeah. Holy Knights like them? They'd invite the Emperor and Empress, splurge till it's disgusting.”
That left one possibility.
Veil leaned close to the burly mercenary.
“The Luminen family head. What's the chance Valentis Luminen had a late child with another woman?”
“Valentis Luminen?!”
The mercenary startled, eyes wide.
Then he shook his head furiously.
“No way that man's the type! Every citizen knows he devoted his life to loving the Saint of Richard with all his body and soul. What...?”
Saint of Richard.
That referred to Valentis Luminen's wife and mother of the four Luminen sons, Eleonora.
Eleonora was the woman who wielded the strongest holy power in history.
Their love story was so famous, no one in the Empire was unaware.
And with only four children between them, their marital bliss was obvious without asking.
But Veil thought differently.
“Hilarious. Ever heard 'nobody knows what goes on in a marriage'? Dummy.”
The mercenary panicked, but Veil pressed on sharply.
“They flaunt perfect harmony and epic love to the world, but only they know the truth, right?”
It was something Veil had learned naturally in his assassin days.
Requests from noblewomen to poison cheating husbands came nearly once a month.
The reverse wasn't rare either.
The funny part? None showed a hint of it publicly.
Arm-in-arm laughing haha hoho outside, plotting murder behind closed doors.
“If Valentis Luminen had a bastard child, then the Saint Eleonora incident...”
“Basto! Veil!”
Someone came barreling down the stairs at that moment.
It was none other than Nordics, white hair whipping as he ran.
As all eyes turned to him, Nordics shouted.
“Th-the Captain's gone missing!”
* * *
“Damn it, where'd the kid run off to?”
Veil wiped sweat as he rounded the alley corner.
Her speed was insane; he grabbed a pipe and swung around mid-air.
“Astie! Astie-!”
Basto's desperate voice echoed from afar.
Maybe from losing a child once before, Basto's eyes rolled back halfway the instant he heard Astie was gone.
He'd bolted up, nearly smashing a table.
Nordics had rushed to the square to check with passersby who'd seen her.
“Haa...”
Veil paused, rubbing his temple.
His gaze fixed on the pipe he'd grabbed.
Next instant, he gripped it without hesitation and started climbing up.
‘Higher up, I might spot something.’
Last time grabbing something like this, cold sweat beaded on his temple, but that wasn't important now.
How far up? Veil clutched the roof and hauled himself atop.
As expected, the street view spread below.
In his widened field of vision, Nordics appeared in a nearby square.
He'd been talking to a passerby, then suddenly bolted toward the pier.
Veil's brows furrowed.
“No way.”
His eyes turned to the dark rippling sea.
He started leaping across rooftops toward the pier himself.
“Stupid idiot.”
A curse escaped at himself.
He teased her daily 'cause her reactions were cute, but Veil knew Astie was a special kid.
So he'd thought it'd be fine.
Leaving her alone in the room for a couple hours.
“She's only four, you dimwit...”
Veil gritted his teeth, pushing his legs harder.
At the last building, he jumped onto a pile of grain sacks below.
Nordics and Basto had already reached the pier.
“Someone saw Astie heading to the pier!”
Sure enough, Nordics spotted Veil and flailed.
“N-no, it can't be. The sea? I told her to stay in the room, but I... I...”
Basto's face had gone from pale to ashen.
But then, something caught Veil's eye.
“...What's that?”
Pier's far end.
Abandoned logistics pile.
A tiny huddled speck.
“Astie!!”
“...The kid!”
“Astie!”
Realizing it was her, the three bolted toward it without a word.
