Chapter 65
Oscar sneered at himself bitingly.
Unlike him, who had spent the night rutting like a dog in heat, that woman had endured and held out from beginning to end.
Right.
From the very beginning to the very end.
“Let’s assume I’m an idiot.”
The edge in Oscar’s blue eyes sharpened, replacing the mockery.
“Why did you hold out?”
Why on earth?
Oscar picked up the translated copy of her identification from the materials Simon had brought. His icy gaze landed on her name.
Han Seo-ah.
He spent a long time dwelling on the unusual characters of her name—which meant to forgive and to love—before setting the translation down and picking up Terezia Bitkenstein’s report.
As soon as he turned the old, faded cover, he saw the name written in a steady hand.
Terezia Bitkenstein.
She was one of the few remaining Wolves raised by his father who were still alive.
True to her reputation as the most capable intelligence agent under the previous Marquis, the volume of reports she had submitted over her lifetime was vast. Oscar filtered through them, selecting only the reports from the time she began tracking Peter. Even that was enough to fill a thick volume. It was no surprise, considering she had been chasing Peter’s trail for over twenty years without returning home.
Oscar remembered the day she left. It was the day the news arrived of the deaths of the Wolves who were supposed to be returning with Peter in custody.
He had been sitting in the chair his father used to occupy. Though he had sat in that chair for nearly three years by then, his feet still didn’t reach the floor, and even when he straightened his back as much as possible, the long conference table remained tall. Whenever his posture began to slump, Barbara, standing by his side, would invariably push his lower back upright.
“I believe they are all dead.”
The name of the man who said those words was Karl.
Oscar looked at Karl and asked, “Peter too?”
Karl brought a large nautical chart and spread it out before Oscar. Then, with a polite gesture, he pointed to a spot and spoke.
“This is the Cheonghae, the place where some of the ship’s debris and the remains of James Bitkenstein were discovered.”
On the sea surrounded by the continent of East Asu, where the Rioher Empire was located, and a peninsula jutting out from the edge of the continent, the words ‘Cheonghae’ were clearly written.
“We speculate they were swept away by the current. Therefore, the area where the ship is expected to have sunk is here, the Ibis Strait.”
His finger moved west from the Cheonghae until it touched a narrow stretch of sea.
“The Ibis Strait has such rough waters that shipwrecks often occur even on days with good weather.”
The Ibis Strait was the sea between the Rioher Empire, the hegemon of the East, and the Bisnia Federation. It was famous for being narrow, having treacherous currents, and being the site of frequent naval battles. However, many ships still braved the strait. If they didn’t pass through the Ibis Strait, they would have to take a long detour, and that path was far more dangerous due to the frequent appearance of sea monsters, except during the winter when the creatures were dormant.
“Both the Rioher and Bisnia navies have officially announced that there are traces of an unidentified ship sinking in the strait…”
“The evidence?”
“The ship sank.”
“That’s circumstantial. What I want is clear evidence.”
In truth, even as he said those words, he had considered the possibility that the man was dead. However, at nine years old, Oscar could not accept that Peter—the only person he could vent his resentment upon, a man whose face he had never even seen—had vanished like smoke. He had been half-throwing a tantrum.
“Search again.”
“……”
“Find him and bring back his body or whatever you can find.”
Karl could not easily answer. Neither could most of the Wolves gathered there. That was when Terezia stood up.
Terezia strode forward and knelt before Oscar.
“I will find him. Leave it to me, Your Excellency.”
And that winter, Terezia left Luxen alone. At that time, Lichtenhardt was effectively in ruins, so there were no personnel to even assist her.
After leaving Luxen, Terezia sent reports periodically. The first report was sent from the Bisnia Federation. The next report came from the southern tip of the Rioher Empire.
She went around checking every single body discovered at sea. As a result, the Wolves’ personal belongings and some remains were returned. But Peter was not among them.
Around the sixth report, Terezia moved to the vicinity of the Cheonghae. She traveled through every port in Rioher surrounding the Cheonghae, tracking the traces of Peter and the key.
Oscar flipped through the meaningless reports. Failure, failure, failure…
Then, communication was cut off after the twelfth report. For several years, not a single one of the reports that used to arrive periodically was submitted. People were sent to find her, but the only answer that returned was that Terezia could not be found.
It was several years later when a report from her arrived again.
Even then, the report was extremely short. And after that, no reports came for another few years until, finally, Report No. 2021 was submitted.
That was about three years ago.
After twenty years of tracking, she had written in that report for the first time her opinion that Peter and the key seemed to have been buried at sea.
Even Barbara, who had never said a single word about the matter, suggested after that report that he should give up on Peter and the key and find another way to open the vault.
Oscar opened the twelfth report—the one right before the initial loss of contact.
That report, classified as No. 1988, wasn’t particularly long. After all, it was little more than a long-winded way of saying she hadn’t found anything. Oscar flipped through the pages quickly. His gaze, reaching the final page in an instant, paused at a certain point.
…After investigating the Rioher Empire a bit more, I plan to move to Danguk next month. Since the western side of Danguk borders the Cheonghae, I intend to investigate there as well.
A short sentence of just a few lines written in the supplementary notes.
If it had been his younger self receiving the report, he would have closed it without even reading the supplementary notes—which weren’t even part of the main text—of a report that was ultimately just admitting failure. Even if he had read it, it would have been half-hearted.
Oscar immediately opened the thirteenth report.
The place it was sent from was not Danguk, but Rushu Port in the Rioher Empire. However, Danguk did appear in the report. In the opening, she stated that she had traveled around Danguk and was now writing the report after returning to Rioher.
In other words, during the years when contact was lost, Terezia had stayed in Danguk.
Report No. 2021 was also marked as being sent from Rioher, but it followed the same pattern of a several-year gap after the preceding report.
Danguk.
The name of a small Eastern country had been grating on his nerves in many ways lately.
Oscar immediately summoned Karl.
“You called, Your Excellency.”
Karl, who had remained by his side for a long time along with Barbara, was still active and in charge of the search teams despite his hair turning grey.
“Karl.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“What do you think the chances are that Terezia Bitkenstein would betray us?”
“…Pardon?”
“The possibility that she mixed lies into her reports?”
Karl was silent for a moment before straightening his posture and speaking.
“That is impossible.”
At that, Oscar gave a genuine sneer.
“Wow. I didn’t expect to hear those words from the mouth of a man who saw with his own eyes who stabbed my father in the back.”
“…I apologize. But Your Excellency, she has no reason to do so.”
“The grounds?”
“First, she has a personal grudge against Peter. She lost her family due to Peter’s betrayal, and even her husband died while transporting him. Crucially, there is no benefit for her in betraying Your Excellency.”
“No benefit?”
“Even if she told a lie regarding this matter, it would mean she feigned ignorance while knowing the whereabouts or information regarding Peter or the key. What could she possibly gain from that? I cannot even fathom the benefit of hiding Peter, and would she keep the key for herself? In the end, that wasn’t the case, was it?”
Right. Because the key had passed through that woman’s hands and was now in his.
Oscar did not answer, but instead stared at Terezia’s report for a long time.
It was absurd to doubt someone he had entrusted with a twenty-year pursuit only now, but the suspicion triggered by the key that had suddenly appeared one day was pricking at the edge of his nerves.
