Chapter 102
He paused, as if mulling over my question, then shrugged.
“Well, how would I know? I hate experiments, so I’m not close to anyone in the family. That flower was a development item that required special handling even within the family, so I didn’t have access to it either. But I can’t say there’s no connection at all.”
“Huh? How did you know about Tentationem if you weren’t allowed access?”
“‘No access’ is meaningless to me. Do you think the best Wizard in the Empire can’t figure something like that out? Since they told me not to access it, I wanted to find out more.”
Kaiden grinned smugly. Kaiden really doesn’t know the meaning of humility. But what he said was true, so I had nothing to say.
“If the Rohade family is involved with this island, there are understandable aspects. Aren’t they a family obsessed with Magic experiments?”
Kaiden burst into laughter at Asdal’s words.
“Those guys are beyond crazy. Their insane minds have been passed down through the Rohade family for generations. But what does this island have to do with experiments?”
I couldn’t answer Kaiden’s last question and instead spoke to Asdal.
“But even if they’re obsessed with experiments, the targets for kidnapping are all too high-profile. I don’t think Rohade was directly in charge; I think they’re just involved.”
The Rohade family was only a Marquis family, and this was an incident that was escalating even for the Imperial family.
Everyone nodded, somewhat agreeing with my reasoning.
“Then we need to guess who might be connected to the Rohade family. Lord, do you have any idea? Someone connected to the family, someone who might have kidnapped us.”
Kaiden shook his head at Enoch’s question.
“I told you, I’m not close to anyone in the family.”
In the end, the discussion returned to square one.
While everyone was lost in thought and silent, Yuanna, who had been watching us, quietly opened her mouth.
“It seems like the questions about Tentationem have been resolved to some extent. Shouldn’t we share the results of our reconnaissance around this time?”
Yuanna took out a piece of cloth from her pocket and spread it on the floor. I realized that the map was somewhat familiar.
“I couldn’t find out anything about the Key, but I picked this up instead.”
“This is… a map of the island.”
Enoch muttered.
I sat next to Enoch and quietly scanned the map with my eyes.
This was a cloth of the same material as the Bunker map I had picked up. But upon closer inspection, it was slightly different from the Bunker map.
On my map, there was a Bunker mark to the east of the mountain on the north island.
However, on the map Yuanna brought, there was no Bunker mark, but a star was drawn to the west of the mountain on the north island.
The map was clean, without any year markings on the edges.
Also, the word ‘supplies’ was written in Langrid Empire Language in two places on the south island and three places on the north island.
The ‘supplies’ mentioned here must be supplies. It was definitely mentioned in the original story. The supplies that Yuanna found but no one knew how to use, so they couldn’t even try them.
‘Right. It seems to be a map showing the location of hidden supplies, but what is this star…?’
It seemed to be a separate map that had nothing to do with my Bunker map.
I stared at the map quietly and suddenly realized that the location of the supplies written on the south island was not far from here.
It was even a place we had already passed.
“The Saintess, have you ever picked up a box of supplies?”
Certainly, Enoch and I had found an empty supply box at the place where we first encountered the Anaconda Monster.
“Well, we haven’t picked up anything like that.”
Yuanna denied. Asdal also sat with his arms crossed and shrugged.
‘Then, who took the items in that supply box?’
I naturally thought that Yuanna’s group had taken it… I felt goosebumps from head to toe and closed my mouth for a moment.
Perhaps noticing my condition, Enoch, who was sitting next to me, placed his hand on my head.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded slowly at his question. Then, I stared at the map and pointed to the river where we had encountered the Anaconda Monster.
“Enoch and I found the supply box marked here. When we found it, someone had already taken the contents, and the box was empty.”
“That means…”
Asdal stroked his chin and trailed off. Enoch nodded and replied.
“It means there might be someone else on this island besides us. Well, we predicted that the moment we found this hut, didn’t we?”
Enoch replied casually.
He didn’t seem particularly shaken. He was always like that. He never panicked easily.
Thanks to his calmness, I was able to calm my racing heart quickly.
“What does this mark mean?”
This time, I pointed to the star mark on the map and expressed my question. Then Yuanna shook her head as if she didn’t understand.
“I don’t know. I think we’ll have to go to find out.”
“It’s either a place with an escape route, or it’s a trap. Didn’t they say the name of this island is ‘Dice Game’? It’s clear they’re playing with us.”
Asdal muttered with his chin propped up. Enoch also looked at the map with a serious face and asked Yuanna.
“Were there any other special features?”
At Enoch’s question, Yuanna pointed to the area near the river on the map.
“I found a bridge that crosses over to the north island. Around here.”
The map that Yuanna picked up, like the map I picked up, had a picture of a bridge between the rivers.
“But what does ‘Dice Game’ mean?”
Diego asked me. Only then did I realize that I hadn’t yet explained the meaning of Alea to the reconnaissance members.
I explained to the reconnaissance members about the conversation I had with the hut group a few days ago.
“The word Alea means ‘Dice Game’ in the language of a minority tribe in the Eastern Continent. So my guess is that it’s not a person’s name but the name of the island.”
Asdal, who was sitting cross-legged, leaned his elbow on his leg, propped up his chin, and explained, taking over my words.
“Then what does ‘Dice Game’ mean? It means that our fate is determined regardless of our will. So, it means that we are most likely kidnapped by someone. For experimental purposes, too.”
“Was that what you were talking about earlier with the experiment? What kind of bastard dares to experiment on us?!”
Asdal even clapped and rejoiced at Kaiden’s angry voice, who had been quiet until now.
“As expected, Lord is hot-blooded. He speaks his mind clearly.”
“Asdal, don’t you have anyone you can guess?”
Enoch, who had been silently lost in thought, asked Asdal. Asdal shrugged nonchalantly and shook his head.
“I have too many guesses, so I don’t know. What about you?”
“Same here. There are many people I can guess, but I can’t think of a force that could kidnap so many key figures from the Empire and the Kingdoms all at once, not just one person.”
Even Enoch and Asdal couldn’t guess.
Well, even I, who had read the original story, couldn’t get a sense of it.
In the first place, <What's More Important Than Survival> had no content. It was just a dark and depressing story about loving and loving, hurting each other, and eventually killing each other. Besides, I didn’t even read the novel to the end.
“But isn’t it strange? That empty supply box and the Magical Artifacts… it’s like they only appear in Lady Flone’s eyes.”
Then Asdal raised a question again.
“Lady Flone, tell me. Aren’t you hiding anything else?”
‘Should I talk about the Bunker map?’
But even if I lied that I picked up the Bunker map today, the picture I reluctantly handed over after Asdal’s prodding wouldn’t be good.
I decided to postpone the Bunker map story after all.
‘I should keep the Bunker as insurance after all.’
As I was thinking that, Asdal called me as if urging me to answer.
“Lady. Huh? Say something.”
“…I’m not hiding anything. It’s just a coincidence. What can I do if I keep seeing things like that?”
“That’s what’s strange, why does that kind of coincidence keep happening to you?”
“How would I know?”
“You need to know, if you don’t want to be suspected.”
That was when Asdal was about to reach out to me.
Thwack!
Clang.
The dagger that Kaiden threw was stuck in the empty floor in the center of the hut, and the longsword that Enoch drew was aimed at Asdal.
I thought Diego would immediately check Enoch’s sword, but surprisingly, he sat quietly and watched the situation.
“Why don’t you keep it moderate? Margaret is scared.”
“I’ll kill you if you get close to Margaret.”
As the two men murmured fiercely, Asdal raised both hands and gestured to surrender. He smiled with a face that was not at all flustered.
“I wasn’t interrogating you. I was just asking the questions I had to ask.”
“You were pushing it too hard for that.”
“Crown Prince, you’ve received all of Margaret’s help so far, and you’re surprisingly shameless.”
Yuanna, who had been quietly watching the situation, added with a tired face, and Bishop Ruzef drove the wedge after her.
“Everyone’s trust is amazing. I don’t want to suspect Lady either. I like the changed Lady Flone more and more.”
Does he have a hundred snakes inside him? I can’t figure him out at all. Asdal was truly like a seasoned fox.
He clapped as if he didn’t care about what happened a moment ago and diverted the attention of those around him.
“Well, let’s move on from that for now. And I was going to say it when The Saintess came, but I think we should leave this hut.”