Chapter 98
“Yes. So please tell your boss that I have a lot to discuss and would like to meet.”
“Got it. But it’s difficult to meet right now; I’ll pass on the message.”
“Okay. By the way, what kind of place is this?”
I glanced around the room cluttered with numerous documents and asked Terry.
“Well, externally, we refer to it as an information guild. It’s true that we do collect real information.”
“By ‘externally,’ do you mean you’re doing something else as well?”
“Haha, sharp as ever. Yes, we also do mercenary-like work on the side. Sometimes physical labor is necessary.”
Terry shrugged her shoulders, implying that it would be much quicker to hear more from the owner.
“Alright then, I’ll see you next time.”
Since I hadn’t come here specifically to meet Bjorn today, I turned away without any regrets.
After my brief encounter with Terry, I returned to the shop and found three knights engrossed in eating beef stew.
“Wow, this place is really a hidden gem…!”
“Caelan.”
“Cough!”
The knights, who were busy tasting the beef stew, scrambled to get up upon seeing me.
“Milady, you’ve arrived. We’ve been waiting for you.”
It wasn’t very convincing with stew smeared on their lips, but I decided to let it slide.
“I’ve finished my business, so I’m thinking of leaving. Did you finish the stew?”
“Ahem, yes. But we didn’t order it; the server just gave it to us to try. But as we ate, it turned out to be quite tasty…”
Watching Caelan awkwardly make excuses, I shook my head and laughed.
Just then, I was about to head back out the way I came.
“Huh? That person…”
Someone was passing through the alley on the opposite side, and for some reason, their face looked familiar.
Though they were wearing a robe that obscured their face, the part that was slightly revealed clearly resembled someone I knew.
It was Jess, the magician who had the trust of the Empress and Delos.
But what could a magician, who rarely left the palace, be doing all the way in the square?
As I quietly observed his actions from a distance, I noticed him cautiously heading deeper into the alley as he looked around.
While I was watching his suspicious behavior, I suddenly realized that I was already following Jess.
“Milady?”
The knights who were following me, increasingly quickening their pace, showed signs of confusion.
‘Ah, there he is.’
However, I was already walking briskly, seemingly entranced by something, focused only on the path ahead.
Then I saw Jess heading into another alley.
After trailing him for a while, a sudden instinct told me something was off.
‘Huh? Where did everyone go?’
Noticing the absence of the knights who had been right behind me, I turned around to find no one there.
Moreover, I realized that I had wandered into a rather secluded area without noticing, and there was not a single person around.
‘It might be dangerous to wander alone, so I should head back.’
Given the previous incident, it was wise to be cautious; I didn’t want to run into any trouble by being unlucky.
Just as I was about to turn back and return to the square, I heard a soft voice whisper near my ear.
“You have quite a good sense. Knowing when to give up when you feel danger is one of the good survival skills.”
“Gah!”
Startled, I gasped and immediately turned around, covering my ear with one hand.
“Please don’t be too surprised. I just wanted to have a brief conversation with you.”
As I turned my head, Jess, who had been pulling his robe down, gently revealed his face and smiled at me.
“So you intended to lure me here from the beginning.”
Hearing his words, I realized that he had been targeting me from the start, using himself as bait.
The thought of him watching how far I would follow made me feel a bit uneasy.
“If I offended you, I apologize. However, I had to come out like this; otherwise, I wouldn’t have the chance to talk to you.”
“Did we have anything to discuss?”
At that moment, he and I were nothing more than strangers with no connection.
Even when I lived with Delos, we rarely crossed paths, so I was certain this conversation was probably the longest we had ever had.
“Well, don’t you have something to say to me?”
His tone suggested he was confident I would, and I squinted at him.
‘Could it be that this man cast that spell on me?’
Thinking about that, I shook my head.
Joy had told me that the curse on me was an old spell from over ten years ago.
No matter how much I searched my memories from that time, there was no sign of the man in front of me, Jess.
He must have appeared around the time Delos and I were coming of age.
“There’s a decent teahouse nearby. It’s a place where quite a few people pass by, so you won’t be able to do anything foolish.”
His demeanor, acting innocent while raising his hands, was quite annoying, but as he said, it was reassuring that it was a place where people frequented.
“Alright. I’ll listen to what you want to talk about.”
“It’s an honor.”
The man, who smiled brightly at my words, led me to a very ordinary tea house.
As we sat facing each other, Jess wore that familiar, almost habitual smile.
“So, what did you want to say that made you bring me all the way here?”
“First, why don’t you try the tea? The aroma is quite nice.”
Unlike my eagerness for an answer, he was leisurely sipping his tea.
I felt like I was being led along by him, but my throat was dry, so I lifted the cup in front of me to savor the tea.
“Mom! Look! I got a toy from the square! Ouch!”
“Oh dear.”
Thud!
A child burst through the shop door, running, but tripped over their own feet and tumbled down.
“Wah, my sword…”
Looking down, I saw the toy sword the child had received from the square had split in two.
The child, holding the broken sword, sat down in despair, their face contorting as if they were about to cry.
“Little guest, could you bring that sword over here?”
At that moment, Jess, who had been watching the child, pointed to the broken sword.
The child tilted their head in confusion but eventually brought the pieces over to Jess as instructed.
And then it happened.
“Wow, wow…!”
As Jess let go of the two pieces of the broken sword, they magically returned to their original form, as if by a trick.
With a flushed face, the child exclaimed in awe and then quietly whispered to Jess.
“Brother, are you a magician?”
In response to the child’s question, Jess quietly nodded and brought his finger to his lips.
“l fixed the sword, so you’ll keep it a secret, right?”
“Okay! Yes…!”
“How kind. Now you can go back.”
The child, who had been looking at Jess with eyes full of admiration at the mention of a magician, nodded vigorously before leaving.
As the child walked away, they kept glancing back at Jess with a look of wonder.
It was only natural for the child to react that way, given how rare the existence of a magician was.
Waving goodbye to the child, Jess soon turned to me once the child was completely out of sight.
“Did you know? A magician, who is now an object of admiration, was considered a pest that needed to be eradicated just 200 years ago.”
I frowned and replied, “Eradicated?”
I had never heard such a story in any history book.
Did he think I was so ignorant of history that he was teasing me?
Looking at the man in front of me with a mix of distrust and displeasure, Jess smiled slightly, as if anticipating my reaction, and continued,
“It’s quite an interesting story. Would you like to hear it?”
He then took a sip of his tea and began to ramble on about the past, even though I hadn’t asked for it.
