Chapter 5

The guild always felt cozy, like a tavern no matter when I entered. It was enough to make me wonder if they had actually renovated a real tavern for the place.

As I walked deeper inside, this time it was not the usual woman but a unfamiliar man who was waiting for me.

The man, seeing me for the first time, had nearly white blond hair and amethyst eyes that shimmered with a strangely dangerous light.

Perhaps because his hair was long and his features delicate, at a glance he had a face that could easily be mistaken for a woman’s.

“…Isn’t there usually a woman here?”

“Dahlia is busy with other matters right now. What brings you here?”

Unlike his cold first impression, the man’s tone was gentle. His kind voice put me at ease.

“I’m not here for a new request—I was wondering about the progress of my previous one.”

“Which request is that?”

“The child named Chadie from the Dollin Orphanage…”

“Ah.”

Before I could even finish, the man nodded as if he understood. Fortunately, he had not forgotten my request.

“Yes. How far along is it?”

“We’re still searching, but there’s so little information that it seems to be taking some time. If you want faster progress, you’ll need to give us as much information as possible.”

On the paper he held out, there were blanks for the person’s appearance, age, residence, and so on. I filled in the answers without hesitation.

– Client’s name: Saya

– Name of person sought: Chadie

– Gender: Female

– Age: Estimated around 23.

– Residence: Unknown

– Appearance: Platinum blond hair, blue eyes. Dark skin.

– Distinguishing features: From the Dollin Orphanage.

After writing that much, I realized how little I actually knew about Chadie.

Even the age was just my estimate. She might be much younger than that.

The man’s brow remained furrowed as he read the request form I had filled out. If anything, the crease between his brows seemed to deepen.

‘There must be a problem.’

Otherwise, there would be no reason for him to stare so long at a form with only a few lines.

“It doesn’t say here what your relationship is to this person.”

He finally spoke.

I had left the relationship section blank because even I did not know what to call my relationship with her. We were nominally friends, but it was uncertain whether she would still think of me as a friend after all this time without contact.

“If I had to say, I’d prefer to call us friends.”

“If you had to?”

“…I-I haven’t been able to contact her for a long time. So Chadie might not remember me.”

“Wait.”

“Yes?”

“Saya, you said?”

“Yes…? Yes.”

He stared at my face quietly. Feeling pressured, I took a step back.

This is why I didn’t want to go to a guild with men in it… I suddenly missed that woman named Dahlia very much.

“Ah… Ah…!”

The man suddenly clutched his forehead and made a sound as if someone had pinched him.

“Yes, that’s right. That’s how it was.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

At his strange behavior, I took a few more steps back.

The man came around the long table. He had a slender build but was very tall. Standing close, the difference in height made him even more imposing.

“Yes?”

When I made a foolish, blank sound, the man curled the corner of his mouth upward.

“…A-anyway, so you’ll really start looking for Chadie now? The fee would be about this much…”

I naturally took out my coin pouch. Last time I had retreated quietly, wondering if they intended not to take the request, but today I saw hope in the man’s reaction.

My budget was limited. I had to suggest an amount first to prevent them from naming an absurd sum.

When I handed him the pouch, he grabbed my wrist.

“I won’t take it.”

“What? Why? You’re not going to tell me now that you can’t find her after all, are you?”

That couldn’t happen. The only things left in my plan to escape were the annulment papers and finding Chadie. Redic Bangeger was a man full of pride, so the annulment would arrive soon enough.

“You keep refusing the fee, so I’m starting to doubt your abilities. If you can’t do it, I’ll try another guild.”

“Ah… This is troublesome.”

He looked at the coin pouch, then at me, then back at the pouch, and as if there was no help for it, he took the pouch in hand.

“I know finding a person takes a long time, but please find her as quickly as possible.”

“Is there a reason?”

“I’m leaving the capital soon.”

I planned to leave this place forever and never, ever set foot in Erdona again, so as time passed, it would be difficult to continue the request.

“…I understand for now.”

Only after hearing the man’s answer did I leave the guild. Something felt off, but I steeled myself by thinking of the previous request, which had been successfully handled.

* * *

With a clear chime that did not suit the place, the door behind the man swung wide open. The person who kicked the door open was a woman with striking vermilion hair.

“We can’t just leave it like this.”

“Leave what?”

Dahlia asked back. Then she quickly snatched the coin pouch from the man and smiled, satisfied with the amount.

“What are you going to do?”

The Chadie that Saya Erdona was looking for was a woman, not a man. The man knew that as well. At first, he had only intended to find out who she was because he was curious about the woman’s identity.

“I remembered who she is.”

“Really? Who is she? Why don’t I remember?”

“You wouldn’t know. She was adopted before you came.”

She nodded as if that made sense.

“So she wanted to find a childhood friend one last time.”

“She’s not a friend.”

At the man’s firm words, Dahlia tilted her head. And yet you look incredibly pleased for all that.

She continued without paying it any mind.

“But about her leaving. Is that why? Why did she ask us to take a picture of herself cheating? Her fiancé wouldn’t just let that slide, so why on earth… Huh? Master? Where are you going?”

The man, who had been listening silently to Dahlia, suddenly patted her shoulder a couple of times and walked out.

He had thought of a good idea.

‘As a friend, I should help at least this much, shouldn’t I?’

Dahlia, who had no way of knowing the man’s thoughts, was left alone and scowled.

“Strange. Really strange.”

* * *

“My lady! My lady!”

Jessie’s voice came from the end of the corridor. As I woke and rubbed my eyes, she threw open the door and yanked the bed curtains aside.

“My lady! Look at this!”

“Ugh. Jessie, what is it that you’re making such a fuss about first thing in the morning?”

The thing fluttering in Jessie’s hand was a newspaper. Still groggy, I looked at the front page as Jessie spread it out for me.

“A correction article? What does this mean? That I didn’t cheat?”

When I asked in surprise, Jessie’s face grew worried as well. By now Jessie knew that I had deliberately planted the article to break off the engagement. She must also have known that this would make it impossible for me to break it off.

If I couldn’t break off the engagement, my escape would also be disrupted. A noblewoman who had been jilted running away and a woman who had not disappearing were worlds apart.

That could not be allowed.

‘How could things turn out like this?’

Everything about the guild that was supposed to handle things reliably had been undone.

“I’m going out, so get me ready, Jessie.”

“Yes, my lady!”

I finished preparing in an instant and climbed into the carriage. The whole time the carriage raced along, I wondered how on earth that article had come about.

‘Did Gizelle clean up after me?’

But the guild’s handling of the matter last time had definitely been thorough. There had even been a portrait painted of me and my lover kissing.

Besides, publishing a false article was easy, but correcting it was difficult. Even for Gizelle, doing that would have required bribing all sorts of people.

The question was whether Gizelle would go that far to raise my reputation. There was absolutely no way. She had been angry that I had stained the Erdona name, but inside she must have been pleased.

Everyone already knew I was adopted. The mockery that they had taken in a street orphan and raised her only for her to repay their kindness with betrayal was tiresome by now.

Gizelle took comfort in such talk. So there was no way she would try to raise my reputation instead of enjoying the situation.

If it wasn’t Gizelle, then it was Kirill or Pavel. They would try to help Gizelle by any means. Which meant it was beneficial for Gizelle to stay out of it.

The moment I stepped down from the carriage, I walked as if running toward the guild. I pretended to hand a gold coin to the vagrant as usual, and he opened the door for me.

My steps were filled with anger.

“…What brings you here at this hour?”

“It’s been a while.”

There were two people to greet me, and their expressions were quite different. The man was smiling at me, while the woman looked flustered.

“It’s about this morning’s newspaper. How did this happen?”