Chapter 05
“Huff… huff!“
Gasping like a man on the brink of death, the information broker lunged toward Ibelin, his eyes wild with fury.
“Are you completely out of your mind?!“
“Pardon?” Me? Not you? Ibelin tightly bit back the retort. She had no desire to pry into such intimate matters with a total stranger. Wasn’t it basic human decency to show a little consideration? Granted, the man before her clearly had no intention of reciprocating her good manners, but she refused to stoop to his level.
“You must be insane! No one in their right mind would ask for information like that!” The broker paced frantically, practically hopping in place as he ranted. “Of all the things… why on earth that?!“
“What do you mean, that information?“
“That man.” Leaning in close, the broker glanced nervously around the room, his voice dropping to a terrified whisper.
“Are you talking about Archduke Gracias?“
“Shh! Never speak that name aloud! It’s a taboo, an absolute curse! Look! Just look at this!“
The broker unhinged his jaw, thrusting his open mouth toward Ibelin to show her the interior. She had absolutely no desire to inspect the inside of a stranger’s mouth and tried to lean back, but the man refused to let her go.
He pressed closer, demanding, “Do you see it?!“
“Uh… yes. Yes, I see.“
Ibelin tilted her head, thoroughly bewildered as to why she was being subjected to this.
The broker clarified, “Notice how a few teeth are missing?“
Now that he mentioned it, there were indeed several conspicuous gaps. As Ibelin nodded in realization, the broker’s eyes brimmed with scarlet rimmed moisture. He looked ready to burst into tears at any second, which threw her into a mild panic.
“Listen to me. We brokers have one unwritten, sacred rule: Never buy or sell information on that man. Why? Because if you get caught, you end up like me! And honestly, I got off easy! I only lost a few teeth and had both my legs snapped!“
“What?!“
The ‘man’ he was referring to was clearly Archduke Gracias. But if losing teeth and breaking both legs was considered getting off easy, what happened to the ones who weren’t so lucky? Curiosity pricked at her, but she swallowed the question. The broker’s face had gone utterly bloodless.
I knew the Archduke was a tyrannical terror, but to think he treats information brokers like this too…
A sudden shiver cascaded down Ibelin’s spine. What if that became her own future? She tightly clasped her hands together and dropped her voice to a bare murmur. “So, you’re saying you got caught dealing information, and Archduke Graci—”
“Shh! Call him that man!”
“…Right. That man came personally and did this to you?”
“Exactly! So turn around and go back the way you came. I’m not selling.”
The broker grabbed her by the shoulders and forcefully began pushing her toward the exit. Being considerably smaller than him, Ibelin was swept backward without a prayer of resistance.
“Wait! Just a minute!”
“There are no minutes!”
By the time she snapped out of it, she was already standing outside the tavern. From behind the slammed door, a loud, chaotic clatter echoed into the street.
“Well then.”
Ibelin stood dazed for a moment before dragging her feet forward.
Just to be sure, she tried visiting a few other information brokers, but the reactions were identical. One broker pulled out a holy relic and began frantically chanting prayers; another threw a handful of salt directly into her face. One even fainted dead away right in front of her.
“Huh… Oh dear.”
Watching all of this unfold, a heavy blanket of anxiety settled over her chest.
Grandfather, do I really have to save Archduke Gracias? Ibelin looked up at the sky and let out a long, weary sigh.
“One must always repay a debt of gratitude.”
The words her grandfather used to repeat so often during his lifetime echoed in her mind, alongside the persistent voice that had been hounding her in her dreams.
“I have no choice, do I?”
She was terrified—utterly, completely terrified—but she couldn’t bring herself to give up. Since things had turned out this way, she would just have to roll up her sleeves and gather the information herself.
It’s going to be dangerous.
If she got caught, she might end up suffering the exact same fate as those brokers. The smartest play was to start small—with minor, insignificant details that wouldn’t raise suspicion—and take it step by step. Eventually, a solution would present itself. Or so she thought.
Little did she know, this optimistic assumption was the official starting gun for a marathon of endless suffering.
Sometimes, talent blossoms in the most unexpected ways.
Because the brokers had universally refused to sell to her, Ibelin was forced to act on her own. It was brutal at first. There were days on end where she tripped, fell, and bruised herself multiple times a day while tailing her target, only to come home with nothing but dust to show for it.
Yet, through that grueling trial, Ibelin awakened a latent genius she never knew she possessed. As it turned out, she had a staggering, unparalleled gift for espionage.
The naive Ibelin, who initially struggled just to keep her target in sight, rapidly grew adept at unearthing secrets.
“Ah, nothing in this one either.”
She began routinely digging through the trash cans put out by the Archducal estate.
“Today, he stopped by the blacksmith to have his sword maintained, and then he ate at that restaurant over there. Hmm… Surprisingly, the Archduke has a sweet tooth. And it seems he really values a solid weight in his hand when he’s striking someone.”
Every single day, she meticulously logged the information she uncovered about the Archduke: his daily routes, what he ate, what he wore, and the exact severity of the punishments he handed out. She was steadily building a comprehensive dossier that no professional broker in the empire had ever managed to secure.
Everything felt like it was running smoothly. But a mad dog wasn’t called a mad dog for nothing.
“This feels absolutely disgusting.”
Kaelen furrowed his brow, spitting out the complaint with palpable irritation. He was a man naturally prone to dissatisfaction, but lately, his nerves had been frayed to a razor’s edge.
“What is vexing you so much, Commander?” Ceren, the Vice-Commander, inquired cautiously. He internally wondered who had crossed the line this time and whether he should proactively summon a medic, when Kaelen spoke again.
“Someone has been tailing me recently.”
“Pardon?” Ceren blurted out automatically.
While Kaelen’s martial prowess was undeniable and worthy of respect, his personality was atrocious. Ceren frequently found himself regretting his life choices as his subordinate. And yet, someone was actively stalking a man like that?
“Is it the Young Lord of Olen?”
It seemed impossible unless someone harbored a grudge deeper than the abyss itself. Naturally, the name of the noble whose arm Kaelen had broken last week slipped out.
“Unlikely. That lad literally pissed his pants back then. Would he really be crazy enough to try something like this?” The speaker was Alex, a red-haired knight standing nearby. But if it wasn’t him, then who?
The list of potential suspects with a grudge was far too long to narrow down. Still, one thing was certain: whoever it was possessed an incomprehensibly massive pair of guts.
Kaelen had previously re-educated every single broker in the capital just because he despised people prying into his business. To make an example of them, he had even hung a few of the most famous brokers from the fountain in the central plaza—half-dead, of course.
“Good heavens!”
The surrounding knights didn’t even bother hiding their shock. What kind of lunatic would dare pull a stunt like this now? Did they have nine lives? As they whispered frantically among themselves, Kaelen made a stark admission.
“Even I don’t know who it is yet.”
At that, Ceren’s expression shifted to stark gravity. “Should we mobilize a scouting party to capture them?”
If they deployed enough men, they could corner the rat, no matter how elusive they were. However, Kaelen merely clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“No.”
There were too many strange variables to just blindly arrest the shadow. At first, the tail had been incredibly clumsy, but they were adapting at a terrifying pace. Lately, they had even managed to slip out of his line of sight entirely. Their stealth skills were improving by leaps and bounds, yet strangely, Kaelen couldn’t detect a single shred of malice or bloodlust from them.
That was why he chose to hold off until he could discern their true motive. The problem, however, was that this mystery had thoroughly ignited the curiosity of the other knights.
“The Commander can’t catch them?”
“That means it’s likely not a professional assassin or spy.”
“Could it be a woman who’s hopelessly infatuated with the Captain?”
“What kind of crazy woman would… Oh, wait. Actually, that’s possible.”
It wasn’t as if Kaelen hadn’t dealt with stalkers in the past. No matter how monstrous his reputation or personality was, his physical appearance was undeniably flawless. However, any sane woman usually fled within days, and even the unhinged ones never lasted very long.
“How long has this been going on?” Ceren asked, his tone careful.
Kaelen replied coldly, “It’s been two weeks.”
Two weeks was an eternity. Against someone of Kaelen’s caliber, even surviving a single week was a miracle. The fact that this shadow was still lingering caught everyone’s interest, regardless of whether the culprit was a man or a woman.
Suddenly, Alex let out a sharp whistle. He was a man whose playful, unpredictable personality directly contradicted his rugged appearance, often catching people off guard, and he shared a fierce rivalry with Lucian.
“Anyone want to place a bet? I put one gold coin on them lasting three weeks!”
At Alex’s cheerful instigation, Lucian’s brow twitched with irritation.
