Episode 6
Even though no one had invited him in, he strode over to my side as if he owned the place.
“…Young Lord Winslow?”
“What brings you here, Young Lord…”
Naturally, the members of the mercenary group recognized him. Since this village was part of the Winslow family’s territory, it was only natural for them to recognize the sole heir.
Aidan tapped my flustered shoulder lightly before handing a sheet of paper to Derek.
“As you all know, the gates are currently blocked with neodymium, but there have been several reports that something similar to a gate has been spotted nearby, as if a problem has arisen.”
“A gate?”
“My goodness. That terrible thing, again!”
Everyone buzzed with surprise. Naturally, I was surprised as well. To think that a gate might open. It was a story I was hearing for the first time in my life.
To those who remembered the tragedy from eighteen years ago, there was no threat more frightening than that. Aidan nodded elegantly, putting pressure on the mercenary leader.
“This is the territory of the Winslow family; it would be troublesome if any damage were to occur. Of course, even if it weren’t our territory, we must prevent that disaster from appearing in the Empire ever again.”
Perhaps moved by his solemn voice, everyone nodded in agreement.
“We can’t go back to those terrible times.”
“For reasons unknown, the investigation results show that the magnetic field levels in Robeang village are fluctuating wildly. Since mercenary groups travel to many places that aren’t generally well known, I thought strange phenomena might have been recorded here.”
“However, our mercenary group isn’t all that large in scale, so will it be of any help?”
“Anything. Right now, we are trying to gather anything that could serve as a clue, no matter what it is.”
Was it because of his serious expression? Even though a moment’s thought would have revealed how strange it was, Derek nodded as if entranced and called for Helena. I recalled her being a highly skilled physician who, unlike her pretty appearance, had quite a rough mouth.
“Our mercenary group only keeps logs up to ten years back. Anything older than that is destroyed. How many years’ worth do you need?”
“All of them.”
“All of them? The amount will be enormous.”
“It’s fine. Isn’t preventing the recurrence of the gates more important?”
Soon, Helena brought over an enormous pile of notebooks.
“Are these the originals?”
“No. As you know, what do those mercenary fools know? They don’t even know how to keep a log, so they just rush to scribble things down in their crude way. They even forget and write things down days later, so the order is a mess, too. That’s why Helena, the smartest one in our group, organizes them in order, month by month.”
It meant these were the compiled copies. Picking up the topmost notebook at random and flipping through it, the contents neatly arranged by date in clean handwriting caught my eye. Since it was organized so well, it wouldn’t take long to read through.
“Is this the most recent one?”
“Yes, our graduation date is here too.”
I recalled Dad and the contents of the diary. The most recent work detail written in the diary was in the west, and in my memory, that was an assignment guarding a merchant guild.
[Nathan and -, Western Ferace Village, Blaise Merchant Guild escort. Advance payment 500 gold, balance 500 gold. (Balance received)]
And then, an unusual detail caught my eye. Circumstantially, this seemed to be the job Dad had taken on.
“Excuse me, here. Who went to Ferace Village in the west with Nathan?”
“Isn’t it written there?”
“It’s written strangely.”
I pointed to the entry directly above it and spoke.
“When one person went, it was written like this: ‘Thomas, village guard duty.’ But here, it says ‘Nathan and’.”
At my answer, Aidan also glanced at the notebook.
“I see. Circumstantially, it seems two or more people carried out the assignment.”
“If it was Ferace Village, it was a merchant guild escort, right? Merchant guild escorts are strictly two-man teams.”
Derek, also curious, took the notebook from me.
“Huh? It really is. Hey, Helena. Did you not organize this properly?”
“Do you think I came here to organize documents?! I’m a physician, of all things! If you’re going to act like this, hire a clerk to organize the logs!”
“Ahem, how can our mercenary group afford to hire another person in our financial state?”
“Ha-ha, a person can make mistakes. Let’s see, who did Nathan go with on this day?”
“You can just ask the man himself.”
Helena grumbled as she walked off somewhere. And amid all this commotion, she smacked a broad back that was lying face down, sleeping.
“Hey, Nathan!!”
“Urgh!”
Ouch, that must hurt. The tremendous sound made even my own back feel sore for no reason, so I stroked my completely fine back.
“Ah, damn it, what is it? I was sleeping so soundly.”
“Get up. Ugh, filthy. Wipe your drool.”
“Slurp. What, what’s going on?”
His unpretentious brown hair was caked in oil as if he hadn’t washed it for days, and even though the weather was fairly cool, thick fur showed beneath his rolled-up sleeves as if he felt hot.
‘Dad said he washed even less than usual after his divorce.’
“Nathan, who did you go with to escort the Blaise Merchant Guild?”
“Yawn, the Blaise Merchant Guild? Isn’t it written in the log?”
When his thick fingers scratched violently at his tangled hair, unseasonal white flakes fell over his shoulders. Without hiding his disgusted expression, Aidan spoke up.
“That’s why I’m saying that clearly…”
“Oh, come on, he went with that person back then!”
Thomas, who was sitting at the neighboring table holding a beer glass, shouted.
“You know, that Golden…”
“Ah, right! It was…”
However, neither Thomas nor Nathan could continue speaking after that.
The eyes of the two men, who had been mouthing words, lost focus as if possessed by something, and began to be dyed black.
And over that, a red mark surfaced instantly before vanishing.
“…”
What was that? Did I see wrong?
However, that mark that had surfaced so vividly was clearly a pentagram with a two-horned goat face between its points.
…It looked just like that very mark described in books, the one that appears whenever a gate opens.
“Hey, Cynthia.”
Aidan spoke, standing back-to-back with me.
“Everyone has gone strange.”
Just as he said, it wasn’t just these two who had gone quiet. Among everyone in this space right now, every single person except Aidan and me had gone strange.
“Um, is everyone alright?”
Even when I addressed them, there was no answer. I tugged gently on the sleeve of Helena, who was standing in front of me.
“Helena?”
“…Ah, yes? What did you say?”
In an instant, her hazy pupils returned to normal.
“Right, Nathan! So who did you go with?”
“Yawn, you mean the Blaise Merchant Guild?”
Nathan answered, scratching his head violently just as he had done earlier.
“I went alone.”
“Ah, was that so?”
“Didn’t you say two-man teams were the rule for merchant guild escorts?”
At Aidan’s question, Nathan recognized who he was, stood up abruptly, bowed his head, and spoke.
“Y-Yes. That’s right, Young Lord. But at the time, the mercenary group was short on personnel, so I went alone. Even if I look like this, I’m an A-rank mercenary, after all.”
“…Is that so?”
After a brief answer, Aidan picked up the stack of notebooks.
“Then I will return these as soon as the investigation is finished.”
“You may take your time looking through them, if it’s to eliminate the gates.”
Derek seemed intoxicated with the pride of serving his country. The moment Aidan and I stepped out of the mercenary office, we looked at each other.
“That mark earlier, did you happen to see it?”
“Did you see that mark earlier?”
And we shouted at the exact same time. It was clear that both of us had seen it.
“Ha, I created false documents using the gate as an excuse, but to think a mark like that would actually appear.”
He violently ruffled his fiery red hair. The situation seemed to be taking a strange turn.
“Could Dad’s disappearance be related to the gates?”
“There’s a high possibility of that.”
Aidan nodded and climbed into the carriage.
“What are you doing? Get in.”
“Pardon?”
I asked back in surprise.
“You’re giving me a ride?”
“We’re going in the same direction, so there’s no need to go separately. It’s a waste of time.”
Aidan pointed toward the carriage with a jerk of his chin, looking annoyed.
There was nothing bad about it, so I quickly boarded the carriage. Once the carriage door closed and silence settled, my heart felt heavy belatedly.
Aidan had merely made up an excuse to get the mercenary log, but what if Dad really was related to the gates?
“…”
Looking at the peaceful scenery passing outside the window, my stomach churned, and I closed my eyes.
Even the top scientists in the Empire haven’t properly uncovered anything about the gates—can I, who just recently graduated from the academy, really uncover the cause of Dad’s disappearance?
“…Seeing that mark earlier got me thinking.”
It was Aidan who broke the heavy silence.
