By Zephyria “Anyway, if I see either of those guys―.”
“H, hey. Be quiet.”
As the other members continued to speak without noticing, the person who had made eye contact with Hugo nudged the side of his companion with his elbow.
“Why do you keep hitting me?”
As the group was still talking, the innkeeper quickly brought the food and placed it on Hugo and Flynn’s table, saying,
“Here’s the food you ordered.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Flynn smiled and replied to the innkeeper who had brought the food. Thanks to that, the men’s gazes automatically landed on the table where the two were.
Hugo, as seen in their eyes, was a tall man with a body that looked strong at a glance, and as someone had said, he gave off a rather cold impression. He was also someone who exuded a considerable sense of authority and a noble atmosphere that didn’t quite fit in with this place.
“Thank you.”
As the innkeeper set the food on the table and Hugo expressed his gratitude, silence fell among the men who had been talking. That was because the outsider they had been talking about seemed to be that person at a glance.
Hugo, unconcerned by the silence, easily opened the lid of the strong liquor and poured the contents into a glass. Then, after tasting a sip, he quickly emptied the glass.
However, as if the taste of the liquor didn’t suit his palate, his brow furrowed slightly as he stared at the glass. As he turned his gaze to the men in that state, they were startled by the sudden sharp look in his eyes and turned away, pretending not to see.
Hugo, who had put down his glass, casually said to those men.
“Would you mind telling me about what you were just talking about?”
* * *
“So, for the past few months, traces of fire like that have been discovered not only in our village but also in the Arctic region. Wildfires do occur naturally from time to time due to the dry climate, but not this often.”
A lean man explained in detail to Hugo and Flynn about the story they had been telling until just now. Since the frequency of wildfires had increased recently, the two, who were chasing Leonardo Blaine, naturally couldn’t help but think of him whenever anything related to fire came up.
“Then what’s the story about the demon beast?”
“That is…”
When Flynn asked about the demon beast, the man who had been excitedly talking until just now trailed off and looked around. Sensing something strange, Flynn waited for him to answer. Before long, a burly man with a thick beard next to him opened his mouth instead.
“Hey, what does it matter? Everyone in this area knows the story anyway.”
As the others nodded in agreement, he continued the story.
“This place isn’t originally a demon beast outbreak zone. Although it’s an Arctic region with few people, there’s a border with another country to the north, and the land is barren, so there’s no place for demon beasts to find food. But there was a story that something strange was discovered on the hillside fifteen days ago.”
“Something strange?”
“Yes, the story was that a box containing a demon beast corpse was found burned.”
Hugo, who had been listening intently as it was not a common occurrence, raised one eyebrow and asked.
“What was the number of corpses? What kind?”
“The number was said to be about ten… I don’t know the kind. When people found it, it was already burned black, so they couldn’t tell if it was an animal corpse or a demon beast corpse.”
“Hey, then it’s not certain if it’s a demon beast or not, right?”
The lean man denied it with a frightened nuance, as if he didn’t want to believe that it was a demon beast. At that time, a young man who had been listening quietly from the side hurriedly interjected.
“No, it must be a demon beast.”
Hugo and Flynn’s gazes naturally turned to him at the confident tone. He was a man with brown hair and a simple impression with freckles on his face.
“Huh? How do you know that?”
“When those corpses were first discovered, I was there too. Everyone hesitated because they couldn’t identify them, but I saw a man touch the corpse and say it was a demon beast not found in this area.”
Hugo’s eyes narrowed at his words. Anyone who knew the types of demon beasts found in the area wouldn’t mistake an animal carcass for a demon beast carcass.
Then, there was more credibility to the fact that the corpse the people found at the time was really a demon beast. That it was in a wooden box, that a dozen of them were found at once, that they were found burned, and even the identity of the man who suddenly appeared were all strange.
“Who is he? I want to meet him.”
“Well… I didn’t get the impression that he lived around here. He seemed like an outsider… He wore a cloak, so I couldn’t see him properly. I was so out of it at the time that I don’t know who he was…”
“Then where are the demon beast corpses? Who took care of them?”
“The demon beast corpses were collected by the guards, so they probably took them to the lord’s castle. All the mountains in this area are frost territory land. The largest city is also in the center of frost territory, so the frost territory guards are generally in charge of maintaining security.”
frost territory was one of the small territories in the northern polar region. There was a city, but it was ridiculously small, closer to a village, compared to the large cities in central and southern Laina Rogia.
Usually, there were few people coming and going around such small cities, and the number of residents was small, so the nearby lord managed even the small villages around it.
In general, if a demon beast corpse was found in an area where demon beasts did not usually appear, it was a rule to report it to the local Council branch, regardless of the number. And all the reports were sent to the Council central branch in the imperial capital, the center of Laina Rogia.
In other words, there should have been no situation in which Hugo, the commander of the legion there, did not receive the report. But Hugo was hearing this for the first time.
In other words, the lord of frost territory had recovered the demon beast corpse found two weeks ago and had not reported it to the Council.
He had only come to catch Leonardo Blaine, but somehow he felt like he was getting caught up in increasingly suspicious things. But he had a strange feeling that what had happened in this area recently was not unrelated to Leonardo.
“By the way, who are you guys, stirring up our village these days? Are you looking for someone?”
The man with the bushy beard looked around a bit, then asked boldly. The other men also looked at Hugo and Flynn, wondering what was going on. Flynn was a little embarrassed, but he opened his mouth nonchalantly to recite the script he had prepared in advance.
“Ah, we work as private investigators in the central region.”
“Private investigators?”
“Yes, we take on tasks that government agencies or guilds do, but there are no middleman fees, so customers can use us more cheaply. It’s a pretty popular business.”
As he spoke fluently, the men nodded as if they agreed to some extent, even though it was an unfamiliar story. Moreover, the words of the young man who followed fortunately added credibility to Flynn’s story.
“I’ve heard of it too. There are quite a few private investigators like that in the central and southern regions.”
“Oh, you know a lot because you work for a merchant guild?”
“Haha, I just picked it up here and there.”
“This guy knows a lot of things.”
Another man with short hair and a hat and tanned skin added as if to praise the young man next to him.
Hugo, who was watching their conversation, quietly crossed his arms at the word merchant guild. It was because he did not remember seeing a large merchant guild carriage while traveling around this area for the past few days.
“I haven’t seen any merchant guild carriages coming and going in this village recently, so does that mean a merchant guild has come to the village?”
At Hugo’s question, the man with the hat who had just spoken continued.
“No. Not in this village right now, but it’s near the frost territory lord’s castle. But we still need supplies here, so some merchant guild employees, including me and this friend, occasionally transport supplies.”
“So you two are merchant guild members.”
“Yes, but we both haven’t been here long, so we’re still at the bottom.”
“You have to say it right. I’m your senior who came two days earlier?”
Of the four, the man with the tanned skin and hat and the man with the brown hair and freckles seemed to be merchant guild members. The man with the hat boasted that he was the senior because he had come first, but both of them looked young and did not seem to have been in the merchant guild for long. So Hugo asked.
“Which merchant guild is it?”
“Delberg Merchant Guild.”
“Delberg?”
When the two merchant guild members said the name of the merchant guild with pride, Flynn, who heard it, asked back with a surprised look.
That was because Delberg was one of the large merchant guilds in central Laina Rogia, and its main activities were almost in the central or southern regions. They procured various supplies and sometimes went to other regions, but it was quite unexpected to hear their name in the north.
“I know that Delberg only travels to major cities in the central and southern regions, so it’s a bit unexpected to see Delberg in the northern polar region.”
“Ah, is that so? I followed them because they were recruiting people in Kern in the central-northern region, but I’m still at the bottom. I don’t know what the merchant guild leader’s purpose is. Well, it’s not bad to provide daily necessities to the people here.”
“That’s right, we’re very comfortable thanks to them. We have to cross the mountains to get to the lord’s castle.”
The merchant guild member with the hat answered Flynn’s words, and the skinny man chimed in.
Hugo and Flynn exchanged glances for a moment. It seemed that a separate investigation was needed into the purpose of the Delberg Merchant Guild’s presence here.
“By the way, do you have a picture of the person you’re looking for? We might have seen him.”
“Ah, would you like to see it?”
Flynn immediately took out Leonardo’s picture from his inner pocket and placed it in the center of the table so they could see it well. The men leaned forward, all staring intently at the face in the picture.
After a while, the man who had been asking suspiciously opened his mouth first, as if he was puzzled.
“…He’s very handsome?”
“I know, right? I thought he would look like some kind of heinous criminal.”
“He’s quite a beauty, isn’t he?”
Flynn looked at them with a business smile, as if he was used to people being surprised when he showed them the picture. That was because he himself couldn’t take his eyes off Leonardo Blaine’s picture when he first saw it.
Although it was a picture from a few years ago, Leonardo in the picture was a beautiful young man in his early twenties with a youthful appearance, blonde hair, and golden eyes. His expression was very sharp and fierce, and his appearance shone even though the picture was not very clear.
When the men only paid attention to the appearance of the person in the picture, Hugo unfolded his arms and turned his head elsewhere. Judging from their reactions, he didn’t think they had actually seen Leonardo.
With that thought, Hugo’s gaze turned to the small table in the corner across the room that he had seen when he first came down here.
There, a person wearing a hooded black cloak was still sitting alone, glancing over here more than necessary, as if they were spying.
As if sensing such suspicious circumstances, the cloaked person immediately got up and headed towards the door as soon as Hugo’s gaze reached them. Hugo also got up from his seat to avoid missing him due to his sudden action.
The person seemed to see that Hugo was trying to follow him, so he started running urgently, then burst open the door and ran outside.
The people inside all looked towards the roughly pushed door, and Hugo followed the mysterious being outside, leaving those gazes behind.