By Zephyria The work was quickly finished with the two of them working together.
‘Using the underground like a freezer.’
Right now, the only thing on Flynn’s mind was that he had to tell the Captain about this fact right away.
‘There must be a reason why the Delberg Merchant Group came all the way to this northern region. I guessed that it was a demon beast. If they use the underground like a freezer, are they storing the corpses of demon beasts underground?’
His gaze shifted to the man next to him.
‘But this person is a member of the Delberg Merchant Group, so why did he bring up the story of the demon beast, which could be harmful to the group? Besides, if there was something he had to hide from me, I don’t think he would have deliberately brought me here to see these things.’
As all sorts of thoughts crossed his mind, Flynn went back up with the man. The man closed the wooden door and piled the fallen leaves back on top of it so that the entrance wouldn’t be visible, but some traces of digging in the ground remained.
While Flynn was carefully looking at it, the man thanked him.
“Thank you for your help. Thanks to you, the work was finished very quickly. You said you had something to ask? You helped me with work, so I’ll buy you a drink.”
“Ah, no, thank you very much, but I think I should go back as soon as possible, so I’ll just take your kind offer.”
“Ah… I see. I’m sorry, it seems like I took up your time when you’re busy.”
“No, it’s not like that at all!”
Flynn said, waving his hand. The man rubbed the back of his neck and looked a little apologetic. The more Flynn looked at the man’s words and actions, which didn’t seem like he would lie at all, the more he couldn’t figure out what purpose this person was acting with.
In fact, Flynn was secretly suspecting him. He thought that this man, who had talked to them and even saw Leonardo Blaine’s picture, had recognized Blaine’s face but pretended not to know and secretly told the head of the merchant group.
The Count had said that the head of the Delberg Merchant Group had tipped him off about the foreigners looking for Blaine, so in the circumstances, he had no choice but to suspect him, who was a member of the Delberg Merchant Group who had seen the picture.
Besides, if the reason for pretending not to know was to hide the collusion between the Count, the merchant group, and Blaine…?
The Captain’s heat detector sensed the energy of fire in the mansion, and if that was because the Count’s family was hiding Leonardo Blaine and he was inside, it was a somewhat consistent hypothesis.
That’s right. It should have been like that…
Seeing this man, who didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives, the hypotheses he had made began to waver. So, Flynn decided to talk to him and sort out the situation.
“You said you shouldn’t bring outsiders here, right? First of all, if we stay here, other members of the merchant group might come, so it would be better to move to another place.”
“Ah, that’s right. Come this way. Let’s go to a place where the merchant group members don’t go often.”
The merchant group member once again took the lead and guided him.
As Flynn followed him, he secretly took out a location tracking sensor from his inner pocket and threw it invisibly among the nearby fallen leaves. He was planning to come secretly later when the sun went down and the merchant group members were almost gone to check the contents inside.
Soon after, they came to a place that was open on all sides but relatively deserted, and Flynn asked the man a few questions.
“By the way, I haven’t heard your name yet. What should I call you?”
“Ah, my name is…”
The man paused for a moment, then smiled and said.
“Terzio. Please call me Theo comfortably.”
“Ah, is that okay? Theo. You remember what you said about the demon beast corpse at the tavern yesterday, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“At that time, a man appeared and said that it was a demon beast corpse, and you said you didn’t know who that person was, right?”
“Yes.”
“And the frost territory lord took those burned corpses, right?”
“That’s right.”
“I’m on my way back from visiting the frost territory lord’s castle to confirm that fact.”
At that moment, Theo’s face turned as white as a sheet of paper, and his eyes widened in surprise. Flynn didn’t miss the moment when his expression changed.
Theo said urgently.
“So, did you tell them that I said that? What if the lord calls me in…”
“Huh? Ah, no. I didn’t say that you told me, so don’t worry.”
“Ah, that’s a relief.”
Theo visibly relaxed at Flynn’s words. Flynn asked him cautiously.
“Is there a reason why the lord shouldn’t know that you said that?”
“When they were cleaning up the burned remains, the guards came and told me not to tell anyone else.”
“Told you not to tell anyone…? If it was just the corpse of an animal that was burned, would there have been a need to tell you not to tell anyone like that?”
Flynn looked at the man in front of him with a suspicious gaze. Just as he felt a sense of déjà vu, Theo, who had been looking around for a moment, nodded his head cautiously and said with a determined expression.
“I have the same thought as the investigator.”
Flynn couldn’t understand him, who readily admitted his suspicions and said that he had the same thought. So, he decided to ask more directly.
“The frost territory lord said that it was a butchered animal meat that the Delberg Merchant Group was transporting that accidentally caught fire and burned. But if it was actually the corpse of a demon beast, then the lord who is trying to clean it up and conceal it is committing a crime.”
After hesitating for a moment, Flynn revealed his suspicions as they were.
“…And the most likely distributor of that demon beast corpse is the Delberg Merchant Group that Theo you work for. It’s not something that benefits the merchant group, so why are you telling me that?”
Then, Theo suddenly smiled at Flynn and grabbed his hand, saying.
“Wrong things must be corrected. And I believe that the investigator will do that.”
Flynn was very embarrassed when he suddenly brought his face closer and quickly pulled his hand away.
“Ah… well, yes. Wrong things must be corrected.”
Flynn was a little worried that he might have offended him because he pulled his hand away as if he was too surprised. But he didn’t seem to care much and was still smiling and looking at Flynn.
In that moment, Flynn thought that this merchant group member with brown hair and brown eyes might be helping him solve the problem.
Perhaps he was working as a low-level member of the merchant group, but regardless of that, he had a clean heart as an ordinary citizen and deliberately brought him here to tell him the merchant group’s ugly secret.
Flynn, who thought so, became a little confused about what kind of eyes he should look at the man with. Once his suspicion wavered, the freckles all over his face and the brown eyes looking at him seemed nothing but innocent. He also felt a little ashamed of his suspicions.
When Theo suddenly grabbed his hand, was it because his hand was very warm compared to being in a cold place together? Flynn still felt like the hand he had touched was burning.
“Ahem, so Theo, do you think that the Delberg Merchant Group you work for is distributing demon beasts?”
“Hmm… well, I’m a low-level member, so I don’t know.”
Flynn, who was about to be moved, thinking that justice was still alive inside, as he seemed to be giving him a hint, tried to hide his disappointment at Theo’s actions, which were different from before when he said he was a low-level member and was reluctant to speak, and asked.
“…But until just now, you said that wrong things must be corrected…?”
“That’s right. It’s certain that the burned remains I found at that time were in a box distributed by Delberg. And someone said that it was the corpse of a demon beast. There were also traces of being burned or dug up around it.”
Theo added a few new facts in addition to what he had said at the tavern last night. Flynn hurriedly wrote down his words in his notebook.
If the burned remains were in a box distributed by Delberg, it certainly meant that the Delberg Merchant Group was involved in this. Besides, since he said there were traces of being dug up, he remembered that there were some traces left on the storage he had gone to earlier, even though the soil and fallen leaves were covered again.
Flynn thought that Theo was reluctant to come forward as a direct witness because he was affiliated with the merchant group, but he wanted to give him hints indirectly, so Flynn nodded and continued the question, understanding his somewhat lukewarm actions so far.
“Then, since we’re on the subject, do you really not know who the person who said it was the corpse of a demon beast is?”
“…Yes, I don’t know.”
Flynn pulled himself together and turned over a page in his notebook to write down his words, but he shook his head and scratched his head with the pen cap as the question returned to square one due to his answer that he didn’t know.
If he could find the person who said that the burned corpse was a demon beast, almost all the puzzle pieces would be put together, but he was disappointed because he couldn’t find any clues about who that person was other than Theo’s words.
That person’s existence was the same as giving him and the Captain the conviction that there was a demon beast corpse in this frost territory.
Still, Flynn, who was satisfied that the direction of the investigation was almost set, drew a line in his notebook and went down to the bottom choice.
“Theo, do you remember the picture I showed you before?”
“Ah, the person with blonde hair and gold eyes? I remember.”
“Have you really never seen that person?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
He asked and persisted as if he was interrogating, but the man named Theo only answered firmly.
Flynn didn’t have the ability to find out whether this man was lying or not. Because of that, Flynn thought that he wished he had the ability to threaten people with just his eyes like the Captain.
If the circumstances were close to the Delberg Merchant Group being the distributor of demon beasts, then the story about ‘that’ person in the Count’s family should also come out. Flynn sighed and asked again.
“Theo, you really don’t know Leonardo Blaine?”
“Leonardo Blaine? I know that person.”
Flynn was taken aback by his sudden change of words, but then he remembered that the name ‘Leonardo Blaine’ itself was so famous that almost everyone knew it, and he corrected himself and asked again.
“…Yes? Ah, right. Usually, everyone knows the name. I’m asking if you’ve actually seen him, not just know the name. I’m not supposed to say this for investigative reasons, but the person in this photo I’m looking for is Leonardo Blaine, right? Have you seen him?”
Flynn took out the photo from his inner pocket again and showed it. Then Theo made a puzzled expression and said.
“Huh…? That’s not right….”
“Not right?”
“Yes. The Leonardo Blaine I saw has a completely different face?”
“Yes? Wait a minute. Theo, have you seen Leonardo Blaine?”
Flynn said in surprise, and Theo replied as if it were obvious.
“If you’ve been to the frost territory Lord’s castle, shouldn’t you have met him? He’s mostly there.”
“What??”