By Zephyria Leonardo, who had just jumped out of the station, ran through the heavy rain and wind, almost falling. Thunder and lightning raged fiercely beyond the gloomy rain clouds, and heavy rain lashed his cheeks, but he did not hesitate. He passed the road he had walked with Signe before and turned into the alley on the main street in front of the station.
He didn’t have time to hold an umbrella or the mind to put on a raincoat, but it wasn’t difficult to find a magic shop on the street. It was obvious that people were gathered and murmuring at one point. Leonardo, who was breathing heavily, approached the crowd and stopped abruptly when he found the control line surrounding the shop.
Inside the control line, two people who appeared to be from the Council’s investigation team were blocking access. Around them, the wails of residents in sorrow flowed along with the sound of rain.
They created memorial spaces on both sides of the store and left a chrysanthemum each.
“I didn’t expect him to leave so suddenly….”
“Even the heavens are heartless.”
Someone placed a talisman they had purchased from the shop in front of the nameplate and wished ‘Grimbleton’ a peaceful rest. Leonardo, who saw this, could only heave his wet shoulders without blinking.
When he received the call from Terzio, he had no sense of reality. And even at this moment, when he saw it with his own eyes, he felt like his mind was floating.
He couldn’t believe that someone he had met just a few weeks ago had suffered an accident.
At the same time, he was very anxious that his death might be related to his contact with him.
“He seemed weak for the past few days.”
“He was fine until last week….”
“We should have known from the time he started giving away the things he cherished for free. They say that when a person does something they don’t usually do, it’s time for them to die.”
It was instinct that made him listen to the conversations he heard from time to time.
“He lived long enough. Stop making a fuss and let him go.”
“Don’t you know how warm-hearted he was? He took in children and helped them get settled. How surprised everyone must have been?”
“Who doesn’t know he was a good person? What I mean is―.”
Leonardo, who was standing blankly in the rain, glanced to the side. He immediately pushed through the umbrellas and mixed into the crowd. He pulled his hat down and put on the hood of his cloak, and asked a middle-aged woman who was watching the scene.
“Excuse me. Excuse me, sir, what was the cause of death?”
The woman, who had been chatting with the person next to her with her arms crossed, paused and turned to look at Leonardo. It was because she was wary of the suspicious-looking young man, not to mention eavesdropping on their conversation. She rolled her eyes up and down for a moment, but soon, sensing no ill intentions in his sorrowful eyes, she cleared her throat to begin.
“Are you acquainted with Grimbleton? We don’t know the cause of death either. The Council has taken the body, so we’ll hear something soon.”
“Was it murder? Any blood at the scene, or witnesses?”
“Nothing like that. It was almost dinner time, and when he didn’t come, Dott went to look for him herself. That’s when she found him collapsed alone last night.”
Dott runs a restaurant on Main Street, a little ahead of the shopping district, and she often took care of Grimbleton’s meals since he lived alone, the woman added.
“That old man was old, so he had an underlying illness even if he looked fine. He sometimes talked nonsense… and when he got hooked on something, he wouldn’t come out of the back room connected to the store for days. So the townspeople were worried and took turns checking on him, and recently he’d been tidying up the things in the store one by one.”
“He was tidying up his things?”
“Yeah, what else could it be? He knew his time was coming.”
The woman said that the owner of the magic shop had lived in the town for so long that he was always prepared. Seeing him pay off his overdue debts or go out of town to meet old friends recently, she said she sensed that death was approaching.
“That stingy old man donated half his fortune? That says it all.”
However, the Council seems to be considering the possibility of a robbery or planned murder, as the deceased had a large fortune and no will was found, she added. Leonardo, who had suspected the same, simply nodded without saying anything.
“Now, the investigation team will be arriving soon, so please clear the way. If you witnessed the deceased before or after the incident, or had any contact with him, please do not disclose it to anyone outside and tell the investigators.”
Under the command of the member, the people who had been stationed in front of the store took a step back. The woman who had been telling Leonardo the story also glanced around, then said she had to go and moved to the other side.
Leonardo followed her retreating figure with his eyes, then turned his head again. He stood blankly among the scattering people, then went to the memorial space and bowed his head deeply.
There was a reason why he had rushed here so frantically as soon as he heard the news of his death. He realized it belatedly after leaving Riverside, but he had been followed when he met the owner of the magic shop.
He didn’t know when the guy started following him, but the story about the Leash and the curse that he had shared with Grimbleton. And the process of getting hints here and arriving at the castle in the mist involved a very sensitive secret.
So, what if the follower tried to control that secret, and considered Grimbleton, who knew too much, as a target for elimination?
It meant that the mysterious old man who had watched over the quiet street for a long time might have died because of him. Because he went to see him and received too much help.
Leonardo frowned for a moment as his thoughts reached that point. His head throbbed with the onrushing headache. Beyond the throbbing, he felt nauseous. The cause of death had not been revealed, but he was overwhelmed with guilt because it seemed that his carelessness had dragged in an unrelated person.
He tried hard to calm his stomach, clasped his hands together, and closed his eyes. He entrusted his whole body to the pouring rain, thanking him for allowing him to meet someone like a father and feel warmth, even for a short time. He offered a silent prayer in front of the nameplate covered with chrysanthemums.
He regretted not having had time to get flowers. He thought it was fortunate that it was raining on a day to commemorate the dead, given Laina Rogia’s sentiments.
Meanwhile, he was also worried about how Signe, who was still a trainee, would react when she heard this news.
‘But if it’s really the work of the follower who was chasing me, I shouldn’t stay here long either. I have to leave quickly….’
Reason, which was calmly looking at the situation, kept persuading him that he had to get away. But his feet wouldn’t move easily. Leonardo stayed in place for a while until two members of the Council looked at him strangely.
About five minutes later, when all the people standing around him had changed, a low voice rang out from behind his left shoulder.
“Hey.”
Leonardo, reacting half a beat late, flinched and quickly turned his head. At the same time, he knocked away the hand that was about to be placed on his shoulder.
The person he turned to look at, full of wariness, was a rather familiar face. His eyes were shadowed because he was wearing a hood, but he could tell at once by the scar on his lips. Terzio, who had shaken off his hand, gestured with his chin and turned his head.
“Follow me.”
He slipped out of the crowd first, leading Leonardo to a deserted place.
The sky was brighter than when he first arrived in Riverside, but the rain was even heavier. As a result, he couldn’t see well, and the water rose to his ankles as the nearby waterways overflowed. The stores were closed due to the unexpected flood, and several men were running towards the magic shop.
Judging by the tent materials in their arms, they seemed to be trying to reinforce the memorial site so that it would not be flooded.
While alive, the neighbors asked after him, and after his death, they all mourned together and tried to protect the deceased’s space until the end, so it seemed that he had lived a good life, no matter what the cause of his death.
Leonardo looked back several times, worried about leaving the place as if he were running away. But Terzio, who was walking ahead, never turned his head once. He just moved busily, without saying a word the whole way.
Leonardo knew the reason for this, so he deliberately kept a reasonable distance and followed him. The place he followed him to was behind Main Street, a narrow alley that appeared when he opened a small side door.
The sky was dark due to the bad weather, and there were no streetlights around, so the deserted alley had an eerie atmosphere. As the drizzling rain formed valleys and flowed into the sewer, the strong current perfectly concealed the sound of the two men’s footsteps.
When he felt that all the nearby presences had disappeared, Leonardo stuck close behind the man in front and asked.
“Where are we going?”
Terzio glanced back but didn’t answer. Since the other man didn’t open his mouth, Leonardo didn’t bother to ask again.
He simply trudged silently through the alleys with roofs intertwined. It occurred to him that it was easy to get lost because the road was as complicated as Libertas.
Meanwhile, he wondered how this guy knew this place and was leading the way, or if he had another partner. Just as the silent companionship was starting to get frustrating, the guide suddenly stopped in front of a door.
He carefully looked around and finally answered the question.
“The first witness is looking for you.”
“What?”
“I don’t think she knows who you are. But she said she has something to tell you.”
“She has something to tell me?”
His golden eyebrows twitched. Terzio grabbed Leonardo’s arm instead of answering and went up the three wooden steps. He sent him a curious look, but he didn’t care as he stood on the stoop and knocked on the door twice.
Leonardo, startled, grabbed his wrist and asked as if he were accusing him.
“What are you doing?”
“Keep your voice down.”
Before he could stop him in his confusion, the tightly closed door burst open about three seconds later. The reaction speed was very fast, as if she had been waiting.
Leonardo instinctively pressed down on his hat to cover his face as much as possible.
“I brought him.”
“Is this the person?”
A young woman with a face he had never seen before came out from inside. Terzio and she talked quite naturally.
“Show me the card. It reacts to the owner.”
Leonardo scanned her appearance even as he was dumbfounded. There were mottled stains on her drooping apron, and the seasoning and food smells that permeated it were fragrantly out of place. He naturally checked the nameplate and recalled the conversation he had with the middle-aged woman in front of the magic shop earlier.
[ The Table of Dott, Main Street ]
Terzio gestured as if there was no time to delay. The other person immediately took out a black piece of paper from the inside pocket of her apron.
The woman, presumed to be ‘Dott,’ held out a piece of paper half the size of her palm and asked.
“Do you know this?”
Leonardo’s eyelids twitched slightly. There was no way he wouldn’t know.
It was the Renuntio card he had given to the store owner, telling him to burn it if he found out any information.
As he reflexively reached out and took the card, a clear Magic Circle appeared and disappeared on the black surface.
Leonardo looked back and forth between the two of them as if asking what was going on.
The woman, having confirmed the owner of the card she was looking for, stepped aside from the entrance she had been blocking and gestured inside.
“Come in.”