Chapter 60
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 60
As if emptying himself inside her hadn't been enough, a scene so vulgar and erotic it made his eyes sting flashed through his mind. He felt the blood rush to his groin once more.
Oscar sneered at himself, a bitter twist to his lips.
Unlike him, who had rutted all night like a dog in heat, she had simply endured it, holding out from beginning to end.
Yes.
From beginning to end.
“Let’s just say I’m a pathetic bastard.”
The mockery filling Oscar’s blue eyes sharpened into a cold edge.
“But why did you endure it?”
Why in the world?
Oscar picked up the translation of her identification papers from the stack of documents Simon had brought. His icy blue gaze fell upon her name.
Han Seo-ah.
He spent a long moment mulling over the characters of her name, which meant ‘to forgive and love,’ before setting the translation aside and picking up Theresia Wittgenstein’s report.
As soon as he turned the old, faded cover, he saw a name written in neat, block letters.
Theresia Wittgenstein.
She was one of the few surviving members of the Wolves his father had raised.
Befitting someone regarded as the most capable intelligence agent under the previous Marquis, the sheer volume of reports she had submitted over her lifetime was massive. From that mountain of documents, Oscar had filtered out only the reports from around the time she had begun tracking Peter. Even that alone was thick enough to fill a book. And for good reason—she had been chasing Peter's trail for over twenty years without ever returning.
Oscar remembered the day she left. It was the very day the death notices arrived for the Wolves who were supposed to be returning with Peter in custody.
He had been sitting in the chair his father used to occupy. Though it had been three years since he’d first sat in it, his feet still didn’t touch the ground. Even when he straightened his back as much as possible, the long conference table loomed too high. Whenever his posture began to slump, Barbara, standing beside him, would invariably nudge his lower back.
“I believe they are all dead,” Karl had said.
Oscar looked at Karl and asked, “Peter too?”
Karl brought over a large nautical chart and spread it out before Oscar. Then, pointing to a spot with a respectful gesture, he said, “Debris from the ship and the remains of James Wittgenstein were found here, in Cheonghae.”
On the map, the word ‘Cheonghae’ was clearly written over the waters enclosed by the Eastern Asu Continent, where the Rioher Empire lay, and a peninsula jutting out from the edge of the mainland.
“We suspect they were swept away by the ocean currents. Therefore, the area where the ship is presumed to have sunk is here, the Ibis Strait.”
His finger traced westward from Cheonghae until it stopped at a narrow stretch of water.
“The currents in the Ibis Strait are so treacherous that shipwrecks often occur even on clear days.”
The Ibis Strait was the body of water between the Rioher Empire, the hegemon of the East, and the Visnia Federation. It was notorious for its narrow width, rough waters, and frequent naval battles. Yet, many ships still traversed it. Avoiding the Ibis Strait meant taking a massive detour, and that alternate route was far more dangerous due to the frequent appearance of marine demonic beasts, except in winter when the beasts grew quiet.
“Both the Rioher and Visnia navies have officially announced that there are traces of an unidentified vessel sinking in the strait…”
“Where is the proof?”
“The ship sank.”
“That’s circumstantial. I want concrete proof.”
In truth, even as he said those words, he had thought that Peter might indeed be dead. But at nine years old, he simply could not accept that the only target for his resentment—a bastard whose face he had never even seen—had vanished like smoke. So, he had thrown what amounted to a tantrum.
“Search again.”
“……”
“Find him. Bring back his corpse or whatever is left of it.”
Karl could not easily answer. Neither could most of the Wolves gathered in the room. It was then that Theresia stood up.
Striding forward, Theresia knelt before Oscar.
“I will find him. Leave it to me, Your Excellency.”
And that winter, Theresia left Luxen alone. At the time, House Reinhardt was practically ruined, so there was no one to even send with her as support.
After leaving Luxen, Theresia sent back reports periodically. The very first report came from the Visnia Federation. The next one was sent from the southern tip of the Rioher Empire.
She went around personally inspecting every single corpse recovered from the sea. As a result, some of the Wolves' personal effects and remains were returned. But there was no sign of Peter.
By her sixth report, Theresia had moved to the vicinity of Cheonghae. She traveled to every port in Rioher surrounding Cheonghae, tracking any trace of Peter and the key.
Oscar flipped carelessly through the useless reports. Failure, failure, failure…
Then, after her twelfth report, contact was cut off. For several years, not a single one of the regular reports arrived. He had sent people to look for her, but the only response he received was that they could not find Theresia.
It was several years later when another report from her finally arrived.
Even then, that report was extremely brief. And after that, no reports came for another few years, until finally, Report No. 2021 was submitted.
That was about three years ago.
In that report, after twenty years of tracking, she wrote for the first time her opinion that Peter and the key seemed to have been buried at sea.
Even Barbara, who had never uttered a single word about the matter, said after that report was submitted that they should now give up on Peter and the key and find another way to open the vault.
Oscar opened the twelfth report—the one from just before contact was first lost.
The report, classified as No. 1988, was not very long. After all, it was nothing more than a drawn-out explanation of how she had ultimately failed to find him. Oscar flipped through the pages quickly. His gaze flew to the final page, where it paused on a certain spot.
…After investigating the Rioher Empire a bit further, I plan to move to Danguk around next month. Since the western side of Danguk borders Cheonghae, I intend to investigate there as well.
A brief, two-line sentence written in the supplementary notes.
His younger self, upon receiving a report that was ultimately about failure, would have closed it without even reading the supplementary notes. Even if he had read it, he would have done so half-heartedly.
Oscar immediately opened the thirteenth report.
The sender's location was not Danguk, but Port Rush in the Rioher Empire. However, Danguk did appear in the report. Right at the beginning, she stated that she had been traveling around Danguk and was now writing the report after returning to Rioher.
In other words, during the years when contact had been lost, Theresia had stayed in Danguk.
Report No. 2021 was also marked as sent from Rioher, but it followed the same pattern of a multi-year gap from the previous report.
Danguk.
The name of that small Eastern nation had been grating on his nerves for several reasons lately.
Oscar summoned Karl immediately.
“You called, Your Excellency?”
Karl, who along with Barbara had stood by his side for years, was still active as the head of the Search Team despite his graying hair.
“Karl.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“What do you think the chances are of Theresia Wittgenstein betraying us?”
“…Pardon?”
“The possibility of her mixing lies into her reports?”
Karl fell silent for a moment, then straightened his posture before speaking.
“That is impossible.”
At that, Oscar sneered at him with genuine amusement.
“My, my. I never expected to hear such absolute certainty from someone who saw with his own two eyes exactly who stabbed my father in the back.”
“…My apologies. But Your Excellency, she has no reason to do so.”
“Your reasoning?”
“First of all, she holds a personal grudge against Peter. She lost family due to Peter's betrayal, and her husband was killed during the process of transporting him. Crucially, there is nothing for her to gain by betraying you, Your Excellency.”
“Nothing to gain?”
“Even if she did lie, it would mean she knew the whereabouts of Peter or the key but chose to feign ignorance. What could she possibly gain from that? I cannot even begin to fathom what benefit there would be in hiding Peter. And would she keep the key for herself? In the end, that wasn’t the case, was it?”
Indeed. Because the key had passed through that woman’s hands and was now in his possession.
Instead of answering, Oscar stared at Theresia’s report for a long time.
It was absurd to doubt someone he had entrusted with a twenty-year search at this late stage, but the suspicion sparked by the key—which had appeared out of nowhere—kept grating on his nerves.
“You never know. While wandering a foreign land for so long, perhaps some benefit arose from hiding the truth.”
“…Your Excellency.”
Oscar pulled a cigarette from his drawer, lit it, and gave a flat command.
“Assemble a Search Team.”
He then tossed the thirteenth report to Karl.
“Based on this report, trace Theresia Wittgenstein's movements in Danguk. Bring me everything you find within three months.”
Karl was silent for a moment, but in the end, he chose not to add anything further.
“Understood.”
“You have three months.”
“I will dispatch them tonight.”
“Leave.”
Karl offered a polite bow and left the room.
Smoke swirled from the tip of the cigarette, the only movement in the quiet room. Oscar fell deep into thought, his eyes half-closed. When the cigarette, burning on its own, had turned half to white ash, he stubbed it out in the ashtray. Then, he opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out a sealed envelope.
Inside were several drawings. Oscar lined them up side by side across the desk.
They were composite sketches.
The figure in the sketches aged slightly with each drawing, moving from left to right.