The Culprit Is Probably One of Us
Carlton's question hung in the air: just who was he, really?
For a fleeting moment, Juhan's expression tightened.
I knew it. There's something off about this guy.
Carlton, watching him closely, did not miss that instant of hesitation. His suspicion of Juhan was only natural, under the circumstances.
He shows up with something I've never seen in my life and asks me to analyze it.
Carlton looked down again at the metal plate in his hand. An unidentified plate, meticulously engraved with ancient sacred script. The man clearly wanted to know what it was — and yet he had refused, to the very end, to say where he had gotten it. On top of that, he kept changing the subject, brushing Carlton's questions aside as if they barely mattered.
He knows more than he's saying. But he's never going to tell me.
Which left only one option. Carlton would have to analyze the plate himself and uncover its true nature.
And while I'm at it, I should be able to figure out roughly what this guy is, too.
He had never believed Juhan was ordinary. Carlton had spent years perfecting the security on his workshop. Most people wouldn't even dare attempt to crack that lock — and this man had simply "opened it," strolling in as if he were out for a walk.
"I heard you take care of everything as long as you get paid," Juhan said.
"Sure I do. But I don't just dive in blind with zero information."
That was Carlton's conclusion. If this object turned out to be an artifact tied to some crime, and Carlton found solid proof of it — or if the day came when this man no longer needed his help —
He might try to kill me.
Thinking that way was simply reasonable.
Not that it's not too late to back out now.
If he had wanted out, he should have refused the suspicious commission before he ever started examining the plate and opening his mouth about it.
It's not like this is the first or second time I've dealt with something like this.
Carlton smirked to himself. Honestly, he wasn't completely free of worry. This guy was more than suspicious enough. But more than that, the metal plate in his hand had already seized Carlton's interest.
It's not like I'll ever get another look at something like this.
With his thoughts settled, Carlton decided there was nothing to gain by dragging this out. He waved a hand as if it were no big deal.
"Fine. Don't talk if you don't want to."
"…"
"I never did my work fretting over that kind of thing anyway. You just need to pay the extra fee. Generously."
"…Alright."
"Even if I turned you down, you were going to find someone else, weren't you?"
"Probably."
Carlton set the metal plate back on the table with a soft clink.
"Alright then. I'll take the job."
He nodded, accepting the commission. The man who had been watching him quietly spoke up at once.
"So, can you give me a rough idea how long it'll take?"
"Hard to say."
"Even a ballpark is fine. I was planning to move on somewhere else anyway."
"Hmm… at the very least, more than a month?"
The answer was firm, as if further prodding would be pointless.
"This is different from any piece of magic engineering I've ever seen. Even if I start analyzing it right now, I can't promise whether it'll take a week or several months."
"…Fine. Whatever works."
"It could also wrap up surprisingly fast. Try not to look too disappointed."
Carlton pointed at the metal plate again.
"So — can you get more of these?"
"…Hard to say. I can't promise anything. But I'll try."
"I'd really like at least one more if you can manage it. If you want results any faster, that is."
Watching him, the man asked another question.
"And the price?"
"I'll tell you later. You sounded pretty confident about covering it — you're not going to change your mind now, are you?"
"Yeah. If that's how it is."
He nodded as if that settled it. Clearly serious about leaving at once, he rose from his seat and headed straight for the door.
"…"
Carlton watched him go, then spoke up with a theatrical little air of having nearly forgotten something.
"Ah, right."
"What?"
"There's one thing we never settled."
"Something we never settled?"
What followed was this:
"What am I supposed to call you from now on? I can't just keep saying 'hey, you' forever."
How should he address him going forward? The man who heard that —
grinned faintly, as if the question itself were ridiculous.
"Call me that."
"…What?"
That was all he said. Just call him that.
"I don't really care."
"…"
Carlton's face went blank before he could stop it. For a moment he genuinely could not think of a reply.
Without waiting for one, the man shoved the door open and walked out.
Carlton stared after him, then let out a hollow little laugh and muttered under his breath.
"…This time, if I'm not careful, I might actually end up dead."
Footsteps carried Juhan out of Carlton's workshop as he turned the earlier exchange over in his mind.
…Did I react too sharply?
Carlton's question about his identity had left him, for a second, at a complete loss for words.
What was I even supposed to say?
No answer he could give would have satisfied the man. Put himself in Carlton's shoes and it made perfect sense. Someone breaks through the security you built, then casually hands you an unidentified object and asks you to examine it — anyone would get suspicious.
What had saved them was Carlton's flexible handling of the situation; that was the only reason they had managed to move past it without further confrontation.
Still.
Worrying about it now solved nothing. The water was already spilled. All either of them could do was use the other as thoroughly as possible.
Juhan kept walking until he reached the outskirts of the village.
Near the entrance to Anton Village, a considerable number of Holy Knights were already on patrol.
There are more of them every day.
Even compared to yesterday, their numbers had clearly grown. It no longer looked as if they were trying very hard to hide that they intended to use Anton Village as a base of operations.
That was exactly why he had planned to leave. Commission Carlton, then move on to somewhere else…
I might need to adjust that plan a little.
After the conversation with Carlton, Juhan had changed his mind. Rather than abandoning Anton Village entirely, he would stay in a nearby smaller settlement and look for a way to obtain more of those metal plates.
If I can get one more — or two — that would be ideal.
The problem was where, and how, to get them.
I can't exactly go hunting down Executors.
Executors were, by nature, figures shrouded in secrecy. At the moment he had no reliable way to identify them either.
Which left only one real solution.
I'll have to draw the Executors out. That'll put the Holy Kingdom even more on edge, but…
Cause an incident on purpose and force the Executors to show themselves. Right now, that was the most realistic option.
Juhan clicked his tongue under his breath.
He didn't like it, but it looked as if he would have to pick a day and open the floodgates on his power — even if only once. The situation was already a rising tide. An invisible tug-of-war was underway between him and the Holy Kingdom.
He was about to pass through the village entrance when a scrap of conversation from passing townsfolk caught his ear.
"Did you hear?"
"Ah, that story?"
"About Urutun Village, out west."
"Yeah. Vanished without a trace, they say."
"Come on, how is that even possible?"
"I didn't believe it either at first — but people who've actually been there are talking about it."
"Huh…"
Anxious murmurs ran through the crowd. And it wasn't just one or two people. When Juhan actually listened, the whole village seemed to be talking about nothing else. He must have missed it while he was busy dodging Holy Knights.
Then a single thought cut clean through his mind.
Come to think of it… they said they'd try to draw attention in their own way.
Pate, Liru, and Karun — the ones he had newly named — had told him as much. They would raise their own brand of chaos and scatter the Holy Kingdom's focus in several directions.
A whole village wiped out overnight. That's exactly the kind of place Executors would rush to first.
A horrific incident like that would be almost impossible to resolve without the Holy Kingdom's involvement. This whole region was already under heavy scrutiny — they would only grow more interested in a suspicious case nearby, not simply ignore it.
They might already have set out. Or they might already be there.
Not bad.
It was far better than the plan he had just been forming to create an incident himself.
With his destination set, Juhan turned and headed west from Anton Village. Urutun Village, the center of the rumors, lay in that direction.
He would go, check the place out, and if no Executors were there, he could always look for another approach. There would still be time.
His footsteps carried him on.
What Juhan did not yet know was that something entirely unexpected was waiting for him in Urutun Village.