Heading East Again (6)
The morning was no different from any other. For Marion, it was the start of another fulfilling day. For Irina Agon, it had become routine, yet it felt somehow special.
Marion smiled faintly as she peeled an apple.
“It was wonderful. The merchants were selling all sorts of interesting things, and seeing the lively territory put my mind at ease.”
At Marion’s gentle expression, Countess Irina’s face softened like melting frost. The early morning wake-up, once a tiresome chore, had transformed into something she looked forward to.
“There wasn’t any commotion from the merchants or the adventurers who came with them?”
“The guards were keeping a close watch, and more importantly, the adventurers you were worried about seemed quite well-behaved.”
Whether it was because there were reliable leaders among them or not, the adventurers who had rushed from the royal capital to serve as escorts remained obediently around the caravan or wandered the bustling streets of the territory. There could have been clashes with the local guards or Murat’s adventurers, but as far as Marion knew, nothing of the sort had happened.
“That’s surprising.”
The countess, who had anticipated some level of conflict, blinked in genuine astonishment.
“Still, it’s a relief they’re staying quiet and avoiding fights. With so many hot-tempered people around, I was worried they might start brawling.”
Clink.
A teacup was placed on the tray. The count’s breakfast was prepared at an unusually brisk pace and set on a plate. Marion gave the countess, who seemed to be hurrying the morning preparations more than usual, a puzzled look.
Noticing her gaze, Irina cleared her throat softly.
“Today, I plan to head down to the territory myself to inspect whether the merchants’ ordered goods are being delivered properly. I’m sorry for rushing the breakfast preparations.”
“No, not at all! I was worried I might have been delaying your work all this time…”
The countess smiled and shook her head.
“Not in the slightest. There was never any reason to rush in the first place. Why would I prepare in such a hurry? I much prefer taking my time, chatting while I make breakfast.”
Hmm.
Irina cleared her throat again. Sensing she had something to say, Marion stopped what she was doing and gave the countess her full attention.
“So… would you like to come down to the territory with me today?”
Marion’s eyes widened in surprise, as if she hadn’t expected the suggestion.
“With you, my lady…”
“It won’t be boring. I actually invited the baroness as well, but she firmly refused. Instead, she asked me to take you along.”
It’s like using her as a shield, the countess added with a mischievous smile.
“If you refuse too, right after the baroness, I might feel a little hurt.”
Watching Marion fidget nervously also seemed to amuse the countess. Since Marion still found her intimidating, she didn’t have the composure to return the teasing, but her pure, unguarded reactions had their own charm.
“I… I won’t refuse…”
“Then you’ll come with me?”
As the countess had intended, Marion nodded obediently. Cheering inwardly, Irina placed the finished breakfast onto the cart one by one and covered it with a lid. Gripping the cart’s handle, she called for the servants.
“I’ll serve breakfast and then prepare to go out. Help Marion get ready for her outing. Is the carriage prepared?”
“Of course, my lady.”
The servants bowed and practically dragged Marion off to the dressing room. Question marks filled Marion’s clear blue eyes, but before she could voice her confusion, she was already seated in front of the vanity, her hair being brushed.
“As I always say, you have such beautiful hair, miss. I’m truly envious.”
“…I feel like I’ve been tricked somehow. Is that just my imagination?”
The maid answered Marion’s near-mutter without changing her expression.
“The lady has a talent for dragging others into situations they can’t quite understand. It must be her gift for words.”
But the accomplice who dragged me into this incomprehensible situation is being far too shameless.
Marion was about to say exactly that, but the maid’s firm tug on her hair made her stop at merely moving her lips.
“In any case, I hope you enjoy your outing this time as well, miss.”
“Yes.”
Faced with the smiling maid’s reflection in the mirror, Marion froze and answered.
“What was all that talk about disappearing for a whole week and not showing up until we left?”
In a restaurant near the caravan, Pierre held a mug full of beer in one hand and glared at the adventurer sitting across from him with an incredulous expression.
Today, the adventurer was once again wearing a pitch-black hood. Shamelessly—or rather, since his face couldn’t be seen, it only looked that way—he rattled his fork and ignored Pierre’s words.
“What do you mean, showing up again after just one day?”
“I simply had some time left.”
Whether it was an excuse or the truth, Pierre tried to imagine the adventurer’s expression beneath the hood as he gulped down his beer.
“So, did you finish what you set out to do?”
Pierre asked cautiously, but Maxim only smirked and brushed the question aside.
“No. And even if I had, I wouldn’t just say, ‘Yes, I completed it.’”
“I knew that. I was just asking. That’s all. You bastard.”
Pierre answered curtly. When Maxim shrugged annoyingly, a vein bulged on Pierre’s forehead.
“What about you? Did you find everything you were looking for?”
Pierre’s face twisted into a fierce scowl. A passing server let out a small shriek at the terrifying expression and hurried away.
“Goddamn it, you never tell me where you go or what you do, but I have to report my every single move to you?”
Whether Pierre was angry or not, Maxim answered in a calm tone.
“If you don’t want to cooperate, then don’t tell me. Of course, it doesn’t really matter to me either way.”
Another thick vein appeared on Pierre’s forehead. The anger-fueled vein soon turned into a wrinkle of resignation, leaving a scar on his smooth, bald head.
“Yeah, getting angry only hurts me. Damn it. It’s my fault for jumping at this mission without thinking. It’s my fault for rolling up my sleeves the moment I heard there were suspicious bastards involved.”
Grumbling, Pierre glared at the beer mug in his hand as if venting his frustration, then downed it in one go.
Thud.
Burp.
The empty mug hit the table as Pierre let out a belch and a sigh. Deciding to change the subject, he rolled his eyes to check if anyone was listening nearby.
“There are no eyes watching us or ears secretly listening to our conversation.”
Even that attempt was thwarted by the annoying hooded adventurer. Unable to hold back, Pierre crushed the mug’s handle with a loud crack.
“Fucking hell, are you some kind of ghost?”
“Just keep talking. You can speak freely. In fact, those guys won’t even try to approach you.”
Because they wouldn’t want to draw attention by doing something pointless.
Maxim added as he glanced around. Pierre brushed the wooden splinters from his hand and began to speak.
“To get straight to the point, narrowing down the candidates wasn’t that difficult. Like I told you before, the criteria I set were already solid. However—”
“However?”
Pierre clicked his tongue.
“The problem is that there were more adventurers who passed the filter than I expected. It’s not like all fifteen of them infiltrated with the intention of sabotaging this mission. It makes more sense to assume that the ones trying to interfere mixed in people who aren’t spies to muddy the waters.”
“What if they’re all spies?”
At Maxim’s question, Pierre shook his head firmly.
“That’s impossible. No matter how big the operation they’re trying to disrupt, the number of people needed for sabotage can’t exceed five percent of the total. Any more than that would be too noticeable. It would create confusion in information sharing and increase the chance of getting caught because the tail would be too long.”
“You seem to know quite a bit about this.”
“It hasn’t been that long since I started living as an adventurer, but it’s not like I haven’t done unofficial missions. In fact, I’ve done quite a few.”
Pierre grumbled.
“That’s why I also know that things beyond common sense tend to happen more often than you’d think. It’s going to be a pain in the ass.”
“So you’re considering the possibility that all fifteen are spies?”
“It means we can’t completely rule it out. It’s better to consider every possibility and act accordingly.”
“Do you even know what they’re after in the first place?”
At Maxim’s question, Pierre’s mouth shut tight.
“That’s the biggest problem right now. I have no idea what those infiltrators want. They haven’t done anything, and they haven’t moved impatiently either. I don’t know if they’re plotting somewhere out of my sight, but damn it, sometimes I wonder if what those mixed-in bastards are targeting isn’t this deal at all.”
Maxim’s eyes narrowed beneath his hood. If the spies Pierre mentioned were ones planted by the Benning family, what could they possibly be aiming for?
Suddenly, the king’s words flashed through his mind: the East, where Benning’s hand cannot reach.
“…We need to conduct a thorough headcount.”
Maxim said. Pierre raised an eyebrow and asked what he meant.
“It seems more likely that their goal isn’t to ruin this journey, but that they have business here in the East.”
“In Murat or No Man’s Land? What kind of crazy bastard would send people in there for some errand?”
“Who knows.”
Maxim gave a vague answer as he stared at his cup. The foam had almost completely settled, leaving only the pitch-black liquid reflecting inside.
“If their objective is truly in this eastern land, then it’s not something I need to worry about, is it? It looks like you’re the one with some hidden agenda here, so it should be your problem to manage.”
“No, you need to pay attention too. Unless you want to get caught up in whatever mess those unpredictable bastards are about to cause.”
Pierre asked mockingly, but he was the one who ended up taking a hit. If that was the case, then the spies causing some kind of accident in the East would create far greater interference than directly ruining the deal.
“Goddamn it.”
Pierre spat out a curse. Maxim silently watched Pierre’s reaction as he fell into thought, then emptied the beer in front of him and stood up. Pierre’s gaze followed Maxim as he rose from his seat.
“Where are you going?”
“Surveillance.”
“…It’d be better if I came along too.”
In a situation like this, accepting help isn’t such a bad idea.
Maxim nodded at Pierre, who stood up to follow him.
This is an opportunity.
That was what the two spies from the Benning family thought as they walked down the street. Marion Bourdin had come out with the Countess of Agon. Blending into the crowd so that their escorts wouldn’t notice, they secretly eavesdropped on the conversation between Marion and Irina Agon.
Irina turned to Marion, who had been listening attentively to the merchants’ discussion, and her escort, her face full of apology.
“I need to stay here and keep examining the transactions, but Marion, why don’t you go around with Yvon for a bit instead of staying with me?”
When the knight commander called her name, Marion furrowed her brows in distress.
“But, my lady…”
“It’s fine. I’ll only be around here for a while. What could possibly happen? I feel bad making you stand around waiting for me.”
Marion shook her head vigorously.
“No, I’m fine, my lady.”
A faint blush rose to Marion’s face. Seeing this, Irina spoke in a deliberately stern voice.
“The conversation I’ll be having involves matters related to the family’s circumstances, so I can’t share everything with you. That’s why. Yvon?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Please take good care of Marion. Don’t leave her side for even a moment. Understood? Show her around properly too.”
The escort knight, Yvon, let out a small sigh.
“As you command.”
Marion had no choice but to yield to Irina’s firm attitude. Even though she spoke so decisively, the instructions she gave Yvon were clearly meant solely for Marion’s sake.
“Shall we go then, miss? Is there anywhere you’d like to visit?”
“I’d like to go… toward the market.”
“Understood. I’ll guide you.”
Yvon took Marion’s hand and led her down the street. Irina smiled again and waved lightly at Marion. Marion turned back toward Irina with a worried look before focusing on Yvon’s guidance.
“…Will you be alright?”
At Marion’s question, Yvon, who had been walking ahead, smiled bitterly.
“The lady can be quite stubborn at times. When she speaks that firmly, there’s nothing we can do but obey.”
“The countess…”
When worry crept into Marion’s voice, Yvon shrugged.
“It’s more appropriate for me to stay by your side as you explore an unfamiliar area than to remain with the lady. She never breaks her promises, so she’ll probably stay close by and continue her work.”
In the alley leading to the market, people flowed in like water being sucked into a drain. Marion watched the bustling crowd with slightly narrowed eyes.
“Miss?”
Yvon asked worriedly. Marion smiled faintly and answered.
“I’m fine. I’m just not quite used to places with this many people yet.”
Yvon wrapped an arm around Marion’s. Though her arm wasn’t particularly thick, the knight’s strength was more than enough to support her firmly.
“Shall we head back?”
“No, let’s look around a little before we go.”
Only after Marion shook her head to say she was alright did Yvon slowly begin walking again. The crowd thinned out once they entered the market street. Marion’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the various local specialties only found in Murat. Yvon pointed at the items that caught Marion’s interest and explained each one.
“That is an apple that only grows in the East. The ones with yellow skin are a specialty of Murat, so they’re quite popular even in the royal capital.”
It’s also in season since it’s autumn.
As Marion bought an apple and took a bite, Yvon added the extra detail.
Thump.
As Marion continued through the market, she stumbled after bumping into someone. The apple she had been holding rolled weakly across the stone pavement.
“What the hell? Where the fuck are your eyes?”
A man who looked like an adventurer or a laborer spat out crude words and glared at Yvon and Marion.
Yvon’s eyes turned icy cold.
“Two fancy-looking ladies wandering around a place like this? How amusing.”
A sleazy smile spread across the laborer’s face. Yvon ground her teeth.
“I wonder why that lady over there is covering her face with a mask? Going to a ball or something? Well, the other half of her face is pretty enough to look at. But ladies—”
The laborer lowered his head and grinned. Yvon slowly began to raise her killing intent. If he said one more word, she would rip that mouth of his all the way to his ears.
“Instead of playing around in a place like this, why don’t we move somewhere else and have a little chat?”
Two more men who looked like laborers appeared behind Marion and Yvon. Marion’s face hardened, and Yvon’s expression turned rotten. Even without a sword, she could break all their limbs in the blink of an eye.
“I’ll…”
Crack.
“Huh?”
Just as Yvon was about to move, a sound rang out.
“This.”
Urk.
Crunch.
The sound of bones cracking. For a moment, Marion doubted her own ears. In the next instant, the space was filled with a horrifying killing intent. The laborer’s shadow had left the ground. When she looked up, the crude-talking laborer was dangling limply in the air like a rag doll, his neck caught in a grip.
“Have you lost your mind?”
A low, freezing voice swept in like a northern wind. When Marion lifted her head, she saw the black-eyed adventurer in the pitch-black hood—the one she had glimpsed from afar before.