Escort (3)
Jing watched the children marching in a line, and a hazy memory of his own past drifted to the surface. It had been so long that he couldn't quite recall the weather or the faces of the people around him that day, but the atmosphere remained vivid in his mind. A dim room, a priest draped in a white robe, a basin of liquid glowing with a blue light, and his father's face, beaming with pride.
In a way, the Tinas Ritual was the starting point of a life reborn as a true citizen of Abaran. It would be the same for those children.
The children undergoing the Tinas Ritual would stay at the temple for a few days, preparing themselves by praying several times a day. The hired mercenaries would guard the children as they moved in groups leading up to the ritual, and on the day itself, they would join the temple knights to escort the priests and the children.
Watching the children look around awkwardly as they marched between the adults, their eyes filled with a mixture of anxiety and anticipation, Jing felt a familiar ache in his chest.
The Young Duke will have to undergo his ritual soon, too.
There was so much he wanted to take care of for him, from start to finish. There were so many things he wanted to teach him before he entered the Academy.
To do that, he first needed to part ways with the young man beside him as soon as possible.
“What are you staring at?”
With this blunt, sullen fellow, that is.
“I'm looking at the children. My son is just about that age. He was looking forward to his ritual so much, too.”
“Every child in the Empire lives for that moment.”
Jing looked at Ratel, mildly surprised.
“For someone who claims to have no religion, you seem to know a lot about it.”
“I lived in the Empire when I was a kid,” Ratel replied with a shrug, turning his gaze back to the procession of children. “I know that tomorrow, they'll enter the room one by one and dip their hands in the water under a priest's guidance.”
He knew more details than expected. Did he come from a commoner background when he lived in Abaran?
Jing quickly cut off the train of thought that threatened to run wild. No, there was no need to think too deeply. They were bound to part ways soon anyway. Nothing good came from knowing too much about the other person. Just as nothing good came from overthinking about a target you might have to kill.
Once he judged the situation was right to shake Ratel off, he would make his escape immediately.
“Whoa!”
Well, at least not right now.
Jing reached out and grabbed the arm of a child who had let out a short yelp and was about to face-plant onto the ground. Having narrowly avoided a painful collision with the dirt, the child looked up at Jing with wide, startled eyes.
He looked familiar—it was the child he had seen at the tavern.
“Are you alright?”
Jing strained his facial muscles once again, trying his best to offer a gentle, reassuring smile.
“I-I'm okay.”
Though judging by how the child recoiled in sheer terror, it didn't seem to have much effect.
My son must have been incredibly brave, considering.
It was Ratel who pried the child's arm from Jing's grasp as he indulged in his doting fatherly thoughts.
“You're going to scare the kid to death.”
Ratel met the frozen child's gaze and asked bluntly, “How old are you?”
“T-Twelve.”
Before the stammering child could even gather his wits, Ratel turned him this way and that to check for injuries. Satisfied that nothing was broken, he gave the boy's shoulder a light pat.
“You don't seem hurt, so run along. Watch where you're going next time.”
“Y-Yes, thank you.”
Relieved to be dealing with the slightly less intimidating Ratel, the child stole a few glances at the two of them, bowed quickly, and scurried back into the procession.
“That's how you handle kids. Are you sure that son of yours isn't a lie?”
“I've told you time and again, my son always said playing with his father was his favorite thing in the world. And if anyone is lying here, it's you.”
“What are you talking about?”
Jing's eyes sharpened as he stared at Ratel, who was still playing dumb.
“'Watch where you're going'? Anyone listening would think the boy tripped over a rock.”
When he was the one who had suddenly stuck his foot out to trip the poor kid.
“You still have to watch the ground. That way, you'll know whether there's a rock down there, or someone's long leg.”
“At that speed, he wouldn't have avoided it even if his eyes were glued to the dirt.”
The fluid motion of sticking a foot out and retracting it in the blink of an eye was clearly the work of an experienced hand.
“Why on earth did you do that?”
“It's nothing. And you don't need to know, Jing.”
What a delightfully polite young man, Jing thought sarcastically.
“Isn't that the same child from the tavern? Is there something about him?”
Jing pressed with a frown, but Ratel simply shut his mouth and stared straight ahead.
“You two over there! Quiet down!”
Perhaps their conversation had dragged on too long; one of the stern-looking temple knights barked a warning at them.
Jing had no choice but to look forward.
“Fine. Talking to you is a waste of breath anyway. I just hope you apologize to the boy properly later.”
Jing only hoped the young man wouldn't cause any greater trouble.
Unfortunately, Jing's complacency stabbed him in the back once again.
That very night, a massive fire broke out in the temple's ritual chamber. Fortunately, no one was injured, but the blaze was large enough to reduce all the prepared ritual supplies to ashes. The temple, which should have been filled with the solemnity of the upcoming ceremony, was now enveloped in a cold, tense silence following the sudden chaos.
Gathering at the break of dawn, the priests, knights, and hired mercenaries stared at one another with grim expressions.
“How on earth did you manage the security for something like this to happen?! Who was guarding the ritual chamber last night?!”
Priest Gael, his face flushed crimson with rage, pointed an accusing finger at the lined-up mercenaries.
“Priest Gael, we all retired early last night. You said it would be more reliable to leave such an important place as the ritual chamber to the knights...”
Young Jing stepped forward to explain, his voice trailing off awkwardly at the end.
Gael's already flushed face turned as red as a tomato as he glared at the knights. The knights, who had been glaring back at Young Jing, bit their lips and quickly spoke up.
“It seems the fire spread during the brief window of our shift change. The inside of the door melted shut, preventing us from opening it, which delayed our response. We will prepare the necessary items immediately. Just say the word...”
“With what? How are you going to get them?! The room is one thing, but what about the holy water?! Where are we going to find more holy water?!”
Gael beat his chest in sheer frustration at the knight's response.
Jing furrowed his brow at the sight. Things are taking a strange turn.
While Priest Gael's wild, unseemly tantrum was unbecoming of a servant of the gods, his panic was not entirely incomprehensible. The holy water required for the ritual was sourced in extremely small quantities from the western Kor Mountains. Temples across the land used the holy water sent from there to hold the Tinas Ritual once a year. Since their entire supply had gone up in smoke overnight, it was only natural for him to panic.
It was an opportunity that came only once a year, and the situation would become incredibly complicated since they had gathered children from all the surrounding small villages. The local temple would have already billed the smaller villages for the expenses. But they couldn't just pocket the money under the watchful eyes of the other priests, meaning they would eventually have to refund every single coin.
If only they could just return the money and be done with it, but...
Jing swept his gaze over the priests' glittering robes and the knights' well-maintained armor. If things went south, the mercenaries might end up going home empty-handed.
But putting the money aside, what would happen to the children who couldn't undergo the Tinas Ritual this year? The twelve-year-olds would have to travel to other regions where the Tinas Ritual was still being held. There was no way commoner parents, who made their living by farming, could afford to leave their land and travel with their children. In the first place, delaying the ritual until the child turned twelve meant they were either incredibly lazy or desperately poor.
“Send them to the Capital.”
A low, clear voice cut through the murmuring crowd. Jing looked toward the source of the voice, who had been standing silently beside him until now. It was Ratel.
“The temples in the Capital have plenty of holy water stored up, don't they?”
Gael, glaring at the suddenly interrupting Ratel with displeasure, snorted.
“Do you think they would just hand over something so precious to us?”
Ratel shrugged.
“Send the children there. There must be temples holding the ritual in the Capital as well. Just send the children directly to a place where the timing aligns and have them undergo the ritual there. It might cost a bit of money, but wouldn't that be better than spitting back everything you've already collected?”
Though Ratel spoke with an arrogant tone, casually dropping his honorifics, Gael was too intrigued by the tempting proposal to notice.
“……Fine. How many children are there in total?”
“Fifty, sir,” the knight standing nearby answered.
Gael scowled at the response.
“That's a ridiculous amount. How long does it take to reach the Capital?”
“If we ride hard on horseback, we can make it in a full day. But with the children, it will take about a week...”
“Can you make it in three days?”
The knight blinked a few times at the loaded question before nodding.
“Yes, it should be possible.”
“Hey, are we still getting paid?”
This time, a voice called out from the crowd of mercenaries. Priest Gael scowled deeply.
“We will cut the escort down to a third of its current size. Since the journey will be longer, I will pay those who go more. The rest of you will be paid for the work you've done up to this point.”
Disgruntled sighs rippled through the crowd, but perhaps because they were all citizens of Abaran, no one dared to speak harshly to the priest. Those who couldn't afford the extended schedule backed out, while those looking to earn a bit more stayed. Since there were more volunteers than needed, they had to select some and dismiss the rest.
Everything proceeded at a rapid pace.
“You said you needed to go to the Capital, right, Jing?” Ratel asked Jing, who had chosen to accompany him to the Capital.
Jing stared at Ratel's characteristically expressionless face.
“Where were you last night?”
“……”
Ratel remained silent for a moment at Jing's question, then curled one corner of his mouth upward.
“I went to bed early. You know I've always been an early-to-bed, early-to-rise kind of guy.”
Jing couldn't shake the feeling that this entire sequence of events, flowing as smoothly as water, was exactly what Ratel had intended.
“Why are you walking slower and slower?”
At Jack's question, Seya shook his head vigorously while clutching his paper bag tightly.
“What are you talking about? I always walk like this. There's so much to see in the world, why are you in such a rush?”
Jack narrowed his eyes and stared at Seya. By now, the boy's pace had slowed to a snail's crawl, to the point where the rope binding them together was stretched taut. Having already witnessed with his own eyes just how fast the kid could run, Jack found the lie utterly laughable.
“You do realize the ant crawling next to you is moving faster than you, right?”
Despite Jack's sharp remark, Seya couldn't bring himself to speed up. Shaking his head, Seya stared at the back of Jack's head as the man walked ahead, his mind racing to find a way out.
He had harbored a faint hope, but as expected, the man was heading straight toward the Fides Estate without a moment's hesitation.
He's taking me straight to their headquarters.
In his short life, Seya had never had so much information flooding his brain at once, and it was giving him a massive headache. Seya, who hadn't even known that the Fides family was the one behind the construction of the new buildings, slowly began to organize his thoughts.
The other children had disappeared after going to the soup kitchen to get food. And this brute, who seemed to be in league with them, was dragging him to the Fides Estate right now.
Which meant... the Fides family was the evil mastermind behind all this?!
As his thoughts reached this conclusion, Seya gasped and slapped a hand over his mouth. It was a preposterous misunderstanding, but with no one to correct him, Seya's imagination was running wild like a rampaging dragon.
Did Mir know about this?
Seya thought of his brilliant friend. If it was Mir, he surely would have known. He was always thinking several steps ahead of everyone else. Even when they had sent the young master of the ducal house back last time, Mir had worn a strange, unreadable expression. At the time, Seya had simply assumed Mir was disappointed to lose such a lucrative source of income.
Even street children who had no business interacting with highborn nobles knew of the Fides family. Their castle was so massive and beautiful that it could be seen even from the empty lot where the children huddled together to sleep. It was the same Fides family from the stories Lady Sierra used to tell them when they were little. In the Empire, it was stranger not to know who they were.
The sword and shield that protect Abaran.
It was a phrase every child born in Abaran had heard at least once. But a family like that was kidnapping children? Why on earth?
And did the young master who had tossed his coat to him back then know about this, too? The young master who had told him not to let his body catch a cold, whose name was Me... Me... Me-something.
Although Seya had briefly considered swindling him, the soft-hearted young master had left quite an impression on him. If he was involved, it wasn't as if Seya had expected enough from him to feel truly disappointed, but it would still leave a bitter taste in his mouth. With those thoughts swirling in his head, Seya dragged his feet and followed behind Jack once more.