Cornered
"There is a limit to incompetence."
Tollin's cold voice echoed in the quiet office of the Duke's estate. Jack bowed his head even deeper.
"I am sorry. I clearly saw them disappear into the alley. But..."
"But when you went in with the knights, they had already vanished without a trace?"
Tollin's tone made it clear he didn't consider that an excuse. Jack had nothing to say but yes, forced to acknowledge his failure once again.
There was no room for excuses. Letting a young child slip away twice—this was indeed his own incompetence.
Tollin looked up at him in irritation, then lowered his gaze.
"So you're saying only this child was left abandoned in an empty alley."
Jill, who was hiding behind Jack, trembled violently under that cold gaze and lowered his head.
"Yes. It seems a boy named Seya was captured instead while trying to save his friend."
Hearing Jack's reply, Tollin's eyes narrowed.
"Did you see their faces?" he asked the child.
"N-No... They were all wearing black c-cloaks..."
"And of course, there were no distinctive patterns on them."
Jill, barely keeping himself from collapsing, nodded tremulously.
"There was nothing unusual other than the fact that it was near the soup kitchen, Lord Tollin," Jack answered on behalf of the stuttering child.
"Near the soup kitchen..." Tollin frowned. There was a highly suspicious place in that vicinity.
Pale had already left after delivering his report. The administrator they had captured at the scene had insisted he knew nothing, even after all his fingers were broken. When they were about to break his last remaining toe, he had tried to say something, but suddenly gasped for air, collapsed, and never woke up again.
All these clues pointed Tollin toward a single truth he desperately wished to deny.
As the creases on Tollin's forehead deepened, Jill cautiously watched his expression and stammered,
"He... he must have been stabbed. I heard a fight, and the sound of swords. Then I heard something like a sack being dragged away, so he must have lost consciousness when they took him. Please... please save Seya."
Jill squeezed out every last drop of his courage, barely breathing as he finished speaking. Tollin only stared down at him.
When those sharp eyes locked onto him, Jill began to hiccup.
"Take him out and feed him something."
At Tollin's command, Jack led the trembling child toward the door.
"They might have realized we're watching," Tollin muttered, not even glancing at Jill as the boy left the room.
Unlike the opponent who looked down on them with everything in the palm of their hand, Tollin's side was severely lacking in information.
"If they've already noticed, it will only get harder. If we're too late, the kidnapped child won't survive either," Jack chimed in as he returned after sending the boy out.
Tollin stared quietly at Jack, who seemed genuinely distressed. Averting his gaze from the knight who was waiting for orders without knowing the full picture, Tollin stood up.
"We will hand this over to the Capital Guard. For now, we must take a step back."
"Pardon?" Jack blurted out, unable to stop himself even though he knew it was inappropriate.
"Did you not hear me? I said we are handing the investigation of the missing children and the soup kitchen over to the Guard."
He had heard correctly. No matter how much Jack lacked Tollin's intellect, he wasn't so slow-witted that he couldn't understand plain words.
"The Young Duke ordered us to find and rescue the children."
Despite Jack's bewildered protest, Tollin remained unmoved. As if the topic were already closed, he reached for a stack of papers on his desk. In front of him lay a pile of letters that had arrived at the Feedus estate this afternoon.
"Lord Flynn will be recuperating at the Temple for the time being while preparing for the Tinas Ritual. Until then, we must not let him meet anyone. It does no good for us to act directly during such a critical period."
Faced with Tollin's overstepping authority, Jack finally set his jaw and stood at attention.
"I draw my sword for the Feedus family. Lord Flynn Feedus clearly commanded me to protect those children."
The more Jack spoke, the more Tollin's lips curled into a crooked sneer.
"So you would do anything if it is the Young Duke's command?"
At the mocking question, Jack stood tall and nodded. "Yes."
"Even if that path leads to the Young Duke's death and the total ruin of the Fides Duchy?"
Tollin asked, grinding his teeth. In his hand, he held a letter.
It was a message suggesting that the Young Duke spend his time at the Temple to prepare for the Tinas Ritual, sent by Priest Vesper.
We request that the Young Duke of Fides spend his time at the Temple to prepare for the sacred Tinas Ritual.
Rumble. Rumble. The procession following the moving carriage was utterly exhausted.
Gael's grand plan to cover a week's journey in just three days was not impossible. It was simply a matter of grinding people to the bone.
"Damn it, if I knew it would be like this, I would've just taken a small cut and washed my hands of it," Young Jing whispered to Ratel and Jing.
Though a bit frivolous, Young Jing was surprisingly capable. He had been selected to join the group heading to the capital, tasked with escorting the carriage alongside them.
This meant that Ratel and Jing's march had become significantly more annoying.
"I was planning on going to the capital anyway, so it doesn't matter to me, but what did these kids do to deserve this? They barely feed them, yet they make them walk all day long. Unbelievable."
He massaged his shoulders wearily, yet his mouth kept running.
Ratel had made his annoyance clear several times, silently threatening him to shut up, but Young Jing would only shrink back for a moment. Like a snail's eye retracting and then popping right back out, he would soon perk up and start talking to them again.
"Just look at them. They can barely even walk."
"You might never walk again if you don't shut your mouth and get lost."
Having crossed his limit for the day, Ratel spoke with chilling malice.
Young Jing squeaked in alarm and backed away. Staring at his retreating back for a moment, Old Jing turned his gaze to the luxurious carriage carrying Priest Gael.
Though a bit noisy, Young Jing wasn't wrong.
Perhaps he was in an extreme hurry, because Priest Gael was bypassing all the villages between Comiel Village and the capital, choosing only the rough, unpaved shortcuts to drive the procession forward.
Jing looked back at the children trailing behind.
Already thin to begin with, the children's cheeks had hollowed out even further under the grueling march.
At this rate, something terrible will happen before we even arrive.
Ultimately, Jing quickened his pace. His target was the large, ornate carriage that looked entirely out of place in this dreary procession.
"What is it?"
Naturally, the knights guarding the carriage did not welcome his approach.
Jing looked between the two knights blocking his path, then raised his voice slightly.
"I have something to say to Lord Gael."
He spoke so that Gael, who would be listening through the slightly open carriage window, could hear, but there was no reply.
Jing exhaled a sigh and raised his voice further.
"The children are too exhausted. I ask that you grant them a brief rest. If we keep going like this..."
Clack!
With a sharp, violent sound that cut Jing off, Gael finally showed his face.
"If we keep going like this, what?"
Having been awakened from his sleep inside the comfortable carriage, his face was twisted in irritation.
"If we keep going like this, the children will start collapsing. That will only delay us further..."
"So, has anyone collapsed yet?"
"No, not yet, but at this rate..."
"Then they're all perfectly fine, aren't they?"
Having experienced the rare privilege of being cut off for the third time today, Jing felt the corners of his forced smile twitching.
"What's the big deal about walking this much? Why are you making such a fuss? Isn't walking and running on your own two feet what you commoners do anyway? Why so many complaints when you're just doing what's natural for you?"
Though slow, walking without rest to keep up with a moving carriage was incredibly grueling, but there was no way Gael would understand that.
Gael glared at the panting children as if they were the laziest, most inferior creatures on earth. Shuddering in disgust, he slammed the carriage door shut, grumbling,
"Stop whining and pick up the pace!"
From the Fides Duchy's perspective, they had never clashed so sharply with the priests of the Temple. No, that wasn't it. The two had never needed to disagree because they had never stood on the same ground.
Realizing once again how insufferable a priest looked from a commoner's perspective, Jing spoke up.
"Please, give them a moment to rest. Then everyone will find the strength to move faster and arrive sooner."
"Lord Gael said no. Who do you think you are to keep arguing?"
The knight guarding Gael's carriage drew his sword threateningly.
Jing watched the slow, sluggish movement. Taking down just two of them would be child's play.
But he had no desire to become a fugitive again after coming all this way. Nor did he want to cause any more trouble.
"My apologies. I was short-sighted."
Ultimately, he bowed his head and turned back, the loud, mocking laughter of the knights ringing behind him.
When he returned to his spot, Ratel was waiting for him, his posture unchanged.
"Judging by your face, it seems there's no rest."
"Indeed. He has no intention of stopping until someone collapses."
At Jing's sigh-laden reply, Ratel glared sharply at the ostentatious carriage.
"I wonder who he thinks is going to collapse for him to be so confident."
Sensing an aura that suggested Ratel might charge and attack Gael at any second, Jing quickly stepped in front of him.
"Don't do anything foolish. There's nothing to gain from provoking them."
"Don't worry. He won't even know what hit him."
Just as Ratel was about to bypass Jing and head toward the carriage—
Thud.
With a sound like a small sandbag hitting the ground, sharp screams erupted from the children here and there.
"Mister! A kid collapsed here!"
"Somebody help, please!"
The panicked children scrambled in confusion, throwing the entire line into disarray.
Jing and Ratel rushed toward the commotion.
One of the children—the smallest of them all—lay on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
Jing hastily pulled out his waterskin and let the water trickle into the child's mouth. Though half of it spilled onto the dirt, the child gasped for air upon receiving the moisture. Jing quietly waited for the child's breathing to stabilize.
Slam!
"What is it now! Seriously, you people can't do a single thing right."
With the rough sound of a door being flung open, Gael finally emerged from the carriage.
As the knight standing nearby cautiously reported the situation, irritation clouded Gael's face. He then glared at Jing, who was cradling the child.
"What, is this some kind of protest to show off to me?"
The only reason Jing suppressed the anger surging deep within his chest was because of the person standing beside him.
Ratel, who normally ignored his surroundings unless given a reason to care, was already reaching threateningly for his sword.
"Aigoo. I knew those kids were going to drop dead at this rate."
Suddenly, someone casually squeezed through the crowd.
"Hey, if you're done giving him water, let's carry him somewhere warm. You look plenty warm yourself, so why don't you take off your coat and wrap him up?"
It was Young Jing, looking surprisingly calm.
He watched the others tend to the collapsed child, then turned a steady, firm gaze toward the carriage Gael was riding in.
Then, he casually slipped back out of the crowd and headed straight toward his target.
Jing expected that whatever Young Jing was planning, it wouldn't have much of an effect.
He could already picture Gael's face, twisted in annoyance, snapping that they should just carry the kid and keep moving.
With tense expressions, everyone watched the two of them.