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Accompanied by a tattooed man, I headed towards the brothel in the dark alley.

As if anticipating my arrival, Silvia’s subordinates guided me directly to her.

Unlike usual, this time we headed to the underground of the brothel. In stark contrast to the decadent atmosphere above, the underground exuded a gloomy darkness and prison-like vibe.

Silvia was waiting for me right there.

A woman of enticing age with striking bright red hair and reddish-brown eyes. Dressed in tight leather armor that reminded one of an assassin, she was the original form of Silvia that I hadn’t seen in a long time.

It was a transformation that defied logic, looking like magic. How could she disguise herself as such a small and delicate figure with that body… It seemed physically impossible to compress like that.

Noticing my arrival, Silvia crossed one leg and flashed a charming smile. As I approached her, the musty smell of the underground was quickly replaced by her signature rose scent.

“Did you come? You arrived earlier than expected.”

“Yeah.”

I didn’t ask her why she had summoned me to such an underground place.

Instead, I pulled a note from my pocket and got straight to the point.

“Is this note reliable?”

“Of course. I’m Silvia Rosenfeld. Would I write down unverified information?”

I settled into the chair across from Silvia.

“Tell me the details.”

“I was just about to praise you for making things easier for me, but now you want to cut straight to the point.”

Silvia rolled her eyes playfully and continued.

“One of our informants found a survivor from the Ionia Kingdom.”

“And?”

“But it’s not just any regular survivor. Apparently, she was a maid who worked in the royal castle right before the incident, and she directly served the king’s illegitimate children.”

“The king’s illegitimate children…”

According to the information Silvia had provided before, it was highly likely that Ella was the illegitimate child created while the previous king was studying abroad in the Empire.

Thus, serving the king’s illegitimate children would mean she had a very high chance of having met Ella directly.

Seeing me lost in thought, Silvia couldn’t help but chuckle.

“What do you think? Isn’t it quite interesting?”

I couldn’t deny that.

I nodded slightly and asked, “Where is this maid?”

“Unfortunately, she’s not in the Empire. Right before the kingdom fell, she managed to flee to the south, to the Gallia Kingdom, not the Empire. She’s now living with her relatives there. Bringing her directly to the capital might be a bit difficult. Instead…”

Silvia pulled out a small marble, about the size of a pebble, from between her bosom. She threw it toward me.

I easily caught the marble as if it were natural.

The marble, warmed by her body temperature, exuded a strong rose scent. Considering where she took it from, it seemed to have mischievous intentions.

“…What’s this for?”

“Hehe, just a little joke. I wanted to see your surprised face, but it seems like that’s still not easy.”

“…….”

I wasn’t a teenager, so there was no reason for me to be flustered by that.

Silvia’s pranks weren’t new. Maybe it was because she felt a certain intimacy with me or perhaps she had other intentions… Of course, there was no need to react.

I placed the marble on the desk. It was a voice-recording crystal.

As it had likely already been activated, an old woman’s voice soon echoed through the underground.

It was a voice filled with anxiety and fear, and deep remorse.

[……Yes, it’s true… That child was special. Bright blonde hair and jewel-like blue eyes… I’ve never seen the sea, but if I had, I thought it would surely be that color. The illegitimate children I cared for all had similar blondie traits, but that child was different… No, she was special….]

[……Are there more than one child? Hmm, speaking of the late king… now that there is neither a king nor a kingdom, I can say this: he enjoyed the company of women from a young age. There were many illegitimate children both inside and outside the kingdom. Queen Dalia and Princess Daisy suffered greatly because of the late king’s penchant for women….]

[……I’m sorry, I got sidetracked. It was supposed to be about that child, right? That name… I still can’t forget it. Ella… She told me to call her Ella, without any honorifics….]

“…….”

I unconsciously clenched my fist.

But the old woman’s voice continued to flow from the crystal for quite a while longer.

[……I don’t know where the previous court magician went… but whether it’s the new court magician or that elf’s experiments, most children who were dragged there didn’t return. If they did come back, they would usually just suffer for a day or two and then die.]

[……The atmosphere of the palace, though it was called a palace, was really no different from a prison. The newly entered child was Ella. That child was special. Even when taken away for the magician’s experiments, she always came back intact. The elf magician was so pleased that he told me to take good care of Ella. From that point on, I worked as Ella’s personal maid.]

[……Years passed this way. Ella’s vibrant expression gradually lost its luster and started to wither away, but… up until then, she was definitely alive. In fact, her existence became a hope for other children who had been taken long ago but hadn’t yet perished.]

[……But one day out of the blue, that child said, “If this continues, we will all die. We need to get out of here immediately…” What could she have seen in that magician’s lab? Holding onto some unknown trinkets and gold coins, she insisted that we escape today.]

[……But that child had no intention of escaping. She said that if she ran away, they would know immediately… that she’d be safe, so I shouldn’t worry… She wanted to buy time to help me and the other children escape.]

[……In the end, I conceded to Ella’s request. Because the other children had become like my own children. If I could save them, I was willing to do anything. That night, we made our escape. It was truly miraculous. It felt like… some unknown beings were helping us escape.]

[……But in the end, we got found out. By that magician… Suddenly, everything went black, and I heard Ella’s voice urging us to run away. We all scattered. When I came to my senses, I found I was the only one who had escaped the palace.]

[……What could an old woman do alone? I had no way to return to the palace, and it would be unthinkable to throw away the life that child let me keep… so I ran away alone. I headed toward the Gallia Kingdom where my married brother lived. Shortly after, I started seeing a flood of refugees near the capital. They said the undead had appeared….]

[……I joined the line of refugees and ended up being the only one who survived. Is that child alive? Are the other children safe? If they managed to escape like me, I wanted to find any news, but I kept looking….]

[……No, no. It’s all just excuses. I knew it already. If they had stayed there, they would eventually have been killed… That was the only escape opportunity left to me. I abandoned that child… It was me…!]

With the old woman’s wailing, the crystal lost its glow at last.

I was left in silence for a while. There was a lot to think about.

Silvia didn’t rush me, patiently waiting for me to speak.

The woman’s story was very long. But the information about Ella contained within was also quite abundant.

There were many things to think about, but… the most important one was clear.

I furrowed my brow and said, “This isn’t enough.”

I understand now what Ella experienced in the Ionia Kingdom. But there were too many parts left unconfirmed to be sure she was still alive.

Silvia was thorough in such matters. If this was all the information, she wouldn’t have written down a note suggesting that Ella might still be alive.

There must be something more. I looked at Silvia meaningfully.

Whether my guess was right or not, Silvia’s lips curled into a slight smile.

“Of course there’s more information. I got the opinion of an expert regarding the ritual conducted by that elf magician, the Undying Legion Commander. Coincidentally, they want to talk to you… Would you like to meet them?”

“An expert?”

I nodded slightly, puzzled. If Silvia referred to someone as an expert, then their skill must be trustworthy.

“Sure. But are they waiting?”

In this underground space, there was only me and Silvia. There wasn’t anyone else.

At that moment.

Whoosh!

In the midst of the basement, where only the faint light of magical lanterns illuminated, suddenly, flames began to pale and blaze up.

What began as a small flicker of flame quickly intensified and transformed into a massive blaze that exceeded the height of a person.

And then, the flames shaped themselves into the form of a man.

“I’ve been waiting for those words.”

The man, with his hood pulled deep down, revealed only his nose and mouth. But with that familiar voice, I immediately recognized him.

“You are….”

He was the wizard known as the Crimson Sage.

Lewelin Elshid.

 

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