Daytime Words Are Heard by Birds, Nighttime Words Are Heard by Gongnyeo

Ruben’s night felt particularly brighter than other places.

Was it perhaps because it was where the followers of the Moon Goddess resided?

Even I, an atheist, couldn’t help but think that this place might truly be imbued with the Moon Goddess’s blessing; the night here felt particularly alien.

Thinking it unlike me to be so sentimental today, I walked along the back alley.

I wasn’t just aimlessly wandering, intoxicated by the night air without a specific destination.

I had secretly obtained information from the innkeeper earlier by paying extra, so I was heading there.

“Excuse me.”

“Welcome. A foreigner guest at this late hour, that’s unusual.”

Finally, I entered a dilapidated building on one side of the back alley, barely resembling a shop, and a man who looked to be in his late 60s or early 70s greeted me.

As is typical in any village, there was an information broker here who kept his lights on all night.

Deolgeureok.

“……!”

The man, who had been looking at me with considerable wariness as I was a stranger he was meeting for the first time, widened his eyes and looked back and forth between the bundle of gold coins I suddenly placed down and me.

“Heo… With this much, wouldn’t it be better to go to a large city to get information? It’s too much of a tip to spend at a shabby place like this.”

“I’m looking for information that might only be found here.”

“There’s information like that? Even I, who’s been in this business for over 50 years, am hearing about it for the first time.”

The money pouch on the shabby table seemed to bother him quite a bit, as he kept glancing at it while nodding his head as if telling me to ask.

In response, I skipped the formalities and immediately opened my mouth about the information I needed.

“Do you happen to know anything about a group called the ‘Eyes of Dawn’?”

“Eyes of Dawn? You’re saying dangerous things, young man.”

Knowing that he could get caught no matter what answer he gave here, he showed reluctance despite the money pouch he had just seen.

Well, after all, they’re a group called the worst traitors in the Empire’s history.

If he said he knew about them, there was a risk of being accused of being involved, and if he said he didn’t know, the money pouch in front of him would disappear, so it was inevitable that he would feel regret as an information broker.

It was fortunate that I had shown him a considerable amount of money early on; otherwise, he would have kept his mouth shut completely.

“I need as much information as possible related to them. I assure you, I have no intention of using the information I get here to frame you as a traitor, so please tell me honestly.”

Paat.

Showing his willingness to keep the events that occurred here confidential, he deployed a soundproofing barrier to prevent sound from leaking out of a certain range.

“…You’re a mage? You look quite young.”

“Well, I have my reasons. Anyway, what will you do? I’m a busy man.”

“Ahem, well, there’s nothing I can do about it then. But they’re such secretive bastards that even I don’t know much, so take it with a grain of salt.”

When I nodded, the man finally opened his mouth.

“First of all, according to rumors, they’re said to be derived from the Order of the Moon.”

“Yes, I’ve heard that news as well.”

As the story I heard from Alpro came to mind and I expressed my agreement, the old man frowned and clicked his tongue.

“But last year, the Imperial Army must have heard those rumors, because they secretly stormed into Ruben and conducted a large-scale investigation, you know?”

“The Imperial Army, you say?”

“That’s right. But no matter how much they searched, they couldn’t find anything.”

“Are you saying… that no information related to the Eyes of Dawn could be found in Ruben?”

“Hmm, that’s about right. Of course, those bastards are so skilled at hiding that they might have simply erased their traces well… But at least from my perspective as a native here, it’s a rumor that’s not very credible.”

That’s quite strange.

If it was the Imperial Army dispatched to find clues about the traitor group, it would be an elite investigation team personally launched by imperial decree from the Imperial Palace.

The fact that such people secretly visited and thoroughly searched the city of Ruben but couldn’t find a single clue cannot be explained simply by saying they erased their traces well.

Of course, if the Eyes of Dawn had spies who could steal even the Imperial Palace’s confidential information, it wouldn’t be impossible, but that’s too much of a black-and-white logic.

Isn’t that a deduction that’s only possible if you start with the conviction that the Order of the Moon and the Eyes of Dawn are related in the first place?

“What other information do you have?”

“The rest are just rumors that aren’t even worth calling information. Just nonsense like the Drake family secretly supporting the Eyes of Dawn.”

“The Drake family all of a sudden? What are you talking about?”

The old man shook his head as if he had heard a minstrel’s exaggeration, but I asked with a desperate heart, not wanting to miss even a single rumor.

He seemed reluctant to tell this story, but with the money pouch in front of him, he seemed to open his mouth anyway.

“The Drake family, a very devout family that has been dedicated to the Order of the Sun for generations.”

“I know that much. But how did the rumor that they’re supporting the Eyes of Dawn come about?”

“How would I know? I heard that a man with the Drake family’s seal was caught in the forest on the outskirts of Ruben, handing over a cartload of magic stones to a guy wearing a black robe.”

My eyes widened at the mention of wearing a black robe.

I can’t infer people based solely on their appearance, but if the Eyes of Dawn are wearing similar outfits to the guy I encountered before my regression, the possibility is high enough.

“So, what was the conclusion of that rumor?”

“What conclusion could there be? The person who spread the rumor happened to be a follower of the Order of the Moon, so he was rebuked for spreading rumors to insult the holy followers of the Order of the Sun.”

“I see.”

Well, even I wouldn’t do the crazy thing of suspecting the Drake family just by hearing that story.

In the first place, it’s absurd that the Drake family handed over a cartload of precious magic stones, and even the face of the person who received them is unknown, so what more is there to say?

It’s a common reaction to regard it as nothing more than gossip.

Anyway, should I consider this a decent harvest?

Then I should ask the most important thing one last time and leave.

“Then, old man, I’ll ask you one last thing. Do you happen to know how to join the Eyes of Dawn?”

“…Even if I knew, I couldn’t tell you that.”

My eyes narrowed at the man’s refusal to answer the most important question.

Is he indirectly saying that he knows but can’t answer, or is it just a hypothetical answer?

I decided to shake him up by pretending to take the money pouch on the table.

“Aren’t you reluctant to lose this money?”

“Who in the world wouldn’t be reluctant to lose money? Even that Emperor would surely jump up from his throne if someone brought him a mountain of gold and silver treasures.”

“But what are you hesitating about? Am I going to become a rebel of the Empire and ruin the country?”

“How could an old man dying alone in a back alley have any patriotism now? I’m just saddened by a young man trying to throw away his life with the recklessness of his prime.”

“…If that’s the case, I understand. It was a rude question.”

I put the money pouch I had been holding back down and, after giving a light bow, turned around.

“Aren’t you taking it? I couldn’t answer your last question.”

“The information you gave me earlier is enough. Rest well.”

The old man called out as if to stop me, but I only replied without turning my head and crossed the alley in the opposite direction of where I had come from.

Going this way would mean taking a detour back to the inn, but there was a reason why I deliberately took the detour.

Teobeok. Teobeok.

When a three-way intersection appeared in front of me, I gradually increased my pace and turned left at the intersection.

At that moment, the faint footsteps I had been hearing from behind began to grow louder.

As expected, a tail.

When I was listening to the story from the old man earlier, there was a strange presence, and I wondered if it was just a passerby, but since the presence had been staying in the same place for a while, I judged that it was eavesdropping on my story.

If it’s a remnant of the Eyes of Dawn, they’ll probably try to force information out of me through all sorts of torture rather than taking my life, so I decided to subdue them for now.

Jeobeok. Jeobeok.

Soon after, the presence following me grew louder, and the moment it came right up to me.

I thought this was the moment and jumped forward, grabbing the other person’s nape.

No, to be exact, I was about to grab it.

“…Princess Eleanor?”

“L, Lyaird-gongja….”

That is, until I saw the identity of the other person with my own eyes.

Realizing that my hand, which had reached the nape of her neck, almost strangled the same person twice, I hurriedly withdrew my hand and looked at the woman in front of me with a bewildered gaze.

Why is Sylvia here?