Ch.315Episode 13 – There Is No Country for Wizards

The woman who called me today was a civil servant from the secretariat working in the delegation.

Gabi Schneider.

A civil servant from the International Department under the Secretariat, responsible for foreign affairs.

Francesca recited information about this woman.

“Gabi Schneider. A magician from Hameln. She worked as a diplomat on the Moritani continent for five years before transferring to the Secretariat. Her specialty is necromancy.”

“Necromancy? Not a popular field of study.”

“Indeed.”

“And what is her relationship with the missing Jean Marbot?”

“They’re lovers, as I understand it.”

Jean Marbot is, like Gabi Schneider, a civil servant in the Secretariat. The two were in a romantic relationship.

“I don’t know them personally, but according to rumors, they’ve been together for quite some time. They started dating when they were working together on the Moritani continent. That’s why they applied for the northern assignment together.”

And Jean Marbot went missing.

“Efforts to find a missing lover.”

It’s quite a touching story, but that’s all it is. There are too many pressing issues to worry about just one Jean Marbot.

Right now, more than five cities in the north have been attacked. The casualties haven’t even been properly tallied, and even if they were, it’s questionable whether they would be made public. Not to mention the missing persons.

The death of one great person can plunge a million into sorrow, but the deaths of a million ordinary people can hardly move even a single heart. From that perspective, Jean Marbot’s disappearance is just one among countless tragedies.

Too many people have died.

With so many urgent matters to attend to, is the disappearance of someone the company ordered an investigation on really worth looking into?

Of course it is.

It’s just lower on the priority list.

“Sigh… I still need to report this…”

I followed Francesca with a resigned mindset. Or at least, I tried to.

What stopped me as I was walking across the lobby,

Was a single remark from Francesca behind me.

“Jean Marbot disappeared on that day. The day you fought alongside Saint Lucia against the demon and the necromancer.”

The priority just changed.

Episode 13 – There Is No Country for Magicians

The address on my mobile phone was a city near the capital of Fatalia. It took exactly 32 minutes to pass through the warp gate and arrive there.

As soon as we arrived at the address, we saw a beautiful alleyway. Low buildings were clustered together, and cobblestone paths typical of old European towns could be seen throughout.

Following that quiet alley for quite some time, we came upon a modest café tucked away in a secluded corner. It was an ordinary café where one could enjoy a cup of coffee and the surrounding scenery from the outdoor terrace.

There, we encountered a magician wiping away tears while sitting on the terrace.

“Ms. Schneider?”

The magician recognized Francesca and began to tear up.

“…L-Lanieri.”

“My goodness, what’s happened?”

As the atmosphere became one where she seemed about to burst into tears at any moment, Francesca appeared quite flustered.

Looking at the magician who was calling her name while shedding tears, she approached Gabi Schneider and took something out of her pocket.

It was a handkerchief.

“Don’t cry.”

“Hic… hic…”

“Calm down, Ms. Schneider. Would you like to sit down here?”

The Secretariat employee, clutching the handkerchief tightly with both hands, nodded repeatedly. While Francesca carefully seated her in a chair, as she had been sitting precariously as if about to fall, tears rolled down both her cheeks due to her nodding.

After watching Gabi Schneider cry quietly, I spoke to Francesca.

“I’ll go get some drinks.”

“Thank you, Officer.”

It seems this conversation will be quite lengthy. In her current state, questioning, let alone conversation, would be impossible.

I went into the café and ordered three drinks. While the owner jotted down the menu on a notepad and went to prepare the drinks, I turned my head and slowly examined the interior and exterior of the café.

First, the exterior.

The café was located in a secluded alleyway.

Judging by the lack of passersby except for elderly residents walking down the street even in broad daylight, this was clearly not a tourist area like Galbria.

The alley was narrow enough that only two vehicles could barely enter simultaneously. The road itself was wide, but there were so many illegally parked cars that the path had narrowed.

Cars were lined up on both sides of the café entrance, and across the street were several passenger cars and a van.

The interior of the van wasn’t visible due to the distance, but I could make out a man sitting in the passenger seat. He was sleeping with his face covered by a hat, and judging by the smoke rising from behind the van, it seemed someone who had gotten out of the vehicle was smoking.

“……”

Next, the interior. There wasn’t much to observe here.

The café was small, likely serving the local neighborhood, so there weren’t many customers.

One man sitting in the corner of the outdoor terrace sending text messages on his phone, three middle-aged women occupying an inner table chatting away, two academy students diligently scribbling something with books open in front of them. Including the café owner, there were a total of six people staying here.

Just as I was about to look for a door leading to a back alley, the busy owner smiled broadly and said:

“Your coffee is ready.”

“Ah, grazie.”

I naturally placed the three cups on a tray and took them to the terrace. Gabi Schneider was still wiping away flowing tears with her handkerchief, and Francesca was sitting to her right, patting her back.

I placed the cups in front of each person and sat down to Francesca’s right. I was directly facing Gabi Schneider.

“Pleased to meet you, Ms. Gabi Schneider. I’m Frederik Nostrim from Abas.”

“…Oh.”

“I heard about the situation from Francesca. I came to see if there’s anything I can do to help.”

Gabi Schneider, who had been shedding tears like a broken faucet, collected herself and looked at me. Her rabbit-like reddened eyes opened slightly wider.

Bang! The table shook with a loud noise.

It was the sound made when Gabi Schneider, recognizing me, tried to get up hurriedly and bumped into the table.

All eyes in the café turned to us at the sudden commotion.

The chatting middle-aged women whispered among themselves as if wondering if a fight had broken out, the academy students flinched in surprise before returning their gaze to their books. The café owner peeked out to look in our direction, and the man sitting on the terrace sending text messages gave us a bland glance before turning his attention back to his mobile phone.

I calmed down the startled Gabi Schneider.

“You’re surprised? It’s alright. I’m here to help.”

“H-how did you find this place…?”

I explained to her what had happened over the past two days.

Coming to Fatalia on vacation and meeting Francesca, being invited to a special lecture by a professor from the Ivory Tower during dinner, and then rushing here after receiving Gabi Schneider’s call while returning to the hotel.

After hearing this explanation, Gabi Schneider bowed her head as if she didn’t know what to do with herself out of guilt.

“I’m sorry… Because of me, during your vacation…”

“No need to apologize. I heard you were in the north. I was also in the north, so wouldn’t we have crossed paths at some point? It’s only right that I help.”

I made light conversation.

And to deliver a flattering comment, I looked at Francesca sitting next to me.

“Besides, you’re Francesca’s colleague, so of course I should help.”

If a complete stranger suddenly appeared offering help when you’re in trouble, most people wouldn’t easily accept it. But if you claim to have “heard about the situation from an acquaintance,” people tend to accept help more readily.

Vouching isn’t just for getting loans.

I boldly used Francesca’s name to my advantage. And the result was successful.

Gabi Schneider, holding back tears that seemed about to burst forth, kept nodding her head. And in a sobbing voice, she thanked me for helping.

Before starting the main conversation, I pushed a warm coffee toward her.

“I’ve heard the general situation. Jean Marbot has gone missing, correct?”

“Y-yes…”

“According to Francesca, he’s also from the Secretariat. And he was dispatched to the north as well.”

“Th-that’s right…”

“Good.”

I took out a notebook and pen from my pocket and placed them on the table. At the same time, pretending to have forgotten something, I reached into my pocket again and pressed the button on the voice recorder.

-Click.

The faint sound of the recorder starting.

Having completed my preparations, I placed my interlocked hands neatly on the table and began.

“Now, could you tell me specifically what happened?”

*

The interrogation disguised as a conversation began. As the recorder in my pocket whirred away, I directed questions at Gabi Schneider.

“You say Mr. Jean Marbot has gone missing.”

“Yes…”

“Hmm… Where did you last see him before he disappeared, Ms. Schneider?”

She answered in a sobbing voice.

“H-hotel. It was in the r-room of the accommodation provided by the Empire…”

“A hotel room.”

The last place Jean Marbot stayed before disappearing was a hotel. The accommodation assigned by the Military Government Command for our group and the representatives from the Tower and the Order.

“Did you personally see Marbot right before he disappeared?”

“Yes, that’s right. I saw him myself. We even t-talked.”

“I’d like you to explain the situation in detail. What was the atmosphere like, what conversation did you have, and how did Marbot react?”

Gabi Schneider’s lips closed. She seemed to be in deep thought, rolling her eyes back and forth.

It was an attitude suggesting she didn’t want to speak.

It seemed like a kind of defense mechanism. She appeared to be hiding something. After all, Gabi Schneider and Jean Marbot were people the company had ordered an investigation on.

And Jean Marbot disappeared on the day of the battle with the necromancer.

“Ms. Schneider?”

Francesca, sitting to the right of the Secretariat employee, carefully called her name.

Until then, Gabi Schneider had been avoiding eye contact, but now she looked at Francesca who was calling her.

“Are you alright?”

“L-Lanieri…”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. We’re trying to help. Can you explain what happened then?”

“……”

Gabi Schneider’s eyes began to shake as if an earthquake had struck. Unable to hide her anxiety and fidgeting, she took a sip of coffee to calm herself.

The warm drink seemed to help ease her tension.

After struggling with whether to testify or not, she seemed to make a decision, swallowing her tears and opening her mouth.

“I-I fought with Marbot that day…”

The Secretariat magician began her testimony with her eyes tightly closed.

“You fought? Was there discord within the team?”

“N-no! Nothing like that… Just our opinions didn’t match…”

“What opinions are you referring to?”

“W-well…”

Mumbling and moving her lips, she moved her body back and forth and wiped her face.

“It was an issue between Marbot and me… We were dating.”

Gabi Schneider explained that what happened that day was a matter of romantic conflict. I briefly transcribed her testimony and made small notes about her gestures and actions in my notebook.

“Was it a lovers’ quarrel?”

“Yes…”

Her testimony went like this:

Around the time when tension was building due to the pressure of being in a conflict zone, the excessive workload from the Secretariat, and the series of events that shook the north, Gabi Schneider was under considerable stress for personal reasons.

Suffering from insomnia and stress-related conditions, she sought out her lover, Jean Marbot, explained her condition, and made one request.

“I suggested we return to the Tower for a while.”

“The Tower?”

“Yes. The work was too hard… It was my first time in a war zone, so I was scared… Everything else was bearable, but people kept dying around us, and that terrified me… So I told Jean we should take a short leave and visit the Tower.”

“How did Marbot respond?”

Gabi Schneider answered.

“He got angry.”

Jean Marbot became angry at his lover’s request. At first, he told her not to say such things and to rest while he stayed by her side, but when Gabi Schneider persistently brought up the Tower, he began to get angry, she said.

As I was taking down her testimony, I suddenly asked a question.

“Could you tell me more about the circumstances of Marbot’s anger? If I understand why he got angry with you, it might be easier for me to help.”

“J-Jean got angry because…”

Gabi Schneider, who was about to continue her testimony, suddenly stopped speaking.

As if overcome with emotion, she bowed her head deeply and couldn’t continue speaking for a while, holding back tears.

“I honestly don’t know… Whether to call it a sense of responsibility, or pressure…”

“What do you mean by that, Ms. Schneider?”

“He said he couldn’t be comfortable when everyone else was struggling. He said if someone had to do it, it had to be him…”

Hmm.

Just from hearing the story, this Jean Marbot seemed like a person with a tremendous sense of responsibility. Perhaps it was a sense of duty.

But what made me suspicious was that he disappeared on the very day we encountered the necromancer.

Responsibility. Duty. Pressure.

As I jotted down these keywords next to the transcribed testimony, I asked Gabi Schneider another question.

“What happened after that?”

“J-Jean got angry at me. And I shouted back just as loudly.”

After Jean Marbot got angry, the two began shouting at each other. In their heightened emotional state, they started bringing up past wrongs and moments of disappointment.

As with all emotional fights, the two didn’t filter what they said.

Jean Marbot shouted at Gabi Schneider, telling her to “stop thinking only about yourself” and to “stop being such a coward.”

And Gabi Schneider,

“I-I told him to go die…”

“……”

“I didn’t mean it sincerely! I just, I just wanted him to disappear from my sight, so I blurted out whatever came to mind…!”

She began to cry profusely.

She bent over the table and cried quietly with her shoulders shaking. As the sound of a woman crying echoed through the quiet café, all eyes turned toward us.

The café owner looked at us with a somewhat anxious expression, while the group of middle-aged women and students whispered among themselves, thinking it was a love triangle dispute.

Meanwhile, the man sitting at the table at the end of the terrace continued to fiddle with his phone as if he wasn’t interested at all. After pressing the keys firmly to type and hitting send, he calmly drank his coffee.

Gabi Schneider’s hands were clenched so tightly they turned pale white. The handkerchief had long since transformed into a dishrag, soaked with tears.

As there was no sign of her calming down, I quietly closed my notebook and stood up.

“It seems we need to take a break.”

“Yes, we should.”

I walked steadily toward the restroom. Francesca remained in her seat, stroking the back of the sobbing Gabi Schneider, then got up saying she would get some tissues.

She crossed the interior of the café and approached the restroom area. Then she appeared in front of me, with her back against a wall that wasn’t visible from the terrace.

After checking that there was no one else around, we glanced at the terrace where Gabi Schneider was and began our conversation.

“What do you think?”

“It’s a sad story.”

Francesca added.

“If it’s true.”

Francesca’s face, which had been stroking the back of the crying Secretariat employee with a worried expression, had now turned cold.

It was the expressionless face I often saw, but there was a clear difference from just moments ago, making her emotionless expression feel even colder.

“Do you think that woman is lying?”

“At least she doesn’t seem to be telling the truth. Whether she’s exaggerating or lying.”

Francesca leaned against the wall and carefully folded her arms.

“What do you think, Officer?”

Actually, my thoughts were similar to hers. Gabi Schneider was not telling the truth.

“She’s lying. She pauses in the middle of her testimony to think about something, but it doesn’t look like she’s recalling memories. I’m not certain yet, but she doesn’t seem to be telling just the truth.”

I shrugged and added.

“However, the harsh words she said to Jean Marbot at the end seem genuine. She hid the specific content of their conversation, but she testified clearly about that part.”

“…What about the possibility that even that is a lie?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

I’m not a fortune teller, after all.

But in my judgment, while Gabi Schneider tried to hide specific details or lie during her testimony, she vividly recounted the part about fighting with Jean Marbot. At least the fact that there was a quarrel must be true.

I checked my watch and looked at Francesca.

“Go back and keep an eye on her. She’ll need some time to calm down. When she seems a bit calmer, give her a warm drink. Absolutely nothing cold.”

“Why specifically a warm drink?”

“When people are extremely tense or emotional, they react strongly to external stimuli. That’s why investigators deliberately bring something warm when they first meet a suspect in an interrogation room. It subconsciously communicates that they’re not someone who will harm them, through the temperature of the drink.”

“They don’t bring cold water?”

“Sometimes they do, but it’s not for drinking. It’s there in case things get out of hand.”

It was just a joke, but Francesca didn’t seem to understand.

She tilted her head and looked at me as if she didn’t know what I meant, then I sent her back. After that, I went into the bathroom and checked the voice recorder. Since the small recorder can only record for about 20 minutes, I need to replace it periodically if the interrogation gets lengthy.

Or should I move to a place like a hotel for the investigation?

I paused what I was doing and thought carefully.

“…Tsk.”

If I ask the intelligence officers stationed at the Fatalia embassy, they could probably convert a hotel room into an interrogation room.

There’s no need to elaborate; just install a few bugs and a couple of cameras.

I could transcribe the recorded content from the next room, and after the interrogation is over, send Gabi Schneider away, collect the equipment, and leave. Then I could send the data to the company for separate analysis.

Not a bad idea. I began to put the plan into action.

I took out the mobile phone provided by the embassy and decided to send a message to one of the emergency contacts saved in it. If I ask them to call me back, they’ll open a secure line for safe communication.

I started pressing the keypad of the mobile phone to enter the message.

But suddenly, a call came in.

“What the…”

The message input window disappeared, and a phone number appeared on the screen. Since it wasn’t a saved contact, no name was displayed.

As I was debating whether to answer, I carefully examined the number on the screen and realized that the caller was Clevins.

It was his personal mobile number that I had seen countless times while managing his business cards for three years.

I looked around thoroughly, confirmed that there was no one in the corridor, and quickly locked the door.

“…Hello?”

-“Is that you?”

“Ah, yes. It’s me, sir.”

-“I thought of you and called. Do you have a moment to talk?”

*

“What brings you to call suddenly?”

-“Ah, since when do I need a special reason to call?”

“That’s true.”

-“I was curious about how your vacation is going.”

Clevins’ voice came through the phone. He sounded slightly tired.

-“Was the lecture interesting?”

It seems a report had gone up without my knowledge. He calmly asked about my impression of the special lecture.

“It was a decent experience. Though it was hard to understand what they were talking about.”

-“That’s an experience too. Well, I’m relieved to see you’re resting well. So, where are you right now?”

I answered honestly.

“At a café near the capital of Fatalia.”

-“A café?”

“Yes. Just passing by with an acquaintance. But why do you ask so suddenly?”

-“…Hmm.”

“Sir?”

-“It’s nothing. By the way, could you go to the embassy now and pick up something? Preferably with that acquaintance of yours.”

“……”

I was speechless at the sudden, out-of-nowhere request.

Take Francesca to the embassy? Suddenly?

“Um, sir, may I ask what this is about?”

-“Ah, why so many questions? You’ll find out when you get there.”

“What kind of…”

At that moment, the call suddenly cut off.

At first, I thought Clevins had ended the call. Then I wondered if I had pressed the wrong button.

So I tried to call back, but.

“Huh?”

The call wouldn’t go through.

Looking at it now, the signal had disappeared.

“What’s going on? Why is it doing this all of a sudden?”

I muttered while looking at the dead mobile phone. I pressed the buttons firmly to try calling again and turned the power off and on. Despite all this, the phone still wouldn’t work.

Suddenly, I realized something was wrong. I tried calling the fire department and the police. If there was a problem with the SIM card, emergency calls should still go through.

But neither the police nor the fire department answered.

“……”

At that moment, I realized that the situation was taking a strange turn. I burst out of the bathroom and looked around the café interior.

“What’s going on here?”

“I’m sorry, customer! It seems we can’t continue business today.”

“What do you mean we have to leave suddenly? I haven’t even finished my coffee…”

When I came out, the situation had taken an absurd turn.

The owner, who had been running the café just fine until a moment ago, was now chasing customers away.

The customers were bewildered by the sudden announcement of closure, but the owner’s attitude was so firm that they were gathering their belongings and leaving the café one by one.

As I watched people leaving the café one after another, I went to the terrace to check on Francesca’s condition. She was in the middle of comforting the crying Gabi Schneider.

“Ah, Officer. Do you have any tissues?”

“No, I don’t.”

Gabi Schneider was still shedding tears. Francesca said that since the handkerchief was no longer usable, she needed to give her tissues.

“It seems all the tissues inside the store are gone. I can’t find any no matter how hard I look.”

“Get some toilet paper from the bathroom. Let’s grab something and leave quickly.”

Seeing me urging to leave the café, Francesca sensed something was wrong. She said she would head to the bathroom, and I should take Gabi Schneider and leave first.

That was my plan anyway.

“Get up, Ms. Schneider.”

“Sniff…”

“Let’s get out of here first.”

Just as I was leading her, who was sniffling, toward the entrance of the terrace.

-Vrooom!

The van parked in the alley suddenly roared to life.

As the loud engine sound filled the alley, the van that shot out onto the road quickly approached and blocked the entrance to the outdoor terrace. The side door of the van was already wide open.

And then,

-Thwack!

Someone pushed my back forcefully.

As I was supporting Gabi Schneider down the narrow stairs, I fell forward. Consequently, she, who was being supported by me, also began to tilt forward.

Thud! A dull sound struck my ears.

“Ugh…”

As I tried to use my hands to get up, I felt a sensation distinctly different from the cold cobblestone path.

What I was touching was the floor of a vehicle. I was lying with my body half-draped over the entrance of the van.

I hastily raised my head to look forward and saw the interior structure of the van. The van, which could easily seat nine people, was desolately empty. This was because there was nothing where the back seats should have been.

And two men crouched inside the van.

After confirming the neatly emptied interior and the two crouching occupants, a curse naturally escaped my lips.

It was a textbook scene of vehicle abduction.

In my experience, there’s only one type of bastard who kidnaps people like this.

Intelligence agencies.

“Shit…!”

When the two thugs began to rush at me, I quickly tried to get up and escape from the vehicle.

As I twisted my body to escape, someone grabbed my thigh from behind. It was the bastard who had been texting in the corner of the café terrace.

He grabbed my lower body and tried to push me into the car. As I struggled, I freed one leg and planted the sole of my shoe into his face.

-Crack!

“Argh…!”

The man who got kicked in the face screamed, clutching his nose. There was a sound of bone breaking, possibly his nose.

Blood flowed through his fingers and stained his pants, while I tried to raise my body to get the rest of my upper body out of the van.

But they were one step ahead.

“Grab him!”

One of the two men who had been crouching in the van grabbed my shoulder. He pulled me hard. It was an incredible force.

Thrown onto the floor like a live fish at a fish market, I tried my best to escape from the van. However, when even the man whose face I had kicked joined in, I was helplessly dragged into the interior of the vehicle.

They dragged me into the van where the back seats had been removed. Not content with that, they pulled me deeper inside and then used their weight to pin me down.

“You fucking bastards…!”

The interior of the van, which I glimpsed with my face pressed to the floor, was wretched. The two guys had long since subdued me and Gabi Schneider.

The man whose face I had kicked climbed into the van. After joining the abduction team as per protocol, he slammed the door shut and tapped the driver’s shoulder.

What would happen next was predictable.

The van with the closed door shot out onto the road. I could only lie on the floor and watch helplessly. The guy on top of me quickly bound my two hands.

Eventually, the man who had closed the door handed over a damp cloth.

The man who had subdued Gabi Schneider covered her face with that cloth. The magician resisted, but in less than 3 seconds, she went limp with the strength drained from her eyes.

And the same happened to me.

I saw the cloth being placed over my nose and mouth and resisted, but it was futile.

The moment I inhaled the fucking smell from the cloth, everything went dark.

“……”

As I was raising my head to get up, I planted my face on the floor.

*

When I lifted my closed eyelids, darkness surrounded me completely.

My vision was pitch black without a single ray of light.

My head felt like it was about to split, perhaps from hitting something when I fell.

I tried to remember how I ended up here, but my memory seemed to have been cut off with scissors, and I couldn’t recall anything.

With a head that felt like it was about to burst, I couldn’t even properly assess the situation, but I slowly regulated my breathing and tried to figure out where I had been dumped.

The first information that registered in my head was sound.

-Scratch. Scratch.

A sound like fingernails scratching a metal plate. It could also be a thin slate. I moved my bound hands to feel the object behind me.

Even in the midst of confusion, I managed to discover a few facts using my senses.

First, the place where I was confined.

I was trapped in some cramped space.

I realized it was a cramped space because I was aware that I was curled up as if crumpled, and when I gently scratched and caressed the object behind me with my fingernails, I felt the cold touch of metal.

Therefore, it wasn’t difficult to deduce that I was confined inside a drum. This vaguely familiar posture evoked memories of being trapped in a drum before.

“……”

With my vision blocked, I concentrated all my senses.

If they wanted to kill me, there would be no reason to put me in a drum. Even if they were going to kill me, they would take me somewhere far away to do it. So naturally, there must be a means of transporting me.

Closing my eyes and focusing on my senses, I realized that my body was swaying from side to side.

It definitely didn’t feel like being moved in a vehicle. There’s no reason for my body to sway this much just from traveling on a road.

Rather than a van or truck, it felt more like I was being moved on a ship. There’s no special reason for this thought. It’s just a hunch.

A drum on a ship.

The memory of dunking Raul suddenly came to mind. Back then, I teased Jake for getting seasick, calling him a land dog.

“……”

I tried to find a way to escape by feeling around, but it was in vain. The restraints were tight, and no matter how much I searched around, I couldn’t find any means to cut the rope.

After tapping here and there trying to escape, I finally gave up. I don’t know what will happen next, so I need to conserve my energy as much as possible.

Meanwhile, the ship carrying me continued to move somewhere.

I tried to keep track of time by counting numbers, but even that was useless. I was in the drum as soon as I opened my eyes. I don’t even know how long I’ve been here.

“……”

As the surroundings grew quiet, sounds came flooding in like water.

The sound of waves splashing. The sound of people moving across the deck. And so on.

A vacation, now I don’t even know which day it is.

Trapped in a drum, I was being taken somewhere.

With my vision blocked, I just breathed as if dead. It feels like a lot of time has passed, but my head still hurts.

I just breathed softly with my head leaning against the wall, or rather, the drum. I just kept breathing.

That tedious and monotonous act, which I didn’t know when would end, came to a conclusion when I stood on two feet and stepped on solid ground.

The unidentifiable thugs took me out of the drum I was confined in and dragged me somewhere. With arms hooked under both my armpits. With a rope tied between my legs to prevent escape. They stood me up.

I don’t know where we disembarked. I only knew for certain that at some point, they started dragging me underground.

I was led down stairs by them, and after that, we moved from left to right, right to left.

After passing through the interior of what felt like a maze for quite some time.

Finally, I was brought into a room somewhere unknown.

They sat me in a chair. Apart from a single scream and the word “grab,” they didn’t utter a single word. They seemed to be thorough bastards.

“……”

I sat in the chair and took a deep breath. And I focused on the sounds. I thought I might be able to hear any conversations they might have.

But what reached my ears was neither conversation nor screams.

It was footsteps.

-Thud.

The sound of leather shoes walking on concrete. A sound that could be heard commonly anywhere, anytime.

The door must have been left open as the sound came from the direction I had entered. The sound, which had been coming from a distance, gradually got closer, and after a little more time, it began to be heard near me. The stride was quite narrow.

The sound of shoes had already passed through the corridor and entered the room where I was. Although I couldn’t see, I could feel that someone had entered this place.

The next sound I heard was that of a chair being dragged. The chair, which slid across the tiles, came to a stop with a clatter. Right in front of me.

The moment the chair was placed, the object covering my vision was also removed. The object, which seemed to have been pulled up and disappeared, looked like a hood at a glance.

And then the light poured in.

I squinted reflexively at the bright light that was blinding and looked ahead. My vision, which had adapted to the darkness, couldn’t adjust to the suddenly brightened environment.

A foggy, blurred image filled my vision, and as my eyes gradually adapted to the light, it began to become clearer.

Only then could I properly observe the situation I was in.

The walls, down which some unidentifiable liquid had flowed, were covered in stains. The light hanging from the ceiling had a shade on it, and inside, an old bulb was burning brightly, driving away the darkness.

Whether there was only one light or not, I couldn’t see properly the parts where the light didn’t reach. However, I could see the chair placed in front of me more clearly than any other object.

Someone who had been standing with their hand on the backrest slightly pulled the chair and sat on it. The person sitting in the chair couldn’t be called large, but neither could they be described as having an ordinary build; they had a rather diminutive stature. I raised my head and looked directly at the face of the person sitting in front of me.

Thick eyebrows and slightly wavy hair. The face was full of wrinkles. The shadows cast by the pouring light made the deep wrinkles even more prominent.

But there was a characteristic that couldn’t be hidden even by these traces of time.

Fierce eyes, and within them, piercing pupils.

I recognized the person who appeared before me. I couldn’t help but recognize them.

“……”

She who sat on the chair leaned back against the backrest. As if she had gone through a tiring ordeal, she made a sound, “Ugh,” and frowned as if she had a headache.

She looked at me silently for a while. I looked at her with an expression of incomprehension, and to my gaze, she slouched in the chair and began in a crooked tone.

“…Send you on vacation to rest, and now you’re even causing traffic accidents.”

I called her by name.

“Director Leoni.”

Former Royal Intelligence Service National Operations Bureau Section 2 Director.

Current Military Intelligence Agency Overseas Intelligence Operations Director.

Also my superior.

“Why are you here?”

She frowned at me as if I was giving her a headache.

“That’s what I want to ask you.”