Chapter 176: Catch her

A woman was running wildly through the soft moonlight.

“Tina!!”

A door in the annex was flung open forcefully.

Mardian, clutching her wildly beating chest, dashed into the room. But all she was greeted with was the cold air.

Clenching her lips tightly, Mardian quickly scanned the room. Soon, she was tearing through the hallways of the annex, desperately searching for Tina.

The bathroom, dining room, and restroom.

She searched every possible place where someone might be, but there was no trace of Tina anywhere.

“Black Rose-sama!!”

Rushel, with a pale face, rushed toward Mardian in a panic.

Quickly throwing a nightgown over her, who had come out half-dressed, she hurriedly put socks and shoes on her now-bare feet, which were badly scraped up.

“Wh-What are you doing here… and in such a hurry…?”

“Tina, where is she?”

“Pardon?”

“WHERE IS TINA?!”

Her sharp cry shook the hallway.

Rushel swallowed hard. Mardian had never shown this much emotion before.

“I-I don’t know if you’re talking about the youngest… but I really don’t know…”

Creak—

Mardian gritted her teeth.

A sense of ominous anxiety surged within her. If she missed Tina here, she felt like she might never find her again.

Mardian shoved Rushel aside and immediately dashed out of the annex.

Her breathing, already on the brink of collapse, was barely able to keep up, but she didn’t stop for even a moment.

Gasping for air, Mardian headed straight for the Knights’ residence.

At her sudden arrival, the knights rushed out of the residence and quickly gathered.

“Find her and bring her to me right now.”

The knights didn’t dare ask questions. They simply obeyed the command.

And so, the knights and all the servants of the estate began scouring the entire mansion for the youngest, who had recently joined just a few weeks ago.

However, no matter how many people were sent or how wide they searched, not even a trace of Tina could be found.

Overcome by anxiety, Mardian bit her lip hard with trembling hands.

It was then that a knight on duty rushed over to deliver news.

“She… she left…?”

“Yes… I heard she was expelled.”

Upon hearing the news, Mardian blinked, stunned.

It wasn’t rare for her lovers to be thrown out of the estate.

In fact, there were probably more than a dozen who had been kicked out after upsetting her.

That’s why the knight who had been guarding the main gate quietly sent Tina away without a word.

Mardian’s body staggered and collapsed to the floor.

She had been running non-stop for several dozen minutes, drunk. Her stomach churned, and she felt like she was about to vomit any moment.

But above all, what was tightening her chest was the fact that Tina had left her again.

“Catch her.”

Mardian grabbed the commander of the knights by the collar with a rough grip.

“Catch her!! No matter what happens, bring her back!!”

At Mardian’s intense shout, the knights quickly prepared their horses.

Tina had left the mansion about two hours ago. By that time, she would have already reached the city center, having exited the territory.

Unless they got the cooperation of the townspeople, searching the vast city with only the people here was practically impossible.

However, no one dared to contradict Mardian’s face.

Her red eyes were trembling dangerously, like a flame on the verge of going out.

In the end, the knights set out for a large-scale search, leaving only a minimal number of personnel behind.

The servants also began thoroughly searching the buildings within the territory for any trace of Tina.

Mardian, who could only wait, anxiously bit her nails, and eventually, she collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

Was it because of the alcohol, or because she hadn’t even been able to catch her breath? Her head throbbed painfully, and she felt like she would faint any second.

But then, a sudden thought flashed through Mardian’s mind.

“Open… the letter!”

A gift from a new recruit from a few weeks ago.

Inside the basket were precious-looking items, along with a carefully wrapped letter.

She had thought it was a pathetic attempt to win her favor and had ordered it to be discarded.

But the person who prepared the gift was none other than Tina.

“Open it… the letter…”

Mardian quickly got up and grabbed one of the knights.

Fortunately, it was the same knight who had shown her the gift basket before.

“My lord…”

“The gift… Where are the ones I told you to throw away, the gifts from before?”

Mardian’s voice trembled slightly.

She was afraid of the answer.

She wanted to tear apart the version of herself that had ordered those gifts to be discarded.

But now, there was only one thing she could do.

She could only desperately hope that the gift still remained.

“Ah, well… it was too much of a hassle to resell, so we stored it in the knight’s order for now.”

“Ah… ah…”

A single transparent tear quietly fell from the corner of Mardian’s eye.

She had never believed in God, but at that moment, she wanted to bow her head and express her gratitude to that very existence.

But she didn’t have the time to shed such weak tears.

What mattered most now was finding Tina again.

“Bring me the letter. I need to read it, now.”

“Was it a letter?”

“Yeah. There should have been a letter inside.”

“Ah…”

The commander’s eyes subtly wavered.

He couldn’t hide his awkward expression as he shifted his gaze from side to side.

“Well… the letter didn’t seem like it would be worth anything, so I threw it away…”

“…What?”

“…I think I threw it away about three days ago.”

At the knight’s words,

Mardian collapsed to the floor, powerless.

***

“Phew.”

Back in the inn room after a long time, he threw himself onto the bed.

It wasn’t as plush as the mansion’s, but the bed here was still reasonably comfortable.

He gazed blankly at the moon floating outside the window, trying to calm his emotions.

In the end, he hadn’t been forgiven.

But that wasn’t really disappointing. It had been one of the things he expected.

In the first place, even thinking about seeking forgiveness was audacious. It was a shameless act to go looking for Mardian when I didn’t even deserve such forgiveness.

“… I should go back.”

Since I wasn’t worthy of seeing Mardian, there was no reason to stay here. It would be better to return to the women who were waiting for me.

It might be nice to take a slow look around the Märchen city, which had a completely different atmosphere from the Empire, but with my situation, such luxuries were too extravagant.

“Tomorrow morning, I’ll leave here.”

After a brief moment of contemplation, I made my decision.

As soon as the sun rose, I would head straight back to the Empire. It should take about half a day to reach the Empire’s territory.

The remaining preparations were the carriage and mercenaries to protect the journey. Fortunately, thanks to Grandma Miranda’s connections, arranging those two things wasn’t difficult.

In this city, it was rare to find a mercenary who didn’t know her.

I heard that no one was more feared than the old mercenaries. The life of a mercenary was one spent with a sword, only to eventually lose their life to it.

To be old meant to have survived.

Because of that, Grandma Miranda became an idol to many mercenaries, and through her influence, I was able to receive quite a bit of preferential treatment from the mercenaries in Märchen city.

Of course, I always paid them a fee that matched the favor.

“Nothing in this world is free.”

I changed my clothes and buried myself under the blankets. I slowly closed my eyes, savoring the quiet breath of the night and the soft moonlight filtering through the window.

Surprisingly, I fell asleep easily. Not long after closing my eyes, my consciousness slipped away.

***

When I opened my eyes again, the bright sunlight was streaming in through the window.

I stretched lightly, loosened my body, and opened the window to breathe in the fresh air.

“Hmm?”

I tilted my head at the unfamiliar sight.

Outside, it was more chaotic than I expected. Some people were running around in a hurry, and busy voices were mixing together and drifting in through the window.

Though Märchen city was always lively, today it seemed especially noisy. I wondered if there was a festival or something going on, so I stepped out of the room, still puzzled.

Looking around, I spotted a woman bustling about. I approached her and gently tapped her on the back of her hand.

“Hello. Is something going on? It seems unusually noisy today.”

“Oh, haven’t you heard the news yet?”

The woman turned toward me and gave me a warm smile.

“News?”

“Yes, I think the noise is because of that.”

“What’s going on that it’s so loud?”

“I heard that the Black Rose has released knights into the city overnight.”

I was taken aback. I hadn’t expected Mardian’s name to come up out of nowhere.

But, trying not to show my anxiety, I returned her smile casually and asked again.

“Oh my, why would they do that?”

“I heard they’re looking for someone. They seem pretty desperate.”

“Looking for someone…?”

A sense of foreboding slowly began to seep in.

It might just be a simple misunderstanding, but for some reason, I felt like that ‘someone’ was probably me.

But why?

I had never faced Mardian directly.

She probably didn’t even know I had visited the mansion.

‘No, maybe not?’

As I thought about it more, there was no real reason why she wouldn’t know.

I hadn’t hidden my name, and my white hair was quite a noticeable feature.

It wouldn’t be strange if that information reached Mardian’s ears.

She might have heard my story through some channel, and the possibility that she was sending someone to find me because of that seemed the most convincing.

If that were the case, was she looking for me for revenge?

Well, what other reason could there be?

She must have nothing but resentment toward me, the person who had threatened her by forcing drugs upon her and eventually exiled me from the Empire.

“Ah, by the way,”

The woman turned her gaze back to me as I was lost in thought.

“They say they’re offering a thousand gold coins as a reward to whoever finds that person.”

For a moment, I wondered if I had heard wrong.

A thousand gold coins.

That was an enormous sum, enough to buy a sizable building in the Empire.

Even Mardian wouldn’t be able to casually offer such an amount.

Is that why this city is in such an uproar?

No wonder—anyone would lose their mind over a thousand gold coins.

“Ah, ha ha… a thousand gold coins, huh? That’s quite something.”

I forced a smile and responded.

“Yes, it would be nice if I could find them too…”

The woman sighed lightly and closed her eyes in apparent disappointment.

“If you happen to see that person, please grab a nearby knight and report it. Who knows? You might become the owner of a thousand gold coins.”

“Ha ha…”

“She’s a lovely girl with white hair and blue eyes. I heard she’s also quite petite…”

Her words suddenly trailed off.

The woman, who had been blinking blankly, slowly started to look at me.

She moved her eyes up and down, scanning me carefully.

I felt an uncomfortable sensation, as if her gaze was piercing through me.

“Ah, ha ha! That sounds pretty similar to me. But it’s obvious I’m not the one, right?”

“Uh…”

“I’m not that petite… and my eyes are more sky-blue than truly blue. Surely the genius of the arts, Black Rose, wouldn’t miss such minor details, right?”

No matter how much I tried to convince her, the woman continued to stare at me intently.

It seemed pointless to keep talking.

If that was the case, I had no choice but to ask her directly.

I lowered the corners of my eyes slightly and made my gaze as cute as possible.

Leaning gently on her arm, I whispered in a voice that oozed with charm.

“Hehe, could you keep it a secret?”

The woman stared quietly at my face, then smiled softly.

Is this success?

It was then, when I thought that.

My wrist was firmly grabbed.

After that, a scream that seemed to tear my ears apart echoed through the city’s streets.

“I-I’ve found them!!! The person the Black Rose is looking for is here!”

It seemed like…

The answer was probably ‘no.’

Even the social smile I had polished, or a thousand gold coins, couldn’t win this.

Damn.