Ethan Conrad (4)

“About reporting the bandits. Did the city guard actually accept the report?”

“Since the merchant group we hired reported it directly, they had no choice but to accept it. But even though we’ve made this report, I’m not sure if they’ll actually catch them properly. They’ll probably increase patrols, but the chances of recovering the goods seem low. The city guard is wary of us too.”

“This wasn’t a random accident. It’s clearly the work of some trash targeting us.”

Ethan clicked his tongue after arriving at the scene where the goods were stolen and hearing the report from his subordinates who were investigating first.

The enemies swiftly ambushed the merchant group, subdued the escorts, and stole the goods, but as if not wanting to give a justification, they avoided causing casualties as much as possible.

They only stole property. Moreover, they even burned the heavy items they couldn’t quickly take away. It was an act full of malicious grudge, obvious to anyone.

‘The guys that elf mentioned. It’s highly likely to be them.’

Ethan gritted his teeth. Honestly, if he were to narrow down who would do such a thing, he had his suspicions.

Because he had already noticed through Isilia’s warning that there were people monitoring and checking him, the list of candidates was quickly narrowed down.

“Could it be the rival organization that we’ve pushed back?”

“No, those guys don’t have the capacity to pull off something like this anymore. In my view, it’s clearly Herman’s faction.”

He shook his head at his subordinate’s words recalling the fierce clash with the rival organization a few years ago. But the most important thing is ultimately physical evidence.

With this level of circumstantial evidence, it was difficult to counterattack, and even if he did counterattack, the possibility of falling into the enemy’s trap was too high.

‘While they’re interfering with me, they’re also trying to find out the source of my slush fund that I’m going to present to the higher-ups. I’ve disguised it as reselling artifacts, but if they keep digging, they’ll catch on. I need another way to launder it.’

The fact that they attacked the merchant group like this to ruin his business, which was one of his sources of funds, meant that they were determined to figure out the flow of money he was moving, even forcibly.

Ethan was burdened with the task of achieving his goal despite this sabotage and then thoroughly punishing them.

“First, tell the guys handling artifacts to stop their activities for a while. We’ll move after restoring the business.”

“Then, we can’t investigate the enemies for now?”

“There’s no way. Not until we set a trap and catch them red-handed.”

After giving instructions to his trusted subordinate on the way back home, Ethan returned to the mansion feeling tired. At times like this, his routine was to soak in hot water while being served by maids.

“Seems like handling the situation isn’t easy? You couldn’t even get a clue about who’s causing such interference.”

“Waaagh!”

However, when he entered the well-decorated bathroom with marble walls.

Startled by the clear voice of someone already inside, Ethan dropped the towel he was holding and staggered, flailing.

“H-How on earth do you know about this!? More importantly, this is my bathroom…”

“I like taking baths too. More importantly, tell me the details.”

As he clutched his pounding heart and panted, Isilia, who was in the bathtub with her back turned, laughed gleefully.

Through the rising hot steam, her wet silver hair sparkled.

Her delicate shoulders were barely visible, but of course, she was clearly wearing nothing. Yet Isilia was nonchalant.

It was a scene that perfectly reflected her usual thoughts that she simply couldn’t bring herself to act like a shy girl screaming “Kyaa!”

“Since I was suddenly ambushed, I shouldn’t move rashly and should first grasp the situation. Motive, ability to act, information about me. When I put all of that together, honestly, there’s only one group I suspect. Herman’s faction, my competitor and another branch leader in the organization.”

“Then shouldn’t we just raid those guys?”

“They wouldn’t be stupid enough to just sit around after starting this. They’re surely thoroughly prepared, so I’ll have to set a trap in reverse, lure them in, and make them waver.”

“But if you do it that way, how long will it take to catch them? If they hit somewhere else in the meantime, you’ll just have to keep taking hits.”

“Ugh…”

Ethan frowned at Isilia’s words, which made it sound too easy. No matter how he thought about it, everything he had planned was the most rational and efficient.

‘Even if she’s a 10,000-year-old elf, someone who doesn’t know much about the current era.’

Although he knew she was an unbelievable existence, he thought he knew more, at least in this situation.

“Shall I help?”

But at that moment, Isilia smirked and stood up from her seat, water dripping from her body.

Receiving an unexpected question, Ethan involuntarily flinched as he saw the red eyes visible through the hazy steam.

* * *

‘I think I can help with what Ethan is worrying about right now if I step in.’

Sitting alone in this warm bathroom, I was able to hear everything Ethan was whispering to his subordinate from outside the mansion using wind spirits, and I estimated that I could help him.

It was possible because I had gained the new power of wind.

Using the power of wind, which specializes in information, searching, and detection, I thought I could find out the secrets that Ethan was racking his brains over.

“Th-The price…”

“I don’t particularly need anything. You need to keep doing well for me to be more comfortable. Conversely, if you get held back, I’ll be that much more inconvenienced, so it’s for my sake too.”

Unlike me, who stepped forward confidently, Ethan, who modestly covered his large body with a single large towel, hiccupped and mentioned the price.

However, as I told him, this matter is for my sake too.

I didn’t particularly want anything more from him, whom I was already using like my own limbs. I just wanted him to maintain the status quo well.

“Right. With your abilities, it seems you could find out information without being detected by them. They probably can’t even imagine it.”

Now that his head seemed to be working again, the corners of Ethan’s mouth slightly turned up. Like me, he highly evaluated my abilities.

He believed that if I stepped in, we could find out and thwart the enemies’ schemes without any loss.

“It’s convenient to have a capable boss. Then, can you do as I say?”

“Let’s hear it.”

I chuckled at the word ‘boss’. Seeing him act like this when he clearly serves big brothers and even bigger brothers, his ambition is indeed undisguisable.

“Their base is in this place called Id, where Herman’s branch is located.”

“It’s not a free city, but belongs to a kingdom?”

“That’s right. It’s the land ruled by Marquis Id, a margrave of the Narian Kingdom. Although it’s a border region, it’s also a very developed area due to exchanges with the surrounding areas, including this place.”

After leaving the bathtub, I listened to Ethan’s plan while sitting at the table, all fresh and dry. He pointed out the city I needed to go to on the map.

“He must have made all his plans there. If you can naturally go there and overhear their plans, things will progress smoothly.”

“Did you hear that, Lina? Our destination has been decided.”

After hearing his plan, I smiled at Lina.

Come to think of it, this will be the farthest journey I’ve taken since being ejected from the Tower.

Of course, even if it’s far away, it doesn’t take that long to get there. This world has a cheating transportation method called spatial jump that puts airplanes to shame.

If it’s installed in the city, you can move through space in an instant, and both Suan here and our destination Id have jump points installed.

“But the inspections are strict. After all, it’s kingdom territory, so using the jump point will involve thorough identity checks.”

“That’s why we prepared the adventurer identities for times like this. Moreover, the mayor will vouch for us because of the recent incident.”

I clapped my hands at Ethan’s mention of the identity issue. Actually, pretending to be adventurers with Lina at the forefront wasn’t intended for this situation, but it turned out to be useful by chance.

“Then there shouldn’t be any particular problems.”

Ethan nodded and finished checking the plan.

Although it was somewhat impromptu, we were set to go to another city tomorrow according to a quite detailed and specific plan.

“Send a message to Patrick. Tell him to come to the meeting place tomorrow morning.”

Afterwards, I had Ethan, or more precisely Ethan’s subordinate, send a message to Patrick, who had been resting for several days.

‘I wasn’t originally the type to enjoy things like travel.’

My heart was pounding for some reason. I’m not sure if it’s because of the thought of seeing a new place, or because I’ve received an interesting mission.

However, one thing for certain was that it was a huge improvement compared to before when I wanted to give up everything after learning the truth about the world.

‘For now, if I just do something, a path will become visible.’

That was my hope. To cross over the distant years, blend into this world, and fill it up again.