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Volume 3 Chapter 8.1

Translator: Adam Seacord
Editor: Weasalopes

“Gone?”

“Three days, now.”

“…I mean, knowing them, they must have found some bizarre thing and gotten distracted.”

Layotte, upon hearing of Hiroshi’s team being absent from Rainy, showed a reaction from knowing them completely.

“The Thieves’ Guild wasn’t even tipped off.”

“Once they go, their range of activity is ridiculous. Especially when they have a set of wheels that go four times as fast as a normal carriage, not even the Thieves’ Guild or the spies of Darl may catch wind of them.”

“Is that how it goes?”

“Once they get more than a day’s carriage ride away, sometimes normal communication tools won’t even work. Once it becomes a relay, the accuracy of the information plummets. Exponentially twisted. If they’re headed for the scorching desert, it’s not amiss to think that they’ve gone out of range.”

Rainy seemed impressed by Layotte’s explanation. These things should be understood by herself, but her reaction as like that of an untrained civilian. It wasn’t like Layotte was expecting much form her to begin with, but this was unnerving.

For these scheduled communications, by the way, they used a piece of equipment that Layotte had requested Hiroshi to make. With a Booster Unit on either end, it was good enough to communicate from one end of the continent to the other. Connect them to a magical crystal ball or mirror, and they could communicate face-to-face.

“…It’s fine. And how does it look in Darl, right now?”

“That chivalrous thief’s running around, more prominent than ever. Half of our research targets have been taken down by the thief, and finished off by the queen. No other problems than that. Economy’s steady, and there aren’t too many kids or crimes on the street. The mainstreet’s pretty bustling, too.”

“Hm. As expected, this Alvan has some connection with Darl royalty.”

“No doubt about it. According to the Thieves’ Guild, they saw Alvan use a hidden passage into the castle.”

“…I see. Most likely, he wanted to see that.”

“Agreed.”

A Thieves’ Guild located in the ruling city was practically in cohorts with the royal family. The only reason he’d display such a connection would have been as a warning not to dig too deep.

“A question. Do you mind?”

“What is it?”

“What’s with the nobles we’re looking into?”

The question was too vague for Layotte.

“What do you mean?”

“They’re weird.”

“Be specific.”

“Is it normal to incessantly chase some stranger around who joined their small talk and try to get kill them?”

With this bizarre piece of information, Layotte remained silent for a moment. It was possible that Rainy screwed up, but she wasn’t too stupid to dig too deep during a small talk. If she were, he never would have sent her into a foreign nation.

“Let me make sure. Did you screw up, somehow?”

“After our small talk, I noticed I was being followed. Didn’t want them to find our safe house, so I tried to lose them. I couldn’t it.”

“…That’s a grey area…”

“I started looking into it after that. Saw some merchant’s apprentice or another hearing rumors about them, then being drawn into some dangerous area of town and almost killed. A few time.”

By the way, after witnessing these scenes, she had notified the policing agents of Darl, and stayed away. Even if the victim didn’t make it as a result, her job was to stay undercover, so she wasn’t bothered by it. The truth was that Alvan had interrupted about four times out of ten to take care of them, anyway. The mysterious deaths of outsiders had drastically been decreased, lately.

“You told your Thieves’ Guild yet?”

“Not yet. I think they know the gist already, though.”

“Thought as much.”

Layotte agreed with Rainy assessment. There was no way that a Thieves’ Guild didn’t know everything about what was going on in their turf. Their reason for not making a move yet was probably because all the victims were outsiders, and that they didn’t have enough evidence to pass judgement against a noble. Once the victims rose in numbers, though, they wouldn’t be able to watch by for much longer.

“So, who are they?”

“I don’t think you remember, but they got a connection to the one pulling your strings when you tried to kill Hiroshi.”

“I don’t remember the incident, but does it have something to do with the rebellion and whatnot while I was in captivity?”

“Something like that.”

That was good enough for her. She didn’t remember the Farlane before it, due to being drugged, but she still knew that the popularity of the current king was nothing that could have been won in a year or two. Even though the Farlane king of the time was tied up so tightly by his predecessor, a little forethought would have projected the utter failure of any coup. To power on with a coup regardless was the show that he was connected to some folks who were out of their mind. No surprise if he didn’t have a layman’s thought process at all.

“They lacked any kind of normal process after being afflicted so badly, and maybe it’s the same for the other end of the connection.”

“You get that stupid when you’re afflicted?”

“Give or take, I assume.”

They got this far when Layotte brought back the derailed conversation.

“For now… Continue looking into them, for one. At the same time, dig into the suspicious death of the Temple worker you told me about before. Probably some sort of connection there in the shadows.”

“Roger that.”

“And when they come back, attempt to contact, and tell them everything you know.”

“You sure?”

“It’s necessary. Don’t get close to Hiroshi, though.”

As Layotte practically put her on a rollercoaster with this one sentence, she cuts back:

“No can do.”

“I’m telling you for your sake…”

“You think I can control myself when I see my honey? When I smell him?”

“…Right. That’s who you are…”

Fully understanding that she was unable to control, Layotte let out a deep sigh as he internally apologized to Hiroshi. The travesty that was this encounter was approaching Hiroshi ever closer.