Chapter 61

Chapter 61 : The Edge of Truth (3)

Returning to the ruler’s castle after a long time, I swept my gaze over the same familiar scenery and calmly looked for Pering.

Leaving Murel in the office worried me a little, but I had placed Ochel beside him, so I figured it would be fine.

Pering must have been continuing his work alone in Pan’s office, because only his head peeked out from between piles of processed documents as he waved at me.

Seeing the state he was in, I shook my head and asked,

“When is Pan coming back?”

“By now, he should be leaving for the Underworld. There should be somewhere to sit over there, so please sit wherever you can for now.”

“Are you very busy?”

“A little…… This will only take a moment. Once I finish this much.”

I shrugged and somehow managed to squeeze myself into the quarter of a quarter of space left on the sofa.

‘The Etel doll is here too.’

A ball-jointed doll sitting quietly in the corner of the sofa across from me tilted its head, and I tilted mine at the same angle.

Yesterday, after forcing the excited, rampaging Murel unconscious and putting him to sleep, I applied the backlogged item to the Travel Log.

The Memory Fragment of Phantasm I had received after finishing the negotiations restored the torn pages of the Travel Log.

It was about the curse placed upon Sky’s Domain, and to be more precise, about Etel’s past.

『Those who coveted the blue flame embraced the curse.

It stole memories, stole talents, stole names, and stole sleep.

One who does not exist, yet must exist.

When asked whether being left alone was frightening, he said,

“Being alone is not frightening. Being forgotten is.”

That is why names are given and records are left.

Blue, are you still cold?』

I quietly watched the half-lowered eyes of the ball-jointed doll, then propped my chin at an angle and drew my brows together.

I had heard about Etel’s Frame.

Just as she had given me wings, Etel could make clones of herself and detach them.

Knowing that, I had judged Blue Etel to be one of the clones made that way. Among the many clones, she was the one who resembled the original in the most ways, enough to be called a twin.

Ingfrek Etel’s reaction had been far too obvious for her to insist they were twins.

But the contents that appeared newly in the Travel Log were a little different.

Blue Etel, who embraced the curse and isolated herself, and the forgotten memories she had taken with her.

That was why Ingfrek Etel had not known much when I asked her about the flame. Because Blue Etel had taken those memories.

Was it closer to multiple personalities with separate bodies?

‘Which of the two invited me that day?’

Traces of Sek remained everywhere. Perhaps Etel had been waiting for him too.

Well, it was not important right now.

In the meantime, Pering approached after apparently finishing his work, blocking the doll from view.

Pering tousled his hair, removed his glasses, pressed hard at the bridge of his nose, and sighed.

“What did you call me here for?”

“I need information about that Underfolk. I want to remove unstable elements.”

“Do you mean, slice?”

I raised my brows and made a gesture of cutting my throat with my hand.

Pering leaned his upper body back as though he had seen something unpleasant and shook his head.

“Now that even the Nonaggression Pact has been concluded, I do not want to become the one who starts a war by killing an Underfolk. It is merely an identity check.”

“Not digging up information?”

“Of course not.”

Pering wiped his glasses with a dry cloth and spoke as though it were nothing much, but I did not believe it exactly as it was.

“He is an Underfolk who was isolated because of an incident long ago. From what I heard, he served Sek quite closely.”

“Do you think there were only one or two Underfolk who served Lord Sek closely?”

“Why are you asking me that? I am someone who does not even know who Sek is.”

“What is his name? I will look through our war records.”

“Considering your workload seems considerable enough already, I think searching through historical records as well would be an unnecessary waste of time.”

“As I said, we cannot live with an unstable element held deep inside our domain. On top of that, the rulers are already banding together to push the Underfolk coming as an envoy onto our forest, and now three troublemakers…….”

“Mm, so Pering thinks I am a troublemaker.”

When I smiled brightly, Pering pressed his mouth shut.

Let us stop the verbal slips there.

After wiping his glasses so hard they looked as though a hole might form, Pering put them back on. Perhaps he truly was only curious about Murel’s identity, because he waved a hand.

It meant I should leave, but I had no intention of simply going.

“If you gave me the war records, I could check them for you.”

“I cannot hand records over to an outsider.”

“That seems rather strange, considering all the things I have seen and heard in the Record Archive.”

“That is…….”

“Does that not mean Pan trusts me? Pering, you cannot even go in there.”

I had listened to Pan and Ru’s requests because they were annoying, but that was not all there was to it.

Even if only in part, the many things happening here had been steadily stored in my head.

For example, the frequency with which Pering used the immigration hall.

“I will set aside the matter of the Underfolk.”

“If you say set aside, it sounds like you are burying a troublemaker. Do not worry. I will not cause an incident.”

“Yes. Let us say that.”

Perhaps because asking any more would reveal his own purpose, Pering seemed to truly intend to end the conversation. Rising from his seat, he buried himself among the piles of documents again.

After confirming that the tilted head of the ball-jointed doll had straightened, I rose with a smile.

“Pering, may I ask one thing?”

“No.”

“After the negotiations ended, you returned to the forest first because you said you had urgent business, did you not?”

“……That is correct.”

“What was so urgent?”

“Why are you curious about that, Riwin?”

I lifted a few sheets from the piled papers and asked him in the same tone Pering used.

Formal, emotionless, and simple curiosity.

“Ru told me the date Pering returned.”

“…….”

“Is that not strange? Was there a bit of a time difference?”

“There must have been some mistake.”

“Haha, I suppose so. That Archivist Ru could make a mistake too, I suppose. Keep working. You look busy.”

I waved at him and went straight outside.

I had only tested him, but had he not taken the bait too well?

When Karon crossed into Sky’s Domain, a traitor had been with him.

It had to be the traitor I had missed. The traitor who exchanged messages that left the scent of the forest and sold off various kinds of information.

Leaking immigration hall information was easy.

Because Ru was on my side.

I had intended to dig around behind the scenes a little and tell Pan when he returned, but my heart had nearly dropped when Pering called me first.

I pressed a hand to my chest and left the ruler’s castle without hesitation.

‘Now, depending on how Pering moves, will the Branching Point of the Original Work change?’

I still lacked the points for Designated Reading, and since it felt wasteful to spin Random Loading and eat up points when I was only short by 2 points, I decided to seal off the Original Work for now.

“It would be better if he got scared and ran away, or if he trotted over to contact Karon.”

He probably was not that stupid.

I looked back at the ruler’s castle and tousled my hair.

“Should I go to the night market this evening?”

---

Colorful lights shone between the tree branches.

Throughout my time here, I had felt indifferent even when seeing these brilliant lights.

I did not particularly like mixing with crowds, and I was not fond of wandering around for no reason only to be scolded either.

I scratched the back of my head while looking at Murel, whose eyes were shining like a child’s.

‘It really feels like raising a child.’

His red hair popped up between people and sank back down several times.

Because he was so tall to begin with, he stood out enough to be recognizable from far away whenever he straightened his hunched back.

I followed behind him at a leisurely pace and observed people’s gazes.

The rumors I had spread while fishing with Sek’s name had settled down, and the things I had done in the negotiation room had spread somewhat too.

Even though they knew I was Underfolk, their gazes were not bad.

That was also because of the influence of the Nonaggression Pact Ariti had worked so hard for.

People’s perceptions had moved from the edge of a precarious war to something like a safe fence.

Karon would not simply sit and watch that guard drop.

If he learned that I had attachment to the forest, this place would become even more dangerous.

Because Karon had not abandoned his plan to start a war.

“Huh?! Mister!”

Konu recognized me from far away and waved.

Were not places where people lived all the same? Those children and I too.

“Huh?! The red mister is here too?!”

Murel, who had been staring hard at a skewer threaded half with vegetables and half with meat, lifted his head at the familiar voice.

Murel had shown a fierce streak, using names like that Pan bastard, forest bastard, bird bastard, and so on, but he grew soft and loose around the four little brats.

Even now, he looked pleased as he waved back, eyes curved in a smile.

“Did you come to look around?”

“Yes, I came to look around. It has such a hopeful atmosphere, full of splendor and things to see, that it makes me want to smash it apart.”

“Ahaha, Murel is a strange mister.”

“Konu, where are your parents? Did you come alone?”

I asked because I did not see a guardian around.

“No. They are eating a late-night snack over there with Chiru.”

“Then why are you here? Go eat with them.”

“Iiiii am! Going to guide you because it looks like this is your first time at the night market, mister.”

Konu placed his hands on his hips and puffed himself up.

Judging by the way he kept glancing sideways to study Murel, it seemed he had business with that side rather than with me.

I tapped Murel on the shoulder and pointed at Konu.

“He says he will guide you. Go look around.”

“May I? Will nothing happen if I leave Lord Iwon’s side?”

“Here? Who? To me? Why? They cannot.”

If anyone could, it would be Pering.

That was the most frightening situation, but in a place with this many people, he could not openly show hostility toward me.

Ironically, the image I had built up all this time had become my shield.

I was merely a weak Underfolk, someone who resolved their inconveniences, occasionally became something to laugh at, and even offered consultations if they had worries.

On top of that, my tea business had been growing day by day lately, and the steady caffeine addicts had come to need me in a very desirable way.

In that situation, me? Pering? He would sooner hire an assassin.

Within the crowd, I was safer than ever.

After pushing Murel onto Konu, I bought a skewer, pulled off the pieces one by one to eat, and recalled why I had come to the night market.

I needed a cord to tie my hair. I had been cutting it roughly whenever it grew long enough, but I was reaching my limit.

I leisurely enjoyed the food and felt the atmosphere of the night market.

The moderately crowded, sparkling street strangely made me think of the past.

Before I shut myself up in my room after that incident, counting the days only by the rising and setting of the sun, I had traveled to quite a few places.

Among them had been local night markets similar to this place.

A space where laughter never ceased, and where even standing in the middle of it made one feel excited.

It seemed I had once enjoyed those moments too.

“I was like that too.”

Only, the day in my memory felt like something from a very distant past, and it left me strangely unsettled.

It should not have been that long ago, should it?

Shaking off the unfamiliar sense of time that suddenly came over me, I quickened my steps a little in search of my objective.

And so, while I was lingering around various accessory shops, looking for a cord easy to tie my hair with—

At the shop I thought would be the last, while I was considering carefully, someone suddenly held out a cord.

“How does this suit you?”

A rough, sharp voice, like iron scraping.

It was Mol Retu’s voice, impossible to forget even if I tried.