I woke up after a short yet refreshing nap.
I patted my hands around, but couldn't feel Maria anywhere. I thought we had ended up sleeping after drinking the night away.
"Young master?"
I sat up and turned toward the door to see my dearest black-haired maid standing at alert, lifting the hems of her skirt in a curtsy.
"Where'd you get that?" I asked, scooting off the bed.
"Work clothes?"
I laughed and went to the bathroom to wash up.
My clothes were laid out perfectly when I came back out. The time on the clock was already reaching noon.
As I put on my shirt and combed my hair, my gaze hardened. With the Maria problem solved splendidly, or should I say turned into a booming investment, one of the things I had to care of was gone. Now only Raum's agent was left.
I checked my outfit again. A lot of new nobles were coming and going from the castle which made it even more necessary to look good. The black suit and trousers with white lacings fit me perfectly, I probably looked good enough even without anything on. That must be the case.
"Then, I'll be going," I said, moving toward the door.
"Bye, young master."
"Yup," I waved my hands and stepped out.
I rushed my way down the stairs and to the garden again. It was almost the time to meet up when I left, so I thought the others must be present there already, but that wasn't the case.
Confused, I then moved to the stables but my carriage was still inside.
What in the world?
As my feet dragged me to the knights' office which was near the prison from last time, I kept my eyes out for them. Unfortunately, the number of people here made it tough to understand who was around. In the first place, why the hell were these nobles walking near the knights' office?
It didn't take long to realize that a lot of them were normal citizens as well. With the crowd so big and the air so heated, of course, troubles would flock to the knights more than usual.
"Lord Eugene?"
I turned to my side at the voice.
"I was just about to go look for you."
"Lady Sophia," I smiled. "Have you been well?"
"I had a lot of fun hearing you play yesterday, I slept well after that."
"I await the time you let me hear your cello, my lady."
"Most certainly, I'll keep a show just for you."
"So," I asked, looking around as we stepped into the building. "What are we doing here?"
Lady Sophia's voice grew exceedingly chipper as she spoke. "We have great news. The knights were able to locate fourteen of the people and have retrieved the same number of bombs."
Fourteen?
My head blanked away.
A demon that could get glimpses of the future, one that helped this 'agent' escape the sly and cunning Sophia, was being caught this easy?
"It was all thanks to your interrogation, it would—"
Lady Sophia continued speaking, but my mind phased her words out.
It seemed as if time had slowed down as everything moved slowly. Extremely slowly, like a snail racing against a rabbit, the world itself couldn't keep up with my processing speed.
A mage, a Ki user, a hunter, before all of those, this was my strongest weapon. My greatest asset.
Tens, hundreds, all kinds of situations and hypotheses were drawn up in my head before being scratched out. The memories of people's demeanor, their postures, and minute gesticulations, all of them made me push them into a list of suspects and people who were safe. I scourged through everything that had happened in the past few days to remember what could be wrong.
"Our... Fur...nace..."
My eyes shot past lady Sophia and toward a person moving as slow as a clown in front of another equally slow knight. My head was heating up intensely.
Furnace.
The Iron ore and smithy.
I remembered the fleeting lecture that the employee had given back there.
'And so, we are shifting to the latest mana combustors to heat it up rapidly in the blast furnace.'
Getting in touch with an alchemist and planting fake man bombs. Only to direct the attention away from the real thing.
The pieces clicked rapidly in my mind. The overheating of my head made it cave under pressure as things started moving normally all at once.
"Ah? Lord Eugene, you have a nosebleed...?"
I took in a deep breath.
"Oh? W-what!? That is quite intense bleeding! Are you alright—"
"—Lady Sophia," I muttered as I took a firm step toward the smithy employee. "We may have a problem."
One that I wasn't going to let by.