NB Chapter 3

"What are you doing?"

His neck craned back until it ached from looking up. The man was that tall. The boy's eyes widened as he stared up at the person before him.

Gale's face was expressionless as he looked down at the boy. His neat, composed features were the kind that would make anyone say he was handsome at first glance. However, with his cool impression and rigid expression, an icy chill seemed to drip from him.

The two eyes gazing at the boy were the exact same color as a warm spring sky, yet they couldn't have been more chilling.

"Th-that is..."

For some reason, his body trembling, the boy stammered.

"Answer properly."

Even his voice was like ice. His tall height and build made him feel intimidating.

The boy's voice grew watery at the end.

"I-I'm sorry!"

In the end, the boy shoved the newspaper he'd been holding at Gale as if pushing him away and quickly ran off. The boy must have pushed with all his strength, but to Gale it was pitifully weak.

He could have stood firm and prevented the escape, but Gale just gave a single glance at where the boy had fled.

"Why are you being so scary?"

Magnolia said casually as she opened the window a bit more.

"What did I do?"

"He's still just a kid."

She spoke as if she hadn't just been angry at that kid moments before.

"How refreshing."

Gale snorted with an expressionless face and smoothed out the crumpled newspaper, folding it neatly before handing it to Magnolia.

Another newspaper purchase. The price of newspapers was quite cheap, but honestly, Gale couldn't think of it as anything but a waste of money. However, knowing that Magnolia was using newspaper reading to ease her anxiety, he didn't bother saying something useless.

Taking the newspaper, Magnolia flipped through it at a speed that made one doubt whether she was actually reading. She skimmed through to the last page and then looked through it backwards once more, but there was no article related to the 'Academy Incident.'

Magnolia, who had been secretly worried, folded the newspaper with relief.

"Is there anything?"

Gale asked, leaning his body slightly inward with his arms resting on the window frame, taking a sip of the tea Magnolia had ordered since his throat was dry. Since it was cold tea, it tasted terrible. Gale frowned with one eyebrow and smacked his lips.

"No. For several months from last spring, it decorated the front page of newspapers, but now it doesn't even appear as a scrap article."

The Titania Empire is a great empire occupying more than two-thirds of the continent.

In the capital of such an empire, various topics constantly emerge. Therefore, unless it's something major, one issue doesn't get discussed for long, and public opinion changes instantly and gets easily swept away.

Yet only the 'Academy Incident' had been on many people's lips for a long time. If it hadn't been for the 'Northwest Expedition Incident' that broke out this spring, it might still be discussed even now.

Of course, the 'Academy Incident' was quite a shocking case—a young female student stabbed to death in her dormitory room.

What is an academy? An institution where children of nobility gather to receive education. If such an incident had occurred at Guild College, an educational institution for commoners, it might not have become such a hot topic.

However, Ivy Academy, where this incident occurred, was located in Tytharud, the capital, and was the largest of the three academies in the empire.

She clearly remembered the title: 'We accept tips about the heinous criminal who killed a young female student!'

Isn't that ridiculous? She could almost hear Zycklint's mocking voice.

People didn't know that the victim of the 'Academy Incident' was a female student named Rosemary Clark. The newspapers didn't even mention Rosemary's name, let alone 'Clark.'

Newspapers that anyone could read were quite cheap, and nobles treated them as vulgar gossip rags.

While making such a big fuss in the newspapers they thought so little of, they absolutely prevented Rosemary Clark's name from being revealed. Having the family name mentioned in such a situation must have been quite shameful for the nobles.

Finding this truly ridiculous, Magnolia raised her head toward Gale.

"What about the mercenaries? Did you meet them all?"

Gale just nodded silently. From that alone, Magnolia could tell there had been no particular gains.

Nevertheless, Magnolia asked.

"What about Agatha?"

This time his head moved left and right. It was the expected answer, but disappointment was unavoidable.

"Is she usually this hard to meet?"

"Information mercenaries do keep their whereabouts confidential by nature, but... Agatha isn't usually this difficult to meet."

Gale answered with puzzlement, as if he found it strange himself. Magnolia shrugged her shoulders.

"Then let's give up on finding Agatha."

At that, Gale subtly furrowed one eyebrow. At his expression of displeasure, Magnolia shook her head.

"But we've been searching for a whole month. It's completely putting the cart before the horse."

That was true. Gale hummed low.

It had already been a month since they returned to the capital. During that time, they had been running around without a moment's rest, but there had been absolutely no gains worth mentioning.

The most important task was to find out who Rosemary Clark's 'father' was—the one who killed Zycklint.

So the first thing they did upon coming up to the capital from the west was to find 'Agatha.' She was a mercenary of the Harold Mercenary Company, famous as a genius of information gathering and disguise.

The information Magnolia and Gale had wasn't much. All they knew was that Zycklint had been murdered, and the perpetrator's daughter was Rosemary Clark.

Clark is a noble family with the rank of count. There were limits to what Magnolia, a commoner, could find out about nobles.

So Gale had suggested meeting with information mercenaries from the Harold Mercenary Company in the capital.

As the son of Harold Mercenary Company's leader, Gale had memorized the personal details of the information mercenaries. They were disguised in truly various ways—as merchants, street vendors, postal workers, butchers, and so on.

For now, they had planned to meet Agatha through them.

She wasn't someone who would readily help just because Gale was the son of Irene, the leader of the Harold Mercenary Company. They had encountered each other quite often, but since she always appeared in different forms each time, it was difficult to develop familiarity.

Yet the reason for trying to find Agatha was because she had once made a promise to Gale.

"Just once, I'll do you a favor."

When had he heard those words? Gale, searching his memory, recalled that he had heard them at Zycklint's funeral.

From recovering Zycklint's remains to the funeral, Agatha had handled everything.

Anyway, Gale had planned to use that favor for Magnolia.

The southern Harold Mercenary Company is quite famous. The reason is their characteristic of being extremely skilled at information gathering. Since Agatha was a particularly outstanding mercenary among them, she would be able to easily investigate even a noble family like the Clarks.

But they had to meet her to receive help, didn't they?

Their main objective was to find the person who killed Zycklint. Agatha was the means to that end. However, since meeting her was proving so elusive, let alone finding her whereabouts, it was right to give up quickly.

"Let's find another way."

Though it felt unsatisfying, Gale obediently nodded.

Following his nod, his slightly curly hair swayed softly. The hair that had looked only black in the shadows caught the spring sunlight carried on the wind and was dyed its original ash color. She thought anew that he really was quite tall.

At the gaze staring intently at him, Gale looked at Magnolia. When their eyes met, Magnolia smiled.

Clang. His heart shook once, greatly, like stepping onto a precarious bridge on the verge of breaking. It felt like a cup that was already full, but not noticing that, water had been poured in and it ended up overflowing.

Gale subtly crossed his arms. He traced the clear marks left by the overflowed water.

When would this all dry up? Gale stared vacantly for a moment at a few strands of hair that stuck out like sunlight.

Magnolia tilted her head slightly.

"Shall we go back early today?"

"Yes."

"I'll be right out!"

Magnolia sprang up from her seat as if burned by fire and gathered her hat and newspaper. After returning the book she'd been reading and the teacup to the staff, something caught Magnolia's eye. When she turned her head in that direction, she saw a small display case.

What caught her attention was a really, really small and crude knife about the size of a finger. It was so small it was questionable to call it a knife. That wasn't why it caught her attention.

That model-like knife was entirely silver, from handle to blade. That point made Magnolia's heart ache for a moment.

As she stared blankly, a staff member approached.

"Are you looking for something?"

"This... what kind of knife is this, by any chance?"

"Ah, it's a letter opener. You use it for opening letter envelopes and such."

Ah. Having satisfied her curiosity, Magnolia smiled back at the staff member and left her seat. No wonder the blade looked so dull. At that moment, a thought flashed through her mind.

As Magnolia came rushing outside, Gale, who had been waiting at the entrance, frowned.

"Don't run."

"I wasn't running."

Magnolia cheekily walked slowly while roughly pressing down her hat. At that, Gale sighed deeply, then took the hat off Magnolia and placed it on his own head. Then he finally began tidying up the disheveled hair that had been bothering him inwardly.

Seeing him wearing the wide-brimmed women's hat was funny, so Magnolia laughed out loud. Gale concentrated on grooming her appearance without any sign of embarrassment.

"Gale, Gale."

"What."

"I had a good idea."

"What."

Though it was a listless response, Magnolia excitedly pulled out a small bundle from her inner pocket. When she unwrapped the long, thin cloth pouch, a dagger about two fingers in length emerged.

Gale glanced down to check the dagger and spoke with his still indifferent face.

"That's Zycklint's keepsake. Why are you suddenly bringing that out?"

"Something is engraved on the blade."

Having finished tidying up, Gale placed the hat that had been on his head back on Magnolia. Her platinum hair was too conspicuous, so she had to braid it up and hide it under a hat like this.

Gale stepped back a bit to check. Satisfied with the neatly arranged appearance, Gale received the dagger from Magnolia. When he drew the sword from its sheath, indeed something was engraved in intaglio on the blade.

"Rose vines... and what looks like a sword."

"Let's look into this crest. It should be less burdensome than directly investigating nobles, don't you think?"

"This crest?"

It was a question of what significance it could have.

"That dagger was in Zycklint's drawer. The drawer that had information about Rosemary Clark."