“The letter isn’t addressed to me? What do you mean?”
Walwiss was taken aback by the interpretation that was completely different from the others. Other people also looked towards one another and quietly murmured.
“We’ve only talked about the person or group who had kidnapped Elena so far in this meeting.”
“Of course, this is a meeting to discuss Ms. Dwayne’s kidnapping. What’s the point of you saying such obvious things?” Wayne Jaewick grumbled again.
Zich looked at Wayne and made a slight smile. Then, with an extremely gentle and kind voice, he said, “Do you want to try listening to someone until the end? How could you ask a question and complain every time someone tries to answer it? Some people might think that you are deliberately trying to pick a fight in a state of emergency.”
“What!” Wayne stared at Zich like he was having a seizure. He didn’t expect Zich to come back at him like this, but Zich wasn’t done talking. “Of course, I’m not suggesting that’s your intention at all. After all, you are someone whose heart is big enough to accept your son’s moronic behaviors. Besides your lack of child-rearing skills, I still think you are an amazing person.”
“W-Wha…!” For the first time in his life, Wayne experienced what it was like to become speechless because he was so angry.
“I know you cut me off without meaning to because you were just so curious. You are not someone who is so lacking and ignorant that you would try to make a fuss in a situation like this. Even the incident where your son one-sidedly provoked a fight with me—I’m sure that you have the common sense to not hold any ill feelings against me for what your son was obviously in the wrong for. In addition, I’m sure that you would never ever drag that matter all the way to this meeting like some sore loser.”
Thud!
Wayne stood up and stretched out his hand to pick up the cane stationed next to him. His lips twitched like he was about to recite a spell.
“W-Wait, wait, Jaewick!” The mage next to Wayne snatched the arm reaching for the cane.
“Calm down! What are you planning to do in this place!”
“Release me! I’m going to kill that bastard right now!” Wayne tried to push away the mage clutching onto his arm, but there was no way an old mage could handle a person’s entire weight. Still, Wayne didn’t stop struggling, and other people started trying to stop him. However, his nerves weren’t calm enough to endure the mocking of a traveler with no class and made his son into a half-cripple.
Slam!
A sudden bang stopped the commotion. Everyone’s eyes shot toward the noise and saw Walwiss glaring at everyone with his fist on the table. Walwiss’ eyes burned with rage and shot daggers at everyone. Everyone, including Wayne, who had failed to restrain his anger, was startled.
“…We are supposed to be talking about my granddaughter right now. I asked each and every one of you to refrain from talking about anything else.” Walwiss pleaded, but no one was stupid enough to interpret his words as a simple plea. Wayne dropped his staff and quietly sat back down in his seat.
“Please continue speaking.”
“Then, I will go ahead.” Zich answered like the heavy atmosphere had nothing to do with him. Some looked at him with amazement, but Zich didn’t care for their looks. “Where did I stop?”
“You said that we’ve only talked about the people who kidnapped Elena so far.”
“Yes, that’s right. Just like I said, we only talked about Elena’s kidnappers. Let’s consider putting another entity to our equation.”
“What kind of entity are you talking about?”
“I am talking about the mysterious robed corpses that were found outside the castle walls.”
People nodded and exchanged their opinions:
“It’s really suspicious. Even if it’s outside the castle walls, there has never been a case where a group of corpses were found.”
“I heard that their identities weren’t revealed even after the investigation.”
“I heard that they were a bunch of suspicious people, all wearing heavy robes from the investigators. They say that they might be a group of criminals or assassins.”
After keeping quiet, Walwiss said again, “Of course, we also thought those guys could be connected to Elena’s kidnapping. Even so, they are probably against the kidnappers’ side.”
“You must think they clashed with the kidnappers, and the robed figures lost.”
“Why? Do you think differently?”
“No, I think the same way.”
“Although they are suspicious, I thought they didn’t have much to do with saving Elena, so I put my mind off it. Other people think the same thing.”
Although it was Zich’s first time participating in a group meeting, it seemed like there had been many meetings beforehand, and people had already decided to push off investigating the robed figures to a later time.
“Like you said, there’s a high possibility that the group who had kidnapped Ms. Dwayne and the robed figures might be on opposing sides. So now, I will talk on the premise that the two groups had fought to the death to capture Ms. Dwayne.”
Since it wasn’t an outlandish claim, people didn’t refute Zich’s words. Zich placed the blackmail letter between his thumb and middle finger and waved it lightly.
“The letter’s content is clearly provocative. It’s enough to enrage the master of the magical tower, Mr. Dwayne, and everyone else who has come to help us—including me. But I also believe that the sender of this message has a purpose for trying to provoke us.”
Walwiss breathed heavily and Orland gritted his teeth lightly.
“If you think about it, there’s another group who would be enraged by this letter’s provocation.”
“…The group with the robed figures who failed to kidnap her.”
“Yes, that’s exactly it.” Like he was complimenting a disciple who had given him the perfect answer he was looking for, Zich nodded toward Orland. “It’s just like Mr. Dwayne said. Not only did their plan to abduct Elena fail, but they also suffered great casualties, and their opponent is now showing off that they have Elena. It ought to make the robed figures’ companions extremely angry. With this reasoning, we can think this letter could have been directed towards the robed figures’ organization.”
“What kind of nonsense are you saying… Even if you are right, then why did they send this letter to the master of the magical tower?” One person spoke up in an exasperated tone. “If they wanted to anger the robed organization, they should have directly sent the letter to them. If not sent to the proper recipient, even the best messages become useless.”
“Of course. I agree with that. But what if this letter was delivered properly?”
“What do you mean? This letter was delivered to not one of the robed organization’s members but where the master resides…” The speaker made a horrified expression as he continued to talk and stopped as his face became bright red.
Anyone could see that he was extremely furious. “Perhaps, are you suspicious of the master? Do you think that the master of the magical tower is a member of the robed organization?”
Shock fell upon everyone in the room. The speaker as well as other people in the room glared at Zich with angry faces. A few of them even twitched their fingers as if they wanted to immediately raise their staffs.
“…Are you suspicious of me?” Surprisingly, the master of the magical tower, Walwiss Dwayne, was calm. However, his eyes were focused intently on Zich’s eyes.
“No, that’s not it.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“Aren’t there other people who also know about the contents of this letter?” Zich moved his eyes away from Walwiss and met each and every one of the mages’ eyes who were glaring at him with fury and annoyance. Zich’s gaze meant only one thing.
“…You’re suspicious of us?” It was the same person who spoke up before and got angry at Zich. His face was now red like an apple, and his hands tightly clutched his staff. Of course, other people were also offended, and some even let out murderous auras.
Zich shrugged his shoulders and didn’t cancel his statement. “Since this is an offensive idea, I was going to carefully mention it when I found more evidence, but in the end, it turned out like this.”
“Answer my question! Are you suspicious of us?!”
The pressure increased on top of Zich, but Zich was not the type of person to back down because of the intense pressure. Instead, he would work harder to fight against it.
Zich simply answered, “Yes.”
The menacing and angry atmosphere instantly dissipated due to Zich’s overly composed answer. People were so dumbfounded that they felt an emotional void. It was like seawater moving backwards before a tsunami, but even this void only lasted for a few seconds. Extreme wrath poured out like a tsunami, rose up over the ground, and swept everything in its path.
“T-this! If that’s right, then aren’t you also a suspect?!”
“Yes, you’re right. I’m also a suspect.”
“…What?”
The anger died down again. No one could properly understand why Zich easily admitted that he was also a suspect.
Zich lightly clapped his hands; it was to lighten up the mood. “Please don’t get so agitated. I also don’t think my speculation is the answer yet. I would be thankful if everyone just considered my speculation as one of the many speculations that have come up so far.”
Zich brightly smiled at everyone. The tense atmosphere loosened up, but it wasn’t because their anger towards Zich had lessened. It was just because the time to unleash their anger had passed by twice—their anger towards Zich was the same as before
However, even in this tense atmosphere, Zich continued to voice his thoughts out loud, “But I still think it’s worthwhile to investigate the robed organization. If the master of the magical tower won’t investigate them, I can dig for information about them by myself.”
“…I’ll leave them to you. I’ll also try looking into them.”
“Yes, sir,” Zich replied without erasing the smile off his face.
People began to look uncomfortable as the master of the magical tower seemed to accept Zich’s thoughts and speculations. However, they also thought it was worthwhile to investigate the robed organization, so no one protested outright.
“Ah, but I’m curious about something. I heard someone say that the robed organization probably had little to do with Elena’s kidnapping so investigating them should be pushed to a later time. Does anyone know who said that first?”
People were antipathetic to Zich’s words. Did he still doubt them? However, they felt iffy at his words and combed through their memory to answer Zich’s question. Some didn’t remember, but there were also several who remembered what happened and turned towards the person who brought up that topic first.
“W-what…” The individual was startled as everyone stared at him.
Zich also looked at him and called out his name with a laugh, “Was it you? Mr. Wayne Jaewick.”