“Okay, let’s try to think about this. Elena has talent—an amazing one at that. However, she hasn’t been able to even wake up her mana yet. Thus, we thought there must be some outside influence, and when we determined that there was something wrong inside her body by using Nowem’s mana, an unexpected incident occurred.”
“When we began to train her by using Nowem’s mana, ‘they’ sensed it and began to spy on us.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“I think we can assume that the mastermind behind all this can feel the mana flowing inside Elena’s body.”
“The mastermind is someone who rendered Elena’s mana useless. It wouldn’t be strange for them to have an ability like that.”
Lyla nodded with her arms crossed, but suddenly stopped. “Wait, the fact that the mastermind was able to pinpoint us means that they knew we trained Elena with Nowem’s mana…”
“You have someone in mind too, right?”
Lyla’s eyes darkened. As she said, “…Walwiss Dwayne and Orland Dwayne.”
There was clearly something wrong with Elena’s body, and if they fixed what was wrong with her, Elena could possibly use magic. Zich had only told this truth to two people who had the right to know: Elena’s family members.
“Of course, it could not be those two. Since it is well-known that we are teaching Elena, someone might have been able to guess what we were doing. However, it’s also true that those two are the most suspicious.”
Lyla sighed. Even when she saw how much Zich doubted those two, she also hoped for those suspicions to be wrong.
‘It’s going to be painful for Elena.’
However, they couldn’t just let the situation be. The mastermind was someone who rendered Elena’s mana useless; it didn’t seem like they had any good intentions.
“What are we going to do now?”
“I’m not going to do anything for a while.” Zich looked outside the window. Then, he glanced at the place where the people trailing him were.
“If I don’t go visit Elena, they are going to do something else soon for sure.”
* * *
At a meeting which had become a regular occurrence inside the Dwayne mansion, Wayne asked, “Come to think of it, what happened to your servants?”
Zich stared back at him. “My servants?”
“Yeah, I know you used to go around with two people you called servants. I haven’t seen them for a while now.”
“Hey, isn’t it time to quit—” Another companion next to them thought Wayne was picking a fight with Zich again. He scowled as if he thought Wayne’s behavior was becoming quite annoying now.
However, Wayne didn’t become agitated and calmly stated, “I’m not trying to pick a fight with him. Even I wouldn’t come all this way to pick a fight. I am just asking him out of curiosity.”
“Um…” The companion trying to restrain Wayne looked a bit doubtful but stopped intervening.
Wayne continued his question. “You and your companion—I think her name was Ms. Lyla? Anyways, you two searched around the city very rigorously, but it’s hard to spot your servants. Just one of them seems to appear from time to time, but the other one never appears anywhere.”
“You know very well, sir. Did you trail us or something?”
“Trail you? How could you say such scary words? I just did a little careful research. After all, weren’t you the one who said the companions of the robe-wearing corpses could be here?”
“That’s certainly true, sir.”
“Doesn’t that also mean that the person who kidnapped Ms. Dwayne could also be here?”
People started murmuring. Zich stared at Wayne, and Wayne continued to speak skillfully. “If companions of the corpses or the people who tried to kidnap Elena might be here, I thought it was also possible for Elena’s kidnappers or their companions to be here too.”
“It’s a very unlikely story, but it’s not impossible, sir. However, do you also realize that you could also be a suspect in this scenario too?”
“Of course. You can investigate me as much as you’d like, but before that, can I ask where your servants are and why they’ve barely shown themselves recently?” Wayne’s eyes shone like a viper cornering a mouse as he continued, “Of course, I don’t think so, but one of my underlings keeps expressing their suspicions. They think you kidnapped Ms. Dwayne, locked her up somewhere, and made your servants watch over her. They say it explains your servant’s behaviors: one is in charge of guarding Ms. Dwayne while the other one is in charge of contacting you. Don’t you see how they can think of it this way?”
“I see. It does make sense.”
Wayne’s eyes twitched. He didn’t seem pleased by Zich’s calm attitude.
“I am glad that you think that way. So, could you tell us where and what your servants are doing?”
“My servants are searching in the areas outside of this city. That’s why no one’s seen them recently.”
“Did they not come back to the city even once in the meantime?”
“As you know, we are travelers. We are used to homelessness, and rather than wasting time going back and forth from the city, they are searching for Elena while staying outside of the castle’s walls.”
Zich picked up the teacup in front of him and calmly drank a sip. Then, he smiled at Wayne.
“Does that answer your question?”
“It does.” Wayne returned his smile, “…If everything you say is true.”
“Unfortunately, I have no other way of proving my innocence.”
“Then, could you let us meet your servants?”
“If you wish, I could organize that.”
Zich and Wayne both smiled at each other. A strange pressure passed between the two and made people swallow their saliva. But as if Wayne’s words had made some impact, people began to look at Zich doubtfully. In the first place, Zich was an outsider. If they had to choose between Zich and Wayne, everyone in the meeting would believe Wayne’s words.
However, Zich didn’t care for them. His eyes focused solely on Wayne.
‘Caught you!’
* * *
“Wayne Jaewick is suspicious?”
“Yep.”
As soon as Zich returned back to his lodging, he told Lyla everything that happened today. “Since nothing came up when he sent people to follow me, he’s trying to pressure me directly from the front. Since his stupid son also seems related to the robed figures, he’s even more suspicious.”
“Then is he the mastermind?”
“We have to look more into that matter. The mastermind might be using Wayne Jaewick, who has a lot of hate against me, to pry information from me.”
“Well, no matter how you look at it, Wayne Jaewick definitely seems suspicious. What are you going to do now?”
“He made it so obvious that he’s basically telling us to be suspicious of him. Then we have to make sure.” Zich took out an artifact. It was an invisibility artifact that he had used several times before. He stared out the window. All the people who were following him were right outside.
“Those guys are going to be my alibis.” Zich smiled like a villain.
* * *
Zich stood in front of a mansion. Even though it was incomparable to the Dwayne mansion that the master of the magical tower lived in, the mansion in front of him was enormous. It was the Jaewick’s family mansion.
‘He lives in a humongous place.’
Zich recalled the annoying faces of the Jaewicks’ father and son pair. ‘Should I break a bit of the mansion before I leave?’
He shook his head.
‘Let’s do it later. If I do it, I need to make sure I do a good job.’
In the first place, the Jaewick family had a high possibility of being connected to the mastermind.
‘When the timing is right, I can make up a good reason and destroy them thoroughly and surely.’
However, it was time for him to be patient. Zich easily passed over the walls of the Jaewick mansion; the guards were unable to detect him, allowing him to successfully infiltrate the mansion.
‘It seems like I’m constantly infiltrating these days.’
Zich felt a bit despondent; before his regression, he didn’t need to resort to petty tricks like this and could just destroy everything in his path with sheer strength.
‘Tch! I should be a little more patient.’
He successfully released his mana, reminding himself that the strength he possessed in the past would soon be his again and began moving. Zich avoided the servants and workers that were nearby and looked through the entire mansion. There were a great number of rooms. Since most of the rooms were empty or were being used as guest rooms, they didn’t seem important. Then Zich found a room with a human presence inside. Since the person stayed very still, they didn’t seem like a worker.
Zich went to the next room and jumped out of the room’s window. He made no sound as he landed on the window next to him. While hanging on to the window frame, Zich peered into the room.
‘It’s Mawin Jaewick.’
Mawin Jaewick was sitting on top of his bed and staring absentmindedly into a void. His eyes were unfocused and blurry, and it seemed as if his mind was not really there.
‘I heard that he locked himself up in his room and that his mind was half-gone. I guess that’s what he looks like.’
Zich used the window next to Mawin’s room to go back inside the mansion. Even though he saw Mawin Jaewick’s appearance, Zich didn’t feel anything. He didn’t feel anger or pity; Mawin Jaewick was already a meaningless existence to him.
‘Instead of a useless thing like that, is there anything that might be of use?’
Zich began to search all over the mansion again. When he reached the top floor, he heard an animal’s small cry with his keen sense of hearing. Zich quietly went into the room where he heard the animal.
‘It’s a room for storing carrier pigeons.’
The carrier pigeons softly cried out loud and shook their heads side to side. Zich looked all around the room.
‘There’s probably nothing to see here.’
Other than the awful smell of pigeons, their waste, various plates, and water containers, there was nothing to see in the room. The perches hanging on top of the ceiling for pigeons to sit on also seemed like they wouldn’t have any important information either.
Flutter!
At that moment, a pigeon carrier came flying through a hole in the roof and sat on a perch.
‘Huh?’
Zich’s eyes brightened up unconsciously when he saw the pigeon flying in. It seemed as if someone had sent a letter to the Jaewick mansion.
‘Of course, I need to check it out.’
Zich released his invisibility magic. The carrier pigeons fluttered their wings in surprise, but they didn’t run away; it was the result of being trained. Zich carefully took out the letter that was tied to the carrier pigeon’s leg. In a paper that was as small as a palm, letters that Zich had never seen before were written on it.
‘It’s a code.’
Zich took out a piece of paper from his magic box and copied the letters on it. Then he rolled the letter up and carefully tied it up to the same carrier pigeon again. The carrier pigeon fluttered its wings for a bit, but after Zich finished tying up the letter and moved away, it became calm again.
‘I got at least one harvest.’
Zich did not know what the letters meant, but it could lead to an important clue. Zich quietly left the carrier pigeon room and continued his investigation. However, he was not able to find anything else that looked important. When he found Wayne’s room, he searched for secret rooms or passageways, but there was nothing he could find.
‘Is the letter the only useful thing I could find?’
Even though this was better than nothing, it was disappointing. Zich thought about leaving the mansion when he was stopped by a sound. He heard people talking.
‘I think it’s coming from the reception room.’
It was already deep into the night and the whole sky was covered in complete darkness. It was suspicious that a guest would stay so late.
‘I should check it out, right?’
Zich couldn’t just open the door of the reception room and go in. Like the time he went to Mawin’s room, he decided to spy on them by jumping outside the windows. He used the room next to the reception room to jump outside. Since the reception room was on the second floor, he had to hang on to the window frame. Then he lightly jumped to the side.
Tap!
Zich made a small noise, but the conversation in the reception room did not stop. He hadn’t been caught. Zich put more strength into his arms and pushed his head up the window frame. The inside of the reception room appeared in front of him. Wayne was receiving two guests, and Zich knew both of them.
‘Walwiss Dwayne and Orland Dwayne.’
Two people were talking with Wayne.