Chapter 57

The old man collapsed onto the sofa a half-beat faster than I could react.

Instinctively, I rushed to him and checked his breathing. Fortunately, he wasn't dead.

'Well, he's not dead, but...'

He was staring at me.

He looked calm. He stood in the same spot where he first stepped into the living room, arms crossed.

If there was anything different, it was that his gaze, a cold golden one I had never seen before, was fixed on a spot on the floor.

A habitual sneer at the corners of his mouth. Long, shadowed eyes. A nose so high it was almost pointed. Eyebrows that didn't even twitch.

All these elements combined to form an expression I recognized instantly.

"Hmm."

Rue was contemplating whether to kill this old man, who had figured out his identity.

'No way.'

I hurriedly laid the old man and Leinya on the sofa and blocked them from view.

"That's enough. No further approach."

Rue, who had raised one eyebrow, looked at me and asked.

"Why?"

"He's the grandfather who pays us. We can't threaten him."

Rue laughed low, not looking particularly happy.

"Is that so... Miss Daisy, are you willing to work even in the filth if you can earn money?"

Filth? Is he talking about this old man?

His intense gaze withdrew, and Rue soon walked past me as if nothing had happened, heading for the desk by the window.

The desk in the living room. An odd combination, but not surprising given that the mansion hardly ever had visitors.

The bookshelf was filled with small picture frames. My gaze lingered on a few, as they contained familiar faces.

Rue, rummaging through the desk and drawers filled with papers, spoke.

"Miss Daisy."

"..."

"In the Pen Rota Empire, no one can recognize my face."

"..."

"If there were, they would never react like these people. Remember how the believers treated me on the airship."

The attitude of the believers of Rokwei towards Rue.

"An attitude that wouldn't be strange if they licked my feet?"

"Yes. Therefore, the attitude Miss Daisy should take when encountering someone who knows me or recognizes my face is one."

"Killing them?"

Rue, who had been scanning the ledger with a detached gaze, turned to me with a bright smile. It was a smile of affirmation.

For a moment, I thought it was a difficult and cryptic warning.

But recalling the peculiar nature of Rue's identity, I had no choice but to remain silent.

'Kalepa.'

One of the three religious leaders of Rokwei.

Some of the Rokwei believers who had defected from the Northdeus Mountains (South Rokwei) joined the army of the Great Mage Mephisto.

Mephisto's army was completely eradicated in the 10-year Magic War, and all the temples were burned to the ground.

Afterward, Rokwei was treated as a suspicious foreign religion in the Pen Rota Empire and quickly forgotten.

Therefore, there could be no one in the empire who recognized Kalepa's face.

If such a person existed, they would not faint in fear but would prostrate themselves, licking the feet.

If there were any who denied these two scenarios, they might be.

'The remnants of Mephisto's army.'

For a moment, my heart seemed to drop to the ground.

'These two... were part of Mephisto's army?'

Flashes of the past 14 years appeared before my eyes.

The place trampled under the feet of demons.

The basement of the temple, where repeated biological experiments turned the ground red with blood.

The dead comrade who asked me to send a letter to his family... to tell them not to wait any longer...

The young boy who volunteered for the front lines to protect his younger brother.

I felt a heavy emotion rising, one that even I found strange.

My heart raced, and my head spun.

"Daisy."

I looked up. I felt Rue's shadow enveloping my shoulder and patting my back.

"Should I kill them?"

I looked up at Rue, who asked me this with labored breath.

"Or should I let them live?"

His whisper contained no anger or pity, only a dry, matter-of-fact tone.

"If you don't know the answer, leave this mansion and board the carriage heading to Westwintree Station. Wait for the train to arrive and count to three. I will finish my work and be by your side. Then we will return to Midwintree."

"..."

"Shall we do that?"

Rue's considerate gesture repeatedly darkened my already blackened rationality.

...No, it lit a lamp.

"Would that make you feel better? Now, and in the future, always."

Now, and in the future, always.

"No, I won't be satisfied."

I can't be swayed by the traces Mephisto left for so long.

I turned my head.

Beside the desk, an old bookshelf was filled with picture frames of various sizes, like acorns packed tightly together.

In the largest frame, two faces were visible.

Yes, that frame.

Since entering the living room, I had never completely taken my mind off that frame.

A young man and a boy. The boy was the old man in his youth, and the young man was undoubtedly...

"I have more important things to see."

Dian Ket.

The young man in the frame had the same face as Dian Ket, whose picture I had seen in the butler assassin's data.

'Hmm.'

I exhaled deeply.

As I breathed slowly, fresh air seemed to fill my mind, and rationality took over.

'Pull myself together. The idea that these two were part of Mephisto's army is just a guess.'

A maid's duty, one. Use logical thinking to shorten the time spent on chores.

"Open your eyes, old man."

I turned to look at the old man lying on the sofa.

"If you don't get up right now."

I would have to hear their story to get the answers.

Mephisto's army, Dian Ket, and their relationship with the Weatherwuds.

"Kalepa will be awakened by the princess's kiss."

The old man's eyes snapped open.

* * *

I slowly released the frame I had been holding.

The fingerprints on the young man's face were as clear as a picture.

I raised my fingertips and gently wiped away the white fingerprints. The man's face, which had been slightly obscured, became clear again.

Dian Ket was a thin man.

'And unexpectedly handsome. If he were a bit shorter, he might have been mistaken for a woman.'

With long hair covering his chest and a sharp chin, he was affectionately hugging the boy standing in front of him.

Even in black and white, Dian Ket's pale complexion stood out.

His eyes were dark and blurry, and if he were lying on the floor with his eyes closed, he might have been mistaken for a corpse.

'So, this old man had a connection with Dian Ket. Then... did this old man bring Aldo to the Weatherwuds?'

I wanted to ask what his relationship with Dian Ket was, but questioning the old man, who had just woken up, would only raise his guard.

I am not Kalepa. I need to proceed slowly.

"So."

I put the frame back on the bookshelf and looked at the old man.

The old man's complexion was no better than Dian Ket's in the photo.

The old man, who had fainted and then woke up, was named Malicops. I summarized the short story he had told me and asked.

"Grandfather, you didn't join Mephisto's army, but rather reported their evil deeds..."

"Army! This Malicops, with those bastards! I'd rather bite my tongue and die!"

Cough, cough. Malicops, the old man, turned red and shouted.

"The greatest traitors! Heretics who went against the teachings of the church! I regret not being able to tear their limbs with my own hands! They were devils. They took old people, women, and children, sacrificing them for their filthy desires! Desires that could never be fulfilled, even in death!"

"Understood, calm down. Spit is flying from your face."

"Ah, ah! Sorry. Talking about those damn bastards makes me... lose control without realizing it."

Leinya, who had quietly approached, handed a glass of water to the panting Malicops.

However, Malicops refused the glass of water offered to him and knelt in front of Rue, as if sliding down from the sofa.

"I beg for your forgiveness, Kalepa. Seeing you with my own eyes, whom I had only heard about, I inadvertently committed a grave offense. If you permit, I will offer my late greetings."

Rue, as always, silently scanned the ledger.

Malicops seemed to take Rue's silence as a positive response.

"Thank you, Kalepa."

After a while, he began a long greeting in the language of the northern continent, just like the other Rokwei believer I had met earlier.

His voice trembled, indicating how moved he was by the meeting with Rue. Did Malicops know that Rue had intended to harm him?

'By the way, I never thought an elder of the Weatherwuds would be a believer of Rokwei.'

"What? Mephisto's army? Are you asking if I was part of those damn bastards? Ha ha. Goodness gracious! This old man spent over 15 years burying those wicked scoundrels!"

At first, I thought he was lying.

But as he detailed where and how he investigated and infiltrated the South Rokwei church...