Chapter 486 - The Hunt

“Alright. Let’s hail a carriage. The constables recommended Redstone Flower. It’s a large inn in the south of the city. They said the food there tastes wonderful and the maidservants are really attentive. The price is also rather decent. Let’s wait there for our other comrades to come.”

……

The round-faced man left Redstone Flower with two others and hailed a carriage to an area near the city gates. He got off, paid, and started circling the buildings in the area. Half an hour later, he finally found two intersecting triangles on the base stone of a shop along the street. It looked like a child drew on the stone, but it was actually engraved into it upon closer inspection.

“Let’s go inside to see if it’s the one we’re supposed to contact.” The man took his companions into the shop and left after ten minutes. It was apparent that neither the owner nor the workers were his contacts.

“Let’s go around and ask around about the shop for the landlord.” The only thing he was certain about was the owner rented the shop rather than bought it. The landlord seemed to have another residence in the city.

In the evening, they went to an alley in the west part of the city and knocked on a small door.

“Who is it?” a voice rang.

“Does Mister Mybrom live here?” the man asked.

The voice didn’t respond. What followed was the sound of rushed footsteps. A man in his fifties pushed the door opened and eyed the three. “Mister Mybrom doesn’t live here, but his cousin, Dunbilus, lives here with his family.”

The round-faced man smiled. “I wonder if Mister Dunbilus also has a younger brother called Kenriak who serves as Viscount Mulliot’s butler?”

The old man breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s right. He lives in the barony’s castle, Whitefallsburg. You’re here to deliver his letter, right? Come in for now.”

The three entered a rather large yard on which three double-storey stone buildings were built.

The old man shut the door and turned to the three. “You’re from the royal capital? Has the Watch been reformed?”

The leader shook his head, causing the old man to tense up. “Then who are you? How do you know about my orders from ten years ago?”

“We… we haven’t been back to the royal capital for years… We aren’t sure what’s going on there.” The round-faced man took out a hefty, black metal plate and handed it to the old man. “This is our identification. The other two have them too. We’re members of the Watch.”

The old man could tell their positions with one glance. “You’re reserve Watchers. Official Watchers carry silver identification plates. What happened to cause reserve members to have to go on the field?”

“Let’s talk inside. We’ve spent the whole afternoon looking for you and we’re too worn out. I need some water… Why did an informant like you leave your contact point and moved here? Has the magus you were watching died?”

The old man sighed as he led them in. “I don’t know if he’s dead or not. The problem is that I don’t even know where he is. A few years ago, there was an assassination incident caused by Greytower from Siklos here. After that, there was a huge investigation in the colonies. All magi living in seclusion were captured and taken away.

“That included the magus I was tasked to observe. He never returned. I tried to make a missing-persons report as a concerned neighbour, only to be rebuked for poking into top-secret business and warned to not look into it. If I went snooping, I was worried I would be captured, so I sent a report to the royal capital. However, I got no response at all.

“After that, the civil war broke out and the mainland cut off contact with the colonies. In the years I spent here, the colonies eventually declared self-governance. Some rich and powerful man took note of my house in the city and I had no choice but to rent it to him as a shop. You are the first of the Watch to contact me with the method we used ten years ago. I thought you were from the royal capital and came to set up another informant network here…”

The man wore an expression of melancholic nostalgia. “Back when Prince Hansbach retreated from the royal capital, more than half of the Watch chose to follow him. When the first prince returned to attack the royal capital from the sea and took it back, we found that the Watch was almost no more. The ones that remained were either hired as bodyguards or completely missing. Our warehouses were ransacked. We have no idea who did it.

“We lost a lot of members during the civil war, mostly from protecting the first prince from assassination attempts. When the prince ascended to the throne at the royal capital, we only had less than 60 left. Once His Majesty lost the battle and retreated from Whitestag, he got assassinated. There are only 20 plus of us now.”

“Then what are you trying to achieve here? Don’t tell me you want to assassinate the generals of the autonomous region? That’s not something you’re capable of. I don’t want to get involved in that,” the old man cautiously said.

“No…” The man shook his head and took out a small portrait. “While the generals here betrayed His Majesty, we have no intention of causing trouble. We’re here to look for this woman. She should’ve arrived some half a month ago. Her whereabouts are still unknown.

“She’s His Majesty’s killer. We’ve been looking for her for the past three years. She’s always managed to evade us and finally came here. We must definitely find her and avenge His Majesty. By the way… she has a small black dog with her…”