After a brief farewell, the journey to the Northern Region began. The start of a journey toward an incident reeking of secrets, conspiracies, and the heavy scent of blood…
“It’s surprisingly okay, isn’t it?”
“So it seems.”
It was more comfortable than expected.
“Hey there, Lord Hayes, was it? Would you like an apple?”
“You take one too, young lady. These apples are quite sweet.”
*Crunch!*
I took a large bite of the apple. It was a bit tart, but it certainly wasn’t a poison apple.
*Crunch, crunch!*
Lure, who was leaning against the carriage next to me while finishing her apple, muttered listlessly.
“I’m wearing these obviously strange pink clothes, yet no one points it out.”
“Someone asked me if these flashy clothes were the latest fashion in the Imperial Capital.”
Either way, the reactions weren’t mocking.
“It’s the third day of the journey, and the drivers haven’t cursed even once.”
“The road was quite rough, too.”
It has been said since ancient times that if you want to know someone’s true nature, you should put them behind a steering wheel.
If they could drive through rough terrain for three days straight without uttering a single harsh word, they had to be considered a saint, without a doubt.
“Mr. Jefferson keeps handing me snacks. He says I remind him of his granddaughter.”
“I decided to speak informally with Liman. He has a surprisingly good personality.”
Marie had become close with a driver named Clinet and often told him stories about plays. So, to draw a conclusion from the observations of the past three days…
“Everyone is surprisingly kind.”
Then again, just because the boss was a villain didn’t mean the employees had to be villains too. It wasn’t that strange for the people of the Northern Region to be good people.
Of course, whenever people gather, there is bound to be at least one troublemaker, but the troublemaker of this journey was not from the Northern Region.
“You useless, half-witted fool!”
At the sound of shouting coming from the back of the procession, we frowned in unison.
“There he goes again. You finished your apple? Let’s go inside.”
“Yes, Teacher.”
We tossed our apple seeds toward the far side of the road and climbed into the carriage. Marie, who was inside, closed the carriage door as if she had been waiting for us, but it was to no avail.
That foul temper pierced through the carriage walls.
“How are you going to manage the carriage if you do it like this?”
“I-I’m sorry. But I don’t know what I did wrong…”
“Wrapping the cloth like this ruins the axle! With you being this full of mistakes, how is my niece supposed to trust you and ride in this carriage? Do you not care if the future Grand Duchess gets hurt, or what?”
Marie leaned back against the seat and let out a sigh.
“I’m dying of embarrassment. Not a single day goes by quietly.”
Using the name of the Grand Duchess as his shield, Bernard badgered the drivers like he was hunting rats. We tried to stop him once or twice at first, but it was useless.
Above all, Bernard had a justification.
“But Mr. Bernard, didn’t you clearly tell us to do it this way…?”
“What?! When did I ever say that?”
“You definitely said so yesterday during the carriage inspection—”
“Quiet! Do you know who I am? I am a man who served as a cavalry officer in the Imperial Army! There is nothing I don’t know about carriages and horses! If I say so, then it is so! What does a half-witted driver have to say for himself?!”
Listening to this, Lure made a gagging gesture.
“Ugh. I hate people who show off like that the most. Marie, is it actually true that he was a cavalry officer?”
“Regrettably, it is true. Uncle Bernard has been knowledgeable about horses and carriages for a long time. It was thanks to that that he was able to become a cavalry officer.”
“Hmm, that’s unexpected. I thought he was just an irredeemable gambler.”
“That’s also true. Uncle was dishonorably discharged after getting caught embezzling military funds to dabble in horse and carriage racing.”
“Oh, um… I guess he really does love horses and carriages.”
In any case, Bernard was a former cavalry officer.
With such an expert raging about problems with the carriage, there was a limit to how much those around him with no relevant knowledge could restrain him.
“Is there any need to listen to those annoying sounds?”
Marie said, gesturing as if covering her ears.
“We might as well share some more important stories while Uncle is causing a scene.”
“When you say more important stories?”
Marie asked in a whisper.
“The marriage certificate… It’s really true that one of these people has it, right?”
There was anxiety in her voice.
“Three days have already passed on our journey, but there’s no sign of the marriage certificate at all. Even when I talk to them, they all just seem like good people. Is there really anyone among them who has the certificate? Even if there is, what if we can’t find it by the time we arrive at the Grand Duchy?”
To be honest, I didn’t have any certainty either.
However, now was the time to reassure Marie.
“It’s all right. The marriage certificate is definitely here, not far from us. It’s just that we haven’t found it yet because we haven’t actively searched for it.”
“Why haven’t we searched hard until now?”
“That’s because searching blindly right now would be inefficient.”
Quite a few people were participating in this journey. Bernard and our team alone made four people, plus seven carriage drivers from the Northern Region and three guides. Additionally, there were seven carriages and twenty horses.
Searching all these people and carriages secretly was close to impossible.
‘Even if it were possible, it would inevitably take a long time.’
If the marriage certificate were moved from this person to that person, or from this carriage to that carriage in the meantime, all previous search efforts would return to nothing.
“Instead of that, it’s better to search openly. When the time comes, we must investigate everyone at once using an appropriate excuse.”
“When is that time?”
“Naturally, it is when the culprit is likely to have let their guard down.”
Three days had passed since we departed, but nothing had happened in the meantime. By now, the person holding the certificate must have slowly begun to relax.
On top of this, I even had the information I obtained from Liman.
“I heard that camping ends tonight. Tomorrow morning, we will arrive at the station connected to the Grand Duchy. We will be taking a train bound for the Northern Region from there.”
All the luggage loaded in the carriages will be moved to the cargo hold, and the people will sit in the passenger seats.
Of course, the horses and carriages will not be loaded onto the train.
Even if the culprit had hidden the certificate in some clever place, they would have no choice but to move it somewhere else before boarding the train.
‘The most likely place would be on their person.’
Since they wouldn’t know what might happen on the train, they would think that was the safest option.
“So tomorrow morning, right before we board the train, let’s begin looking for the marriage certificate in earnest.”
If we made an appropriate excuse, such as saying that Marie’s jewelry had disappeared, we would be able to proceed with a body search of everyone smoothly.
“We are going to exploit the culprit’s complacency.”
As I explained the plan, the two girls nodded with tense faces.
“I’m a bit nervous. But as your assistant, Teacher, I’ll do my best.”
“Phantom Thief Lure Team, second deployment!”
“Ack! Marie, I told you not to do that!”
Watching the two of them cause a noisy ruckus, I smiled.
At that time, I thought everything would go well.
But in the end, who was the one actually buried in complacency?
***
In the early dawn, before the sun had even risen.
We were attacked.
***
Something had felt ominous since around that evening.
“The weather is somewhat gloomy… It feels like it’s going to rain.”
“Indeed.”
The sky was quite murky, and the day was not very good.
‘I’m somehow worried.’
It felt like there was still a long way to go, yet it was already this dark. My worry grew because we were traveling along a road with few people, and we didn’t have headlights.
Sure enough.
“Oh my! What should we do about this?”
“Everyone! Come over here!”
Suddenly, the carriages stopped, and people began to murmur. When I went outside to investigate the situation, one of the luggage carriages was visibly tilted.
Bernard took the lead in checking the condition of the carriage and clicked his tongue.
“The axle is broken. This can’t be fixed.”
I understood that much, but Bernard suddenly started shouting.
“Bring out the driver who was driving this carriage! I told you so many times, yet you couldn’t even manage a carriage properly and ended up wrecking it? You useless fellow!”
At that very moment, Bernard’s body was stained black.
‘It’s quite absurd.’
Unable to bear it any longer, I shot back a remark.
“Wasn’t it you, Mr. Bernard, who instructed the drivers on carriage management over the past few days? If the carriage broke down despite that, wouldn’t that be your fault?”
“Wh-What?! What does a thug like you know…!”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about carriages, but it didn’t seem like changing instructions dozens of times a day would have a good effect on them.”
His voice was so loud that Bernard’s tantrum could be heard even if one didn’t want to listen.
One moment the axle had to be wrapped in cloth, and the next he was asking why it was wrapped. If one of those was right, then the other instruction was obviously wrong.
Since he had harassed the drivers by constantly changing his words just to enjoy his meager bit of power, it wasn’t strange if the carriage had suffered some damage in the process.
“How ridiculous. I am a man who served as a cavalry officer…!”
Bernard’s favorite line came out and then stopped. It was probably because he met the chilly gazes directed at him.
He was already disliked by everyone.
‘Even if your status is high, what would you do if one of the people here couldn’t take it anymore and stabbed you? On this deserted mountain path.’
“Ahem…”
Only then did Bernard realize his disadvantageous position, and he cleared his throat a few times.
Then, as if he had no choice, he muttered this.
“Now that I think about it… I suppose I might be at fault to some extent.”
Whether that half-hearted confession counted as one, the black shadow was stripped away.
‘Case solved… can I even call it that?’
It was a case resolution too embarrassing to brag about.
“Regardless! Determining who is responsible isn’t what’s important right now! We need to figure out how to deal with that broken luggage carriage!”
Bernard shouted brazenly, despite being the one who started it. It was exasperating, but he was right.
Soon, everyone’s attention gathered on the broken luggage carriage.
“Fortunately, the luggage didn’t all spill out. It doesn’t seem like it will be too difficult to manage. Shouldn’t we just divide the luggage among the other luggage carriages?”
“That would be best. We’ll be transferring to the train tomorrow anyway, so the burden on the horses won’t be too severe.”
“Wait! Wait, wait, wait!”
In the midst of this, the obnoxious Bernard stepped in again.
“The carriage I’m riding in is already full, so there’s no room to load anything else! Divide the luggage among the remaining four luggage carriages!”
To explain briefly, our procession was as follows:
First, three guides, including Liman, rode horses at the front. Behind them was the carriage carrying Marie, me, and Lure, followed by the luggage carriages.
The drivers sat on the driver’s seats of each carriage and drove the horses.
Did you notice who was missing?
That’s right.
Bernard was squeezed into the last luggage carriage.
Originally, Bernard was also supposed to ride in the carriage Marie was in, but wouldn’t that only be possible if the relationship between Marie and Bernard was at least somewhat decent?
Bernard had declared first that he didn’t want to ride in the same carriage as his uncomfortable niece, and so his seat became a corner of the last luggage carriage.
“I won’t stand for it if you load luggage into this carriage, so deal with it yourselves!”
Not only did Bernard declare that, but he even brought a red cloth from somewhere and attached a marker to the carriage he was riding in. Among the carriages that all looked similar, only Bernard’s carriage stood out.
‘Good grief. Anyone would think that was the Grand Duchess’s carriage.’
His behavior was a spectacle, but no one stopped him. Everyone seemed like they didn’t want to exchange words with Bernard over something trivial.
Fortunately, the luggage that had been loaded in the broken carriage was enough to be divided among the remaining four.
However, moving the luggage and clearing the broken carriage to the side of the road inevitably delayed us for some time.
Furthermore, it was even discovered late that one of the horses had been injured.
“It seems its leg was injured by the impact when the carriage tilted.”
In the end, it was several hours later before all measures were completed and the procession could depart again.
By then, the sun was already setting.
“It can’t be helped. We have no choice but to camp near here today.”
Liman declared.
“On this mountainside? It feels like a bear might jump out from somewhere at any moment…”
“I don’t like it much either, but it will be more dangerous to move in the middle of the night. Other accidents could occur. With this many people, wild animals won’t be able to approach easily.”
However, not long after we began preparing the camp…
Raindrops finally began to fall, one by one.
This was 3 hours before the attack.