ESL Chapter 44

“What message were you told to deliver?”

“A loyal retainer of Count Roman’s house, guide him to me.”

Ian recited the words MacLean had told him without missing a single syllable. At that, a strange smile flickered at the corners of the woman’s lips before disappearing.

“Hmm~ So you’ve come looking for a man named Kassen?”

The woman called Lu, as if she had never been acting coquettish at all, calmly folded the banknote and tucked it deep into her cleavage. Then, as she moved to straighten her body, a sharp pain shot through her lower abdomen and she grimaced slightly.

“Damn bastard. Didn’t even pay much and went at it how many times? My legs are shaking.”

Brushing back her fallen hair, Lu muttered a light curse, then gestured with her eyes for them to follow and began walking deeper into the alley.

The place where Kassen was hiding was located deep within Herion Street, requiring quite a long walk inward to reach. Because of this, Lea had to stop several times while Ian covered her ears with his hands, and each time Lu watched the two of them with a coldly exasperated look at Ian’s overprotectiveness.

“It’s over there. He’s been living in that house for about two weeks now.”

Lu pointed to a house at the far end of the alley. It was a run-down place tucked away so far into a corner that you wouldn’t even know a house was there unless you came close. The alley path was filthy with garbage and smelled terrible, which was probably why there were no people around — and no occasion for Ian to cover her ears.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. I owe Pechen so much. Well then, I’ll be going.”

Lu waved off Ian’s thanks as if it were nothing, then turned and headed back the way she had come. Once Lu had disappeared, Ian turned to Lea and spoke.

“I’ll go in first and check. Please wait here for a moment.”

“And if I said I want to come with you?”

“No.”

Watching Ian refuse without a moment’s hesitation, Lea gave up and gestured for him to go ahead. Drawing on his skills as a Shadow, Ian approached the house where Kassen was said to be living without making a sound, opened the door, and went inside. For a brief moment, a noisy commotion of crashing and banging leaked out from the house. A short while later, Ian came back out and gestured with his eyes for Lea to come in.

Stepping inside, a sharp smell of strong alcohol hit them immediately, and empty bottles were rolling across the floor. On the table, a bottle that hadn’t been fully emptied had toppled over and was dripping liquor onto the floor.

Is that him? Lea looked at the middle-aged man sitting on the sofa with the expression of someone who had given up on everything in the world. The man, who appeared to be in his early forties with gray hair and brown eyes, had a handsome face — but he hadn’t seemed to have washed properly, his beard was growing in patches, and his overall appearance was a sorry sight.

“We should get some ventilation in here.”

At Lea’s words, Ian quickly moved to open the window. Kassen, who had been subdued by Ian and was sitting on the sofa, stiffened at the sound of a girl’s voice emerging from within the robe, and asked in a hoarse voice.

“…Who are you people…”

“I could ask the same of you — what are you doing here?”

Lea raised her hand and lowered the robe she had been wearing. As jet-black hair and flame-like, beautiful red eyes came into view, Kassen’s eyes widened in surprise. Though he had been shut away drinking, he wasn’t so cut off from the world as to have no idea what was happening in it. Having read an article in the newspaper not long ago about the lost daughter of Duke Kaien’s household returning, it wasn’t difficult for him to recognize who was standing before him now. The only question was why she had come looking for him. At his expression, Lea smiled faintly and spoke.

“From that look on your face, it seems you know who I am. Kassen Boyd.”

“…For someone of your standing… what business could you have with me.”

The man named Kassen slowly opened his mouth to speak, and though his eyes were glazed with drink, they gleamed sharply as if trying to grasp the situation.

“I’ve come to find you regarding the matter of Helen.”

The moment the name Helen left Lea’s lips, Kassen’s face crumpled, and in his brown eyes, the emotions of anger, regret, and guilt surged up violently. As if guilt were the greatest of them, he let out a sigh, bowed his head, and murmured.

“…If it concerns the young lady, I have nothing to say even if I had ten mouths. His Lordship entrusted her to me so earnestly, and yet not only did I fail to protect her — I even lost the trading company and have come to hide away like this…”

“But that wasn’t your fault.”

“…….”

“It wasn’t a situation where wanting to protect her meant you could. On the contrary, had you tried, you would have lost your life as well. Wasn’t it because you wanted to survive somehow, in order to help Helen?”

At Lea’s words, Kassen, his head still bowed, raised a hand to cover his face.

That was indeed how it had been. Even when he learned that the young lady had gone missing, even when the trading company was taken from him — he had thought he had to find her somehow and protect her. That was why he had fled here into hiding, evading Rene’s hands that sought to kill him. But when he learned that the young lady had been dragged to the Imperial Palace, and came to understand the terrible nature of the Second Prince, he was thrown into panic and consumed by rage. Even so, he did not give up. He had used every means at his disposal to search for her, on the off chance she might still be alive. How fervently he had wished for his young lady to return, each time he read articles about the lost daughter of Duke Kaien’s household coming back.

But hope had slowly turned to despair. With the master he had served now dead and the master’s daughter lost, there was nothing left he could do. Perhaps because everything was over, the assassins who had been coming for him no longer appeared either. In those circumstances, the only thing he could do was drink to endure the anguish.

He could no longer even remember how long he had been shut up in this place, drinking. And so he had abandoned hope for life and cut himself off from the world — to the point where he could no longer even feel the passage of time.

Plunged into self-reproach, Kassen was startled by a voice reaching his ears and snapped his head up.

“She is alive. The count’s house has been reclaimed as well. She is waiting for you.”

At first, Kassen couldn’t understand what the young lady before him was saying. But soon he realized it was about Helen, and his eyes flew wide open. Like a sea caught in a storm, his brown eyes were shaking violently.

“Re…really — the young lady… the young lady is alive…?!”

To Kassen’s dazed murmur — disbelieving, yet desperately wanting to believe — Lea smiled and answered.

“Yes. So now you must return to your place as well. She has lost her father and has no one to rely on — if even you remain like this, Kassen, Helen will be truly heartbroken.”

“……..”

From the closed eyes of the man, hot tears streamed down. He made no sound, but from his rough fists, clenched so tightly they might draw blood, one could tell he was weeping.

After some time had passed, when Kassen opened his eyes, his brown gaze no longer held despair. Like a sky that had cleared after storm clouds parted, his eyes had become clean and calm as he spoke quietly.

“I must go back to the young lady.”

****

Lea and Ian watched as Kassen said his farewells and climbed into the carriage.

“Is it truly alright to send him off like that?”

Ian asked expressionlessly, watching Kassen stagger slightly, still with some liquor remaining in his system. It was not like him to ask such a question under ordinary circumstances, but having come all the way to a place like this and witnessed things the young lady ought not to have seen, his mood was not particularly pleasant.

“It’ll be fine. There’s no one targeting his life anymore. Seeing him in person, he’s someone Count Roman and Helen can trust. And he said he would repay the debt. That’s enough. Let’s be on our way too.”

Turning her gaze from the window and leaning back against the carriage seat, Lea spoke — and Ian relayed their destination to the coachman through the carriage window. The young lady’s face with her eyes closed seemed somehow pale, and Ian opened his mouth.

“You look tired — wouldn’t it be better to head back to the mansion now?”

“Ah… it’s nothing. I breathed in quite a bit of that alcohol smell earlier… Let’s go to the antiquarian bookshop.”

Ah… right, she’s still a minor… With that understanding, Ian fell silent and looked out the window so the young lady could rest.

…

When the carriage came to a stop in front of the antiquarian bookshop, Lea opened her eyes, looking somewhat better, and stepped down from the carriage with Ian’s escort. Then her expression stiffened slightly. The bookshop’s door was firmly shut despite it being the middle of the day. And she sensed the presence of someone lying in wait. She was not the only one who had noticed.

Quickly catching Ian’s arm as he turned and moved to reach for his sword, Lea spoke casually.

“It seems they’ve closed up. We’ll have to come another time.”

“…Understood. My lady.”

Reading her signal to pretend not to notice, Ian extended the hand that had been reaching for his sword and instead took hold of the carriage door, opening it.

“Please, step in.”

After courteously escorting Lea into the carriage, Ian climbed in as well, and the carriage immediately departed from the bookshop.

“……”

After the carriage had set off, a man dressed in black with a black hood slowly revealed himself from atop the roof. The man, who had been on orders from his master to keep watch over the antiquarian bookshop, followed the movement of the carriage with a doll-like, expressionless gaze. And only once the carriage had disappeared from view did he return to his post.