CHAPTER 97……………………………
Anna acted the part of a faithful maid, as she always did.
But when she heard Linaria’s next question, she froze in surprise.
“You know about Lambda, don’t you?”
“Pardon? Lambda?”
“The assassination organization.”
Anna, who had been about to feign ignorance, glanced briefly at Kaas.
It seemed he had already gone running to Linaria to tell her.
Letting out a small sigh, Anna spoke calmly, her tone subdued.
“It’s where I belonged before I met you, my lady.”
Until now, Linaria had never asked where Anna had come from, and Anna had never volunteered the information.
“I know it’s not a pleasant memory for you. But I must ask a favor.”
Linaria knew she was reopening Anna’s wounds,
but Anna was the only person who could tell her anything about Lambda.
“Could you tell me what kind of place Lambda was—just as much as you’re comfortable sharing?”
Anna paused for a moment, as if recalling the past, before finally opening her mouth.
“There’s not much I can tell you in detail.”
It might have sounded like a half-hearted answer.
Anna quickly added,
“It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it—it’s that I really don’t know much. I’ve never seen the face of the one who gave us orders. Even our base changed constantly.”
“……”
“I never once considered the others in the organization as comrades. People who see themselves as tools can’t possibly form any real bonds.”
“Anna, I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing for you to apologize for, my lady.”
What she had just confessed was nothing compared to what she’d truly been through.
And yet her gentle-hearted lady looked saddened.
“You didn’t kidnap me or raise me as an assassin. Meeting you has been the greatest blessing of my life.”
Anna forced a small, wry smile.
“I’m only sorry I can’t be of more help.”
“Wait, Anna. What do you mean—kidnapped?”
“Oh. I was kidnapped when I was little. That’s how I ended up in Lambda.”
“There are crimes that don’t draw much public attention, unlike the kidnapping of commoners, but they happen all the same. If I can stop such things from happening, that would be something worthwhile.”
Linaria suddenly remembered something August had once said.
Unlike the nobility, commoners had long lived under constant threat, in blind spots where safety didn’t reach.
Anna went on as if nothing were amiss.
“My memories from that time are hazy. I think I must’ve been playing late with friends when it happened. When I woke up, I was somewhere completely unfamiliar.”
“Anna! Come home early today!”
“No—way—!”
Only that faint memory of her mother’s voice remained.
Her mother had probably wanted her home early to run an errand.
So even after the sun had set, Anna had deliberately stayed out.
She sometimes wondered—
if she had been the kind of child who listened to her parents, would her fate have been different?
“There were all kinds of people—different ages, men and women both. I don’t know what the selection criteria were, but they sorted people somehow. After that… well, you can probably guess.”
She was trained to be an assassin.
To survive, she had to kill.
So the word “death” no longer felt distant to her.
“I’m glad you escaped that place.”
“If you hadn’t found me, my lady, I’d have died meaninglessly like the others.”
“……”
“We were taught to take our own lives if we failed a mission or were fatally wounded. To prevent any information leaks, you see.”
They were treated as disposable tools.
“Normally, I should have taken the poison prepared for such occasions when I failed my mission. But that day, I didn’t.”
At the time, Anna had been gravely injured.
Even without the poison, she would have died soon.
“You just wanted to live a little longer, didn’t you? That’s only natural.”
“No, my lady. It wasn’t natural for me.”
Anna shook her head.
“Every time I stole someone’s life, the value of my own life grew meaningless. I was brainwashed to believe that failures must die. How could wanting to live ever feel natural?”
“Anna…”
Linaria looked at her with pity in her eyes.
“I’m fine! I get to live in comfort by your side now, after all.”
Anna tried to sound cheerful.
But Linaria wasn’t fooled.
“What about looking for your family? I can help you.”
“…No. If I’d wanted to see them, I would’ve said so first. Please don’t worry about it.”
“……”
“I hardly remember anything from before the kidnapping. I don’t even remember my mother’s name.”
“What about the area you lived in?”
“Linaria.”
Linaria flinched when her own name was suddenly spoken.
Anna waved her hands in embarrassment.
“Oh, I wasn’t calling you, my lady! I just suddenly remembered—there were lots of linaria flowers blooming.”
Anna scratched her cheek.
The memory was so fragmentary that she couldn’t say much more.
She didn’t know why it surfaced now, or when and where she’d seen that scene.
Since linaria flowers didn’t bloom only in specific regions, there was no way to guess.
As Anna wrestled with the confusion, Linaria asked another question.
“Anna, do the assassins of Lambda have any weaknesses?”
“No.”
Anna snapped out of her thoughts, but again, she couldn’t give a long answer.
Her short, decisive reply left Linaria pensive.
She had brought up Lambda hoping to find a way to strike against them, but it seemed there was no easy solution.
I said I’d be inspecting the mine as the head of the merchant guild—not an abandoned one.
Only two people knew which site she planned to visit: her business partner, Duke Brimstone, and her father.
Neither of them would betray me or leak information.
No one could have predicted that the merchant head would visit an abandoned mine—
and yet, an assassin had lain in wait.
It’s safer to assume they’ve stationed operatives in every luminous-stone mine.
Avoiding the abandoned mines would be safest.
But the “Star of the Sea” is in that mine.
She had to find it before Duke Leviathan did.
“Was it Sir Kaas who told you that the assassins who targeted me before were from Lambda?”
Anna seemed to think Linaria’s interest stemmed from the assassination attempt on the Obel estate.
“If that’s the case, you needn’t worry too much. Their target wasn’t you, but Sir Kaas.”
“……”
“And they never give up until they’ve eliminated their target. But strangely, they stopped going after him.”
Linaria didn’t know why—but it was welcome news.
“Still, you might get hurt if you dig too deeply. I wouldn’t want that.”
Having once belonged to the organization, Anna knew all too well how ruthless they could be.
“Anna, you know what?”
After a short pause, Linaria made up her mind.
“When I set my sights on something, I never give up either.”
“……”
“Pack only the essentials. We’re going back.”
“Back? Where to?”
“To Obel Castle. I’m going to see my brother, Ricardo.”
Linaria rose to her feet, apparently ready to leave at once.
Kaas followed silently.
“Weren’t you planning to go to Rozen?”
“I was—but plans have changed.”
Feeling uneasy, Anna stood too, ready to follow.
But Linaria suddenly stopped and turned back to her.
“Anna, if… just if—you found out who it was that tore you from your family and made you live as an assassin, what would you do?”
Kaas had told her that the man behind Lambda was Duke Leviathan.
And since Leviathan was Maximilian’s relative by marriage, confronting him would inevitably mean crossing paths.
Linaria wanted to know whether Anna sought revenge.
“I’d kill them. And the more they suffer before they die, the better.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“I thought so.”
Linaria was relieved.
Because Anna hadn’t answered that she’d given up on revenge, that she just wanted to live a peaceful life now.
A few days later—
One of the mines owned by Duke Obel collapsed.
It had long been abandoned, so it was concluded to be an accident caused by poor maintenance.
No workers had been present, so there should have been no casualties.
However—
[Death of the Merchant Head! What Will Become of the Luna Trading Company?]
The merchant head of the Luna Company, who had been inspecting the abandoned mine, was found dead.
He was a newly risen magnate, recently gaining attention and amassing wealth at a staggering pace.
Where people gather, money flows—and where money flows, people gather.
Many had sought to befriend the merchant head.
Yet he had never once shown his face in public.
Naturally, his death drew immense attention.
People gossiped that his good fortune had run out,
and the newspapers splashed the story across their front pages.
