Chapter 11
As soon as Ruben finished speaking, the atmosphere filling the space shifted in an instant. Even the guild members who had looked ready to lunge forward seemed to sense the chilling change; their ferocious movements froze, and they hesitated all at once.
“Ruben… please….”
Even though she wasn’t the target, Ritzhaian felt fear. Her whole body trembled under the overwhelming dread that tightened around her. The changed air was so heavy she could barely breathe.
Even though he was right beside her. Even though she was being protected.
“You’re too late to choose.”
In the midst of it all, Ruben was different. His face, of course, couldn’t be seen, so everything was only speculation—but Ritzhaian, held tightly in his arms, could feel it clearly.
He was enjoying this situation.
He was the source of the overwhelming fear pressing down on everyone present.
“….”
And of course, she wasn’t the only one who felt it.
A crushing pressure, a presence that pierced the lungs and stole speech itself. Unable to withstand it, cold sweat poured down the foreheads of the guild members.
Instincts—something animalistic—told them they had become prey frozen before a predator.
And yet, they still could not lower their weapons. That too was instinct. The instinct to survive.
Ruben only watched them as if observing from afar. He spoke of choice, but no one here believed they truly had one.
If they moved, they would die.
That was all.
To Ritzhaian, the suffocating silence felt like a scream. A scream begging to be saved…
“!”
Just as she thought she could no longer endure this situation—
Creak—
A heavy sound shattered the frozen air.
The door opened.
“Everyone stop. The guild master requests that both of you come in.”
Only then did Ritzhaian finally release a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
“It’s been a while, Lady Berner. I hear there was a bit of commotion outside.”
A bit?
Ritzhaian stared at Guild Master Peijin, who smiled faintly and offered her tea as if nothing had happened, and felt utterly speechless.
“Yes, it has been a while, Peijin. I come all this way after months, and I was nearly turned away at the door. All because I brought a single escort.”
“My apologies. It seems we’ve caused you unnecessary trouble. You’ve waited so long to come here, and we regret the disturbance caused.”
Unlike the other guild members, Peijin only briefly glanced at Ruben standing quietly behind Ritzhaian and made no mention of him at all.
Clever.
He had already calculated it. He knew this could not be used against him.
Ruben had certainly been the one to escalate the situation, but his actions weren’t entirely wrong either. A noble lady bringing only one escort was not unheard of.
So Ritzhaian had no real grounds to keep pressing the matter.
Of course, she hadn’t come here to cause trouble. She had her own goal.
So she simply accepted his apology with a sip of tea.
The main issue mattered more.
“Thank you for acknowledging my patience. Still, I hope the effort I’ve invested hasn’t been wasted. I’ve been paying you for a year, and not a single update came back.”
“If everything were easily resolved as you wish, we wouldn’t be in such trouble. However, you may have expectations today.”
“Then I hope the information is worth what I paid.”
“There’s no need to prolong the preamble. I’ll be direct.”
At Peijin’s unusually confident tone, Ritzhaian felt her anticipation rise.
She had not waited one or two months.
She had poured money into this for an entire year, only ever receiving the same answer:
“The information you seek is not yet ready.”
Even when she had visited the guild herself in frustration, she had always left empty-handed.
Those memories lingered in her mind so strongly that even coming here today felt uncertain.
To steady herself, she took another sip of tea.
“What is it?”
Peijin looked at her once, then at Ruben behind her, before speaking carefully.
“It has been confirmed that he is a power user.”
“A power user… don’t tell me…”
“He is, in other words, like you, Lady. A noble.”
Ritzhaian nearly dropped her cup.
Hot tea spilled over her hand, but she didn’t even notice.
Because what she had just heard was unbelievable.
Not because she was happy, and not because she was disappointed.
It was simply impossible.
“No way. He’s not just some random organization member. And he’s not even from a minor group, right? Isn’t he the deputy commander of Familie Hagen?”
“Yes, that is correct…”
“Are you absolutely sure? Is this information reliable?”
She normally wouldn’t question things this strongly. But a noble being involved was not something to treat lightly.
In Enswiden, the country they lived in—
Those with special abilities and those without had long been divided into nobles and commoners. That division was not something trivial.
Nobles, shaped by their abilities over generations, lived in a world of their own, bound by overwhelming authority and pride.
It was already rare to even encounter them outside the capital. Even the capital required permission.
There was no way someone from the underworld of the kingdom could be a noble.
“We extracted the information by interrogating a member of Familie Hagen, as Casa Bakada confirmed. They have no reason to lie to you.”
“But still… something like this is impossible.”
A noble already had everything they could possibly need.
So why would one join a criminal organization and rise to a leadership position?
And why would he target another noble?
Especially a remote, quiet family—more importantly, a family that had lost its ability, a hollow shell of its former self.
“In normal circumstances, it would be impossible. But if he is an illegitimate child abandoned by his family, the story changes.”
“Illegitimate child…”
As Peijin continued, it felt like she was sinking into a swamp.
She raised a trembling hand toward her forehead, forgetting even the tea staining her skin.
“Ah.”
Ruben, standing behind her, quickly caught her hand before she could touch her face.
Without hesitation, he placed a handkerchief into her palm.
She wanted to thank him, but given the situation, she only nodded slightly and wiped her hand while looking back at Peijin.
Get a grip, Ritzhaian.
“This is not a minor piece of information. But I find it hard to accept that it took a year to obtain it. There’s more, isn’t there?”
“…You are perceptive. That is correct. We couldn’t contact you earlier because we were trying to resolve it with our own resources.”
Peijin looked at her again in surprise. She hadn’t expected such sharp insight from someone who looked like nothing more than a refined noble lady with fair skin, green eyes, and neatly arranged blonde hair.
A sheltered flower in a greenhouse.
Maybe I shouldn’t underestimate her…
If he said the wrong thing, she might not play the role they needed.
Peijin cleared his throat and continued.
“Even mobilizing all of Casa Bakada’s forces across Enswiden, we couldn’t find him. No matter how well Familie Hagen hides him, erasing all traces of a person is nearly impossible.”
“Then why tell me this now? You could have continued on your own if I was only a nuisance.”
“We reached a conclusion. Perhaps he has hidden somewhere beyond our reach.”
Ritzhaian could already see where this was going.
There was only one place beyond their reach in this country.
It was almost laughable how obvious it was.
“So you want me to enter high society and find Carta using my noble status.”
Her opportunity to act had finally come.
Even if she was being used.
“You’re quick to understand. That is exactly correct.”
Peijin had nothing more to say.
“If I’m honest, I never planned to refuse. Being a chess piece is better than sitting at home waiting for letters.”
“…You’re more compliant than expected.”
“That depends on perspective.”
Compared to what they had expected, her acceptance felt almost too smooth.
“I’ve been prepared for this from the beginning. By the way, you still haven’t confirmed which family he belongs to, correct? If you had, you wouldn’t need me.”
“That is correct.”
“And his ability… I think I can guess.”
“…It’s probably what you think. Something related to fire.”
“I see. So we only know he’s a noble, and that he has red eyes?”
“We have nothing more to add.”
Her calm acceptance made Peijin doubt whether she truly understood what she was stepping into.
Did she really grasp the scale of the “chessboard” she had just entered?
“…I’ve always wondered. Why does no one know what his face looks like?”
