Chapter 13
“Ah… Ari?”
Half-hidden behind a pile of clutter, a young man who looked just like Aillie—pale blond hair and soft pink eyes—stared at her in terror. He was Claren, the third son of the Count of Erdey.
As if he had just been chased by someone, he was breathing hard. His pale face and neat blond hair were damp with sweat.
Beside him, the eldest and second sons could be glimpsed sitting with their arms held behind their backs. As if bound by invisible ropes—or caught in some magical spell—their red eyes stared blankly into empty space.
“Brother Claren, what on earth happened here?” Rikiar asked.
“Th-that is… I definitely…”
Even when questioned, Claren muttered like someone out of his senses.
What could have happened? Aillie frowned in worry.
Even if they weren’t on Rikiar’s level, her brothers had talent in swordsmanship. And since the three of them had gone out together, it wouldn’t have been easy to subdue them.
“Let’s rest for now, Brother Claren. We’ll find out what happened step by step,” Aillie said gently.
“Ah… okay. Y-yes, let’s do that…”
Aillie sat down beside Claren and decided to wait for him to calm down. In his current state, it would be hard to have a proper conversation anyway. No matter how worried she was, waiting was the only option.
Rikiar went over to the eldest, Emond, and the second son, Paulo, to check their condition, while Vice Captain Liton searched the abandoned house for any trace of the culprit.
“They’re not injured, at least. You can relax for now,” Rikiar said.
“That’s a relief. Thank you.”
“I’ll check further to see if there’s any magic or curse on them.”
Rikiar spoke with a seriousness she had never seen before, sounding dependable.
Before he went abroad, he’d seemed like a sheltered young noble with little worldly experience. Had he learned all this at the academy? Either way, he was reassuringly reliable.
“Your Majesty, this place seems to be a space used to hide stolen goods. Does anything come to mind?” Liton asked.
“It’s been a long time since I last came to Erdey, so I don’t know the details. But the butler mentioned thieves earlier. They were causing trouble in the territory a few months ago, and recently they’ve been targeting expensive commissioned items.”
“Expensive commissioned items… I see.”
Nodding, Liton picked up a pendant lying on a table. With its large, golden gemstone, it looked valuable at a glance.
The moment Liton took a step forward with the pendant in hand—
“…Hmm. So that’s how it is.”
The red gem embedded in the hilt of the longsword at his waist flashed brightly.
The light was strong enough to illuminate the entire abandoned house. Instinctively, Aillie squeezed her eyes shut; when she opened them again, the red glow had already vanished.
Liton returned the pendant to its original place and nodded repeatedly, as if something had just clicked.
“Your Majesty, Lord Albero. The items here are dangerous. Please step back so you don’t touch anything, even by accident.”
“What do you mean?”
“It seems these people have placed magic on the stolen goods.”
“Magic… on stolen goods?”
Aillie and Rikiar looked at each other in disbelief.
They’d suspected something from the brothers’ condition, but it seemed there was a fairly skilled mage among the thieves. To think they’d enchanted this many stolen items…
Pulling Claren closer to keep him from touching anything, Aillie thought to herself.
To pull something like this off in just a few months… Maybe a mage joined an existing group of thieves.
To think criminals had been plotting something so underhanded in her beloved hometown, Erdey.
If Aillie hadn’t come back to Erdey for her vacation, they might have continued expanding their operation unnoticed.
One day, they might even have swallowed up all of Erdey.
Once people build up capital, their greed only grows. And the target of that greed would have been this land—the entire County of Erdey. They’d been frighteningly close to disaster.
“How shameless,” Rikiar muttered, shaking his head.
Erdey was a land filled with memories for him as well, as her childhood friend. Of course he’d be furious.
Liton resumed searching the abandoned house, while Aillie stayed seated beside Claren, watching his complexion carefully.
“…Ari, I’m starting to remember now.”
At that moment, Claren spoke in a weak voice. All three of them jerked their gazes toward him.
His face was still pale, but he clearly looked better than before. His breathing was steadier, and the soft pink eyes that had been trembling in fear were now focused.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Aillie asked carefully.
Claren nodded firmly and began to speak.
“So… we went to the shop early in the morning to pick up the gift for you, Ari. At the time, it wasn’t finished yet, so the three of us waited there.”
“That’s what Father said—the gift probably wasn’t done yet.”
“Yeah. They said it wouldn’t take long, so we figured it was worth waiting. But partway through, I got really sleepy.”
“Sleepy?”
Sleep?
Had the thieves used some kind of sleeping drug? Aillie frowned uneasily.
“Ah, since you were coming back after so long, Ari, I was too excited to sleep the night before. Turns out my brothers were the same. Are we hopelessly doting or what?”
“….”
…It seemed she’d jumped to the wrong conclusion.
Feeling awkward, Aillie cleared her throat.
“When we woke up, everything was in chaos. The item had just been completed, but the craftsman said he’d stepped upstairs briefly to have a cup of tea and planned to wake us afterward.”
“Don’t tell me… in that short time?”
“Yeah. Apparently it was stolen while he was gone—whether they’d been hiding nearby or what.”
“Ah…”
“Emond got angry and confronted the craftsman. Paulo went around asking people nearby. I checked the shop to see where the culprit might’ve entered.”
That sounded exactly like them. Aillie nodded, recalling her brothers from her memories.
Emond, who maintained his dignity while ruthlessly cornering the other party until they were in tears; Paulo, who approached people gently and coaxed out even the truths they wanted to hide; and Claren, whose keen observation never missed even the smallest inconsistency.
And since it involved Aillie’s gift, they must have been even more fearsome than usual.
“Then we decided we had to catch the thieves and get the gift back…”
“And then?” Aillie prompted.
“…We searched the surrounding area thoroughly. Our heads were too hot to think straight.”
…Yes, they must have been terrifying indeed.
“By luck, we found this abandoned house pretty quickly. It was empty, so we just opened the door and went in—and it turned out to be the right place.”
To find such a hidden, ominous hideout so quickly… Perhaps their determination to recover their sister’s gift had guided them here.
Watching Claren speak with pride, Aillie smiled faintly. Even after two years apart, her brothers were still the same.
“The moment we stepped inside, I knew this was the thieves’ base. So we split up to look for your gift first, Ari.”
“How did you split up?”
“Emond went to the second floor, Paulo to a large storeroom, and I took charge of the first floor here.”
“The second floor…?” Liton asked, looking around in confusion.
Though the space was clearly larger and differently structured than it appeared from outside, there was no sign of any stairs leading to a second floor.
“What are you talking about? There were stairs right in front when we came in—”
“There were none,” Liton said.
“…What?”
It wasn’t just the second floor. There was something that looked like a storeroom, but it was barely large enough for one person to enter. It certainly wasn’t big enough to warrant dividing the search that way.
Tilting her head, Aillie sank into thought. Perhaps the hideout changed its structure every time someone entered.
To buy time, in case the hideout was discovered?
It was a plausible theory.
Even if valuable items were scattered around, a wealthy person who had commissioned an expensive piece would first come searching for their lost item.
It seemed the thieves had prepared another layer of insurance, in case the rightful owner didn’t touch any of the other goods.
“Brother Claren, I think this place changes its layout every time someone enters, to make intruders get lost—even if the owner of the stolen item comes looking.”
“Ah… could that be why?”
“Do you have something in mind?”
“You might be right, Ari. When we first came in, even the first floor had several rooms, and there were multiple doors inside the storeroom. It felt like the space kept going on like a maze.”
A maze-like space…
Aillie nodded. It all fit together.
“But Aillie,” Rikiar asked after some thought, “if that’s the case, why has it changed into such a simple layout now?”
That’s true. Something is off.
If the goal was to buy time, the structure should have remained complex. Yet the current hideout was extremely simple.
A not-so-large first floor, a small storeroom, and piles upon piles of stolen goods stacked high enough that one wrong move could knock something over…
As they struggled to piece it together, Liton spoke up, as if he’d just realized something.
“It’s probably because of the magic tool I’m carrying. It’s an artifact that can control magic and interfere with magic already in effect.”
He gestured to the red gemstone set into the hilt of his sword.
Hearing that, Aillie clapped her hands lightly. At last, all the scattered pieces clicked into place.
The moment the three of them entered the hideout, the magic that constantly generated complex new layouts was partially disrupted by Liton’s artifact. It still created a new space—but one that was extremely simple and cramped.
That was why the scattered items had all ended up crowded into a narrow space like this, filling the room with stolen goods. And it was likely why her brothers, who had been in different areas, were now gathered here as well.
“Ah…”
“So that’s what happened.”
Claren and Rikiar nodded repeatedly, apparently having reached the same conclusion.
Now that they understood the magic placed on this hideout, only one thing remained.
“Then… please continue, Brother Claren.”
Who were the thieves behind all this?
And what exactly had they intended to do to Aillie’s precious brothers?
