Chapter 56 : Cornered

“There’s a limit to incompetence.”

Jack bowed his head even deeper at Tollin’s cold voice, which echoed in the quiet ducal mansion’s office.

“I apologize. I clearly confirmed it disappearing into the alley. But,”

“But, when you led the knights in, it was already gone without a trace?”

At Tollin's words, which seemed to ask if he called that an excuse, Jack had nothing else he could do but answer 'yes', and had to confirm his failure once again.

There was no room for excuses.

To lose a child twice, this was indeed his incompetence.

Tollin, who had been looking up at him irritably, lowered his gaze.

“Meaning, that child was left all alone in an empty alley.”

Jill, who was hiding behind Jack, trembled violently at that cold gaze and lowered her head.

“Yes, it seems the one named Seya was trying to save her friend and was captured instead.”

Tollin's eyes narrowed upon hearing Jack’s answer.

“Did you check their faces?”

He asked the child.

“N-n-no. They were all wearing black c-cloaks, or something like them……”

“And of course, there were no special patterns or anything.”

Jill, who had somehow managed not to collapse, trembled and nodded.

“Other than being near the food distribution center, there was nothing special, Tollin.”

Jack answered Tollin in place of the child, who couldn't continue speaking.

“Near the food distribution center, you say……”

Tollin frowned.

Because there was one very suspicious place around there.

Pale had already finished his report and left.

He’d said the guy called the 'manager', caught at the scene, just repeated that he knew nothing, even after all his fingers were broken.

When they were about to break his last remaining toe, he’d tried to say something, but suddenly complained of breathing difficulties, collapsed, and never got up again.

All this evidence was leading Tollin toward a single truth he didn't want to believe.

As the wrinkles on Tollin’s brow deepened, Jill sneakily watched his expression, then haltingly opened her mouth.

“She must have been hit by a knife. I heard fighting sounds, and I heard knife sounds. I heard a sound like a sack being dragged, so they must have taken her after she lost consciousness. Please…… save Seya.”

Tollin just looked down quietly at Jill, who had finished speaking without even breathing properly, having squeezed out every last drop of courage.

As the sharp eyes turned toward her, Jill started to hiccup.

“Take her out and feed her something.”

At Tollin’s command, Jack led the trembling child toward the door.

“They might have noticed we're watching.”

Tollin muttered, not even glancing at Jill leaving the room.

Unlike the opponent they were looking down on in the palm of their hand, this side was desperately lacking information.

“If they've already noticed, it won't be any easier. If it's too late, the captured child won't survive either.”

Jack, who had returned after sending the child out, responded to Tollin’s muttering.

Tollin stared at him quietly, at his genuinely sympathetic appearance.

Tearing his gaze away from him, who was waiting for an order without knowing why, Tollin stood up.

“We'll entrust the job to the Capital Guard. Now is the time to take a step back from this.”

“What?”

Jack knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help but ask back loudly.

“Did you not hear me? I said we're entrusting the investigation of the missing children and the food distribution center entirely to the Guard.”

He had heard correctly.

No matter how much Jack lacked Tollin's intelligence, he wasn't so slow that he couldn't understand what was said.

“The Little Duke ordered us to find and save the children.”

Tollin was unshaken, even at Jack’s flustered counter-question.

He reached for a pile of papers on the table, as if this topic was already over.

In front of him were piles of letters that had arrived at the Piteos family this afternoon.

“Flinn will be recuperating at the temple for the time being, preparing for the Tinas ritual. Until then, you must not let anyone meet him. It's not good for us to get directly involved at such an important time.”

At Tollin's overreach, which had crossed the line, Jack finally hardened his mouth and straightened his posture.

“I raise my sword for the Piteos family. Flinn Piteos clearly commanded me to protect the children.”

As Jack's words continued, the corners of Tollin’s mouth twisted up higher.

“You can do anything, as long as it’s the Little Duke's command?”

Jack nodded, standing stiffly, at the sneer-like question.

“That is correct.”

“Even if that path is one that kills the Little Duke, and annihilates the Piteos Ducal Family?”

In the hand of Tollin, who asked, grinding his teeth, was a single letter.

The content was that they wished the Little Duke would spend time at the temple to prepare for the Tinas ritual, and the sender was Priest Vesper.

***

Clatter. Clatter.

The procession following the moving carriage was drained of energy.

Gael’s grand plan to traverse a path that should take a week in 3 days was not impossible.

It was just a matter of grinding people down.

“Damn it, if I’d known it would be like this, it would have been better to just take a little and wash my hands of it.”

The young Jing whispered to Ratel and Jing.

The young Jing, who was a bit frivolous but surprisingly not bad in skill, was selected for the group going to the capital and was tasked with escorting the carriage with them.

This meant that Jing and Ratel’s march had become a little more tiring.

“I don't mind, since I planned to go to the capital anyway, but what sin did the children commit? They don't even feed them properly, and now they're making them walk all day.”

He kept pouring out words, even while rubbing his shoulders as if tired.

Ratel had threateningly signaled him to shut his mouth several times, but the young Jing, though momentarily intimidated, would perk up again after time passed, like a snail's eye that pops back out, and speaks to them.

“Look at that. None of them can even walk properly.”

“You might end up never walking again, so shut your mouth and get lost.”

Ratel spoke murderously, as if he had passed his limit for the day.

The young Jing made an "oops" sound and moved away, and the old Jing, who was staring at his back for a moment, turned his gaze to the splendid carriage Priest Gael was riding in.

He was a bit loud, but there was nothing wrong with the young Jing's words.

The priest named Gael, perhaps because he was extremely impatient, was driving the procession, picking only the uneven shortcuts and not stopping at the several villages between Komiel Village and the capital.

Jing looked once at the children following behind.

The children, who were already thin, had their cheeks sunken in even more from the arduous forced march.

At this rate, something big is going to happen before we even arrive.

In the end, Jing quickened his pace a little.

His target was the large, splendid carriage that didn't fit this procession.

“What is it?”

Though there was no way the knights would welcome his approach.

Jing looked back and forth between the two knights blocking his path, then raised his voice slightly.

“I have something to say to Gael.”

They were words spoken to him, who was likely listening through the slightly open carriage window, but there was no answer.

Jing let out a sigh, then raised his voice more.

“The children are too exhausted. I'd like you to give them just a little time to rest. If we keep going like this……”

Thak!

Along with the rough, cracking sound that cut off Jing's words, Gael finally showed himself.

“If we keep going like this, what?”

His face was full of irritation, as if he'd been woken from sleep inside the comfortable carriage.

“If we go on like this, children will start to collapse. Then, time will actually be delayed……”

“So, has anyone collapsed right now?”

“No, not yet, but if we keep going……”

“So they're all still fine.”

Jing, who had the precious experience of being cut off for the third time today, felt the corners of his barely raised mouth twitch.

“What's the big deal about walking this much that you're making such a fuss? You commoners, your job is to walk and run on your feet like this, isn't it? Why are you complaining so much when you're just doing what's natural?”

There was no way he would know how hard it is to walk without rest, following a carriage that, while slow, was still moving.

Gael glared at the panting children as if they were the laziest, most inferior things in the world, shuddered, and complained as he closed the carriage door.

“Stop malingering and pick up the pace.”

From Duke Piteos’s perspective, he’d never had such a difference of opinion with the temple’s priests.

No, that wasn't it.

The two had no need to differ in opinion.

Because their positions had never been different.

Jing opened his mouth, feeling once again how detestable a priest was from a commoner's perspective.

“Please give us a little time to rest. Then everyone will be able to muster more strength and arrive faster.”

“Gael said no. Who do you think you are, to keep insisting?”

The knight guarding Gael's carriage threateningly drew his sword.

Jing scanned the slow movement.

Taking down just two men would be no trouble at all.

But he didn't want to become a fugitive after coming this far.

And he didn't want to create any more commotion than this.

“I apologize. My thoughts were short.”

Voices of the knights, loudly throwing mockery at him, were heard behind his back as he finally bowed his head and turned away.

When he returned to his spot, Ratel was waiting for him in an unchanged posture.

“Judging by your face, it seems there's no rest.”

“That's right. It seems he has no intention of stopping until someone collapses.”

At Jing’s sighing words, Ratel stared sharply at the splendid carriage that didn't fit the procession.

“I don't know who he thinks will collapse, that he's so confident.”

At his intensity, which looked like he would attack Gael immediately, Jing quickly blocked Ratel's path.

“Don't get any useless ideas. Nothing good will come from provoking him.”

“Don't worry. The person in question won't even know what was done to him.”

It was the moment Ratel tried to pass Jing and approach the carriage.

Thud.

With a sound like a small sandbag falling, children's shrill screams burst out from here and there.

“Mister, a kid collapsed here!”

“Someone, please help!”

As the panicked children milled about in confusion, the line instantly fell into disarray.

Jing and Ratel also approached the place where people had gathered.

One of the children, who looked the smallest, had collapsed, foaming at the mouth.

Jing hurriedly took water from his bosom and trickled it onto the child's lips.

Half the water spilled onto the ground, but the child, having ingested some moisture, gasped for breath.

Jing quietly waited for the child's breathing to stabilize.

Kwang!

“What is it now! Honestly, not one thing is done properly.”

With the sound of the door opening violently, Gael finally emerged from the carriage.

As the knight standing beside him carefully reported the situation, irritation stained his face.

Then, he glared at Jing, who was holding the child.

“What, is this some kind of protest for me to see?”

The reason he suppressed the anger welling up deep in his chest was because of someone by his side.

Because the fellow, who didn't care about his surroundings unless given a reason to be patient, was threateningly moving his hand to his sword.

“Aigoo. I knew this would happen, thought we’d kill the kids.”

There was one person who had leisurely pushed through the crowd.

“Hey, if you're done giving water, lift him and move him somewhere warm. You look plenty warm, so take off your clothes for a moment too.”

It was the young Jing, calmer than expected.

He watched the other people taking care of the collapsed child, then looked at the carriage Gael was riding in with a firm gaze.

And then, he leisurely slipped out of the crowd again and headed for his target.

Jing predicted that whatever he did, it wouldn't have much effect.

Because he could clearly picture his face, getting annoyed and saying, 'So what if a child collapsed, just carry the child.'

Everyone watched the two of them with tense expressions.