Chapter 168 - <11>
After splitting from Franz and Anna, Edward returned to the entertainment district to meet with Faye. In this city where rumors spread like wildfire, it was impossible for yesterday's incident not to be on everyone's lips, and fragments of conversation about the case reached his ears from all directions without him even trying to listen.
While few had sympathized with Ashok, the victim of the first incident, it seemed many voices of sympathy were being raised for the murders of Dayaram and the outside woman this time. It appeared that Dayaram, despite his position in the Tashkur Autonomous Guard, had never discriminated against the immigrants.
In other words, the prevailing rumor in the city was that the culprit was not someone connected to the entertainment district, but rather an adversary who had killed Ashok and then Dayaram, who was investigating the case. This view was far removed from the Autonomous Guard's theory that the crime was the work of the Tashkur Liberation Front, who were likely based in the entertainment district. But from Edward's perspective as an outsider gathering information, it was beneficial to hear both sides.
If the residents of the entertainment district knew this much about the incident, there was a high possibility that Faye had received even more detailed information.
He had planned to head to the brothel immediately, but on a whim, he decided to stop by the tavern where Ritz had met the murdered woman. Perhaps even more detailed information, beyond the fragmented rumors, had reached the owner.
If it was only open at night, there was a high chance it would be closed, but in that case, he could just head to the brothel. If it was open, he wanted to get a cup of tea.
Come to think of it, he hadn't had anything to eat or drink since breakfast at the inn. Climbing up and down the stairs was not difficult for Edward, but he was thirsty. Although it was almost lunchtime, the ‘Hopping Flightless Bird Inn’ was open. However, with most of the merchants having left the city and the residents busy with winter preparations, there were no customers having an early lunch, and the shop was empty.
“Welcome.”
The shopkeeper said with a smile, but when he recognized the customer as Edward, his expression changed.
“Ah, you’re…”
“Pardon the intrusion. Are you open?”
“Yes, well…”
After trailing off ambiguously, the shopkeeper hurried out from behind the counter and went outside the door. He returned shortly after and appeared from behind the counter with the same Tarnien tea set, called green tea, as before.
A refreshing and rich aroma rose as steam. It was a welcome sight for Edward, who had been walking through the freezing cold city. Standing in front of Edward across the table, the shopkeeper stared at the tea as he poured it and muttered.
“I’ve closed the shop, so please take your time.”
He had thought as much, but that would be too much of an imposition.
“Don’t trouble yourself so much, I’ll be leaving after one cup.”
“It’s no trouble. Business really picks up at night.”
The shopkeeper replied, still staring at his hands as he poured the tea. He tilted his head at the shopkeeper’s polite and courteous attitude, which was a complete change from the last time he had come, but it was better than being rudely chased out into the cold sky. Eventually, after wringing out every last drop of tea from the unique reddish-brown ceramic container, the shopkeeper offered the tea to Edward and looked up.
“Please.”
“Thank you.”
As he brought the handleless cup of tea to his lips, the shopkeeper also sat opposite him and brought the tea he had poured for himself to his lips. The heat from the warm cup gradually thawed his numb fingertips. A handleless cup was a nice thing too.
After sipping tea in silence for a while, it was the shopkeeper who, unable to bear the silence, opened his mouth.
“I hear there was another incident.”
“Yes.”
“And two people this time, I hear. It’s a dangerous thing in this peaceful Tashkur.”
The shopkeeper said with feeling as he brought the tea to his mouth. From his tone, it was clear that this city was usually quiet, and incidents like this rarely happened.
“Do you know the details of the incident?”
“It seems the one killed was Dayaram-san. And a woman was killed too. They say she wasn’t from this city… but the people from outside the city are our countrymen, and it’s a terrifying thing.”
The shopkeeper muttered in a grave tone. He also knew Dayaram, and like Ashok, he did not dislike him. At the same time, it became clear that a considerable amount of information had entered this city. As expected, this shop was a suitable place to gather rumors of the city.
“What do you think about the incident, Master?”
He asked the shopkeeper, who still had a grim face, and the shopkeeper looked up in surprise.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not an expert, so I don’t particularly have any thoughts…”
While averting his eyes and trailing off, the shopkeeper was looking at Edward from the corner of his eye, as if to gauge his reaction. From this, it seemed he had something he wanted to say. But he was hesitant to say it.
Without forcing the issue, Edward continued to sip his tea in silence. If he wanted to be heard, he wouldn’t be able to stay silent in this situation. If he didn’t speak, perhaps the shopkeeper had some secret he wanted to keep hidden.
After a heavy silence continued for a while, the shopkeeper, who had been sipping his tea with his head down awkwardly, began to speak hesitantly.
“What does that customer think?”
“Me?”
“Yes. That customer, given their position… you must have a lot of information, right?”
From his formal tone, it was clear that the shopkeeper knew about Edward. He didn’t seem to know when he had come before, so he must have found out through some kind of independent network in the entertainment district. Perhaps the shopkeeper and Faye had some kind of close relationship. With a bitter smile, Edward raised his hand.
“Unfortunately, I am not an expert either.”
At Edward’s playful gesture, the shopkeeper smiled awkwardly. In order to get the information that the shopkeeper was hiding, he spoke in an even calmer tone.
“Master, you’ve been in this city for a long time, so you must know more than I do, right? Your information must be much more extensive. I want information, even if it’s just rumors rather than accuracy.”
He paused and looked at him, and the shopkeeper averted his eyes for a moment, and after a moment of hesitation, he looked up at Edward again hesitantly. Then, after thinking for a while, he brought the tea to his mouth to wet his lips before opening his mouth.
“In that case, I will tell you.”
The shopkeeper, who had made up his mind, looked at Edward as if his previous hesitation had disappeared.
“Does the customer still suspect Barat?”
Remembering Anil, who had just emotionally stormed out of the scene of Dayaram’s murder, Edward shrugged.
“I have neither suspected nor cleared him, as I have not yet heard any information about Barat himself.”
“I see…”
“What kind of man is Barat?”
The personality of the man named Barat that the shopkeeper described was the complete opposite of what he had heard from Anil. From what Anil said, the man named Barat seemed to be manipulating Anil’s sister Kamala, but the actual relationship between Barat and Kamala seemed to be the complete opposite.
Barat, who was a mixed-blood, was born in Tashkur to a woman with low ability to use the wind spirit and a man who had come to the city on business. If the man had become an immigrant, there would have been no problem, but when the business season was over, the man left Tashkur, leaving the Birdfolk woman behind.
In the end, the woman gave birth to Barat under the care of Faye, who was a prominent figure in the entertainment district, and then disappeared. It is said that the woman went out of Tashkur to look for the merchant.
Barat, who was left behind, was raised by Faye and the residents of the entertainment district. After the first incident, Kamala had stormed the brothel looking for Barat for that reason. The family member that Barat would rely on most was Faye, who had been like a mother to him.
He had almost none of the special skills of the Birdfolk, just like the immigrants, and grew up almost the same as a normal human child. The only difference was that his growth was slightly slower than that of a human, but even that was not noticeable.
His personality was, to put it nicely, gentle, and to put it bluntly, indecisive. Perhaps because he was a mixed-blood and did not have real parents to protect him unconditionally, he prioritized not being disliked by the residents of the entertainment district above all else, and although he was bad-mouthed by some as a people-pleaser, he was basically a hard worker, so he was liked by most of the city’s residents.
For such a person to fall in love with Kamala, who was hot-tempered and had a personality that followed her own path, was an event that was too surprising even for the shopkeeper who knew Barat well. Barat had told the shopkeeper about his lover Kamala, saying that she was a “dazzling existence who has something I don’t have.”
In fact, after he started dating her, Barat gradually became able to assert himself, and Faye, his foster parent, who had always told him that it was no use just going with the flow and trying to please the residents of the entertainment district, was also happy about it.
Still, his basic personality did not change so easily.
“When I heard about the first incident, I didn’t connect Barat to it. Barat couldn’t possibly do something so audacious. And when I heard that someone else had been framed as the culprit, I was even more convinced. I knew this was the work of someone calm. Until you asked, I never dreamed that Barat could be involved.”
But in reality, Barat was missing. The shopkeeper, who learned of this, had been searching for Barat at Faye’s request since the day Edward had asked. But there were almost no clues. Given Barat’s personality, he shouldn’t have left this entertainment district, but surprisingly, there was no information about him.
“Even a weak-willed man can harm someone emotionally, I think.”
When he asked that after the conversation had reached a lull, the shopkeeper smiled weakly.
“If he were to kill someone emotionally, he would fall into a state of confusion and cry to the madam.”
“And the madam, who was cried to, would have staged that scene to protect Barat?”
“No. It may seem surprising to a customer, but the madam is a stricter person than she appears. Even if a family member commits a crime, she is a person who will resolutely punish them, so even Barat, whom she raised as a child, is no exception.”
He swallowed the words “Isn’t that something only a family member of Faye could say?” along with the completely cooled green tea, and the shopkeeper stood up with the ceramic teaware and went to the counter. As he watched silently, he was refilling the teaware with hot water from an iron kettle that had apparently been left on the charcoal fire.
When he returned and refilled Edward’s cup with tea, the shopkeeper refilled his own cup with warm tea and opened his mouth.
“The reason the madam ordered me to search for Barat is to punish him if he has committed a crime.”
“…Why is she so strict with her own family?”
“We immigrants are merely borrowing a corner of Tashkur, so we are more careful than you might think. If there is a criminal among us, it will lead to the disadvantage of all of us immigrants, so it is not allowed. That’s why there have been many troubles among immigrants, but there have been no major crimes between us and the Birdfolk.”
“I see.”
Although they allow the mingling of different cultures, Tashkur is a special autonomous region where the Birdfolk live. The Birdfolk should be prioritized, and if they wanted to exclude the immigrants from this land, they could.
In his position, Edward knew that the residents of the special autonomous regions were given the maximum authority to protect their land. Even Edward, as king, had no right to interfere with Ciedena, his own country’s special autonomous region and Ritz’s hometown.
There are a total of six countries on the continent of Eneonea, and five of them have special autonomous regions. As for the country that worships the dark spirit god, detailed information about the country has not been transmitted, but there is probably some kind of place equivalent to it.
Among the countries excluding the dark country, the oldest established country is the Yuresla Kingdom, which Edward ruled. When the Yuresla Kingdom was established, there was already an unwritten law to protect the special autonomous region of Ciedena.
It is not known when, who, or how the special autonomous regions were decided, or who stipulated that the country should respect their autonomy most. The only thing that is known is that when humans learned of the existence of demi-humans, who are considered to be more than human, the law was already there.
It is a firm historical fact that exists as a common concept in all five countries. At times, some countries have attacked and tried to acquire the special autonomous regions, but all of them have failed.
The story of the special autonomous region that Edward read as a state secret when he ascended the throne was just a far-fetched rumor that those who trespassed on their land would incur the wrath of the Spirit King and their country would be destroyed. He had also heard that some countries had been destroyed because of that.
And that was the dark country.
“Sir, is something the matter?”
Edward, who had been immersed in his own thoughts for a while, came back to his senses at the shopkeeper’s words.
“Ah, sorry.”
He said with a smile and took the tea, and the shopkeeper smiled slightly. He must have thought that he had now understood that Barat was not the culprit. In fact, Edward had also begun to feel that the man named Barat was far from the image of the culprit he had imagined.
As he drank his tea in silence, he remembered that there was still something he wanted to ask the shopkeeper.
“Master, can Barat fly?”
“No. Not at all.”
The shopkeeper answered immediately. There was no way that Barat, who was weak and had a short lifespan, could fly.
“So he had no special powers?”
“As a Birdfolk, no.”
“As a Birdfolk?”
At the tricky wording, he asked back suspiciously, and the shopkeeper nodded.
“Yes. Even if they don’t have power as a Birdfolk, there are rare cases where mixed-bloods are born with special abilities. Barat was one of those special ability holders.”
With a look that said ‘what is it,’ the shopkeeper’s expression clouded with worry. He must have been worried that suspicion was being cast on Barat again. He asked calmly, so as not to make the shopkeeper wary.
“What kind of ability did he have?”
“The ability that Barat has is bird-charming. He could converse with birds and control them at will.”
“To control birds at will. A convenient ability for a Birdfolk.”
“Yes. That’s why he was entrusted with the care of the birds at the assembly hall, which is rare for a mixed-blood.”
“What…?”
On the morning of the incident, the only ones who could enter the assembly hall were the horse-drawn carts that took care of the birds. But according to the shopkeeper, Barat was not a calm person who could commit murder.
But for it to be a coincidence, it was too much of a coincidence.
It was almost at the same time that Edward groaned involuntarily and the shop’s door was violently pulled open. When he turned around, a young servant girl from the brothel whom he had met once before was standing in the open doorway, out of breath.
“What’s wrong, Vimala?”
When the shopkeeper ran up to her, the girl clung to him with a tearful voice that was on the verge of crying.
“It’s terrible, Jay-san! Anil rushed in, and the madam, the madam…”
With that, the girl collapsed limply. The shopkeeper, who was about to run out, hesitated and looked back at Edward for a moment. Edward also stood up and nodded slightly.
“I’ll go too.”
“Please.”
In the middle of the day, the two men ran through the city.
When Edward reached the brothel, he was at a loss for words at the terrible sight. Faye’s room, which had been elegant when he had visited before, was in a complete mess. All the glass was shattered and blown out, and the gauze curtains that had been hanging over Faye’s bed were all torn to shreds. The furniture was also severely scattered, and it was not a sight to be seen.
Faye was lying in the bed in the center of such a room. Blood was gushing from various parts of her body, and several prostitutes were tending to her. The biggest wound seemed to be on her head, and the prostitutes didn’t seem to know if it was okay to move her.
“Madam!”
The shopkeeper of the ‘Hopping Flightless Bird Inn’, called Jay, rushed into the room with a pale face. Faye, who had been lying limply with her eyes closed, opened her eyes slightly.
“Oh, Jay. You came. I’m sorry, even though you’re busy.”
“That doesn’t matter! Madam, are you alright?”
“…As you can see. I can’t say I’m alright, but I’m not at death’s door either.”
Although her complexion was worse than when they had met before, Faye smiled with the same sweet tone and noticed Edward as she moved her gaze.
“Oh my, Your Highness is here too.”
With a charming smile, Faye tried to sit up, but Edward stopped her with a smile and walked to the bed.
“It looks like a typhoon passed through.”
“Yes. A terrible typhoon. But maybe it can’t be helped.”
Faye sighed with a tone mixed with resignation. It was filled with concern for Anil, who had ransacked the room.
“Um…”
The young servant girl named Vimala spoke hesitantly.
“The madam has a head injury. I would like to move her to the reception room, but is it alright?”
To the worried girl, Edward smiled. As far as Edward could see, the head injury was not deep, so it would be fine to move her. It was some time later that they were able to move the madam to the reception room with the help of the five people—the prostitutes, Vimala, and Jay—and after all the wounds had been treated, they were able to talk calmly.
After dismissing everyone and leaving Faye and Edward alone, Faye sat up in the bed that had been hastily brought in and offered Edward a chair. With no reason to refuse, he sat down and decided to have the tea that Vimala had brought. It was the same green tea that had been served at Jay’s shop, and it was a specialty of Faye’s home country, Tarnien.
Faye, who had been staring at a certain point and thinking, looked at Edward after a while as if she had made a decision.
“Your Highness Grand Duke, there is something I have not told you.”
“…Is it about the special ability of the mixed-bloods?”
“Yes. That, and also the identity of that woman.”
Edward’s eyes widened at the madam who was looking at him with calm eyes. The biggest problem in the second incident was the identity of that woman.
“That is a surprise. As expected of a prominent figure in this entertainment district.”
When he said that with a smile, Faye smiled faintly and muttered sadly.
“It’s not something to be admired like that. In fact, I’m regretting that I was too slow to realize her identity.”
“…Was she a relative of yours, madam?”
“Yes. She was like family.”
The weariness on Faye’s cheeks, mixed with a sadness that had not been there when they had last met, showed a physical decline due to aging.
“Your Highness, may I tell you an old story?”
“Of course. There’s no need to rush in the current situation.”
“Thank you.”
The face that was stripped of its glamour was not that of a brothel madam, but that of a tired woman like a mother.
“It was… back when I was still active.”
The story that Faye began to tell was a story from about forty years ago.
At that time, Faye, who was already becoming a prominent figure in this city with her extraordinary talent, reigned as the top prostitute in the still small-scale entertainment district. At that time, there was no control among the immigrants yet, and they lived humbly in the lower part of the city. At that time, Faye was trying to unite the scattered immigrants and have the Birdfolk recognize the existence of the entertainment district as a single town. For that, she also needed the cooperation of the Birdfolk.
Birdfolk are also ‘people’, just like humans. Some of them disliked them, while others frequented the entertainment district and became close to Faye. The ones who gathered around Faye were mostly men, due to her line of business, and since it was advantageous to win over men to bring about some kind of change within Tashkur, there was no problem with that.
But among those who approached Faye, there was a slightly strange girl. At first, she came out of concern for her widowed father, who frequently visited Faye, but eventually, she and Faye became close. One was the daughter of a good Birdfolk family, the other was a prostitute from a neighboring country, but the two of them had similar personalities and got along well.
And when the two of them became close enough to be called best friends, she confessed that her dream was to leave Tashkur, even though she had a powerful ability to manipulate the wind. She was afraid that in the future, because of her strong power, she would be appointed to the position of an elder or something similar and be confined to the holy site.
“She told me she wanted freedom. I wanted to give it to her.”
Faye muttered that with eyes full of sadness, staring into the distance.
“Even though she could fly, she was a caged bird. I wanted to let her out of there.”
So Faye introduced her to a man. He was a capable man who, while being a merchant, was also involved in job placement in Sarnia. She thought he could take her out of this city and get her a job in Sarnia.
As Faye had planned, her best friend’s Tashkur escape plan was proceeding secretly and surely from the Birdfolk. But one incident caused the plan to start to fall apart.
She had fallen in love with that merchant.
That love, which was kept secret even from Faye, eventually led to a tragedy. She and the man, who were trying to cross the mountains without being noticed by the Birdfolk, eventually realized that they could no longer cross the mountains. She was pregnant.
She, who was pregnant, turned to Faye for help. Faye decided to protect her with all her might. If she had been a weak, ordinary Birdfolk woman, she would have been able to move to the entertainment district and live as the mother of a mixed-blood child. But she was a talented person who was expected to enter the holy site in the future, and she was the daughter of a prominent Birdfolk family. Of course, it was not something that could be forgiven.
If she went down the mountain forcibly, the child and the mother would be in danger. But if she was found out by the Birdfolk in this city, they would not allow her to marry the merchant, nor would they let her give birth to the child. After much hesitation, she decided to hide in the lower part of Tashkur, which was as complex as a labyrinth, with Faye, and leave the city with the merchant after giving birth to the child.
Of course, a large search party of the Autonomous Guard was deployed to search for her. But she was a considerable wind user, and she was not even seen, let alone her whereabouts being specified.
At the end of her life on the run, she gave birth to twin siblings.
“Carrying the young children, she and the man tried to escape from Tashkur. Of course, I cooperated, but even she, with her strong wind power, was no match for the many. Finally cornered, she entrusted her sister to the man and let him escape. And she entrusted her son to me and fought against the Birdfolk pursuers with her life, and in the end, she lost her life.”
With that, Faye let out a big sigh. The story was quite different from what she had heard from Jay, but she could feel that there was no falsehood in her words. Perhaps it was something she could only talk about because she was a passerby like Edward, who was leaving this city.
“And that tragedy was kept quiet. The number of immigrants was still small, but it was increasing, so the Birdfolk must have realized that if the truth was known, a serious rift would be created between them and the Birdfolk.”
“But don’t the Birdfolk want to drive out the immigrants?”
“Of course, there are people like that, but in this remote land, if the immigrants are not here and the merchants don’t come, life will become difficult. You understand, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
The villages of the demi-humans, which are far from human settlements, feel as if they are isolated from the human countries. But the beastman village relied on human labor, the village of the Clan of Light on crafts, and the village of the Fire Clan on mineral resources, all of which they traded with humans.
For the Birdfolk, it was the immigrants and the large number of merchants who came at this time of year who were successfully establishing that trade with the Sarnia Federation.
And from this story, Edward was able to deduce who the female victim was.
“The son left in your care was Barat, then.”
“Yes. And the murdered woman was…”
“…Barat’s sister.”
“Yes. That’s right. If I had realized it a little sooner, I might have been able to save that child.”
Faye covered her face. Her best friend, who had been killed. And then, forty years later, her best friend’s daughter, who had been killed. The pain of not being able to save them…
“How does Anil get involved in this?”
“Anil suspected Barat. And he pressed me to tell him Barat’s whereabouts, just like Kamala did. I really don’t know where Barat is. In fact, I’m looking for him. But Anil wouldn’t believe me. He’s also from the same family as my best friend, so he emotionally summoned a spirit into this room.”
“And that resulted in that disastrous state?”
“Yes. Anil probably didn’t know what to do anymore. Dayaram was like a father to him.”
To Anil, who persisted and tried to destroy everything, the madam finally broke. Her own safety aside, Vimala and the other prostitutes who had rushed into the room were also in danger. Anil’s wind spirit was the same as being threatened with a hostage.
“He told me to produce evidence if Barat was not the culprit, so I told him about the female victim. I told him that the woman was Barat’s sister, that they exchanged letters very occasionally, that the two were very close, and that Barat would never kill his precious sister with his own hands. But Anil became enraged.”
Faye sighed and shook her head slightly.
“Anil knew that his deceased mother’s sister had eloped with a human and died. In other words, Kamala and Barat were cousins. But Anil took it in a different way. He seemed to have concluded that Barat was trying to settle an old grudge by deceiving Kamala.”
Anil’s thoughts were transmitted as if he could see them. To Anil, who had thought from the beginning that his sister was being deceived, Barat appeared as an avenger. To Barat, Kamala was merely the daughter of a relative who had tried to take his mother back, and he must have thought that his sister’s life was in danger next, after killing Ashok, who was in the way of his revenge on his mother’s enemy. Moreover, Barat’s sister was also killed.
“If he was a man who would kill his own sister, he might disappear and kill Kamala as well… Anil and Kamala’s siblings lost their mother when they were young, and it was Kamala who took care of Anil. He must have concluded that Kamala was in danger. And so Anil rushed out without listening to my attempts to stop him. Lately, Kamala hasn't been coming home either…”
Anil must be desperately searching for his sister. But that sister was wandering around in search of her lover, Barat. Was Barat really the culprit? Where was the truth?
“Madam, may I ask one more thing?”
“Yes, Your Highness. Please do.”
“It’s about the mixed-bloods.”
Faye smiled gently, as if she had expected that question, and began to speak after prefacing it with the fact that she only knew about the ones she had seen.
“Among the mixed-bloods, there are rare cases where those who can hear the voices of all spirits and living things appear. Among the Birdfolk, along with those who can hear the voices of the forest, trees, and the earth, there are many who can hear the voices of birds. Animals are not spirits, so the Birdfolk cannot hear their voices. But even if the mixed-bloods cannot manipulate spirits, they can hear the voices of all living things.”
With that, the madam paused. And she looked straight at Edward.
“I think of them as evolved humans. Not as manipulators of spirits, but as advanced humans whose sole purpose is to communicate with them.”
“…I see, evolved humans…”
He couldn’t help but groan. A strange phenomenon that only appeared in mixed-bloods. Edward had an idea. The existence of Ritz and Anna.
Ritz could not manipulate, see, or speak to spirits. But his lifespan was similar to that of the Clan of Light, and he had the physical abilities of a beastman. Mixed-bloods might be born as a new kind of human, close to humans but neither demi-human nor human. Thinking that far, he suddenly wondered. Then, what was Anna’s existence?
Anna was clearly a mixed-blood. Her lifespan was long, but not as long as the Clan of Light. But she had extraordinary spiritual power. In the case of Franz, who used the Fire Spirit, he would lose consciousness just by summoning the Fire Dragon once, but Anna would not be exhausted unless she used the Water Dragon for a considerable amount of time.
Spirit users who occasionally appeared among humans were rare, but there was no one like Anna who could easily summon and use a dragon, the highest-ranking spirit. Most spirit users could use spirits as weapons or armor, but there was no one like Anna who could use them for everything as if they were their own limbs.
Ritz’s mother could manipulate all spirits, but all of them were closely related to daily life, and for major techniques, she could only use wind and earth. That was the common sense of a spirit user. Anna’s power was probably on par with that of a demi-human who could handle spirits. But if mixed-bloods did not have that much power as spirit users and acquired a new power, then Anna’s existence was a contradiction.
“Is something the matter?”
“No. It’s nothing. I was just thinking a little.”
“I see.”
The madam, who said that quietly, fell silent for a while after that last word. Edward also silently brought the cooled green tea to his mouth. The cooled tea felt bitter. When he looked out the window, he could see the mountain range faintly in the distance. The mountain range was completely covered in white snow. Soon, this city would also be closed off by snow. It seemed that it was becoming a difficult time to descend the mountain.
After drinking the tea, Edward stood up. As he headed for the door in silence, he noticed that Faye was also silently watching his back. When he turned around in front of the door, Faye was sitting up straight in the bed.
“I’m sorry to have bothered you at such a difficult time. You should rest well.”
When he spoke gently, Faye bowed her head deeply.
“Your Highness, please take care of Barat, Anil, and Kamala. They are the only ones left of my best friend’s blood.”
To Faye, who did not raise her head for a long time, Edward nodded.
“I will do my best.”
The setting sun was pouring down on Edward’s back as he left the brothel.