405 - Jean-Jacques's Perspective - The Augusta Castle Doll
I lined up the bodies of the mother and child, then called out to the neighbors. I only intended to tell them to bury them after dawn, but the neighbors' attitude was cold. The house of Teo, who worked at the castle, had been attacked. Anyone could easily imagine who had disposed of Teo, and nobody wanted to end up the same way as Teo. Best not to get involved. They felt sorry for him, but burying Teo and his mother, who had clearly incurred the wrath of a noble, would risk drawing that noble's anger onto themselves. Something like that.
Still, I didn't have the time to bury Teo and his family either, so I called out to a few other houses. Everywhere gave similar responses, but they too had to understand that they couldn't just leave things be. I told them to do it after dawn, but there was a chance they'd bury them tonight, so the angry noble's eyes wouldn't fall on them.
"...So, what the hell did Chuck-san go and do?"
"I didn't do nothin'. Those bastards picked a fight with me on their own."
I met up with Cody at the edge of town and stuck my head into the cargo bed. Inside the cargo bed, one of the attackers was lying there, his limbs bound so he couldn't struggle.
"Take the cart out slowly. There's a fork in the road before the city, so go as far as there for now."
Inside the moving cart, I heard about the cleanup at the market. The way the bodies were handled was about the same as at Teo's house. We had no obligation to bury them since we were the ones attacked, and we didn't have time anyway, so I just called out to the market manager. Once morning came, the townspeople would take care of it.
"There's apparently a black-haired girl called 'Tina-sama' at Augusta Castle."
After hearing about the market cleanup, I shared what happened at Teo's house and what I'd heard there. Cody was shocked to hear that Teo and his mother had been killed, but he must have been prepared for it. The attacker's clothes had blood on them from the start. That meant they'd already hurt someone somewhere else before.
"I ain't got the preparations ready to bring her back safely yet. For now, I'll sneak into the castle and confirm whether she's really the Tina kid."
I might be able to take her out of the castle, but the problem is what comes after. To bring Tina safely back to the Kingdom of Ivizia, I need proper preparations. I've been acting with the goal of gathering as much information as possible, so honestly, I haven't arranged anything for after I retrieve her. Even if I find Tina, I can't take her out right away.
"Considering they sent attackers, there's no doubt they're on guard. The fact that I beat down the guys they sent should spread once the sun rises. Which means..."
To sneak in, it has to be now. If I miss this chance, word that I repelled the attackers will spread, and they'll only be more on guard. If I'm serious about sneaking into the castle, the fewer watchmen the better.
"...So. You, who've been pretending to sleep since earlier. Want to make a deal?"
I know you're awake, I said toward the cargo bed. The man I'd knocked out at the market and loaded into the cart... if I left him, my face would be exposed, but I also hesitated to finish off someone who wasn't resisting, so I brought him along in case I could get some information out of him. If I couldn't get anything, there'd be no reason to keep him alive and he'd just follow his comrades to the grave. A trained knight would throw away his own life to protect his master, but this guy looked like nothing more than a thug without either resolve or skill. In exchange for his life, he'd probably spill easily.
"If you spill everything you know, I'll let you ride along until we cross into the neighboring territory. You can't do business in this territory anymore anyway, right? I haven't heard who ordered this yet, but there's no way the noble who hired you would keep alive a man who can't even do his job, is there?"
Spill everything you know. When I said that toward the cargo bed, there was only a brief moment of him seeming to think. Since he'd worked closely with a noble from the Zugall Empire, he should know all too well how terrifying nobles can be.
"...I should've gone through the corpses' pockets."
"You didn't have the time, so it can't be helped."
I searched the small pouch attached to the man's belt and pulled out an earthen bell from inside. The attacker was apparently a guard and watcher assigned to a girl called 'Sistina' at Augusta Castle. Sistina was a girl who lived in the residential quarter beyond those iron bars, and all of tonight's attackers were men hired as her guards. Since they were working in a residential quarter guarded by watchdogs, but couldn't have those same watchdogs attack them, the guards had been given earthen bells. Apparently, the watchdogs used the sound of these earthen bells to distinguish friend from foe.
"But man, only having one earthen bell..."
"I'll stay behind in the cart with Cody. Leaving me alone with this guy wouldn't be safe."
The man had talked on the promise that I'd take him to the neighboring territory, but that didn't mean I could trust him right away. In terms of fighting ability, Cody was useless and couldn't possibly handle the man on his own if he started acting up.
We agreed to meet up in the town just outside the territory, and I got off Cody's cart at the fork before the city. After watching the cart go, I infiltrated Augusta Castle through the back garden, the same one I'd scoped out during the day. Since I'd started moving right after the attack, the area was still wrapped in darkness, but in about two hours the sun would rise. Once it got bright, moving would be harder, so if I was going to move, it had to be during the night. I needed to sneak past the iron grating while it was dark and find a hiding place before dawn.
...Oh, there it is, coming out already. It's nighttime, you should be sleeping.
When I arrived at the iron grating I'd found during the day, a Black Dog was staring at me. If the guard's story was true, dogs with earthen bells shouldn't attack. It'd be a waste if dawn broke while I was doubting the man's words and standing off with the guard dog, so I decided to trust what he said. I'd told him in advance that if I didn't show up in the meeting town within a few days, he'd lose his life, so I wasn't too worried.
...That daytime scouting is already paying off.
I'd infiltrated Augusta Castle just in case, without any real conviction, but now it was proving useful. I used the key I'd stolen from the gardener's shed I'd found during the day to open the iron grating, and carefully stepped inside. The guard dog followed closely behind me as I walked cautiously, but it didn't show any sign of attacking. It seemed that with the earthen bell, it really did recognize me as someone allowed through the iron grating.
Still, even though I had the earthen bell, it was clearly still wary of me, a stranger with an unfamiliar smell. While I was walking inside, the number of guard dogs following me increased to four.
...If I step off this animal trail, I'll probably get chomped.
Inside the iron grating, an animal trail had formed, probably from the gardener's use. The guard dogs seemed to be watching how I walked, wary of a human who had an earthen bell but an unfamiliar scent. If someone regularly used this path, or was truly authorized by the dogs' master to be here, there should be no need to wander aimlessly through the dogs' territory.
The tension-filled journey, never knowing when I'd be bitten from behind, ended sooner than expected. I thought I was still walking inside the iron grating, but soon another set of iron bars appeared.
...Well, when you think about it, that's only natural. If there were scary guard dogs around, the people living here couldn't safely go out into the garden either.
The key from the gardener's shed also opened the door attached to this set of iron bars. The guard dogs seemed unsatisfied with me walking straight without deviating from the animal trail and exiting through the door to outside the iron grating, but they stayed inside and saw me off. I'd like them to disperse from in front of the door, but that could wait. For now, I had to search the residential quarter before dawn and find a place to hide during the day.
I walked around the area I could cover before dawn and marked the places I needed to investigate. The room that caught my attention most was the one with iron bars fitted on all its windows. I found a spot where I could clearly see the largest iron-barred window, but where they couldn't see me from inside, and hid myself there. When I waited for the sun to rise and observed the barred window, a black-haired maid opened the thick curtains.
...Hard to see inside the room.
If I got too close, they'd see me. Considering I was sneaking in secretly, that was best avoided.
...That maid, something's weird about her?
I could see several maids approaching the window. Given the number of maids, it was clear the master of that room was a woman. I could tell that, but what bothered me wasn't the master's gender.
...There's one with oddly good posture mixed in, like a noble's daughter.
The others were probably hired from nearby towns and villages, like Teo. They wore the maids' uniform, but their substance was no different from the local village girls. Their stance had no refined mannerisms. They were just commoners dressed up. But the one maid with good posture was different. Her stance and movements carried refined grace, and she moved in a way that suggested she could work as a lady's maid in a castle.
...A doll? It's big.
A plump maid appeared carrying what looked like a silver-haired doll about the size of a human, and seated it on a lounge chair placed by the window. Then the maid with good posture appeared and placed a slightly smaller doll next to the big one. They seemed to be letting the dolls sunbathe.
...Is this the castle lord's hobby? What a weird hobby.
Letting dolls sunbathe was practically treating them like humans.
...Is it not that room? But there shouldn't be any other rooms with iron bars fitted.
I kept staring at the iron-barred window, hoping Tina might pop her head out, but no black hair belonging to Tina appeared beyond the glass. Sometimes black hair did appear, but it belonged to that well-postured maid.
...Wait, Tina kid's a shut-in anyway, she probably doesn't care about outside!
I wasn't going to find Tina just by looking from outside. That left only sneaking into the castle and searching every room, but that didn't seem like a realistic plan.
...Oh? A familiar face showed up.
I recognized the man kneeling before the doll seated on the lounge chair. His hairstyle was different, and I couldn't clearly see his face from this distance, but I was certain from his walk and build.
It was Jasper, the pharmacist said to have disappeared from the Sedovara Church together with Tina. And the pharmacist of Augusta Castle was also the one who ordered the attack on Teo and us.
Now that I'd confirmed Jasper was here, there was no mistake that Tina was at Augusta Castle. It was a bit risky, but I decided to get closer and scope out the inside.
After confirming Jasper had left the window area, I used the blind spots to approach the building. When I got close to the iron-barred window by following the wall, I could see the face of the doll placed by the window.
...Tina kid.
I'd thought what was placed by the window was a human-sized doll, but beyond the window I'd approached close enough to make out the facial features, there was Tina, the one I'd been searching for. Her black hair was hidden under a silver wig, and she wore a dress loaded with frills and lace of the sort Leonardo would like. Her eyes were slightly lowered so I couldn't confirm their color, but her face was unmistakably Tina's.
...She's small. Her limbs are nothing but skin and bone. What the hell? Was she not kidnapped for her birth, but for her looks?
Tina had always been petite, and she should have been in her growth spurt by now, but there was no sign she'd grown since I last saw her. Though hidden by the gaudy frills, the legs visible from under her dress hem were as thin as a doll's. They didn't look at all like the legs of a healthy girl.
...The doll's got the same face as the Tina kid. The kidnapper must be a doll-loving pervert after all.
A doll-loving pervert had snatched Tina and was treating her like a doll. Maybe they were deliberately giving her only minimal meals to make her look more like a doll.
"...Hey, Tina. Tina kid."
Confirming there was no one around, I tapped lightly on the window. I called out to see if Tina would react in any way, but before her eyelids opened, footsteps approached.
...Shit!
I dropped down instinctively, needing to hide in a blind spot immediately. But before my head was completely hidden from the other side of the window, I made full eye contact with the black-haired maid.
"Heheheheheheheheh!?"
A loud voice escaped from the maid's mouth, as if she was about to say "suspicious person." This was bad, really bad. While the maid was frozen in shock, I decided to get out of there.
It was only a temporary measure, but I'd managed to locate Tina. I'd come for her eventually, but for now, I had to take this information and head back.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.