Chapter 90
Ezekiel hadn't gone to find and bring back the real Rose.
It had been a trap to identify the spies who had slipped into Astrie after hearing the intelligence report. Polina had clearly known of his plan and taken part as well. Her mind, which had been foggy and blank as if shrouded in mist, began to creak into motion.
Madam Selva furtively squeezed Anna's hand tight before letting go.
Anna was, in truth, on the verge of fainting. It was already shocking enough to have been kidnapped, but to make matters worse, the woman Ezekiel had brought claiming to be Rose was Polina the physician. Her mind reeled from the repeated shocks.
For the first time, she was grateful for the gag stuffed in her mouth. Without it, she would have screamed at the top of her lungs from the sheer shock, inviting dire consequences.
To hide her trembling pupils, Anna squeezed her eyes shut entirely.
“Now then, feeling any more inclined to answer?”
At Levian's urging, the spy shook Madam Selva. Her head knocked against the window again with a dull thud.
“Stop, it hurts, so please stop.”
“Then you should just answer quickly. Stop inviting punishment upon yourself. At your age, an injury won't heal easily.”
“I'll do it, I said I will!”
Now was the time.
All she had to do was deceive them now.
Madam Selva parted her parched lips.
“……Yes, that's her.”
The first to react to her answer was Akenaus. He sharply raised an eyebrow and objected.
“Yes? With a face like that?”
“My master is not one to discriminate against people based on their faces.”
“Old woman, that's because you don't know men well.”
“I may not know other men well, but I know what kind of person my master is, whom I raised with my own hands.”
Madam Selva glared at Akenaus.
“Whether her face is pretty or not, it would not have mattered to my master in the slightest. He is fundamentally different from you.”
“'You'? Ah, so I'm not even the master anymore, is that it?”
“Just a moment. Young master, please save your happy reunion for later. For now, let us focus on the matter at hand. What is immediately important is whether that woman is truly the one in question.”
Answering too readily would only sound suspicious to these people. Madam Selva clamped her mouth shut once more.
Levian signaled the spies with a glance. They aimed their loaded rifles right at Anna's temples. Anna burst into sobs with an utterly terrified expression.
“……I said it was her!”
“Are you certain? If you're thinking of deceiving us, you'd best give it up quickly.”
Levian added leisurely.
“The madam has lived her fill, but the maid with her is still young and has a bright future ahead. Wouldn't it be a shame to waste her youth?”
Fear suddenly filled Anna's eyes.
Madam Selva gritted her teeth and poured out lies in a firm voice.
“How many times must I say it? It is her! Yes, and that is why she left! Because she has a scar on her face she did not wish to show, because she felt burdened. We, for our part, could not bring ourselves to reveal a flaw in someone who had rendered such great service to my master, so we kept it a secret.”
Polina, I'm sorry.
Madam Selva apologized inwardly.
It pained her conscience to saddle such a capable physician with an undeserved flaw.
“Well, it's not entirely without reason. Major Valdemera had searched so frantically for her, yet she never showed her face until the very end. If it was because she lacked confidence in her appearance, one can understand. How could she compare? Major Valdemera is such a handsome man that you'd want to scratch up that pretty face of his.”
“So you're saying that woman really is her?”
Akenaus pressed her again in a tone that showed he still couldn't believe it.
“Hey, yeah, you.”
He pointed at Anna.
“You lived in that mansion too, so you should know. You tell me. Ah, your mouth is gagged so you can't speak. But you can still nod or shake your head, can't you? Is that woman really the one?”
Anna looked at Madam Selva with a frozen face. Madam Selva shouted.
“I have answered everything! Stop tormenting Anna!”
Despite Madam Selva's protest, the spy did not lower the gun aimed at Anna. The chilling cold of the muzzle pressed against her temple.
Anna thought of Rose. One day, when she had woken up, Madam Selva introduced Rose as a new employee who had arrived the previous night. The girl appeared perfectly dressed in her maid uniform and greeted her with an awkward air, perhaps a little shy. It was a mansion where servants frequently caused accidents and were replaced, so usually they kept a reasonable distance until a new hire adapted; but since the girl was around the same age as her younger sister, Anna had felt an inexplicable fondness and approached her first.
And then……
Ever since the girl who had appeared suddenly in the mansion vanished just as suddenly, everything had gone strangely awry. She would never have imagined that Madam Selva and Anna would be in such an absurd and perilous situation.
Rose, where are you? Do you even know what is happening to us right now?
She tried to endure, but tears kept falling from fear. Anna bit down hard on her damp gag.
The Davis spy with his jesting tone had called Anna a young woman with a bright future, tempting her as if he might release her, but it was nothing more than mockery. There was no way they would let women with such deep ties to Ezekiel leave alive.
Anna had realized, watching how they had dealt with the people at this inn, how cheaply soldiers accustomed to war held human life.
Though she had received little education, she was not foolish enough to harbor vain hopes of escaping alive.
Anna quietly exchanged glances with Madam Selva. Madam Selva must have had confidence in her ability to deceive them. She was the person who knew Ezekiel better than anyone.
Anna slowly nodded.
The spy disguised as the innkeeper readily accepted Moncam's request to rent out the entire inn for a day, citing the large number of people in their party.
“Please give us the room with the best view. The carriage ride was so long that I am exhausted and wish to sleep early.”
“If you want a room with a good view, the top floor is the best. It is also the largest, given to important guests.”
The spy naturally handed over the room key.
It was a room deliberately chosen by the Davis spies as soon as they had seized the inn, after making a full sweep. Located on the top floor, it was farthest from the inn's exits, and because the room itself was large, it was also far removed from the other rooms. It was the most suitable for carrying out Levian's order to capture the woman alive even if they slaughtered everyone else, so the spy had been assigned to the counter with the mission of handing that room key to the woman by any excuse necessary.
The mission was a success. The woman, knowing nothing, accepted the key without suspicion.
“Then please take your dinner and go upstairs. The Major has instructed that the meal must absolutely not be inadequate. How long will the meal preparation take?”
“Dinner, you say? Dinner is already— no, I believe it will be ready in about two hours.”
“In two hours, the young lady may sleep for a while and then come down. I shall wake you.”
Moncam attentively looked after the woman and followed her up to the room.
The spy watched the Valdemera people, who had each taken a room key and dispersed, until the very end, then scurried down to the cellar.
For two hours, the spies hurriedly prepared meals for the guests who had rented out the entire inn.
As expected of a soldier, Moncam brought the woman at the exact appointed time. She entered the dining hall escorted by Moncam, still draped in a long veil.
The spies scattered throughout the spacious dining hall watched the woman's party from the corners of their eyes. The dining hall was packed with the Major's woman, the soldiers escorting her, and the Valdemera household employees.
“How about some quality wine to accompany your meal? We have prepared celebratory wine for our guests to commemorate the last day of the year.”
The spy who had served the food laced with Roderum offered wine with a smile. Levian had discovered that the inn's cellar was stocked with oak barrels full of wine. Though they had mixed Roderum into strongly flavored and aromatic dishes, only small amounts could be added for fear of detection, so wine capable of delivering a larger dose of the drug was needed.
The woman nodded. The soldiers, who had looked slightly reluctant at the mention of alcohol, could not bring themselves to stop her when she indicated she would drink.
The woman ate in complete silence. She lifted her veil slightly to taste the food little by little, and swallowed a sip of the wine brought by the spy.
Staring too intently at her eating might arouse suspicion, so the spies merely gauged the atmosphere with sidelong glances, pretending to work diligently by refilling insufficient dishes.
“This place is expensive only for the lodging, and the food is absolutely terrible.”
“Right? It tastes awful, just awful.”
Yet, despite their efforts to pretend, complaints began pouring in from the guests.
What skill could professional soldiers who had spent their lives wielding combat blades rather than kitchen knives possibly have in preparing expensive dishes served at a high-class inn? Moreover, the food had been mixed with bitter Roderum in trace amounts, so even when generously assessed, the taste was barely edible.
“How is this acceptable for the money we're paying? Take it back and make it again.”
“……Yes, I’m sorry.”
As they carried plate after plate back to the kitchen—dishes shoved at them from every direction with demands that they be made again—the spies in charge of serving ground their teeth.
Just endure a little longer.
Their time to bluster so loudly, ignorant of what was soon to befall them, would end here. Thinking of their comrades hidden in every empty space—the basement, the office, the attic—waiting to launch the ambush, the spies struggled to salvage the dinner that was being ruined by all manner of complaints.
The guests, exhausted from travel, began going up to their rooms one by one from early evening. The spies waited until the laudanum mixed into the food had surely taken effect, then divided up the spare keys.
The man assigned to open the woman’s bedroom and subdue her was the spy playing the role of the innkeeper. They had agreed that once he secured the woman and sent the signal, the spies who had slipped into the other rooms would annihilate the rest of the people.
He opened the locked door with a spare key and went inside. The woman, who had complained of fatigue from the moment she arrived at the inn, had already fallen into a deep sleep. The room, with its shutters carefully closed, was pitch-dark without a single ray of light.
The man muffled his footsteps and stood before the bed. The woman sleeping with the blanket pulled up to the top of her head did not stir even once.
This will be easy.
The man felt relieved.
First, he had to pull back the blanket and detain the woman.
The man stealthily pressed the muzzle of his gun against the edge of the blanket. Thanks to a profession that required moving without a sound, he made almost no unnecessary noise.
It was then. The blanket suddenly surged up, wrapped around the muzzle, and twisted its direction aside. Startled, the man instinctively pulled the trigger, but it was already too late. The bullet struck the ceiling instead.
“Ghk!”
The woman, who had flung the blanket to obstruct his vision, lunged in at once and seized him by the throat. As the strength of an arm packed tight with solid muscle crushed his windpipe, a groan escaped him on its own.
Wait, this is the strength of an ordinary woman?
It was utterly unbelievable.
The man strained, rolling his eyes as far as they would go, trying to confirm the face of the woman choking him. But the other party’s arm strength did not allow him even the slightest movement.
“You people have no sincerity at all.”
A low voice suddenly brushed his ear.
“Trying to feed laudanum again to a man who’s swallowed opium in every concentration imaginable.”
In an instant, a chill shot through him, and the hair on the back of his head stood on end.
He knew this voice.
That heavy baritone, which had led subordinates with composure and arrogance, never easily growing agitated or pressing them no matter how bad the battle situation became—and which had felt all the more chilling because of it.
The person who had been hiding in the woman’s room, under the blanket and pretending to be asleep, was Major Ejekail Valdemaera, whose entry into the inn had gone unnoticed in both time and manner.