Episode 92
The moment the pressure binding her hands vanished, Anna half-rolled, half-ran to Mrs. Serva and untied the knots around her arms and legs. There was no time to waste, so she did not bother with the gag in her own mouth.
She supported Mrs. Serva and left the room. Aside from the occasional water those men had poured through the gap in her gag, she had eaten nothing in particular, yet perhaps because her heart was pounding so hard, she did not even feel tired.
Mrs. Serva was much the same. Determined not to become a burden to Anna, she forgot the throbbing in her knees and limped along at a run. Compared to people with sound legs, their speed was nothing to speak of, but it had been a long time since she had run like this, relying on her own two legs.
Upon leaving the room and encountering the first corridor, the two hesitated for a moment.
“Anna, we have to get out of the inn.”
The one who made the decision first was Mrs. Serva.
Clearly, Ezekael’s company of the 37th Regiment, the king’s army, had entered this place, but the only people acquainted with Mrs. Serva were a few of Ezekael’s closest aides, such as Mongkam and Feder. They had no idea where those men were, and if they headed toward the sound of gunfire only to be spotted by Davis’s spies, it would be over.
“First, toward the quieter side……”
Because they had been locked up together in the temporary operations room, she had picked up a rough idea of the Davis spies’ plan. They had said they would ambush people whose consciousness had grown hazy from opium, so the direction where the fighting had broken out must be the guest rooms.
Anna and Mrs. Serva turned in the opposite direction.
Lodging establishments were generally designed with private spaces and shared spaces separated. If it was an inn as large and fine as this one, it would have various auxiliary facilities, including a restaurant, a banquet hall, and lounges.
As expected.
A central hall that split off in several directions appeared before them.
The problem was that it was far larger than she had imagined. Anna flinched in confusion.
Where should we go?
In the broad central hall of the inn, screens of various colors hung down. They were beautiful interior decorations, but they obstructed the view terribly. When she had been forced inside, she had been so busy crying that she had no memory at all of where or how she had entered.
Where is it? Where was it……
It was a city she had come to for the first time, and an inn she had come to for the first time. If she took the wrong direction and entered a space blocked on all sides, if it was a place wide open with no furniture to hide behind……
Bang!
At that moment, a gunshot rang out somewhere nearby. Anna was so startled she nearly sank to the floor.
There was no time to think. For now, they had to get away from that gunfire.
“Anna, red! Go toward the red curtain!”
Mrs. Serva shouted urgently.
Red?
Anna, flustered, looked around and then stared blankly at Mrs. Serva.
“How resourceful. How did you get out in that short time?”
A chilling murderous intent scraped the back of her head.
A shuddering chill ran down her spine. Anna slowly turned around.
Her breath stopped. Levian, who had smiled so irritatingly the entire time he had kidnapped and dragged Anna and Mrs. Serva around, was glaring at them with a face like an evil spirit. Even for someone looking at hostages caught while trying to flee, his gaze felt ominous.
The pitch-black muzzle of a gun pierced her vision. It was aimed precisely at Anna and Mrs. Serva.
Anna sensed it instinctively.
Their lie had been exposed.
Her two legs froze. Against a soldier holding a rifle, civilians were nothing more than prey to be hunted.
Levian pulled the trigger. At the same time, Mrs. Serva threw herself toward Anna.
Her vision spun. Anna wrapped her arms around Mrs. Serva and collapsed with her.
Levian, having reloaded with powder and bullets, pulled the trigger again. One shot, two shots, and then three. He loaded, fired, loaded again, and fired, repeating the process.
“Where did you go? What am I supposed to do if you suddenly leave me and go out alone…… What is this?”
Akenaus, who had hurriedly chased after Levian, found the two women collapsed in a pool of blood.
“Those bitches deceived us. The woman we saw earlier was bait.”
“Bait?”
“They knew about our operation.”
Levian answered through gritted teeth and muttered.
“Where did it start? Since when were they watching us? Is that even possible? But if not, then there’s no explaining what’s happening now……”
“What are you talking about? What the hell are you saying?”
“Enemies are breaking the windows from outside and entering one after another. They had hidden additional forces nearby. I was on my way upstairs, but something felt off, so I hid myself; if I’d run into them head-on, I would have died on the spot. I can even hear his voice from above!”
“His voice? Mongkam?”
“Ezekael Valdemaera!”
The name of someone who should not have been here appeared. This time, even Akenaus could not hide his shock.
“Then shouldn’t we get out of here immediately?”
“You want to go out now? This inn is surrounded. If we go out carelessly, the snipers waiting outside will turn us into beehives. For now, we need to hide, see how things unfold, and get this under control.”
Levian turned away, grinding his teeth. Akenaus followed him in a fluster.
❖ ❖ ❖
“The battle?”
“It’s about wrapping up. The ones who attacked the guest rooms are nearly finished off, and it seems some fled once the tide turned against them, but our comrades who joined us from outside are pursuing them. I also saw a few who tried to jump out the windows and escape, but the snipers we had waiting outside probably handled them well.”
At first, the company, outnumbered, had struggled despite being prepared for a surprise attack. Since they had to respond while protecting the employees of House Valdemaera, everyone had been forced to accept some degree of damage. But once the detached unit Ezekael had secretly brought infiltrated the inn and joined the fight, the momentum reversed. The spies, surrounded from front and rear, scattered like rats in search of their own means of survival.
“Do not let your guard down. Search the inn thoroughly and check every place they might be hiding.”
“Yes. Leave the rest to us, and shouldn’t you go see that doctor, Major? Your wounds right now……”
His subordinate glanced sideways at Ezekael.
Because the spies had judged Polina to be an important hostage and assigned the greatest force to her, the damage had been somewhat severe. He had hastily grabbed one spy and used him as cover, but several bullets had grazed his arm.
In truth, it was a natural result. In a room with limited space, it was absurd to hope that not a single shot would hit.
Once the fight became hand-to-hand, he had swung his machete with the mindset that it was enough so long as his bones and organs were not pierced. If one wished to kill others, one had to be prepared to exchange a certain amount of blood and flesh on one’s own side as well.
“What commander leaves the scene before things are settled?”
Despite his subordinate’s concern, Ezekael merely adjusted his grip on the rifle with his blood-dripping arm as if nothing were wrong.
“Major! I think you need to come this way quickly!”
It was then. Mongkam, who had gone down from the guest rooms first to search the inn’s public areas, came running in haste. At his subordinate’s unusual expression, Ezekael’s eyes turned cold.
“What happened?”
The place in question was the inn’s central hall.
The moment Ezekael saw the two women submerged in blood, he instinctively realized that an incident had occurred at the Derosa estate without his knowledge.
Otherwise, there was no reason people who should have been at the northern estate would be lying here.
“When I found them, the situation was already as you see it. I’ve sent someone. The doctor will be here soon.”
With a terrifyingly hardened face, Ezekael looked over the traces that had stolen Mrs. Serva’s life.
Several gunshot wounds were branded into the old woman’s back. Anna, pinned beneath her, was safe without serious injury thanks to Mrs. Serva having blocked the gunfire with her entire body.
With a subordinate’s help, Anna barely managed to sit up and spoke through tears.
“We were dragged here, and when we saw a chance, we were running away…… but we didn’t know the way, so when we hesitated…… she told me to run toward the red curtain. But no matter how I looked……”
Anna burst into sobs.
“No matter how I looked…… there wasn’t any red.”
The maid, drenched in Mrs. Serva’s blood, repeated those words as she cried, her mind gone blank.
How had it been then?
It seemed she had raised her head in that instant and looked around. Among the decorative curtains dyed and hung in various colors—dark gray, yellow, blue—she seemed to have tried to find red.
The doctor, whom Feder had safely evacuated outside the inn, had somehow even fetched the medical bag she had left in the carriage and come running back in a hurry. She must have been in such haste that she had thrown away her wig and veil, and had even kicked off her high-heeled shoes, leaving her barefoot.
The moment the doctor entered the central hall, she realized who the patient she had to see was and checked Mrs. Serva’s breathing first. She did not even utter a bewildered question about why the head housekeeper who should have been at the northern estate was here. She was a woman with a clear sense of priority.
Ezekael had long since recognized that there was no hope for Mrs. Serva. Soldiers might not know how to save people, but they knew very well how to kill them. The bastard had aimed for her vitals and shot Mrs. Serva. He had lodged three shots in a place where even one would have been a severe wound. On top of that, Mrs. Serva was an old woman.
Even so, he wished for a miracle to occur.
Open your eyes, Serva.
Open your eyes and explain it to me.
Tell me what happened at the Derosa estate, what bastards kidnapped you and brought you here, and what became of Rose’s red hair that you testified to.
“Were you taken from the Derosa estate?”
At the first words he abruptly threw out, Anna jerked her head up. Even while half out of her senses, she answered faithfully.
“Not the estate. Madam and I had gone out together……”
“And then?”
“Soldiers suddenly attacked us…… We were captured and kept tied up the whole time, and then dragged here. Those men asked Mrs. Serva whether the doctor…… whether she was Rose.”
As he listened to her carefully delivered statement, Ezekael took another look at Anna’s face. Listening to her, he realized it was a voice he remembered. She was the maid who would sometimes call Rose out and chatter cheerfully with her.
With marks from the gag still starkly visible on her face, Anna took a short, broken breath.
“Madam answered that she was.”
Ezekael swallowed a sneer. Since they did not know what Rose looked like, the bastards had, in their own way, captured people likely to know Rose and prepared for that. And Serva had risked danger to help him to the very end.
While Anna stammered to finish speaking, Polina, who had lifted Mrs. Serva’s eyelids and checked her breathing and pulse, shook her head.
“She has already stopped breathing.”