TYMC 17

Chapter 17

I have to be the one who kills the target. Not some ghost or magical beast.

If Ris had really gone into the forest, nothing could be more terrifying for me.

The Black Forest in winter was dangerous enough that even I avoided it. If he happened to run into a magical beast, that fool would die for sure.

I need to find him and bring him back out quickly.

The only fortunate thing was that I had been coming here frequently to organize reports for the Commander, so I at least knew the paths somewhat.

Though the route I know seems a little… different somehow?

More accurately, it would be better to say I couldn’t see it.

The farther I walked, the thicker the fog that crept up around my feet.

As the opaque mist obscured my vision, the maids’ stories about ghosts suddenly came flooding back to me.

“They say fog always appears right before a ghost shows up.”

“That’s right. I saw a ghost in the fog once. Then I fainted immediately.”

For some reason, their stories seemed to be unfolding exactly as described.

Usually, people embellished stories to make them more entertaining, so I hadn’t expected the experience to feel this realistic.

“…Huh?”

As I looked around, something pure white flickered through the dense fog.

The mist was white, and whatever it was seemed white too, making it difficult to distinguish clearly.

“Is that a ghost? It seems… pretty big for one.”

Not far away, the figure wavering before my eyes was tall enough to remind me of someone.

Come to think of it, everyone had only seen the ghost from a distance. Not a single person had ever gotten close to it.

Probably because they fainted before they could.

A true assassin accepted contracts to kill even ghosts if necessary.

Swallowing nervously, I slowly approached what I assumed was the “ghost.”

“Got—!”

The moment I finally reached it and grabbed the back of its white collar, the thick fog surrounding us seemed to thin for a brief instant.

Or perhaps it only felt that way because he stood out so clearly.

“…Ail?”

The ghost’s true identity was none other than Ris.

What I had grabbed was his coat, which I’d mistaken for white because of the fog.

Leaning against a tree, Ris slowly lifted his eyelids at the sound of my voice.

For a fleeting moment, his eyes glowed red.

Startled, I blinked, and they were their usual violet color again.

Huh? His eyes just now… Did the fog make me see things?

I couldn’t believe he was actually here. How had the Duke known Ris was in this place?

“Young Master!”

The Duke definitely had informants planted in the East Wing in addition to the reports he received.

There was no other way he could know every detail of Ris’s movements.

“What are you doing here, Ail?”

Confusion colored Ris’s eyes as he looked at me.

That was the question I wanted to ask.

The deeper parts of the forest were extremely dangerous because of the many unidentified magical beasts lurking there.

Getting here had been easy for me because of my profession, but Ris was just an ordinary person who could fall out of bed and hurt himself.

How lucky was this man?

“I was looking for you, Young Master. The door leading to the forest was open, so I came in just in case. I was supposed to bring you some documents.”

I had almost said that the Duke had told me to come here.

Smiling innocently, I showed him the documents tucked under my arm.

“I went for a walk with Del because you weren’t coming at all.”

The sharp remark immediately came back at me.

That was strange. I didn’t think I’d been that late…

But the look on his face made it seem as though he knew exactly what I’d been doing, making it hard to argue.

“…Even after forcing open a locked door?”

“Del is the type who won’t settle down unless he gets a walk in the forest.”

As if to prove his point, Del emerged from the fog at Ris’s signal.

The fluffy white creature looked incredibly pleased, like a dog that had just finished a satisfying walk.

There was something red around its mouth, too.

…Red?

Blood?

“Ail, that’s quite the shocked expression. You look like someone who’s seen something they shouldn’t.”

Without warning, Ris reached out and brushed the area around my eyes.

The warmth of his hand against my cold skin made me flinch.

“Wait a moment, Young Master. I think there’s something on Del’s mouth.”

“On his mouth? It looks clean to me… The fog in the Black Forest contains hallucinogenic properties, so be careful not to breathe in too much.”

I looked at Del again.

His mouth really was clean.

“…Oh. I see. I didn’t know that.”

No matter how hard I rubbed my eyes, the red stain I’d seen earlier was nowhere to be found.

Apparently, the fog really did cause hallucinations.

Still, I could swear I smelled blood somewhere nearby.

This wasn’t just a conclusion based on a single sense.

It was the result of every instinct and sense I possessed screaming at me.

It’s coming from somewhere nearby. But where?

The thick fog made it difficult to focus completely on my sense of smell.

One strange thing was that the scent didn’t belong solely to magical beasts.

I wasn’t guessing.

I was certain.

After spending my life at countless scenes, I knew that smell far too well to mistake it.

This smells like human blood mixed in as well.

Why would there be both magical beast blood and human blood here?

Unless there had been a battle or a hunt…

Just as I turned my head in confusion, Ris suddenly grabbed my hand.

“Ail, shall we head back to the manor together? The fog is thick enough that you might get lost.”

“Ah, yes. By the way, Young Master, nothing happened in the forest, right?”

“No. Why?”

When I asked cautiously, Ris looked back with his usual innocent eyes.

Could this smell be another hallucination caused by the fog?

There was no way blood would be surrounding a frail target like him.

“No reason. It’s just… this place has the kind of atmosphere where finding a human corpse wouldn’t even be surprising.”

Half joke, half truth.

At my comment, Ris chuckled softly.

“As if.”

Just as I thought.

Nodding quickly, I accepted his answer.

“People say a ghost appears in this forest. Have you ever seen it, Young Master?”

At Ail’s question, Ris glanced over the path leading back to the manor and tilted his head slightly.

How should he answer that?

Should he say there were no ghosts?

If anything existed in this forest, there were probably more skeletons than ghosts.

That would certainly make him stop talking.

Ris rather enjoyed listening to Ail chatter beside him.

The actual content didn’t matter much.

It was similar to how one wouldn’t try to decipher the lyrics of a cat’s lazy purring.

“What ghost?”

After a moment’s consideration, he decided to pretend ignorance.

“You didn’t know?”

As expected, Ail’s eyes widened in surprise.

Those clear blue eyes immediately captured Ris’s attention.

“That’s the rumor. They say access to the Black Forest is restricted during winter because the ghost only appears in winter… Apparently there are quite a lot of witnesses too.”

So he’d been gossiping with the maids and hearing all kinds of stories about the forest.

Ris almost laughed.

So this was what he’d been wasting his time on.

It wasn’t that I’d been pushed down his list of priorities.

Remembering Del’s claim that maids usually gathered to talk about male servants, Ris chuckled quietly.

He had almost been fooled by the fox’s cunning tongue.

“You came looking for me even though people say a ghost appears here?”

“Uh… yes, I did.”

“Weren’t you scared?”

Ail seemed to think for a moment before slowly shaking his head.

“I was scared.”

“…”

“If a ghost kidnapped you, Young Master, there’d be nobody left to pay my salary.”

…Ah.

So that was what he was afraid of.