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Chapter 25
As luck would have it, Mirta was a servant on the fourth floor.
In other words, she knew that I was the fake Pero.
“Just where is she going to…”
The problem wasn’t simply where she might spread the information.
Anyone who knowingly violated the rules would normally have some kind of backing that made them confident enough to run their mouth despite knowing exactly what would happen if they broke the rules.
And there were only two families that could possibly protect Mirta from the Fire of Argenta.
Cartiel of Wind, or Alloze of Water.
Either way, if the secret about me reached them, it would all be over.
“Chase her immediately. Can we… determine her location?”
It was impossible, of course. It wasn’t as though the contract came with a GPS tracker.
But, surprisingly, an answer came immediately.
“According to the Shadow, the last place she was seen was on her way toward the northern border.”
“The north?”
I knew because I had looked at the map so many times. If it was north of Argenta, then…
“―Cartiel?”
At my words, the maid lowered her head.
Pielle’s expression also hardened with seriousness.
The contract was violated if someone revealed anything about Argenta to another person.
Could it be that she had already told someone from Cartiel the secret?
As I recalled the map once more, something suddenly struck me as strange.
“…But the mountains block the way between Cartiel and Argenta. Why would she head there if even a single spark from Argenta could cause trouble?”
No. There was no need to travel by land.
“…The sea.”
“My lady?”
Pielle looked at me.
I quickly turned toward her.
The Infinite Sea was still just a sea when there were no monsters, wasn’t it?
Naturally, ships could sail on it.
And what if there was someone from Cartiel beside her who could control the wind?
They could move at a speed incomparably faster than traveling by land.
“She’s planning to go by ship. Launch a ship from the nearest coast right now.”
Pielle’s eyes widened at my words.
“…If she really is traveling with someone from Cartiel, that is certainly possible. But if that is the case, the ship will race across the sea at an incredible speed.”
She spoke calmly.
“If they have already departed, we won’t be able to catch them.”
“No. We can.”
I answered firmly.
“Even so, they’re still on the water.”
Having stood before the sea last time, I was confident.
At least on the water, I could compete with Cartiel.
Because water was entirely within Alloze’s domain.
Pielle’s eyes widened at my words.
By the time Krua departed,
the monster disturbance in the First District had already been brought to a swift end with Dielo’s arrival.
Fortunately, among them there had been none of those mage monsters who could control water like the one from last time.
“Thank you, my lord.”
Amos, the commander at the scene, bowed his head.
He was actually rather flustered.
He had reported that sea monsters were attacking, but he hadn’t expected the head of the family himself to come.
It wasn’t a disturbance that required such measures in the first place.
But Dielo had willingly joined the battle.
Although he claimed the absurd reason of wanting to stretch his muscles, the truth was different.
The sea.
Ridiculously enough, he wanted to see the sea.
No, actually, he wanted to see Krua.
But when he saw her excitedly preparing to leave the mansion, his mood soured.
In other words, this was simply him taking out his frustration on something.
Absurdly enough, that was exactly what it was.
“I’ll politely decline. My goal is to enjoy a peaceful retirement.”
As though he could hear that firm voice again, Dielo raised an eyebrow.
That was when—
“―Ah.”
He felt a burning pain at his fingertip.
It was the place where he had drawn blood to seal Mirta’s contract.
―Fwoosh!
A deep blue flame burst into existence there.
It was the punitive flame that ignited when the other party violated the contract.
Mirta.
As Dielo recalled that name, he smiled.
It seemed she had finally made her move.
“Where was Mirta last reported?”
At his question, Casillus, the vice commander of Argenta standing beside him, immediately answered.
“The northern coast.”
As expected, she was clearly trying to make her way to Cartiel.
There were quite a few others besides Mirta who were attempting to move toward Cartiel.
Dielo and the informants under Rick, the head of the Intelligence Department, had already figured that out.
But they had left them alone.
As the traitors began moving one by one, they would reveal themselves naturally, so there was no need to chase after them.
They had already extended their hands and were in a position to catch them at any moment.
All Dielo had to do was close his fist and crush them before they reached Cartiel.
“Perfect timing.”
A suitable target for venting his frustration had appeared.
It was extremely unfortunate for Mirta.
Under normal circumstances, she would have been dragged back to the Argenta mansion and punished according to proper procedure.
But now, before she could even be brought back, she was about to be executed on the spot by the head of the family himself, without even being given a chance to make excuses.
“I’ll go myself.”
Dielo began walking.
Cartiel would naturally keep secret the fact that they had attempted to smuggle someone out of Argenta.
Even if they caught the Cartiel person who was with Mirta, they would pretend not to know anything.
They would simply cut off the tail.
By interrogating the captured Cartiel person, however, they could obtain information.
Who else was planning to go to Cartiel?
“Cartiel…”
He turned his gaze toward the mountain range visible in the distance.
The Kaltain Mountains, the border between Cartiel and Argenta.
An ordinary fugitive would probably try to hide in the mountains, but Mirta wouldn’t go there.
Not unless she wanted to end up as a roasted chunk of meat.
With Cartiel, which commanded the wind, ahead of her and Argenta, which controlled fire, behind her, heading into the mountains would obviously turn the entire range into a sea of flames.
If so, there was only one answer.
“The sea.”
As it happened, the area around the northern sea had recently been attacked by a large number of monsters, so there should be relatively few monsters there now.
“It’ll take them some time to break through Cartiel’s waters anyway.”
Dielo gestured with his hand.
A whirlpool that circled the waters off Cartiel.
A barrier of wind that was also responsible for causing the monsters of the Infinite Sea to flock toward Argenta.
Even with someone from Cartiel accompanying them, breaking through it would take time.
All he had to do was get there and deal with them before that happened.
“My lord, the forces to capture her have already departed.”
“I know.”
Dielo gave a short reply to Vice Commander Casillus.
“Prepare a ship.”
If he started chasing them from here, he would catch up in an instant.
The corners of Dielo’s lips curved upward.
But his moment of leisure was brief.
Before long, he would encounter an unexpected situation…
No, an unexpected person.
―Whooosh…
Controlling water really wasn’t difficult.
The moment I came out onto the sea, my confidence surged once again.
Had Krua really been that weak at controlling water?
Or was it possible that the original heroine hadn’t known about Krua’s abilities because the heroine of the original story wasn’t Krua herself, but her maid?
“When did you say Cartiel’s whirlpool would subside?”
At my question, Pielle stepped closer to me.
“There was a report that it formed two days ago, so it won’t be disappearing today at the earliest.”
Her answer came quickly, as though she had been waiting for the question.
“Then we won’t be too late.”
The ship sped across the water I was controlling, practically gliding over its surface.
Even so, because of the time it had taken us to travel over land and reach the coast, it seemed unlikely that we’d be able to catch them out at sea.
If I could see Mirta’s ship, I could control the water and prevent it from moving forward.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the ship.
“There is an uninhabited island nearby that is used as a waiting point. She is probably there.”
Pielle spoke.
I stared intently at the sea.
Pielle and Argenta’s informants had said that the whirlpool in the waters off Cartiel wouldn’t disappear today.
But that didn’t mean we had plenty of time.
Mirta’s contract had already burst into flames, proof that she had spoken about Argenta.
That meant she had obviously contacted an outsider.
Nine times out of ten, that outsider would be from Cartiel, and there was a high possibility that the Cartiel person knew exactly when the whirlpool would disappear.
Then, if Mirta had departed today…
It meant the whirlpool would disappear soon.
―Whooosh!
We might not be late, but we certainly didn’t have time to spare.
I controlled the water even faster.
The surroundings swept past us at incredible speed, as though we were sliding across ice.
The water was directly lifting and carrying the ship, so there was no way we could move any faster than this.
“There! I can see the uninhabited island!”
An Argenta soldier who had been watching ahead shouted.
Something could be seen faintly with the naked eye.
“That is…”
But the closer we got, the stranger something seemed.
