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Chapter 89
He was silent for a moment, as if mulling over my question, then shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, I wouldn’t know. I don’t like experiments, so I’m not close to the family. That flower was a development item handled with caution even within the family, so I didn’t have access either. But I can’t say there’s no connection at all.”
“Huh? If access wasn’t allowed, how did you know about Tentationem?”
“Access restrictions are meaningless to me. Do you think the empire’s greatest mage couldn’t find out something like that? The more they told me not to access it, the more I wanted to know.”
Kaiden chuckled boastfully. He really doesn’t know the meaning of humility. But, to be fair, there was no way to argue with what he said.
“If the Rohade family has a connection to this island, that makes some sense. They are a family crazy about magical experiments.”
At Asdal’s comment, Kaiden laughed heartily.
“Those guys aren’t just ordinary lunatics. The madness runs in the Rohade family for generations. But what does this island have to do with experiments?”
I couldn’t answer Kaiden’s last question immediately, so I turned to Asdal.
“But even if they’re obsessed with experiments, the people being kidnapped are all too big shots. I think the Rohade family didn’t lead this directly—they’re probably just involved to some degree.”
The Rohade family was merely a marquis house, and this was a case on a scale that would involve the royal family.
Everyone seemed to nod in partial agreement with my reasoning.
“Then we need to speculate on who in the Rohade family might be connected. Lord, do you have any guesses? Someone linked to the family, someone who could have kidnapped us?”
Enoch asked, and Kaiden shook his head.
“I told you already. I’m not close to the family.”
In the end, the discussion returned to square one.
As everyone fell silent, lost in thought, Yuanna quietly spoke up, glancing around.
“I think our questions about Tentationem are somewhat resolved. Should we share the results of the reconnaissance at this point?”
Yuanna pulled a piece of cloth from her pocket and spread it out on the floor. I noticed that the map looked somewhat familiar.
“We couldn’t find anything about the key, but we did pick up this.”
“This is… a map of the island.”
Enoch murmured.
I sat beside him and quietly scanned the map.
It was made of the same cloth as the bunker map I had found, but on closer inspection, it was slightly different.
On my map, the bunker was marked east of the mountain on the northern island.
However, on the map Yuanna brought, there was no bunker marked; instead, there was a star drawn west of the mountain on the northern island.
The map was clean, without any year markings at the edges.
Also, on the southern island, two locations were labeled “Supply,” and on the northern island, three locations were marked the same, in Langrid Empire script.
These “supplies” must refer to supply boxes. It had been mentioned in the original story as well. Yuanna had discovered them, but no one knew how to use the items inside, so they hadn’t tried.
“Right. It seems like a map showing where supply items are hidden. But what’s with this star…?”
It seemed to be a completely separate map, unrelated to the bunker map I had.
As I stared at the map, it suddenly dawned on me that one of the supply locations on the southern island wasn’t far from where we were.
In fact, it was a place we had already passed.
“Saint, have you ever found a box with supplies inside?”
I distinctly remembered that when Enoch and I first encountered the anaconda-type monster, we found an empty supply box.
“No, we haven’t found anything like that.”
Yuanna denied it. Asdal also shrugged while sitting with his arms crossed.
“Then who took the items from that supply box?”
I had assumed Yuanna and her group took them… but a chill ran from head to toe, and I fell silent for a moment.
Noticing my state, Enoch, who was sitting next to me, placed his hand on my head.
“You okay?”
I slowly nodded in response to his question. Then I pointed at the river where we had encountered the anaconda-type monster while staring at the map.
“The supply box marked here, Enoch and I found it. By the time we found it, someone had already taken the contents, and the box was empty.”
“Then that means…”
Asdal trailed off, stroking his chin, while Enoch nodded in agreement.
“It could mean there’s someone else on this island besides us. Well, that’s something we could have predicted the moment we found this cabin.”
Enoch answered casually, showing no sign of agitation. He was always like that, rarely surprised by anything.
Thanks to his calmness, my racing heart soon settled.
“What does this mark mean?”
This time, I pointed at the star on the map and voiced my doubt. Yuanna shook her head, clearly unsure.
“I don’t know. We’ll probably have to check it out to find out.”
“Either it’s a place with an exit or a trap. Isn’t this island called ‘Dice Game’? It’s definitely playing with us.”
Asdal murmured, resting his chin on his hand, propping his elbow on his knee. Enoch also studied the map seriously and asked Yuanna:
“Any other unusual details?”
Yuanna pointed to the area near the river on the map she had found, just like the map I had picked up, showing a bridge crossing the river to the northern island.
“But what does ‘Dice Game’ mean?”
Diego asked me. Only then did I realize I hadn’t yet explained the meaning of “Alea” to the reconnaissance members.
I recounted a few days ago, the conversation I had with the cabin group.
“The word ‘Alea’ means ‘dice game’ in the language of a minority tribe on the Eastern Continent. So I speculate this is the name of the island, not a person.”
Asdal, sitting cross-legged, propped one elbow on his knee and accepted my explanation, adding his own.
“Then what does the Dice Game mean? It implies that our fate is being decided without our will. So the most likely scenario is that we were kidnapped by someone. And for experiments, no less.”
“Oh, so that’s what the experiments were about? What kind of bastard dares to experiment on us?!”
Kaiden, who had been quiet until now, shouted angrily. Asdal clapped his hands in delight.
“Lord is straightforward as always. You say what needs to be said.”
“Asdal, do you have anyone in mind?”
Enoch, who had been quietly pondering, asked Asdal. Asdal shrugged nonchalantly.
“There are too many possibilities, I don’t really know. How about you?”
“Same here. There are many potential forces, but no single group could have kidnapped all the key figures from both the Empire and the Kingdom.”
Even Enoch and Asdal couldn’t guess. Well, even I, having read the original work, had no clue.
After all, in <More Important than Survival>, there wasn’t much of a story—just a bleak tale of loving, hurting each other, and eventually killing one another. Plus, I hadn’t even finished reading it.
“But isn’t it strange? The empty supply box, the magical items… why do they only seem to appear in Flone’s eyes?”
Asdal raised the question again.
“Miss Flone, tell us. Are you hiding anything else?”
‘Should I tell them about the bunker map?’
But even if I lied about finding the bunker map today, reluctantly showing it under Asdal’s insistence didn’t feel right.
I decided to withhold the bunker map story for now.
‘I should keep the bunker as insurance.’
Just as I thought that, Asdal called me as if urging an answer.
“Miss. Hm? Say something, anything.”
“…I’m not hiding anything. It’s just coincidence. Things just happen to catch my eye, so what can I do?”
“That’s exactly why it’s suspicious. Why do these coincidences only happen to you?”
“How should I know?”
“You should! If you don’t want to be suspected.”
As Asdal reached out toward me, suddenly—
Thud!
Swish.
A dagger Kaiden threw landed in the empty floor of the cabin’s center, and Enoch drew his greatsword, aiming it at Asdal.
Diego expected Enoch’s sword to be checked by someone, but surprisingly, Asdal sat calmly, observing the situation.
“Take it easy, will you? Margaret’s scared.”
“If you get close to Margaret, you die.”
As the two men said this menacingly, Asdal raised both hands in surrender, smiling without any sign of fear.
“I wasn’t interrogating. I was just asking the questions I had to.”
“For asking, that was pretty aggressive.”
“All the help Margaret has given so far, and His Highness the Crown Prince seems to have no conscience,” Yuanna added tiredly, observing quietly.
Then Bishop Ruzef added his comment.
“The trust everyone has in you, Miss, is remarkable. I also don’t want to doubt you. I like the changed Flone more and more.”
Does he have a hundred snakes inside? I can’t read him at all. Asdal really was a cunning fox.
He clapped his hands as if what happened earlier didn’t matter and shifted attention.
“Well, let’s move past that for now. I was going to tell the Saint, but it seems we need to leave this cabin.”
