“We found him—the lord’s son!”
“Capture him and make him tell us where the lord is—ghk!?”
Albert cut down the revolutionary soldiers who appeared out of nowhere with his sword.
Even though he was being ambushed, he showed no sign of panic.
On the contrary, he was carefully holding back, making sure not to take their lives.
That wasn’t something just anyone could do.
“You’re strong.”
“Nothing special—just basic self-defense. I’m inferior to you.”
“That’s not true.”
“…You say that with such a calm face, but you’ve already taken down more than twice as many as I have. It doesn’t sound very convincing.”
Albert gave a wry smile.
Indeed, I had also been defeating members of the revolutionary army.
I was holding back properly, too.
Still, I am an adventurer.
If I couldn’t manage at least this much, it would be embarrassing.
“Where do you think the lord is?”
Running side by side through the streets, I asked him that.
“Just as I have safe houses, Guld has safe houses as well. I think he’s in one of them, but…”
“How many?”
“…I don’t know. More than ten, certainly. But I doubt it reaches twenty.”
“That’s troublesome.”
There was no way all the safe houses would be gathered in one place.
They were likely scattered throughout the city.
If we were lucky, we might find him quickly.
But if luck was against us, we’d be running all over the city.
And in the meantime, the damage would only continue to grow…
It wasn’t a realistic approach at all.
“Any ideas?”
“…Sorry. I have a few possibilities, but I don’t know the locations of all of Guld’s safe houses. If that’s the case…”
“…Then we don’t know where to look.”
“Exactly.”
This is bad.
We needed to resolve the situation as quickly as possible, yet we couldn’t see a clear path forward.
With no information at all, the only option would be to search everywhere…
But even Albert didn’t know all the safe house locations.
If things went badly, we could keep striking out and never reach the lord.
Should we capture an enemy and interrogate them?
But it was unlikely they knew where the lord was.
There was no reason to entrust important information to soldiers rampaging on the front lines…
“…We have no choice. It may take time, but let’s visit the safe houses I know one by one. Along the way, we’ll look for clues about Guld’s whereabouts.”
“Yes… I suppose so.”
That was the only option.
But still…
It would take a lot of time.
And the damage would continue to spread.
Since I’d gotten involved this far, I wanted to secure the best possible outcome…
“Huh?”
Suddenly, I sensed something strange.
“What’s wrong?”
“Um… please wait a moment.”
I stopped, closed my eyes, and focused.
Concentrate.
An image of spreading my awareness and becoming one with my surroundings.
I extended my senses and perception outward.
It was a detection method I’d learned from Sofia.
It left me defenseless, but it allowed me to sense presences from far away.
“This is…”
I felt a familiar presence.
That said, it wasn’t the lord.
I’d never met him, so there was no way I could know his presence.
The presence I felt was—
“…a magic sword…”
An extremely ominous presence.
Just touching it made my heart feel restless.
It was unsettling, nauseating—deeply unpleasant.
There was no doubt.
This was the presence of a magic sword.
After fighting Lena so many times, I’d come to recognize that sensation, at least instinctively.
Which meant…
Could it be that the Alliance of Dawn was involved in this incident?
“A magic sword? What’s that?”
“Well… explaining it properly would take a while, so to put it simply, it’s like a cursed weapon. An extremely troublesome one. Many incidents are caused by magic swords.”
“I see… and you can sense it?”
“Yes.”
“Which direction?”
“Um… that way.”
I pointed toward the direction that felt the most unpleasant.
Albert’s expression hardened.
“…There’s a safe house I know of in that direction.”
“Then…”
“It might be a hit. Let’s go.”
“Uh, are you sure? I don’t exactly have solid proof…”
“We don’t have any other leads. It’s better than searching blindly. And besides…”
“And besides?”
“I trust you.”
I couldn’t compete with that…
I gave a wry smile.
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