Pushing the handsome but very dangerous man’s face away from me, I screamed at him.
“No matter how much you didn’t like Rian you should’ve taken him out of the closet!”
I felt my heart sink at the thought of Adrian stuck in that cramped closet all day. The man pouted his lips at me as if he was innocent.
“I told him to come out too, Master. But what can I do if the bastard doesn’t want to come out?”
“You told him to come out but he didn’t…?”
“Yes. Edie, Edith, wait, wait. He only muttered these words and didn’t come out.”
I put my hand on the man’s pale cheeks at his sullen words.
“You must never come out of here until I tell you to come out.”
Was it because of my words?
At that instance, a system window took me by surprise and flashed above my head.
<SYSTEM> A new quest has occurred for Adrian Bernhardt. Do you want to check?
YES
NO
As I stomped my feet in fear for Adrian, I pressed the accept button without hesitation. The quest could refer to Adrian’s current state.
<QUEST> Finding ‘Adrian Bernhard’ <2>
You have lost Adrian, whom you struggled to find.
Use your trainer’s traits to find him before his insinuation is released.
Reward for success: Charm 30, ‘Adrian Bernhard’ Likeability 20
Penalty for failure: ‘Adrian Bernhard’ Likeability -20, Charm -30, retaliation by the Crown Prince’s bodyguard
As expected, the system knew I had lost Adrian. I frowned at the mention of the imperial guard’s retaliation in the penalty.
‘If I lose Adrian like this, will the imperial family punish me?’
The insinuation quest was still in progress when there wasn’t a message that stated it had been cleared or I had failed it. It meant that Adrian was waiting for me, with all his insinuations unanswered.
‘What about the imperial guards? My baby must be starving without anything to eat!’
I couldn’t breathe when I imagined Adrian’s face suffering. I hurried away, not because I was afraid of the guards, but because I was completely concerned about Rian.
* * *
Having quickly reaching the village, I hid in an alley near the inn to avoid the people’s eyes.
‘Shit…’
I climbed the wall and secretly entered the inn room, but the innkeeper, who was sweeping the floor of my room, found me.
“Oh, miss! You must use the door!”
“…Oh, ma’am. Hello.”
I was caught climbing in her window like a thief, but I smiled casually and greeted her.
“Where have you been?”
The innkeeper, whose eyes widened at my calm attitude, approached me with a broom in her hand.
“The slave dealer was so eager to catch you!”
“Yes, yes…”
Looking around with her words leaving the other end of my ear, I soon realized that a corner of the room was empty.
“Where’s the closet?”
Grabbing her by the shoulder, the innkeeper opened her mouth and said as if she was embarrassed.
“Closet? I threw it away because I thought the door was broken.”
“What?”
My mouth hung open with her reply. Whether I was surprised or not, the woman frowned as if her shoulders’ pain continued.
“What was inside was really heavy. I left it cheap at a nearby junkyard.”
“How can you throw it away without checking the inside?”
“I wanted to check, but the door didn’t open, ok? And I’m throwing away my stuff, why are you getting mad at me?”
It was her belonging; a closet of that belonged to the inn. I couldn’t refute what she said, so I moved back and shut my mouth.
“Well, still… My stuff was in it.”
“Did you leave something important behind? Anyway, wait here for a moment.”
The innkeeper, leaning against the wall with a broom, approached me as she rubbed her hands.
“The slave dealer asked me to contact him if you’d return. He’ll give me a generous reward.”
I grabbed her by the wrist and chinned towards her as I held her with all of my strength.
“Stun her.”
Thud!
The man clinging to the ceiling came down in an instant and hit the innkeeper’s nape. It was a neat skill as if he’d been trained as an assassin aside from being a slave.
Having laid the unconscious innkeeper on the bed, I looked back at the man with a deep sigh.
“…I need to find the junkyard she took the closet to first.”
According to him, if it’s a junkyard near the inn, the man who knocked her head slowly opened his lips and said he knew the location.
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