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“Lord.”

“Please go ahead.”

“You went to save someone. Did it go well?”

The lively cheers in the bustling market filled my ears. Unlike the residential area I was in earlier where all I could see was laundry, we were now in a traditional market that seemed to have everything.

“Lord.”

“What? Ah. Oof, eup!”

“Is it tasty?”

As I shoved a piece of pear into the Lord’s mouth, I smiled brightly. It was amusing and nice to see him flustered. People should be able to get flustered and laugh.

“Where are we going now?”

The area where most commoners lived was the western residential area but there were also some who lived near the traditional market.

“I have something to tell you, mistress.”

The Lord led me somewhere without answering my question. I wondered if he was leading me somewhere with a lot of stalls.

“It’s another market.”

“This is the vegetables market.”

Along the wooden display, there were dates, walnuts and dried figs. From what I can see, there were also cucumbers and cabbages.

Lord Ray finally stopped in front of one after passing by numerous stalls.

“Ah! You’re here.”

The man who looked like the owner of the stall seemed to approach Lord Ray. He spoke with a warm smile.

“Uhm,,,”

The owner leaned against the counter of his snack stall before looking at me intently. But he soon looked up.

“The inner terrace on the 2nd floor.”

The owner looked a little tired as if he didn’t want to get involved in something bothersome. I blinked slowly and followed Lord Ray to the place the owner directed us to on the 2nd floor.

The 2nd floor was lined with rooms. On the terrace, there was a simple table with a pretty tablecloth laid atop it for people to rest on.

But what caught my eye was not the simply decorated area but the woman who was looking at me with a red face.

“Mistress, I met this woman at the end of the alley.”

“The one the Lord saved…?”

Lord Ray nodded.

“The reason why she’s not in a room was because she didn’t want to feel confined.”

She looked like she had not bathed in a while with bits of dry mud and dirt on her skin. Her face had been so messed up that it was hard to recognise her original appearance. Her messy hair looked blue which would have looked pretty but the strong stench she gave off interrupted my appreciation.

“That’s strange…”

Suddenly, it felt like I had seen this woman before from somewhere. It was a vague feeling of deja-vu?

“Is she alright?”

“She didn’t get severely hurt.”

The Lord glanced at the messed up woman before confidently speaking.

“Her name is Lene. Surprisingly…. She’s a maid from the Imperial Palace.”

“Ah. Yeah.”

After pandering over her name for a few seconds, I raised my head.

“Hold on, Lene?”

An afterimage passed in my mind.

“No way, Amor, I mean she’s a maid from the Teret Palace? The Templar of Rivers?”

How could I have forgotten?

“I’m a Templar of Rivers. Though I’ve been kicked out of the temple.”

When I was 13, after I first came across the diary, I had met this Templar of Rivers as she drew water for the laundry place. It was the first time in my life I had ever seen divinity.

Lene seemed to have heard her name. She widened her eyes and looked this way.

“What… What’s going to happen to me…?”

I glanced at Lord Ray before removing the mantle I was wearing after seconds of consideration.

“Do you recognise me?”

Lene, who looked exhausted, scanned me with a questionable gaze. When her gaze landed on my cheek, her eyes widened.

“Ah. Ahn?!”

I sighed before saying, “You have a good memory.”

Smiling widely, I spoke brightly.

“Uh oh. Don’t cry.”

Perhaps she was relieved that she finally met someone she knew but her blue eyes shed tears.

“Handkerchief!”

I quickly handed her a handkerchief as I stared at the tears dripping out her eyes. Time passed slowly as she silently sobbed before Lene looked up.

“Are you a noble?”

I noticed it when I first met her but she was quite quick-witted.

“Is this… your knight escort?”

At the same time, an idea popped into both our heads like a light bulb lighting in our heads.

“Uhm, you’re right. But the important thing now is not who I am, Lene. So, let’s talk comfortably. The important thing is that I’m someone who can help you. Tell me what happened to you.”

She looked confused but for a moment, Lene nodded determinedly.

“… Getting kidnapped. You’re not the only one, right?”

“Correct.”

She was very strong-willed. I picked up another handkerchief and carefully wiped her hair and cheeks. She grabbed my wrist gently before letting out a heavy breath.

“Getting kidnapped… It happened to me a week ago and I was dragged away by some men I don’t know.”

She explained that she had left a little early to go to her hometown for the first time in a while and was looking for a carriage.

“But as I was haggling with the driver, a man approached me and told me he would help me look for a cheaper place.”

After looking over his identity card, Lene had trusted him and headed to the carriage he was referring to. Then, she was unexpectedly captured and transported to a carriage without even being able to resist.

“There were a lot of people, it was in the middle of the day and I had my abilities. So, I never imagined that I would get kidnapped.”

Listening to her explanation, it was safe to say that they excelled in kidnapping at this point. This was getting from bad to worse.

“That’s right, Ahn. I heard something important there.”

In the middle of her story, Lene frowned and pointed at her forehead. As if she was afraid of something, her lips were quivering and she was gulping down her saliva.

“Ah, Ahn? Do you remember? We met four years ago.”

“Yes. Lene, calm down a little.”

“Even back then, there were maids that kept disappearing and we always gossiped about them. They would disappear in the middle of the night. Maybe they were running from work… But no, Ahn.”

Lene said, deeply troubled.

“They’ve already been kidnapping women since then!”

“… They were already kidnapping back then?”

“Yes. The women I met in the place I was brought to. They were all women who were in similar situations with me. They were either templar candidates or temples that were chased out of their temples. Moreover, the place I was kept in… it’s just a place that makes people really miserable. It felt like we were being raised like chicken or pigs…”

“Lene. Speak slowly.”

“Each day, some girls will be taken away. That suffocating feeling. How could I not feel suffocated? Why! What did the patrols even do? Why did I have to be kidnapped just because I was a templar? Why?”

“Lene!”

I called her name to stop her. She was panting and becoming too agitated at this point.

As I grabbed her shoulder, I noticed a strange smell. It smelled like flowers but at the same time it was so dizzying it almost paralysed my nose. I had not noticed because her odour had covered the fragrance this whole time. However, I managed to feel the terrible fragrance in my hands when I grabbed her shoulders.

‘What? I don’t think the scent would be that bad even if I poured an entire bottle of perfume over her.’

This scent. I first smelled it in the back of the alley, right?

“We want the strongest in the Empire. So powerful that a ‘templar’ can die in a blink of an eye.”

It smelled like the smoke that filled the store I ran away from when I saw Hernan. And the numerous eyes that stared without focus…

No, this was not the most important thing. I held out my hand and shook my head.

“Can I keep talking?”

She took a long breath before cupping my face.

“Ahn. There are still many women left in the place.”

She was a little aggravated but it was nothing to apologise for. Yet Lene mumbled for a bit before raising her head.

“That’s right, there were maids from the Imperial Palace… We had secretly planned to escape. I was the only one with a templar license so I escaped as a representative and tried to inform the patrols. Although I was caught quickly…”

She raised her head.

“That’s right. Terena! I think there were maids that were from the same palace as you. H-Haina and Thebe… I think there was a child who didn’t have any divinity as well.”

Hold on. I quickly grabbed her.

“Hannah. Are you talking about Hannah?”

“Right, you’re right. That sounded like her name.”

As if it had been painful for her to remember, Lene contorted her face before rubbing her forehead with a grimace.

“Just like that child, normal women were kidnapped too. The thugs would grumble for having captured them by mistake. They’re in danger. Women like them don’t usually last long…”

‘I think we got the right building.’

And it seems like the Lord supported her words. Then, Lene added that several women would get tied up and disappear somewhere.

“They disappear?”

I raised my head. Lord Ray thought about the same thing at the same time.

We would have to raid the place quickly. In other words, if we didn’t rescue them quickly, I would have no idea where my maids would end up.

“Let’s ask for patrols first.”

“Yes.”

As we supported Lene who looked pale and close to collapse, Lord Ray and I headed to the nearest patrols station. We informed the people there of the situation and requested for permission to call their headquarters.

“Pipio!”

Soon after, Soricks appeared.

“My word…”

Accompanying him was his partner, Meta and the other patrols including Penne.

“You’ve finally figured it out. Seriously… I cannot believe this. I don’t know if I should tell you that it was dangerous…”

“It wasn’t dangerous.”

“But.”

“Seriously.”

I carefully grabbed Lord Ray’s shirt.

“I had him.”

Soricks glanced at Lord Ray before blinking as if he understood.

“After all, it’s not common to see a knight block a templar’s sword with his bare body.”

Lord Ray seemed to be looking this way. It sounded like he was praising Lord Ray but I could not hear what else he said because Meta was making a fuss next to him. And this whole time, Penne seemed to have a lot to say.

“Arghhh. Princess, I mean, Pipio! Why are you here…”

With a puzzled expression, he came to my ears and whispered to me. He couldn’t ask me any questions openly so he looked restless.

“No. Penne, why are you here? I only called for the patrols…”

Penne was Granius’ aide so why did he come all the way here when he should be in the Imperial palace?

“I’m the one in charge of this case.”

“Ah, on behalf of the aedile?”

“Right.”

Like that, I concluded that the administrative office was keeping an eye on the kidnapping cases.

“Someone told me to hurry and deal with it. Before the Founding Festival comes around.”

Fortunately, he did not seem to know about how I had already secretly gone out with the patrols before.

‘Hurry and deal with it…’

Well. Listening to him, it only made me more sceptical. Now, the person behind the kidnappings was none other than the emperor. And it was being carried out with the most powerful people in this Empire.

Moreover, it had been happening for a few years now or perhaps for far longer than that. Can this kidnapping be resolved in just a month…?

‘What should I do? I can’t just say the emperor is behind this.’

I did not have the power or the evidence to do so. All I could do now was enlist Sorick’s powers to save my maids that were trapped in the building.

“Please, Soricks.”

“Don’t worry!”

I felt so insignificant. I could never dream of rescuing myself like some OP character nor was I smart enough to devise a plot of the century.

I did not hate myself. It would belittle those who love me. However, there are times where being ordinary was not enough.

Like how it was back when Castor sliced me down with a sword, if I could not find the right answer, the future written in the diary would repeat endlessly.

[My brother’s fiancee stabbed me.]

And the prophecy found me again.

Even at this moment, the future was fast approaching. I did not want to die like I did back then. It did not seem like the time to do it now but I didn;t know why things like this kept popping up.

Why would the Empire capture and drag away healthy women? Why was the emperor sitting on his throne without handing it over to the strongest heir he had? Because he enjoyed the power?

If it was me and if my successor was Castor, I would never hand it over to him because of his personality. But wasn’t the emperor as bad as Castor was? From the perspective of the kidnapped women, they were both bad people.