小嫂子的味道

"I'd like to help you in finding her and completing what you want to do," I stated.

"This is certainly something I don't see every day. What are your reasons for doing this?" Rulbenl asked. "I assumed she was your friend, why would you betray your friends?"

"Friend? No, your grace. I have a rather intense relationship with her," I said.

"Thus you want to help me so that you can remove her from your path?"

"You're quick on the uptake, your grace," I stated.

"Hence? How can you help me? You wrote that you know where she is right now but even I know that much. She is hiding inside the magic academy," there was a sense of frustration on his face as he spelled that.

"I think you didn't understand me, your grace. What I will tell you is not her current location, but where she will be in the next couple of months," I clarified.

"Keep speaking."

"I can provide the exact information of where she will be by the end of this year. In return, I want you to kill her," I explained.

"What reason do I have to believe you on this? And even if I had a reason, how can you be sure of where she will be in the future?" he asked.

"I know because I will be the one bringing her there. And for why should you trust me, that is up to you, your grace," I replied.

I grabbed the notepad and the pen and wrote something around one paragraph—which were the details of where she will be, to be precise. After that, I tore the paper out of the notepad and slid it toward Rulbenl.

"By the end of the year, around the time when the winter vacations would have started in the academy. You can find your daughter in Roswell city in the area I've written about here. She will leave the academy so you can also tail her from there if you want," I said.

"That's all I want to say. Whether you believe it or not is your decision," with that I stood up and prepared to leave.

"Wait. Why are you doing this?" Rulbenl asked from behind.

"For my own good. I am very selfish, you see," I replied as I walked toward the door, my back facing the Archduke—which was one of the most disrespectful things you can do to a noble.

"Oh, one more thing before I leave. I also know that Ellyn Rosenberg is your adopted daughter. I wonder how the public will react if this got out," with those parting words I opened the door and left the room.

If he had even a brink of common sense then he would understand what I was implying by those last words.

After that, I was accompanied by Rem and he led me outside the mansion, once outside I dropped my act and started walking toward my inn.

As I walked, I thought about what decision Rulbenl will take. Will he trust me or not?

But it didn't really matter, to be frank. No matter what decision he made, he wouldn't just let go and ignore the information I'd provided him with. After all, that was something only a fool will do.

And I knew that he was not a fool…I hoped he was not a fool.

Since this was a rather important element for me. Judging from the current relationship I have with Ellyn, I highly doubt that she trusts me the way she trusts Leon. It is true that I have saved her from Seiren and we have made a contract but that is not enough.

Leon saved her life when she was about to be killed by the people hired by his father, in the matter of trust he outclasses me by a landslide.

Although she would not say this to my face, perhaps she would also follow my orders as I'd said in our contract. But deep down there will always be a void of doubt in her heart; an uncertainty regarding whether she can let her guard down in front of me or not.

That's why I needed to do something that will erase that sense of doubt. The best way to do that was to save her life as Leon had done. To save her when she is on the brink of death, to show her hope, and make her feel safe when she'd given up on this life and this world.

Providing her father with her future whereabouts was just a way to do that. Even if Rulbenl didn't trust me, I'm sure that when the winter vacations will start he send some of his men just in case what I'd told him was true.

For that, I'll have to somehow bring Ellyn to my home when the vacations will start, but that's not really a huge problem. Plus I have a lot of time on hand so it'll be easy to take care of.

With those thoughts in mind, I returned to my room in the inn. I removed all the new clothes I'd bought. Then I used elemental magic—water and earth elements—to make myself dirty and look like I'd come out of a rough situation.

I wore back my torn-up academy uniform, picked up the Requiem sword, checked out of the inn, and headed toward the academy. This was taken care of, now I had to move on to the main act.

***

The flames slowly vanished as the corpses had mostly burned away. I turned around and saw Ellyn waiting for me as she clenched her cloak around herself tightly.

"Let's go, Anya is probably waiting for us," I said and walked up to her.

"Yeah, I shouldn't worry her too much," she replied and we walked side by side in the alleyways.

'This much will be enough, I think. Judging from her actions after I've saved her and the gradual change in her body language, I believe she feels a little safer around me now. It's fine, that's how I want it to be.'