Alice led Gabriel and Teresa out of the warehouse and back into the streets, eyes quickly surveying the surroundings. The festival was still in full swing so there were people everywhere, the only reason this street was reasonably quiet was the fact that there weren’t any stalls here. But the bustling streets weren’t far away so it didn’t take long for Alice to spot a pair of patrolling guards keeping the peace.
"I’m Vritara De Alice, and I have uncovered evidence that someone has been making plans to assassinate the duke! Take me to the guard captain!"
She waved one of the papers they picked up in the face of the guard while grandly stating her own name, speaking so loudly that she even drowned out the sound of the festivities. Naturally, this meant that she attracted a great number of looks, making the guards look rather uncomfortable.
"Yes… of course. Please follow us, Lady."
Whether or not they believed her was irrelevant, the accusation she brought out forced them to at least investigate it. Sure, it may end up being a waste of time if this was just the prank of a child, but impersonating a noble was a grave offence, and wasting an official’s time was the same so a hefty punishment would follow. Just about everyone knew this so very very few people were daring, or stupid, enough to even attempt it.
The two guards quickly made a path through the crowd, which was already abuzz with word of what Alice had found. Gabriel and Teresa quickly followed behind them, the corners of Gabriel’s mouth turning up as he observed the surroundings. Yes, with this, there was no way the duke would be able to sweep the situation under the rug. When the truth came out, he would have no choice but to publicise the findings, and reward the one who uncovered it handsomely.
She had learned. She knew how to take advantage of a situation when the need arose.
The captain of the guards, even in this bustling time, could be found within the headquarters of the guard division. From this spot they could direct all the guards that were scattered throughout the city. Should an urgent situation arise then any of the guards in the area would easily be able to find them to request for assistance. With a calm mind devoid of outside influence and panic, they would be able to find the best solution.
"What?! Repeat yourself, now!"
Well, that would be the case normally at least. With the news that Alice brought, the Captain would have no choice but to head out on her own. And naturally, with the duke’s life being the one targeted, it would be a bit hard for her to maintain the calm mind she was supposed to have.
A somewhat aged face worn by stress and hard work, deep brown eyes and black hair cut to just above the ears, a crooked nose and a large scar that went horizontally across it. Yvonne Taquin, captain of the guards in the Vairasta.
"Yes, Ma’am! Alice De Vritara approached us claiming to have evidence that someone is targeting the life of the duke. Here is the evidence she has provided!"
The guards trembled slightly as they saluted, Alice handing over the papers she had found. Yvonne quickly snatched them and read them over several times, the veins in her eyes growing a touch more visible with each move of her pupils.
"Thankless scum!"
Her arm smashed down on the table that was covered in other reports, the wood shattering beneath her gauntlet as she spat out a heavy breath. Looking at her, now standing there with the remains of the table on the floor, Gabriel was reminded of the bull-fighters he sometimes saw on TV in his past life. He felt like this may be what they felt at that moment, as they faced a bull about to rage.
"Young Lady! Can you lead me to the place you found these papers?"
Yvonne was huffing as she addressed Alice, doing her best to restrain herself from blowing up further. Alice naturally agreed, Yvonne quickly having her horse brought out so that they could save on time. Even if they were just kids, there was a limit to how many people they could fit on the horse so only Alice could join Yvonne on horseback.
"Gabriel, can you take Teresa back to the estate? I think we might just go straight there once we’re done. Ah, can you prepare the bath for me? I want to feel clean while we’re looking at the end of the festival."
Alice had to turn her head somewhat awkwardly due to the fact that Yvonne had placed her in front, making sure that she wouldn’t fall off even if they galloped at full speed. Gabriel gave a polite bow and saw her off as the horse stormed away. In the end, only Gabriel, Teresa, and Nergal remained to trudge back home.
"You wanted to talk."
Gabriel took the chance to break the silence as they walked, his head tilting slightly as he cast a glance at Teresa. She looked to be mulling over something, chewing on the words as she chose the most fitting ones.
"You… Were the one who set that up, weren’t you?"
She finally settled on it in the end and just went straight for it. She thought about beating around the bush, but from what she had seen so far that didn’t seem to be a strategy that held a lot of success with Gabriel.
"Bringing along Fenrir and the others was your choice, the path we took seemed random but you were constantly and subtly guiding us, you didn’t seem surprised or fazed by the stench. And finally, you stopped me at the end. You knew what was down there, didn’t you? You may even have done it yourself, right?"
She mustered her courage and dredged up the suspicious points she found when she first started to think about the situation. It was undoubtedly a good situation for Alice, now she would be able to spread her name while ensuring a reward. But the way they got there was too suspicious. And then everyone was dead already? It was suspicious, and thus she thought of what Gabriel first told her.
Hello, I have come to be the most suspicious man you will ever meet.
Gabriel looked at her in silence for a moment. He was a b it prepared for her to figure things out, she wasn’t stupid after all. And it wasn’t as if he was doing a particularly fantastic job of hiding how suspicious he was, it was bound to happen sooner rather than later.
"What of it?"
He didn’t deny it, their eyes meeting. The tenets he was teaching Alice. The seventh was to not lie to your allies. Teresa was working with him to take care of Alice, and she was a generally good person, so she was his ally, thus he could not lie to her.
"I…"
Teresa couldn’t pull her gaze away from his eyes. No surprise at getting caught, no fear at getting revealed, he simply looked at her as he always did and awaited her next words. So she sucked in a heavy breath and mustered up her courage, her decision was already set in stone after all.
"I want to help you. When you have to do things like that in the future, when you have to sneak around and… take care of people, I want to help you."
Teresa had been working for Alice for some time now so she could somewhat gauge how she was being treated. Negligence would be the best way of putting it, and even that was only the case because her brother Leonardo had perished. He was apparently one of those who treated her the worst so thing must surely have been worse in the past.
Teresa… did not think that Alice deserved to be treated like that. She took her in, she took care of her brothers, she forgave Teresa’s mistakes whenever she made one. She was a good person. Even now, while they were enjoying the festival, she made sure to buy things for Teresa’s brothers who were still at home. She should be happy. And if Teresa had to dirty her hands to ensure that future, then she had decided that it would be worth it.
"How will you help?"
Rather than accept or reject her, Gabriel simply posed her a simple question, his head still slightly tilted. Teresa’s mouth opened to answer, but she found that the words wouldn’t leave her mouth. How exactly was she supposed to help?
"Do you know how to locate hidden bases? Do you know how to sniff out liars and assassins? Do you know how to concoct poisons and antidotes? Do you know how to sneak up on people who are on high alert? Do you know how to kill someone?"
Gabriel hounded her with questions, but his gaze and tone remained as placid as always. He wasn’t humiliating her or putting her down, he was simply stating the nature of the situation, of Teresa. She wanted to help, but what could the current her do? Her mouth slowly closed, her hands clutching the hem of her skirt.
"You’re already doing enough by just staying with Alice and being a friend to her, I won’t ask you to do more than that. But, should there come a day where you have found something you can do, then you can ask me again."
Study, become useful. That was how Teresa heard it. It was a bit disheartening to hear that she couldn’t be helpful, but there was still hope. Alice had a library of her own, one that was slowly growing now that she had gotten some of Leonardo’s assets. If she holed herself up in there then she was bound to find something. One day, she too would become someone useful.
"I will do just that. And don’t worry, I won’t tell Alice any of this."
She let go of her skirt and let out another breath. She didn’t know where to start reading, she didn’t know anything in fact. But she was confident, she had to be. But while she tried to assure him, Gabriel tilted his head further.
"What makes you think that she doesn’t know?"
Teresa couldn’t help but stiffen up at his casual words. He was being so sneaky about it, pretending not to know a thing as they got there, wasn’t it because he was trying to keep things hidden from Alice?
"Fenrir could smell the blood and rotting flesh from that distance, within that mess of people of all things. Do you really think he wouldn’t be able to smell my scent on the corpses once we got closer? He probably told her while we were heading there, she just didn’t mention it. It’s our open secret, kept because she knows that I won’t answer."
Fenrir may be a wolf, but even Nergal was able to talk with Gabriel despite looking like a small octopus. He didn’t doubt that both Quetz and Fenrir could communicate freely with Alice. And with Fenrir’s sense of smell, a few days wouldn’t be enough to hide Gabriel’s smell on the corpses.
He knew, Alice knew, and Gabriel knew that they knew. Yet all three of them kept quiet about it. Well, Alice subtly brought it up when he tried to cover her eyes and at least spare her the sight. She also took the chance to make her stance on the matter clear so he had no choice but to give way and respect it.
He kept moving forward, but Teresa’s feet stopped moving for a moment so she lagged behind. Here she thought that she was being considerate and somewhat smart, but it turned out that Alice already knew? In that case, wasn’t she the last one to figure it out?
"I’m going to leave you behind, you know?"
Gabriel’s head turned slightly as he dragged her out of her own thoughts. He was slowly moving further and further away, almost vanishing into the crowd around them. Teresa quickly discarded the pointless thoughts and hurried forwards so that she could catch up with Gabriel before he disappeared.
———
"It’s nice and colourful, don’t you think? It looks as if the stars have come alive."
Alice was laying in the bath, which she had specifically placed in front of the window in her room, as she spoke. Gabriel was currently sitting on a chair behind her, gently washing and tending to her hair as she had requested, or perhaps ordered was a better term.
She came back later than expected so she wouldn’t be able to finish her bath before the end of the festival. She didn’t want to miss either so she compromised and simply took her bath while watching the final show.
"It really is quite a sight."
The city beneath the estate was alive with lights, fireworks constantly shooting into the sky to blot out the night sky. A massive projection showing part of the capital hung in the sky above the city, showing the Crown Princess, the Emperor, the leader of the Eastern family, and Caine Woodime, the adopted child of the Eastern family. With that, as was the case in the second ru… Original show, the two main characters met and had their magic affinities revealed together.
The city was buzzing with the news. Someone who had affinity for both Gula(Light) and Diverta(Divine) had appeared again, and even more than that, someone with two previously unknown affinities had appeared at the same time. This was a cause for great celebration as well as great worry.
Someone powerful had appeared in the empire, but powerful people only appeared in troubling times. The last time someone with two affinities on the Divine Star appeared, it was because a Deicide-grade Demon King had appeared in the world. This time… What would show up this time?
"But who’s that next to Abigail? I don’t think I’ve seen him before?"
As he expected, Alice questioned him about the boy next to Abigail. This was always the start of her jealousy, she saw the male lead from a distance and fell in love at first sight. But she could never have him, so she fell further and further. But this time…
"Depending on how things play out, he may be your future husband."
Gabriel’s gaze was raised as he spoke. There was something about Caine that attracted his gaze. Something familiar? No, it didn’t feel quite right to be called that? But there was something there, it floated in and out of his mind, disappearing between thoughts.
But because he was looking at Caine like that, he didn’t notice that Alice had leaned her head back to look at him. Her gaze moved between the profile of Gabriel and the projection of Caine, her expression constantly changing between dumbfoundedness, disgust, and fleeting thought.