Chapter 170 – Glasses boy verifies his answers
“Eil.” I heard a voice call out to me.
The moment I saw her, I instantly understood it.
Old lady Adyll had said she had already left it with me.
And well, there was one person who both knew me and also had a relationship with old lady Adyll.
“I think you might have the wrong person.” I told Lisse.
“Isn’t your wig slipping off?” Lisse asked me.
“My hair is natural, so it’s not possible for it to slip.” I replied.
“Then I’ll just make sure of it by flipping your skirt, alright? If I really have the wrong person, I’ll apologize.” Lisse stated.
… Well, I guess there’s no point in trying to deceive her when she’s this sure of it.
“Long time no see, Lisse.” I said.
“Just what kind of answer is that? If you are going to give up this easily, you should have just admitted it from the start.” Lisse replied.
Well, she isn’t wrong on that, but… “I thought it would be nice if I could keep on treating you as a stranger for as long as possible.” I said.
“That’s impossible, so I guess that’s why you gave up?” Lisse asked.
It was a pretty light conversation, but she also said some scary lines here and there.
******
I had just left the brothel district and entered the main street.
The narrow main street was always fairly busy, but today it was especially crowded, as it was the day of the hunting festival.
And it seemed like many people from outside the city had come here today to enjoy it.
I only had to pay a bit of attention to see a person wearing some well-tailored clothes and that was accompanied by some strong people that seemed to be their bodyguards.
Lots of aristocrats and rich people from outside seemed to have come here today.
Considering that the crowd was large enough to make it hard to walk around easily, this event will probably be a huge success that brings a big profit to the organizers.
Well, none of that money is going to me though.
But well, just as I was stepping in to blend into the crowd, “Eil.” Lisse called out my name.
When I turned towards her voice, I saw her standing against the sign that announced the entrance of the brothel district.
Considering the place that she was standing at, she was probably waiting for me the whole time.
So, after she confirmed my identity, we exchanged a bit of information before we entered the crowd where we’d have a hard time talking any further.
“So you came to the brothel district too?” I asked her.
Old lady Adyll was probably referring to Lisse when she talked about already leaving it with me.
Though I don’t think old lady Adyll learned my name through Lisse… I mean, Chace may be quite talkative and may spill information without thinking much of it, but Lisse is smarter than that.
Especially because she was raised to be an assassin since young, so I’m fairly sure that she is careful with handling information.
Well, I can probably ask Lisse about it later.
That said, old lady Adyll most likely remembered that Lisse referred to me as ‘Eil’ back when we were at Beckenberg’s restaurant, even if Lisse wasn’t sure of my identity at that point.
Old lady Adyll must have taken note of my attitude towards Lisse and realized that the two of us were acquaintances.
And well, old lady Adyll also knew that I was a man… When she saw Lisse being confused about my identity after seeing me dressed as a woman, old lady Adyll probably concluded that I had been able to partially fool Lisse due to the wild change in appearance. This probably gave extra credibility to the theory of me and Lisse being acquaintances.
“I didn’t have anywhere else to go, so at first, I just confirmed that Chace, Cherry and Florentine were all safe… Though I didn’t make contact with any of them.” Lisse told me.
Guess she really did decide to confirm whether or not Beckenberg’s words were true with her own eyes.
“I also tried to confirm your situation, Eil, but… I just couldn’t find you.” Lisse said.
I guess that’s why she contacted old lady Adyll then. As she could ask her for information on my whereabouts.
“Well, with the benefit of hindsight, I can now be sure that you were the maid that I had met at the restaurant, but I figured I had to make sure, so… I decided that I would meet you again, and I would forcefully expose you regardless of whatever disguise you would be wearing.” Lisse told me.
Ah, I see. So that’s what happened.
“And I assume that old lady Adyll told you that you had to do something for her if you wanted to meet up with me?” I asked her.
After all, I truly had no idea that Lisse would be waiting for me here.
In that case, I can only assume that old lady Adyll was using Lisse for her own ends without telling me anything about it.
“Yes, she asked me to do some jobs for her before she’d tell me your whereabouts.” Lisse confirmed my suspicions.
Well, that’s just the kind of bad person old lady Adyll is. She doesn’t do anything for free.
“I was a bit annoyed at it, but I had to search for stuff that was stolen from Beckenberg. Jewelry, antiques, household goods. Anything was fine, regardless of its value.
“I was doing that up until yesterday, so I couldn’t go after you until just now.” Lisse said.
I see…
“So you were recovering the stuff that was stolen by Zett’s subordinates?” I asked just to be sure.
“Pretty much. I was running around a lot, looking for the items, negotiating for them if necessary, and retrieving them in what ways I could. I did that until yesterday.” Lisse replied.
Truly… I didn’t know what Lisse had been doing since we met at the restaurant, but to think it was something like that…?
I thought she had already arrived at the Tower of Bryne, but it seems like that’s not the case.
“So, did you manage to retrieve them?” I asked her next.
“To some extent. Zett’s friends seemed to be getting in the way though.
“There was a girl with a hat and a guy with a coat in particular that were being quite bothersome and made it hard to track the items.
“Still, I think I was able to get about 30% of them back.” Lisse said.
That was quite a bit… Old lady Adyll will probably sell those things back to Beckenberg later, then. Because she’s certainly not giving them for free.
So well, strictly speaking, Beckenberg most likely doesn’t have those items back just yet.
For the time being, old lady Adyll is just keeping his stolen goods with her.
“But you know, Eil…” Lisse started saying.
“Yeah…?” I asked.
“If something like this ever happens again, please let me know if you’re okay. I was really worried…” Lisse told me.
… If didn’t know about Beckenberg’s Agitator, I would have easily told her something like, ‘There’s no way we’d die that easily. It’s stupid to believe that all of us are dead, idiot’.
“Sorry. Though I had asked Cherry to tell you that I was safe if she met you.” I replied.
But well, Lisse did not make contact with her.
Lisse just either heard rumors of someone that matched Cherry’s description or looked at her from afar and left… Essentially, she did what I had planned on doing when I visited the orphanage.
“… Well, that’s that. All that matters is that you’re safe.” Lisse let out a heavy breath.
Sorry for worrying you. I can apologize for at least this much.
“So, you’re going to the hunting festival?” Lisse asked me.
“Did you ask the manager about it?” I asked back.
“Yeah.” She nodded, then pulled out a letter that had a wax seal that I had seen before, “She also gave me this. She told me to give it to you once the hunting festival had ended.”
Oh? Could this letter have the information on old lady Adyll’s Gift?
“What do I do with it? I can give it to you right now if you want.” Lisse suggested.
Let’s see… If she gives me that, then neither of us would have any sort of obligation left that ties us to old lady Adyll.
Therefore… “Keep it. Just as you promised her, give it to me after the hunting festival ends.” I told Lisse.
I mean, this is strange no matter how I think about it.
There’s no way old lady Adyll would hand out a letter with information on her Gift to a third party without any sort of preventive measures.
She wouldn’t even be able to know if Lisse would open the letter or not in the first place. And Lisse could also show it to other people too.
There’s no way that old lady Adyll would do something so thoughtless that could lead to such an important information being leaked out.
I don’t think she was lying to me when she agreed to tell me what her Gift was, but I’m also sure that she is a very cautious person.
She is the kind of person that always has a plan.
So, I think something bad will happen if I don’t keep my end of my deal with her, which is why I’ll refrain from getting that letter for now.
******
“By the way, Lisse, did you find the Tower of Bryne already?” I decided to ask her.
“Ah, probably. I ran around the city a lot, so I have a pretty good guess of its location.” She replied.
As expected of Lisse. She probably came to the same conclusion as me.
“People know about the words, ‘Tower of Bryne’, but nobody knows where it is.” I commented.
“Ah, I guess you figured it out too, Eil? Wanna compare our answers then?” Lisse suggested.
Since nobody knows the tower’s location, then it either doesn’t have a conspicuous tower shape, or it is in a place where nobody can find it.
In other words, “The tower is not outside the city. There are no towns or villages near Krozheit, so any building in that region that can be accessed on foot would stand out a lot.
“The hunters of Krozheit probably have a rough idea of everything that is in the surroundings of the city as well.” I commented.
“Furthermore, the tower needs to be large enough to accommodate a large number of people.” Lisse nodded.
“And as the number of people living there increases, the amount of supplies they need will inevitably increase too.
“And the place to get those supplies is, of course, Krozheit.” I said.
“Due to all that, it’s quite possible that the Tower of Bryne is located in a place that isn’t particularly noticeable to the residents of this town, and that won’t get much attention even if people that don’t reside in Krozheit come and go from it.
“And any place outside Krozheit is automatically impossible when taking that into account, as people here seem to pay a lot of attention to people who just entered the city.” Lisse added.
“In other words, there’s a place in either the commercial district or in the slums that leads to the Tower of Bryne.” I said.
“And taking aside the large stores that have been operating for many years, there are very few buildings that are large enough to accommodate many people without calling attention.” Lisse commented.
Yeah… Our conclusions really are the same, aren’t they?
“Lisse, you had said that you were going to meet your friends at the Tower of Bryne, right?” I asked.
And old lady Adyll had referred to us as guests of the Tower of Bryne.
“The most inconspicuous place of this city that has many people around our age in it, and that has plenty of people that the residents of this city aren’t familiar with…” I started saying.
“Is the orphanage. It’s the only place that meets all the conditions.” Lisse finished my sentence.
She straight up said it. I had also concluded that it was the orphanage.
It probably has an underground training facility below it, just like how there was one in Haidiga.
The word ‘Tower’ is probably just some sort of convenient jargon of the assassins. The place doesn’t necessarily need to have the shape of a tower.
Though maybe there is a tower-like structure, that goes downwards, below the orphanage.
“You talked about people around our age just now, right? In the orphanage there is a nun who seems to be really out of place when compared to the rest of the people in Krozheit, and she seems to be pretty strong.” Lisse commented.
She’s talking about Hydra, I assume?
I hadn’t looked at Hydra’s ‘number’ on the first time I visited, but I looked at it on my second meeting with her… She’s strong.
She seemed to have her guard down while we talked, but her number was ‘1’… And even when she turned her back to me, that number didn’t change.
I didn’t know Hydra’s age, but if Lisse says she is around our age, then she probably is.
Then, Hydra must be an assassin trainee like us, but even if she is not, she’s almost guaranteed to be someone who is affiliated with the Tower of Bryne.
“Our answer has to be the correct one, right?” Lisse asked.
“Most likely. But I gotta do something in this hunting festival, so I guess we can find that out after it ends.” I replied.
Chapter 170 – Glasses boy verifies his answers
“Eil.” I heard a voice call out to me.
The moment I saw her, I instantly understood it.
Old lady Adyll had said she had already left it with me.
And well, there was one person who both knew me and also had a relationship with old lady Adyll.
“I think you might have the wrong person.” I told Lisse.
“Isn’t your wig slipping off?” Lisse asked me.
“My hair is natural, so it’s not possible for it to slip.” I replied.
“Then I’ll just make sure of it by flipping your skirt, alright? If I really have the wrong person, I’ll apologize.” Lisse stated.
… Well, I guess there’s no point in trying to deceive her when she’s this sure of it.
“Long time no see, Lisse.” I said.
“Just what kind of answer is that? If you are going to give up this easily, you should have just admitted it from the start.” Lisse replied.
Well, she isn’t wrong on that, but… “I thought it would be nice if I could keep on treating you as a stranger for as long as possible.” I said.
“That’s impossible, so I guess that’s why you gave up?” Lisse asked.
It was a pretty light conversation, but she also said some scary lines here and there.
******
I had just left the brothel district and entered the main street.
The narrow main street was always fairly busy, but today it was especially crowded, as it was the day of the hunting festival.
And it seemed like many people from outside the city had come here today to enjoy it.
I only had to pay a bit of attention to see a person wearing some well-tailored clothes and that was accompanied by some strong people that seemed to be their bodyguards.
Lots of aristocrats and rich people from outside seemed to have come here today.
Considering that the crowd was large enough to make it hard to walk around easily, this event will probably be a huge success that brings a big profit to the organizers.
Well, none of that money is going to me though.
But well, just as I was stepping in to blend into the crowd, “Eil.” Lisse called out my name.
When I turned towards her voice, I saw her standing against the sign that announced the entrance of the brothel district.
Considering the place that she was standing at, she was probably waiting for me the whole time.
So, after she confirmed my identity, we exchanged a bit of information before we entered the crowd where we’d have a hard time talking any further.
“So you came to the brothel district too?” I asked her.
Old lady Adyll was probably referring to Lisse when she talked about already leaving it with me.
Though I don’t think old lady Adyll learned my name through Lisse… I mean, Chace may be quite talkative and may spill information without thinking much of it, but Lisse is smarter than that.
Especially because she was raised to be an assassin since young, so I’m fairly sure that she is careful with handling information.
Well, I can probably ask Lisse about it later.
That said, old lady Adyll most likely remembered that Lisse referred to me as ‘Eil’ back when we were at Beckenberg’s restaurant, even if Lisse wasn’t sure of my identity at that point.
Old lady Adyll must have taken note of my attitude towards Lisse and realized that the two of us were acquaintances.
And well, old lady Adyll also knew that I was a man… When she saw Lisse being confused about my identity after seeing me dressed as a woman, old lady Adyll probably concluded that I had been able to partially fool Lisse due to the wild change in appearance. This probably gave extra credibility to the theory of me and Lisse being acquaintances.
“I didn’t have anywhere else to go, so at first, I just confirmed that Chace, Cherry and Florentine were all safe… Though I didn’t make contact with any of them.” Lisse told me.
Guess she really did decide to confirm whether or not Beckenberg’s words were true with her own eyes.
“I also tried to confirm your situation, Eil, but… I just couldn’t find you.” Lisse said.
I guess that’s why she contacted old lady Adyll then. As she could ask her for information on my whereabouts.
“Well, with the benefit of hindsight, I can now be sure that you were the maid that I had met at the restaurant, but I figured I had to make sure, so… I decided that I would meet you again, and I would forcefully expose you regardless of whatever disguise you would be wearing.” Lisse told me.
Ah, I see. So that’s what happened.
“And I assume that old lady Adyll told you that you had to do something for her if you wanted to meet up with me?” I asked her.
After all, I truly had no idea that Lisse would be waiting for me here.
In that case, I can only assume that old lady Adyll was using Lisse for her own ends without telling me anything about it.
“Yes, she asked me to do some jobs for her before she’d tell me your whereabouts.” Lisse confirmed my suspicions.
Well, that’s just the kind of bad person old lady Adyll is. She doesn’t do anything for free.
“I was a bit annoyed at it, but I had to search for stuff that was stolen from Beckenberg. Jewelry, antiques, household goods. Anything was fine, regardless of its value.
“I was doing that up until yesterday, so I couldn’t go after you until just now.” Lisse said.
I see…
“So you were recovering the stuff that was stolen by Zett’s subordinates?” I asked just to be sure.
“Pretty much. I was running around a lot, looking for the items, negotiating for them if necessary, and retrieving them in what ways I could. I did that until yesterday.” Lisse replied.
Truly… I didn’t know what Lisse had been doing since we met at the restaurant, but to think it was something like that…?
I thought she had already arrived at the Tower of Bryne, but it seems like that’s not the case.
“So, did you manage to retrieve them?” I asked her next.
“To some extent. Zett’s friends seemed to be getting in the way though.
“There was a girl with a hat and a guy with a coat in particular that were being quite bothersome and made it hard to track the items.
“Still, I think I was able to get about 30% of them back.” Lisse said.
That was quite a bit… Old lady Adyll will probably sell those things back to Beckenberg later, then. Because she’s certainly not giving them for free.
So well, strictly speaking, Beckenberg most likely doesn’t have those items back just yet.
For the time being, old lady Adyll is just keeping his stolen goods with her.
“But you know, Eil…” Lisse started saying.
“Yeah…?” I asked.
“If something like this ever happens again, please let me know if you’re okay. I was really worried…” Lisse told me.
… If didn’t know about Beckenberg’s Agitator, I would have easily told her something like, ‘There’s no way we’d die that easily. It’s stupid to believe that all of us are dead, idiot’.
“Sorry. Though I had asked Cherry to tell you that I was safe if she met you.” I replied.
But well, Lisse did not make contact with her.
Lisse just either heard rumors of someone that matched Cherry’s description or looked at her from afar and left… Essentially, she did what I had planned on doing when I visited the orphanage.
“… Well, that’s that. All that matters is that you’re safe.” Lisse let out a heavy breath.
Sorry for worrying you. I can apologize for at least this much.
“So, you’re going to the hunting festival?” Lisse asked me.
“Did you ask the manager about it?” I asked back.
“Yeah.” She nodded, then pulled out a letter that had a wax seal that I had seen before, “She also gave me this. She told me to give it to you once the hunting festival had ended.”
Oh? Could this letter have the information on old lady Adyll’s Gift?
“What do I do with it? I can give it to you right now if you want.” Lisse suggested.
Let’s see… If she gives me that, then neither of us would have any sort of obligation left that ties us to old lady Adyll.
Therefore… “Keep it. Just as you promised her, give it to me after the hunting festival ends.” I told Lisse.
I mean, this is strange no matter how I think about it.
There’s no way old lady Adyll would hand out a letter with information on her Gift to a third party without any sort of preventive measures.
She wouldn’t even be able to know if Lisse would open the letter or not in the first place. And Lisse could also show it to other people too.
There’s no way that old lady Adyll would do something so thoughtless that could lead to such an important information being leaked out.
I don’t think she was lying to me when she agreed to tell me what her Gift was, but I’m also sure that she is a very cautious person.
She is the kind of person that always has a plan.
So, I think something bad will happen if I don’t keep my end of my deal with her, which is why I’ll refrain from getting that letter for now.
******
“By the way, Lisse, did you find the Tower of Bryne already?” I decided to ask her.
“Ah, probably. I ran around the city a lot, so I have a pretty good guess of its location.” She replied.
As expected of Lisse. She probably came to the same conclusion as me.
“People know about the words, ‘Tower of Bryne’, but nobody knows where it is.” I commented.
“Ah, I guess you figured it out too, Eil? Wanna compare our answers then?” Lisse suggested.
Since nobody knows the tower’s location, then it either doesn’t have a conspicuous tower shape, or it is in a place where nobody can find it.
In other words, “The tower is not outside the city. There are no towns or villages near Krozheit, so any building in that region that can be accessed on foot would stand out a lot.
“The hunters of Krozheit probably have a rough idea of everything that is in the surroundings of the city as well.” I commented.
“Furthermore, the tower needs to be large enough to accommodate a large number of people.” Lisse nodded.
“And as the number of people living there increases, the amount of supplies they need will inevitably increase too.
“And the place to get those supplies is, of course, Krozheit.” I said.
“Due to all that, it’s quite possible that the Tower of Bryne is located in a place that isn’t particularly noticeable to the residents of this town, and that won’t get much attention even if people that don’t reside in Krozheit come and go from it.
“And any place outside Krozheit is automatically impossible when taking that into account, as people here seem to pay a lot of attention to people who just entered the city.” Lisse added.
“In other words, there’s a place in either the commercial district or in the slums that leads to the Tower of Bryne.” I said.
“And taking aside the large stores that have been operating for many years, there are very few buildings that are large enough to accommodate many people without calling attention.” Lisse commented.
Yeah… Our conclusions really are the same, aren’t they?
“Lisse, you had said that you were going to meet your friends at the Tower of Bryne, right?” I asked.
And old lady Adyll had referred to us as guests of the Tower of Bryne.
“The most inconspicuous place of this city that has many people around our age in it, and that has plenty of people that the residents of this city aren’t familiar with…” I started saying.
“Is the orphanage. It’s the only place that meets all the conditions.” Lisse finished my sentence.
She straight up said it. I had also concluded that it was the orphanage.
It probably has an underground training facility below it, just like how there was one in Haidiga.
The word ‘Tower’ is probably just some sort of convenient jargon of the assassins. The place doesn’t necessarily need to have the shape of a tower.
Though maybe there is a tower-like structure, that goes downwards, below the orphanage.
“You talked about people around our age just now, right? In the orphanage there is a nun who seems to be really out of place when compared to the rest of the people in Krozheit, and she seems to be pretty strong.” Lisse commented.
She’s talking about Hydra, I assume?
I hadn’t looked at Hydra’s ‘number’ on the first time I visited, but I looked at it on my second meeting with her… She’s strong.
She seemed to have her guard down while we talked, but her number was ‘1’… And even when she turned her back to me, that number didn’t change.
I didn’t know Hydra’s age, but if Lisse says she is around our age, then she probably is.
Then, Hydra must be an assassin trainee like us, but even if she is not, she’s almost guaranteed to be someone who is affiliated with the Tower of Bryne.
“Our answer has to be the correct one, right?” Lisse asked.
“Most likely. But I gotta do something in this hunting festival, so I guess we can find that out after it ends.” I replied.
