IWTGHFW CHAPTER 38

Episode 38

Following Ron’s order to “comb through the capital,” the intelligence bureau employees brought him all sorts of petty details. Ron sifted through them, picking out only the useful pieces, then let out a long sigh.

“At this rate… can we even find him?”

The information from Aint only covered the prince’s basic profile — he was four years old at the time of his disappearance, with blue hair and blue eyes. Though, they said, the color was closer to “wave-blue” than plain blue.

“Wave-blue?” Ron had asked, puzzled. The intelligence agent replied, “It’s similar to Sir Narein’s hair.” That made perfect sense — Narein, for someone from the northern tribes, looked surprisingly like the sea.

They gathered the list of four-year-old children admitted to orphanages ten years ago, then narrowed it to those with blue hair and blue eyes. There weren’t that many.

But not many didn’t mean few — it would still take far more than a week to investigate each one individually.

And Ron was not a man known for his patience.

“Aile needs to come back quickly…”

The administrative duties of the knight order were currently being handled solely by Mien, who had returned. Ron had checked, just in case Aile’s workload would pile up upon return, but surprisingly, Mien was doing an excellent job.

He couldn’t tell if Aile’s complaints about Mien’s incompetence had been lies, or if Mien had only been pretending to be incompetent. Either way, it was fortunate for the current situation.

While Ron was trying to wring some ideas out of his stubbornly uncooperative brain, the crystal ball on his desk glimmered. When he accepted the call, the crown prince’s face appeared above the sphere.

“What is it, Your Highness? If you’re contacting me this late at night, it must be urgent?”

— “I got a call from Mishi.”

“Huh? Another call from the Aint royal family?”

— “No, from Mishi. Or rather, from Lady Aile through Mishi. Somehow, she managed to contact me with a crystal ball.”

“…What?!”

Ron bombarded the prince with questions — what they’d talked about, what Aile looked like, whether she seemed to be in good health — until the prince, looking annoyed, motioned for him to be quiet.

— “Come to the palace immediately. We need to operate the warp zone.”

“Warp zone? Wait, is Aile coming through it?”

— “We’ve agreed to activate it exactly five hours from now. If I make a move myself, word will reach His Majesty, so you’ll have to do it. I’ve already summoned the warp zone staff, so just come straight in.”

“What about the application paperwork…?”

— “I’ll prepare it in advance.”

Ron didn’t quite understand the situation. If only Sean were here, he might have asked him, but he wasn’t around either.

When faced with complicated situations he couldn’t understand, Ron had a habit of not overthinking. He boiled it down to the essentials:

Five hours from now, Aile will return through the warp zone. That’s all he needed to remember. His hands moved urgently as he gathered his outer clothes.

Five hours. That wasn’t much time to reach the palace and activate the magic circle.

Parcel — always the perfect example of “lacking but pure” — had never inspired much expectation from me. But surprisingly, he really did manage to procure a crystal ball.

The royal emblem plastered on its surface made me uneasy, but since the job would be done before morning, as long as we avoided detection before then, it didn’t matter much.

As soon as I received the crystal ball, the first thing I did — out of heartfelt gratitude, of course — was to tie Parcel up tightly with rope.

“Why me?”

“Sorry, Parcel. I had no choice.”

I rummaged through his pockets to find the key, then, grunting with effort, hauled him onto the sofa. Even though he was skinny, he was heavy enough that without Mishi’s help, I might have just left him on the floor.

Wrapped like a cocoon, Parcel looked up at me with pitiful eyes. I avoided meeting his gaze.

But kindhearted Mishi apparently couldn’t.

“Even if we return to the Empire, I’ll keep looking for the prince. So don’t be too discouraged.”

At Mishi’s gentle words, Parcel’s eyelashes trembled. He glanced at the rope binding him, the key in my hand, and the crystal ball in Mishi’s hand, then lowered his head with a sigh. Such a good-natured guy — you’d expect him to curse us out, but he never did.

While Mishi spoke to the crown prince through the crystal ball, I poked the slumped Parcel.

“Sorry again, but Parcel, the warp zone here is in the middle of the sea, right? How do we get there?”

“…Even if you’re my friends, I’m still a royal employee. I can’t tell you.”

Even now, he still called us friends. I wasn’t sure if he was truly pure-hearted or just a fool.

Sometimes he seemed pathetic, but I’d always liked people like him. Back when I worked in an office, if there was a clueless but kind new hire, I always looked out for them first — a bit like a mother hen. People with a good nature naturally earned my affection.

And lately, everyone around me was competent and self-sufficient, so I’d never had the chance to let that “mom instinct” kick in.

Should I untie him? Just the rope… He wouldn’t attack us anyway.

I hesitated, looking into Parcel’s calf-eyed gaze, but quickly steeled my heart. Better to prevent any possible danger.

I frowned to suppress my pity.

“Then I guess we’ll have to swim.”

“How could you swim there? Do you even know how deep the water is? It’s the sea! You’d need a bridge, maybe.”

“Bridge?”

Seeing my eyes light up, Parcel edged away. I leaned closer.

“A bridge? You mean there’s a bridge? We came by warship — was that to hide the bridge’s existence from the delegation?”

“It was more to welcome the delegation than… no, that’s not the point. Even if you know there’s a bridge, you’ll never get across.”

“Why not? Are knights guarding it? Well, I suppose the path to the warp zone would be heavily guarded.”

“That’s right. Without an ID plaque, you can’t cross.”

“An ID plaque…”

I repeated the word a few times, then glanced at his pocket. When I’d taken the key earlier, I thought I’d felt something flat in there.

I shoved my hand into his pocket, making him jump.

“No! That’s my ID— mmph!”

Realizing too late that he’d said too much, Parcel went pale. I grinned and pulled out the plaque — a flat piece of wood with his full name and rank engraved on it.

One ID plaque, obtained.

The other one? I’d figure it out somehow — steal it from someone along the way if I had to. If we were bold enough to escape the palace, we could manage that.

I stuffed Parcel’s ID into my pocket and turned to Mishi. She was asking the crown prince, “How long will it take?” — since the warp zones would have to be activated at the same time.

My gaze returned to Parcel.

“It’ll take at least five hours. Just getting there is one thing, but activation takes a long time too,” he said, utterly defeated now.

Mishi nodded and continued her call. I sat on the sofa’s edge near Parcel.

“Like Mishi said, we really will keep looking for the prince after we return to the Empire.”

“…Alright.”

“We’re friends, so trust me. And sorry for tying you up.”

Parcel finally lifted his eyes to meet mine. His gaze was so pitiful — like a rain-soaked puppy — that my heart twinged.

Taking advantage of someone as kind and foolish as Parcel wasn’t my style. People like him should be protected and comforted.

When Mishi finished the call and came over, I gave Parcel a parting word, grabbed the key, and got ready to leave.

Time to go home.

As Ron hurriedly prepared to go out, he sensed a familiar presence behind him.

“Narein? Weren’t you headed north?”

“I had something to take care of. Are you going somewhere?”

“Aile’s coming back — just got word. I’m heading to the palace to operate the warp zone.”

Aile?

Narein’s expression, usually calm as a painting, wavered slightly. When he asked “How?” Ron only shrugged — he didn’t really know himself.

After a brief hesitation, Narein stepped up beside Ron.

“I’ll come with you.”

“Huh? You too? Well… alright.”

They climbed into the carriage the butler had prepared and set off through the dark night toward the palace.

Narein glanced sideways at Ron, who stared absently out the open window.

The night breeze lifted Ron’s red hair like flames before letting it fall again. Narein remembered the same red scattering across a white snowy field — like spilled blood.

A red-haired man, cutting down his defiant kin without hesitation. The moment those large hands gripped Narein’s collar as he charged with his sword, he thought his life was over.

When he made one last desperate strike, he saw amusement fill those crimson eyes.

That look — as if seeing something truly interesting — had always preceded terrible events in his life.