Chapter 61 (1/2)

“Which way, Palmira?”

By the time I got out the door, the man was already nowhere to be seen.

I came out without paying it any mind, but quite unlike the time I entered, the foyer on the other side looked completely unfamiliar to me.

It was the same entrance hall, but its appearance was different, and gloomy in comparison to the entryway.

“There.”

Palmira pointed to the opposite side of the sprawling hall.

Looking over, I caught a glimpse of what seemed to be the man’s shadow disappearing through the door at the other end.

Picking up the hem of the dress, now nothing but a bother, I broke into a half-jog.

It was a pretty dumb way to carry myself, but still, I didn’t have the guts to ruin the hem of the dress.

Which made Palmira that much faster than me.

Maybe because no one else was around, she headed for the door at almost top speed.

“Is he in there?”

I finally caught up to Palmira, who stood stock still as she peered into the room.

At the same time, I took a peek myself.

— There was nothing inside.

It looked like a parlor of some sort. Or a reception room for guests. However, maybe because there were no plans to put it to its intended use at the moment, it was currently serving as a storage room. The light from the entrance didn’t extend far enough into its dark interior.

The room wasn’t that wide, but with a jumble of miscellany inside, it was difficult to see.

But even so, I could at least tell that there was no human presence here.

“Palmira, he came in here, right? The man just now.”

“He should have.”

Though Palmira more or less confirmed my thoughts, from the state inside, I wasn’t particularly confident in myself.

But considering I was sure enough to expect him inside, I put my faith in my own eyes and took a step into the room.

Inside were a sofa, table, large shelf, and fireplace. Besides those, there was a jumbled mess of wooden boxes and barrels. They looked as if they hadn’t been touched in a long time. The sofa and other furniture were broken in places.

Not much time should have pa.s.sed between the man entering the room and us looking inside. During that interval, the man had vanished.

On the other hand, there could’ve been something in this room able to conceal him that well. Maybe he was holding his breath in the shadow of those wooden boxes, or on the other side of the sofa.

But if that were the case, he was liable to attack the moment we found him. Only now did I notice that I was unarmed. I didn’t even have the black dagger with me today, though you might’ve expected me to bring it along.

“Chris, I’ll go. Wait here.”

As I realized the problem, my feet came to a stop. Palmira slowly proceeded past me, her hand on the hilt of her sword.

It seemed that Palmira had the same thoughts as me; first, she wrapped around to check the sofa, then, taking the long way around, she advanced to a position from which she could look behind the boxes.

Just watching, my heart was thundering in my ears.

“…Not here,”

Palmira said tersely after getting close to the boxes. She took her hand from her sword.

a.s.sured for the moment that the man wasn’t here, I heaved out a great sigh. Then, though suspicious of the fact that he wasn’t around, I stepped forward into the room the same way. While scrutinizing our surroundings herself, Palmira came back to me.

“Strange. I thought for sure that he came in here. What do you think, Chris?”

“I was sure he came in here too…”

“In that case, there’s probably a secret pa.s.sage around here somewhere.”

Secret pa.s.sage, huh?

Come to think of it, Leon’s estate in Telaberan had something like that too.

If I remembered correctly, there was a door hidden behind a moving fireplace. As an experiment, I approached the stove and tried pus.h.i.+ng against it with my hand — it didn’t budge an inch.

“Chris, here it is.”

While I was experimenting off to the side, Palmira was scrutinizing the interior of the fireplace. Looking where she was pointing, sure enough, a rectangular outline glowed faintly on the inside wall.

It was probably light on the other side leaking through. If so, you could say it was an unexpectedly sloppy hidden door.

“You’re right. Looks kinda like it’s been left open.”

“What will we do? Try going through?”

asked Palmira, looking over her shoulder at me.

I pondered it briefly. To be honest, I had a hunch that it would be seriously dangerous to proceed any further. I mean, why am I even chasing the guy to begin with? Because he bothered me. That’s all it should’ve been. So I just wanted to call out to him and get a look at his face or something.

Can I justify shouldering a greater risk than I already have to pursue a matter this trivial? I’d even ditched Leon in coming this far. I wasn’t okay with worrying him to get wrapped up in this weird business. Besides, it seemed like the dress would get dirty too.

“No… let’s leave off here for now.”

Though I shook my head, the fact is, I was incredibly worried about that man’s true ident.i.ty.

I’ve definitely seen him somewhere. But for the life of me, I can’t remember where.

I didn’t even remember what he looked like. Even so, plagued by a strange uneasiness, I couldn’t help but fret and fret over it.

“How about I try to open it? That’s all, just opening it?”

Sensing how relatively hesitant I was to say stop, Palmira offered a very appealing suggestion. Somehow, I felt like I was digging myself into a hole, but at least that much would definitely be clear. So the business of the man’s ident.i.ty aside, I wanted to try opening the door.

While I was growing even more conflicted, Palmira drew the sword at her waist from its scabbard and pointed it at the dead center of the glowing outline inside of the fireplace. Then, she looked at me.

Say what you will, Palmira was pretty bothered by this too. Wordlessly, I gave her a nod.

Getting the go-ahead, Palmira gently prodded the center of the door-like structure with the point of her sword.

Ga-kunk!

“Eh–?”

In that moment, the entire frame of the door-like thing slightly, but visibly, caved inward. Before I could fully form the thought ‘It’s not a door?’, the floor that Palmira and I were kneeling on suddenly tilted and sagged toward the fireplace.

“Woah–!?”

“Kya–!”

At that very moment, we lost our balance and tumbled down the slope.

We rolled our way down underneath the fireplace. Unable to clearly sort out what just happened, unable to reorient ourselves, we rolled off the edge.

–

–

“Ow-ow-ow–!”

It probably took just about a moment.

The two of us tumbled down the considerable slope in a tangle. Then, we were tossed out into a wide, brightly lit s.p.a.ce.