Chapter: 07
“I just have a few questions.”
At Eloise’s words, the man flinched and lowered his eyes submissively. The moment he realized her identity, he had changed his attitude, so apparently he had some sense after all.
“W-what……?”
“How long have you lived in Tobas?”
“……Since I was born.”
“When did you start robbing people?”
“What? Robbing people?!”
The man cried out in shock.
“We’re just petty thieves! We only target wealthy households or people who look like they have money!”
The man, who had somehow already dropped to his knees, protested as though he had been treated unfairly.
They never touched people who were struggling. They had even helped poor neighbors before. They were different from the vicious criminals who had turned their hometown into one enormous gambling den.
From the excuses he rattled off, it was clear that he knew Tobas quite well.
‘As I thought, they might be useful.’
Thud.
Eloise set her bag down beside the man and loosened the straps.
“I’ll just take a little money this time and let you go without any trouble…….”
The man, who had been watching her actions while making excuses, suddenly stopped talking when he saw the gold coins spilling out of the bag.
“Good. Then, one last question.”
The gold coins reflecting the moonlight cast strange shadows across the man’s face. As he stared at them, unable to tear his eyes away, Eloise asked,
“Do you have any interest in earning money by working instead of stealing?”
A brief silence followed. The dazed-looking man, who resembled the ferret his cousin used to raise, fortunately opened his mouth before Eloise’s patience ran out.
“……I’m Chenny, and that’s Tom.”
Chenny pointed toward the fallen man.
“Please call us that from now on, young master.”
The three of them moved to a nearby inn.
Just as her mother had once said that a hunting dog should be trained with clear rewards and punishments, Eloise laid out a generous meal in front of Chenny and Tom before getting to the point.
“Find one person for me. His name is Hayden North.”
Eloise had been troubled because although she knew Hayden was in Tobas, she didn’t know exactly where he lived. Fortunately, two people she could put to work had practically fallen into her lap.
“He has black hair and blue eyes. He’s around my age. Can you find him?”
Chenny exchanged a brief glance with Tom before carefully asking Eloise,
“I-I think we could find him faster if you gave us some more information…….”
More information?
“He’s handsome. Handsome enough that you’ll never forget him once you see him.”
Hayden was a handsome man with an atmosphere completely opposite to Kyle’s. He wasn’t the kind of handsome man who looked like a ceiling painting in an unreachable temple. He was more like a work of art that had been buried underground and unearthed covered in dirt.
“Anyway, you’ll know him the moment you see him.”
Chenny and Tom looked flustered by such a simple description. But if they wanted to get paid, they would have to search every corner of Tobas to find him.
“If you find him within a week, you’ll each get ten gelling. For every day you’re late, I’ll deduct one thousand gelling, so you’d better hurry.”
“Te-ten thousand gelling……!”
Ten gold coins. It was enough to easily buy two fine warhorses, and Chenny and Tom’s mouths fell open before they abruptly jumped to their feet.
“We’ll find him within a week!”
With that shout, they hurriedly ran out of the inn.
How many days would it actually take them?
“Am I relying on those two too much?”
But it wouldn’t be good if too many rumors spread, either. Eloise pondered for a moment, then stuffed the remaining food into her mouth in one bite and stood up.
For now, she decided to wait a week and then look for other people she could put to work.
However, there was no need to look for anyone else.
Exactly one week later—
“We found him!”
Chenny and Tom, having found Hayden, knocked on Eloise’s door with shocking news.
“Hayden was taken away by loan sharks?”
“Yes. Last night.”
They said Hayden, who had accumulated gambling debts, had been captured by loan sharks.
Hayden North and gambling debts.
It was such an incompatible combination that Eloise wondered if they had found the wrong person.
“Should we watch the place for a few more days?”
“……No. Let’s go now.”
Eloise answered Chenny as she rose from the bed.
“Tom, stay here and guard my room. There have been quite a few useless people snooping around my room lately.”
“Huh? Ah, yes.”
Tom nodded confidently, but Eloise didn’t miss the brief flicker of hesitation in his eyes.
As Eloise left the inn with Chenny, she gave the innkeeper a meaningful glance. The innkeeper gave her a small nod, apparently remembering what she had told him beforehand.
“It’s over there. The building with the red flag.”
Chenny stopped the carriage on the outskirts of town and pointed toward a grayish alley. The ground was wet with some unidentified liquid, and buildings with every window boarded up lined the street. It was an ordinary alley in Tobas.
“They’re mercenaries hired by the gambling house.”
Two men stood guard in front of one of the buildings in the alley.
“They also work as loan sharks, so there’s plenty of work that requires muscle. They’re veterans who used to be on the battlefield, so they’re infamous for being absolutely ruthless.”
Indeed, their fierce appearances made them look quite merciless.
‘Still, it’s fortunate there are only two.’
Even Eloise would have trouble fighting three people at once.
“I’ll look for a back entrance. Even if you’re a young master, fighting people like that is…….”
“There’s no need.”
“What? Then where…… Young master!”
Ignoring Chenny’s shout, Eloise drew a dagger—one she had somehow brought with her—and walked toward the mercenaries.
“North is in one of the rooms inside!”
A man with a bushy beard bowed deeply toward Eloise and Chenny. He was another mercenary who had hurriedly rushed out of the building after the guards had fallen one after another at Eloise’s hands.
“We’ll release him right away!”
“Let me check his face first.”
“Yes! This way!”
After passing through a long corridor with its windows boarded up, they reached a space where rooms were lined up one after another, much like an inn.
Both the layout and the smell gave the place an unmistakable prison-like atmosphere.
“Hey! Hayden! We’ve got a visitor…….”
The bearded man threw open the nearest door, then stopped speaking as he glanced nervously at Eloise.
A man was inside the room, where the stench of blood filled the air. He was tied to a chair with his head hanging limply, looking as though he had obviously been beaten unconscious.
‘……He was beaten by people this pathetic?’
Feeling strangely disappointed by the sight that differed from what she remembered, Eloise approached the man.
Then her expression suddenly hardened.
Seeing her expression, the bearded man hurriedly began making excuses.
“W-we found him like this when we brought him in…….”
“This is Hayden North?”
“Huh? Yes. Why?”
Eloise suddenly grabbed the man’s hair and lifted his head.
“Chenny.”
Chenny flinched when he heard his name called so suddenly.
“Yes?”
“I distinctly remember telling you that he was extremely handsome.”
Chenny’s gaze shifted toward the man Eloise was holding up by the hair. His eyes widened as though he had only just realized his mistake.
“Th-that’s because I only heard what the townspeople said…….”
Chenny awkwardly stumbled through his excuse.
“They definitely said it was the handsome Hayden North…….”
“Whatever.”
Eloise cut him off.
“Let’s say his face is swollen this badly. Fine. But does this man look like he’s around my age?”
Chenny fell silent at those words.
The bound man clearly didn’t look anywhere near Eloise’s age.
Haah.
Eloise sighed.
She thought they had found him quickly, but apparently there was another handsome Hayden North.
“Uh, but…….”
The bearded man, completely oblivious to the situation, joined the conversation.
“He really is Hayden North, though. The loan agreement is also under that name…….”
That was when it happened.
They heard movement outside, and all three turned their heads at once.
As the conversation abruptly stopped, the surroundings became silent in an instant.
Eloise released the man’s hair and stared into the dark corridor beyond before asking the bearded man,
“Is someone supposed to be coming?”
“What? No…… Ah, perhaps this man’s family brought the money.”
Family?
Eloise looked down at the man again.
Come to think of it, this man did resemble Hayden in some way.
A similar appearance and the same name.
Could it be possible that his family was Hayden?
After pondering for a moment, Eloise sent Chenny outside to check.
‘Just in case, I should pretend that I came here to rescue this man.’
She lowered her head to untie the hands of the man bound to the chair.
That was when—
Bang!
The bearded man suddenly kicked the chair the man was sitting in.
“……!”
Eloise dodged the man as he toppled toward her and turned her head.
Meanwhile, the bearded man sprinted down the corridor as though his life depended on it, shouting,
“It’s just one boy! He’s armed!”
‘Was he not Hayden, but one of that guy’s companions?’
Before she could finish the thought, figures appeared at the opposite end of the corridor.
Their faces were so fierce and ugly that there was no way Eloise could mistake them for Hayden.
“You’re saying he took you down?”
“He’s not just some kid!”
Listening to the conversation between the bearded man and his companion, Eloise counted their numbers.
Two, three…… six.
It would have been nice if they attacked her one at a time, but judging by the weapons in their hands alone, they didn’t look like the sort who would be so polite.
‘Still, they can’t attack all three of me at once.’
Eloise estimated the width of the corridor with a quick glance and slowly began to walk forward.
