Chapter : 11
Bellona was relieved that the hood was covering her face well. She quickly gathered up the emotions that had made her think, Oops, and subtly ignored Ruils’s question.
“If you’re asking why I came here, I came to get some information. Just like anyone else who comes here.”
For now, all she needed to do was focus on getting what she needed from the Information Guild. Later, she could come up with some plausible excuse somehow.
The intimidating-looking man apparently hadn’t expected the voice of a young—no, very young—woman, because he frowned.
“This isn’t a place a young lady who was raised delicately should be coming to.”
“I heard this is a place where you can find out anything as long as you pay. Isn’t that right? Who I am shouldn’t matter.”
Bellona paid no attention to his subtle condescension. She simply took a gold coin from her bosom and placed it on the table without hesitation.
The man across from her snatched up the gold coin with lightning speed and held it up under the dim light, examining it from various angles.
“Of course. What you said is true, miss. What could something like that possibly matter?”
At his suddenly polite tone, Bellona heard Ruils quietly click his tongue.
Bellona had absolutely no intention of wasting any more time, so she got straight to the point.
“There should be a certain noble family that hired several sturdy men through a manpower agency and ordered them to drive away a child with blue eyes and dark red hair whenever he tried to approach the nobles’ residential district.”
Bellona stopped halfway through her explanation. Come to think of it, calling him a child was a little inaccurate.
“Ah, he’s not exactly a child… More like, a not-fully-grown kid?”
She frowned as she tried to remember the age of her cousin, Julian.
Was he fifteen? Fourteen? She remembered it was around that age.
He was old enough to have enough sense to make his way to the capital alone, but he was still too young to properly take care of himself.
“I think I might know something, but then again, I might not….”
At the man’s vague answer as he rolled the gold coin between his fingers, Bellona took the entire pouch from her bosom and placed it on the table.
The clinking of the coins as the pouch swayed, followed by the heavy thud when she set it down, echoed through the room.
The man cautiously opened the pouch and saw that it contained dozens of gold coins. He immediately broke into a wide grin and answered quickly.
“Ah, now I remember. There’s this shabbily dressed boy who keeps making a fuss, saying there’s someone he absolutely has to meet. As if he has any idea how high and mighty the nobles are.”
His smirking face was filled with blatant ridicule.
“I want you to tell me where that boy is staying.”
“But the noble who commissioned that information is an extremely important person…. I’m afraid it would be difficult for me to go against their orders.”
Bellona tilted her head slightly and sighed.
That was all the money she had managed to save from the allowance she normally received for living expenses.
She took out her last resort from an inner pocket and placed it on the table. It was a beautiful hair ornament that looked valuable at a glance, with rubies arranged in the shape of a butterfly.
“Will this do?”
“Is it genuine?”
“You’ve already figured out who I am. Don’t push your luck.”
Even though she had covered herself up, at such a close distance, it was difficult to hide the hem of her dress made from expensive fabric whenever her outer hood shifted.
Part of that had been intentional. As long as her face was covered, there was no reason to hide anything else.
“A boy who managed to offend a noble lady, too? Seems like his life has really gone to hell.”
“Answer me.”
“Here, I’ll give you a map. It seems he’s staying at a cheap inn because he doesn’t have much money. You’d better hurry and find him. If he keeps recklessly picking fights, he might actually end up penniless and get kicked out of the capital altogether.”
Bellona knew that was exactly how things would end, which was why she was in even more of a hurry.
She had to meet Julian before he could no longer endure it and ended up leaving the capital as if he had been driven out.
“I hope this information is correct.”
“How dare I give you incorrect information?”
As Bellona reached out to take the map, a dirty, grimy hand subtly grabbed and stroked her pale, slender hand.
The lecherous intention behind the gesture was so obvious that she felt like she might throw up.
Just as Bellona gritted her teeth in irritation and tried to pull her hand away, someone acted first.
“Take your hand off her.”
This time, Ruils had drawn his sword, and the menace in his presence was quite frightening.
Bellona finally pulled her hand free from the man’s grasp as she took a step back. This time, she didn’t stop Ruils.
The man looked at the sharp blade held against his neck and raised both hands in surrender.
“You certainly have a loyal guard.”
“If you don’t want to lose your wrist, apologize properly.”
The blunt demand for an apology carried the unmistakable promise of merciless punishment.
The man in front of them might have thought it was merely a threat, but Bellona knew.
Ruils was genuinely the kind of person who would do exactly that. The man, however, seemed more perceptive than she had expected.
“Please forgive me. It was a mistake.”
Anyone could see that what had happened was clearly not a mistake, but Bellona was getting tired of sitting around arguing over whether someone’s wrist should be cut off over such a trivial matter.
She grabbed Ruils by the arm.
“He’s not worth dealing with anymore. Let’s go.”
After confirming that Ruils had sheathed his sword, Bellona turned on her heel and swiftly left the building.
Ruils followed a moment later.
“Are you all right?”
As soon as he came outside, he looked down at Bellona’s hand and asked.
He kept opening and closing his own hand as if he wanted to check Bellona’s hand himself but couldn’t bring himself to do so.
“I’m fine. Other than being a little uncomfortable.”
“I knew we shouldn’t have come out like this.”
Bellona gave a faint smile as she watched Ruils look back at the guild with an expression filled with even more displeasure and discomfort than her own.
Really, no matter how many reasons there were to dislike him, he ultimately wasn’t the sort of person she could hate completely.
“Wait….”
Ruils’s arm stopped Bellona as she was about to walk forward.
“Why? Is someone there?”
There wasn’t a single sound in the eerily quiet alley, yet Ruils was frowning deeply. Had what she thought she saw before entering the Information Guild really been someone’s silhouette?
“No. I think it was just my imagination.”
Even after hearing Ruils say that, Bellona found it difficult to shake off the ominous feeling. Without realizing it, she moved a little closer to him, seeking safety, and spoke.
“So, are you going to come along and help one poor little boy, or not?”
“Is that boy the one I’m supposed to protect?”
“Yes.”
The man from the Information Guild had mistakenly assumed that Ruils was the one Bellona disliked, but her words made it clear that the reality was quite the opposite.
Ruils’s lips moved soundlessly for a moment before he finally gave a single-word answer.
“…I will.”
“Good. We’re going by carriage, so follow me.”
Bellona began retracing the route she had memorized. Ruils followed close behind her like a proper guard and spoke to her again.
“How did you know my name?”
“It’s written on that bundle of medicine. Ruils.”
At Bellona’s nod toward the bundle he was holding, he shifted his gaze to it. Seeing his name written in a rough, hurried handwriting, he let out a small exclamation of realization.
Of course, Bellona had only noticed the name tag herself just now, too.
“Someone must be sick.”
Even as Bellona thought to herself that she really had it good if she had enough time to meddle in other people’s affairs, she ended up speaking anyway.
She really must have become an expert at doing things she would later regret.
“My mother is ill.”
“I hope she gets better.”
Her mouth felt bitter as she said those words despite knowing the future.
And yet, paradoxically, she truly meant them.
Regardless of how little Bellona liked Ruils, he was destined to become someone who would give hope to a great many people.
And yet he himself was destined to suffer through misfortune. Wasn’t God truly cruel?
“…Thank you.”
Ruils looked somewhat dazed, as though he hadn’t expected such an answer from Bellona despite her cold attitude toward him. He barely managed to form a response.
Before Ruils could add anything else, Bellona reached the main road and headed toward the carriage parked off to one side. She knocked on the carriage door, and Rose soon jumped out through the opened door.
“Miss! Why did it take you so long? I was so worried that something might have happened to you. But who is this person…?”
Her rapid-fire stream of scolding ended with a suspicious glance directed at Ruils. Ruils seemed to realize his mistake and politely bowed.
“I apologize for the late formal introduction. I am Ruils, an apprentice knight affiliated with the Temple.”
All knights affiliated with the Temple were given a common “surname,” but since he was not yet a full-fledged knight, he had neither a title nor anything else. He was simply Ruils.
Bellona naturally picked up where he left off.
“Ruils has been guarding me the whole time. So don’t worry, Rose. Nothing happened.”
“Oh… affiliated with the Temple. Thank you.”
Her words were filled with suspicion, despite the expression on her face being outwardly polite.
“Our young lady needs to return to the estate by carriage now.”
As Bellona had suspected, Rose’s gaze toward Ruils was less like concern and more like the vigilance of someone who suspected a man of harboring ulterior motives toward a sheltered noble lady.
Bellona stepped in appropriately to stop Rose.
“No, he’s coming with us. We have somewhere to go.”
“Yes? Where?”
“Let’s go toward the checkpoint.”
Bellona gave the coachman instructions, then climbed into the carriage with Rose. She gestured toward Ruils, who was still standing there blankly.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you getting in?”
“Yes? Yes.”
Ruils answered absentmindedly and climbed into the carriage. Bellona finally removed the bothersome hood and let out a long breath.
Ruils’s gaze fell upon her vivid red hair, which cascaded down to her waist, before meeting her blue eyes.
He flinched as though he had been burned and quickly looked away, only to look back at Bellona’s face again as if trying to confirm something.
“Is there something you’re curious about? Why are you staring?”
