Basement dining room of the Red Glove Inn.

"Basto! Have you completely lost your conscience? You don’t show your face for so long, and the first thing you ask about is those cursed holy knights?!"

A large mercenary slammed his mug of ale onto the table with a bang.

Basto’s eyebrow twitched.

But before he could say anything, Bale stepped forward.

"And who the hell are you? Do we need your permission to ask a question? Raise our hands?"

"Y-you, who are you! I’ve never seen your face before!"

"What’s it supposed to be, a second one? Do you know every person in the world by sight? Arrogant and annoying type."

"I, I just......!"

"Quiet. If you know anything about the House of Luminen, spit it out quickly. I said my time is precious."

The large mercenary faltered, lifted his mug of ale again, and, avoiding Bale’s gaze, began to speak.

"The House of Luminen, that house of holy knights......."

His expression became complicated.

The House of Luminen.

A place teeming with those who could be called the strongest holy knights of the Empire.

The head of the house, Valentis Luminen, had four sons.

And each of them held an impressive position within the Holy Knight Order.

"Let’s see... the eldest, Edmund Luminen, serves as a tactical adviser. The second is a unit commander, I think? The third is the head of the medical division."

"And that’s it? You spoke as if you knew something important, but in fact—nothing special."

"No! There’s more!"

The offended mercenary hurried to add:

"The fourth! Recently the whereabouts of the fourth son of the Luminens have been unknown. They say he went into seclusion for training or something like that."

Basto and Bale exchanged glances.

After that silent exchange, they asked in turn:

"Why. Does the fourth have a child?"

"Does he have a woman? Had a child with her. The child is about four?"

The mercenary stared wide-eyed and asked in confusion:

"What kind of talk is that? He’s barely grown, what child?"

He bent his fingers as if counting.

"The youngest of the Luminens only came of age last year. For him to have a four-year-old child, you’d have to calculate......."

"So not the youngest."

"Yes, not the youngest."

Basto’s and Bale’s eyes flashed again.

"Then the other sons?"

"The others—you mean the first, second, and third?"

"......Idiot. If you exclude the youngest, only those three remain, who else? Do you even have a brain in your head?"

"I, I was just clarifying!"

The mercenary cried out awkwardly and groaned again as he thought. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"Of course, they’re already of marriageable age. But I haven’t heard of any of them starting a family or having a child."

The House of Luminen was a great aristocratic family.

It had always maintained friendly relations with the imperial house and, above all, served as the pillar of the Holy Knight Order, known as the Guardians of Light.

"If something as joyful as that had happened in the Luminen house, we couldn’t possibly not know. They would surely have held a lavish wedding in the Capital."

"......Yeah. The holy knights would definitely invite the Emperor and the Empress and drown in ostentatious luxury."

Then only one possibility remained.

Bale stepped closer to the large mercenary and leaned in.

"And what’s the likelihood that the head of the Luminens, Valentis Luminen, has an illegitimate child?"

"Valentis Luminen?!"

The mercenary flinched and opened his eyes wide.

And immediately shook his head.

"He’s not that kind! The whole Empire knows he loved Saint Richarda with all his heart his entire life......."

Saint Richarda.

That was what they called Eleonora—the wife of Valentis Luminen and the mother of the four Luminen sons.

Eleonora was the woman who had manifested the strongest holy power in history.

The story of her love with Valentis Luminen was known throughout the Empire.

And they truly had four children, so there was no reason to doubt the strength of their marriage.

But Bale thought differently.

"Ridiculous. They say no one ever knows what goes on between husband and wife, idiot."

The mercenary was at a loss, but Bale continued coldly:

"In public—the perfect couple, the love of the century. What happens between them, only they know."

Bale had understood that himself while working as an assassin.

Requests from noble ladies—to poison an unfaithful husband—came almost every month.

And the reverse cases were not rare either.

The funniest thing—they never showed it on the outside.

In public they held hands and laughed, and behind each other’s backs they searched for a way to kill one another.

"If Valentis Luminen had an illegitimate child, then what happened to Saint Eleonora......."

"Basto! Bale!"

At that moment someone ran down the stairs.

With white hair flying, Nordix rushed down.

All eyes turned to him, and he shouted:

"The commander is gone!"

"Damn it, where did that little brat go?"

Bale wiped sweat and turned the corner of the alley.

He ran so fast he had to grab pipes and practically spin himself through the air.

"Astie! Astie—!"

From afar came Basto’s desperate voice.

Perhaps because he had already once lost a child, when he heard that Tie had disappeared, he nearly lost his mind.

Jumping up from his chair, he almost overturned the table.

Nordix immediately headed to the square to ask if anyone had seen Tie.

"Ha......."

Bale, rubbing his temple, suddenly froze.

His gaze stopped on the pipe he was holding.

The next moment he seized it without hesitation and began climbing up.

"If I get higher, I’ll see something."

He had not climbed like this in a long time—cold sweat ran down his temple, but that did not matter now.

After climbing high enough, Bale grabbed the edge of the roof and pulled himself up.

As expected, the street opened before him like a map.

In his widened field of vision, on the nearby square, he saw Nordix.

Nordix was speaking with a passerby, then suddenly ran toward the pier.

Bale frowned.

"Don’t tell me."

His gaze shot toward the dark, swaying surface of the sea.

He jumped to the neighboring roof and raced toward the pier.

"Idiot."

He cursed himself.

He liked her reactions, so he teased her every day, but Bale knew that Astie was a special girl.

So he had thought everything would be fine.

Leaving her alone in the room for a couple of hours—no big deal.

"She’s only four, you fool......."

Clenching his teeth, Bale increased his speed.

Reaching the last building, he jumped down onto the grain sacks stacked by the wall.

Nordix and Basto were already on the pier.

"Someone saw Astie heading toward the pier!"

As expected, noticing Bale, Nordix shouted:

"It can’t be. Not the sea, I didn’t tell her to go to the sea, I......."

Basto’s face turned pale to a bluish shade.

And at that moment Bale’s gaze caught on something.

"......What is that?"

At the very end of the pier.

Where unwanted cargo had been piled up.

A small, hunched figure could be seen.

"Tie!!"

"......Brat!"

"Astie!"

Realizing it was Astie, all three rushed toward her at the same time.