The Path of Ruin

The person who came in... looked skinny. His brown hair had gray spots in places, he must have been over forty. His clothes were not pajamas or the clothes of someone who had just woken up. He looked more like... a butler.

The man let his dull yellow eyes roam the room for a while. Then, he closed the door without a sound and approached the baron's office.

He passed Kael standing in the middle of the room, not noticing him at all... Or rather, unable to notice him.

'He... He didn't see me... I did it.'

Kael had used his follower ability as soon as he realized the door had opened. Apparently, he had managed to erase himself from the man's line of sight before he saw him.

'That was close... too close.'

He calmed himself, slowed his breathing and his heart. Then he studied the man who had entered.

'Who... is this, though?'

While he was in these thoughts, the man finally reached the table and then bent down under it. He took out what looked like a key from his pocket, then... pointed it at a spot on the floor.

As Kael continued to watch everything carefully, there was a 'click' at the spot where the man extended the key, then that part of the floor sank slightly, revealing a hole.

The man inserted the key into the hole, turning it a single turn. Then he pulled the hole aside like a trapdoor and opened it.

The secret compartment was completely filled with what looked like letters.

'Letters...?'

Kael's eyes widened.

'Letters!'

The man was shuffling through the letters, pulling most of them to the side, almost as if he was looking for something specific.

Kael approached him as he continued to search for what he wanted. The letters he had pushed aside were right next to him, out of sight. So he reached for one of them, quietly pulled it towards himself, and tucked it between his clothes.

And... he didn't stop there. As the number of letters the man pulled aside increased, he took a few more with him.

Finally, just as he was about to take one more...

"Aha..."

Suddenly, the man stood up with a single letter in his hand. If Kael had been a little distracted, they would have almost bumped into each other!

But, fortunately, it didn't happen.

"Found you..."

Kael frowned the moment he heard the man's voice.

'That voice...'

It looked familiar.

Even...

'Sirbas?'

It was definitely him, he was sure. Their voices were identical.

Sirbas didn't even open the letter he found. He simply tucked it into his clothes, then put all the letters he had stacked aside back into the secret compartment and locked it. When he was done... it was literally impossible for anyone to realize that there was a secret compartment there.

He took one last look around the room with a smile on his face, then his smile widened and he left the room.

As the room fell silent again, Kael deactivated his ability, then sighed deeply.

'Now, this was just... weird.'

He approached the window through which he had entered the office, went up to the roof, where he had spent three days, and took out the letters he had smuggled out while camouflaging himself.

'Let's see what we have...'

He carefully opened the first letter and quickly began to read what was written.

And...

'Bingo.'

The first sentence of the letter was simple, but actually something he was looking for.

Dear Baron Dolcan, this is Feria Lockhend. It is with great pleasure that I inform you that I have found someone to buy the nobles we are holding captive.

The letter went on to say who would buy the nobles and where, and that she was satisfied with the work done with Baron Dolcan.

The sentence at the bottom of the letter was quite ironic.

Please burn this letter after you receive it and destroy the evidence.

'Idiot...'

The Baron did not burn the letters, but kept them.

He probably wanted to use them if something happened, or he had some other motive, who knows.

Either way...

'Now, I have proof.'

He put the paper back into the letter, then moved on to the second letter.

This was a much older letter, almost a year old. It was one of the first letters Feria Lockhend sent to the baron. And its content... was a guarantee that there would be a relationship between the Dolcan Family and the Lockhend Family if they started to make big profits from their business.

The third letter, unfortunately, was not about Feria Lockhend, but about another dirty business of the baron. It seems that after his work with Feria, he had taken up illegal activities on his own...

The fourth and last letter he was able to plagiarize was the one that caught his attention the most.

'This...'

It... was a warning.

A warning from Feria Lockhend to the baron.

The Second Imperial Princess is suspicious of something, we will be inactive and silent for a month or so. Please don't try anything on your own.

So there was already someone after them...

Kael strained his memory, trying to remember who the Second Princess mentioned in the letter was, but he had never heard of such a person before.

'Does the Empire know about this? Or is this princess trying something on her own?'

If she was someone whose mere presence could cause Feria Lockhend to worry, she must have a lot of influence. Or someone so powerful that she was feared.

When he finished reading this letter, he tucked it back into his clothes, then took a deep breath and looked up at the sky.

It would be about two hours before sunrise. He had only been searching the room for an hour.

'Should I look for more things, or is this enough...'

His mission was simply to find the letters between Feria and Baron Dolcan.

And he found them.

In short, his mission was over.

'This is... enough, I think.'

He didn't need to try any harder when the risk of being caught was high. At least that was the decision he had made.

He rose slightly to his feet. From the roof, he had a fairly easy view of the manor garden and the town in general.

'Back to square one, huh...'

He had to get out of here before he got caught, now.

*******

It was easy for Kael to infiltrate the mansion.

But getting out...

'Damn... what the hell is this?'

It was almost impossible to get out!

'Why has security been increased? Has something happened? Why is it harder to get out of here than in...?'

A day had passed since he found the letters. It was the beginning of the next night.

But he still couldn't get out of the mansion, let alone the town!

There were guards, dogs, and more everywhere. He wasn't sure what was going on in the mansion, but something was definitely happening.

'Maybe they realized someone had snuck in?'

Or maybe it had something to do with the letter Sirbas had taken with him... who knows?

...

Well, actually... he didn't need to find out why security had been increased.

He just needed to get out of here safely, without losing the letters, without his identity being discovered.

He kept thinking, different plans began to form in his head.

How about sneaking up on one of the guards, knocking him unconscious, then changing his clothes?

The dogs would be a problem, though...

Trying to sneak through was impossible in the first place...

But then he paused. He went backwards in his thinking, to a certain thought.

He just had to make sure he didn't lose the letters, his identity didn't get discovered, and he didn't get caught.

'Huh...'

His lips involuntarily curled upwards at the thought. But it wasn't because of excitement or happiness, or because he had come up with the perfect plan.

'I am an idiot...'

He took a deep breath, then slowly stood up.

He was completely exposed, anyone could see him now... But he didn't care.

'I'm really stupid to do this...'

He really was.

But in the end... all he had to do was to keep his identity a secret.

Was it really a problem if someone found out that someone had infiltrated the mansion, or even... that he had walked out in front of them?

He just needed to keep his intentions and the fact that he had the letters secret.

'Fuck this shit, but...'

He looked at the sky, the stars, and the moon for the last time. As his smile widened, he let himself fall off the roof.

'Let's go!'

Meanwhile, just below him, a few guards were walking around, chatting.

But as soon as they saw the figure descending towards them in the darkness of the night, they all stopped chatting and turned towards him.

They didn't have a chance to see the face, to understand who he was, nor to understand what this figure actually was.

Because the figure, Kael, without a care in the world, pumped eon all over his body and suddenly started running at an explosive speed.

"Ah..."

The eyes of one of the guards widened as he looked at Kael's figure moving away at tremendous speed. And then...

"G- get him! Someone has infiltrated the mansion!"

The whole mansion was suddenly alerted by this shout in the middle of the night.