The Villainess turns the Hourglass

The more questions John asked, the more succinct and ambiguous Lowell’s answers became. The pupils of his eyes, which had just been glazed over, were now alive, and his crooked posture was improving. Only the faint red cheeks could make John guess at the amount of alcohol Lowell had drunk.

John didn’t notice any of those changes because he wanted to get information, and when his questioning came to an end, Lowell announced the end of their meeting.

“It’s almost time for my shift. I’m sorry. I’ll see you again.”

“That’s a shame. I hadn’t seen you in a long time.”

“I think so too. It’d been a while and I’m sorry it ended this way.”

The two men, who had risen from their seats, said good-bye in front of the main gate of the Imperial Palace.

As John, with his shoulders drooping, was about to turn and leave, Lowell took his shoulder and advised him in a hushed voice, “I recommend you not inquire about His Highness anymore.”

“… I see.”

Lowell’s advice was appreciated, but John couldn’t follow it. That was because he thought Aria, who held his future in her hand, was more frightening than the Crown Prince, whom he had never seen before.

Unable to go back, John headed for the casino just in case. He was thinking the people there might have seen something. The casino was located near the commoners’ quarter, a little far from the Imperial Palace. That was because the main source of income for the casino was the money from the poor commoners.

The building that had started out as a small gambling house had grown in size as money gradually poured in, and now, it was a large building with lights that were clearly visible from very far away.

Of course, that had been before the incident with Viscount Lupre. Now, that massive building was dyed black. The streets got darker and darker as he headed toward the building, so unable to see anything without a lamp, John took a portable lamp from his coat and lit it.

He looked everywhere and did so meticulously, wondering if there was any spec of information he could gleam. There were rare pieces of broken glass or crumbled boxes, but no sign of the Crown Prince was found.

It had been a long time since he had bent down to look for traces like that, but when he looked around, he saw a familiar shop.

‘It’s the general store.’

It was the general store that they had gone into to get back the hourglass. Seeing that the lights were off, he thought it might be closed. John recalled what Aria had said last time.

‘She said that the owner couldn’t use the auction ticket. How did Miss Aria know that?’

She had said that rumors about Viscount Lupre had been circulating, but there had been no such rumors in the empire. He had asked around about them just in case. He had wondered where she had heard those rumors, which nobody had known.

John, just in case, moved toward the general store. It seemed closed, but the old man might be inside. Some commoners used to build small rooms behind their stores and use those rooms as lodging to settle down. John counted on that. He didn’t know whether the old man would tell him anything, but the old man already knew him. Since the general store was close to the casino, the old man would have seen something.

“Is anybody here?”

He knocked on the door of the closed general store several times, but there was no sign of movement.

‘Were my efforts in vain?’

Still, he felt sorry about it. After he knocked on the door a few more times, he heard a squeak inside followed by footsteps.

“We are not open!”

“I’m here to ask you something. I’ll give you fifty shillings if you answer.”

Rattle!

The door was unlocked, and the dark-looking face of the old man peeked through the open door. The old man had opened the door only enough to make half of his face visible and reached out through the opening. John took fifty shillings out of his pocket and held it in his hand. The old man asked what he was curious about after checking if the amount was right.

“Don’t be too wary. Last time, I visited you as a guest.”

“You’ve come to see me before?”

The old man looked at John from head to toe, but he cocked his head if John was not memorable. Suddenly, the old man’s eyes widened when John said he had been with the party retrieving the hourglass.

“The auction ticket!”

“Do you remember it? I one of the knights that accompanied our lady at the time.”

“Ah, I see. Please, come in.”

The old man gladly opened the door and let John in. He made some room for John and gave him a cup of tea. John accepted that hospitality.

“I listened to the lady and sold my auction ticket. So, fortunately, I was able to keep my store. I had to pay the earnings back because I had purchased the ticket with borrowed money.”

“That’s good.”

“You didn’t come with the lady?”

“Oh, it’s personal,” John answered with a yawn.

He had been drained of energy from escorting Aria from morning to the afternoon. After that, he had met Lowell and drunk with him, and later, continued his search for traces of the Crown Prince.

It might be because it was a hard day, but John was very sleepy. He tried to drive the rush of sleep away by gulping the rest of the tea, but somehow, his eyes felt heavier and heavier. John tried to ask the old man, who had continued to talk, for some cold water, but soon he couldn’t even do the little things.

“Are you sleeping? Hello?”

“…”

The old man slapped John on the cheek a few times to make sure that he was really asleep and turned all the lights of the general store on. A little time later, the door opened with a squeak, and a few men came inside.

“You asked me to let you know if someone suspicious showed up by turning all of the lights, so I did, but… he won’t wake up for a while,” said the old man, rubbing his fingers.

A black-haired man nodded to him. They were near to where Viscount Lupre had disappeared, so the merchants around the casino had been summoned and told to let the man know immediately if any suspicious person appeared.

It turned out that John had nothing to do with Viscount Lupre, but whoever made the report was given a reward. The truth was that the old man hadn’t listened to Aria and hadn’t sold his auction ticket, so he silently charged John with making up for the damages he had incurred.

“Check his face.”

Someone in the crowd identified John’s sleeping face at the man’s instruction. The man who checked shook his head to reveal that it was not Viscount Lupre. Instead, another name popped out of his mouth.

“This is John. He once worked with me as a knight. I knew him as he worked with us for years, but recently he’s been hired by the Roscents.”

“Count Roscent’s family…”

There was a figure in the mind of the black-haired man. It was the figure of a little girl with blond hair. That day, he remembered her going out of the general store and riding in a carriage with that family’s seal on it.

‘I’d forgotten her because I was unable to arrest Viscount Lupre. Did they say her name was Mielle?’

She had given the old man advice as if she knew what would happen to him. And for that reason and because she had said that the rumors had already spread, the black-haired man had hurried to attack the casino, unfortunately missing Viscount Lupre due to his incomplete plan.

He had not thought of finding the girl after his unexpected failure, but when he ran into the Roscents’ knight again, he thought he should.

“Investigate Count Roscent and if he had anything to do with Viscount Lupre.”

Count Roscent might have been involved in the matter, as it would be difficult for a little girl to come about the information on her own.

“What do you want me to do with this guy?”

“Leave him alone. The more traces they leave, the easier it will be to catch them.”

The man stared at John’s face for a very long time, trying to engrave his face in his mind. Then, he turned at the sound of a far off cry, disappearing to pursue the whereabouts of the viscount. He had to figure out what had caused that mess.

* * *