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< There is a way >
Hawkin was standing in front of the carriage with a very anxious look on his face.
“Why aren’t you coming?”
It was already dawning. But the people who had said they would return within a few hours had not yet returned.
“No way… That man ran away with the princess….”
Ominous thoughts began to creep into my mind.
Hawkin paced around the carriage, biting his fingernails.
Leonard clicked his tongue at the sight.
The old knight, who was clearly sick, sat in front of the campfire, wrapped in a blanket.
“You’re so crazy, don’t be so nervous.”
Hawkin looked extremely aggrieved.
“Aren’t you worried, Leonard? It’s already dawning! There must be something wrong for you to be this late…”
“What could happen to the princess when the Sword Master is by her side?”
Hawkin glanced at the carriage and lowered his voice. Jang Yeong-shin was sleeping inside the carriage.
“That Sword Master is the problem. If that man has bad intentions….”
Leonard chuckled.
“If you wanted to do that, you would have done it from the beginning.”
But those words didn’t seem to ease Hawkin’s worries.
“Can’t one change one’s mind? Besides, is the princess usually beautiful?”
From a young age, Princess Alina’s beauty was renowned throughout the continent.
From the time he turned 14, hawks came from surrounding principalities, kingdoms, and even the empire to the north.
“Hockin, sitting next to Leonard, spoke with a worried voice.
“He is a young man too. He has seen the princess’s real face. I wonder what he will think when we are alone together…”
“Oh my. Why did you leave out the little child who came with you?”
“Huh? Well, that’s….”
Leonard clicked his tongue as if he found Hawkin pitiful.
“The mind of a person who has reached that level is like a calm lake, and is not easily shaken by any temptation. There is nothing to worry about.”
The old knight had a belief and fantasy about the realm of sword master that he had never reached.
But it wasn’t Hawkin, the wizard. He turned his head and grumbled.
“If you look at the dead Count Monchi, it’s not always like that… He was such a lecher….”
Even though he was old and sick, Leonard was not the type who couldn’t hear the monologue being spoken right next to him.
“This guy? Why is his story being told here!”
“No, that’s not it. I’m worried too···.”
That was when.
Beyond the distant castle walls, a huge flame rose up.
Whoosh whoosh!
A pillar of fire rose so high that it seemed to pierce the sky. Soon, the screams and shouts of the startled people could be heard within the castle walls.
“Fire-!!”
In an instant, the entire city was thrown into chaos. The vibrations of people running around could be felt all the way to the carriage.
The surprise was the same for both the knight and the wizard.
“What the heck is going on!”
“Look! Something has happened! We must go to the city immediately!”
The two men ran to the carriage and woke Jang Yeong-sin up. They were desperately trying to explain to the boy, who couldn’t understand them, with gestures and gestures that they should go to the city.
“What are you guys doing?”
When I turned around at the absurd voice, I saw the three people who had gone to the city walking back, each carrying a bundle on their shoulders.
“Princess! Are you okay?”
Hawkin ran to Alina and checked her here and there, asking if she was okay.
Meanwhile, Leonard asked the man the whole story.
“Why are you so late? What’s that fire?”
“There were some circumstances. And that fire···”
The man smiled as he watched the fireworks rising over the city.
“It’s for destroying evidence.”
The fire was not expected to spread any further and would eventually go out after burning down only the Thieves’ Guild headquarters.
The reason I made it so big on purpose was that it would be easier to sneak out if I made a fuss when it was daylight.
“Let’s load some luggage onto the carriage first.”
The three of them loaded the bundles they had brought from the Thieves’ Guild headquarters onto the carriage.
There were so many sheep that they couldn’t all fit inside. In the end, they had to load them up onto the roof of the carriage.
Even though I only swept away the ones that looked okay, it ended up like this.
The man smiled happily and looked at the carriage which had grown considerably in size.
“I’ll have enough presents when I go back.”
And then he turned his head and looked around at the group.
“Let’s jump in quickly now.”
After a while, the steel carriage started running again.
***
Perhaps tired from wandering around all night, Lily fell asleep as soon as the carriage started moving.
“Cool···.”
The man covered Lily’s tossing and turning body with a blanket and then laid down with his back against the backrest.
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A yawn came out on its own.
“Hwaaam~.”
Thanks to this, it was Princess Alina’s job to explain what had happened in the city.
Since the master had told her in advance before leaving the Thieves’ Guild, Alina only talked about things related to herself.
“The Marquis of Ormonde has sent out a pursuit party to continue searching for us. It has been reported that Count Monchi is dead, and even now, there are daily purges in the palace…”
As Alina continued speaking, the two people’s expressions became darker and darker.
“That can’t be….”
“Isn’t there somewhere I can ask for help?”
“They say that Count Polten raised an army···.”
The man just let what they were saying slide, because he wasn’t interested in the state of affairs in other countries.
Rather, the worry about the goblin mask took priority.
‘It was all in vain.’
Gold Mary didn’t really know anything about ‘them’.
It’s not that he was lying or pretending not to know, he just really didn’t know much.
She was brainwashed.
In reality, he showed blind loyalty to ‘them’ without knowing anything, and showed hostility to those who sought them out.
“They are my masters!”
Moreover, he had no idea that he was being brainwashed.
As the man persistently pursued and questioned the truth, Goldmary became more and more insane.
“No! No! I wasn’t brainwashed, but they… Groan!”
“······.”
To Goldmary, who was foaming at the mouth and having seizures, the great man gave her the grace of Zeus to rest.
Taang!
In addition, several more Thieves’ Guild leaders were arrested and questioned, but nothing changed.
Either they didn’t know who ‘they’ were, or they were brainwashed or banned from saying anything.
That doesn’t mean there was no income at all.
“hmm···.”
The man took out a magic communication device the size of a ping-pong ball from his pocket and looked at it.
A magical communication device that can only receive one-way signals. It was mainly used by those with dirty secrets.
Found in Gold Mary’s pocket, it had a small goblin’s face engraved on the bottom of the communication port.
For now, we can only hope that this is our only clue.
The man thought as he rolled the magic communication tool around in his hand.
‘It’s not that there’s no place to guess, but···.’
In the first place, there were only certain places where such expensive experiments could be conducted on children.
An empire, kingdom, or similar power.
Or maybe they are the forces.
The scale seemed to be getting too big if we went that far, so the man slightly frowned.
“I just need to catch goblins.”
I had no intention of digging any deeper.
I didn’t care what kind of force the opponent was.
Just one person.
I was planning to just catch the goblin mask, kill it, and go back.
‘But I don’t even know where it is… I have to find out to find it… Wait a minute. Are you going to find it?’
At that moment, a thought flashed through the man’s mind.
Why did I think about finding it until now?
The kid ran away, and by now they must be looking for him with their eyes wide open.
The man turned to Lily and said.
“You can just have them come to us, right?”
“Cool···.”
Instead of answering, the girl snored loudly.
***
It was not until that evening that the man stopped the carriage.
“Let’s take a rest here today.”
It was now a straight line to the border. Normally it would take two days, but at the speed of the steel carriage, it would take less than a day.
And once we crossed the border, we would soon be separated from the princess and her party.
The man said as he got out of the carriage.
“Let’s have grilled meat for dinner tonight.”
“really?!”
Lily was jumping for joy. She ran to the refrigerator in the carriage and took out some meat.
“Anyway, I said it’s only at times like this that I’m quick.”
The man chuckled and took out a barbecue grill and camping gear from the carriage.
In an instant, the tent was set up, and the grilling area in front of it was even set up.
“This carriage is truly… a magic carriage that has everything it doesn’t have.”
Alina shook her head. It occurred to her that they were the only ones on the run who enjoyed such luxury.
The man said, picking up the meat with tongs.
“Okay, then it’s been a while since I’ve shown off my skills···.”
At that moment, Hawkin ran over and snatched the meat tongs away.
His movements were no less than that of a sword master.
“I will bake it!”
But the man, without any notice, stepped forward to grill the meat himself.
“You must be tired from driving the carriage all the time, right?”
At that moment, Hawkin hugged the tongs tightly and shouted.
“No! I’m not tired at all!”
After tasting the food prepared by the Great One a few days ago, the former court wizard realized that he had a great talent for cooking.
At least we could make food that people could eat.
The princess and the old knight also took Hawkin’s side.
“Ahem. Hokin is good at cooking.”
“···In this situation, it is right for us to do the chores.”
This one was relatively polite. The two little ones’ reactions were much more intense.
“Sir! Are you planning to kill the meat?!”
“···Don’t do it, really.”
Due to everyone’s fierce opposition, Dae-in eventually had no choice but to leave the stage alone.
“Tch… Let’s see how well it cooks.”
“Push! Fireball!”
While Hawkin was grilling meat like a craftsman, the man went to the carriage and unpacked the luggage on the roof.
Inside were items swept away from Randolph’s Thieves’ Guild.
The man took out a few items that he had been eyeing.
The man threw a gift to each of the people sitting around the table eating.
“Old man. Take this.”
“Isn’t this… a mandragora?”
What Leonard received was a mandragora in a clear glass bottle.
It was a nutritious food that even nobles had difficulty obtaining, as it was soaked in precious honey.
“Because you’re so skinny. If you eat that, you’ll recover some of your strength.”
“···Thank you.”
A few more soft wrinkles appeared around the old man’s sparkling eyes.
The man threw the second gift to Hawkin.
“Hockin. You take this.”
What the man threw to Hawkin was a magic wand.
The magic wand, with an emerald the size of an eyeball at the end, was obviously top-notch.
Hawkin’s eyes widened.
“Even if I receive something so precious···.”
“It’s the cheapest of the ones I brought. And the meat is grilled. Should I grill it?”
“Ah, net! Ah, no!”
Leaving the flustered Hawkin behind, the man took out the third gift.
“Youngshin. I had a feeling you’d like this kind of thing.”
It was the blueprint for some kind of magical weapon.
Although it was written in an unfamiliar language even to adults who could read Gaian, I brought it with me because I thought Jang Yeong-sin might be able to interpret it just by looking at the pictures.
“!!”
As expected, Jang Young-shin couldn’t take her eyes off the blueprint.
Now only two girls are waiting for their gifts.
Alina and Lily were looking at the man with sparkling eyes.
‘These are burdensome···.’
Anyway, the gift was already decided. The man gave Alina a pair of black bracelets.
“This is···.”
The person added an explanation.
“It may look plain, but it’s a magical item. It’s called a shadow bracelet. If you inject mana into it, its shape changes…”
I’ve only explained up to that point, but the impatient princess has already put on the bracelet and injected mana into it.
Charrrrrr.
The bracelet unfolded and spread over her body like paint.
Shadow bracelet.
It completely absorbs light, helping you hide in the darkness, and its defensive power is also quite good.
It was an item that was traded at quite a high price in the underworld.
An item that is no longer needed, but was useful in the past.
There’s just one problem,
“Mom, Mom!”
“How can this be so blasphemous!”
It was said to completely reveal the wearer’s body.
“Why are you guys like that…. Gosh!”
The princess looked down at her own body, covered her chest with both hands, and sat down on the floor.
After a while, the princess, who had taken off the assassin’s clothes, spoke with a blush on her face. She couldn’t even look the man in the face.
“Oh, anyway… Thank you.”
Now there’s only one left.
Lily was blinking her big eyes, waiting patiently for her turn.
The girl’s expectations were so high that the meat was left cold on her plate.
Looking into those bright eyes, the man took out the last gift from his pocket.
“Okay. Take this.”
It was an ordinary necklace.
A cute golden sheep decoration was attached to a very thin gold string.
A shabby appearance compared to the magic wand or the assassin’s clothes. The man added an explanation.
“Even though it looks like this, it has magical functions···.”
“thank you!”
Lily smiled brightly and accepted the necklace. Her face looked genuinely happy.
However, it was difficult for her to put on the necklace by herself, so she struggled for a while and then looked up at the person with a sullen face.
“this···.”
“Oh my. Come here.”
In the end, the person himself had to put the necklace on.
All through dinner that night, Lily toyed with the golden ram pendant on her necklace.
“pretty···.”
The man who saw that sight chuckled.
I felt good because everyone, including the little one, seemed to like the gift.
It was something I gave away one by one as a favor among the many things I had brought anyway.
There was a lot more left. So much so that it wouldn’t even be noticeable if you tried to make a fuss about it.
And tomorrow, they will have to use the items they received today to their full potential.
because,
“Did you know I couldn’t get a pass at Randolph?”
The princess and her party’s expressions hardened slightly at the elder’s words.
Due to friction with the Thieves Guild, I was unable to obtain a fake pass with the lord’s seal on it.
But since the great man drove the carriage here so confidently, everyone was wondering if there was some way to do it.
Alina asked, putting down her fork.
“I wanted to ask anyway. How do you plan on crossing the border without getting a pass···.”
“Of course there is a way.”
Everyone looked relieved at those words.
Well then, that’s right. The three looked at the man with expressions of faith and trust.
The man decided to live up to those expectations.
“We’re going to force our way through the border tomorrow. So eat well now.”
At that moment, the princess and her party dropped the forks they were holding.
“···yes?”
“Wh, what?”
“What now···.”
The man spoke calmly, picking up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and eating it.
“Because this could be my last meal.”
< There is a way > End
ⓒ Ganjjajang
