“There’s… a person inside.”

After hearing those last words, Jin’s expression stiffened momentarily before he gave a slight nod.

Seeing this, Rodi quickly closed her mouth and let go of Jin’s hand, pretending nothing had happened.

Then she stepped back slightly so as not to get in the way.

‘Will it be okay?’

Although she had honestly spoken about what she saw, she felt a little scared that something had happened on the first mission she had come to experience.

She thought it would be an interesting experience, but she didn’t expect to get involved in another strange situation.

Still, she couldn’t just ignore something suspicious.

“Serinea, Jo. Put down the requested item exactly as it is.”

“What are you saying?”

Jin approached Camil, who was questioning him sharply.

Camil tried to stop Serinea and Jo, but the two followed Jin’s orders and immediately put down the requested item.

“I’d like to ask Mr. Camil something.”

“What do you want to ask? Please speak quickly and let’s move on. But if the item is damaged due to this delay, I will hold Cheiles clearly responsible.”

“The item that Ms. Miriam requested was ‘ten artificial hearts,’ correct?”

Camil hesitated very briefly before nodding.

“That’s right. I’m sure you were already told this when the request was made, so why are you asking again now?”

“When we first received the request, Ms. Miriam asked for one senior staff member. But this requested item seems too heavy for one person to carry.”

“That’s because it’s charged with magic power and reinforced for shock protection! Are you stopping for such a trivial matter?”

“We need a verification process in case the requested items get switched sometimes.”

“Ha! What nonsense.”

“Would you open it for us?”

At Jin’s suggestion, Camil’s face turned bright red, with heat seemingly bursting above his head.

The sound of his teeth grinding was loud enough for Rodi to hear.

“If anything happens to the item, you’ll have to take full responsibility. I hope you understand this won’t end with just a financial issue.”

Camil pressured Jin with a truly angry voice.

“Yes, I will take all responsibility. So would you please open the box?”

Jin’s gentle voice showed no reaction to Camil’s anger.

If anything, that calmness seemed to make Camil even angrier.

Rodi looked up at Jin’s reassuring back.

She flinched at the frightening words about taking all responsibility, but Rodi was confident.

Rodi trusted her eyes more than anyone else.

However, there was a separate issue.

‘The person inside isn’t breathing.’

She had been staring intently at the box since earlier, and there was no movement at all, not just someone sleeping.

Was the person unconscious rather than asleep?

Do people not breathe when they’re unconscious?

“Could they be dea—”

Hup! Rodi cut herself off mid-mutter and covered her mouth.

Fortunately, she was hidden behind Jin, out of Camil’s sight.

Camil put his hand in his pocket, took it out again, and sighed heavily, expressing his anger.

Still, as if he couldn’t help it, he glared at Jin and said:

“Since you’re being suspicious for no good reason, I can’t trust you either. Please call the highest person in Cheiles. Then I’ll open it. Right now.”

Ugh, how unfair.

Rodi’s mouth corners drooped down.

Serinea, Jo, and Meogly, who had been waiting for further orders, had exactly the same expression as Rodi.

When Jin didn’t say anything, Camil raised the corners of his mouth in a sneer.

“I suppose we’ll have to cancel the request. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have trusted Cheiles. We’ll move this ourselves. Please leave. I will definitely hold the head of Cheiles responsible.”

That’s when it happened.

“I’m not sure if you heard clearly, Duke.”

Huh?

Rodi’s eyes widened.

Serinea and the others also looked surprised.

As Jin said this, what he pulled out from inside his jacket was a portable communication device about half the size of a palm.

The transparent magic stone attached to the end sparkled, and then a low bass voice, as if from inside a cave, was heard.

[Confirmed. I’ll come to retrieve it now.]

“That would make things faster on our end as well.”

[From now on, please have Mr. Jin Jein take charge of the requested item.]

The light that had been sparkling went out as if the message had been fully conveyed.

“So that’s how it is.”

Jin put the communication device back in his inner pocket.

“W-what…!”

“From now on, Cheiles will handle this requested item. Serinea, Jo.”

“What are you doing… ugh!”

As soon as Jin called their names, Serinea and Jo simultaneously drew their swords.

Serinea positioned herself in front of Camil, while Jo stood behind him, pointing the blade at his neck.

Meogly was guarding the requested item.

“You’ll need to cooperate until we finish our verification.”

Rodi’s eyes grew even wider at what had happened in the blink of an eye.

‘So cool!’

She thought they were just funny siblings who bickered, but they were actually really cool siblings.

And Jin, who was already cool!

“Who is Duke?”

Jin looked down at Rodi and smiled gently, as if he had never been stern.

“One of the highest-ranking people in the Magic Tower. Probably the second highest.”

“Wow, so he’s an extremely powerful magician?”

Jin said he had already turned on the communicator when he met Camil.

She had seen him fiddling with something just before getting out of the carriage, and that was him trying to contact Miriam, who hadn’t answered.

After that, although Camil’s rushing seemed suspicious, there were no other strange signs, so he said he had just been observing.

“That’s right. Thank you, Rodi. Thanks to you, we were able to definitely catch the suspicious person.”

“How did you know that person was suspicious?”

“Magicians are generally not emotional. Unusually so.”

After finishing his explanation at just the right level for Rodi, Jin turned his head toward the bushes behind them.

“Bender, please come out.”

Bender?

Rodi turned her head this way and that.

With a rustling sound, Bender appeared.

And she wasn’t wearing her usual apron, but the same uniform as the other guild members.

“Bender?”

How did she appear here?

Surprised, Rodi looked back and forth between Bender and Jin with rabbit-like eyes.

“Just in case, I request an escort. If there’s an unexpected situation.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

Bender bowed politely and stood behind Rodi.

“For the time being, my duties include guarding Rodi outside. I’m sorry if I surprised you.”

She spoke quietly to Rodi and added that today’s mission was a special request from Padrid.

Although Rodi saw Bender often, they weren’t usually together much unless Rodi had to eat alone.

Bender helped with bedtime or bathing, but even then, Rodi rarely asked for help because she thought she should do these things herself.

Today too, they had only greeted each other in the morning, and even then, Bender hadn’t said anything about this to Rodi.

So she really had no idea.

“…Jin, how long have you known?”

“Since before we departed.”

Seeing that the other three showed no signs of surprise, it seemed Rodi was the only one who didn’t know.

Wow, how did everyone know?

Rodi was just amazed.

Actually, she had been worried that she might be a hindrance if Camil did something strange, but now with Bender here, she felt she could relax.

Rodi stuck close to Bender.

“Bender, your clothes look cool.”

“Thank you.”

As they were chatting, Camil suddenly started to snicker.

Everyone had been on edge, so all eyes instantly turned to Camil.

“It’s already too late. Too late. You won’t find it.”

BOOM!

A loud noise exploded at Camil’s feet.

In an instant, the surroundings were covered in dust.

“Ugh, cough! Cough!”

“Seri, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Is everyone okay?”

Serinea and Jo had quickly avoided injury, but they were covered in dust from the explosion Camil had created and kept coughing.

Rodi barely opened her stinging eyes and checked on Jin and Bender, who were protecting her from the front and back.

Jin, Bender, and Rodi all said they were fine, but they couldn’t hear from Meogly’s side.

Just as she was about to call out.

“Cough! Everything’s fine over here. The box is safe!”

Meogly’s voice was heard from a distance.

As the dust settled a bit, Camil was nowhere to be seen.

When the dust finally cleared completely, there was a round hole in the ground where Camil had been.

Unable to do anything else, he had escaped with just his body, leaving the requested item behind.

“He got away.”