Inside the cathedral, there were loud voices that didn’t match the solemnity of a holy funeral.

It seemed that uninvited guests had visited.

From what he could hear, it sounded like Yerena’s parents, who had sold her to the center.

What a miserable life. Whether fake or real, it was a shame that even the funeral couldn’t be held quietly.

Benjamin was about to enter the cathedral belatedly.

That’s when he noticed a strange group.

“……”

At the back of the cathedral, in a place where they could avoid people’s eyes, two people were standing.

Although the distance made it hard to see clearly, he could tell that one of them was Duncan.

There weren’t many people with golden hair that sparkled like grains of sand in the sunlight.

The other person had their face tightly hidden under a hood.

A suspicious person talking with Duncan in a secretive place at Yerena’s funeral.

‘Yerena, it’s you.’

Benjamin licked his dry lips with the tip of his tongue.

A light gleamed in his eyes that had lost their spark.

It was as if a tasty prey was begging to be caught.

Well, then he had no choice but to oblige.

Benjamin was a born hunter, and he had never once failed to catch his targeted prey.

Benjamin’s body, which had been facing the cathedral, turned.

He was about to pull off the hood of the suspicious person. He wanted to confirm with his own eyes if that person was Yerena.

But they seemed to have noticed his movement and started walking hurriedly somewhere.

Benjamin leisurely followed them.

It was futile to run away.

No matter how hard they tried to avoid him, once in his sight, they were in the palm of his hand.

Eventually, he witnessed Duncan helping the suspicious person into a carriage.

Only then did Benjamin call out to Duncan.

“Who did you just help into the carriage?”

Duncan answered nonchalantly.

“Why should I tell you that?”

“……”

“It’s an acquaintance of mine.”

Benjamin thought this was a man with considerable spirit.

When he exuded an intimidating aura, nine out of ten people would tremble and spill the truth.

But Duncan didn’t cower before him, neither at the center nor now.

Duncan’s eyes, looking straight at him, only shone clearly.

Had there been such a person in the empire?

Though he didn’t know every noble in the empire, he was familiar with the major figures.

Duncan wasn’t among them. There wasn’t even anyone who resembled him.

A commoner or a novice from an insignificant family couldn’t become the center director at such a young age.

He was somehow a person of mysterious identity.

Since it didn’t matter to him who became the center director, he hadn’t paid attention to him until now.

But if he was related to the disappeared Yerena, that was a different story.

‘I need to find out his identity.’

Benjamin’s eyes gleamed coldly.

Even under that sharp gaze, Duncan spoke calmly.

“If you have nothing more to say, may I leave now? You’re under probation, Benjamin, so it would be best for you to return.”

“I’ll decide whether I return or not.”

“Then I’ll take my leave first.”

Benjamin stopped Duncan as he was about to turn around.

“Wait. You haven’t answered my question yet.”

“I told you I have no intention of answering.”

An ominous atmosphere swirled between the two men.

In an atmosphere where it wouldn’t be strange if they pointed swords at each other, the one who moved first was Benjamin.

“If you won’t answer, I’ll check for myself.”

Benjamin roughly pushed Duncan, who was standing firm in front of the carriage door.

No matter how sturdy Duncan was, he couldn’t withstand Benjamin’s touch imbued with esper energy.

As soon as he was pushed aside a little, Benjamin flung open the carriage door.

Inside sat the hooded figure he had seen earlier.

The person presumed to be the living Yerena.

“You, take that off.”

The hooded figure’s shoulders visibly flinched at the commanding, forceful words.

That reaction looked just like someone who had been caught with something they shouldn’t have been.

Not missing this, a faint smile spread across Benjamin’s lips.

It felt like the hunt he had planned was about to end successfully.

Of course. There was no way Yerena would have died so meaninglessly.

Benjamin’s heart started to beat faster.

It wasn’t from nervousness, but from excitement at the prospect of facing Yerena soon.

“What rudeness is this!”

Duncan’s startled cry was heard. But Benjamin paid no heed and swiftly climbed into the carriage.

If Duncan became more of a nuisance, he could just stuff him somewhere like he did with Baron.

That would stop his chattering too.

Finally, Benjamin pulled back the hood of the person sitting motionless.

What soon met his eyes was a familiar face.

“You……”

“Benjamin, why are you doing this?”

The identity of the person who asked the puzzling question was Duncan’s assistant.

With silver hair similar to Baron’s… what was his name again?

It was a man whose name he might have heard but forgot, as there was no need to remember it.

“Why are you here?”

“That’s what I’d like to ask you, Benjamin. Suddenly climbing into the carriage and pulling off my hood.”

“Where did you hide Yerena?”

Perhaps influenced by the master he served, the man’s gaze, looking straight at him, showed no sign of backing down. He was even frowning.

“She is now laid to rest in the cathedral.”

“That corpse is fake. Did you think I wouldn’t know?”

“I can’t help if you can’t accept Guide Yerena’s death, but please get out of Duncan’s carriage. I have somewhere to go with Duncan.”

“……”

‘Strange… My prediction couldn’t have been wrong.’

Taking advantage of Benjamin’s momentary confusion, Duncan pulled him out of the carriage.

Benjamin, forcibly dragged out, watched as Duncan roughly closed the carriage door.

‘Did he use some trick?’

At that moment, Duncan asked accusingly.

“Why are you so obsessed with Guide Yerena?”

“Obsessed? Me, obsessed with that girl?”

Benjamin’s response was somewhat agitated and lacked composure.

“Yes. That’s how it looks to me.”

Benjamin ran his fingers through his hair a couple of times, trying to catch his breath. He soon regained his composure.

“How amusing. The word ‘obsession’ is hardly applicable to me. I simply dislike that she’s pretending to be dead.”

He had never been obsessed with anything other than Diana. Whether it was people or things, they were all insignificant.

Especially Yerena, whom he had thought of not as a person, but as Diana’s doll.

How could he be obsessed with such an insignificant woman?

Benjamin chuckled.

“If you’re not obsessed, then whether Guide Yerena’s death is real or not, stop caring about it now and focus on what you need to do, Benjamin.”

“……”

“What you’re doing now, it looks ugly.”

Ugly, huh…

It wasn’t a particularly pleasant thing to hear.

If Baron or Lambert had heard it, they might have grabbed Duncan by the collar, unable to contain their anger.

But Benjamin maintained his composure.

He tried to assess the situation coolly, without getting excited.

Whether Duncan was lying, or if there was something he was missing.

Benjamin’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Duncan.

“Then, what is Guide Yerena to you, Center Director?”

Duncan replied immediately without much thought.

“A person I wanted to help. No, a person I had wanted to help. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“……”

“You should think about what Guide Yerena means to you. Ask yourself why you want her to be alive.”

As if not expecting an answer from him, Duncan spoke as if declaring war and swiftly got into the carriage.

The carriage soon departed, and Benjamin left behind, stood there blankly for a long time.

“You should think about what Guide Yerena means to you.”

Those words stuck in his heart like a thorn, preventing him from taking even a single step.

‘He’s not wrong. Why did I want Yerena to be alive?’

Come to think of it, when he heard that Rosie had tried to kill Yerena, something deep inside him had boiled.

It was an emotion that could only be described as ‘anger’.

It was similar to the feeling he had when Diana died, leaving him behind.

To feel anger towards the one who orchestrated her death, and to long to meet her again.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t pinpoint a clear reason.

To know that reason, he had to meet the living Yerena.

If he faced her, he felt he might understand the identity of these strange, incomprehensible feelings.