Chapter 100. Incorrect Article

Mihail crumpled the newspaper in his hand and let out a chuckle.

“I don’t understand what the Imperial Administrative Office is doing, letting an article like this go unchecked.”

Johann, that bastard, never did anything right.

He became Emperor, yet who knows where he is wandering around.

I know he went on a continental tour, but shouldn’t he be doing something about this kind of nonsense?

“Ha, haha…”

A slightly deranged, eerie laugh escaped his lips.

The people dining in the restaurant shivered and instinctively shrank back. They didn’t know who he was, but it seemed like a big mistake to provoke him.

Unfazed by the commotion around him, Mihail ran his platinum blonde hair back with an irritated gesture. Then he roughly pulled a hood over his head.

His teal eyes flickered with anxiety.

[A body presumed to be the missing Purifier Seraphina found]

There’s no way she’s dead.

I taught her the purification spell, so she should just be able to turn the undead to ashes.

If she controls her power, she wouldn’t even faint. She never fainted once during the years she was with me.

I don’t know how the Guardian of the North handles things, but it seems she faints periodically in the Grodes Mountains…

Anyway, it was an incorrect article. It had to be.

Even though the ‘final’ information sent by the information guild was published as is in the newspaper, Mihail couldn’t accept it. He meticulously read the article.

It was the same.

The same as the last information sent by the information guild.

He felt a surge of anger toward the guild master.

“Bastard.”

Mihail muttered under his breath, a hint of malice in his teal eyes.

After receiving the information that Seraphina was found as a corpse, Mihail tried to grab the informant by the collar. But the guy who discreetly handed him the note on the main street vanished like smoke.

They were adept at hiding, after all.

Mihail went straight to the information guild. Or at least, he tried to.

But within a few months, it was as if the information guild had collapsed; he couldn’t find a trace of it.

He should have been able to find at least one base, but when he painstakingly tracked one down, it was either empty or genuinely run by ordinary people.

It was as if they had deliberately erased their tracks. As if playing hide-and-seek across the entire continent.
Mihail closed his eyes tightly to suppress his anger.

<The commission fee won’t be cheap, are you sure about this?>

<Of course.>

<I can’t guarantee success.>

<There’s no way it won’t succeed. The guild master is…>

<That’s a standard disclaimer we say with every commission. Of course, we’ll do our best to satisfy the client.>

<That’s enough.>

Do your best, you bastard.

Mihail swore he had never been scammed in his life.

But to think they ran off with such a hefty commission…

When contact was cut off after the information that Seraphina was dead, the feeling of betrayal was something he couldn’t forget for the rest of his life.

Mihail was determined to get to the bottom of this.

To do that, he needed to find the person who wrote this article first. His fingers seemed restless, so he’d break a few upon meeting them and question what basis they had for writing such nonsense. If it led to a connection with the information guild, all the better.

Having sorted out his tasks, Mihail roughly folded the newspaper in half and placed it on the table before getting up. He hadn’t eaten half of his food, but he had lost his appetite.

He left a gold coin on the table and walked out of the restaurant. It was an absurd amount for a simple meal, but the owner couldn’t even bring himself to ask, ‘Would you like change?’

They felt that if they said the wrong thing, they might meet an untimely end.

Outside, Mihail surveyed the street.

It was an unfamiliar city.

It was also the place where Seraphina’s body was reportedly found. How she vanished from Elmon only to be discovered in such a remote place was beyond belief.

Who would believe such nonsense?

“A nearby newspaper office…”

His steps were slow, as if he were merely taking a stroll.

Perhaps it was the footsteps of a reaper on a walk.

* * *

“Was there never one here?”

Claude furrowed his brow as he walked through the streets of Elmon.

He had ended up back in Elmon after chasing the scent of the information guild.

But something was definitely strange. How could a major city, where information should be most abundant, have no base for the information guild?

It made no sense.

In fact, finding the information guild in Sahar had been much easier.

“Damn it.”

And as he walked, Claude suddenly realized something. His legs came to a halt.

It seemed these rat-like bastards had deliberately decided to hide in the shadows. Otherwise, it made no sense that he couldn’t find the information guild even in Elmon, the largest city in the world.

Why didn’t he realize this sooner?

He should have noticed when the scent suddenly disappeared…

At the time, he thought it was just because the city he was in was small and didn’t have a clear base.

Claude felt frustrated with himself for being played by them like a fool.

It was purely by chance that he noticed a newspaper stand. He happened to stop right in front of it.

“What kind of nonsense is this?”

Seeing the article about Seraphina prominently displayed on the front page, Claude growled menacingly.

The stand owner, who sold various magazines and newspapers, was terrified and hesitantly approached the customer.

“W-would you like to buy one…?”

“What kind of nonsense is this!”

“Ah!”

He wasn’t particularly trying to vent his anger on anyone. It was just that the article was so nonsensical that he lost his reason.

Seraphina’s body found?

Who dares to spout such nonsense without fear?!

Claude’s red eyes fiercely scanned the stand.

One, two, three, four…

Half-crazed, he grabbed all the newspapers reporting Seraphina’s death.

And then he went straight to the newspaper offices, starting with the most prominent ones.

It was fortunate that he was in Elmon, as most of the famous newspaper companies had their headquarters here.

Bang!

Claude stormed into the office of the first newspaper editor and kindly offered some instruction.

“Memorize this.”

“What is it! Gasp! Y-you’re… the Guardian of the North?!”

Thus, the newspaper editors had to face Claude’s expression, colder than the chill of the Grodes Mountains, one by one.

“Dead, deceased, presumed dead, found as a corpse.”

“…Pardon?”

Though bewildered by the sudden intruder’s instructions, they behaved courteously. They knew that if they mishandled Claude von Denhague, known as the most ferocious among the three heroes, they might be treated like the undead of the Grodes Mountains.

“If any article about Purifier Seraphina contains such words, you’ll have to see my face again.”

“Eek!”

It was a threat more realistic and terrifying than anything else.

Of course, there were also editors with conviction and courage.

“We have a duty to report the facts as they are!”

“If it’s a fact, I won’t make an issue of it. But since it’s not, that’s why I’m doing this, right?”

“On what basis…?”

“Because I’m looking for her.”

“……?!”

“Because I will definitely find her.”

“……”

The eyes of Claude, as he spoke, burned with fervent belief.

He was determined to find Seraphina, alive and breathing, not as a corpse.

“Disappeared, missing.”

“Pardon?”

“Those are the only words you can use.”

“…Ah, understood.”

It was a declaration that he wouldn’t accept her death.

Of course, the articles about purifier Seraphina’s death were based on eyewitness reports, and the body itself was too damaged to identify. Although this fact was included in the article’s content, well…

Most people would only read the headline.

Anyway, it meant that the facts weren’t completely verified.

Having finished giving instructions to the newspaper offices, Claude returned to the streets.

Though he walked with a fierce demeanor, he was essentially like a shipwreck adrift.

Where should he go now?

There was no need to travel far to verify with his own eyes that Seraphina’s body was fake. His instincts told him it would be a waste of time.

This incident was likely a manipulation by someone. This, too, was his intuition.

So, who exactly orchestrated this manipulation?

“…Seraphina.”

Claude’s red eyes filled with a complex light as he thought of her face.

* * *

Cyril, who seemed very busy lately, had returned from somewhere. In his hands was a newspaper.

“It’s been a while since I’ve caught up with outside news.”

He spoke casually, but my heart was tense.

I was anxious and curious about how the articles related to me were published.

The gentleman had promised to grant my request. So, am I now considered someone who no longer exists in this world? As Yoon Jia mentioned in my dream, would I not be captured by the three heroes?

“This is…”

Flipping through the newspaper, I looked up at Cyril.

He shrugged.

“It’s a local newspaper from the city closest to Ponitan.”

“Is this all?”

There was nothing about me in it.

Had everything already blown over? Or was it such a backwater that they didn’t even know about my disappearance?

Well…

The gentleman did say that. No one here would recognize me. This is a village that lives as if cut off from the world.

Seeing that even Cyril, who comes and goes, didn’t recognize me, perhaps this whole area was isolated from the outside world.

It was a fortunate situation for me.

“No matter how much something shakes the world, it’s only for a season.”

Cyril said, watching me read the newspaper.

“People forget everything quickly, don’t they?”