Chapter 101. Ponitan Directive

Mihail frowned.

To uncover the truth behind the unbelievable article, he had personally gone to the place where Seraphina’s body was reportedly found.

His teal eyes looked coldly down at the charred corpse.

“…Is this Miss Sera?”

Are you kidding me?

You couldn’t recognize anything.

The extent of the body’s damage was such that, without the eyewitness’s statement, it would be unrecognizable. At best, they could only ascertain it was a woman in her twenties and similar in height to Seraphina.

To write an article based on such flimsy evidence.

“Who is it?”

“Pardon? What do you mean…?”

The knight, who had guided him to where the body was kept on the sudden order of the Holy Knight Order’s commander, asked in confusion.

“The eyewitness, I mean.”

“Oh, the eyewitness… uh, Commander.”

The knight wasn’t a fool. Realizing that revealing the eyewitness’s identity might lead to trouble for that person, he hesitated and began to offer an explanation instead.

“We don’t fully trust the eyewitness’s testimony either. That’s why we haven’t conducted a funeral and are continuing our investigation until the truth is revealed.”

“So?”

“Yes?”

“So, what have you found out from this horribly damaged corpse?”

“Well…”

Unable to find a fitting answer, the knight swallowed dryly.

Dissatisfied with the knight’s hesitant demeanor, Mihail subtly offered a warning. He thought he should teach him a lesson since he seemed unaware of Mihail’s character.

“It’s simple.”

“……?”

“A knight who can’t even reveal the identity of an eyewitness…”

The omitted words seemed to echo in the knight’s ears. It was as if Mihail was saying that someone so useless should learn a lesson.

The knight, suddenly alert, answered swiftly.

“It was a man who appeared to be in his thirties. Common brown hair, a clean face, and slightly tanned skin.”

“And?”

“His height was similar to mine…”

“Name and residence?”

Having gathered enough about the appearance, Mihail asked the important questions. It was a natural question, but the knight looked troubled and hesitated.

Mihail’s brow furrowed. The deepening wrinkles on his brow seemed to reflect the depletion of his patience.

The knight quickly spoke.

“After giving his statement here, his whereabouts became unknown.”

“Unknown, you say?”

“Yes, in fact, we tried to find him for additional testimony, but we couldn’t locate him anywhere.”

“……”

I see.

Mihail muttered softly and turned his body, leaving behind a word of acknowledgment.

He smelled something. The scent of the information guild.

It seemed they had hidden underground like rats again, but this time, there was some gain.

At least one guild member dealing with important information was in this city.

They might have already left the city, but Mihail didn’t think so.

The information guild, which had vanished after casually providing the information that Seraphina was dead in exchange for a hefty commission, and the mysterious disappearance of the witness who testified that the charred corpse was Seraphina.

With just those two puzzle pieces, it was clear.

That corpse was not Seraphina.

This was a manipulation.

To ensure that the manipulation proceeded smoothly, at least one member of the information guild would be hiding in this city.

He had to find that bastard.

“I’m quite adept at hiding myself.”

Mihail hummed a cheerful tune as if he were pleased.

The thought of being in the same city as the rat he needed to catch made him feel as if he had already discovered Seraphina’s whereabouts.

That light.

If only he could feel the light flowing from her hands once more.

On the third day of staying in this unfamiliar city, Mihail spotted a suspicious man who faintly suppressed his presence. A cold smile appeared on Mihail’s lips.

At first glance, he looked ordinary. He was quite different from the eyewitness description given by the knight when Mihail went to verify Seraphina’s body.

However, there was still a chance they were associates.

Mihail decided to tail the man. More discreetly concealing his presence than the man himself.

‘Back alley… fitting for a rat.’

He moved from roof to roof, following him. And Mihail was able to eavesdrop on why the information guild had vanished without a trace.

“How long do we have to keep doing this? Our finances have worsened a lot because commissions have decreased.”

“The activity level is ‘Deep Sea.’ Don’t speak unnecessarily.”

Deep Sea…?

Though he didn’t know what it meant, it seemed related to the sudden disappearance of all the information guild bases.

Mihail watched the two guild members secretly meeting in the back alley with cold eyes.

One of them handed a note to the other.

Swoosh!

At that moment, one of them looked up. Mihail quickly hid himself, quietly holding his breath.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just felt like something was there.”

“There’s nothing. Maybe a pigeon flew by?”

“Maybe.”

After staying still for a moment, Mihail sensed the presences below moving away and cautiously peeked out again.

The two had finished their brief meeting and were heading in opposite directions.

Mihail scanned both of them and then started to follow the man he had been tailing on his way here.

Silently, he moved across the rooftops as if flying. His movements were like the wind.

His platinum blonde hair fluttered gently. Beneath it, his teal eyes were like those of a predator focused on its hunt.

Thud!

Mihail landed lightly on the ground and swiftly struck the back of the man’s neck with a straightened hand.

“Ugh…!”

The man fainted with a small groan.

With an indifferent expression, Mihail searched the man’s pockets and found a note that had clearly been handed over by another guild member just moments before.

He unfolded it without delay.

[Mihail Andantino. Witness identity inquiry. Appearance disguise completed.
New corpse preparation.
Ponitan guidance needed.]

Though the note was composed of brief words, it wasn’t hard to guess the meaning hidden within them.

Mihail chuckled as if he found it amusing. The fact that he was being watched was both irritating and intriguing.

It seemed to mean something like this:

Someone was looking for the person who supposedly witnessed Seraphina’s death, and they had disguised the appearance of this fake witness.

And whether they had already prepared another corpse in case things went wrong or were planning to do so, it seemed they needed guidance from above.

“Ponitan guidance?”

What could that be?

Mihail’s face darkened.

There was a scent.

It seemed like he had caught a clue.

* * *

It was a night with a thin crescent moon.

Claude lay on the inn bed, quietly gazing at the night sky visible through the small window. However, his mind was elsewhere, and his focus was blurred.

“Damn it.”

Was it really Seraphina?

Did she request the information guild to manipulate the corpse?

Once doubt arose, his thoughts flowed only in that direction.

The problem was that the hypothesis brought about by this animalistic intuition seemed quite plausible.

“Damn, what’s the problem?”

If she had orchestrated it herself, it meant she was alive somewhere, which was a relief. But in another sense, it was driving him crazy.

Claude covered his face with one hand.

“Ah, damn it.”

What’s the problem?

Afraid of the undead? Afraid of fainting? Afraid of dying?

Didn’t he promise to protect her?

Though he had been a bit rough and there were dangerous moments, hadn’t he somehow managed to protect her?

Claude squeezed his eyes shut.

Behind his closed eyelids, dried camellia petals flickered.

The day he heard of Seraphina’s disappearance, Claude immediately went to her room in Hilton Castle. There wasn’t much to begin with, so there were no traces of escape to be found…

Creak.

Like someone possessed, he opened the drawer of the table next to the bed.

It wasn’t there.

The camellia petals he had given her as a gift, which she had cherished and carefully dried one by one, were gone.

Claude instinctively knew.

This escape was planned.

She had planned to disappear like this from the moment she left Hilton.

But…

She took the flowers he had given her with her.

What did that mean?

He had no idea.

“Women are unnecessarily complicated.”

Claude irritably got up from the bed. Lying down only made him more restless.

To calm his troubled mind, he went to stand by the window.

“Did she have feelings for me?”

If not, she wouldn’t have taken them so carefully.

If she liked him, why did she disappear instead of staying by his side?

Was it out of disappointment? Was she sulking?

<Brother, try speaking nicely. Hmph!>

Leah’s voice, which he had heard long ago, echoed in his mind. Remembering his sister who had sulked, asking him to speak kindly, he began to reflect on how he had spoken to Seraphina.

<Come out immediately. I’ll give you one minute.>

<Does the war with the undead seem like a joke to you, Purifier Seraphina?>

<Don’t make me repeat myself.>

Having spent time with those shady guys, his words had become rough.

Of course, Seraphina wasn’t one of those shady guys, so he shouldn’t have treated her that way…

Claude’s expression hardened seriously.

“…Is it because of me?”