Since I Don't Know Anything About It, Shall We Break Up, Your Majesty? - Chapter 66

Laurel turned around slowly, not startled.

Lumiere was standing there with a strange expression.

“Because I have forsaken God.”

Lumiere, who glanced at the necklace Laurel had put down, muttered.

“……Or perhaps God has forsaken you, Laurel.”

Laurel didn’t know how to look at Lumiere.

Looking at her made her feel guilty, ashamed, and a little resentful.

But in the end, looking back, it was all her own sin.

Laurel bowed her head even more.

“I don’t know how to express my gratitude for the grace you’ve bestowed upon me, Miss. Really…… Is this enough? What I’ve done…… This punishment is too lenient for……”

“Stop. Don’t say anymore. I’ve already made my decision, and you’ve agreed to follow my decision. That’s the end of it.”

At the firm words, Laurel closed her mouth.

Lumiere looked at Laurel with a complex gaze.

Was it because some time had passed, or was she originally this gullible?

Looking back, Lumiere didn’t think Laurel had committed a mortal sin.

The price Laurel had paid was too great compared to the weight of her sin.

Although she hadn’t punished Laurel with her own hands, she didn’t feel the need to push her into an even more terrible hell with her own hands either.

“……Tell me about that day.”

“That day?”

“How did you find out? About the ones who took Tommy.”

“Ah……”

Laurel looked at Lumiere with a surprised face, then slowly nodded.

It was purely by chance that Laurel found out their identity.

Laurel’s residence was in the southern district based on the Templar River.

So she actually didn’t have many occasions to cross the bridge, but one day she had followed Jeffrey who was going on an errand to the north side.

There was a very famous pub called <Isaac> in the north.

It was the most famous establishment in the northern area.

Behind Isaac, there were many tenements for illegal immigrants and brewery houses that made beer.

People called that area the slums and didn’t go there often.

While looking at that area with curious eyes, Laurel discovered a noisy group coming out of Isaac.

It was those very people who occasionally asked Laurel to run errands for them.

The last errand was about half a year ago, and since there was nothing good to come from acknowledging them, she turned her gaze away pretending not to know them.

But after Tommy was taken away, Laurel ran there every night.

Those damn bastards came and went to the pub dozens of times a day, but she could never see Tommy.

Laurel watched that place all night and then followed them.

Not far from Isaac, in front of a shabby shack in the back alley, they were smoking tobacco.

‘So…… He finally died?’

That chilling conversation.

‘Yeah. Ptui! To think he’d kick the bucket like that. It festered more than expected, so there was nothing we could do.’

‘That’s why, you should have shown him to a doctor sooner.’

‘Damn it! How could I take him quickly when the owner wouldn’t let a doctor come!’

‘What are you going to do about that woman? Isn’t he that woman’s son?’

‘……Well, now that it’s come to this, we’ll have to get rid of that woman too. Well, what’s the point of living in that state? She’s better off dead. Right? Hehehe.’

‘Ha! Isn’t this just garbage?’

‘What are you saying, you trash? If just one of the things you’ve done gets exposed, you’d be dragged off by the devil!’

‘Hahaha! You and me both!’

They cackled about dumping the body in the Templar River.

After that, Laurel was out of her mind.

She couldn’t be in her right mind.

She didn’t know how she returned to the Lashantia mansion, but when she came to her senses, she was in front of Jeffrey’s cottage.

The rest of the story, Lumiere already knew.

Lumiere, who had been quietly listening to Laurel’s story, spoke with a coldly settled gaze.

“So, where is their base?”

In truth, what could Lumiere do even if she knew?

But she wanted to know.

There might be something she could do, just in case.

She couldn’t just helplessly sit back and take it anymore.

Laurel looked at Lumiere with wavering eyes at her question.

“Tell me, Laurel.”

“……You don’t need to know, Miss.”

“It’s related to me anyway. Tell me.”

Lumiere urged Laurel firmly once again.

Laurel hesitated, clenching and unclenching her fist.

But as if she had made a decision, she raised her eyes and spoke.

“Actually, I’ve already said.”

“What? When? To me?”

Is it okay to relay this information?

Laurel pondered briefly.

But as Lumiere said, it was related to her too, and above all, she didn’t want to deceive Lumiere anymore for any reason.

Laurel’s quivering lips opened.

“To Mr. Winger.”

* * *

“……So.”

The back alley was dark.

Unlike the front alley that was lavishly decorated for customers, the back of the building was full of carelessly thrown boxes and planks.

In the innermost part of that dirty back alley,

Sizzle–

Shantes, who had set up a gangsters’ residence by renovating an abandoned factory, muttered while lighting a thick cigar.

“You didn’t even see who it was?”

“Th-that, they were wearing masks and it was a sudden ambush……”

Toreso answered, clutching his broken arm while lying flat on the ground.

His boss, Shantes, was a very scary person.

He could maim people and torment them until death without batting an eye.

People point fingers at Toreso calling him trash, but it was all Shantes to blame, who led him down this path.

Toreso learned many things from him.

Especially things like what benefits arise when a human gives up being human.

“You said it was just two of them?”

“It was dawn, and they were all masked, and their movements were too nimble……”

Crack!

Shantes picked up a wooden stick lying haphazardly on the floor and threateningly slammed it down.

The broken part jutted out sharply.

The back alley became as chilly as a window covered in frost.

“……Since when did your excuses get so long, Toreso?”

Startled, Toreso slammed his forehead onto the dirty floor covered in filth.

“I-I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

He begged for forgiveness unconditionally.

Although his arm and leg were broken, and his gang members taken to the hospital were in an unknown state of whether they were alive or dead, that wasn’t the important issue right now.

‘Damn it, I’m going to die at this rate!’

Those damn masked bastards!

Their movements were as swift as squirrels, and their strength was brutally strong.

How do you catch those things that break locked padlocks with bare hands and climb walls to beat up the guys!

Moreover, the two of them showed perfectly synchronized movements as if they were one person.

Toreso could guarantee that even if the royal army came, it wouldn’t be easy to catch those guys.

But if he listed out such words, Shantes would undoubtedly say he’d rip out Toreso’s tongue.

Toreso couldn’t help but tremble like a dog in front of a man of similar age, even smaller in build than himself.

“Well, we can’t kill our dear Toreso either. Right?”

Shantes muttered, pressing the sharp end of the split wood into Toreso’s side.

Toreso gritted his teeth and endured the pain.

The thorn-like sharp part dug into his flesh.

Just as blood was starting to seep through Toreso’s dirty clothes, someone entered the alley, stepping on the muddy ground.

“Hey, Shantes. That’s enough. Are you thinking of killing that guy too and dumping him in the Templar River again? It seems the rumors about bodies you’ve dumped piling up downstream every month aren’t lies, huh?”

Pushing aside the gangs guarding the back alley, a man in police uniform appeared, chuckling.

It was Revett, the detective in charge of Six Points where Isaac was located.

He was a corrupt police officer who had been taking Shantes’ money for a very long time.

Of course, Revett wasn’t the only police officer living off Shantes’ money.

Revett was just one of them, but he was particularly friendly with Shantes.

“Wow! I never thought there’d be someone bold enough to rob this warehouse, what kind of guys are they? Come on, don’t be like that, what did they steal? Was it important?”

Revett whistled as he put his arm around Shantes’ shoulder, looking around the ransacked warehouse.

Shantes’ already furrowed brow twitched even more.

He pressed the broken wooden stick he was holding against Revett’s chin and said,

“It would be better to remove this smelly hand, Revett. In my current mood, I feel like I might break everything that touches me.”

“…….”

Startled, Revett quietly lowered his hand and stepped back.

Shantes’ condition was worse than he had expected.

Revett instinctively realized.

‘Oh no, something important must have been taken?’