Riley nodded in response.
“Um? Young Master? Did something happen?”
For some reason, Riley and Nainiae were just standing in front of the village. They were not moving from there. Reitri had found them like this. He was organizing the carriages, but he stopped and asked.
“Reitri.”
While staring at the village’s sign, Riley called his name. Reitri decided to leave things to Horai for the moment and responded,
“Yes?”
“Let me ask you for a favor.”
“A… favor?”
Reitri tilted his head to the side and wondered what this was about. He asked,
“If it is about information regarding Mr. Ian, I was going to even if you didn’t ask.”
Having heard the man, Riley shook his head.
“No. Besides Ian, I have one more thing I want to ask you to do for me. You said there is an informant in this place, right?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes… that’s right, but…”
“This might be a vague request, but if it is you, then you should be able to find it on your own.”
Reitri broke out in a cold sweat and said,
“Aren’t you having too much faith in me? Compared to others, I’m pretty new at this…”
* * *
“… I’m back.”
They were at the Romella village’s pub. Because of Riley’s request, Reitri had been gathering information for the past few days. He looked rather exhausted when he returned to the pub. Reitri sat next to Riley.
“Good work. I’ll treat you.”
Unlike Reitri, it seemed that Riley had a satisfying vacation in Romella village for the past few days. Unlike the look on Reitri’s face, Riley was looking very refreshed.
“Ugh.”
Looking at Riley, Reitri thought to himself why he was not born as a noble. Riley handed him a wine. Reitri relaxed his stuffy face and drank a sip from it.
“So, any progress?”
It seemed Riley was feeling guilty for working Reitri so much. He decided to order the most expensive snack for the drink. Riley asked the waiter for a menu and asked Reitri.
“That is…”
It seemed Reitri was very thirsty. He chugged on the wine and blurred the end of the sentence while avoiding Riley’s gaze.
“I have one useful news, and…”
“What do you mean ‘and’?”
“I have two bad news. What would you like to hear first?”
Reitri said he had useful, not ‘good’, information and two relatively bad news pieces. Riley had been looking calm so far, but now he frowned.
“What?”
“Ugh…”
It seemed Reitri had been expecting this response. Reitri sighed with an uncomfortable look on his face. Riley turned his eyebrows back to the original angle and said,
“It was not like I was not expecting this at all but to think there are two bad news pieces…”
Perhaps due to insufficient sleep, Reitri looked tired. Because of this, Riley couldn’t let out his frustration at Reitri. He thought hard about this for a moment and chose the second option. Riley said,
.bg-ssp-10081{margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;display:flex;justify-content:center;} “Well, they say it is better to just get the beating first… Let’s hear the bad news first. Why are you so concerned about them?”
Reitri took another sip of the wine and started to explain.
He looked anxious. It seemed like he was hoping that Riley would not be infuriated after hearing what he was about to explain.
“First… I would like to tell you first that it seems Mr. Ian … has not been to this village yet.”
As expected, Riley’s face hardened again.
“… What?”
It looked like Reitri was expecting this to happen. The man was about to cry. He was not able to look at Riley in the eyes. Reitri just directed his gaze at the empty glass and continued.
“Maybe Mr. Ian went off to somewhere else on the way. Otherwise, maybe something happened to him… Although we won’t be able to find that out, it seems he has not arrived in Romella village yet. I asked around and people said nobody like that had come here.”
Riley flinched his facial muscles and said,
“Ian, this rascal is really…”
Riley mumbled ‘doing all sorts of things’ inside and waited for Reitri to speak.
“A… Anyway! I intend to keep on searching for more information about Mr. Ian. Maybe he went straight to Rainfield without stopping by at the Romella village or he didn’t come this far yet. Regardless, we probably won’t miss him.”
Reitri asked Riley to wait a little longer for information about Ian. Now, Reitri started to talk about the other bad news.
“The next one is about the great danger that’s about to reach Romella village.”