WMDBF 12

Chapter 12

Joseph fell silent for a moment.

No longer useful.

More than anyone, he understood exactly what those words meant.

“It feels as though it has not even been half a year since you began serving as my Guide.”

“It is earlier than expected, but… her condition certainly does not appear to be good. I believe we should begin searching for a new Guide as quickly as possible. What are your thoughts, Your Excellency?”

“…Where is that Guide now?”

“She has not yet left the estate, so I will take you to her immediately.”

Accompanied by the servant, Joseph retraced his steps. The Guide who had always attended to him was standing in front of the half-open gate. The maids surrounding her sensed their employer’s approach and immediately stepped back.

Joseph stopped some distance away.

What the servant had said was true. He could tell at a glance, even from afar. She looked as though it would be no surprise if she collapsed at any moment and had to be carried straight to a sickbed.

Her entire body was pale as paper, and dark shadows hollowed the area around her eyes. The Guide, who looked as though merely remaining on her feet was a struggle, spotted him and hurried toward him.

“Y-Your Excellency!”

She looked little better than a corpse, but a Guide was still a Guide. Simply having her approach was enough to make the impulses that had been lying dormant within him begin to stir. Joseph frowned and took a step back.

She dropped to her knees at his feet as though collapsing and began to plead.

“I-I can still hold on. I may look like this on the outside, but I can still serve you perfectly well. Please believe me! They’re exaggerating. Please… please don’t dismiss me. I’ll do my utmost to fulfill my duties, so please…”

“You say you can hold on.”

“Yes. That’s right. Yes!”

“You know better than anyone that isn’t true.”

The Guide flinched as his low, dry voice fell over her head.

“Even if it were only once, if you attempted to Guide me in your current condition, it would cost you your life.”

The Guide’s eyes widened. He watched the muscles in her face rapidly stiffen. Her lips moved soundlessly for a moment before she finally stammered,

“B-But…”

Her bloodless face and trembling body might have inspired pity in someone else, but Joseph’s gaze remained cold.

She could not understand it. It was obvious that he was in urgent need of Guiding, yet how could he possibly behave like this…?

“Y-Your Excellency needs Guiding too, doesn’t he? It would only take a moment—a moment! It’s a problem that can be solved so easily! I can solve it for you. Only I can…!”

“Is your life worth so little to you?”

She had tried to persuade him by pointing out that his condition was no better than hers, but it had only produced the opposite effect. Joseph was beginning to grow irritated with the Guide standing before him, who seemed incapable of understanding what he was saying.

“What kind of Guiding do you think you can provide when you look like a walking corpse?”

“…”

“There is nothing left for me to entrust to you, nor do I have any further use for you. So I would appreciate it if you left now.”

She was no longer useful to him. With everything already going from bad to worse, he had no desire to add disposing of a corpse to his list of problems.

As if to make it clear that he would give her no further room to argue, he turned away coldly.

Then the Guide shouted after him, as though making one final, desperate attempt.

“I-I’m like this because of you too!”

Joseph stopped dead in his tracks.

This time, it was the maids watching the scene who turned pale. How dare she raise her voice in front of the Marquis!

The Guide forcefully shook off the maids who rushed toward her and continued shouting.

“Y-You bear some responsibility too, don’t you? For what happened to me, you—surely you also…”

“So?”

Unlike hers, his voice was low and subdued, yet it pierced painfully into the Guide’s ears.

“Wasn’t everything explained to you from the very beginning? What kind of Sentinel I am, and what consequences providing Guiding to me could bring?”

Only silence followed.

The Guide could no longer scream, nor could she argue against Joseph’s words.

She was nothing more than a Guide he would never see again. At last, he was about to turn away without the slightest hesitation when the Guide spoke once more, her voice considerably calmer than before.

“If it isn’t Your Excellency, no one else will hire me anymore.”

“That is unfortunate.”

“Your Excellency.”

Then, all of a sudden, a faint, confident smile appeared on her lips.

“Your fiancée has recently gone missing, hasn’t she?”

What is this supposed to be?

Joseph turned back to look at her, and a different emotion entered his eyes. The very air around them seemed to freeze. The moment she mentioned Clara, she had crossed a line that should never have been crossed.

The terrified maids turned deathly pale.

The Guide, on the other hand, faced Joseph with a confidence completely unlike anything she had shown until now.

“If I were so bold as to say that I could give you a clue about the young lady’s whereabouts… would Your Excellency give me a different answer?”

“…What?”

Like a finely sharpened blade catching the light, his eyes flashed dangerously.

She knew where Clara was.

This woman knew where Clara was.

Joseph strode toward the Guide with frightening force and seized a fistful of her hair in one hand.

The Guide’s eyes wavered as her face twisted in pain. Perhaps she had expected that if she attempted to bargain with information about Clara, he would fall at her feet without hesitation.

If so, she could not have been more mistaken.

“Speak clearly.”

Staring directly into the Guide’s eyes, Joseph whispered in an icy voice.

It was an expression he had never once shown within the estate.

Unless, of course, one counted the interrogation room on the lowest floor of the headquarters building.

“Do you know where Clara is?”

“Ugh, that hurts…!”

“You would do well to answer my questions properly from now on. There are quicker methods I could use, but I’ll give you the chance to speak with your own mouth first.”

You have only one chance.

That was what his gaze said.

The Guide’s face, which had been filled with confidence only moments ago, was now stained with shock and terror.

She became certain that if she failed to provide the information he wanted, she might die right here.

The Marquis who had just said he did not want to turn her into a corpse was gone.

Was he not looking at her now as though she were a prisoner in possession of important information?

The knowledge inside her head would determine her fate.

It was time to pay the price for daring to bring up the fiancée who had consumed all of his attention.

She felt as though she had just woken from a nightmare.

Clara jolted awake, gasping as she remained lying where she was and searched through her memories.

What was I dreaming about?

She could not remember the nightmare that had undoubtedly tormented her until just moments ago. The bad dream had evaporated in the blink of an eye, leaving behind something even more frightening in its place:

The reality that she had been kidnapped and that the road home seemed impossibly far away.

In this place, where almost all light was blocked out, it was difficult to tell whether it was morning or evening.

Perhaps because her sense of time had become distorted, she was not even sure how many days she had spent here.

“You’re awake?”

The voice of the man she had grown familiar with spoke from behind her.

Clara reflexively sat up and turned to face him.

As always, the blond man was dressed in black clothes that clung tightly to his body. He stood looking down at her with a bowl in one hand.

“You must be hungry.”

Just as he said, she was hungry. Still, she hesitated to accept the bowl from him so readily.

Mikhail dragged an old chair over with his free hand and sat beside her. Fortunately, it seemed he had no intention of using food as an excuse to play one of his tiresome little games this time.

“Eat. I’m worried you’ll starve to death.”

He held out the bowl of soup.

After hesitating for a moment, Clara carefully accepted it. The warmth of the bowl seeped into her hands, which had grown cold.

Can I really eat this without worrying?

She still did not trust him, but by now Clara knew what kind of man Mikhail was.

At the very least, she knew he was the sort of person who would never leave her alone until she had finished every last drop.

More than her hunger, she simply wanted to get him away from her side as soon as possible. Clara began eating the soup somewhat hurriedly.

Just as she had expected, Mikhail stared openly at her the entire time she ate.

I never thought I’d find myself worrying that someone’s stare would make the soup sit badly in my stomach.

Could you please stop staring at me?

With that small irritation simmering inside her, Clara glanced sideways at Mikhail.

The moment their eyes met, Mikhail spoke again.