Chapter 26.2

Facing Lara, whose eyes were now as wide as a deer’s, Franz spoke honestly.

“I’m looking for a man named Bertram.”

“What the, then you should’ve said so earlier!”

“Would you truly have offered real information if I’d told you earlier? Not the kind of unsourced information like the talk of sheep.”

“Then are you trying to say I lied to you? I only told you what I heard around me! I’m telling you, city folks have way too much suspicions!”

Grumbling, Lara dropped her head towards her laundry. From above, it looked like she was coolly returning back to her own work on purpose. Hidden from Franz’s line of sight, however, Lara’s hands were trembling with tension.

Until just a moment ago, Franz had been a beauty that looked just like a prince. But the second he yelled, his eyes had flashed like they were weapons. That had been when she had learned why the aphorism to be careful of the city men existed in the first place.

But the problem began now.

Hiding her trembling hands in her shadow, Lara thought hard.

‘What should I do? Mr. Bertram—I heard he’s taking cover at the public sleeping quarters. If these people start torturing me, I definitely won’t last longer than ten seconds!’

Thankfully, however, Lara’s imaginations did not come true.

“I’m sorry for yelling.”

Franz was apologizing without further fuss. Even as she stood up, Lara looked him over carefully. All traces of anger had disappeared.

No, not only that. It felt like he was looking at her like he would a pebble rolling on the dirt ground.

“Is there anything new you’ve learned about Bertram?”

“Well, I’ve been inside working around the house all day, so I didn’t meet a single soul. And I’d just managed to come out to do the laundry that would’ve taken me one hour at most if I did it myself, when Sir Glasses here came and—”

“Your answer.”

Where had smiley-eyed Franz and his unnecessarily roundabout questions gone? Every sentence Franz said was abrupt and separate. Intimidated, Lara answered.

“I don’t know, that’s the kind of thing the Chief will know. He’s the one who investigates whenever something happens in the village.”

“Met him in the afternoon, said he knew nothing.”

“He scampers about all day. He might have seen someone in the meantime.”

“…Alright. Let’s go, all.”

Franz motioned to the soldiers. Including, it must be said, Erich, who clumsily gathered the laundry in his arms.

Erich mouthed a silent sorry as he handed the clothes over. Though it had just been laundered, a dirt-covered lump of laundry was what was draped over Laura’s arms now.

After confirming that the five people and their six horses had gone afar, Lara threw the laundry into the basket and shouted.

“That egotistical snob!”

On the other hand, the soldiers riding away from Lara were also not feeling comfortable. One of the older soldiers spoke up to Franz in a gentle tone.

“I wonder if there would be anything good coming out of making enemies with the villagers, sir. If we’d so much as offered to bring the laundry back into the house, we would have formed a cordial relationship. You could have ordered Erich to do so.”

“It’s not like we’re going to be in this village for long, so is there a reason to win favor with our inferiors? And in the very rare case that’s true, I’ll make Erich apologize in our stead.”

Wondering if that was the sole purpose of his existence, Erich sighed in silence. But at the same time, he was secretly hoping for a chance to apologize to Lara as well.

All throughout the laundry, she’d been chirping away about how at her house, they didn’t have a lot of clothes, so in order to change them on time, she had to finish the deed quickly. He wondered if she had re-laundered that mountain of laundry by herself.

Erich’s thought process did not last long, however. Even as they rode through on their horses, Franz would stop them every time he saw someone to order his subordinates to question them.

Even Erich, who’d been very polite to the villagers, was slowly beginning to show signs of exhaustion on his face.

Towards the evening, they reached the village chief’s house without gaining any results. The chief was their one and only hope, but his answer was the same as what he’d said earlier in the afternoon.

“I do not know. Whenever anything even slightly strange happens, I do make sure to head over right away, you know? But every time I went, one of your soldiers was there. Bahaha!”

“It seems we’ve caused a ruckus due to our impatience. We will be more careful in the future.”

“It’s fine as long as you don’t go about in the dark. Since we’re in the country, we all plant ourselves at home the moment the sun sinks. And wolves sometimes come out near the farm.”

“Then we’ll have to refrain from nighttime activities. We’ll hold off on our investigation until tomorrow. Where might be the village inn?”

“Huh? The inn?”

The chief made an expression like he’d just been asked, ‘Where is the treasure island?’

Franz belatedly perceived his current reality. There was no way they’d have an inn this far into the country.

Even if the people borrowed beds from private households, they needed a place to keep their horses. Besides, it wasn’t like they could tie up Monat just anywhere, either.

With a much meeker voice than before, Franz spoke again.

“It’s fine even if it’s not an inn. Would there be a place where we and our horses could stay the night together? We’ll pay the price sufficiently.”

“The horses, too? Oh goodness. In that case…. There’s only one place where you could.”

“Where?”

“Anna’s restaurant. The stables are big there, and you can easily use their well water.”

“…Are there no other places…?”

“You could also sleep outside.”

And of course, sleeping outside was not part of their options.

In the end, gnashing his teeth with full force, Franz and the soldiers stood in front of Anna’s restaurant.

With a bright smile, Anna welcomed Franz.

“Oh my, what important people do we have back here at this humble abode?”