CH 40

Chapter - 40 || Nor Her, Nor To The Rest Of Us

After parting with Jay, Youssef strolled his cart and hid leather bags inside.

Then, carefully, as if not to get lost again, Youssef walked past the kitchen, the stables, and the laundry.

He passed several servants, all too busy to pay any mind to Youssef.

After going so far no one could see him, Youssef found a hut made of solid stone.

"Guess my informant was right."

Since I had bought this information by the street, I was worried with it's credibility, but this seemed good enough.

Youssef approached the hut carefully.

A man was standing there, bored.

The man was wearing the same uniform as Youssef.

Youssef was inwardly relieved to find the man alone.

He knew he didn't have enough manpower to fight if there were more, and if there was two or three then he'd have to somehow convince them to let him in.

Youssef walked to the man calmly.

"Who is it?"

The man furrowed his eyebrows.

Youssef said in a sluggish tone,

"Hey, I brought St. Mary's wine, want a drink here?"

"Saint?"

"Yes, look."

Youssef pulled out a bottle of wine from the leather bag, and it swooshed around.

"It's good stuff. I heard someone was giving them away and I got one. I heard she was a Saint from the commoners, but if you don't want it, then whatever."

"Wait, wait, wait. Sure."

The man took the bottle of wine from Youssef.

"Hey, it's torn."

The cap was slightly torn, and drops of wine dribbled.

"Maybe the bag was old."

"What a waste."

Without hesitation, the man opened the bag and drank the wine. I could hear the sound of his throat gurgling.

He drank almost all of it in one go and let go of his mouth in satisfaction.

"It's good! I've never had such good wine."

"I bet. Shall I give you mine?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm not a drinker."

"Heh, you're a boring guy."

The man laughed, extended his hand, and kept going.

"Is that...?"

He fell forward.

"Oh... yes, what... this...?"

Youssef gazed on the man, fixated, while he was sleeping soundly.

"I'm sorry."

Youssef took a bunch of keys from the man's pocket and opened the door there.

The reason it didn't look large from the outside was because most of the layout was built underground.

As he descended the stairs, which had been carved from stone, he came upon a prison. Youssef couldn't help but mutter,

"Adrian?"

An old man was laying on his side on the other side of the bars. His eyes widened in surprise, but Youssef asked again,

"You're old Adrian from the Novi's store, aren't you?"

"Well, yes... but you're..."

"I don't have time to explain. Why are you here? Did you do something wrong?"

Adrian shook his head. He seemed to have trouble explaining.

"You didn't do anything wrong, but they put you in here, didn't they?"

Adrian replied in a quiet tone,

"Yes. He wants me to... do the work."

I knew it, Youssef thought.

They went through the trouble of locking him up, and making him do a task that he couldn't tell anybody, especially a craftsman experienced in jewllery.

"Are the Saints involved?"

Adrian nodded slowly.

Youssef unlocked the bars before his eyes.

"First, let's get out of here. Then, you can explain me what's going on."

Adrian however, still looked frightened.

Youssef remembered wearing his security uniform.

"Yeah, well I'm not actually a security guard. I also know Hannah."

"Hannah?"

For the first time, Adrian's voice was full of energy.

"Oh, I promised your granddaughter that I would find you. Let's go see how he's been doing together."

With a clang, the bars opened.

Adrian tried to stand up, but immediately fell.

"Oh, my leg..."

Adrian's leg seemed to have been numb.

"You've done a terrible deed. Hop on."

Youssef carried Adrian on his back throughout the hallway and back to the entrance.

"If you don't want to talk, then just shut up."

As he walked, Youssef spoke to Adrian,

"Were you still planning to work for them?"

"...Yeah."

"I wonder why."

I asked him whether he made the forgery of the Maiden Lily as well, but after the unveiling was done, there was no point.

"...It's breaking."

Adrian muttered.

"Ever since I had made the forgery of the Maiden Lily, all the other ones had been breaking. The Heavens must have been furious."

Youssef felt like shouting, 'I knew it!'

The Heavens doesn't recognize the Saint universally.

But, the Saint here was a fake.

"Grandpa, I hope you don't mind. But I'll have to tell some trusted people of this incident. I'm sure things will take a turn for the worse if we leave it at this."

Adrian was silent.

"In any case, let's first get out of here and prioritize your health."

Youssef hurried towards the light of the entrance.

The snoring of the security guard got clearer.

Youssef walked quietly to not wake the gatekeeper up.

The gatekeeper didn't seem to be waking up anytime soon.

I'm sorry gatekeeper. But that wine was expensive so I'll hope you forgive me.

As Adrian was exposed to the light of the sun, he muttered,

"I'm outside..."

Youssef proceeded, more carefully,

"Hang in there, old man. There's a cart. There you go."

The wedding was still going on, and everyone was distracted because of that.

We could still get away while we had time.

I'm taking Grandpa with me.

And I'll take him to his Granddaughter.

"Grandpa, Hannah hasn't had her wedding yet. She said she'll perform it only if you are there."

"...I've been praying that she'll be able to live a good life without me."

"Well that's not happening. Not to her nor to us."

I walked over to the cart, put Adrian on it, and pushed the cart.

"Wear this cloth over your head."

He wore the cloth as instructed.

Youssef and Adrian were almost at the exit.

"Hey!"

Just as Youssef was starting to push the cart.

"I remember you. We met at the garden. Remember me?"

The Knight Julius had blocked my way once more.