Time of the Blind Beast - Chapter 85

The servant, seeing the unusual expression on Ezekiel’s face, couldn’t even ask what was wrong and hurriedly left the bedroom.

Ezekiel leaned deep into the chair and waited for Merlot to enter. Every passing second felt like his blood was drying up.

Merlot, summoned from early dawn, stood in front of him with a puzzled look.

“You called for me, sir?”

Ezekiel stared at the errand boy with sharp eyes. He immediately straightened up, tense.

“Merlot. You saw Rose at Derosa, didn’t you?”

At Ezekiel’s first question, Merlot inhaled sharply.

“W-why do you ask, sir?”

Ezekiel asked in a cool tone, “Is there a problem with the description I have of Rose?”

Merlot almost took a step back. His heart plummeted.

“Pardon? I don’t quite understand what you mean.”

Does he know something and is testing me?

Or is he asking without knowing anything?

He answered with a calm facade, but cold sweat trickled down his back. Merlot glanced sideways, gauging Ezekiel’s reaction.

Ezekiel was a much more refined and discerning master than Akenaus, but he was never gentle. The scene where he ruined Akenaus’s eyes and expelled him was still often mentioned. The way he subdued Akenaus in an instant and pulled the trigger without a moment’s hesitation was so chilling that the servants who witnessed it couldn’t even breathe, let alone stop him.

“I’m literally asking whether I’ve been wrong about Rose.”

After secretly visiting the woman in the detention camp, Merlot had sealed his lips per her wishes.

“Miss, do you want to live?”

Her calm shake of the head in response to his question had been impressive.

Indeed, misfortune had struck. Though he had to face him when assigned tasks or summoned, Major Ezekiel Valdemaira was a difficult and frightening master. If he could, Merlot would have preferred to avoid him altogether.

If it were revealed that he had seen the woman imprisoned in the camp and kept quiet all this time, who knew what disaster might befall him?

He couldn’t even predict it. The thought alone was chilling.

He had stayed silent until now, so he had to remain silent going forward. Once he pretended not to know, he had to pretend all the way. Merlot wasn’t capable of dealing with the consequences.

“No, Major. Surely, no one knows better than you, who had her by your side.”

Though his expression didn’t change much, Merlot caught a flicker of relief on Ezekiel’s face.

“I know best, you say?”

“Yes.”

“So there’s nothing wrong with what I know.”

“…Yes.”

“…Good. You may go now.”

Ezekiel dismissed the obviously tense errand boy. Though it had been a simple question, his overly withdrawn attitude was unsettling. Still, he had always frozen like a mouse before a cat whenever he faced Ezekiel.

In any case, the errand boy who knew Rose’s face had confirmed her description, so he felt somewhat reassured. But since he was already checking, he thought it best to make things clearer.

Ezekiel drafted a new letter to Madam Serva. If the woman who had first chosen and managed Rose confirmed that she had red hair and green eyes, he could truly put his mind at ease.

“See, Rose? I told you I’m out of my mind.”

I even dared to see your face in that damned woman.

You’re nothing like her.

You must never be mistaken for her.

Even the mere speculation was revolting. A dull pain rose in his chest as if a demon were twisting his heart. Even though it was just a hallucination brought on by the drug, he felt sorry to Rose.

She was the woman who had remembered their brief encounter at the school caught in the war, heard of his disgrace, and ran to repay his kindness. If she found out that the man she had saved with her own blood and sweat had been deluded by a ridiculous illusion, even the kind-hearted Rose would surely be angry.

Ezekiel tried to distinguish between Rose and Lisanne. Their appearances were different, their personalities were different, and their behaviors were different. And the presence he remembered was…

Come to think of it, he had never truly sensed Lisanne’s presence. The moment he faced her, she had silently drunk poison and collapsed, and had only remained bedridden under the pretense of illness. He hadn’t had a chance to judge anything.

So it must have been a mistaken hallucination. There were things he hadn’t been able to grasp about that woman, Lisanne, and they remained as a subtle sense of unease in a corner of his heart.

“Deliver this. Give it to Madam Serva at the Derosa estate and bring the reply back immediately.”

Ezekiel handed the letter to his subordinate after arriving at work. This was something he needed an answer to right away. The errand boy’s sluggish pace wouldn’t satisfy his urgency. Soldiers with experience running through plains and mountain paths day and night could cut the time far shorter than a regular errand boy.

Now there were two replies he needed to receive.

Paulina’s decision and Madam Serva’s response.

Until he heard back from both, he stayed up nearly all night, resisting the temptation of laudanum. He dreaded the possibility that if he got the dosage wrong, he might again superimpose Rose with that woman. Once Madam Serva confirmed that Rose and that woman were entirely different people, the confusion caused by distorted perception would not occur again. Waiting for that day, Ezekiel left the medicine bottle by his bedside.

A few days later, the subordinate who passed through Serva and carried a cooperation request to Paulina returned first with her reply.

Paulina’s answer was concise.

As a citizen of Astrie, I am happy to offer my assistance to the Major in any way I can.

She didn’t even ask how Ezekiel would be guarding her carriage. Her only requests were that the King’s Army protect her as best as they could until the operation was over and that she be returned safely to her husband. Paulina seemed to place her full trust in Major Valdemaira’s reputation, who had once sealed the borders of Astrie and traversed them freely during wartime.

Ezekiel immediately called a meeting. These days, when he wasn’t sure if he was living or merely surviving, having something to immerse himself in was a relief.

He spread out the military map and without hesitation marked the route that would bring Paulina to Claris. She was from the east, not too far from Claris.

After marking several key midpoints along the route, Ezekiel pulled his hand back.

“Given how people keep gathering and scattering near the ones holding Akenaus, it’s safe to assume that’s where the command group is. The locations reported by our tails change slightly each time, but overall, they seem to remain in this area just slightly north of Claris.”

“That’s in the direction of Davis.”

“If things go south, they’ll have to flee across the border. It’d be risky for them to move too far south. Taking their mentality and the terrain into account, the most likely ambush points would be these three or four spots.”

The subordinates studied the map closely.

“Are we splitting up to ambush?”

“It’s hard to perfectly predict where the ambush will occur, so we’ll split up for now.”

“They’ll try to bring in as many people as possible to ambush us. If we divide into three or four groups, won’t we be short on manpower?”

“Then each of you will just have to shoot more. What’s the problem?”

The subordinates exchanged looks. The citizens of Astrie often held romantic notions about Major Ezekiel’s unit, which had stirred up enemy lines with stealth, ambushes, and infiltration, but in reality, the fact that they had turned the tide of war with special operations usually meant they were operating at a disadvantage. If they had enough people, they wouldn’t need strategies. Numbers themselves are a strategy.

Familiar smiles began to spread.

“No problem.”

“This reminds me of the old days. Once, we went out on reconnaissance and reported that the enemy’s forces looked to be about twice ours. You said something similar back then too. That it’s fine—we just have to each take down two enemies. You said it like it was as simple as giving each person two pieces of bread.”

The subordinate’s recollection eased the tension in the air.

“No surprise. Honestly, when have we ever fought easy battles?”

“Ambushes are meant to be done with small numbers. Otherwise, we’d be spotted.”

Lighthearted jokes passed back and forth. Ezekiel silently watched his subordinates. They were dependable comrades who trusted and followed him no matter the order.

“But the spot we need to pay the closest attention to is here.”

Ezekiel pointed to the side road leading northeast from Claris.