'That seems to make more sense.'
Esperanza had no information network on this side at all. Though she used information brokers from time to time, she couldn't perform miracles like Duke Galliston, who commanded information brokers at his fingertips and collected banknotes used by others. So to make his existence known to this side, he would have had no choice but to make himself conspicuous in this way.
The reason he went to such trouble was....... Luke Havenly, who had supposedly left Duke Galliston to join under Daria, deliberately showing his presence to this side probably meant he intended to keep one foot on this side as well.
Should this be called clever, or despicable? Would it be right to see it as meticulous? But it was quite reckless behavior to pull against someone like Daria.
"Hmm......."
"Is something wrong?"
Cider, who had been wearing thin-framed glasses on his nose bridge and writing down numbers with a fountain pen, looked up from his paper. When Esperanza told him about Jack's letter, his eyes narrowed.
"You must be quite frightening."
"More frightening than Daria?"
"Either way, he's well aware that he only has one life. Leave him be. Later, if he tries to claim credit, just spare his life, wouldn't that be enough?"
"Well, it's not like he's done anything for us."
But she thought it would be good if they could use him. That side probably wouldn't risk helping this side any more than this, but there was no harm in trying.
"When we return to Nine Holder, I should meet with Havenly once......."
Esperanza trailed off. Just as Cider was about to ask "Why?", footsteps that sounded like someone running grew louder and stopped in front of the door. She could clearly picture someone breathlessly knocking on the door with difficulty.
When Cider gestured toward the door, Esperanza put down her letter and said.
"Annie, come in."
Annie, who burst open the door, immediately held out a letter without a word of greeting.
"I just received this from the mail carrier. It's urgent news from Glailly House!"
As she said, the letter had a large waterwheel stamp indicating express mail. The address was definitely Glailly House. The sender was Millen.
"Millen?"
"The butler, right."
"Ah, right."
Was it this side's Millen's father? Since she had rushed over and barely saw his face, it was hazy. Despite the urgent news, Esperanza unhesitatingly tore open the letter instead of Cider, who was concentrating on fixing the magic circuit with his chin propped up.
The content was brief. But surprising. So much so that she had to read the letter of only a few lines three more times.
"We need to go to Avondale."
At those words, Cider looked up.
"I thought at most someone had died, but that's not it?"
"Saying such a thing right now....... Anyway, it's not that."
Esperanza, who had taken a deep breath, said.
"There was a fire in the forest behind the mansion. So 'that' warehouse was completely burned down."
Ink spread from the tip of the fountain pen. Without realizing that fact at all, Cider quietly looked into Esperanza's eyes and answered low.
"I see. We need to go to Avondale."
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
Riton Province, Avondale City.
A pair of man and woman were leisurely walking through the city's most bustling shopping district. Though it was called bustling, being a small city, it wasn't very hectic.
Even though the incident at Sterling Harbor was shaking Osdern, this small city was peaceful as if nothing had happened. It probably would have been the same even if all those harbor people had died.
They seemed to have completely forgotten that monsters had once visited their small city too, and had simply passed over that disaster as someone else's business.
"The count didn't even come out during all the time he was here? How can there be no traces when he was here for months?"
Daria muttered irritably and swept her hair up. Even though she had deliberately grown her hair long to avoid the attention of small-city people, the occasional glances directed at her as a stranger were quite piercing.
"When you have everything at home, what reason would there be to come out?"
Cyrus said relatively calmly. But after wandering around the entire city all day in this cold weather and gaining nothing, he couldn't be in a good mood either.
"We'll have to search that mansion after all. He would have been just a middle or high school student at the time, but there's not zero possibility that he's really the creator of the 'Golden Claw.'"
Though she said that, Daria was more than half convinced.
And for some reason, it seemed he couldn't reproduce that great invention. So that damn woman was trying to steal Daria's treasure, wasn't she?
Then ultimately, clues about the 'spacetime machine' had to be in this Avondale too. She had come with that thought, but if no traces were visible even after wandering around the entire city, she had no choice but to search the count's residence, the mansion.
"But how do we search the mansion? Are we going to infiltrate?"
"It's not impossible. It's an ownerless mansion anyway. Plus it's a tourist attraction."
The most reliable method was to wander around pretending to be lost tourists. If they got caught doing that? They'd run away, of course. As long as there was gain, it didn't matter if they were discovered.
"That's true, but......."
Of the siblings, Cyrus, who had slightly more conventional moral concepts, seemed reluctant. But since he didn't respect the property rights of people in this world either, he eventually nodded.
"There doesn't seem to be any other way."
"Exactly. Then let's eat first and go. They don't open during lunch time anyway."
Daria, who showed the pamphlet she had received from the train station, went into a nearby restaurant.
The restaurant targeting the upper class was decent enough to eat at. Daria looked down at the steaming bowl and gave a hollow laugh.
How easy it was to get used to good things, comfortable things. When she returned, she would have to chew rag-like bread solely to survive, yet here she was comfortably evaluating the food of a high-class restaurant.
But she would become even more accustomed in the future. So that she wouldn't even have such thoughts. So that she would completely forget the past of chewing rags and drinking sewage.
Daria shoved the soft white bread into her mouth in one bite.
"Let's go."
Cyrus, who was still eating, sighed and got up following Daria.
Count Avondale's mansion, Glailly House, was at the end of this shopping district. They walked leisurely toward the mansion facing the cold winter wind for the first time in a while.
In the real world, they were frantically busy. They wanted to collapse but couldn't. What was given to them was harsh, miserable hardship without even reward. A life where they had to wander searching for something to eat the next day, for meager power to protect their weak bodies, rather than the sorrow of loss.
But this place was different. In this world, they had healthy bodies and overwhelming power, inexhaustible wealth, and could obtain great rewards with just a little effort. It truly couldn't help but be a lovable world.
Cyrus seemed to feel the same thing as his face was bright. He lifted his pressed-down hat slightly upward.
"Mr. Hunter! You're Mr. Cyrus Hunter, right?"
Then, a young lady who had been standing near a nearby carriage approached at once. Though it was definitely their first meeting, she looked clearly happy to see them.
"Who...... ugh."
Cyrus, who was about to honestly ask who she was, stopped speaking due to sudden pain twisting his side. The lady, Louise Boyle, tilted her head and looked up at him with a flushed face.
"Oh, um. Don't you remember me?"
"......No, I do."
"That's a relief. It's been a while, Mr. Hunter. What brings you to Avondale? I wonder if you found what you were looking for safely. Where are you staying? If you haven't decided on lodging, how about our house? Father would be happy too. He enjoyed seeing the extraordinary inventions you brought."
It was completely incomprehensible. Daria looked at Cyrus with suspicious eyes. However, she couldn't find any lies on her brother's face, which was trying hard to hide his doubts with an expressionless look.
But she had said exactly 'Cyrus.' It didn't seem likely there would be two men with such a name, face, and build.
"Mr. Hunter?"
"......Ah. Yes."
"Are you alright?"
"He's not feeling well today. Don't mind it."
Daria said in an exaggeratedly kind voice. Cyrus made a disgusted face for a moment, then looked at Daria's expression and bowed his head.
"Come to think of it, you seem to have lost weight and your build seems smaller too, oh. I wasn't trying to evaluate you!"
"You didn't say anything."
"Yes, yes. But who are you?"
Louise Boyle looked back and forth between Cyrus and Daria with a perplexed face. It wasn't easy to find similarities between their faces.
"I'm late with introductions. I'm what Cyrus was 'looking for.'"
"Pardon?"
This woman doesn't know what that side's Cyrus was looking for. What was he looking for....... If she knew that, she felt like she could know the identity of that Cyrus fellow.
It wouldn't be a coincidence. That someone with the exact same appearance and name as Cyrus had appeared in this Avondale of all places.
She wanted to dig more about that person, but a lady presumed to be her mother called Louise from the carriage side.
"Louise! What are you doing there? We've bought everything we need, so let's go now."
"Yes, yes. Mother! It was nice meeting you, Mr. Hunter. And...... um."
Louise, who gave an awkward smile toward Daria who seemed to have no intention of revealing her name, added.
"Oh, if you came to see Lord Avondale, he's not here."
Oh ho, she even knows Count Avondale?
"......That guy doesn't seem likely to be on our side?"
After Louise's carriage disappeared, Daria, whose mood had soured, kicked Cyrus's shin. Cyrus silently rolled his eyes. He hadn't done anything, but was already being treated like a traitor for some reason.
"What kind of fellow could he be......."
"Think about it later. It's not like we'll get answers just by worrying about it."
That wasn't wrong either. Rather than holding onto questions without answers, it was more important to enter Glailly House before the sun set. If time got late, tourists would decrease too, and then outsiders' entry would be conspicuous.