The choice of what would happen to the robber was mine from the start.
“U-urg…Cough. You punk… I was tryna do it the nice way…”
“So, you think you’re in a position to decide what should happen to me…”
“Do it!”
“What…?”
Something was wrong.
As soon as I looked back, I could see two people swinging clubs at me.
Fuck.
He wasn’t alone!
Those two were already too close to me for me to react.
-Whack!
***
When I regained consciousness, it felt like my head was about to crack open. I realized that I had been tied up. I was firmly bound to a chair with rope.
Shit.
Should I have just listened to him? But wasn’t it fucking stupid to let myself get robbed if I was strong enough to overpower a bastard like that?
I had made sure before that he was alone, and my perception wasn’t that low.
When did those guys arrive? Did I not notice them because of the rain’s noise?
The place they tied me up in seemed to be inside some building. I could see a faint light coming through the closed wooden windows; other than that, it was completely dark in there, so I couldn’t properly see what was in the room.
“Wake up.”
Then I heard the voice of a man sitting on a chair opposite of me in the darkness.
Judging by his voice alone, I was sure that he wasn’t the bastard I had just met in that alley. The guy was probably in his late twenties or early thirties. However, I couldn’t find out anymore.
“…”
“Even if you know how to fight, if you just swing around your fists recklessly, this is what happens.”
That was right.
I punched out because I didn’t want to get robbed but ended up getting beaten on the head and dragged to some unknown place.
I had to admit that I was too careless.
I was strong enough to tear apart the rope.
“Hmpf!”
-Creak! Creak!
“…You sure are causing a lot of trouble.”
However, the rope didn’t budge a single bit.
I was completely tied up, so I had no way to escape.
I wondered if I should tell him that things would not end up well for him if he touched me. Although it was true, there were also some stupid bastards that would just get angry and lash out as soon as they heard those kinds of words; there was a high possibility that the man before me was one such bastard.
I knew from experience that not everyone could be reasoned with.
Some would just get carried away by their emotions and let their fists fly. In fact, I had done the same thing.
Damn it.
The biggest problem was that all my belongings got stolen. While Sarkegaar’s ring that had invisibility magic cast on it wasn’t stolen, the Flame of Tuesday was gone—they probably wouldn’t be able to recognize its worth, as it was disguised as some rusty old pendant. If I had that with me, I could have just used those flames to get myself out of that situation.
Should I get it back somehow? No, that would be too suspicious.
He seemed to be examining my belongings spread out on a table. He examined my student ID in the weak light shining through the window.
“Temple Royal Class first year, the name’s Reinhardt…”
He read the text slowly, muttering a bit.
“If you’re Reinhardt, then you’re the guy the Rotary Gang sent to Temple, huh?”
“…How did you…?”
“What? Surprised that I know that?”
The man started chuckling in the darkness.
“There’s no way the Thieves’ Guild wouldn’t know what the Rotary Gang is up to, kid.”
What?
Did I touch the Thieves’ Guild and not some random street gang?
The Rotary Gang and the Thieves’ Guild enjoyed a somewhat symbiotic relationship.
With that in mind, I thought he might release me without any major incidents.
“I don’t like it.”
He started muttering some strange things.
“They should’ve just kept doing what they had always done, not trying to do this kind of bullshit. Sending some kid to Temple… Expanding their business… Now they are openly trying to get out of this.”
The Rotary Gang and the Thieves’ Guild shared a symbiotic relationship.
However, without the Thieves’ Guild’s support, the Rotary Gang wouldn’t be able to survive—their relationship was actually pretty hierarchical.
Loyar was doing everything she could to get out of that structure; after they actually managed to become self-reliant to some extent, she was trying to get out of the Thieves’ Guild’s control.
Soon, there would have been an open conflict between the Rotary Gang and the Thieves’ Guild.
I thought they would just ask for some ransom or something, but that wasn’t the case.
‘Shit.’
“As long as Irene’s Wild Dog disappears, the Gang will also disappear. I heard she isn’t usually that annoying to deal with, but recently she got really hard to control and get a hold of, so this is good.”
It seemed it was the worst possible scenario that I encountered someone of the Thieves’ Guild. I wasn’t fortunate at all.
I felt like that guy was smiling at me in the dark.
“You’ll be the bait to lure out that wild dog.”
They were trying to kill Loyar and disband the Rotary Gang.
I fucking screwed up.
How could I get out of there?
It was impossible to get out of my bindings, even if I used my power—the rope was tied too tightly.
If I had the Flame of Tuesday on me, I could have done something with its fire, but that was impossible.
If things continued, wouldn’t Loyar or Eleris come to investigate what was going on? I wasn’t completely sure if those two would come, but Sarkegaar would definitely barge in there, wouldn’t he?
Well, when I thought about my helpers, I felt somewhat relieved.
As long as those bastards didn’t aim for my life but Loyar’s, there was no reason for them to kill me. It would be dangerous if they actually managed to target her life.
On top of that, if my predictions were right and I wasn’t able to return to Temple after a certain amount of time, they would go crazy looking for me. Maybe Charlotte and Bertus would come forward and do something.
While Bertus might not do anything, Charlotte would definitely do everything in her power to find me.
“Huhu, the Master will definitely be pleased when I tell him.”
The guy was cutting his own throat without realizing it.
That was right.
It seemed like a rather tricky situation, but it wasn’t actually, right?
After I thought about it, being kidnapped by those guys wasn’t that bad; actually, it was a godsend. Wasn’t I actually pretty lucky that I ran into the Thieves’ Guild?
“Don’t be too scared, kid.”
I grinned at that man’s words.
Yeah, don’t get too scared later on as well.
Because you messed up big time, buddy.
***
* * *
* * *
Saturday passed and Sunday soon arrived.
-Shaaaaaaaa!
It was still raining. Harriet de Saint-Owan quietly looked out the window in the lobby of Class A’s first-year dormitory.
“Harriet, what are you doing?”
“Huh? Ah…”
Adelia, who majored in magic just like Harriet and was her best friend, asked her the question.
“Let’s go to the lab.”
“Huh? Oh, you go ahead. I’ll come by in a bit…”
“Yes, okay.”
Adelia walked off to the dormitory’s magic lab while Harriet continued to look out of the window with her brows furrowed.
‘Why isn’t he coming back?’
Reinhardt hadn’t returned to Temple since the previous day.
Of course, it wasn’t rare for students to be absent from Temple on the weekend. Bertus and Charlotte, for instance, who went back to the Imperial Palace on the weekend to work, and Liana de Grantz, who liked to spend her weekend in her mansion.
However, Reinhardt tended to remain in Temple over the weekend. Of course, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t go out at all.
Were there any other places for him to stay outside of the beggar colony under the bridge?
Seeing him rush out like that in that heavy rain, it seemed like he went to check on the colony. However, he couldn’t have spent a whole day there.
Harriet was staying in the lobby to wait for Reinhardt to return. She even pushed all her magic research tasks back.
‘What? This makes it seem like I actually worried for him.’
Harriet frowned at that thought. The moment she was about to go to the magic lab, saying that it was completely useless…
“Ah.”
Number A-2 Ellen came out of her room, making Harriet stop in her steps.
She clearly felt that the relationship between those two had drastically frozen over the days. While they didn’t really talk much together, they always seemed to be together, even eating together, but she had hardly even seen them in the same room recently.
It seemed like Ellen was one-sidedly ignoring him. Reinhardt always wore a complicated expression that was pretty hard to read.
‘Reinhardt, that filthy bastard, did something wrong again,’ Harriet thought.
However, every time she watched that scene, she felt really unpleasant.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes.”
Harriet called out to Ellen. She stopped to look at Harriet.
Every time she looked into those dark blue eyes, Harriet felt slightly nervous. Nothing really happened between those two, but Harriet was a little reserved towards Ellen; even a bit scared.
“You… What happened between you and Reinhardt?”
“…Why do you ask?”
She didn’t say that everything was fine between them but instead asked why she was curious about it.
“N-no, well, just because… That beggar keeps on making that unpleasant face. Also, he went out yesterday and didn’t come back… That’s all.”
“…He didn’t come back?”
“You didn’t know? He wasn’t there for breakfast.”
“Ah… I thought he just didn’t come down to eat.”
Ellen didn’t seem to know that Reinhardt had been gone since the previous day.
“I don’t really know what’s going on. He just suddenly left in a hurry yesterday and didn’t come back.”
“…I guess he’s probably at someone’s house,” Ellen said as if trying to toss out an answer.
“Would a beggar like him know someone with a house?”
“…It could be.”
Did Reinhardt have any acquaintances like that? Harriet didn’t think Reinhardt would know anyone who had a house, but she wasn’t sure.
Harriet, who openly despised beggars, didn’t even consider that thought.
Ellen, however, even questioned the fact that Reinhardt had always been a beggar.
Ellen eventually walked away without telling her what happened between her and Reinhardt.
She then abruptly turned around and headed towards the training room.
She didn’t have any specific place in mind, so she just went there, thinking that would be a good plan.
-Rattle
When she opened the door to the training room, Cliffman was there, alone, wielding a training sword. He noticed Ellen, stopped swinging his sword and looked at her.
Like Reinhardt, Ellen had never held a proper conversation with Cliffman before.
“I haven’t seen Reinhardt.”
Cliffman said as if he knew what she was thinking.
“…I didn’t say anything, though.”
When Ellen said that with some hesitation, Cliffman looked a little sullen.
“Huh. Well. Hm. Indeed.”
Pretending that she wasn’t concerned at all, Ellen shut the door to the training room.
Next, Ellen went to the dining room.
No one was there, of course.
“…”
Reinhardt, who suddenly left the previous night, had not returned.
Ellen stood absentmindedly in the dining room for a while and then eventually went back to her room.
‘He probably just went out for the weekend.’
–Ruuuuumble!
She didn’t really know where he would go while such a storm was raging on, but what else could it be?
And what did it have to do with her? She decided to place a lot of distance between them, after all.
It was weird that she was even concerned about it.
Ellen tried to stop thinking about Reinhardt.
***
Monday.
“I heard that No. 11 didn’t return yet,” Mr. Epinhauser said, looking at the empty seat in his classroom.
“It’s not like he didn’t manage to return on Monday; he’s completely absent…”
The children all looked towards Reinhardt’s empty seat. Even though he was seen as a troublemaker, he wasn’t the type to skip class. Although he was seen that way because of what happened at the start of the semester, his grades were actually excellent, and he did well in the group mission.
Reinhardt’s was a typical case of a person’s reputation getting completely ruined because of a terrible first impression.
Because of that, he still had a somewhat bad reputation.
“He didn’t even apply for an overnight stay, and it was reported that he only planned on going out for a bit, but he hasn’t returned yet… There must be a problem.”
Harriet’s complexion grew pale.
“Did anyone talk to No. 11 before he went away?”
“I-I did!”
Harriet de Saint-Owan raised her hand with an exhausted look on her face.
A-11, Reinhardt, went missing.
Harriet told Mr. Epinhauser that Reinhardt suddenly left when he heard that the Irene River might overflow.
At first, everyone didn’t think he actually went missing. They thought that he might have gotten into some trouble and couldn’t return to Temple for a bit. Anyone would have had that reaction as it was something that seemed plausible in Reinhardt’s case.
Of course, contrary to what the students thought, the teachers began to move a lot faster when confronted with a situation in which a student, especially one of Royal Class, might have gone missing.
The Temple Guards, as well as the Imperial Guards, were mobilized to launch a thorough search.
What people thought to be an easy case, or just a small incident, changed when Reinhardt didn’t show up until Wednesday. Everyone realized that something strange was going on.
Rumors circulated that he might have touched someone he shouldn’t have touched, knowing his temper. Most students thought that Reinhardt might have done that.
It wasn’t just the Guards being active.
“His name is Reinhardt; this is his basic information.”
Inside one of the mansions of the Imperial Palace, Bertus handed out Reinhardt’s photo to someone.
“Find him. His rough location is… Wenster market. Near the Bronze Gate Bridge.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Of course, don’t just look in that place; think for yourself.”
“Yes.”
The person that received Bertus’s orders then retreated.
“I can’t believe you actually went out in this kind of weather.”
Bertus sipped on his tea and smiled while looking out the window; he observed the pouring rain, his teacup remaining in his hand.
“Annoying bastard.”
–Shaaaaaa…
It was raining cats and dogs outside the window.
The same day, a different place.
“His name is Reinhardt; this is a picture of him.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
This time it was Charlotte who had given a picture of Reinhardt to someone. The person checked over the picture before placing it under his arm.
“Perhaps something happened when he went out, worried that his organization’s base might have become flooded. So, first, check around the Wenster Market.”
“Yes.”
“The fact that Temple’s employees aren’t finding him is because the tracking magic on his student ID isn’t working. Reinhardt obviously took it with him. That means the suspect is aware of the card’s functions. What I’m trying to say is that they aren’t ordinary hoodlums. It’s probably our best option to look for an organization rather than an individual.”
“Yes, Your Highness. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Please find him as soon as possible. He’s a precious friend to me.”
After the person got his instructions, they quickly stepped away. Charlotte seemed to be unable to hide her melancholy while sitting on her sofa, her chin placed on her hands.
“Sigh… It would have been nice if you just ran into some slight trouble, like usual.”
She mumbled that she wished that he hadn’t gotten kidnapped but rather just flipped some things upside down, like usual.
The Temple Guards and the Imperial Guards weren’t the only ones on the move.
The Imperial Prince and Princess also began to look for the missing Reinhardt.
