The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 14

Eurydice. The master of the Information Guild.

Very little is known about her.

Even the fact that she is the leader is a secret shared by only a few.

She appeared before me like an ordinary member of the organization.

Although she is the leader, she sometimes works as a member of the guild.

It just so happens to be one of those times.

I should treat her like an ordinary member.

“How did you know to come here?”

She asked, twisting her long, white hair with her fingers.

This is a place anyone can access if they know the code.

But not just anyone knows the code.

A person who has built a trustworthy relationship through the official and public business of the Information Guild.

A noble with renowned honor and reputation.

A person who makes substantial contributions.

Or someone recommended by an existing client.

I had already thought of a way to explain myself.

“Who might you be? Are you perhaps a young master from a noble family?”

Her purple eyes urged me for an answer.

Though the Information Guild is secretive, they always verify their clients’ identities.

This is because they believe reliable information can only be exchanged if both parties know who each other are.

Therefore, a client communicates exclusively with the first member they consulted with.

In my case, that would be Eurydice.

Secrecy is guaranteed.

Even as the guild master, she cannot easily access client information held by other members due to the strict and horizontal structure of the organization.

“I was recommended by someone I know.”

“Ah. You have a referral? Who might that be?”

Every client is given a code name to use when contacting the Information Guild.

And I know a code name that can be used in this situation to earn her trust.

“The Sun that Rises at Night.”

“…Ah. The Sun that Rises at Night… The Sun that Rises at Night…”

She repeated the phrase while flipping through her ledger.

Though she pretended to be pondering, she likely already knew the name.

Despite her calm demeanor, her fingertips trembled slightly.

I pretended not to notice and waited patiently.

“It seems you were indeed referred. Welcome.”

She smiled brightly.

To remain so composed after hearing that name…

‘She must not be an ordinary person…’

“The ‘Blind Star’ will be your consultant moving forward. Pleased to meet you.”

“I am Judas, a knight candidate from the Bevel family.”

Eurydice’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Then, are you a squire?”

“No, I am a former slave, fortunate enough to be training as one of the candidates.”

“Yes, you’re a former slave… I see. What kind of story have you come here for? Or is there something you want to sell?”

The Bevel family is shrouded in secrecy, but I know a lot about this world.

Including what will happen in the future.

Or perhaps, the location of the ‘Sun that Rises at Night’ that she is looking for.

“I need you to find someone for me.”

“Yes, I’m listening.”

Eurydice took out a piece of paper and a quill pen.

I had thought about how to say this every now and then since I came here.

Since I’m not good at lying, I had to think persistently for a long time.

To escape from the Bevel family, I need to establish a strong relationship of trust with the information guild.

They can help me in many ways.

The first step is to give Eurydice, the master of the information guild, the information she wants most.

And rewrite the future that was broken at the time of the game.

To do that, she must meet her husband, the Sun that Rises at Night, ‘Orpheus,’ who ran away with her.

Naturally.

“I am looking for a person named Eurydice.”

This is the method I chose.

The first step for Eurydice and Orpheus to meet naturally.

Eurydice did not change her expression even after hearing her real name.

“Eurydice… Do you have any other information besides the name?”

“She is around 26 years old. I heard she is married. And she is unintentionally separated from her husband.”

“………”

“Her surname is Crocus. It is presumed that she lived in the city-state of Elysium before. Since she is not someone I know personally, I don’t know her physical characteristics. In fact, ‘the Sun that Rises at Night’ wants to meet her.”

“…I see.”

Her expression did not change, but the hand holding the quill pen trembled slightly.

The writing she took down was oddly shaky.

She awkwardly laughed and made a joke.

“Ahaha… I drank last night and fell asleep, so my hand is trembling embarrassingly.”

It probably wasn’t a lie.

After Orpheus left.

No, to be precise, after she let Orpheus go due to a misunderstanding, she has relied on alcohol.

I waited for her to finish writing.

“And one more thing. If you find her, please tell that person named Eurydice that ‘I’m waiting in the desert’.”

Orpheus wants to go back to Eurydice.

But because of the misunderstandings and bad connections of the past, he thinks she hates him and lives as if he is dead.

Eurydice is also looking for Orpheus, wanting to meet him, but he has been running away so thoroughly that it is not easy.

To begin with, this world is different from the modern world I lived in.

To find a person, an enormous level of effort and time must be poured in.

Even then, the probability of failure is higher.

Even in modern times, in a vast land like the United States, one can relocate and change their name to wash their identity clean.

Moreover, in this world where electronic communication is underdeveloped, finding a hidden person is like picking stars from the sky.

Therefore, the method I chose is simple.

I reveal Orpheus’s location.

Let the two just meet.

After all, the bad blood between them is purely a misunderstanding.

They both know that now.

They just haven’t had the courage to face each other.

A minor misunderstanding will be quickly resolved once they meet.

‘As for my relationship with Orpheus, well, I can just make up a story. I’ve already thought of an excuse.’

The desert is the area where Orpheus lives around this time.

Eurydice should be able to pinpoint the area where he might be.

After writing everything down, she summarized the request once more.

“Is everything correct as stated?”

“Yes. It’s exactly the same.”

“Got it.”

After confirming, she burned the paper with a candle.

“The payment will be made after the information is verified. How would you like to receive it?”

Building trust with the information guild and ensuring Eurydice’s safe stay.

These purposes are all secondary.

The real purpose is separate.

“I want to create a private account.”

There are banks in this world too.

I just can’t use them with my current identity.

To leave the Principality of Bevel, I need money.

And a place to keep that money safe.

The information guild also handles hiding slush funds or laundering dirty money.

Naturally, they also provide exclusive accounts for clients.

This is the original purpose of coming here.

“That’s not difficult. How much are you going to deposit?”

I handed over all the remaining money.

Excluding the 1 Florin I paid upon entry, a total of…

“For now, um, 89 Florins… yes….”

My voice unknowingly became smaller.

The scale of money they handle must be different, but it’s just 89 Florins.

Not even 90 Florins, it’s embarrassingly 1 Florin short…

“…Pfft.”

Eurydice couldn’t hold back her laughter.

“Pfft! Ah, you really are young, aren’t you.”

“……….”

“Cute. Alright. Whatever the reason is, I don’t need to know the customer’s circumstances. I’ll take care of it.”

“Yes….”

“Oh, right. You said you were a squire of the Bevel family, right?”

“I’m not a squire, though.”

“Anyway. Then can you get that information for me?”

The information guild sometimes requests information from customers.

It’s up to the customer to comply or not.

“I’ve heard there’s a candidate for a Escort knight who recently caught Lady Eliza’s attention, but we don’t have any details on him yet.”

……What? A candidate? This one?

“Is it possible?”

“……”

He’s not some kind of charm.

Nor did he particularly catch Eliza’s attention….

“…That would be me.”

“What?”

“I didn’t introduce myself properly. I am Judas, the candidate for Lady Eliza’s Escort knight.”

***

Click.

The room Judas left.

Eurydice, now alone, stared blankly at the table.

The remnants of burnt paper and letters flickered before her eyes.

“Haa….”

She couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh.

‘I finally found it…’

The desert.

Eurydice had narrowed down a few likely desert locations where Orpheus might be.

She quickly prepared to leave.

She left secret messages only to those who knew her identity.

Along with orders to dig into Judas’s background.

It’s natural to trust the customer and not pry into their circumstances.

But as the head of the information guild, it was also her duty to find out information about the customer behind the scenes.

‘By the way, was he really looking for me too… really…?’

With a vague hope swelling in her chest, Eurydice set out to find her estranged husband.

***

Eurydice asked me all sorts of questions.

First, she verified that I was indeed Judas, the candidate for Eliza’s Escort knight.

After a few questions, she acknowledged it.

Being a woman who can discern lies, it must have been easy for her.

She asked about other things too.

How I became a candidate, and what my relationship with Eliza was.

I answered what I could and left.

I also asked her to arrange a way to contact me.

In the future, it was impossible to avoid Anna like today and come looking for her.

Before leaving, I unfolded the small piece of paper I received.

Written in code, it was a bank book.

My bank book, managed by the Information Guild.

At the top was my code name.

It was ‘Cruel Hedgehog’.

Code names are randomly created using unrelated words to the customers.

Below that was Eurydice’s code name.

As far as I remember, it’s ‘Blind Star’.

100 florins were deposited in the bank book.

Among them, 49 florins are my money, and 51 florins are my information fee.

So, the value of revealing my identity as Judas.

There were 40 florins left in my pocket.

I decided to contact her about the information fee for Orpheus through the contact book next time.

“…Oh. I remember now, I went out because I was going to buy a gift for Eliza.”

I thought about going to meet Anna and remembered belatedly.

“Please give me the best cookie set.”

I ordered from the cafe employee who guided me earlier.

Unlike before when they looked at me strangely, they became kind as if they recognized me as a real customer when I came out safely.

“That will be 30 florins.”

I hesitated as I took out the money.

30 florins for a cookie set?

12,000 won?

‘Expensive….’

I couldn’t cancel it.

In the end, I paid 30 florins.

I’ll make more money through the Information Guild, so it’s okay……

Today, I made money by telling my name.

I returned to the place where I had met Anna.

She was waiting, holding two red flowers wrapped in white paper.

“From now on.”

As soon as she spotted me, she said in a cold voice.

“I will never tolerate such a thing again.”

I was reckless.

I apologized sincerely.

“…I’m sorry.”

I had no choice because I had to arrange a meeting with the Information Guild today.

“Is your business finished?”

“Yes. Let’s go back now.”

I got on the carriage waiting at the entrance of the store street.

As I returned to Eliza’s mansion, I asked Anna.

“What kind of flower is that?”

“It’s an anemone flower.”

“Ah, I see. Could Anna possibly deliver it instead?”

“Gifts should be given in person to have meaning.”

“But… what if, like Anna earlier, the lady misunderstands? I don’t want to be executed for insulting a noble.”

Perhaps thinking it was a reasonable argument, Anna nodded.

“Understood. Then I will deliver it with the message that it is a gift from you.”

“That should be sufficient.”

But the flowers were not delivered right away.

When Anna went to deliver them, Eliza was busy with someone else.

“They say the Duchess came to visit while we were out.”

Narcissa de Bevel.

Probably Eliza’s mother.

The bruise on Eliza’s wrist came to mind again.

‘No… it couldn’t be.’

I know too little about the Bevel family.

I should have asked or commissioned Eurydice.

Who Narcissa is. Or what the Bevel family is like.

‘Since I’m leaving here anyway, what does it matter.’

But it was hard to suppress the curiosity.

Eliza did not come to see the moon deer that night.

After a hearty dinner, I came to the stable alone.

The stable keeper happened to be cleaning.

“Oh, it’s you, Judas!”

He greeted me warmly when he spotted me.

But before anything else, the deer approached aggressively and butted its head against me.

I greeted him while petting the deer.

“Hello. By the way, I still don’t know your name. Could you tell me?”

“Hmm? Ha-ha, you talk like a cultured old man, just like the young lady. I’m Bradley.”

“Mr. Bradley, I’ll remember that.”

After that, Bradley chattered on with trivial talk.

About how well-behaved the deer was, being a clever animal that ate anything without discrimination.

About how the knight dispatched from the main house was grumbling, and how noisy Mrs. Narcissa was whenever she came. And so on.

I took care of the deer while making appropriate responses.

A scene kept resurfacing in my mind, repeatedly sinking and resurfacing.

The bruise, blue and red, on Eliza’s wrist.

Like mold on a wall, it wouldn’t easily fade away.

What could it be? That.

Tap, tap.

The deer touched me.

“Why?”

Now that I think about it, it was nudging me slightly with its antlers.

As if telling me to touch its horns.

The horns of the moon deer are a special and sensitive area, so you shouldn’t touch them carelessly.

This behavior means that the moon deer has completely acknowledged me as its own.

While Bradley was bringing hay, I cautiously touched the horns.

A hard and cold sensation.

Smooth.

Even when I gently stroked it, the moon deer was quiet.

A refreshing energy flowed through my hand and into my body.

‘What is this…?’

At that moment, a notification arrived.

[Hidden Quest, ‘First Moon Deer Raiser’ completed.]

This wasn’t there in the game.

Maybe because it’s not the ‘first’?

[Reward available.]

It’s not a choice but a reward.

Seems like there’s one fixed reward.

‘What are they going to give me?’

And upon seeing the reward, I cursed at the development.

“Crazy….”

They’re giving me something this good?

***

A spacious room adorned with golden chandeliers.

Under the crystal-like lights, the shadow of a girl swayed.

A larger shadow roughly grabbed the girl by her hair.

Thwack!

With the swing of the shadow’s hand, a solid sound echoed.

The girl fell roughly.

“Get up!”

A woman’s voice sharply pierced the girl.

“Sitting on the floor and showing your ankles? Do you think you’re inheriting the blood of a lowly woman that you proudly expose yourself?”

Despite the blatant insult, the girl didn’t change her expression.

Messy black hair.

Beneath it, her red eyes stared straight at the woman.

The girl, Eliza, stood up with a composed attitude.

Without taking her eyes off Lady Narcissa.