Chapter 93

"Ah, damn it! Where did Zweig and Cecil go!"

Oscar said this in frustration.

It had been over ten hours since Cecilia and Zweig disappeared, and Gilbert, Oscar, Ain, and Grace were searching for them.

The darkness outside was now turning white, and the sun was about to rise.

"Anyway, we haven't searched the south yet. Let's go there."

Gilbert, with cold sweat on his forehead, pointed to the south while still breathing heavily.

Grace, with sweat sliding down her face, raised her voice.

"Ain, is there any other place you can think of?"

"There's no way! If there was, I would have told you long ago!"

About an hour earlier, Leen had also been searching for the two, but she had a duty to "greet the dawn of the main day of the Spirit Summoning Festival with prayers." Modred had come to take her to the venue, and although she was worried about Cecil and had resisted until the end, she was persuaded with the argument that "if the miko candidate skips this important duty, it will become a responsibility issue for Cecil if he is found," and she reluctantly complied.

Gilbert ran alongside Grace and lowered his voice.

"Do you really not know where they are!?"

"Zweig's bad ending location is random. I've been to a few places where I saw the ending, but he wasn't there. Besides, I'm not even sure if this is a bad ending..."

There seems to be a significant gap between the bad ending scenarios Grace knows and the current situation. The Spirit Summoning Festival didn't even have a stage planned, so there was no story about being kidnapped from the dressing room, and the branching point for the bad ending was supposed to be later.

In other words, the ripple effect of the altered fate was now manifesting here.

After about an hour, even as people began to appear on the main street, the two were still not found. They had searched all the places they could think of, but found no trace.

Their legs, which had been running all night, felt like sticks, and even Oscar, who had the most stamina, was showing signs of fatigue.

Ain bowed to everyone.

"Everyone, I'm really sorry! I noticed that Zweig had been acting strange recently..."

Apparently, Zweig had started acting strangely about three days ago. When he returned from a walk with Cecil, he was immediately questioned by his partner, "Who did you go with, and where did you go?" Since there was nothing to hide, he told the truth, but for some reason, he became very angry. He then pleaded with Ain to "please stop spending time with Cecil."

"At the time, I thought he was just tired. But now that I think about it, he had a troubled look on his face and seemed strange."

He bowed again, saying, "I'm sorry!" Oscar, after looking at him, lightly patted his back.

"Regret comes later. Right now, we need to focus on finding them."

"Since there are more people around, let's split into those who will ask around and those who will search on foot."

Gilbert changed the stagnant atmosphere with these words.

"Yeah. And we should start preparing to send out our troops."

"...Right."

Oscar's words made Gilbert nod solemnly.

Sending out troops from the country meant revealing that Cecil was actually Cecilia. It was impossible to send troops just because a baron's son and his friend had gone missing for a night. But if it was under the pretext of "the crown prince's fiancée has gone missing," there would be no problem.

"Hello."

At that moment, a voice was directed at Ain's back. When he turned around, there was a young man with a calm smile. His hair, peeking out from under a deep hood, was brown, and his eyes were a deep amethyst color. Behind him was a young man with long black hair, following him.

(Amethyst eyes?)

As soon as he saw him, Gilbert's brow furrowed. His eye color was rare in this area. In the neighboring country of Norlach, it was a common color, but such a deep amethyst color was rare unless you were royalty.

(Could it be...?)

An unpleasant premonition crossed his mind. He had heard that the third prince of that country had a wandering habit and traveled incognito to various places. According to the stories, his hair was white like new snow, but the color of hair could be changed easily.

(If it is him...)

"Thank you for your help the other day."

The man with amethyst eyes smiled at Ain.

It seemed they knew each other.

"Are you looking for something?"

"You, you know about him, right! Listen, Cecil—"

"Ain!"

"Ain, he's no good."

Oscar stopped Ain, covering Gilbert's voice. He pulled Ain back and stood in front of the man with amethyst eyes.

"What are you doing here, Prince Janis?"

"Huh?"

Ain, surprised, stood next to Gilbert, who had a troubled expression.

Even Gilbert, who had never been involved in diplomacy, had often heard the bad reputation of Prince Janis. Stories of him beheading a minister who embezzled the country's funds on the spot, playfully cutting off the arm of a princess who came to marry him, and telling a father who had lost his child that "the one who killed your child is him" and making an innocent person kill him. The only things he heard after his name were such unbearable scandals.

Mentioning Cecil's name to him would be dangerous in many ways.

"Well, it seems even in disguise, Your Highness can't hide. I'm just sightseeing. The Spirit Summoning Festival of Prospera Kingdom is famous, you know."

"Without much of a guard?"

"I'm not like Your Highness, just the third prince who isn't particularly expected. This is fine for me."

Prince Janis shrugged with a smile that seemed to have never killed a bug.

"By the way, have you been looking for something?"

"It's none of your business."

"Is that so? That's a shame. I thought I could help."

He laughed without a hint of disappointment.

(I don't have time to be held up here...)

While watching the exchange between Janis and Oscar, Gilbert clenched his teeth. Even if this wasn't Zweig's bad ending, they needed to find the two immediately to prevent the worst-case scenario.

Just as he was about to take a step to search on his own, he noticed Grace's state.

"Could it be..."

"What's wrong, Grace?"

When he called out to the trembling Grace, she gripped the hem of Gilbert's clothes tightly.

"Leen might be in danger!"

"Huh?"

As Gilbert asked, Prince Janis in front of them said, "Ah, yes, yes," in a cheerful voice.

"A little while ago, there was some commotion over there. It might be near where the miko is reciting the prayers. Why don't you all go check it out? You might see something interesting."

At his words, Grace's face showed panic, and she immediately started running.

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