Satin slowly opened his eyes when Cain didn’t say anything.
Mustache, who had been binding Satin until just now, was slumped on the floor, looking at the wall where the dagger was embedded. Cain must have thrown the dagger, but Satin couldn’t understand why Mustache was so scared. It hadn’t even hit him.
‘No, wait.’
Looking closely, Satin noticed that Mustache’s whiskers were uneven. Unless he had used telekinesis to shave, it must have been Cain’s handiwork. While Satin had his eyes closed, Mustache seemed to have narrowly escaped a life-or-death situation.
‘Whether it was truly a crisis or if Cain let him off easy, I don’t know.’
While Cain untied the ropes binding Satin’s hands and feet, Mustache didn’t budge. He seemed to have realized that he wasn’t dealing with someone he could easily overpower. If he had known that sooner, his mustache wouldn’t be uneven now.
As Satin felt unnecessary pity, Cain stared silently at the unconscious curly hair and the dumbfounded Mustache. Satin glanced at the door and cautiously asked, “What are you going to do now, Ke-cough!”
He had tried to say Cain’s name, but the smoke made him cough.
It was time to get out of here. The flames that had climbed the walls had already reached the ceiling. The starting point wasn’t just this room. Even before Cain appeared, the outside was already on fire.
If things continued like this, the inn might burn down completely. If he was unlucky, he could get trapped inside the fire. The sounds of people evacuating had also disappeared sometime ago.
“Let’s go.”
Suddenly, Cain turned around with a refreshed expression. Satin, uttering an “uh-oh,” left the room first. Cain seemed about to follow but stopped.
“Why?”
“I have to close the door.”
Cain chuckled and closed the Object Room door. Flames erupted in an instant from the door that had been intact just moments ago.
It wasn’t fire that had spread from the walls. Satin had clearly witnessed white light gathering around Cain.
“Let’s go now.”
“Ah….”
Satin, pulled by Cain’s hand, glanced back as they ran down the hallway.
Unless someone had incredible fire resistance, there would be no way to get out through that door. They might be able to get out after the door burned down, but by then, everything else would be on fire too.
Could he just leave people in that inferno? Satin hesitated for a moment before turning his head.
‘They’re bad guys anyway.’
***
Being confined to the narrow Object Room the entire time, Satin didn’t know the exact situation outside. He had only vaguely guessed that things were chaotic.
Stepping outside, he saw that it was indeed a scene of pandemonium. However, it wasn’t as bad as Satin had imagined.
‘At this rate, they’ll get it under control soon, won’t they?’
The fire hadn’t been completely extinguished yet, but it seemed like only a matter of time. While nearby residents and firefighters carried water to put out the fire, employees and guests escaped through windows that weren’t on fire. There were no seriously injured people; only a few with minor injuries were occasionally seen.
‘They seem to have a pretty strong sense of civic duty.’
The soot-covered people didn’t push each other even as they shouted. Satin was impressed by their civic-mindedness, which was better than that of some developed countries.
Of course, not everyone could be sensible, so there were some who stubbornly insisted on doing foolish things. For example, trying to retrieve valuables.
The Temple Knights were also stubbornly arguing, but it wasn’t about valuables.
“Our esteemed guest hasn’t come out yet!”
“Hey, I’m telling you it’s dangerous to go in there now!”
“I must save them even if it costs me my life!”
“No, you might just lose your life and still not save them!”
People who had come out to watch the fire grabbed the Temple Knights to prevent them from going in. They were strangers, but they couldn’t just stand by and watch someone jump into the flames right in front of them.
Satin quickly stepped forward so they wouldn’t have to struggle any further.
“I’m here. I got out safely.”
Before Satin could even finish speaking, the Temple Knights rushed over and knelt down.
“Satin-nim!”
“You’re safe!”
“We were worried!”
They were practically about to prostrate themselves. Satin was taken aback and froze, while the people around them stepped back in surprise. Suddenly, Satin understood how someone must feel when receiving a public proposal from an unwelcome admirer.
“Instead of this, why don’t we move somewhere else?”
“Yes, we’ve already moved the horses and carriage to safety!”
“No, when did you… yes. Good job.”
Without saying much, Satin simply followed the Temple Knights to where they said the carriage was. For some reason, Cain was looking at the Temple Knights with displeasure, which bothered Satin, but he decided to ask about it later.
The horses and carriage were a block away from the burning inn. As soon as they heard about the fire, the Temple Knights had apparently divided their tasks with remarkable efficiency. Two were to move the luggage and carriage, and two were to go get Satin.
The Temple Knights, having only succeeded in half of their planned task, were deeply disheartened.
“We have no excuse. We didn’t even realize that Satin-nim had disappeared.”
“We are truly without excuse!”
“This is all our fault!”
“We deserve to go to hell!”
Those kidnappers were also talking about hell earlier. Is hell the trend these days? If he left them be, he didn’t know how far they would go, so Satin hurriedly waved his hands.
“No, why would you go to hell for something like this? I’m fine, so everyone please raise your heads.”
“We’re so relieved that you’re safe.”
“But that was a very strange fire. It was as if someone was controlling it. It spread so strangely…”
Listening to the Temple Knights’ story, Satin recalled something that had happened a while ago. When he was staying at the state guest house, Satin had secretly escaped and returned, and Cain had said with a smile,
「If I couldn’t find you by the end of the day, I was planning to set this place on fire.」
He had tried hard to believe it was a joke, but he already knew it wasn’t. If Cain hadn’t found Satin then, he might have really set the place on fire.
‘And he really did set it on fire this time…’
This time, Satin hadn’t run away on his own, but there was no way for Cain to know that. Even if Cain was furious thinking he had run away again, there was nothing Satin could do.
While the Temple Knights were whispering among themselves with serious expressions, Satin subtly observed Cain’s reaction. Cain, with a nonchalant expression as if he were listening to a completely unrelated story, said to the Temple Knights, “Unless you plan to stay here all night, shouldn’t we find another lodging?”
“Ah, that’s right. You two, please get in the carriage quickly. In case this inn was fully booked, we also looked into other inns!”
The Temple Knights had excellent resilience. They were already shouting energetically, as if they didn’t care about the fire at the inn anymore. Satin had thought they were more devout than Edward, but now they seemed to have a somewhat twisted kind of devotion.
Before getting into the carriage, Satin asked with a hopeful feeling, “Shouldn’t we help any injured people?”
“We have other duties at the moment. More importantly, it is our urgent task to escort Satin-nim and your friend safely back to your residence. Please get in the carriage quickly!”
“Yes…”
Satin got into the carriage, and Cain, who followed, slammed the door shut.
The carriage started immediately without hesitation. Perhaps because people were gathered at the fire scene, the carriage moved slowly. Thanks to this, Satin was able to talk leisurely with Cain.
‘The expression ‘leisurely’ doesn’t really fit this situation, though…’
Anyway, he had to be careful. They wouldn’t be in the carriage for long, and if he brought up a serious topic now, it would be awkwardly cut short. He had to fill the time with unimportant talk.
Fortunately, there were plenty of suitable topics. Hadn’t he just been kidnapped? Satin casually brought up the topic, pretending to be purely curious. “How did you know where I was?”
Cain crossed his arms with a sullen look and replied, “I went to the first floor, and they said you hadn’t been there, so I searched the upper floors. If you hadn’t gone down the stairs, you must have been somewhere upstairs.”
“What if I had sneaked out without the staff knowing?”
“The room we rented was the most expensive one in that inn. I would have recognized you even if you were wearing rags.”
“Ah…”
Cain explained how he had found Satin, like a famous detective in the latter part of a mystery novel.
“While I was trying to find you from the top, I thought you might slip away while I wasn’t looking.”
“So you searched from the bottom?”
“I only checked the bathroom and went straight up to the second floor. It just so happened that those guys were staying on the second floor, so I went to find them.”
The ‘those guys’ Cain was referring to were the Temple Knights. In the Dark Age, Cain had admired the Temple Knights, but the Cain in this reality referred to them dismissively. He had truly become someone who would even badmouth the king behind his back.
‘Life is truly unpredictable.’
Satin nodded.
“So?”
“While I was talking to those guys, a weirdo was bustling around.”
“A weirdo?”
“You know, the guy with the mustache. That bastard who grabbed you earlier. He looked suspicious as hell.”
Cain’s expression as he pronounced ‘that bastard’ was terrifying. Satin quickly changed the subject.
“So you came after that person?”
“No, I lost him.”
“Ah…”
As Satin let out a deflated sigh, Cain chuckled. Seeing that expression, Satin realized there was no need for him to feel dejected. After all, this heroic tale had a conclusion he already knew.
“Why bother going to look for that guy? If we set fire, he’ll come running out on his own.”
“No, this isn’t raccoon hunting. What is that?”
“Well, he did come out, didn’t he?”
“What if innocent people get hurt in the process?”
“I hadn’t thought about that part. I’ll consider it next time.”
Satin couldn’t tell if he was being sincere or just saying it to sound good.
‘No, that doesn’t even sound good, does it?’
Satin frowned, but Cain smiled nonchalantly. Satin could only sigh. It was in the past. It was safe to assume that something like that wouldn’t happen again.
“Something like that won’t happen again. Why would anyone kidnap me again?”
“Who knows.”
