[151]
Chris laid the man they had tried to kill flat and called Peter.
Meanwhile, Yuri, who had “conversed” with the Thorns Order Esper, summarized the content.
“He said they were ordered from above to kill that man. It seems they wanted to eliminate any traces that might remain here while they were at it.”
“Did he say nothing about the identity of the person in the sack?”
“He insisted he didn’t know.”
Yuri didn’t look like he believed it.
“The Thorns Order will become suspicious if the Esper they sent doesn’t return.”
“We’ll make it look like an unfortunate accident.”
Yuri calmly answered Chris’s question.
“Like they tried to set a fire… and things went wrong. First, we need to damage various parts of the factory. Make it look like they were trying to escape, knocked down a few pillars, hit the walls, and ended up crushed to death instead. And still set the fire.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to look for more clues?”
“According to the Esper… this place has already served its purpose and been abandoned.”
Yuri’s “conversations” with Espers required neither blood nor violence.
He simply supplied guiding energy indefinitely, then squeezed it away repeatedly.
The Esper, who repeatedly experienced liberation from pain as if for eternity, then fell from a cliff edge, couldn’t lie to Yuri.
Once someone viscerally feels that another holds their lifeline, they view that person not as a fellow human but as a godlike being.
They end up speaking only truth, to the extent they “know” it.
“He said all evidence and clues have been retrieved.”
Yuri muttered, pressing his temple gently.
Originally, it was Rosenhauser who began producing books with drug ingredients and distributing them in the Winter Continent.
They had learned by now that the Thorns Order’s leader might not operate exactly like his “father.”
“Thanks to their arrival, we haven’t come up empty-handed.”
Chris responded to Yuri’s words.
“Still, we should take that Esper with us and ask Fortuna to verify. He’s probably telling the truth, but there could be a gap between the ‘truth’ the Esper believes and the actual truth of the Thorns Order.”
“I never intended to leave him behind anyway.”
Unless they killed him and let his body burn.
“We should visit the printing house before going.”
Yuri said, looking at Chris.
“I heard there’s an attic there.”
“…”
“Since their mission was to burn down both the printing house and the paper mill before returning, we need to check that place one last time.”
“Ah.”
Chris opened his eyes slightly wider, then nodded.
“…Understood.”
He seemed to understand immediately without needing a long explanation.
Yuri recalled his interview with the Esper.
When asked what was hidden where, the Esper only said there was nothing, that he didn’t know.
Having recently learned from Fortuna how to break through a mental Esper’s prohibition, Yuri tried various roundabout questions.
That’s when an unexpected piece of information emerged about the printing house’s structure.
‘Apparently there’s a path that passes through the central beam when you move upward using a ladder, not stairs.’
And there was a small side door toward the roof, and when opened, a rope ladder would come down.
‘So even the most impressive mental Esper is still human after all.’
After establishing mental barriers even Fortuna couldn’t penetrate, they make such human mistakes.
‘I suppose they couldn’t completely erase the location without hindering mission execution.’
Thanks to this, Yuri could glimpse this space through the gap unintentionally created by the other party.
“First, the man in the sack seems to need medical attention. And that Esper… even though you temporarily suppressed his thoughts, there will be trouble as soon as he regains his senses.”
Chris had dealt with similar types of people before.
Not only would they refuse to admit defeat until truly beaten, but their aggressive nature meant they would attack as soon as they could stand on two legs.
As if answering Chris’s concerns, a door opened in midair.
“What the hell?”
Peter, who appeared, gaped at the chaos inside the paper mill.
“There was a battle.”
Yuri explained on Chris’s behalf.
“I can see that much.”
Peter rubbed his face.
He had expected a quick call. Since there wouldn’t be an infiltration plan like at the abandoned factory district, he thought they would just quickly survey and leave.
But he hadn’t expected such chaos in that short time.
“There was no one when I came. Seems other visitors arrived. At this point, is this some tourist attraction known among friends?”
“The scenery was quite memorable.”
Yuri quietly affirmed. It was too dry for a joke.
“I’d like you to treat this man. And there’s an Esper tied up in the next room. If possible, hand him over to Northern Light.”
“Is he dangerous?”
“Very dangerous. A member of the Thorns Order, no less.”
When he went to the adjacent room earlier, Yuri remembered the thorn vine tattoo crawling up the Esper’s wrist.
‘I don’t know when, how, or why, but everyone who’s part of the Thorns Order has one.’
‘What if someone appears with a similar tattoo claiming to be a secret agent?’
‘We need to verify whether they’re genuine or fake.’
After saying this, the Esper mumbled a few more incomprehensible words before fainting.
His fatigue was understandable—exhausted from combat thanks to Chris, then having his mind squeezed.
“Let them know he might be unresponsive and suffer from lethargy for a while, but absolutely not to lower their guard.”
“Lethargy?”
What had been done to the Esper to cause such a state?
“Repeated over-guiding and reverse-guiding.”
Peter’s face paled as he understood the contextual meaning of Yuri’s words.
“S-class Guides can do that?”
“It’s something I acquired out of necessity.”
Yuri glanced at Peter, who was gradually backing away.
Despite acting otherwise, he was quite timid.
Well, few Espers didn’t react sensitively to guiding. It was literally their lifeline.
Until now, Guides had passively provided guiding. Yuri might be the first case where guiding could be used for attack or interrogation.
“Well then. I’ll go do what I was told.”
“I’ll call you after we look around the printing house. We plan to set fire to the paper mill, so don’t come back here.”
Otherwise, he might fall into the middle of a fire.
Peter nodded seriously and withdrew.
After Peter took the man from the sack, Chris and Yuri thoroughly spread oil throughout the paper mill and set it on fire.
After confirming that all traces had been well erased, Chris spoke.
“Then let’s move directly to the printing house.”
It was time to move quickly.
The two soon arrived at the printing house after leaving the paper mill.
The building was full of machinery with narrow paths between them.
One wall was stacked with paper bound tightly with thread and completed books. The crumpled pages beneath the hardcovers indicated these books had been wet and then dried.
Chris strode toward the wall and grabbed the rusty ladder, shaking it.
“As expected…”
As feared, it made a creaking, chilling sound and rattled significantly when weight was applied.
Though one could somehow climb up there, it looked extremely unstable.
Looking around, Chris used scattered books to create visible stepping platforms.
After stacking them neatly like stairs, he extended his hand to Yuri.
“Since there are no handrails, you can hold onto me.”
Without hesitation, Yuri took his hand and stepped onto Chris’s makeshift stairs.
Since the width of these book stairs wasn’t very wide, Chris himself stepped not on the books but on the empty space beside them.
He stood stably in midair.
Despite being able to create invisible platforms, he deliberately marked them with books—specifically choosing ones that looked thick.
Yet he didn’t boast about it even once.
The corners of Yuri’s mouth turned up almost imperceptibly as he looked down, confirming the position of the book platforms as he climbed.
With each step upward, he felt an indescribable certainty.
Something existed beyond this. It was a kind of intuition.
But whatever the result, he felt he could handle it.
Just, that kind of feeling.
As the Esper had testified, there was a side door at the edge of the central beam that led up to the roof.
The door’s existence was barely visible due to the structure partially obscuring it.
When Chris reached out, the door opened by itself, and the rope ladder inside flowed down.
“Shall I hold it for you?”
“No.”
Fixing his gaze upward, Yuri grabbed the ladder.
Climbing up quickly, he reached the attic filled with only the smell of dry dust and paper.
Unlike the other spaces in the printing house and paper mill, which were in complete disarray, this place was quite neatly organized.
Especially on the desk were a book, fountain pen, and handkerchief, all arranged tidily.
Yuri paused, having discovered something.
“The initials…”
He found the letter “R” engraved on the fountain pen.
Though he thought it couldn’t be, when he opened the cap, the nib looked familiar.
‘The same size as what Rosenhauser frequently used.’
Yuri was newly surprised. He hadn’t expected to recognize it at a glance after all these years.
“It belongs to Rosenhauser.”
He spoke to Chris in a matter-of-fact tone. He didn’t want to assign special meaning to the information that naturally came to mind.
To further confirm his suspicion, Yuri carefully examined the interior of the room.
That obsessive organizational style, the handwriting in the journal on the desk, the medals and badges received from Northern Light.
All of these were unpleasantly familiar.
Finally, he had to acknowledge it.
Looking at Chris, Yuri’s lips moved.
“This place. It was Rosenhauser’s workspace.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
