Chapter 126: Fragrance
After half an hour later, which felt like an eternity that stretched endlessly under the dim sky, Kael finally reached near a two-storied modest wooden house that stood quietly at the far end of the narrow path. From the outside, it looked like an old house that had seen better days, but it carried a peculiar warmth. The front yard was filled with herbs and pots scattered unusually here and there, their fragrance mixing with the cool evening air, and a small stone border surrounded it like a fence trying to protect something precious within.
It was Celeste's house.
As Kael approached, just a few steps away from reaching the wooden porch, the old door creaked open suddenly, and several knights clad in silver armor stepped out one after another. The sound of their boots striking the wooden floor echoed faintly. The person leading them appeared to be a man in his late twenties, his black hair neatly arranged though streaked with several locks of white that caught the fading light. His sharp eyes carried a calm authority, and the instant they fell upon Kael, who was carrying a woman in his arms, a curious gaze slowly emerged across his face.
He stepped forward and spoke in a somber tone, "Are you here to take treatment from the cleric for your wife, young man?"
Kael sighed tiredly and shifted his grip slightly on Celeste before replying, "No. I'm here to deliver this woman to her actual owner. And she's definitely not my wife."
The man's expression changed slightly as if uncertain how to take those words, and after a brief moment of contemplation, he asked, "What do you mean by that? And what exactly happened to her?"
Kael's gaze hardened, his tone turning cold as he answered, "It's none of your business. But… don't worry, I'm just helping this poor girl. She's the daughter of the cleric."
Hearing that, the man gave a faint chuckle and nodded slightly, "I see."
They walked past him without another word, the knights following behind quietly. However, just as Kael passed the man, he stopped and looked over his shoulder. His eyes held a calm seriousness as he said, "I have a piece of news for you. There's a dungeon break that's going to happen soon."
The man and the other soldiers froze instantly, turning to look back at him in surprise, but before they could ask anything, Kael had already opened the door and stepped inside the house swiftly, not giving them any chance to speak. He wasn't in the mood to explain anything further and tried hard not to let his irritation rise for no reason.
Inside, the familiar scent of herbs filled the air. The interior looked just as he remembered from the last time he visited. At the far end of the room stood a long wooden desk backed by shelves that were neatly lined with jars, dried herbs, and small vials that shimmered in the light. Beside the desk was a window that let in a thin stream of sunlight, and on the other side stood a narrow staircase leading up to the second floor. A beautiful lamp hung quietly from the ceiling, bathing the space in a warm, golden glow.
Behind the desk stood Celeste's mother... Maeran. She was busy cutting herbs with delicate precision, but the moment her eyes caught sight of Kael carrying her daughter, her entire expression changed in alarm. She quickly ran around the desk toward him, her voice trembling slightly as she asked, "What happened to my child, young man?"
Kael shifted uncomfortably under her gaze and replied, "She was attacked by some monsters, so I… well, ran away with her. Don't worry, she's fine, just in deep sleep."
Maeran looked at her daughter carefully for a few long seconds, her eyes moving between Kael and Celeste, then without saying anything she turned toward the desk again. She took something small from one of the shelves and came back quickly. Kael stood there, watching her silently, not sure what she was about to do. Then, she opened Celeste's lips and poured a greenish liquid into her mouth with careful hands. Kael recognized it at once... it was herbal medicine, something he had seen plenty of times before.
After that, there was a long silence that seemed to stretch forever. Maeran kept looking at her daughter with deep worry while Kael, still holding Celeste in his arms, didn't know what exactly he should do. Wasn't she supposed to tell him to put her down? Wasn't she angry that he was holding her daughter so close?
Before he could even think further, Celeste suddenly blinked her eyes open. Her hazel eyes looked directly at him, then at her mother, then back at him again.
She blinked several more times, clearly trying to process what was happening, and then all of a sudden her whole face turned completely red. Without any warning, she buried her head against his chest, causing Kael to stagger slightly in surprise.
Her mother coughed softly to break the awkward moment and said, "Celeste… I think it's time you let go of the young man. He has carried you for so long in his hands, it must've hurt by now."
Celeste hesitated for a moment before slowly lifting her head, and Kael took that chance to let her down gently onto the floor. In truth, though, he felt a strange irritation bubbling inside him and almost wanted to throw her right then for creating such an embarrassing scene.
He was about to take a deep breath and regain his composure, but Celeste leaned forward again, her lips close enough for him to feel her breath against his ear. Her voice came out soft and teasing as she whispered, "You smell so nice, you know, Kael."
Kael froze instantly, blinking in disbelief. What was she even talking about? He did know that his body carried a pleasant scent because of the strange tattoo on his abdomen. It was one of the few good things about that mark... it gave his skin a sweet fragrance that didn't fade even after countless baths or scrubbing.
Still, saying something like that to a man right in front of her mother… where did she even find that kind of courage?
Maeran, however, didn't seem to react at all. She simply turned away quietly as if nothing had happened, continuing to arrange her herbs as though her daughter's words didn't exist at all.
After a while, she turned back to Kael and spoke in a calm, somber voice, "Would you like a cup of tea, Kael?"
Kael nodded quickly, perhaps a little too quickly, and replied, "Sure."
---
In the end, Kael had spent almost an entire hour out there without any real purpose. He had simply been explaining what happened after Celeste had saved him and how a Dungeon Break was bound to occur sooner or later. Celeste was the one who did most of the talking, speaking mostly to him, and throughout that time he never once heard her exchange a single word with her mother since their arrival. It almost felt as if there was something unresolved between them, something heavy that kept them apart even when they were standing in the same room.
"Must be a family problem," he thought quietly, though he did not dwell on it for long.
Still, what bothered him quietly was that Celeste never mentioned a single word about how she had almost sacrificed her life just to save him. He did not bring it up either, even though he felt a weight of guilt settling somewhere deep inside his chest. He was fine with silence but also felt terrible about it, but he did not wish to think too deeply about it... for now. There were too many things running through his mind, and above all, he needed to find a way to grow stronger as quickly as possible if he truly wished to kill the Queen one day.
Soon after, he found himself sitting in the middle of his bed, legs crossed and eyes closed, trying to calm his thoughts. Now that he was back in his mansion, he couldn't actually train with his sword or even touch any weapon since he was supposed to be the weakest adventurer alive. All he could do was imagine it.
He had already found the solid foundation for his own techniques. That was to refine his existing skills further... make his swings sharper, more unpredictable, more precise, and to add a kind of natural swiftness to every motion. But to achieve that, he needed to understand his flaws better. Thankfully, he had already found one while observing Effie during their fights. His attacks, though sharp, always began and ended with the same rhythm, and during those brief transitions his guard remained wide open. If someone sharp enough caught on to that, they could easily kill him with one swift strike. Even if he managed to block such a counterattack, his stance would crumble and he would end up in an awkward position, exposed and vulnerable.
"First of all, I have to make sure my attacks start and end with different rhythm, that way they will be much more unpredictable," he murmured.
However, to achieve that kind of fluidity, he had to train himself to handle different rhythms at once and learn how to strike in continuous motion without breaking flow. The former wasn't too hard for him to grasp, but the latter was definitely going to be a challenge, since he had absolutely no flexibility in his body at all.
"How does one even earn flexibility though? Should I ask Seraphina about that?" he wondered.
He thought about it for a moment, then quickly dismissed the idea since Seraphina was already doubting him even after everything he had explained to her in his own way. But he couldn't bring himself to blame her either. She was just doing her duty as a knight, unaware that she was walking closer and closer to the truth. Without realizing it, she was already standing on the edge of discovering the masked man's identity.
"Still… am I not just playing with her trust?" he thought bitterly. "But what else can I do? I can't just walk up to her and say, 'Hey, look, I'm the masked man.' She'd slap handcuffs on me right away and throw me into prison. Then I'd either spend the rest of my life behind bars or they'd just execute me, and all that dream of living a normal life would be completely ruined."
He ran a hand through his hair and let out a long, tired sigh.
"Actually, it's already ruined."
Nevertheless, he still needed to find a way to train his sword skills, though it was impossible to do that at night since Seraphina would definitely decide to keep an eye on him every second when they slept together from now on. He wouldn't even be surprised if she had already sent someone to spy on him. That meant real practice was out of the question, at least for the time being. So the only thing left for him was to train within his own mind, replaying battles and movements in imagination.
From this point on, everything between them would become a game of hide and seek, one not only between a criminal and a knight, but also between a husband and a wife.
He let out a small yawn.
"It's really going to be such a hassle now, not being able to turn into the masked man for a long time. But if he doesn't show up at all while Seraphina is watching me, she'll probably start suspecting me even more. So, what exactly can I do to stop that from happening?"
He thought about it for quite a while, his mind circling through countless possibilities, until at last, a rather amusing idea came to him.
A slow grin spread across his face as the plan took shape, and he couldn't help but laugh softly. "Ah, that would be just perfect. Why am I so damn good at planning things anyway?"
---
In the same time, Seraphina sat behind her desk, her pen moving swiftly across the pages as she signed her usual papers one after another. But her mind wasn't entirely there. It kept drifting back to what Kael had told her earlier. He was missing parts of his childhood memories, so that jump on the roof wasn't anything new he had learned recently but rather a movement his body remembered from the past even if his mind did not. That realization made her wonder deeply. If his body could still recall such movements, did that mean Kael wasn't as weak in his childhood as he believed himself to be now? It was true that he had always shown great potential, but potential alone could never be shaped without the right guidance, and no one had ever been there to teach him the path toward strength. But now, he had her. She was not only going to teach him sword techniques but also help him awaken the reflexes that had long been buried within him.
Before she could think any further, a sudden knock on the door pulled her from her thoughts.
She let out a quiet sigh, placed her pen aside, and said in a calm voice, "Enter."
The door opened, and Aldren stepped in, straight-backed as always, before offering her a formal salute. She had sent him earlier to investigate the past of the S-Ranked adventurer, Varin Eldrest, and to uncover anything useful about his life before coming to Velhart. The investigation had been moving slower than she preferred, especially now that Eska's personal case had been settled. Seraphina's main focus was to find the masked man responsible for Rowen's murder, a man she had nearly caught the previous night. Despite that failure, she had not given up. And now, with Caelum under arrest, Lieutenant Hermes no longer needed to humiliate himself with a public apology, which was something of a fortunate turn on his part.
Seraphina leaned slightly back in her chair and moved her pen between her fingers as she looked at Aldren. "You've had more than enough time, Aldren," she said with a composed but firm tone. "I hope you've learned something useful this time at least. Speak."
Aldren stood still for a moment, his face expressionless, before he finally replied, "Yes, ma'am. This time I personally visited the village where Varin once lived to find the cleric who treated his childhood friend before her death. But as it turned out, the cleric no longer lived there. She had moved to Velhart some years ago along with her daughters. So, after returning from the village, I sought her out here and was able to meet her in person. Her name is Maeran, and she is apparently quite a well-known cleric in Velhart."
Seraphina listened quietly, her expression calm and unreadable. It did not surprise her to hear that Maeran had come to Velhart. Many people had left their small villages behind and settled here, chasing better opportunities, higher pay, or safer lives within the city's walls.
Aldren continued in his steady, almost detached tone, "From her, I learned that Varin's childhood friend truly did lose her life to a curse, and a strange one at that. Maeran told me that she had done everything she could back then to save the girl, but her efforts had been in vain since she had no knowledge of what kind of curse it was at that time."
Seraphina raised an eyebrow slightly, her eyes narrowing in mild curiosity. "At that time?" she asked.
Aldren nodded at once, his tone even as he continued, "Yes, ma'am. The curse is known now, though it still appears rarely. It is called the Brand of Withering. Have you heard of it before, ma'am?"
Seraphina didn't reply at first. Instead, her gaze wandered across the piles of papers in front of her as if she was searching for something in particular among them. After a moment, she reached out, her fingers moving with precision as she pulled a single report from the stack. Her eyes scanned it carefully, and her expression grew sharper.
Noticing the sudden change in her demeanor, Aldren hesitated for a moment before asking with a hint of confusion, "Is something wrong with my report, ma'am?"
Seraphina finally lifted her eyes toward him, her tone steady and clear, "No. It's nothing wrong with your report. You see, in the morning there was a report of a kidnapping case involving a little girl named Arienne. A few weeks ago, that same girl had been suffering from the same curse until a so-called generous healer appeared and saved her from it. At least, that's how her father described the situation."
Of course, Seraphina had already realized who that so-called generous healer actually was, but she still could not understand why he was called generous when Kael had accepted payment for it without hesitation.
Aldren seemed to think for a while, his brow furrowing slightly before he spoke again, "You're not trying to say that the little girl's kidnapping is somehow connected to Varin's death, are you, ma'am?"
Seraphina tilted her head slightly, her voice calm yet thoughtful, "There's a great possibility between them, so yes, it may be connected. I've already assigned a few knights to begin searching for the girl or any clues that could lead us somewhere. The case will later be handled by Lieutenant Arwyn once she recovers from mana exhaustion. She needed a day's rest."
Aldren nodded after a pause, his expression a mixture of concern and fatigue, "Understood, ma'am."
Seraphina placed the paper aside neatly, then looked back at him, "Now, what else did you find there?"
Aldren answered evenly, "According to Maeran, there's no indication that Varin was killed because of past revenge or any similar matter. Nothing like that came up during the questioning."
Seraphina leaned back slightly and sighed. "No luck again, then."
Aldren gave a short nod, "Yes, ma'am. If things keep going this way, we might have to close the case in the end, I'm afraid."
Seraphina fell silent for a long moment, her fingers gently tapping the edge of the desk as if weighing his words carefully. When she finally spoke, her tone was quiet but resolute, "I know. But as long as the case remains open, we'll continue searching until we uncover the truth behind these murders. You see, we already know who the murderer is, but the only obstacle in our way is that we have no clue about his true identity."
Aldren shook his head, frustration flickering across his face, "Don't you have even a single clue that could be useful?"
Seraphina lowered her gaze for a moment in thought before replying, "I do. First, the masked man has been constantly saving Eska, which means he must be connected to her in some way. He even showed himself last night just to protect her. There's also the fact that he never lets his enemies escape alive, but last night he missed his kill because of a woman who called herself Queen, just as he had once failed before because of me. Even so, he eventually killed that knight later on. From this, it's safe to assume that he'll appear again, either to kill Effie when she resurfaces or to eliminate Queen as well. We already know who his current targets are, but if we can figure out what exactly he is trying to achieve through these killings, we might be able to predict his next move and set a proper trap for him."
Aldren thought over her words carefully before asking, "So, what do you want me to do?"
Seraphina's expression grew colder as she answered, "Find someone who shares a connection with all of the victims' pasts. That's precisely what you and the others have been doing... searching through their pasts, questioning anyone who might have held a grudge, or uncovering any piece of information that could lead to a link between them."
Aldren gave her a firm nod, "Yes, ma'am. I'll make sure not to disappoint you again."
With that said, Aldren turned around and quietly stepped out of the office, closing the door behind him.
Seraphina remained still for a moment, her gaze fixed on the door as silence filled the room once again. Eventually, she turned her head toward the window, her reflection faintly visible against the glass.
"The Brand of Withering, huh? Let's see just what kind of curse it truly is."
---
(Chapter Ended)
To be continued...