After sharing the specifics with the duo, Lord Lucas left, just like that, leaving the duo still somewhat perplexed even though the man explained to them what he expected of them.

  After checking in case the man was standing outside the office, Anette, upon closing the door tightly behind her, asked, "... So if I get it right, he wants us to investigate the disappearance of a bunch of “working” girls? That's what he came here for?"

  "It seems," the Chairman replied, still in a daze but at least in a tone that was much more like his usual one rather than the tense one he spoke with the man earlier.

  "Did... did one of his favorite girls get abducted or something? Because I don't see another reason for which a noble like him would care about the disappearance of some working girl."

  "I don't know..." he admitted, "but does that actually matter? He said what he wanted and thrust his expectations on us."

  Remembering the man's words, words they couldn't even bring themselves to refuse or deflect, Anette sighed, "That sure he did."

  Upon explaining the situation at the establishment known as the Floravelle, or “the Garden,” as such places were commonly called, the man made it clear that he wanted them to investigate the case of the missing girls. It was an odd request. Members of the Inquisitor Regiae did not typically handle such matters; their work, as the name suggested, focused on hunting down threats to the peace of the continent, exterminating those who opposed the Crownlord families and the reigning kings.

  The Inquisitor Regiae’s specialty was just that: the hunt and the extermination. Intelligence work was naturally part of it, and that seemed to be what he expected of them now. Yet he said nothing about wanting them to eliminate whoever was responsible. To Anette, that omission felt strange, like walking into a tavern and asking the bartender for nothing more than a glass of water. In this case, they were the bartender, and he was the patron.

  Anette was left perplexed. Truthfully, it wasn't just the quest he put them on that left her perplexed, there was something much more, including the very identity of that man.

  "Boss, that man, who's he?"

  "Him? I don't know," he admitted, much to Anette's utter bafflement.

  "You don't know?!"

  "By your question, I assume you're asking what's his background, what family he belongs to, what he actually is. The truth is... I just don't know."

  "But... you've been exchanging letters with him, right?"

  "I have been, yes. So I know that he goes by Lord Lucas, but other than that I know nothing about him... except that he's someone high-ranking, for after all the one who put us in contact is a superior to mine, so trust me, that man is not your average high ranking noble."

  "That I could tell..."

  In the Land of Men, a hierarchy existed beyond the one officially established by the system. As in previous eras, at the bottom were the common people. Above them were the nobles, who held sway over the populace, and above the nobles were the Crownlord families, what in the One and Only Era would be called the royal and imperial families. At the very top, above even the Crownlord families and including the Crownlord himself, sat the Three Kings, the supreme authority.

  Yet one thing these kings had in common was their deliberate detachment from worldly affairs, leaving governance and enforcement to those below them. So, if she had to guess which category the man she had encountered belonged to, it had to be that one.

  "You think he's a Crownlord?"

  "He might b—no, he most likely is."

  "I'm familiar with the name of all the known Crownlords and I know not one that matches with him, so if he's a Crownlord, he has to be a hidden one."

  "A hidden Crownlord, huh? To think that I was discussing with someone like that in my letters."

  "You didn't mention something you shouldn't have, have you?"

  "Who do you take me for? Even though I didn't know who I was talking to, I knew that it was someone influential, so influential that a superior warned me to never displease him, so of course I didn't mention anything I shouldn't have nor hide what I shouldn't have, for I knew he'd find out about it. Proof of that is that he knew about you."

  "About me?" She frowned.

  "Do you think I would have just casually mentioned the existence of someone like you to the likes of him? He was the one to first mention your existence, which is why I had to tell him about you. Now that I think of it, he seems quite interested in you, be it in the letters or in person."

  These words made a shiver run down her back. Words like that might be taken positively by anyone else, some young lady might find herself flustered at the idea of having caught the interest of a Crownlord, basically a royal prince, but for someone like her, considering her background, it was absolutely ominous.

  "You're scaring me, old man," she sighed, adjusting her gloves.

  "I'm only stating the facts. Another fact is that he has expectations for you and for your brother, for the best or for the worst, so I can only recommend that you meet them."

  ***

  Right after Lord Lucas left the facility’s grounds, and following a thorough talk with the Chairman, Anette left the facility, went back up to her daytime post as a secretary of the local Wardenpost Guild, not to continue work but rather to make an announcement to the director, telling him that she would immediately take a temporary leave. The arrangement was swiftly made, since the director is, of course, aware of the existence of the facility, being, in fact, one of the core members of this regional section of the Inquisitorum Regiae. Preparations were immediately made to replace her, and by midday, as if she were out to get lunch, she left the guild, her next destination being, of course, her house.

  The first thing she did upon coming back to her home was cook what should have been her dinner, to make it her lunch instead. While cooking, her mind couldn't help but go back to everything Lord Lucas said, and that completely distracted her from what she was doing, so much so that she cut herself.

  "Tsk, why me? Why us, dammit."

  There is a certain thrill to being noticed by someone like him, that she must concede, but there's something horrifying about the way this is unfolding. "Could it be that this is happening because of my background... Chairman said it himself, that man knew of it? Could it be that he wants me to... No, that's too far-fetched, I'm overthinking this... Or am I? Arrgggh!"

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Tormented by her own mind, about half an hour later, she was done with cooking her lunch, left with a slightly overcooked meal that, at that point, she barely registered so much her mind was elsewhere. By the time she finished, her mind had come to a conclusion, or at the very least, an ersatz of a decision.

  "Come on, me, it's counterproductive to be so negative. What if the reason you were chosen for this is that he wants to put your skill to the test?"

  she rather not ask herself that question since it would just stress her out. "This has to be a test, one that I better ace."

  The Chairman had explained it to her: the reason she was put into contact with Lord Lucas in the first place had a lot to do with the Inquisitorum Regiae's fate.

  In recent decades, and felt even more strongly the past few years, was the loss of relevance of the Inquisitorum Regiae. The organisation is now a shadow of what it was at its inception. The Chairman being put in contact with Lord Lucas was an attempt to better the situation of the organisation, maybe not as a whole but at least on a regional scale.

  Unarguably, he is the one to blame for the situation she found herself in, but she could hardly blame him considering the initial intent. For many Inquisitors like herself, the organisation was their everything.

  "Yes, Anette, you better ace this. You have no other choice."

  Upon finishing making the dishes, she headed straight for her room, where in less than fifteen minutes she finished packing her things. Another five minutes later she had changed into a more journey-appropriate outfit, and much more comfortable gloves. Done with that, she exited her beloved home, which she was sad to leave behind.

  With the rise of the Adventurer Guild, however, a far more reliable service, this profession largely disappeared. “Extinct” might be too strong a word, though, since some still performed the same work as the old Handlers, albeit under different names.

  Anette, in the middle of the afternoon, was traveling with one of these people, someone who would see her safely to the Holy Capital, where she was needed.

  ***

  There were once seven kingdoms in the Land of Men during the fabled reign of Emperor Cleon the One and Only. His era, known as the One and Only Era, saw a continent divided not only by a frozen sea but by sovereignty.

  On one side of the great divide stood the kingdoms of Schwarz; formerly Graysteel kingdom, alongside Wiedenfeld, Waldow, and Eldoria. Across the parting sea lay Evermere, Radiance, and Dawnrealm. Each was governed by a king and a royal house sworn to Cleon’s dominion.

  These people, these kings, were not mere vassals, but high kings in their own right—such as King Desmond of the extinct Wei? family, remembered as one of the first of the Five Kings under Cleon. For centuries, these kings and the royal families attached to them remained unchanged. But as Cleon's reign approached a millennium, that came to an end. In the span of a couple of centuries, kings vanished or were deposed. In Waldow, for instance, King Alexander disappeared without warning, only to be swiftly replaced by Dorian, who would later shape the course of history.

  Following the collapse of Cleon’s rule, the world entered what is now known as the Era of Kings. This era was marked by the emergence of three towering figures: Queen Arianna, King Lance, and King Dorian. Under their leadership, the fragmented kingdoms were drawn into unity, stitched into a single realm with one capital and one ruling bloodline, born from the merger of two of the three royal families.

  Yet even in this newfound unity, the names of the old kingdoms did not vanish. They remained just like the names of towns, cities, and roads. The only thing that changed was the name of the imperial capital in the Kingdom of Eldoria, which is now the ruling ground not of the imperial family but of the Crownlord and the Crownlord families.

  Just as the formerly imperial capital, the Holy Capital stands in the territory still known to this day as the kingdom of Eldoria, a place that remains, to this day, one kingdom away from Leirden, where Anette began her journey.

  It has been sixteen days since she took an abrupt leave from her city, and in these sixteen days she had enough time to contemplate how hasty a decision this was. She was bored to death. She never had anything against traveling, she might even say that she liked it, but there was something about the way she was making this journey that she did not like, and that was how alone and unprepared she was.

  The scenery was breathtaking, but not enough to keep boredom at bay. She should have brought a book, but the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind while packing. To pass the time, she engaged in conversation with the driver and, to some extent, her escort, pseudo-handlers she had hired. Still, there was only so much one could discuss with strangers.

  Eventually, when conversation no longer sufficed, sleep became her refuge. She yawned, the sound lost amid the chatter of those guiding her carriage and the rhythmic clatter of wheels on the gravel road, just as she stirred from another nap.

  "How long did I manage to sleep this time," she wondered. She was someone with light sleep and had a very hard time sleeping when surrounded by just so much noise, as such, to sleep, she had to resort to a very special method.

  She looked at her hands: in one, gloved with a soft cotton fabric, was a small pocket mirror, and in the other, nothing, just her ungloved hand. She looked for the other glove, which she found to her left, and deftly donned it before tapping the floor with her foot to get the attention of the coach driving the carriage, the quartet she hired.

  "Where are we?"

  "We're on the road to Neton City."

  "We just skipped Hallenborn Town."

  Anette did not know where Hallenborn Town was, but she knew where Neton City was, and how far from her destination that settlement was. The thought made her wince, partly in pain, her butt started to hurt from sitting idly this long. But what could she do? Stop somewhere? She was in a hurry; she could not afford to do tourism.

  "Miss, the imperial capital is still three and a half days away. You still want us to skip the next settlement?"

  "We have no problem carrying this on, but I'm sure you wouldn't mind at least a bath and a short rest."

  They were right, she wouldn't mind that. In fact, she craved that, so much so that she would kill for it. Unfortunately, she couldn't do that.

  "Reaching the capital is my priority. Make sure I get there as fast as possible."

  "Alright then."

  "You paid, you're the boss."

  Just like that, the journey returned to its now familiarly monotone tone: the random chit-chat by the quartet, the sound of the gravel beneath the rattling carriage, and the rolling scenery outside the window. It went on for dozens of minutes as Anette glared emptily at the rolling scenery, waiting for another cortege to pass by. Counting them was a not-so-soporific way to pass time. It was while doing so that something caught her attention, so much so that with a tap of her foot she instructed the driver to stop the carriage as they reached the right spot.

  Coming out of the carriage to behold the sight in its full grandeur, she smiled. There, by the side of the road, was a lake, small and green like many in the region. There was not much special about that lake, at least in itself.

  "Whose property is that?" she asked the coachmen, pointing at the large white mansion across the pond. From the size of the property, she could only imagine it being the main residence of a noble, but what noble would live here? It's practically in the middle of nowhere.

  As someone part of the organisation known as the Inquisitorum Regiae, she couldn't help but think that this place would make the work so easy for people of her organization when carrying out their mission. With no one witnessing their inquisition, it would be smooth.

  "That place? Don’t know for sure."

  "I heard it belongs to a wealthy merchant."

  "A wealthy merchant? Not a noble?"

  "Yep, I know a guy who knew a guy who worked there, and he said the place was built by some very wealthy merchant. Apparently, it’s a place for him to relax when he wants to."

  "A vacation home?"

  "Ah yes, that’s what he called it."

  "Woah," she couldn’t help but muse in wonder. "How rich do you have to be to have a vacation home like that?" She dreamed of having a home like that. She wouldn’t mind living in the middle of nowhere like this if it were for having a house like this one. Such a grand property had always been her goal, but considering her pay, the only thing she could afford as a hard-working single woman with a teenage boy in her charge was her small home in Leirden.

  She was standing there, looking emptily at the mansion, when she saw children running across the house, a sight that, along with the appearance of a servant scolding them for reasons she could only imagine, brought Anette down a trip down memory lane, the sight of children playing in the front yard, running laps around the mansion, sunbathing on the grass, scolded for their antics.

  "Now that I think of it, it was like that back then too..."

  As the servant scolding them came to notice their presence, Anette gave a slight wave before walking back to her carriage where she announced, "Enough time wasted. The next time we stop, it better be the Holy Capital."

  "Yes, Ma'am."