Chapter 95

The carriage carrying the Longsoniere agent turned right and disappeared at the far end of Blondin Street.

Arriving at the same spot moments later, I didn’t follow the carriage. Instead, I brought my horse to a halt and closed my eyes.

As I focused my mind, a map of this city, the royal capital of Lambart, formed in my head.

I marked a dot on the map, then drew a line.

The dot was my current location.

The line represented the escape route of the Longsoniere agent.

It was easy for me to predict which path the carriage would take.

Even though Lambart has thousands of twisting roads, the routes a carriage can take are limited.

The carriage would turn two more times and inevitably pass over a specific bridge.

I decided to take a shortcut and get to that location ahead of him.

So, instead of turning right at the end of Blondin Street to follow the carriage, I nudged the horse forward, keeping it on a straight course.

From Elizabeth, I felt a wave of intense confusion.

Ahead of us was a small railing, and beyond it, a neighborhood on lower ground.

In other words, a cliff.

As the terrified Elizabeth tried to stop, I used magic again to calm her and sent a mental image.

Our landing point: the roof of the nearest three-story building.

The gap would be bridged with the help of telekinetic magic.

That was the true nature of the shortcut.

Clomp, clomp, clap!

Finally, Elizabeth kicked off the ground with force.

Raising her front legs, she vaulted over the railing.

I squeezed my legs tightly to avoid falling off, and a moment later, the residents of Tionville, located south of Blondin Street, witnessed a sight they would likely never see again in their lifetimes.

A horse flying through the air.

***

Nathan, a first-class agent of Longsoniere, was trying for the ninth time to calm his racing heart.

And for the ninth time, he failed.

Fear, suffocation, and a creeping sense of doom turned into cold sweat that trickled down his back.

Unable to bear it any longer, Nathan stuck his head out the window once more—

And once again, he couldn’t spot the pursuer trailing their carriage.

Yet, that didn’t ease his mind.

He remembered clearly:

The man in the black coat had been on horseback the last time he saw him.

Nice Goodman!

The mysterious mage who had suddenly appeared one day in the royal capital and reduced the thieves’ guild courtyard to ashes—

That man was now chasing Nathan.

The reason was likely the Caraphine.

It can’t be anything else. The moment Turner and I split up, he came straight after me. He knows I’m the one carrying the Caraphine.

Nathan gently touched the leather bag containing the Caraphine rods.

Questions flickered through his mind.

But how did he figure out I was the one carrying it? More than that…how did he even find out about the Caraphine deal going down at the theater today? That was top-secret information known to almost no one, even inside Longsoniere.

In truly critical missions, even within Longsoniere, information was tightly isolated.

Only Commander Sakis Lubas who was the one who planned and approved the mission and a few people hand-picked to carry it out would know the full details.

But Nice Goodman had clearly caught on to the operation and appeared at the theater.

He had tried to ambush Nathan and Turner as they exchanged the Caraphine bag.

If not for a certain woman seated in the back row who recognized him and even shouted out his name, Nathan might never have known that Nice Goodman was in the theater at all.

Nice Goodman was a high-priority surveillance target for Longsoniere, so the moment Nathan heard his name, he immediately made his escape.

He set fire to the theater and slipped away in the crowd.

It was one of the techniques he’d been trained in. It was particularly effective when facing a mage.

After escaping the theater, Nathan had attempted to observe Nice Goodman in hopes of gathering more intel on him—

But that was a mistake.

The man had spotted Nathan hiding among the crowd with pinpoint accuracy.

And then he attacked.

Idiot… It only hit the carriage by chance. If it had hit me instead and the Caraphine exploded, what was he planning to do then? Wait, did he miss on purpose? Or… does he not know I’m the one carrying the Caraphine?

Nathan was confused.

There was nothing he could be certain of right now.

Still, once he returned to Longsoniere headquarters and reported everything, the wise Mr. Sakis would surely provide a clear explanation, so he wasn’t too worried.

Right now, the best course of action was to get away from here as fast as possible.

Nathan urged the coachman forward.

“Can’t you go any faster? I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

“Tch… What’s got a young man like you so riled up, huh? I haven’t had a passenger this pushy since the groom who was late to his own wedding. Is that what this is? You late to a wedding?”

Nathan gave a vague reply.

“Yeah, something like that. Anyway, I’d really appreciate it if you’d hurry.”

“What if we get into an accident? This area’s full of foot traffic. We have to drive carefully, you know!”

“I’ll pay four times the fare. Will that do?”

The coachman didn’t answer with words. He simply grabbed his whip.

A sharp “Hyah!” followed.

Once again, Nathan anxiously glanced behind the carriage.

Still no sign of a pursuer.

The carriage was now crossing the bridge, and if they made it to the next district, the safe house Longsoniere had prepared would be waiting.

He would stash the Caraphine there first, then go report to the commander.

That was his plan—

Until it was interrupted.

A string of curses erupted from the coachman’s seat.

“Damn it! Can’t you see a carriage is coming through? What the hell are you doing, blocking the bridge like that? Get outta the way!”

Nathan, who had been leaning out the window, turned his head to look toward the front of the carriage—

And his face went pale.

In the middle of the bridge….just wide enough for two carriages to pass side by side—

There stood a shabby-looking horse blocking the way.

Atop it sat a rider clad in jet black.

Nathan gasped in horror.

“Nice Goodman!”

How he had managed to catch up, or how he’d gotten ahead….it didn’t matter.

Nathan immediately grabbed the bag containing the Caraphine and flung himself off the carriage.

He hit the ground rolling, then bolted in the opposite direction.

Clatter-clatter-clatter!

Nice Goodman’s horse sprang into pursuit.

But no man can outrun a horse.

Realizing he would be caught, Nathan’s face twisted in desperation as he frantically scanned his surroundings for a way out.

Then, as if making up his mind, Nathan gripped the bag containing the Caraphine with both hands—

And used centrifugal force to hurl it away.

Immediately after, he threw himself off the bridge.

A river flowed beneath it.

The wind whipped around him.

The fall lasted only a second.

Splash!

Nathan plunged deep into the water, and a few moments later, surfaced with a gasp. A rush of triumphant exhilaration surged through him.

I finally lost him!

Looking up, he saw the man still standing atop the bridge.

Of course. As if he’d actually jump down here.

The drop from the bridge to the river was quite high.

It was no surprise he hadn’t followed. Only someone with nerves of steel would dare a dive like that.

There was also the risk of injury; even Nathan wouldn’t have attempted it unless he’d been cornered.

If he tries to descend using flight magic, I’ll shoot him right out of the sky.

With that thought, Nathan reached for the dagger tucked into his clothes.

Perhaps sensing that Nathan was prepared, Nice Goodman didn’t attempt a reckless chase.

Nathan kept his guard up as he scanned the area—

And just then, a small riverboat passed nearby.

He swam toward it and quietly climbed aboard the bow.

It was a golden opportunity.

If the boat carried him out to the outskirts of Lambart, that would be perfect.

And if not, he could always disembark midway and throw off any pursuit.

Either way, he finally felt like he could breathe.

That’s what he thought—

Until the moment he muttered,

“Ugh.”

Nathan stumbled lightly.

The boat had suddenly jolted beneath him.

A sense of foreboding crept in.

Had the boat come to a sudden stop?

Then, an odd sound reached Nathan’s ears.

Shhhhhhh!

The roar of water pouring like a waterfall.

Dragging himself clumsily to the edge of the boat, Nathan saw something strange.

The ship’s waterline was rising.

The lower part of the boat, previously submerged, was beginning to surface.

There was only one explanation—

The river wasn’t drying up, after all.

The boat was being lifted.

“My god…”

Nathan watched as a massive hand emerged from beneath the water.

A gigantic hand of ice was lifting the tour boat out of the river.

The surreal sight filled Nathan with a nameless dread.

And that dread reached its peak the moment he sensed a presence behind him.

Tap.

A soft landing on the deck.

He turned around to see Nice Goodman, with his coat fluttering, standing aboard the boat.

His landing was impossibly light—

As if he hadn’t just leapt from a bridge several stories high.

“Magic…”

“Given up on running?”

The man spoke.

His voice was cold and arrogant.

With a flicker of hope, Nathan asked,

“What is it you want?”

“Hand over the bag.”

“You don’t even know what’s in it.”

“You think I came all this way without knowing?”

Just as he thought.

Nathan’s face fell in dismay.

“Give me time to think.”

“You’ll never escape from me anyway.”

“If I hand over the bag, will you let me live?”

“…I will. It’s nothing that serious.”

Nathan thought deeply.

Then, as if resolved, he lifted the bag with both hands and held it out to Nice Goodman.

Nice Goodman tilted his head slightly.

“Surrendering so easily…unexpected.”

“I have family. Rude, foul-mouthed, but still my only remaining blood….my younger brother. If I die, he’ll be devastated.”

“……”

“So you must keep your promise to let me live.”

As he spoke, Nathan slipped his fingers into a hidden pocket beneath the bag, where Nice Goodman couldn’t see.

A small ring hooked onto his finger.

The ultra-concentrated Carapine Longsoniere had gone to such lengths to acquire could never be allowed to fall into someone else’s hands.

It was not only a dangerous weapon but also a piece of incriminating evidence in itself.

That was why spies transporting Carapine always carried a means of destroying evidence.

A self-detonation device.

A magical detonation scroll for igniting the Carapine, and a concealed ring to activate it.

“If I’d known it would come to this, I should’ve left a will.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry, Jamie.”

With those words, Nathan pulled the ring without a moment’s hesitation.

A terrible explosion erupted.