Chapter 163
“It doesn’t matter. What’s the problem with me leaving when I no longer have a reason to be here?”
“You should remember that it was Del Gatos’s mercy that allowed you to enter without any restraint on your divine power. But if you betray that and act so selfishly, how can you tarnish his reputation!”
“I’ll pay for my sins later. There are more urgent matters now.”
“Is that woman the only thing that matters to you? Do you not care at all about anything else, like family or your own well-being?”
At that, Rubel stopped walking. But it was clear that he had stopped not because he was truly swayed by Abel’s words, but to rebut them.
‘If I had prioritized such things from the beginning, I wouldn’t have gone this far in the first place.’
Abel could clearly envision Rubel saying that. Consequently, Abel decided to change tactics to hold Rubel back.
“You can find her from in here too. She might even return, actually, I never said she ran away.”
“What are you talking about?”
Rubel frowned irritably and lowered his body towards Abel. Then he grabbed his shoulders and lifted him up. Abel was almost pushed back by the force of the rough touch.
Confronted with such a menacing face, Abel unconsciously recoiled with a frightened expression.
“I-I wasn’t trying to hide anything. It’s just that you didn’t listen to me at all and just broke the bars without warning, so I didn’t have a chance to explain…….”
“Stop talking nonsense and just say what you were going to say. Did I hit you? Why are you so scared?”
Did he really not know that everything from his irritated tone to his furrowed brows and threatening demeanor came across as a threat to Abel? Rubel wasn’t holding anything in his hands, but to Abel, it felt as if his brother was menacingly holding a knife to his throat.
“I think she was kidnapped. She disappeared while I briefly entered the Henyar Temple to request an escort. There were no traces of sorcery at the site of the abduction. It seems she was subdued by force and kidnapped.”
Rubel lowered his head halfway and fell into thought. Abel, following suit, pondered as well before speaking.
“Before leaving the Shinote mansion, the witch sent that woman a letter.”
Rubel, who had been lost in thought, raised his head at those words. Abel thought it was because he had said something important, but Rubel immediately corrected part of Abel’s statement.
“Not ‘that woman’, but Lady Eir.”
“Lady Eir?”
“Yes. Address her as such.”
Would he want to point that out in the midst of all this? Abel was momentarily dumbfounded and left his mouth agape, but after Rubel nodded as if to say continue, he resumed his speech.
“A-Anyway, after reading that letter, that wom…… I mean, Lady Eir immediately told me to stop by the Henyar Temple to request an escort. Given that, I suspect she might have received some kind of warning of danger.”
“The witch who sent the letter.”
Of course, Rubel could easily guess who it was. It would be that black rabbit witch who had been loitering around Eir. But that witch, who kept getting on his nerves, wasn’t the issue right now.
The issue was that Eir, who had received some kind of warning of danger from that witch, had still risked everything to come to Rubel and ended up getting kidnapped.
“That ignorant and foolish woman…….”
Rubel muttered softly. But Abel, who couldn’t fathom that these threatening words were directed at a woman Rubel loved enough to risk his life for, jumped to the wrong conclusion and asked:
“Do you think it was the witches after all?”
“I doubt it. If she was kidnapped during the brief moment you were away, then she was probably followed from the start, likely from the mansion. Besides, witches would have no reason to take such a risk near a temple when you weren’t around.”
“Then who do you think it was?”
Rubel’s demeanor, after hearing all the details of the situation, was completely different from when he had broken the bars, determined to catch a woman who had recklessly run away. He was calm, and he didn’t seem confused, as if he knew his objective clearly.
Someone who could shadow them from the heavily guarded Shinote mansion, someone with a reason to wait until Abel wasn’t present to carry out the kidnapping. That person would likely have easy access to the mansion and be acquainted with Abel.
“Could it be…….”
By the time the inference was made even in Abel’s mind, Rubel murmured ominously.
“One leg isn’t enough, I guess.”
Magnus Shinote.
That name simultaneously occurred to both of them.
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