If You Leave Without a Word - Chapter 235

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

Agatha left the boy in Liana’s care and called Cain, then stepped a few paces away from the boy.

The knights were busy setting up tents nearby. The orphanage building was mostly intact, and with some repairs could still be habitable, but it couldn’t accommodate all the members of the Kristin and Vernat knight orders. Those who couldn’t enter had to sleep in the tents outside.

“…Do you know where the boy was first found?”

“What?”

“At the pile of corpses near the riverbank.”

“A pile of corpses…”

“The reason he survived was that he hid among the bodies, pretending to be dead. He was incredibly lucky—fires were set to all the other corpse piles to finish off survivors, but for some reason, the pile he hid in was spared.”

“My goodness.”

“He had been lying beneath the body of someone he had lived with, someone he considered family. Still determined to survive, he spent days and nights beneath rotting corpses…”

Agatha covered her mouth.

“Should we call it fortunate that he survived that way? Sometimes, being alive can be worse than being dead.”

Was he talking about the boy, or himself? Glancing at the shadow beneath Cain’s eyes, Agatha deliberately looked away and spoke up.

“The boy said they swung swords, calling people traitors and rebels. Do you have any suspects…?”

They had to find the culprit. Whether to avenge the boy, to retaliate for the countless victims who died here, or to find the missing Esther, the first step was to uncover who was responsible.

The only survivor was a twelve-year-old boy named Milo. He revealed everything he knew about Esther and the events in Arta before collapsing from exhaustion. It was only natural—he had spent days lying in a pile of corpses without food or water.

Cain had given him water in haste, but Agatha felt deeply sorry for interrogating the boy without considering his fragile state, only realizing too late how serious his condition was.

The servants hurriedly carried the collapsing boy inside the orphanage building under Agatha’s orders. The timber-structured building had collapsed in the fire, but the brick sections remained relatively intact. Though covered in ash and dust, a thorough cleaning could make it livable again.

Before nightfall, they needed to secure a place where everyone could rest.

Agatha ordered her retainers to tidy the orphanage, while Cain directed the knights to set up tents around the building. Though the makeshift shelters were far from comfortable, they were enough for a short rest.

The knights were divided into groups with different tasks: one to search for other survivors still in Arta, another to root out any hidden enemies. When the knights returned, the sun had already set.

Despite the sunset, no one could rest easy. Even rest was taken in shifts, with teams alternating their breaks. Finally, Cain returned to Agatha and the retainers’ quarters, believing that no threats would arise that night.

“You haven’t slept?”

Agatha’s startled heart still wouldn’t calm. Even if she tried to sleep, nightmares would surely come. Waiting for Cain’s return, she asked Liana to light candles.

“No, I don’t think I can sleep.”

“You must be exhausted.”

“How could I sleep soundly with so many deaths around?”

“…..”

Even Cain, who had seen countless corpses, was shocked by Arta’s current state. For fragile Agatha, it was unbearable. As always, Cain hid his fatigue beneath a stoic mask.

The chair scraped loudly as Cain sat opposite her.

“Have you discovered anything about the culprit?”

As soon as Cain sat, Agatha asked eagerly.

They needed to know who did this, why, and for what purpose. Reading her mind, Cain hesitated briefly before sharing his thoughts.

“The perpetrator knew the people here were not citizens of the Nikephos Empire, but refugees from Amasril.”

“That figures. Only the Amasril refugees were all killed… But how did they know?”

“That is the mystery. Arta isn’t a place people pass through casually. Even if someone stopped by, most would flee after seeing the Kristin knights.”

“The problem is… the Kristin knights themselves are nowhere to be found.”

Among all the baffling events, the absence of the knights stationed in Arta was the hardest to accept.

“Yes. But it doesn’t seem the culprit fought the knights. If there had been a battle, there would be at least a few bodies of knights in Kristin armor.”

“So they defeated them without fighting?”