“We can’t give the location of the castle to anyone.”
“If we don’t hire you, I’ll take you wherever you need to go, so you don’t have to worry.”
Cheung nodded, bewildered by the way Lance spoke; it was as if Cheung’s rejection had already been decided. With Lance holding his right arm and Ken holding his left, Cheung walked for a few more minutes before he was placed in what he assumed was a carriage.
Just as Cheung was about to get nauseous from the rocking of the carriage on the roughly paved road, a far cry from the smooth asphalt roads he was accustomed to, the carriage finally came to a stop, and he was brought into a building.
Once the blindfold was removed, Cheung was left reeling under the assault of the bright lights in the room, blinking several times to adjust. The first thing he saw was Lance, who was lighting the fireplace. Even though it was only early autumn, it was still very cold that night. Cheung was relieved by the warmth that the fire brought.
His first impression of the room that it was a European inspired living room with an atelier that had been divided into two. The walls were a warm, chocolate wood, and the fireplaces was built with fine, well-aged red bricks. There were several sofas and couches made of cloth, facing in various directions, and in the middle, there was a large wooden table. On the table there was a lamp that appeared to be in the shape of an animal, a spread out map, a round instrument that looked like a compass, and a large, screw-like object that Cheung had no clue the purpose of was.
The wall to the left from the doorway where Cheung was standing, was filled with ceiling-high bookshelves. The shelves were packed with books with red and green leather covers that were titled with gold and silver foil, and several wooden stepladders were left leaning against them.
He tilted his head slightly at the scene he couldn’t remember. The atmosphere was similar, but Cheung felt like the room was smaller than in the stills from the game.
“Sit down,” Lance motioned toward the sofa nearest to Cheung.
Cheung wasn’t afraid to sit down, and Lance sat down in a chair that sat across the low table from him. Lance’s gaze bored through Cheung. Cheung looked around the room involuntarily for help, but he couldn’t see if Ken had gone to the back room to drop off the bag from before.
Cheung knew that Lance wasn’t a bad person, and because Lance was about to interview him, it was only natural for Lance to level him with such a harsh gaze. However, it was a bit difficult for him to endure without a buffer.
Cheung had to admit, he hadn’t been able to complete Lance’s route. So he didn’t actually know that much about him.
Lance Thurwolf was the head of Severus Eyre, a Bondsman’s Guild1, that specialized in hunting down criminals with bounties on them. In addition to bounty hunting, Severus Eyre was renowned in the area for its prowess, also providing bodyguards and participating in demon subjugation.
Although providing escort and bounty hunting was legal with a license, demon subjugation was carefully overseen and controlled by the Church. In other words, Severus Eyre was illegally providing these services, and as Cheung had mentioned before, Lance was a “dangerous” and “risky” criminal.
Despite this, the amount of residents making requests to Severus Eyre was endless because the Church’s fees were unaffordable. Although he was considered a bandit, Lance was also the first prince of the Wolf Country, which bordered the northern part of the Butterfly Country, that was believed to be dead.
His background setting was very good.
However, it was a shame that the foreshadowing of this was done too poorly and Cheung realized it all at the very beginning of Lance’s route that Lance was the prince of the neighboring country and that the happy ending was where Lance returned to his country and succeeded the throne, making the heroine his queen.