
“Finally we are here.” Nicholas is now standing in front of an old mansion with dozens of soldiers he brought to carry out the siege as he planned along with Winter.
“Shelf!” one of the soldiers forcibly opened the main door and after that the other soldiers stormed the Mamasuki Mansion.
Hearing the sound of the door being forcefully opened made everyone's eyes turn to the source of the sound, he saw Nicholas standing in the doorway and started walking into the mansion.
“A bar? I think this is the house of confinement.” Nicholas muttered after entering the mansion.
“We came to do a check!” Said Nicholas standing in front of the soldier as leader.
“This is just a regular bar, sir.” Excited one who was disturbed by the arrival of Nicholas and the other soldiers.
“Iya right.”
“This is just a stopover for adventurers, mr.”
The other exclaimed at each other, protesting the sudden inspection.
“Pardon us gentlemen, but this is an order from the military leader of the kingdom to conduct an inspection.” Nicholas returned to speak while giving the soldiers a code to begin the examination.
The soldiers immediately spread throughout the room to check, half of which went to the second floor used as lodging and checked the rooms one by one.
“Nicholas stay here and keep an eye on their movements, also pay attention if anyone comes out or enters this place.” Winter whispers to Nicholas, who is now disguised as an ordinary soldier, and soon leaves Nicholas for an examination.
Winter climbed the stairs to the second floor, where he saw that part of the building used as lodging rooms. Winter's eyes are then fixed on a room that is at the very end the soldiers are seen only opening it at a glance and immediately leave it without going inside but when he sees the occupants of the room that came out because disturbed Winter saw their eyes feel anxious and continued to look into the empty room.
Curious to see what made them feel anxious Winter finally walked into the room to check it out in person.
“That master is just an empty room, no one occupies that room.” Intercept a woman who also took a room right in front of the room that Winter will check.
“True sir, the owner just left that room.”
“You don't have to bother to log in and check it out.” People who came out because her room was being checked and saw Winter about to enter the room also tried to stop her from entering the empty room.
“I'm sorry sir, I just want to see for a moment.” Winter smiled kindly as if he was just curious to see the contents of the room then immediately speed up his steps into the empty room.
When entering the room that made him curious, he saw the room was the same as the other rooms nothing special except the bed sheet that looks messy like it has just been used and has not been neatened.
“Nothing is strange.” Winter muttered softly and was about to get out.
At the time Winter just wanted to come out he saw a wooden cabinet in the corner of the room slightly open and vaguely showed the end of the torn dress.
“It looks like the room tenant who previously forgot to pack his things, maybe he is in a hurry.” Winter muttered again while walking towards the closet about to close it.
“This dress? Looks like I've seen someone wearing it.” Winter, who had intended to close, now opened it and looked at the contents of the closet.
“Oh, jeez this...” Winter's greeting is interrupted upon seeing a bracelet made of woven thread.
“This is like the bracelet Leathina gave me during the hunting race.”
“How?” Nicholas asked as he saw winter coming down and walked towards him.
“Everything is normal sir, this is just a business house where the lower floor is used as a bar and the upper floor as a place to stay.” Said one of the soldiers answering Nicholas' question earlier, while Winter just kept quiet and stood not far from Nicholas waiting for the next order.
“Alright then we will go soon.” Nicholas and the soldiers then left the place because they did not find anything suspicious.
They returned to their inn empty-handed, making Nicholas a little annoyed that he had been hoping to find something both a clue about Leathina and the shadow army organization.
“Sial!” Bump Nicholas while dropping himself into a chair.
“So we have to go back without getting anything that means?” nicholas asked Winter who had just been silent.
“Nicholas, I found something.” Winter answered later and made Nicholas sit up straight again.
“Really?”
“I found some Leathina's belongings there.”
“So you found a clue, did they hide my older sister there? Already I guess something went wrong when they tried to block us from doing the examination, do we have to threaten them first?”
“Not this is just a hunch, I don't know for sure if this really belongs to Leathina or not.” Winter puts a bracelet on the table and shows it to Nicholas.
“This, this, the same bracelet that Nora always wore she said Leathina who gave the bracelet to her.” Nicholas spoke while watching the bracelet Winter showed him.
“Nona Leathina also gave it to me.” Said Winter while pulling her sleeve and showing her wrist to Nicholas.
“So, I'm the only one who doesn't have.” Nicholas muttered softly and looked annoyed at a bracelet.
“So what's your plan?” Nicholas asked Winter and immediately dismissed his sense of regret.
“You and your people return to the kingdom tomorrow, me and my people will stay here longer to do the investigation.”
“I don't want to, I also want to stay doing research and search.” Nicholas refuses Winter's orders and insists on staying.
“You must return Nicholas, as long as the royal warriors are still here they will continue to be vigilant and hide Miss Leathina, he said, so we have to make them think we're back and then move quietly, so Nicholas goes back to the kingdom.”
“Good.” Inevitably Nicholas eventually follows Winter's words and into the next day Nicholas and his men actually return to the kingdom.
Winter and his followers remain in the border town and begin a secret investigation.
Winter keeps coming to places he thinks could be just right to gather information for him, every afternoon Winter also comes to the slums and stays there for a few hours hoping to hear some information from the shadow soldiers or people he is looking for now.
Several times Winter also visited the old mansion which is located quite separate from the village and the city, sometimes Winter also secretly stalked the mansion from the outside along with his colleagues.
...***...