Chapter 18: Have You Seen Bai?
“Boss, we still can’t find Frick.”
“He’s not at his usual haunt.”
“I asked the vendors at the city gates; no one has seen him…”
Sugg frowned, sitting in a sparsely furnished room with wooden walls, several out-of-breath mercenaries standing before him.
Frick was the skinny, sharp-chinned mercenary who had gone off on his own earlier. It was past their meeting time, and he was still missing.
They were currently at their hideout in the capital.
It was less a hideout, more a large, abandoned warehouse near the outskirts, partitioned into several rooms with wooden planks.
With over a dozen men under his command, rent in the capital was too expensive, so they had settled for this deserted warehouse.
It was secluded, with few neighbors, ideal for their… less-than-reputable activities.
“Boss, do you think Frick might have been…” one of the mercenaries gestured across his throat, suggesting Frick had been killed.
Sugg hesitated, then shook his head. “I doubt it. Frick knows his limits. He wouldn’t pick a fight he couldn’t win, and he’s good at escaping.”
“He’s not strong, but if he wants to run, you’d need to be at least Seventh-Order to catch him.”
In other words, Frick was a coward, his skills focused entirely on running away.
“But…” the mercenary started, but Sugg waved him off.
He looked up at a group photo on the wall, Frick’s face, for once, not leering, and sighed.
“Keep searching. If we can’t find him, I’ll ask my contacts in the Crown Guard. Frick might be a scumbag, but he’s been with me for years. He wouldn’t just disappear.”
Sugg suspected the Crown Guard might have arrested Frick.
They had just had a run-in with the princess and her maid… their former Boss. And while highway robbery was generally tolerated by the Knights, it was still against the law.
“Yes, Boss.”
The mercenary nodded, about to leave, when Sugg suddenly asked, “Did you see that little girl from earlier, the one we tried to rob?”
Her indifferent gaze haunted him, a lingering unease settling in his heart.
…Was she targeting him?
“Ah, that… little girl?”
The mercenary’s reaction was unexpectedly strong, as if startled. The other mercenaries also exchanged uneasy glances.
“What is it?” Sugg asked, his voice low.
“She…”
The mercenaries looked at each other, realizing they had all experienced the same thing. One of them, choosing his words carefully, said,
“Boss, just so you know, I’m… not a pervert.”
“Yeah, me neither.”
“Not like Frick. He was a pervert.”
“It seems we’ve all… experienced the same thing…”
Sugg: “???”
What was going on? Had his entire crew gone mad?
Then he understood, his expression hardening.
“You’re talking about that little girl, aren’t you? The one you can’t stop thinking about?”
“Boss, you too—wait, you experienced it too?” the mercenary asked, surprised.
“I saw her eyes…” Sugg murmured, remembering the ordinary black eyes that had somehow filled him with a sense of unease.
“Just her eyes, Boss? I keep seeing her in that black dress, staring at me…”
“Really? I keep seeing her in a maid uniform. But that should be Boss’s uniform…”
“You guys just see her? In my mind, she’s stepping on me, looking at me like I’m trash… but it’s… kind of nice…”
The other mercenaries stared at the last speaker, who quickly covered his mouth.
“That little girl… she’s definitely not ordinary…”
Sugg closed his eyes, the image of those indifferent eyes flashing through his mind, his heart pounding.
Frick had been acting strangely too. Could it be because of her?
Even he, who had no interest in little girls, had been affected. The effect on Frick, a known pervert, must have been amplified.
It wouldn’t be surprising if he had done something… foolish.
“Forget about finding him for now. Call everyone back,” Sugg said after a moment of thought.
The situation was too strange. He was worried about further complications, and he had to maintain a good relationship with the Crown Guard.
He could afford to lose Frick, but not his entire crew.
“Yes, Boss.”
The mercenaries nodded, one of them leaving to contact the others.
Just then, a knock came at the warehouse door.
Knock, knock, knock…
“Who is it?” Sugg asked, his hand instinctively reaching for his broadsword, his expression wary.
His men never knocked; they just barged in.
Knock, knock, knock…
The knocking continued. The mercenaries exchanged glances, placing their hands on their weapons, and silently moved towards the door, assuming defensive positions.
Knock, knock, knock…
The knocking persisted. Sugg stood up, broadsword in hand, his psychic circuits flaring, his attention focused on the large warehouse door.
But the more he focused, the clearer the image of those eyes became, his heart pounding in his chest.
Then, the knocking stopped.
“Hmm?”
Sugg relaxed slightly, but then a young, clear voice called out from beyond the door.
“Excuse me, have you seen Bai?”
As the childish voice echoed, the eyes in Sugg’s mind suddenly changed.
The black pupils shifted, becoming terrifying dark-gold vertical slits, and his heart stopped.
