SIWALL Ch 25

“No, no. You wrote it very well.”

“But to tell them not to send any more letters…”

“You don’t understand a woman’s heart, author.”

Generwin chuckled, refolded the letter, and tapped Elliot’s nose with the edge of the paper.

“This is just a roundabout way of asking for jewels. Lady Violet is particularly the prim type. The next letter should include a gemstone necklace.”

Humming a tune, Generwin rummaged through the next letters. Elliot picked up Violet’s letter that Generwin had set down, his careful gaze sweeping across the paper.

“Our cute merchant guild leader’s next letter is—”

“No, that’s not it. This person isn’t asking for a necklace.”

“Huh?”

Elliot showed the letter back to Generwin.

“Look, she’s pointing out that even while calling himself a coward, his words and actions are lighthearted and showy. She’s highlighting the gap between the content of the letter I wrote and the client himself.”

Elliot continued earnestly.

“There’s only one thing I—no, the client needs to say here. That the young lady’s judgment was spot-on, and that he truly is a lighthearted, showy person.”

“What?”

“However, it’s also true that he’s a coward. Because he grows terrified the moment he stands before the young lady.”

“Whoa….”

Elliot stared straight into Generwin’s eyes.

“Wouldn’t the young lady perhaps want to hear something like this? That she is special to the client.”

“Author, I have to wonder. Have you really never been in a relationship?”

Looking surprised, Generwin poked Elliot in the side. Elliot shuddered and shifted his hips one space to the side, his face flushing red.

“This isn’t a matter of romance; it’s a matter of the human heart, client.”

At Elliot’s unyielding, serious expression, Generwin burst into laughter.

“Fine. I won’t send a necklace. I’ll send a reply just as the author suggested. I thought wrong.”

He was surprisingly quick to acknowledge his mistake and reflect on it.

Elliot simply nodded and pulled the paper and pen toward himself. While he quickly copied the reply onto the paper, Generwin watched him with a wide smile.

“Author, you seem like a completely different person.”

“Pardon?”

The pen in Elliot’s hand, which had been writing diligently, came to a halt.

“It’s nice to see. I like you better this way. The old author was a bit gloomy, wasn’t he? Looked like you were about to cause trouble any second. Not exactly the best partner to work with.”

Goodness gracious.

Exhaling a sigh of relief, Elliot glared sideways at Generwin.

“Even if you butter me up, nothing’s coming of it, client.”

“It also feels like you’ve become a bit more comfortable with me? I like that, too.”

Words were useless. With that expression, Elliot refocused on copying the letter.

Though Generwin fussed about helping and almost knocked over the ink bottle, the task was finished relatively quickly.

The real problem happened right after that.

It started when someone who saw Elliot and Generwin coming out of the cafe stopped dead in their tracks across the street.

“Elliot Brown?”

A tall man wrapped in a black cloak from head to toe, looking suspicious by any stretch of the imagination, strode directly toward Elliot.

“Pardon? Are you talking to me? Do you know—”

Just as Elliot pressed his right hand to his chest and asked kindly:

“Ugh!”

In the blink of an eye, a hard elbow pressed against Elliot’s throat, slamming him straight into the wall.

“Author!”

Generwin shouted in surprise.

Hey, don’t just stand there calling out to me—come over and rescue me.

Elliot gasped and thrashed around, choking. The arm crushing his windpipe loosened its grip slightly.

“Did you stalk me?”

A very low, rough voice growled out the question.

Why is this situation so painfully familiar to me….

The corners of Elliot’s eyes flushed red.

God, Buddha—no, Lord Lante, please help me. Please…!

The place where they were confronting each other was an alley at the end of Pentus Street, a luxurious shopping district. Turning the corner from this alley led right into Hemp Street, a haven for peddlers. Hemp Street was short for ‘the street of alternative magic and aura.’

Aristocrats—at least in broad daylight—did not go to places like that. The only humans who frequented such areas in the bright daytime were shady characters like swindlers, gamblers, and thieves, flashed through Elliot’s mind from descriptions in the original work.

This out-of-his-mind masked person had to be someone with business on Hemp Street. Judging by the appearance of wearing a black cloak and thoroughly concealing his face, he seemed to be at the very bottom of the barrel.

“Hey!”

Unable to watch Elliot turning bright red and struggling with breathing difficulties any longer, Generwin grabbed the masked man’s shoulder. However, the masked person merely shrugged his shoulder slightly without taking any real damage.

Sensing humiliation at that, Generwin pulled out an ornate dagger studded with jewels from his waist. Hearing the sound of the flashy weapon being drawn, Elliot could hear a scoffing chuckle escape the masked man.

“Leave the weak one alone and pick a fight with me, you coward!”

Generwin shouted. Elliot also weakly squirmed and nodded.

Please leave the weak me alone first, I’m begging you.

Fortunately, the masked man removed his iron-pipe-like forearm from Elliot’s neck. However, the moment he poked Generwin somewhere on the neck with his finger one second later—literally just one second, without exaggeration—Generwin slumped over and collapsed.

It was a conclusion so fast and absurd that even Elliot, coughing and wheezing with a sore throat, was left utterly dumbfounded.

“Pathetic.”

With that, the masked man flipped Elliot upside down with terrifying momentum and hoisted him onto his shoulder like a sack of luggage.

“Let’s have a chat.”

“Ugh!”

You XX bastard, do you call this a chat!

The masked stalker took Elliot to a dirty alley in Hemp Street. Feeling dizzy and unable to breathe properly as if he had flown through the sky dangling upside down, Elliot was finally set back down by the masked man.

“Ahk….”

“There’s no time to clear up suspicions. Just how did you follow me here?”

Saying that, the masked man removed the hood of his cloak. Dazzling platinum-blond hair cascaded over his handsome forehead.

“Gasp!”

The moment Elliot saw that striking face, he was horrified.

“Gr-, Gr-, Grand Duke….”

“It would be better not to use that title.”

The masked Arzen slightly lifted his cloak to reveal the longsword strapped to his waist.

Uh-huh, you came too? I’ve seen you so often now you feel familiar, Longsword.

Elliot laughed hollowly.

“Have you lost your mind? If so, this will be easy.”

Arzen effortlessly drew his sword.

“N-, n-, no! I’m completely sane! I’ve got all my wits about me!”

His heart hammered with fear. Elliot frantically shook his head and waved both hands. At that, Arzen clicked his tongue with a soft tsk.

Did you just click your tongue at me?

Elliot glared at Arzen with a somewhat defiant look. Of course, he quickly blinked his eyes back to a docile expression before Arzen could catch his gaze.

“Tell me. Nobody knows I frequent Hemp Street except Luor, so how did you know and follow me here? Did you really not know the consequences you’d face if you betrayed my trust?”

“W-, well, first calm down, Grand Duke—no, M-, Mister Boss.”

“…Boss?”

“I genuinely didn’t know the boss was the Gr—boss. I just thought you were a crazy random mugger. Truly.”

“A crazy random mugger….”

“Yes, yes, I really thought, ‘Ah, I’ve run into a crazy bastard, how can someone this reckless roam the streets in broad daylight? Does this country not even have police? Someone hurry up and arrest this trash,’ is what I thought. If I had known it was the boss, I never would’ve thought that.”

“….”

“Covering your face with a black hood screams psychopath, and even a gutter life like this has to go on, but I’m going to die right here, I sure hope Lord Lante strikes this jerk with divine retri—”

“Enough.”

Arzen let out a sigh and brushed back his hair. The sight was so cinematic that Elliot temporarily stopped breathing and admired him. It was an involuntary pause anyone with a visual sensitivity to beauty and ugliness would naturally make.

Thanks to that brief opening, Arzen swiftly changed the subject.

“Then why did you come to Hemp Street? As you said, if you were a sane person, there’s no way you’d come to a place like this.”

Arzen, momentarily shaken, pressed on coldly once more. But Elliot had a retort for this, too.

“I didn’t come to Hemp Street.”

“Don’t lie.”

“Really. Boss, do you perhaps remember there being a cafe at the end of Pentus Street? I like that cafe’s coffee, so I’m a complete regular. If you really don’t believe me, you can even check with the owner of Cafe Siren.”

“Then… you just happened to run into me on your way back from the cafe?”

“Yes, yes, exactly, boss.”

“Why were you with Generwin Tulion? He called you ‘author’.”

His eyes flashed dangerously. And Elliot’s quick wits flashed as well.

“Actually… Mr. Generwin is my fan, so to speak—my follower.”

“…Follower?”