Second Life of the Villainess

Chapter 13

The more questions John asked, the more succinct and ambiguous Lowell's answers became. The pupils of his eyes, which had just been glazed over, were now alive, and his crooked posture was improving. Only the faint red cheeks could make John guess at the amount of alcohol Lowell had drunk.

John didn't notice any of those changes because he wanted to get information, and when his questioning came to an end, Lowell announced the end of their meeting.

"It's almost time for my shift. I'm sorry. I'll see you again."

"That's a shame. I hadn't seen you in a long time."

"I think so too. It'd been a while and I'm sorry it ended this way."

The two men, who had risen from their seats, said good-bye in front of the main gate of the Imperial Palace.

As John, with his shoulders drooping, was about to turn and leave, Lowell took his shoulder and advised him in a hushed voice, "I recommend you not inquire about His Highness anymore."

"... I see."

Lowell's advice was appreciated, but John couldn't follow it. That was because he thought Aria, who held his future in her hand, was more frightening than the Crown Prince, whom he had never seen before.

Unable to go back, John headed for the casino just in case. He was thinking the people there might have seen something. The casino was located near the commoners' quarter, a little far from the Imperial Palace. That was because the main source of income for the casino was the money from the poor commoners.

The building that had started out as a small gambling house had grown in size as money gradually poured in, and now, it was a large building with lights that were clearly visible from very far away.

Of course, that had been before the incident with Viscount Lupre. Now, that massive building was dyed black. The streets got darker and darker as he headed toward the building, so unable to see anything without a lamp, John took a portable lamp from his coat and lit it.

He looked everywhere and did so meticulously, wondering if there was any spec of information he could gleam. There were rare pieces of broken glass or crumbled boxes, but no sign of the Crown Prince was found.

It had been a long time since he had bent down to look for traces like that, but when he looked around, he saw a familiar shop.

'It's a general store.'

It was the general store that they had gone into to get back the hourglass. Seeing that the lights were off, he thought it might be closed. John recalled what Aria had said last time.

'She said that the owner couldn't use the auction ticket. How did Miss Aria know that?'

She had said that rumours about Viscount Lupre had been circulating, but there had been no such rumours in the empire. He had asked around about them just in case. He had wondered where she had heard those rumours, which nobody had known.

John, just in case, moved toward the general store. It seemed closed, but the old man might be inside. Some commoners used to build small rooms behind their stores and use those rooms as lodging to settle down. John counted on that. He didn't know whether the old man would tell him anything, but the old man already knew him. Since the general store was close to the casino, the old man would have seen something.

"Is anybody here?"

He knocked on the door of the closed general store several times, but there was no sign of movement.

'Were my efforts in vain?'

Still, he felt sorry about it. After he knocked on the door a few more times, he heard a squeak inside followed by footsteps.