Delphine heard for the first time that such things were produced in factories.

“All the water around here is polluted and rotten. That’s why the smell is so strong.”

Suddenly, she remembered what the men in black masks had shouted in District 2.

“The children are dying!”

And how they were scooping up water from the fountain she thought couldn’t be used for food.

“I hesitate to ask, but… is there no water to drink?”

“Ha!”

When she asked carefully, another contemptuous voice was heard.

The man, as if dumbfounded, didn’t even answer anymore.

Even though she was wearing a blindfold, she felt like she could see what expression he was making.

‘No drinking water…? In this beautiful city of water?’

The capital of the Astrax Empire had abundant water sources.

Clean water always flowed between the splendid noble mansions in District 1.

In District 2 as well, water gushing from fountains installed everywhere shines in rainbow colors in the bright sunlight.

That was the capital Delphine remembered.

The carriage drove well, carrying her who was in shock.

The sound of horse hooves clattering, the carriage rattling, the occasional rustle of the man’s clothes.

While trying to guess where this might be by focusing on those sounds, the carriage suddenly stopped.

“Don’t take off the blindfold yet. Here, take my hand.”

Before she could give permission, a large, warm hand grabbed Delphine’s.

Rough, with calluses here and there.

Thinking it was similar to Ioan’s hand, Delphine flinched, wondering who on earth she was comparing to.

“What’s wrong?”

“…It’s nothing.”

“Ah, I see. Excuse me for a moment.”

“What do you mean excuse…”

Delphine cried out in surprise at the sensation of large hands suddenly grabbing her waist.

“What are you doing!”

“What if you trip and break your nose trying to get out of the carriage in that flowing thing?”

He answered in a rather indifferent voice, but contrary to his tone, the man set her down on the ground very carefully.

Are commoners usually this unconcerned about physical contact?

Delphine patted her waist where he had grabbed her, thinking confusedly.

The man grabbed her hand again and led her somewhere.

She heard the sound of walking on wooden floors, and it seemed there were many people around, with noisy sounds.

“Lin! Is that the woman?”

“What do you mean ‘that woman,’ there’s a person right in front of you.”

“Ahem. Um, what should I call her then?”

“Hey, you! Noble lady, noble lady. Don’t you even know that?”

“…They say there are many beauties inside the walls. Seems it’s true.”

“Then is it true that Glasscock is dead?”

Noisy sounds.

Feeling uneasy about walking with her eyes closed, Delphine unknowingly gripped the man’s hand tightly.

The rough-textured hand flinched noticeably.

“…Just a little further. I’ll remove the blindfold soon.”

The man muttered in a suppressed voice.

After a short while, she heard the sound of a door opening and closing, followed by the man’s voice.

“You can take off the blindfold now.”

Delphine carefully raised her hand and removed the blindfold.

Startled for a moment by the sudden influx of light, she soon saw an unfamiliar scene.

She was in a small wooden room without any windows.

Rough wooden tables and chairs placed here and there.

And on one side of the room, a blond man and a woman with brown hair tied up were staring at her.

Delphine noticed that the woman was wearing loose pants and leather armor, and her eyes widened in surprise.

‘A woman… in armor?’

For someone born and raised in District 1, even seeing a woman wearing pants was a first.

As Delphine stood there blankly, unable to even greet them in the sudden situation, the woman called out playfully.

“Hey, Lin! How long are you going to hold her hand?”

At those teasing words, the man immediately let go.

“…I just forgot, Marian.”

The man muttered, slowly taking off the mask he was wearing.

Flowing black hair was revealed, followed by unusually dark skin.

Contrary to Delphine’s expectation that he would have a very rough appearance, he was a handsome man with striking masculine jawlines.

‘Black hair, black eyes…’

The man walked steadily towards the two and sat down heavily in an empty wooden chair.

Delphine immediately realized that these three were the key figures of this unidentified group.

“Lady Pryde.”

The blond man sitting in the center smiled gently.

Though dressed roughly, he had a beautiful appearance as if an angel had descended into this humble room.

“Welcome to La Rouge.”

“…La Rouge?”

Ignoring Delphine’s question demanding more explanation, the blond man smiled angelically.

“In that radio transmission, you said you wanted to know the truth.”

“Truth. Such a dangerous yet sweet thing.”

The woman called Marian, wearing armor, added with a grin.

“I wonder what truth the beautiful noble lady wants, to have come to this humble place.”

Delphine bit her lower lip hard at their relaxed attitude.

Although she had come prepared, when actually asked, words didn’t come easily.

Above all, she wasn’t sure if she could trust them and pour out all her questions.

“…Of course, we can’t guarantee we’ll answer all your questions.”

Perhaps noticing her concern, the blond man smiled and took the lead.

“It must be difficult for you to trust us yet. So how about we do this?”

“What…”

“We exchange questions one by one. Fairly.”

One by one?

It was a more trustworthy proposal than irresponsibly saying to ask anything.

Seeing Delphine’s face slightly less guarded, the man smiled angelically.

“As it happens, we have two things we’d like to ask you as well.”

After hesitating for a moment, Delphine nodded.

And so the Q&A began.

They started first.

“First, I would like to hear the detailed story about Glasscock’s death during the time of madness.”

The first question was somewhat expected.

Delphine calmly sat down and explained everything about being trapped in the snowstorm, how Cally and Glasscock died, and how only Glasscock’s eyes were missing.

“…So that’s what happened.”

As she finished speaking, the woman in armor muttered sorrowfully.

“Glyn is certainly dead.”

The man called Lin who had brought her here also looked very troubled.

“Damn it… I warned him it would be dangerous…”

However, unlike the two, the blonde man’s face showed great interest without any sign of sorrow.

“Then you personally confirmed the absence of eyes on the corpse?”

His expression was markedly different from before when he had seemed somewhat doubtful.

Delphine awkwardly nodded and then carefully chose her words.

It was now her turn to ask.

Though she had many things she wanted to ask, the questions were limited to two.

Glasscock had certainly said he was investigating Ioan. So then…

“Why are you investigating Lord Pryde?”

The blonde man smiled at Delphine’s carefully uttered question.

He looked somehow pleased.

“A good question. Because answering why requires a lot of explanation.”

“…”

“To put it simply, it’s because that man is the greatest threat to our organization’s purpose.”

“Belly.”

The man called Lin uttered the name in warning.

However, the man whose name was called answered immediately without erasing his smile.

“It’s alright. I intend to bet our future on this noble lady. So I should give an honest answer.”

Though the corners of his eyes were curved, the eyes within were not smiling.

The man asked with a beautiful face that somehow felt cold.

“This is probably your first time coming to District 3, isn’t it? It’s not a place noble ladies usually set foot in.”

Delphine hesitated before nodding.

“What did you feel when you saw it?”

“…”

Although Delphine couldn’t utter a word, her expression alone seemed to be answer enough.

The man nodded as if he understood and continued speaking.

“To put it bluntly, we are carrying out a movement to liberate the barrier.”

Delphine was not surprised.

“Provide clean water to District 3 too!”

“Children who drank factory wastewater are dying! You pig-like noble bastards!”

“Open the barrier!”

When she heard those cries in District 2 last time, she couldn’t understand who was making such claims and why.

To be honest, she didn’t even think to look into it in detail.

But actually coming to District 3 in person, she could guess the inside story without hearing the detailed circumstances.

“The main content is to open the central barrier dividing District 3 and guarantee the right for District 3 residents to live like humans.”

“You may not believe it, but our plan was going quite well.”

The woman called Marianne cut into the conversation in a rough tone.

“We were throwing ourselves in desperately. …After all, here we’re just slowly dying anyway.”

“But suddenly we encountered a big obstacle.”

The man called Belly calmly continued the woman’s words.

“It was because of Marquis Pryde, who suddenly appeared a year ago.”

The moment his name was finally mentioned, Delphine’s heart sank.