“Don’t worry about other people. The priest probably left for good fortune. Of course, that could be the case, but the day for the last letter has already passed. In the last letter, he said he would come to see me, but there’s been no news, so I’m worried that something serious might have happened.”

When he poured out his concerns, rather than alleviating the worry, Randolf looked at Giovanni with eyes that resembled droplets.

“It’s shameless, but can you help me find my friend?”

⭐⭐⭐

“Fortunately, it seems like we can resolve it quickly, um.”

After leaving Randolf’s small room, Kchef said.

“If he’s a priest, Princess Lallatu would probably know well. Um, if you ask for help, she might assist, right?”

Giovanni nodded.
As expected, Princess Lara too gladly cooperated with all her heart as Chef Keychef had anticipated, and as a result, Rudolf’s friend, the priest, could trace the last visited place of hardship.

It was a village right near the area where Rudolf stayed.

But that was it.

“Well, well. It seems the ghost has played its part. The traces suddenly disappeared.”

Chef Keychef coughed, glancing back. The priest had already left the house of the elderly person the priest had prayed for.

“There are traces of entering this village, but there are no traces of leaving.”

“Is it still in this village, well, do you think?”

“We’ll have to find out.”

From now on, they had no choice but to investigate directly.

Fortunately, the village people, overwhelmed by Giovanni’s imposing figure, willingly cooperated. However, despite that, there was no one who claimed to have seen the priest.

It was a state of uncertainty, whether he had soared into the sky or vanished into the ground.

Just when Chef Keychef, who hadn’t rested properly, was about to doze off.

“Oh, are you talking about the priest with long hair? The one who was with the tall agent? I’m not sure, but I saw them entering that forest. The agent mentioned that they would move along the forest path.”

Finally, a meaningful eyewitness appeared.

After entering the forest path for a while, the two sat by the lakeside to take a short break.

Chef Keychef, who opened a water bottle and cleared his throat, sighed.

Giovanni, sitting on a large rock, looked at him briefly in comparison to the size of the forest around, “Is it tough?”

“No, it’s better than yesterday.”

Chef Keychef forced a smile and pointed to the forest path.

“If the words of that farmer are true, they should have arrived in Rudolf’s village a month ago, well, shouldn’t they? It’s strange.”

“Yeah. Considering that he was a priest, he would have attracted people’s attention, but it’s strange that there are not many witnesses.”

“Do you think there’s a problem with, well, his safety?”

Giovanni remained silent. Chef Keychef, with his mouth shut, suddenly frowned.

“Cough, Your Highness, isn’t there something floating over there?”

Giovanni turned his head. On the other side of the lake, something strange was stuck among the tangled reeds.

Splash!

Pushing through the reeds and leaves, Chef Keychef walked, pinching his nose.

“Ugh!”

The distinctive smell of a decaying corpse emerged.

Giovanni turned over what had fallen into the rotten reeds. Chef Keychef wrinkled his forehead.

“A corpse drowned in water also has an unbearable smell, well.”

“…….”

“It seems difficult to bring it to the village, well, it might be better to bury it here and talk on the way back.”

“…….”

“Your Highness?”

Giovanni stared blankly at the corpse without saying anything. Chef Keychef, with a puzzled expression, alternately glanced at the corpse and Giovanni.

The corpse, soaked in water, was swollen. There were even traces of being bitten by fish, making it too gruesome to look at.
“Is there anything strange?”

Giovanni lifted the corpse from the water without saying a word.

From the head to the toes of the corpse, which must have been quite tall in life, he scanned it briefly and then straightened up.

“An agent.”

“What? The priest’s agent?”

Chef Keychef’s eyes widened as if about to pop out. Come to think of it, it resembled the impression he had heard from the villagers.

“No, why is he dead here? Could the priest have…?”

“He was murdered.”

With a nod from Giovanni, Chef Keychef knelt in front of the corpse, lifting the edge of the clothing.

Upon close examination, he could find a small wound on the chest. The wound was so small, and the swelling of the flesh made it difficult to spot.

The skill behind the injury was extraordinarily delicate.

Chef Keychef’s face quickly stiffened.

“Your Highness, this technique…”

Giovanni nodded.

“Yes. An assassin of the shadows.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️

How would you feel waking up and seeing a giant water snake coiled up on your bed?

“What is this?”

The snake was occupying the bed, avoiding the space where I lay, as if it had astoundingly avoided it.

I opened the drawer. I had an aquamarine that I had brought directly from the temple.

At first, I had no intention of stealing it.

“But once you hear that kind of story, you can’t help but bring it.”

Apparently, the water snake seemed to be attached to the aquamarine. A spirit… not a ghost.

“A spirit that dislikes humans.”