Since being recognized as the Baron of Creighton, Bake had been searching for Creighton’s belongings that had disappeared during that time and bought them. Among them, it was not surprising to find his father’s watch.

However, once he retrieved Creighton’s belongings, he proudly showed them to me. He always went to great lengths to win my favor.

But what if that wasn’t all?

If the reason Bake searched for Creighton’s long-lost items was not to win my favor but for another reason?

I reflexively touched the surface of the watch.

If this watch was one of the items Bake wanted to find, there must be a reason.

I chewed on my lower lip.

My mind was complicated. It seemed like I needed to reconsider my thoughts.

Firstly, Bake didn’t find the item he was looking for. However, it wasn’t that he didn’t find it, but it was intercepted in the middle.

If we think that way, even if he needed money, there was a reason why he couldn’t sell the watch.

If it was purely a cooperative relationship, there was no need to forcibly take away the watch in the middle. If it was just greed for money, there was no reason to keep the watch, which could be evidence, until the end.

Recalling the point when Duke Pieren found the springbar could provide an estimate of how long the person who attacked me had the watch.

Ultimately, no matter how much I thought about it, there was only one conclusion.

There was a secret inside my father’s watch.

A secret that could become a significant weakness for Bake.

“Have you dismantled everything inside the watch?”

“It was already dismantled. It seemed like it was forcibly taken apart, not the work of an expert.”

“Forcibly?”

“From the fact that the inside was empty, it’s likely that the item was removed.”

The watch, which I could easily hold in my hand, was small. There was a limit to what could be hidden inside it.

Even with that alone, the range of speculation was significantly reduced, but it still couldn’t clearly define what it was.

Above all, it was still speculation whether there was something inside the watch.

“Do you think there was something inside, Oppa?”

“He didn’t show any signs in front of us, but my father wouldn’t have been unaware that the situation was not going well. If he sensed something, he would have tried to do something.”

“If it were my father…”

I closed my eyes for a moment. It was to think from my father’s perspective.

Then suddenly, one thought came to me.

Father must have known Bake, right?

I stared at the watch again.

It was strange. If my father hid something in the watch, it couldn’t be Bake’s weakness.

“…Not Bake, but the royal family.”

“The royal family?”

“If my father sensed something and hid something, it would be an item related to the royal family. It could be related to the former Emperor… and maybe more.”

Perhaps, it could be even more than that.

At that time, how much did my father know? I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t get an answer unless I found out myself.
“I have to find the secret my father left behind somehow.”

“Where are you going?”

Before I could attempt to get up, Oppa grabbed me first.

“I need to hear the story from that guy.”

Although he told me to rest, I couldn’t stay still as long as there was a story to hear from that guy.

“I understand your feelings, but it’s not possible now. The story won’t be coherent when he’s under the influence of the drug.”

“Drug?”

As the bloodshot eyes came to mind, I involuntarily frowned.

Certainly, the eyes that looked down at me from the carriage weren’t in the right state—no, they weren’t in their right mind. Or rather, if their mind was in the right place, they wouldn’t have caused such an incident on the main street.

“He has been drinking a drink with hallucinogens for a long time. The symptoms of addiction are severe. He can’t distinguish between reality and hallucination properly.”

“….”

“The only words I could understand were mere threats to get alcohol.”

“So, there’s nothing we can hear from him?”

“Suspicion is reasonable. In fact, the symptoms worsened too quickly.”

“Worsened? How do you know that, Oppa?”

He was someone I was seeing for the first time. Oppa couldn’t have known him.

“Calix mentioned that. He said he had met him before.”

“He met him before? Wasn’t that quite recent?”

“It was relatively recent. However, at that time, it seems he wasn’t in this condition. He said he trembled, but he was more physically fit.”

“He was physically fit even though he had caused trouble on the main street?”

“The situation is the situation, so he might have increased the consumption due to being cornered. Still, it’s strange that the amount of intake increased even though he was in a dangerous situation.”

“So, there’s another reason?”

“If he felt danger, he would have left the capital first. If he had a situation where he held a weakness, he would have been more careful. But he didn’t do that.”

“He might have resisted being cornered.”

A cornered mouse will bite a cat. He might not have known that it was all over.

“But considering his past records, it’s a bit strange.”