/
Nowem’s eyes shot towards the fork that Elena was holding. It wasn’t a utensil made for the purpose of hurting another being. However, the several blades that stuck out from its ends were sharp enough to pierce into a small animal’s skin and rip through its muscles. As Elena’s hand moved, Nowem felt the fork move closer to him. Nowem looked towards Snoc and shouted.
Kooooooo!
Snoc clutched his head and wondered how all of this had happened. It had all started with mealtime. Since they couldn’t order Elena, who had just been kidnapped, to prepare the meal for them, Hans and Snoc cooked. Snoc had stayed in the secret base the longest, so he did most of the meal preparation. Although Elena had resisted greatly when she was getting kidnapped, she surprisingly began to cooperate once they succeeded in imprisoning her. That was why they left their guard down.
Nowem sat on top of the table, sniffing in anticipation for his own meal. At that moment, Elena approached the table. Even if she was kidnapped, she was only forbidden from going outside. She could freely wander inside, and both Snoc and Nowem thought she came closer to the table to have her meal. Like they expected, she pushed her chair backwards like she was going to take her seat. However, they didn’t expect her to do what she did next.  Nowem tapped the table with his front paws and chirped, “Koo Koo!” happily when Elena snatched him up. Then, with her other hand, she picked up the fork on the table…and that was how the current situation came to be.
Snoc stared at Elena. She looked extremely wary.
“D-Don’t think I can’t do it! I’m not in the position to consider this and that! I can really pierce him!”
Koooooo! As the fork came closer to him, Nowem screamed even louder. Snoc sighed and asked, “What is it that you want?”
“Release me!”
‘As expected,’ Snoc thought. It was actually a stupid question to ask. After all, what else would a forcefully captured person want? However, he couldn’t fulfill her request.
“I can’t.”
“Ugh!”
When Snoc firmly shook his head, Elena bit her lips sharply. The fork edged towards Nowem a bit more.
“I-I am really going to pierce him!” Even as she said this, the hand holding the fork trembled like mad. Besides, her hand didn’t shake because Snoc intimidated her.
‘Taking a life isn’t easy.’ Even if her target wasn’t a human, taking a life would make even the most sane person feel reluctant. Furthermore, Nowem was a magical beast that had high intelligence and could understand human speech. On top of that, he was the one who had supplied Elena with mana and developed a connection with her.
“Stop it. There’s nothing you can gain from this.”
“I will at least be able to get out of this place!”
“Do you think you can really kill Nowem?”
Elena couldn’t answer.
“As you know, Nowem is a magical beast of the earth. Most knights or even mages can’t handle such a power. You must also know what kind of existence he is.”
Elena knew about the magical beast of the earth well enough to know that Nowem was one by first sight. She knew for sure that he wasn’t a being that she could beat with just a fork. Even though her fork shook, Elena was only able to hold it in the first place because Nowem didn’t consider Elena as his enemy. If Nowem truly thought of her as an enemy, she would’ve died instantly. However, Elena couldn’t simply back off.
“…I don’t know what you guys will do by using me. If you cause any harm to my grandpa and dad…” Her eyes turned sharp, and Snoc clicked his tongue inside his mind.
‘I did hear that she had quite a personality,’ Snoc thought. If he didn’t think of something, it seemed like she would take her own life.
“…To tell you the truth, I don’t really know the exact plan either.” Snoc shrugged, “But I’m sure you won’t be hurt at least.”
“How can I believe you!”
“If Ms. Lyla told you the same thing, would you believe her?”
Elena’s body froze and her pupils shook. “…Ms. Lyla is also involved in this?” In the corner of her heart, Elena knew this truth. She had met Snoc through Zich and Lyla’s introductions; thus, there was a high possibility that if Snoc had kidnapped her, those two would be involved too. However, she tried to turn her mind away from that possibility as much as she could. She wished and hoped that Hans and Snoc had acted on their own. She didn’t want to accept the fact that Lyla might have betrayed her, and Snoc’s words crushed her last remaining hope.
“Let me tell you before you misunderstand. Ms. Lyla didn’t betray you. You know it too, right? She treasures you so much.”
“Then why would she do this to me!” Elena screamed. Her voice was thoroughly mixed with rage and a sense of betrayal.
Snoc replied calmly, “It’s to protect you.”
Elena’s body stiffened at the unexpected response.
“Like I told you before, I don’t know the specifics, but I know there’s some kind of scheme involving you that is ongoing inside this city. Sir Zich is trying to dig it out right now.”
“Are you telling me to believe that?”
“You know there was that mysterious group of people who tried to kidnap you.”
Elena remembered the group of robed figures who kidnapped her at the mansion.
“Under Sit Zich’s orders, we’ve been surveilling your mansion since he told us about the possibility of you getting kidnapped.”
“…But those guys could be working with you all.”
“Do you think we would kill all of them then?”
“…”
As if Snoc had managed to somewhat persuade her, Elena’s grip on Nowem loosened a bit. Nowem let out a sigh of relief. Although there was a gap to escape out of, Nowem didn’t attempt to free himself. In the first place, he could’ve escaped if he really wanted to.
“Sir Zich told us to show you this if you still doubted us after I explained everything.” Snoc took out something from his belongings and threw it at Elena. Elena staggered a bit by the sudden action. Her hands floundered in the air but failed to catch what Snoc threw at her.
Koo!
Nowem freed himself from Elena’s loosened arm and flew into the air. He coolly caught the item with his mouth and landed on Elena’s shoulder.
Koo! Koo!
Nowem pushed the item onto Elena’s shoulder to tell her to take it. Elena was taken aback by the magical beast’s kindness even though he was a hostage just a moment ago. Inthe end, she made a small nod and took the item.
“This is…”
“It’s the brooch of a Karuwiman Honorary Knight.”
Elena opened her eyes wide. “An Honorary Knight?”
Elena also knew about the Karuwiman Honorary Knights. She quickly scanned the broach. “…Is this real?”
“It’s real.”
“Who’s the Honorary Knight?”
“Sir Zich.”
Elena narrowed her eyes. “…Mr. Zich?”
“I know. It’s a bit hard to believe.” Snoc was one of the closest people who saw and experienced Zich’s personality first hand. Snoc also fully realized and admitted that Zich’s personality was very far off from the images that people had when they thought of Karuwiman Honorary Knights.
“However, it’s for real. Even though Sir Zich’s personality is really bad, he’s only bad to bad guys. He also received the title as Karuwiman Honorary Knight when he helped the Karuwimans raid the Bellids.”
However, the suspicion in Elena’s eyes didn’t disappear. Snoc thought that her suspicions were very unfair. “It’s for real! The Saint gave it to Sir Zich herself!”
“The Saint? You’ve met the Karuwiman Saint?” Elena began to show a bit of interest.
At Elena’s curiosity, Snoc was so happy that he felt like a prey that finally found an escape route at the last moment. He briefly told Elena about the adventures he went through with Zich.
“…Something like that happened?”
“Yeah. I was mostly talking about myself and my senior, Mr. Hans. We are pretty strong, but Sir Zich and Ms. Lyla are really on a different level.”
‘Now that I think about it, these people were travelers.’ Even though Elena had been kidnapped by Snoc and Hans and was now in an unknown location, she couldn’t stop her curiosity from rising up. She wanted to listen to more of Snoc’s journey.
‘…Should I trust him for now?’
Of course, Elena didn’t have that thought just because she wanted to listen to Snoc’s traveling stories. If she looked at her situation objectively, she couldn’t think of any possible way to get out of this place. Moreover, it was true that her heart felt a bit more relaxed with the Karuwiman Honorary Knight broach in her hand.
“…Fine. I’ll believe you for now.” Elena gripped Nowem on her shoulders and carefully held him over the table.
Koo!
Nowem jumped off from her hand and landed on the table. Snoc also felt relieved. ‘I was worried about trying to get her to believe in us, but everything seemed to have turned out well.’
Even Snoc hadn’t expected Elena to hold Nowem hostage in the beginning.
“I mean it’s not really payment for kidnapping me, but can you tell me stories about your travels?”
“That won’t be hard.” Snoc nodded his head. “Ah, now that I think about it, Ms. Lyla told me to tell you something.”
“Tell me something?”
“She told me to tell you to keep practicing magic by using Nowem’s mana and get used to using mana in general.”
“…Yeah. It’s not good to take breaks when studying.” Elena couldn’t completely trust in Zich and his companions yet, but Elena couldn’t stop herself from smiling at the thought of Lyla telling her to continue her magic studies.
“I got it. For a while, I’ll just focus on studying magic.”
“Then are you finished with accepting your situation?”
“For now.”
“That’s fine.” Snoc left the table for a bit and brought the food he prepared. While setting the food down on the table, he said, “Then let’s eat first.”
*     *     *
While Snoc and Elena’s conflict calmed down, the commotion in Sunewick increased exponentially. Questions surrounding Elena’s disappearance and the mysterious corpses exploded in magnitude.
Rumors began to spread even outside the magical tower, and everyone in Sunewick gathered together in duos or trios were busy gossiping about Elena’s kidnapping and the mysterious corpses. All kinds of speculations and rumors spread around the city.
Zich and Lyla returned to their lodging. During the day, they pretended to search for Elena and looked all over the city. Of course, Elena was never found. However, since they still hadn’t resolved the conflict with Mawin Jaewick, Zich and Lyla had to make sure to notify a guard sent by the magical tower every time they returned to their lodging.
After the guard made sure they didn’t run away, Zich and Lyla walked up to their rooms. Then Lyla went to Zich’s room.
“What are you doing?” Lyla had come to discuss their future plans, and asked this question when she saw that Zich was writing something.
Zich grinned. Lyla was able to instantly recognize this grin; what Zich was doing right now was definitely immoral.
“You know how we kidnapped Elena?” Zich said while clapping his hands as if he was a prankster bragging about a small prank he pulled off.
“Yeah. Sunewick is in an uproar right now because of that.”
“When kidnappings happen, kidnappers usually blackmail the people related to the victims and not the victims themselves. It’s a hostage situation. Think about it, Lyla. Right now, rumors and all kinds of speculations are being formed about the ‘kidnapping of the master of the magical tower’s granddaughter’. Nothing about the identity of the kidnappers, the kidnappers’ intentions, or the mysterious corpses outside of the city and their connections to the kidnappers have been revealed. Right now, Elena’s family, the mastermind of this plan, and everyone related to this plan are probably employing every means possible to find just one clue to Elena’s disappearance. Then what needs to appear at this time?”
“What is it?”
Zich flapped the paper he was writing on and said with a very self-satisfied tone, “It’s time for a blackmail letter to appear.”