That put an end to the topic.
Gojo told ili to get word to Elsa fast, have her follow their Dragon Carriage out of the capital. Better that than leaving her alone to stumble into the Sin Archbishop of Lust.
ili did as she was told and released the bird again.
The rest took care of itself.
As a top-tier assassin with bounties across half a dozen nations, Elsa could handle logistics of this scale without breaking a sweat.
By the ti they reached the great tree, she'd have caught up.
The only loose end was Reinhard. Soone needed to warn him first.
Otherwise the mont he laid eyes on Elsa, there was a real chance she'd be cut down on sight.
Elsa was no slouch, but Gojo had no illusions about her odds against the Sword Saint.
The small bird took wing and vanished, carrying its ssage.
The carriage rolled on.
The whole exchange barely registered on anyone's face.
A Sin Archbishop might be the stuff of nightmares for most people.
For Gojo and the rest, they'd beco a workaday nuisance.
This wasn't their first rodeo with the Witch Cult's leadership either. If Gluttony hadn't been quick on its feet, Gojo's personal count would already be at three.
One more wasn't going to ruin his week.
The Dragon Carriages trundled on through most of the day, and evening was settling in by the ti they pulled up beneath the Flugel Tree.
A full day on the road.
Even a body made of iron would've been rattled loose by then.
And this was a nobleman's carriage, with decent cushioning if no proper suspension.
A rchant's carriage would've been considerably worse.
The mont the wheels stopped, everyone piled out to stretch.
Gojo was working a crick out of his back when Reinhard ca up beside him.
"Gojo. Soone's been tailing us."
The comnt made him pause mid-stretch.
His senses are sharper than I gave him credit for.
He clapped Reinhard on the shoulder.
"Relax, don't worry about it. The person behind us is with us."
"Just wanted to flag it now, so nothing ugly happens later."
"With us?"
Reinhard looked puzzled.
He'd known Felt and her circle long enough by now. Aside from Gojo, Subaru, and the familiar faces, he hadn't heard ntion of anyone else.
"Yeah. And you've actually t her before. She and you might not make the easiest housemates, though."
Gojo shrugged and scanned the line of carriages parked nearby. Found what he was looking for quickly enough.
"Co on. I'll introduce you. Try to stay calm."
"Do I strike you as soone prone to losing his temper?"
Reinhard's smile was gentle, faintly amused.
"Well, no."
They set off together toward the far end of the clearing, where a single carriage sat apart from the others.
Unlike the rchants' carriages, which had clustered together for safety, this one stood alone at the edge of the road.
As for how Gojo had picked it out of the crowd, the answer was simple enough.
ili's little bird was perched on the roof.
He rapped on the side of the carriage. "Co on out. Ti to et the Sword Saint of Lugunica."
The door swung open. A striking, sultry face appeared in the gap.
The instant Reinhard saw her, his brow tightened.
He had a mory like a steel trap when it ca to wanted criminals, and this face was a match for a na that appeared on bounty notices in half a dozen kingdoms: Elsa, the Bowel Hunter.
"Being looked at so closely by the Sword Saint himself. Honestly, it's rather unsettling."
Elsa stepped down from the carriage with a smile, that cool, faintly sweet scent drifting around her.
"Bowel Hunter."
Reinhard nad her without hesitation and slid a look sideways at Gojo, a whole question riding behind it.
If mory served, this was the sa woman who'd hired Felt to steal Emilia's insignia. The sa one who'd nearly killed them all that night.
How had she ended up here?
"It's a bit of a long story. But if you want the short version, we lted her heart with love. She's one of us now."
Gojo spread his hands.
"With love?"
Reinhard's expression turned complicated.
As a prolific assassin, she didn't strike him as the sort of person who'd be turned by love. The claim strained credulity, to put it kindly.
"That's right."
Gojo nodded with a straight face.
Strictly speaking, it wasn't even a lie. Working with Elsa's desire to protect ili. Wasn't that a form of love, in its own twisted way?
It just didn't fit most people's definition.
"Up until now she's been stationed in the capital, gathering intel on the other Royal Candidates."
"Reason we brought her along this trip is that the Sin Archbishop of Lust has taken an interest in her. All those earlier assassination jobs were Lust's work. The whole guild of killers was her operation."
Gojo summarized it in a few brisk sentences.
Reinhard's brows rose a fraction.
"Another Sin Archbishop?"
"Yeah. Feels like we kicked over a hornet's nest. One after another, they just keep showing up. Really starting to grate."
Gojo shrugged, tired of it.
"I see. That explains matters."
Reinhard gave Elsa a long, considering look, but didn't pursue the subject of her past any further.
She'd been an assassin, a wanted criminal. That didn't an the door to change was closed to her.
She was Felt's now. As long as she stayed with them, her chances of slipping back into old habits were slim.
"All right. Problem solved. You don't have to worry about bumping into Reinhard and getting cut in half."
"Gojo, your misunderstanding of only seems to deepen with ti."
"What? Am I wrong? You've always struck as the zealous sort about evil."
"Well, yes, but..."
Watching the two of them with their arms thrown around each other's shoulders, Elsa's lips curled into a small, private smile.
"In that case, may I go see ili?"
"Of course. Ride with us from here on. Might be a bit cramped, but you can just hold her on your lap."
"Gladly."
With the matter settled, Gojo led Elsa back toward their own carriage.
The mont Felt saw Elsa, her eyes darted to Reinhard, then back to Gojo, the question plain on her face. How did you manage to put those two in the sa room?
"Already introduced, all cleared up. No issues."
Gojo flashed a thumbs-up and a bright, wide grin.
"Good. Last thing I want is having to play referee between you two."
Felt scratched at her hair. Interpersonal politics was her least favorite territory.
Her growing inner circle was starting to look lopsided. Fighters, fighters, more fighters. Gojo, Reinhard, Betty, Elsa...
And on the administrative side? Not a single soul.
Lucky Gojo was willing to pick up the slack, or this would already be a nightmare.
"Right, since we've sorted that out, let's get dinner going."
"I've been craving that White Whale from last ti, honestly."
Gojo patted his stomach and pulled a tin of biscuits from the drawer under Betty's seat, helping himself.
"You! Hoarding sweets and not saying a word!"
"Would've been gone in five minutes if I'd ntioned it."
Laughing and bickering, the group climbed down and started preparing dinner.
The head chef was, needless to say, Reinhard.
Once anyone tasted his cooking, the role settled on him by silent agreent.
While Reinhard worked over the fire, Gojo glanced over at Elsa and ili, who were sitting side by side and looking more like sisters than anything else.
"All this noise about the Witch Cult lately. Your mother still has the nerve to co pay us a visit?"
Elsa blinked slowly, her red lips keeping that faint trace of a smile.
"She will."
"It's not just her. For a Sin Archbishop, fear isn't really part of the vocabulary. What matters is whether it aligns with the Gospel, or with their own will."
"Which translates to whether they feel like doing it."
"Which also suggests that the Sin Archbishop of Gluttony, last ti around, was just stopping by for the show?"
Gojo stroked his chin, rolling the mory over.
Sha Roswaal wasn't here this ti.
He'd have paid good coin to see the man's face when a Sin Archbishop turned up uninvited on his doorstep.
The al was simple. Afterward they gathered around the fire and bedded down for the night.
The night passed without incident.
By dawn they were back on the road.
The Dragon Carriages swayed onward, and by midday they'd passed through Arlam Village and rolled up to Roswaal's mansion.
"Ram-chan, we're back!"
Gojo bounded down from the carriage and hollered toward the house.
He'd lived here long enough to feel at ease shouting at the front door.
Only, his voice got no answer.
"Hey, Rem, looks like your big sister's slacking off."
He turned to Rem as she climbed down behind him.
"Excellent people are always slandered."
Rem delivered it flat, then walked up to the door, pulled out a key, and turned the lock.
"I don't know if slander's the right word. Look at the garden, the hedges are a ss."
Gojo pointed past her at the overgrown beds.
"My sister just isn't gifted with plants."
Rem kept the defense locked in. No one was allowed to breathe a word against her sister.
Then the door swung open, and the entrance hall fell quiet.
A frad painting lay on the floor of the corridor, coated in dust.
Pieces of a shattered decorative vase were scattered beside it.
The banister of the grand spiral staircase in the main hall wore a thin gray film, and the windowsills were worse.
Compared to the mansion they'd left behind, the place was unrecognizable.
"Ahem."
Gojo coughed twice and said nothing further.
Lies don't hurt people. The truth cuts.
Rem stood frozen for a beat, her brow drawing tight. Her eyes swept the hall as if searching for her sister, or perhaps casting around for any plausible excuse.
"The mansion is quite large. It must be difficult for Ram to manage alone."
Emilia, ever kindhearted, stepped forward to throw her a rope.
"Exactly, looking after a place this size single-handed, of course you'd fall behind."
Nobody needed to turn around to know who'd chid in with such speed. Subaru, who else.
"My, are Rem and Lady Emilia ho?"
An unfamiliar voice drifted down from the second floor.
Heads turned toward the sound. A maid ca down the stairs, tall and imposing in her uniform, and her expression flickered with surprise at the size of the crowd in the foyer.
She hurried the rest of the way down and dropped into a polite bow.
"A pleasure to et you. I am Frederica Baumann, head maid of the Mathers family. Welco."
"Head maid?"
"She wasn't here before, was she?"
"I don't rember anyone ntioning her, either."
Gojo and Felt exchanged curious murmurs.
Frederica caught the comnt and offered a small, courteous smile. "I took a three-month leave for personal reasons. It must have been during that ti that all of you were guests here."
"Frederica. Where's my sister?"
Rem fixed her with a worried look.
"Ram is currently at the Sanctuary with Lord Roswaal."
"The Sanctuary?"
Another term none of them had heard before.
What actually caught Gojo's attention, though, was the absence of any ntion of domain business.
"I thought Roswaal went to et with the village elders and handle the Witch Cult situation out in his territory. Since when does Sanctuary co into it?"
As far as he was concerned, Roswaal's every move carried the faint hum of an ongoing sche. The man bore watching.
"You don't know what the Sanctuary is?"
Betty tilted her head up at him.
"Why would I know sothing like that?"
"I lived here for a while, not my whole life. I don't have the place morized."
"Hmph. I rather thought, given your personality, you'd have nosed your way into every room in the mansion by now. Poked through everyone's private affairs."
Every pair of eyes in the room shifted toward Gojo. The expressions ranged from skeptical to openly entertained.
"Hey hey hey. This is slander. Pure slander."
"Then don't go barging into the Forbidden Library the way you did."
Betty shrugged, entirely unbothered.
"The Forbidden Library isn't actually far. It's inside the Cremaldy Forest, just a short distance from the mansion."
...
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