Chapter 69

I was just about to head to bed when the sound of knocking burst into the room. It was polite, yet firm—the kind of knock that signaled an urgent matter.

“Come in.”

The door wasn’t locked.

“Pardon the intrusion.”

Rick, with whom I’d had that one-sidedly awkward parting just two hours ago, entered the room.

“Rick? Did something happen?”

“Yes.”

His demeanor as the perfect butler had crumbled slightly; anxiety was visible on his face, and his eyes were darting restlessly.

“Regardless, please come to the dining room. Several guests have already gathered. I will go and notify the others.”

Rick spoke only that much, clearly too pressed for time to offer a full explanation, and hurried out of the room.

When I arrived at the dining room, everyone was already there except for Django, Watch, Kirio, and, of course, Rick.

“Ah, Van.”

Kirio appeared, dressed in cherry-blossom pink pajamas. It looked like she had been sound asleep.

“What is it? What’s going on?”

She rubbed her eyelids, still looking half-asleep.

“I have no idea.”

I could only give her a non-committal answer.

“What on earth is the meaning of this?”

Finally, Watch entered the room, with Rick following behind him. Watch was dressed only in a navy-blue robe—evidently his sleepwear—but he was still carrying his spear. I suppose it’s a case of “always on the battlefield.”

“Everyone, I apologize for gathering you while you were trying to rest,” Rick began to speak, so I instinctively cut in.

“Django isn’t here yet.”

The moment those words left my mouth, the air in the room froze.

“…The problem is Django,” Ray said heavily.

“A problem? Well, obviously. I’d have to be a problem for me to be dragged out of bed just as I was trying to sleep; even someone as mild-mannered as I am would get angry at that.”

Bob shook his head exaggeratedly, his curly hair flying everywhere.

I felt like asking everyone in the room to reach a consensus on the definition of “mild-mannered,” but given the circumstances, I—and everyone else—simply let it slide.

“So, what is the problem?”

When Kirio asked, the faces of Ray, Yazaki, Rose, Hauser, and Rick all clouded over.

In other words, those five already knew something of what was going on.

I watched the events unfold, observing them secretly.

“Van, do you remember?” Ray suddenly spoke up.

“Eh?”

“What I discussed with you earlier. I told you I didn’t understand Django’s objective.”

“Oh, right. That.”

“Afterward, I thought of one possibility. A simple objective—one very much like that man.”

“Yeah?”

Where was he going with this?

“Hey, get to the point already,” Bob demanded accurately, his irritation showing.

“In short, I considered that Django’s goal might be to escape. To say he’d reveal everything at this hideout, and then simply vanish—discarding this laboratory and his subordinates alike. In exchange, he’d keep the compass, its secrets, his own life, and his vital information. He would surely have a spare hideout or two prepared.”

“And?”

Neitz urged him on with an attitude that didn’t exactly scream “loyal employee,” though I understood how she felt.

“Thinking that, I circled the perimeter of this laboratory to confirm there were no hidden exits, and then I stood guard beside the main entrance. I didn’t even return to my room.”

“Wait, really? Wow, you’re a real workaholic,” Neitz remarked, sounding strangely impressed. “By the way, when you say ‘beside the entrance,’ do you mean inside or outside?”

“Outside, naturally. That way, even if Django escaped through an undiscovered tunnel, I’d have a higher chance of noticing.”

“Yikes…” Neitz actually recoiled.

“So? What of it?” Watch pressed on, remaining strictly calm.

“This was immediately after dinner and my conversation with Van. First, I want you all to keep in mind that the entrance to this laboratory has been under my watch ever since then.”

“Assuming what you’re saying is the truth, of course,” Bob muttered.

Bob interjected with a mix of ridicule, though I had a feeling his point hit the mark.

“I will take over the explanation from here,” Rick said, picking up the thread.

“After I finished clearing up dinner, I remained in the dining room until the very end. Master Van was the last to leave; I exited the room about ten minutes after him. When I reached the hallway, I saw Master Django heading up the stairs. At the time, I simply assumed he had some business on the upper floors.”

“I needed to speak with Django regarding our research,” Rose spoke up next. “I visited his room, only to find he wasn’t there.”

“I helped her search after that,” Hauser spat out, his face looking several shades grumpier than usual.

“He’s nowhere to be found. Django is gone.”

Finally, the gravity of the problem became clear.

“Oh my,” Lirina chimed in with a strangely carefree voice.

“What do you mean ‘gone’? Surely—” Bob started to say something, but Hauser cut him off.

“Given the layout of this laboratory, there’s no way they could have missed each other. It’s a single path. Rose has the keys to every room in this facility, so she checked every single one as she worked her way to the top floor. He isn’t there,” Hauser declared, maintaining his surly attitude.

“And,” Ray added, clinching the argument, “even in the unlikely event that he somehow slipped past Rose and the others while they were searching, he couldn’t have left the building. Because I was out there.”

“I checked the first-floor rooms while calling out to everyone just now, but Master Django was nowhere to be found,” Rick added.

At Rick’s words, a heavy silence finally fell over the group.

Essentially…

“Django has vanished,” I concluded.

“I would like to perform a final confirmation with all of you now,” Rick said. “I don’t think it’s likely, but the possibility that Lady Rose or I missed something isn’t zero.”

“An even bigger problem,” Ray said, raising his voice, “is that the compass has disappeared along with Django. It seems he kept it on him at all times.”

We spent the next while scouring every inch of the laboratory, sometimes working together and sometimes splitting up. We checked everywhere—from the chemical storage rooms we couldn’t enter during the tour to laboratories filled with equipment I’d never seen before.

But there was no sign of Django. No shadow, no shape, not a single trace.

Ray, in particular, seemed more concerned about the whereabouts of the compass than the man himself, searching every nook and cranny.

As we searched, I began to piece together everyone’s testimonies. While no one had been tracking the exact time, a general timeline surrounding Django’s disappearance took shape:

7:00 PM: Dinner ends. Almost everyone leaves the dining room immediately. Kirio, Ray, and I remain.

Approx. 7:05 PM: Ray and Kirio leave. Rick arrives to clean up just as they exit.

Approx. 7:10 PM: I leave the dining room. At this point, Ray goes outside, circles the building, and takes up his post at the entrance.

7:20 PM: Rick leaves the dining room. He spots Django heading up the stairs. No one else sees Django between the end of dinner and this moment.

8:00 PM: Rose visits Django’s room and finds it empty. She encounters Rick in the hallway (who is performing maintenance) and learns Django went upstairs. Rose heads to the second floor, checking rooms as she goes. Since only Rose and Django hold the keys, she felt compelled to check every locked door.

8:30 PM: The initial search ends. Rose returns to the first floor, confirms Django’s room is still empty, and asks Rick and Hauser if they’ve seen him. She even checks Hayanosin’s room on the off chance Django is there. No one knows anything. Rose steps outside and encounters Ray, who also hasn’t seen Django.

8:45 PM: Rose, Rick, and Hauser perform a thorough search of the second floor, third floor, and the roof.

9:30 PM: As a final check, everyone is gathered in the dining room while Rick does one last sweep of all rooms.

Which brings us to right now.

“Is it possible he jumped off the roof?” Kirio asked, sipping the hot tea Rick had prepared once we returned to the dining room.

“From that height?” Ray countered. “It would be difficult to land uninjured, and it’s unlikely I wouldn’t have noticed the sound or presence.”

“Maybe he climbed down the walls slowly to stay quiet?”

“On those walls with nothing to grip? Is there a human alive who could do that?”

At those words, Kirio slowly turned her gaze toward me. I looked back. We locked eyes. We both knew of at least one man with the superhuman physical and magical ability to pull off such an outlier stunt, but he was certainly the exception to every rule.

“However, if that’s the case, he has literally vanished into thin air,” Watch said, readjusting the spear on his shoulder. “Could he have slipped out while Ray was circling the building and the entrance was in a blind spot?”

“I’d have to disagree with that for two reasons,” Hauser said, holding up two fingers.

“First, I talked with the Old Man in the hallway for a bit after dinner, and he went back to his room first. While we were talking, I saw Mr. Ray leave the building. Since I went straight back to my room after that, the timing suggests that even if the Old Man bolted out immediately after I closed my door, Mr. Ray would have already been at the entrance.”

Hauser folded one finger down.

“Second, it’s simply unthinkable to travel through the Dark Forest at night. As you know, horses hate running through here in the dark. Going by foot isn’t an option either.”

“Unless he was marking his path grandly with torches or signs—in which case, I would have noticed,” Ray pointed out, settling the matter.

“Um…”

In place of the silent Watch, Neitz timidly raised her hand.

“What is it?” Ray, her employer, asked with a suspicious look. Her hesitant attitude was a far cry from her usual self, which felt distinctly out of place.

“This might be a really stupid, obvious question, but… can I ask?”

“Go ahead,” Rick encouraged.

“Did anyone check the building next door?”

At those words, everyone looked at each other. After a split second of silence, every single person stood up at once.