Bad news(1)

Friday evening, 7:31 PM - Headquarters of the Killing Wind.

As we returned home, we observed a flurry of activity in the garden, with workers moving back and forth between their loading carts and the stables. They were transporting all sorts of materials, using lifters to move heavy loads. We made our way along the gravel path, steering clear of the workers, who were too absorbed in their tasks to pay us any attention.

"Who are all these people?" Edwoyn asked anxiously.

"Justine hired them with the money from your bounty to expand the stables. She wants to add a mezzanine, or something like that..."

As soon as we stepped onto the welcome mat, Justine called out to us from the kitchen, where she was tidying up "Hey, back already? How did your little outing go?"

"Uh, it was... how should I put it..." I hesitated, "very... constructive."

Edwoyn joined the boss as soon as he had finished removing his shoes in the hallway.

"With all due respect, assigning this mission to her was a very bad idea, madam. She nearly killed one of the restaurant’s clients with a dagger..."

The idiot’s whispering, though far from me, didn’t escape my ears.

"Are you kidding me! Can’t you keep your mouth shut? Have you already forgotten? They were trying to toy with us; it was self-defense! Is this how you thank me for defending you?"

Justine sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Aurora, he’s not wrong. Couldn’t you have threatened them with a restaurant utensil instead? Work weapons are meant... for work, precisely! Ah, I’ve tried everything; you’re really not cut out for social business…"

“It’s not my fault if people are so poorly educated!”

“You should be asking yourself if you’re the one attracting poorly educated people,” Justine reproached. “Was the outing worth it, or should I remove their names from the list?”

“No, no, we’re keeping them. The informant was unbearable, her information was overpriced, but she answered all the questions.”

“So what’s the problem?” the blonde insisted as she washed her hands.

“They asked me to pay in information of equal value when the topic became sensitive. Not to mention, they don’t certify the reliability of their information. We can only keep them as a backup if our other sources run dry; otherwise, we risk losing out.”

“I see, quite an unusual procedure… I’ll consider passing on our dubious information to them, since they’re not particular about quality. Can you now tell me what the real problem is?”

Once again, I had failed to deceive my mentor. We had lived together for far too long, and I realized that my half-truths no longer worked on her.

Fucking shit damn!

I rolled my eyes despite myself. No matter when I told her, the pain it would cause would be the same, so there was no point in delaying the inevitable.

“What have you learned?”

Justine had now lost all her cheerfulness and good humor. I had no choice, and I didn’t want to see her breaking down, piece by piece. She could sense it. This was not just any problem; it was very serious. I usually confided in her without hesitation, so my reluctance had set off alarm bells.

The noisy intervention of the many workers we had seen crossing the garden accentuated the silence in the house and, by extension, my awaited response. Justine had certainly chosen her moment to hire them well! Why did bad news always have to come from me? I didn’t want to be the one to extinguish the spark of life in her eyes.

Justine had always taken care of me. I owed her a debt. And yet, I was about to reopen terrible wounds etched in her soul. She had worked so hard to bury the past, only for it to come charging back.

The truth is always unpleasant to hear.

I finally gave in “She said that prohibited weapons are being sold at auctions reserved for nobles.”

“Ho-how is that possible? I thought—”

“You’re not mistaken,” I interrupted. “I was checking the state of the market as usual, just as a precaution, and found out they’re trying to relaunch the trade. They’re probably different from the first ones, though I have no idea. Let’s hope they’ve fixed the manufacturing defects…”

“Damn, that’s… worse than I imagined.”

Justine, who had been rinsing the sponge she used to scrub the sink, turned off the tap to let the silence fill the room. The situation was reaching its peak. After thinking for a moment, she suddenly opened the high cupboard where the oils were stored and grabbed a translucent bottle.

Your conclusion is to drown your fears with rum? Such professionalism, Justine!

The boss drank directly from the bottle’s neck and then wiped her mouth loudly with the back of her sleeve. As the intense acidity of the liquid took hold of her senses, she became exhilarated. I couldn’t tell if it was from joy or exhaustion.

“Uh… Is it normal for her to drink so much?” Edwoyn whispered, hiding behind his hand.

“No, it’s a very bad sign. Leave it, I’ll handle it,” I replied in the same tone.

“What else did they say?”

Still holding the bottle, Justine thought the worst was over. That the rest could slap her in the face and she wouldn’t feel it because her skin was already sore. I couldn’t say if she was right, as I had no sensitivity.

“Nothing. However, we might have a lead regarding Edwoyn’s magical malfunction.”

“That’s impossible!” she groaned. “We’re not out of the woods with so little information! I don’t want to spend the next ten years chasing after these damn weapons! I’m too old for this nonsense!”

You’re only twenty-six, you’ll be fine…

“We should come back and talk to her later; I’m not sure she’s in the mood to listen…”

“No worries, Edwoyn. It takes a lot more to finish her off.”

“I can hear you kids, you know? I want the rest of your report! I need to know what happened.”

“Let’s discuss this on the couch, alright? And how about you leave me that bottle before you end up with a headache?”

I crossed the room and smoothly slipped my arm around Justine’s shoulder. She clearly understood where I was going with this. She let me guide her, but when I tried to take the bottle from her, her hand remained firmly attached. The liquid inside didn’t sway, as our grips were roughly equal in strength.

“Let go of it right now. Drinking won’t give you more courage, nor will it help you forget.”

“Oh, come on, I know, it was just a sip!” she eventually relented. “Don’t I deserve some consolation after what you’ve told me? We’re going to have extra work, and it’s not even paid!”

“It’s you who wanted us to ‘bring justice’ in the first place, I’ll remind you!”

To end any temptation, I took the liberty of emptying the nearly full bottle of rum. After several rough and provocative swigs, I poured the rest down the sink without a second thought.

Justine gave me some very amusing expressions “Hey! What are you doing?! That’s really not fair! I was using that for cooking!”

“I don’t care, you shouldn’t have played with it!” I retorted, ignoring her.

Unlike Justine, alcohol had almost no effect on me, so I could do whatever I wanted.

I’m as free as the wind.

With this ridiculous scene over, we settled onto the two brown sofas and the small tufted armchair in the living room. Along the way, I grabbed a nearly blank notebook from the bookshelf. It would record all our leads regarding the prince’s case.

“We thought it might be a genetic disease, but apparently, what affects the Gasencourts are side effects of experimental magic designed to create enhanced humans. If there are answers, they’re in the ‘magical research’ section of the Court Academy. We should really consider checking it out one of these days…”

“What? At the Court Academy? No way. I don’t want to go on another suicide mission with three months of preparation. I’ve had my fill of the Capitol for the year, if you don’t mind.”

“Yet, you’ll have to come to terms with the idea because everything is pointing us toward that noble hole. It’s like the world revolves around the Capitol! It’s not a coincidence. And brace yourself because it gets even better: the Revolutionaries have attacked the royalty to prevent them from forming a military alliance with the Ocayo, can you believe that?”

“That’s not such a bad thing. Someone needs to stop their megalomaniac delusions before it blows back on us. The Revolutionaries can do whatever they want; we need to focus on eradicating those forbidden weapons. In that regard, check your information as soon as possible, because I won’t spend a low-fif without proof that we’re making progress in the right direction.”

“Really? You’re not more surprised than that? I didn’t see it coming myself. I would have leaned more toward a revenge story, given how things ended between them…”

Edwoyn interrupted us with a small voice “I—I think I know exactly why the Revolutionaries wanted me dead.”