♚Chapter 3: The Hunter and the Hunted
THE rain stopped overnight in the imperial capital. But it lasted long enough to wash off the missing person posters posted around the slums.
The same held true of the poster Rock had put out in front of her shop. She saw it on the ground when she came to work the next morning and rehung it after laying it out in the sun to dry. The drawing of Krister’s face had become too blurred to make out, and the letters were just barely legible.
Missing: Krister Gionet
28-year-old male
Slender, silver hair, charcoal-black eyes
His whereabouts remained a mystery.
Meanwhile, Rock’s life had changed slightly. She moved into Phoebe’s apartment the day after they’d visited Krister’s hovel.
“I just think things are getting dangerous.”
Phoebe seemed even more worried about his daughter after searching Krister’s house. As it was, they’d already discussed moving in together. They just didn’t have the time to look for a new place after the chaos caused by the whole Krister ordeal.
Rock wholeheartedly approved of living with her father after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow tailor happening right after he’d accepted a suspicious order from an unknown customer.
They were currently in the process of moving a few of her things into his place at a time. It was impossible to bring all her stuff when Phoebe lived in a one-bedroom apartment. So their official move was postponed to a later date when things settled down enough to look for a bigger place. Rock would be stuck paying Lady Trilian rent until then, but desperate situations called for desperate measures.
Both father and daughter decided to put their personal safety above everything else for the time being.
Setting aside the circumstances that led to the move, living together was actually a lot of fun and peaceful.
It went without saying Phoebe was an excellent cook. He’d always bring Rock food whenever she got overly busy with work, but now that they were living together, she was treated to his cooking every day. There was no greater bliss than no longer having to go to bed hungry after a tiring day at work.
“Couldn’t you have become a master chef, Father?” Rock asked, patting her full belly after dinner.
A scowl spread across Phoebe’s makeup-less face.
“Yuck! I don’t want to cook for some stranger.”
“Really? Why not?”
“I only enjoy cooking when it’s for myself and family,” Phoebe replied sheepishly.
Rock thought it was a waste of his talent but also understood the sentiment.
“Did you often cook for Mother too?”
“Yeah, you could say that. Whoever was free at the moment cooked when we were living together.”
Phoebe always became a little embarrassed and shy when talking about the past.
The time Rock’s father spent with her mother was undeniably a happy memory for him, regardless of how their relationship started and ended. Rock loved knowing that and seeing her father’s bashful side.
“Which one of you was the better cook?” she asked next.
Naturally, she’d eaten home cooking from both her parents. She knew the answer but wanted to know what her father would say.
Phoebe glared at her to hide his awkwardness, just as she expected.
“Not telling.”
“Wow, that’s not fair! I can’t believe you won’t tell your own daughter!”
“It’s no use trying to make fun of your parents, Roxy.”
His big hand ruffled her wine-colored hair. She giggled from the ticklishness, drawing a lopsided grin out of Phoebe.
“C’mon, get to reading that letter already.”
He jerked his chin toward a single envelope sitting on top of the dining table.
The letter had been delivered to Floria Clothes Shop during the afternoon, and the sender was Ebel. It remained unopened with the red wax seal intact. She’d had too many customers during the afternoon to read it.
Urged on by her father, Rock picked up the letter and sat with it on the sofa. Phoebe peered over the backrest just as she pulled the stationery out of the envelope.
“Did he finish it off with, ‘Love always’?”
“Gah! Father! Don’t look!” Rock cried.
Phoebe howled with laughter after getting a rise out of his daughter.
“I won’t. I’ll be in my room. Call if you need anything,” he said, his nightgown fluttering as he turned to go to his bedroom.
Was he trying to get back at me for teasing him about Mother earlier? Laughing dryly, Rock returned her attention to the letter.
Ebel’s elegant handwriting filled the page.
He wrote her to discuss two things. The first asked her about what day and time would be best for her to visit his father’s grave.
The second was about Krister Gionet. He wrote:
“I came across some disturbing information while looking into Krister. I want to discuss it with you in person, so please visit my residence with Phoebe.”
“It seems like he found out something about Krister,” Rock called out to Phoebe, who’d retreated into the other room. Her father sat beside her on the sofa once she’d folded up the letter and put it back in the envelope.
“What did he find out?”
“He didn’t say. Maybe it’s something he couldn’t tell us by letter.”
He didn’t even hint at whether it was good or bad news. But after all they’d gone through to find out more, Rock wanted to know the truth, whatever it may be.
“I tried looking into it too, but got nothing.”
Rock had scrutinized every corner of Krister’s sales ledger. However, not only was there nothing to bring the customer’s identity to light, but it also didn’t give away any reason Krister might’ve disappeared.
There was only one thing that stood out as suspicious.
She found traces of a mistake being blotted out on the entry referring to the order of thirty robes. Several letters had been painted over just before it said “Blue Cloth Robes.”
If the passage was written with a pen, it could’ve just been an ink stain, but Krister used the charcoal pencil to write in his ledger too.
He’d probably written something by mistake right before “Blue Cloth Robes.”
“If only I knew what he’d written…” Rock groaned.
Unfortunately, there was no way to read the painted-over letters.
Rock had no choice but to put her hope in the information Ebel had obtained now that her own search had hit a wall.
“But boy, we sure seem to have a lot of business in the aristocrat district lately,” Phoebe said with a dry laugh. “I never thought I’d roam those parts for anything other than business.”
It certainly seemed strange that Phoebe had fallen in love with an aristocrat’s daughter when he put it that way. Rock had heard the story of how her mercenary father and low-ranking noble mother had met and struggled to be together.