As expected, the sun rose. I caught a carriage and headed to the Royal Academy. I was determined to visit regularly until I got some information.
As I got off at the gate, the guard greeted me. It was the first time that had happened.
As I entered the integrated faculty room, there was a moment of silence. All eyes turned to me and then scattered. Then the room was filled with chatter again. Professor Oster smirked when he saw me but pretended not to know me.
I picked up a book and sat down on the sofa. The professors' eyes kept piercing me. I finally felt like I was out of the airlock.
I tried to remember if I had done anything that would be the talk of the town, but I couldn't find anything. I wondered if something had happened at the Royal Academy on the one day I hadn't been there because I was cleaning the house.
I decided to ignore the stares and opened the book. If there was something I needed to know, I would find out eventually. There was no need to get worked up about it in advance.
In conclusion, there was nothing new.
The professors kept glancing at me and whispering, but nothing more. There were still no professors assigned to teach me classes. No professors came up to me for a private conversation.
In the afternoon, I took a carriage home and Tan greeted me.
"Are you back?"
I laughed when I saw Tan poking his head out over the railing. His face and hair were covered in dust.
"You look like a dust fairy."
"I'm not a dust fairy, but I do seem to live somewhere in this house. Every time I go, I'm covered in dust. Thanks to you, I have a lot of laundry to do."
"Right. How long will it take you to wash and come out?"
"Are we going out to eat?"
Tan asked nervously. I smiled and shook my head.
"Today is payday. Do you want to eat out?"
"I'll pass."
As always, Tan came out of the bathroom surprisingly quickly. However, today his hair was half wet, as if he had hurried a little more. I told him he didn't have to rush, and he nodded.
"To eat at home, you have to rush, because the house elves won't have the food ready for you."
"We can just go to a restaurant."
"What's that? Is that like saying 'eat cakes if there's no bread'? Professor, you need to develop a sense of money."
I didn't pay attention to him because I heard this all the time. Tan frowned slightly but didn't complain any further.
We caught a carriage and headed to the workshop district.
The carriage we took this time must not have been serviced in a long time, as it was particularly bumpy. It was so bad that my tailbone was aching. My stomach was churning and I wanted to get off as soon as possible. Tan's expression wasn't so good either.
I don't know how far we had gone. Suddenly, the carriage lurched violently and tilted to the side.
Thanks to Tan quickly reaching out and wrapping his arms around me, I avoided hitting my head on the door. My heart was pounding. The carriage came to a stop.
"Just a moment."
Tan opened the carriage door and jumped out. Then he extended his hand. I took his hand and was barely able to get out of the carriage.
Only then could I see what had happened. The wheel axle must have broken, because the carriage wheel was pointing in a strange direction.
"I'm afraid it will be difficult to take you any further."
The coachman shook his head, his face grim.
I looked at the carriage for a moment. Then I took out a silver coin from my pocket and handed it to the coachman.
I knew now that a few coins would have been enough for the fare. But it would cost money to repair the carriage, and the coachman wouldn't be able to work in the meantime, so it was better to give him a little extra.
The coachman held out his hands and refused.
"You can just go. I wasn't able to take you to the place you said you were going......."
"I have to pay for the ride I've already taken. It looks like it will cost a lot of money to repair the carriage, so don't refuse and take it."
The coachman hesitated for a long time, looking at the silver coin. He glanced at Tan's expression, then looked back at me, and then at the coin again.
I looked at Tan. He had an uncomfortable expression on his face, but when our eyes met, he shrugged and took a step back. Only then did the coachman take the silver coin I had offered him.
"I will pray that God's blessing is always with you." he said.
"That's a good thing to say," I said, smiling.
The road was a mess, blocked by the broken carriage. It seemed like we would have to move a little bit to get a carriage.
Tan tilted his head.
"Are we taking another carriage? We're halfway there, let's just walk."
This was something I had never considered before.
I looked around quickly. I saw many people walking instead of taking carriages. It seemed like it would be a different experience. I carefully examined the path and pointed in one direction with my finger.
"Is this the way?"
"No, the other way."
Tan walked ahead.
It felt strange to be following someone's lead. I rummaged through my memories. Was this the first time?
It wasn't the first time at all. I had followed after my sister Louisiana as she searched the inside of Blasweitz Castle for the treasure hidden by the pirates. And I had also walked behind Her Majesty the Queen when I attended the hunting festival in the first year after receiving the title of Grand Duke.
Other than that, it was the first time.
"Professor?"
"Yes?"
"You keep falling behind. You'll get lost if you do that."
"It's not like we're in an underground labyrinth."
"If you could only get lost in the underground labyrinth of Palier, there wouldn't be a single missing person in the world."
Tan stopped and gestured for me to come over. When I stood next to him, he started walking again. We walked side by side, our shoulders brushing against each other. I felt a little like I was being treated like a child, but I didn't mind.
It was quite a walk to the workshop district. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.
The scenery was much better on foot than in a carriage. It was interesting to see the tall buildings and the people walking bustling down the street.
Tan noticed what I was looking at and occasionally gave me explanations. He was really knowledgeable. I was genuinely impressed.
"You're really smart."
"It's my job as a mercenary to travel around, and I hear things here and there as I go."
"Come to think of it, you knew about Hadaphloraboe too, right?"
"Well, yeah. Is it worth walking though?"
Tan scratched his neck lightly. It seemed he was embarrassed to be praised, so he tried to change the subject. I answered obediently.
"It's pretty good."
I thought maybe I could even walk to the Royal Academy.
If it had been Joshua's body, I would have spent hundreds of times the money I saved on carriage fares on medicine. But this body didn't seem like it would fall ill from walking a little too much. No, Professor Letier, who was always strapped for cash, might have been more used to walking.
It was a bit funny. I thought I was fully aware of the fact that I was in a different body, but I was still soaked in the habits of my previous life.
"Professor?"
"Yes?"
"Wait a minute."
Tan glanced around, then grabbed my arm and naturally turned into a side street.
It wasn't a road that carriages could go on. It was a bit wide to be called an alley.
Perhaps that's why there were stalls lined up along the road. There were shabby trinkets, crude paintings, suspicious-looking medicine bottles, and food I had never seen before. My steps naturally slowed down. Tan didn't rush me.
In the end, I stopped in front of a stall and picked up two fried buns. The stall owner split the buns on the spot, added finely chopped vegetables, and sprinkled sauce.
I handed one to Tan and took a bite of the other. The bread was soaked in oil and soggy, the vegetables were wilted, and the sauce was spicy, but surprisingly it was quite tasty.
I wiped the oil from my fingers with a handkerchief. I was carefully looking at the stalls to see what I would try next, when Tan pointed to one stall and said.
"Keep walking, Professor."
"Huh?"
"I think it'll be better that way. Nod your head now."
I obediently nodded my head at his words.
Tan walked slowly and mingled with the people. I carefully followed him, trying not to lose sight of him.
As several people squeezed between me and Tan, my field of vision narrowed. Just when I thought I was going to lose him, Tan grabbed my wrist and pulled me. He was bending over more than usual, so his eye level was similar to mine.
"Don't fall behind."
His voice was like that of a cat, its fur bristling and growling.
We continued walking.
Left, left, right, straight, then left again, right. It was enough to make me lose my sense of direction, even if I was paying close attention.
By the time we passed through a square with a half-naked male statue holding a water-spouting horn trumpet to the sky, I thought I knew why I was getting lost even in a place that wasn't an underground labyrinth.
Tan pressed himself close to the side of the street and then stepped into a narrow gap between two buildings. I followed him.
It was a space that was shaded and not easily visible to others. The back, which was only slightly visible, was open, so it seemed like we could escape if we pushed ourselves a little.
Tan released my wrist and glanced outside.
"Alright."
"What is?"
"We're being followed. And they're quite persistent."
"I don't think Albert Letier is such a great person to be followed."
"No one knows that for sure. Professor, didn't you say you lost your memory and woke up in an inn a while ago?"
Tan lightly pushed my back. It seemed like a signal to leave. I carefully stepped out. Unidentifiable things rustled under my feet.
"Well, it's not easy to surveil someone. It takes a lot of money and time, and there's a high risk of being caught by the other party, so it's not very efficient. Wouldn't it be better to just kidnap or kill them?"
"Anyway, we're being followed right now. Don't you have any idea who it might be?"
Jeffrey Orlando was the first name that came to mind. He was the director of the Royal Academy, and the one who had rushed to the police records office to look up Albert Letier's records.
Then I thought of the blonde woman who had been acting suspiciously in the three-story house.
To be honest, there were too many things that were starting to fit together. Isen Kruwe and John the Baptiste, who had looked at Albert Letier's file at the police station, 'Marie', who was rumored to be involved with Albert Letier... and then there was the person who had been constantly sending threatening notes to Albert Letier.
The saying that anyone can be a suspect is the same as saying that no one is a suspect. It wasn't information that was meaningful enough to share with anyone else. I shook my head without saying anything. Tan didn't ask any further questions.
As I walked out of the alley, I was covered in dust and cobwebs. A girl popped out between two buildings and her eyes widened when she saw me and Tan.
I looked around and the scenery looked strangely familiar. I could see a street with rows of stalls in the distance. It seemed that I had come full circle.
I burst out laughing.
"This is as much fun as the underground maze of Palier."
"You've been there?"
"In a book."
Tan looked just as bad as I did. The dirt that clung to his skin was more noticeable because of his dark complexion. I started to reach for my handkerchief, but then I remembered that I had used it to wipe the grease off my hands after eating the fried bread.
"Let's go."
Tan brushed the dirt off his clothes with his hands and then patted me on the shoulder. He looked completely unfazed.