Chapter 41: CH 39

After breakfast, Olivia and the others set out for the ruins.

With Tiana’s escape, the area around the ruins is now off-limits to the general public.

When they got off their carriage at the ruins, they saw a man rushing their way.

“Who is that?”

“He’s Nice the superintendent here.”

(TLN: Nice pronounces as Niece, it’s French I think.)

Cyrus answered Olivia in a whisper.

Nice was a thin man who’s around mid-thirty. He has brown hair which is common among the people here. He probably couldn’t sleep last night as they can all see the dark circles below his eyes.

“Nice, how are things going since last night?”

When Alan asked so as their representative, Nice simply haggardly shook his head.

After that, Nice guided them to the guard garrison building next to the prisoner’s building and urged them inside a small reception room with wooden tables and chairs set up inside.

“I’ve already sent out the guards to where the prisoner is likely to escape to but there’s still no sign of her, Your Highness…….”

Olivia also looked at the map. If the guards were dispatched to the area circled in this map then Tiana should be found already. The fact that she’s still missing means that she might have escaped the area before the checkpoints were erected but it’s unlikely for a woman to go that far with all the trees surrounding this place.

Even if she did escape the area, a woman in a prisoner uniform should have been spotted immediately since there’s a high wall along the Karzol border in the south and soldiers patrolling the town since last night.

“…….can you show me the sketch of the buildings in this area including the ruins and museum?”

Nice was puzzled at Olivia’s request.

“For the buildings and the ruins here, My Lady?”

“Yes. If you still can’t find her after setting up this many checkpoints then I think it’s possible that she might be hiding here somewhere.”

“Certainly, that might be the case.”

“Tiana is not all that strong after all. She shouldn’t be able to get far.”

Cyrus and Alan agreed with her opinion.

After Nice instructed his subordinates to bring them the sketch, Olivia then looked at the map and asked Nice for more details.

“Do you know when Tiana was last seen?”

“The last time our guard saw her she was spotted heading to her assigned work area after the lunch break, My Lady.”

“So she was seen entering the ruins, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Can you point me to the place Tiana was assigned to on this sketch?”

“It was to the left of the entrance so……I believe it is around this area.”

“Can I mark it down on this sketch?”

“Yes, of course.”

Nice answered so before handing her a bottle of ink and a pen. The bottled ink was mixed with red pigment.

After she circled the excavation area where Tiana was assigned to on the sketch, Olivia stood up.

“Please show me to Tiana’s room.”

Now not only Nice but also Cyrus and Alan were surprised.

“Olivia, that’s a building that houses the prisoners you know? It’s too dangerous.”

“That’s right, Olivia. We can’t let you……..”

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“By this time, I think that all the prisoners should already be out on the excavation site so I don’t think there’s any problem going there now though……”

Just because Tiana has escaped it doesn’t mean that the excavation work was put to stop. Nice still frowned at her request but when she said that she will only be taking a short look inside, he reluctantly agreed.

“You really are too curious for your own good. Ordinary ladies wouldn’t even want to step into a place like that and they would never dream of seeing a room a prisoner lives in you know.”

Alan sighs.

“But I still want to see it.”

“Haa……”

“Aniue, we need to quickly find Tiana so it’s fine isn’t it.”

Said Cyrus with a bitter smile.

The prisoner’s building Nice guided them to was cleaner than they had expected. Naturally, the place doesn’t have any kind of decorations and it’s a relatively small building but it appears that they are quite strict about the hygiene here.

Tina’s room is room [214] located on the second floor. Albeit small, each prisoner was allocated a personal room. It seems that it was a policy to avoid needless conflict between prisoners.

The only thing that resembles the furniture inside the room was a small bed and a small shelf next to it. The small box near the door was probably a trash can.

After seeing the room, they simply can’t imagine a fancy young lady like Tiana living in a place like this at all.

There were no unusual signs on her bed or the shelf so Olivia decided to take a look inside the trash can. Then, when she saw what was inside, her eyes immediately went round.

“Are the prisoners here usually provided with pen and paper?”

“Yes. We did not give them much but we did provide some so that they can write something back to their families.”

“I see……Even so, this room is quite dark isn’t it. Even if you got a pen and paper, it would be difficult to write something in here right.”

Although there’s a small window in the ceiling, there’s not that much light in the room even in the daytime. The prisoners usually have to work during the day so the only time they can write a letter should be only at night. That being said, it should be too dark for anyone to write in here.

“We also provide them with a portable oil lamp.”

“An oil lamp is it?”

That way it should be possible to write in here during the night. Olivia looked around the room to find the lamp but she couldn’t find anything that even remotely resembled one at all.

“It’s not here, isn’t it.”

The moment he realized that the lamp was missing, Nice also cocked his head.

“Is it that strange for the lamp to be missing?”

“Yes. I mean, I don’t think anyone would carry the lamp in their room to the excavation site.”

When Olivia answered so, Cyrus put his hand on his chin.

“Right. If that’s the case then it means Tiana came back here before she escaped huh……”

“Or that she took the oil lamp from her room and hid it somewhere inside the ruins beforehand.”

“She would stand out if she did something like that right.”

“Yes, that’s why it’s strange.”

Saying so, Olivia casually put her hand into the trash can and pulled out one trash after another.

“Olivia…….you are digging through the trash now?”

Alan tiredly asked.

“Just a little…….”

While replying so, Olivia took a crumpled piece of paper out from the trash can.

“Tiana’s whole family was arrested. Moreover, knowing her, I don’t think that she’s the type that would write letters to her relatives. Then, what and to whom did she write to……are you not curious about that?”

TLN: This remind me so much of another story….that one has real magic though.

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