“Where are you hiding them, Mundus?”

A silence lingered in the bar. Neither of us said a word, only stared at each other.

Slowly, Mundus picked up a bottle of whiskey and started wiping it down.

“Another of your jokes, lad?”

“Ok, I’ll start with something else.” I turned my gaze down to the counter.

I didn’t know how to have this conversation… Not with someone I considered a friend.

“Did you ask for the Aegean Princess to be killed?”

Mundus flinched.

Sighing, I leaned on the counter.

That reaction was enough.

“What are you talking about, Ethan?” Mundus said, his voice low. “If it is a joke, it is definitely not funny.”

“It was odd to me from the beginning.” Ignoring his words, I continued. If I continued like this, he would just get angry.

“Why would the General personally come over to the Academy if he was going to do something foolish like bribing the people inside? A contingency plan?”

I turned to face Mundus again. He was glaring at me.

“They wouldn’t do something that foolish.”

It was confusing to me from the very beginning. Why would the General come all the way to the academy? But I couldn’t just dismiss it as the involvement of another party.

Because the four idiots I had apprehended believed they were backed by the Aegean.

Now, I had a clear view of things.

“You and the demiurges you are hiding have been here for a long time, right?” Mundus was shaking more and more.

His eyes snapped around, looking for any opening. Maybe a place to run or maybe to fight me.

“The war ended, and Glorenstein Academy started changing. That was the source of your troubles. Dozens of new people from the Empire entered the city and started scouring through the place. Every inch, every corner.”

That was what had caused the mistake in the first place. Gladwin and the rest of the civil servants were far too busy inspecting the outside of the city.

That same outside where Mundus hid his demiurges. It became increasingly difficult to hide when the civil servants were busy sniffing out every single criminal like dogs would.

“You were scared you’d be found out. Leaving the place was your best option. And you found a lifeline in the convoy from the Aegean Empire. The ones here for negotiation.”

Was it a stroke of luck, or a deliberate use of their abilities? I didn’t know the details. But this was what made sense.

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“You found out that they were here for the Princess of Aegean and used the drunkard Janitor who frequented your shop to communicate with the criminals, didn't you?”

Mundus might have realized that there was no escaping. He stood still at my words.

But there was something strange about this too.

I only hit this conclusion when I thought about what would happen if the demiurges were caught as criminals for the Iaso incident.

They must have thought so too. All they needed was an opening and a way to make sure the problem remained between the Aegean and the Empire.

“So I’ll ask again, did you ask for the princess to be killed, or just captured?”

Mundus gulped at my words.

He sighed and pulled a stool from behind the counter as he sat down in front of me.

This was good. This was better.

I needed there to be a conversation, not violence. He still did not say anything.

“I know you asked for a capture. It is natural. Her death would have been extremely counter-productive. You only wanted an opening to escape, which would have come your way if the tensions between the two groups rose.”

My mind went back to the hell of a room that I had been in just a while back.

“That Janitor bastard decided to tell them to kill her himself. He was an extremist who hated nobility. Your plans failed thanks to me, but they did what they had to do.”

The very next day, the civil servants decided to revamp the academy from the inside instead of the outside.

“It brought you time. Their focus shifted from the city to the academy, and you could hide again.”

Mundus placed a hand on the counter.

“Your entire argument for blaming me, is that the janitor is someone who drank a lot of my alcohol?” Mundus faked a laugh. “Incredulous. You are framing me—”

I nodded at his words.

“Ok, I’ll tell you more. The day I arrived, you guys cursed another person, didn’t you? The carriage driver who referred me to? Jackie’s father.”

Mundus reeled back. His eyes were trembling. If I didn’t keep in touch with Jackie, then I would have never learned of this.

“He wanted to buy gifts for his daughter. He thought after dropping me, he could also go to you for an extra tip. That was also the day you had come back from your trip and he caught you with the rest of the demiurges.”

Was he distressed? Maybe they were all worried about the increasingly difficult situation in the city. That was why they made that mistake.

Mundus gulped again.

I wasn’t done yet.

“Well, even if not back then. You still had a chance to leave now. When the academy began once more, the number of people heading inside the city increased. That was your chance to escape.”

Mundus shook his head.

“You’re not right… There is no demiurge here. I am the only one—”

“I know there are more, Mundus.”

I leaned closer over the counter.

“Probably someone young, since you guys made a mistake. That young demiurge was seen by one of the students of the academy, right? It was during the party four days back. There was no better time for you guys to leave. But someone had witnessed you guys. If not for that mistake… I would have never known that there were demiurges in the city.”

He continued shaking his head. He wasn’t denying my words, but the situation.

“And you could have escaped that day. But you had to go back. You intoxicated her with alcohol and used a curse to wipe her memories out. She seemed like a weak child anyway. That last-moment change thwarted your chance to leave.”

Because by then.

The streets were flooded by the guards who were patrolling after the party. How could they not when the prince of a different country was drunk in the hotel?

It made escape impossible.

“Your window hadn’t closed. Whoever you guys were collaborating with would help you get into another city, right? You tried to move again the next day… But the carriage drivers all over the city were taking the worst possible routes and you ended up encountering a drunk Professor Barnum.”

Mundus stopped.

He took in a sharp breath.

Nothing I had said yet was incorrect.

He raised a bottle of whiskey and smashed it against the counter. In one fell swoop, he lunged ahead at me, aiming straight for my neck.

My hands grabbed his forearm before he could reach me. I twisted it and gently hit his wrist, making him drop the bottle.

Without a second’s delay, Mundus picked up a second bottle with his off hand and brought it down to my head.

“Just stop. It is useless.”

His hands froze.

I continued speaking, but this time in the demonic language.

“I alerted those guards to keep you hidden. Even the strange carriages were my doing. I couldn’t let you leave.”

Mundus dropped the bottle.

“You… that language…”

“Mundus. Tell me where the demiurges are… I only want to help you escape.”