Chapter 318 — Homecoming

The little girl wore a clean but worn dress with a single patch on it. Her hair was done in two neat pigtails, her cheeks reddened by the cold wind, and both arms were wrapped around a bulging cloth bag.

She seemed to have just stepped out from some street corner, so that she had not had time to bow to the noble carriage, and was instead staring this way as though she could not quite take it in.

Santis was startled for a moment, then called out, "Pepe!"

But the little girl had already darted away before he spoke, as though she had not heard what he said next.

"Who was that?" Jubilee asked curiously from across the carriage.

"My sister," Santis said, his tone a little strange. "Why did she run?"

The little girl ran swiftly across the street to a house that looked slightly newer than the buildings around it, and hurriedly pushed the door open and ran inside. A middle-aged woman in an old padded jacket and old apron, who had been grinding herbs in the middle of the room, looked up at the sound and stared in surprise at her younger daughter. "Pepe? How are you back so soon? Did you give the herbs to Mr. Vane?"

Then she saw the cloth bag in the little girl's hands, and her brows knit. But before she could scold her, the little girl, tense and stammering, had already begun: "M-Mama! Three big carriages have come outside! Noble ones! There's a... a crest on them, just like the one Big Brother drew on the letter paper when he sent his letter home last time!"

The middle-aged woman froze, and suddenly her hand trembled; the wooden pestle she was using to grind the herbs fell to the floor.

She paid it no mind. She rose to her feet at once and stared into her younger daughter's eyes. "You saw it clearly? Truly that crest? The crest of the sword and the plow?"

The little girl clutched the cloth bag, a little nervous and frightened. "I saw it clearly..."

"That is the Cecil family crest... it is someone sent by Duke Cecil... Did you see anything else on the carriages? Were there death's-head daisies pinned to the drivers' hats or clothes? Were there strips of cloth with white petals hanging from the harnesses of the horses?"

The little girl seemed frightened by her mother's manner, and for a moment was too nervous to speak. Just then the door to the inner room opened, and the master of the house, hearing the commotion, came out. "What is it? I heard a racket outside."

"My dear, it is Duke Cecil's people—three carriages have come..." The mistress of the house wrung her hands hard. "Could something have happened to Santis? I told him long ago that the Dark Mountains are a very dangerous place and that he must be careful, but he always says in his letters..."

"Calm down," the middle-aged man said. "Santis is only a second-tier arcanist. The Duke wouldn't have sent three carriages just to deliver a message..."

Just then, a knock came at the door.

The man and woman straightened almost at once, their breath catching for an instant as they stared toward the door, while the little girl, standing nearest to it, very nearly jumped out of her skin.

The knocking continued. The girl stood frozen in bewilderment for a moment, then walked toward the door as if in a trance.

"Wait, I'll get it."

The middle-aged man crossed past his wife and daughter and came to the door.

He opened it, and a cold wind rushed in. A tall, gaunt figure stood there.

Standing behind her father, the little girl cried out happily: "It's big brother!"