Chapter 172: Towards the unknown
Why did he just run like that? Monique thought as she sat at the table in the crappy tavern, staring at the drink before her.
"Honorable Smith, is there something more we can do for you?"
She looked up at the Da'xi, taking a moment to recall the Captain's name.
"Captain Xi'balak, are you sure there is no ship that can be lent to me to follow after Irwin?"
"I am afraid not. As I've told you, we are expecting a raid by a combined force of Nyzir and Galubs and need every ship to guard against them," Xi'balak said. "However, if you could assist us, perhaps by reforging some cards, I am sure The Daran will agree to help you in any way afterward."
I'm sure they would, Monique thought, annoyed but keeping her emotions from showing. Was this why Irwin had run? Perhaps he was afraid they'd gotten her to try and keep him here?
"You said Irwin came with you to scout the remains of the Shipyard?" she asked, still finding it difficult not to call Irwin by his title.
She'd learned within a minute of arriving that Irwin and the others had kept their cover, and nobody knew he was a cardsmith, and she was damned if she would be the one to expose him accidentally. If she did that, the chances of him helping her in any way would be zero.
"He did, and he was of great assistance," Xi'balak said. "I know you said it's none of our business, but perhaps if you told us why you need him…"
Monique didn't even bother to reply to that, going back to staring at her thick crystal mug.
Perhaps he found more information on what was going to happen, and that's why he fled? she thought.
A tiny part of herself shouted that she was deluding herself, that it was because she was there that he'd fled. Monique ignored it. She didn't want to, no couldn't believe that. If that was true, that meant there was already no chance of her plan succeeding, and that meant her sister would have to marry the Harborth Ungaryt, the Ungaryt Family's second heir. As she remembered the last time she'd seen the man when she was still very young, she recalled the dimly glowing red eyes and the narrowed eyebrows as the narrow-faced man had inspected her.