Free Web NovelChapter 207: The Missing One
Prado’s footsteps immediately stopped and the entire room fell silent.
The old governor slowly turned his head, his expression twisting little by little until even the wrinkles on his forehead seemed deeper than before.
Otis immediately covered half of his face with one hand, desperately trying not to laugh. Jace quietly turned toward the window and took a long breath, already regretting coming to this place with Arthur.
Even Teddy’s perfect smile finally disappeared.
"What..." Prado slowly asked, his voice much lower than before. "Did you just say?"
Arthur calmly looked up from his notebook as if nothing had happened. "Oh, I thought you were leaving."
The old governor took several heavy steps back toward the sofa, completely forgetting about the door. His expensive rings repeatedly hit the wooden armrest as he pointed a shaking finger at Arthur.
"You little brat... say that again."
Arthur simply clicked his pen. "Good. Now that you’re interested in this conversation again, shall we continue discussing Eagle Union?"
Prado’s hands grabbed the sofa so hard that his fingers turned white. His chest moved up and down violently while his eyes remained fixed on Arthur, clearly wanting nothing more than to order the guards outside to drag the young man away.
Before the atmosphere could become even worse, Teddy quietly stood up and walked beside the governor. He gently placed one hand on Prado’s shoulder..
"Governor," Teddy said with the same gentle voice, "our guests traveled a long way to this town. As the host, it is our responsibility to answer their questions properly."
Prado didn’t answer. Teddy lightly squeezed his shoulder again.
"And they are Jade’s representatives."
The old man snorted loudly before throwing himself back onto the sofa.
"Fine! But if that brat mocks me one more time, I will make sure the three of you never leave this office alive!"
He pointed at Arthur before proudly puffing his chest. "I’m not afraid of Jade, I’m not afraid of Freebound, and there isn’t anything in this world that can make me afraid!"
Arthur, Jace, and Otis quietly exchanged looks. Somehow, all three of them reached the same conclusion at exactly the same time. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
Arthur cleared his throat and opened his notebook again. "Alright, just a few questions and we’ll leave. When did you first realize Eagle Union members were gone?"
Prado crossed his arms. "I don’t know. About one month? Maybe more. They simply disappeared one day without informing anyone."
He leaned back and glared at them, trying his best to look intimidating.
Unfortunately, none of the three looked particularly impressed. They had survived parasitic Grooves, giant ants, and the possibility of witnessing the birth of a King candidate. A corrupt old governor with too much confidence wasn’t exactly frightening.
"I see," Arthur continued while writing. "So they all left at roughly the same time? No warning? No explanation?"
Prado shrugged. Before he could answer, Teddy quietly opened one of the folders on the table and took out a neatly folded letter.
"We actually received this several days after their disappearance."
Arthur accepted it while Jace and Otis moved closer.
As if suddenly remembering something, Prado casually waved his hand. "Ah, that paper. They said they were relocating because the cold war became... what was the word... heated."
Arthur unfolded the letter. It was an informal notice explaining that Eagle Union forces had temporarily moved to another location due to increasing military tension. At the bottom was a familiar eagle seal.
The three of them immediately looked at each other.
Prado was already standing up again.
"Governor, one last question."
"What now?"
"You informed us that you sent people to inspect Eagle Union headquarters. How was the condition there?"
Prado looked genuinely confused by the question. "Like any empty building. Nobody inside, nothing special. A complete waste of my men’s time."
Arthur slowly nodded. "And the Groove?"
Prado frowned. "What Groove are you talking about?"
Without waiting for an answer, he turned around and walked out of the room, leaving behind three increasingly confused Freebound members and one advisor whose smile had quietly returned to his face.
***
It was the last report, looking more like Arthur’s personal diary than an official investigation record. Gideon slowly closed the notebook and put it back on the table just as Jace and Otis finally finished telling everything they knew.
"We all agree Prado was lying about sending his men, or that old bastard ordered Teddy to arrange everything and Teddy lied to him instead. Either way, nobody ever went to Eagle Union headquarters." Otis spoke so quickly that he barely paused to breathe, his anxiousness becoming more obvious the longer he talked.
Jace nodded in agreement. "Arthur reached the same conclusion. He also said the letter was fake and deliberately staged by someone who knew Eagle Union very well. Teddy was his biggest suspect and he even wondered if the disappearance itself had something to do with that man."
"Then when did your friend disappear, and how?"
"It was the same night after we came to that conclusion." Otis lowered his head and tightly clenched his trousers.
"The three of us decided to sleep in one room after Governor Prado threatened us. Arthur said it would be safer that way and we even agreed that one person had to stay awake. It was supposed to be me..."
He forced out a bitter laugh before continuing.
"Arthur didn’t sleep either because he was reading Leon Miller’s book that he borrowed from Teddy’s office. He left his own copy inside the Groove when we escaped, so he wanted to compare both versions. I thought it would be fine if I closed my eyes for a while since he was still awake anyway."
His voice gradually became quieter. "He woke me up in the middle of the night and said he had something important to tell me, but I was too tired to even open my eyes. I only remember telling him to wait until morning... and that’s the last time I heard his voice."
Jace rubbed his forehead before continuing where Otis stopped. "When we woke up, Arthur was gone, leaving the book. We searched the entire inn, but before we could search the town, Prado’s soldiers were already waiting outside. They pointed their rifles at us and told us to leave Edelweiss Town immediately or they would kill us."
"We had no choice," Jace sighed. "There were too many of them."
"It’s all my fault..." Otis muttered, his whole body trembling. "If I stayed awake like we agreed, Arthur wouldn’t have disappeared. I’m sorry... I’m so sorry."
Nobody answered him.
Instead, Gideon’s attention slowly shifted toward Jade. The more he listened, the stranger her decision became. Yet Jade never sent another team and even told everyone to leave the matter alone as if the entire incident wasn’t important.
Even Elaine looked confused now, quietly turning toward Jade as if waiting for the same explanation since what she told her has a different weight than this disaster.
"Jade—"
Before Gideon could finish his sentence, the loud sound of someone vomiting suddenly echoed throughout the room.
Everyone instinctively turned around. Black goo continuously poured out from Jace’s mouth and splashed onto the floor, carrying a rotten smell that immediately spread through the meeting room.
Almost everyone stepped back at the same time. Everyone except Otis.
"Jace?! Are you okay?"
Jace immediately raised his hand, stopping him before he could get any closer. His breathing became ragged as another mouthful of black liquid mixed with tiny white fibers dripped onto the floor.
"No!" His voice shook violently. "Stop where you are... I-I think I got infected!"
