The Second Missing Person

"We eloped," Horn answered honestly.

"I came down with a fever during the Battle of Karaji and needed time to recover. Medical supplies were scarce because of the fighting, so I was sent to a local monastery. Delis happened to be caring for me. Over time, we fell in love."

"Under Kingdom law, seducing a nun into breaking her vows is blasphemy. They'd burn you for it." The Brigadier General smiled and shook his head. "So love was why you two boarded the Serko?"

Horn nodded and was about to answer, but Delis cut in. "Blasphemy might get you burned at the stake, but treason will get you beheaded."

"Sorry." The Brigadier General spread his hands and took another puff of his pipe. "I was only curious. I didn't mean anything by it."

"Horn and I left the monastery to save our lives." Delis pushed up her glasses. "By the time we boarded the ship, the war was going badly. I reckoned Karajian troops could reach the monastery at any moment, so I got Horn out early, partly by bluffing him and partly by forcing him."

"Then we were shipwrecked and washed up on this deserted island," Horn concluded.

The Brigadier General sighed. After a long silence, he said grimly, "Hah. So they decided to abandon Karaji after all. Short-sighted fools. With Port of Karaji gone, the Kingdom has lost its last foothold in the archipelago. Our enemies will monopolize the entire sugar trade."

As someone from another world, Xia Lun had no interest in these pointless geopolitical issues. The Brigadier General's lengthy speech that followed amounted to tedious complaints about his political rivals and a few political positions of his own.

And now that Xia Lun had tentatively ruled out the Brigadier General as the mastermind, there was no