The unconscious woman remained motionless in my arms as I made my way back toward Daylight Inn.
At this hour, the district had become completely silent. Not a single person could be seen outside. The only sounds accompanying me were the faint rustling of the night breeze and the occasional echo of my own footsteps.
Even so, I had no intention of walking through the inn's main entrance while carrying an unconscious woman.
When the building finally came into view, I circled around to the side and looked up toward the second-floor window of our room.
A small translucent energy step immediately formed beneath my feet.
The moment I stepped onto it, another materialized slightly higher in the air. One after another, temporary steps appeared ahead of me, creating an invisible path upward as I ascended toward the window while carefully supporting the woman in my arms. Each step faded away shortly after I left it behind, vanishing into countless particles of light before the next one appeared.
Within moments, I reached the second floor.
Carefully climbing through the open window, I entered the room before allowing the final energy step outside to dissolve into countless particles of light. The room remained exactly as I had left it earlier. Moonlight streamed through the window, casting faint silver shadows across the floor, while the steady sound of Charlie's breathing was the only indication that anyone else was present.
Walking over to the bed, I gently lowered the unconscious woman onto it and made sure she was resting comfortably before turning my attention toward the steward.
Charlie was still asleep on the floor beside the bed, completely unaware of everything that had happened outside.
"Charlie, wake up."
Years of experience had made him an exceptionally light sleeper.
The moment he heard his name, his eyes opened. He immediately sat upright and looked toward me, his expression alert despite having been asleep only moments earlier.
"Yes, Young Master," he replied. "Do you need anything?"
Instead of answering, I simply pointed toward the bed.
A puzzled look appeared on Charlie's face as he followed my gesture. However, the confusion lasted only a moment. The instant his gaze landed on the unconscious woman lying on the bed, his eyes widened and his entire body visibly stiffened in surprise.
"Yo-Young Master..."
Charlie stared at the woman lying on the bed before slowly turning toward me. Then he looked back at her again, as though trying to convince himself that he wasn't imagining things.
"Who is she?"
"She's one of the women who traveled with us in the horse carriage."
Charlie blinked several times.
His gaze immediately returned to the unconscious woman, carefully studying her face. A few moments later, recognition finally appeared on his expression.
"It's her."
The surprise on his face quickly gave way to confusion.
"But... what is she doing here?" he asked. "Wasn't she supposed to be heading to Astravia Academy with her companion?"
His eyes shifted between the woman and me.
"And how did she end up in our room in the middle of the night?"
"I'll explain everything later," I replied.
The number of questions he had was understandable. To be honest, I still didn't have answers to most of them myself.
Before Charlie could continue questioning me, I gestured toward the street outside.
"Just outside the perimeter of this street, two injured Controllers are lying unconscious. Go tie them up and hide them somewhere."
For several moments, Charlie simply stared at me.
His gaze slowly shifted from my face to the unconscious woman resting on the bed. After that, he glanced toward the window before turning back toward me once more.
The confusion on his face became increasingly obvious.
"Young Master..." he began cautiously. "I wake up in the middle of the night and find an unconscious woman in our room. Then you tell me there are two unconscious controllers outside."
He paused briefly before looking at me with a bewildered expression.
"What exactly happened while I was asleep?"
"I'll explain everything when you return."
Charlie looked as though he wanted to argue.
Unfortunately for him, I had no intention of explaining the entire situation while the two controllers were still lying outside.
Seeing that I wasn't going to elaborate any further, he eventually let out a quiet sigh.
"Understood."
Although his expression still carried obvious confusion, he didn't ask any more questions. Instead, he rose from the floor, gave the unconscious woman one final glance, and headed toward the door to carry out the task I had assigned him.
The room gradually fell silent once more after Charlie's departure.
With nothing else to do for the moment, I pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat down beside the unconscious woman. Pale moonlight streamed through the window, illuminating part of her face while the rest remained hidden beneath the room's shadows.
As I waited, I took the opportunity to examine her condition more carefully.
Fortunately, she didn't appear to be seriously injured. Apart from several scrapes, bruises, and obvious signs of exhaustion, there were no visible wounds that seemed life-threatening. Her breathing remained steady, and although her energy fluctuations were somewhat weak, they remained stable.
The last time I had seen her, she had been sitting inside the horse carriage alongside the other young woman and the middle-aged Controller accompanying them. After Charlie and I got off at Daylight Inn, the three of them should have continued toward Astravia Academy.
Yet only a few hours later, I had found her running through the streets in the middle of the night while being pursued by a group of strangers.
What could have happened during that time?
Were they ambushed somewhere along the way?
The questions continued accumulating one after another, but no matter how much I thought about them, I couldn't find any answers.
Unfortunately, the only person who could explain the situation was currently unconscious and lying on the bed before me.
Time passed quietly as I waited beside the bed.
The unconscious woman showed no signs of waking, and with little else to do, I remained seated while organizing my thoughts. The room was silent apart from the occasional creak of wood and the faint sounds of the night drifting in from outside.
After some time, the door opened.
Charlie had returned. Entering the room, he closed the door behind him before walking over to me.
"I've tied them up and hidden them a short distance away from this street," he reported.
I nodded.
Charlie's gaze briefly shifted toward the unconscious woman resting on the bed before returning to me. Now that the task had been completed, the questions he had been holding back could no longer be contained.
"Young Master."
"Hm?"
"What exactly happened?"
Seeing no reason to keep it from him any longer, I slowly recounted everything that had occurred.
Starting from the moment I woke up in the middle of the night, I slowly recounted everything that had happened. I explained how movement outside the inn had drawn my attention, how I had witnessed an injured woman being pursued through the streets, and why I decided to follow the group from a distance. From there, I described discovering the waiting carriage at the end of the street, realizing they were about to leave, and ultimately stepping in to stop them. Finally, I explained how I had subdued the two Controllers, rescued the woman, and brought her back to the inn.