Chapter 586
Episode 152. Quall Ganesto (1)
Jin smiled quietly to herself. Although Quall had started off by firing a heavy cannon without warning, this was the moment she realized he wasn’t completely impossible to talk to.
Besides, answering questions and meeting the other party’s conditions was Jin’s specialty.
“Let’s start with your questions,” she said.
“How did you find out I was here?”
“Sir Thalaris told me.”
“Thalaris…?”
Tingen tilted his head in confusion at the name, as if hearing it for the first time.
For a moment, Jin and Siris wondered if Quall was confusing this Tingen with someone else Thalaris had mentioned. But then he suddenly gasped and said,
“Ah! Thalaris. Right, Thalaris Kendorma!”
“Not Endorma?”
“Endorma? Was it Endorma? Yeah… there was a woman like that…”
Jin, and even Siris, were stunned by Quall’s reaction, his eyes deepening as old memories stirred.
Siris, in particular, felt more than just discomfort—there was a strange, almost shocking freshness to it.
Though she never wished ill, Siris had personally seen many of the countless men who had been Thalaris’s lovers.
They all clung to her mother with a pitiful desperation. Some even threatened to take their own lives if she refused to see them. But Thalaris never once reached out to any of those ex-lovers.
Siris had even dealt with the worst cases herself—those who spread malicious rumors about Thalaris or tried to tarnish the image of the Royal Palace.
One of those was Alcaro Chendler, Thalaris’s 307th boyfriend back when Jin was a mid-level cadet at Mamit.
That was where Jin and Siris had first met.
“Mother… he didn’t even remember her? What kind of person is this? Is that even possible?”
Even if they weren’t lovers, Thalaris was unforgettable once seen.
Ordinary people rarely even saw her, and her pure white silver hair—typical of the Endorma bloodline—and her aura carried a mystique unlike anyone else.
Yet Quall seemed to have completely forgotten her. It didn’t look like he was pretending.
“…Wait, didn’t you already know? The energy that blocked your cannon fire just now was the power of Manbing.”
Manbing’s energy was completely different from ordinary ice magic. Quall clapped his hands as if recalling it just now. And there was even a toad-like mote.
“That’s right. Now that I think about it, that guy uses the same power as Thalaris Kendorma!”
“Endorma!” Siris snapped.
Quall paid no mind, his eyes still filled with a kind of sorrow.
By this point, Siris was almost beyond anger.
“Oh, Mote. It’s been a while. Then you must be her daughter. Nice to meet you, Tingen Bauer.”
“Get lost.”
“And you must be her son-in-law, or at least fiancé. Come to think of it, I’ve heard rumors about a marriage alliance between the 12 Knights of Runcandel and the Royal Palace’s noble lady. Is Thalaris doing well?”
Before Jin could answer, Quall shook his head.
“No, humph! I don’t care about past loves.”
“Hah, what a lunatic.”
Jin wanted to say that his eyes looked far too deep for someone who claimed not to care, but she stayed quiet, watching Siris’s reaction.
“Anyway, it makes sense if Thalaris told you about this place. So she remembered it.”
Quall seemed curious about Thalaris but held back.
Siris, sensing she might draw her sword if she stayed any longer, stepped away.
Jin gave Quall some time to gather his thoughts.
A few minutes later, Quall’s eyes sharpened with caution again, though much less intensely than before.
“Next question. You explained how you found this cabin and the alias Tingen Bauer. But how did you learn my real name?”
“My informants found out.”
“Let me warn you—if you joke or lie, this conversation ends immediately.”
“You’re strict.”
“Do you think Runcandel’s intelligence surpasses G-PL? You’re only one of the 12 Knights, so your intelligence is more the Balmel Alliance’s doing. I can’t accept that you found out my real name that easily.”
Quall’s words implied one thing.
‘Even G-PL didn’t know Quall Ganesto was Tingen Bauer’s real name?’
He was asking how Quall knew something even G-PL didn’t.
“My informants did find out your real name. Your family doesn’t know you exist, nor that I’m looking for you.”
Valeria couldn’t be called a mere informant, but broadly speaking, she was part of Balmel’s intelligence network, so it wasn’t a lie.
Quall stared at Jin for a long moment without speaking.
“Hmm, doesn’t seem like a lie.”
That long gaze was Quall’s way of detecting deception. He had no real evidence, but since he let it slide, Jin took it as a good sign.
“I have a few questions too.”
“Ask after I’m done.”
“Why is a G-PL engineer—one who’s central to developing teleportation devices and mass-produced ship blueprints—hiding out in the middle of nowhere? And there’s not a single mage guarding you, even now.”
Quall didn’t dislike Jin’s boldness in ignoring his words and asking questions.
He thought this was better than the sycophantic behavior of G-PL’s powerful figures, who always tiptoed around him.
Maybe this small kindness was the price Jin paid for reminding him of a forgotten old love, but Quall vehemently denied that.
“Even that rod you made—those things disrupt the aura concentration of unmanned units. No matter how I look at it, it’s strange for an engineer of your caliber to be left abandoned here.”
“Abandoned? You think I’m abandoned? Humph! You don’t know me at all. No one can bind me.”
At that moment, Jin thought of a black dragon she knew well.
‘Murakan comes to mind…’
People like that—simple and unique in a good way, or foolish and arrogant in a bad way—often became obsessed with one thing and couldn’t let go.
Jin hoped Quall had that kind of trait.
“So G-PL let you go, huh?”
“I was trying to please them, but you keep poking at my pride. G-PL? They only kept me around because they coveted my skills. I was never one of them.”
Jin had a rough idea.
‘Looks like G-PL can’t control this stubborn man. If you cross him even a little, he won’t cooperate. So they’re forced to go along with his will.’
Nothing was known about Tingen Bauer, this arrogant genius engineer.
If Jin hadn’t gotten some mechanical parts and ship blueprints in the Sota Desert, if Valeria hadn’t been there, and if he hadn’t been connected to Thalaris, she probably wouldn’t have found this place.
Even if she had, it would have been much later.
Quall was capable enough to handle most threats himself, and G-PL was suffering severe power shortages after the Sword Emperor War.
‘Still, it’s hard to explain why Quall Ganesto is just left here. Maybe because the Ganesto name isn’t known to G-PL yet.’
Mental manipulation.
Suddenly, a G-PL mind control technique flashed through Jin’s mind. So far, Quall didn’t seem to be affected.
‘Their mind control isn’t perfect yet. Excluding that, things start to make sense. But why was Quall working with G-PL in the first place?’
Though not from the Academy and unknown in reputation, Quall Ganesto was clearly a genius engineer on another level.
It was plausible he caught G-PL’s attention by chance and was recruited.
‘He’s not someone who’d be recruited easily. If he just needed advanced equipment or resources, he’d have used the Academy first.’
G-PL must have made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
For someone who shudders at being bound, to stay with G-PL even briefly…
Jin came to that conclusion.
“Let me ask you directly, Quall Ganesto. If I could offer you something as attractive as G-PL’s offer, would you work with me?”
“That’s impossible.”
“Just hear me out. You said you’d consider leaving this cabin if I answered your questions and met your conditions, right?”
“You say that, but honestly, I don’t expect a thing. If you think you can make me move through torture or whatever, go ahead and try. Just know that if you do, you’ll become the greatest criminals, setting back the progress of this world by centuries.”
Jin didn’t respond. Instead, he pulled a mechanical device from his coat pocket and held it out to Quaul.
“I thought you wanted to complete this, but I guess I was wrong.”
Quaul’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
“W-what?! How do you have that?!”
Jin couldn’t help but flash a triumphant smile once again.