Ch 4

Anyways, how annoying.

"Oh, um... Is this a nuisance for you?"

As a young man who had been dealing with old sly political monsters since he was born, Zantes seemed to have read that I wasn’t happy from my expression. I didn't hide my expression on purpose, but he read it well nonetheless. It was true, the crown prince repaying the favor unilaterally was a nuisance. I was satisfied with the ordinary, bottom of the ladder job. A peaceful life, where you could get off work on time and relax with your friends, was the kind of life I wanted. Sometimes when my daily life got boring, I’d wear a mask and go to Count Druval's house. These were the days I dreamed of when I was training with my father, Old Man Weger, and Elder Mirpa.

Looking at the flustered crown prince, I smiled. "To tell you how I feel honestly, despite being rude, you saw it correctly. Zan… no, Your Highness the Crown Prince, I seek freedom, just as you do."

The crown prince was surprised by my direct response, but soon nodded as if he were disappointed. "I see. It seems I have failed to consider your perspective again."

Seeing him so glum, I drank the remaining tea in my cup and said, "That's all right. It’s not all that inconsiderate. If you would like, I can be a friend you can talk to comfortably. That is of course, if you wish.”

I was able to get a sense of his personality, which is what allowed me to speak so openly. The crown prince’s eyes lit up as he shouted,

"I want it!"

"Is that so? Then let's go play hooky for now. Let’s get going. We have to get rid of our annoying friends that are following us.”

There was no point in playing around freely if there were people monitoring you. The crown prince laughed cheerfully as I smiled like a villain and brushed the bread crumbs off my mouth.

"You are the first person to ask me to play hooky this openly."

"Then next time, you offer to play hooky first."

"That sounds good!"

The crown prince and I rose from our seats in a relaxed manner. Such weak, no, ‘energetic’ people could be lost without having to run.

* * *

After a simple breakfast, as we walked along the market alley, the crown prince asked, wondering, “Did we really lose the guards with just this? All we did was change our shirts while walking!”

“Would you like for me to check for you?” I asked with a smile.

“Check? Is there a way to check?”

I nodded lightly. "Yes, it would be a bit rude, but it's not hard to check if you’ll allow it."

The crown prince nodded. "Ahahaha! Didn't you say you'd be my friend? Isn't being a little rude to each other a sign of a good friendship?”

"I'm relieved to hear that answer. So let's check right away."

"Go ahead."

I hurled my fist at the crown prince, stopping it right before it touched his face. He flinched back in surprise.

"Look. If we didn’t lose them, wouldn't they have rushed out threatening to kill me?”

I withdrew my fist and laughed playfully. The crown prince laughed emptily.

"Ahaha, I see. It certainly seems we’ve lost them. But if they saw that, not only you but also your family would have been in danger. Next time, use a different method of checking."

My family would also be in danger... Could my family even be in danger? I couldn’t imagine it. I could, however, imagine the empire being destroyed easily. If we rushed recklessly, even the Crows would have to endure considerable damage. But if my father took the lead in guerrilla warfare with Hestia as his advisor, they could effectively crush the empire without many losses. Of course, dealing with the empire likely meant we’d also have to deal with the Butterfly and Dragon tribes, so we would need to establish our strategy accordingly.

"I'll be careful."

The crown prince seemed sincerely worried about me, likely for the sake of our alliance, and then laughed cheerfully. “The more we talk, the more I like you! How did you lose those guys anyway? All we did was walk."

"Oh, it's nothing. The back alley of the market here has a structure where there are many people and crossroads, so it is difficult for people to monitor and follow from a distance. If you're not familiar with the layout, it's easy to miss someone in a brief moment."

In truth, I had created a little illusion in the center of the market to create that brief moment.

"It seems the guards will be reprimanded today." Zantes remarked.

It wasn’t like I completely tricked them with magic. The illusion magic I used was simple enough for anyone in the lower grades of the magic school to use.

"Well, I think they deserve to be reprimanded if they can be shaken so easily." I replied.

"That's true."

If you could not see through the kind of magic that anyone with trained eyes could easily see through, you deserved to be reprimanded. Of course, it should be considered that there was no close escort detail at all, because Zantes was just doing a livelihood inspection.

"Now, let's enjoy our one day of freedom," I said.

The crown prince smiled bitterly. Since we had gotten rid of the guards that day, there would be one person assigned as a close escort the next day. If there was a close escort, they would be able to track our location quickly, so today was truly the last day of freedom.

"Ahahaha! Then let's enjoy it gratefully!"

With a light smile, I became a tour guide for the young master who was born and raised in the capital, as we traveled across the city.

* * *

As the sun set, the crown prince apologized while looking down at the street from the rooftop of the magic tower.

"Whew, sorry about that. The first day and I already broke my promise to make sure you got off work on time.”

I smiled in response as I wrote a document evaluating the production process.

"That's all right. We played hooky for most of it anyway."

It was long after four o’clock that we started walking around the magic towers in earnest after leaving the Adventurers' Guild in the morning.

Until then, we had just played with the crown prince’s money, wandering around tourist attractions and market streets in the capital. During the New Year's Festival, he only carried gold coins in his wallet, but this time he carried bills, the results of the currency reform.

"I had a great day today. The capital I saw today was new and fascinating. It didn't seem like the capital as I know it."

It was understandable that he felt that way. We had gone to places completely different from salons, ballrooms, department stores and mansions, where he would normally go.

"It seems someone has come to meet you down there."

They weren't openly waiting in front of the magic tower, but hiding nearby and looking up at us. We were at the Green Magic Tower, one of the seven great magic towers. It seemed that a senior executive of the magic tower recognized the crown prince and informed the imperial court, leading to our discovery. As the crown prince came down from the rooftop of the magic tower and walked toward the headquarters of the Adventurers' Guild, he was approached by knights in casual clothes.

"I've never seen your faces before. Well, I suppose that isn’t strange, how could I memorize all the knights’ faces."

Since they lost the crown prince, many knights must have been looking for him.

"Your Highness, it is late."

At the words of the unknown knight, the crown prince smacked his lips, disappointed.

"Is that so?” He tilted his head up towards me. “I'm afraid I'll have to say goodbye here today. See you tomorrow, then."

"Yes. See you tomorrow."

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "pawread dot com".

The knights escorted the crown prince away in a carriage. After finishing my business that day, I decided to leave the office. I was walking leisurely in the direction of the boarding house when I felt someone following me. I thought I might be mistaken, but when I looked around with all my senses heightened, there were definitely people following me. I sighed softly and headed for the deserted back alley. I waited in the alley for a few minutes, until the guys who were chasing me also appeared as if they had found their chance.

"Do you have some business with me?" I asked.

The three masked men tilted their heads in confusion at my calm question.

"Don't you understand the situation? Do I have to take this out?" One of them asked as he revealed a fairly long dagger tucked under his coat.

"You can scream if you want, since you came to a place with few people like this. You should have gotten a house by the boulevard, tsk, tsk."

The masked man seemed to have mistaken me for someone who lived around here. It meant that they didn’t investigate me at all, and that their goal was not actually me. So it seemed that they weren’t trying to influence me in the selection of the magic tools auction that I was in charge of. Then, could they be from the crown prince's side? I had heard there was a recent gathering of anti-imperial groups. There could only be one reason for them to target me when the crown prince and I had already gone our separate ways. The people who took the crown prince in the carriage were kidnappers, not members of the imperial family, and they were trying to deal with me so that information on when the crown prince was kidnapped didn’t leak out.

"Really, you’re being bothersome.”

Should I have not lost the escorts? No, if they could be thrown off with a simple eye trick, they would likely get in the way when the crown prince was supposed to follow me. I was a little worried about how much my superiors would reprimand me for the crown prince's abduction, but I sighed and thought,

Let’s just go rescue him and see.

At my sigh, the masked men chuckled and bantered sarcastically.

"You sure we’re just being bothersome?"

"Of course we’re just bothersome. What else could we possibly do?"

I approached quickly. I disarmed and took the sword of the masked man who stood in the middle, slicing through his leg so that he couldn’t escape, while hitting his chin so that he wouldn’t make noise.

"Uaahh!”

Thanks to his completely shattered jaw, he couldn’t scream properly and was much quieter than he would have been. Before the frozen masked men could respond to the sudden situation, I threw the sword at the leg of the masked man to the left. As there was sword aura wrapped around it, the blade cut through his bones and muscle with ease, as if it was a bread knife getting stuck in a cake.

"Ahhhh!”

The masked man, down a leg, screamed out in pain. I frowned and covered my ears.

"Tch! How noisy. Still, I need your mouth to get an answer, so it can’t be helped."

The third masked man pointed his trembling finger at me. "Y-you, what are you!? Are you an imperial guard?!"

I clicked my tongue as I looked at him clutching his sword tightly in panic.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, that's not what you should be saying."

"… What?"

"What do you mean what? You should be begging me to let you be the ‘mouth’ to answer my questions.”

I punched him in the face before he could even react, let alone speak. The good thing was that he fainted immediately and wasn’t able to scream and be noisy.

"Ahh…! Ahhhh!"

The masked man with a sword stuck in his leg crawled on the ground, trying to escape. I placed my foot firmly on his back.

"Where are you going? You were chosen to be the mouth to answer. So you’re going to tell me everything, right?"

The masked man screamed in horror. I even smiled for him, but he went ahead and screamed anyway. How rude.

* * *

Not long after boarding, the crown prince felt something odd and tried to stop the carriage. However he was put to sleep by a handkerchief with anesthetic on it before he could resist.

"Tch, he’s quick-witted."

One of the men disguised as an imperial knight clicked his tongue then tied the hands and feet of the unconscious crown prince.

"Yuro, can't you just kill him?" asked the man posing as the coachman.

Yuro tightened the ropes on the crown prince’s hands then clicked his tongue in disgust.

"Kill him? Then his brother will only succeed him. It’d just be remembered as an imperial tragedy. Are you satisfied with that? Diesel?

The coachman clenched his teeth and answered quietly, "There's no way I would be satisfied. The resentment of my family… my father, mother, and brothers who died unfairly, who were trampled by the Blood Emperor, cannot be resolved with just that." He nodded and spoke with anger in his voice. "We were lucky. Our colleagues found the crown prince first when the guards were gone."

There were many magicians who had a grudge against the Blood Emperor. There were a great number of magicians who had lost their families, friends, and lovers to the forced mobilization of many magicians for the ‘War to recapture the Holy Land Zaharam’, which had been launched to kill off Glont. The person who found the crown prince at the Green Magic Tower was also such a victim.