Ch 6

After Tristan and I split up, I immediately began to track the six-horse carriage the crown prince had entered. From where we split up, the tracks led directly to the wall. The carriage seemed to have gone all the way out of the capital. Summer had passed, and it was now something that could be called late autumn, so the sun had nearly set already. The cities of the empire were closed to entry at night, unless circumstances were extreme. However, unlike other cities where access was blocked when the sun went down, the capital allowed entry through inspection until midnight to accommodate the many trades and distributions. The gate would still be open, so it was okay to just pass through, but if I was discovered to have passed the gate despite being the last person to have been with the crown prince, things could become troublesome. Therefore, I tried to pass through the gate with a perception-disrupting magic so that I wouldn’t be recognized, but a noisy voice from the gate disrupted me. People who appeared to be knights were shouting something at the soldiers, pushing what looked like identification cards towards them.

"We're closing all gates as of right now! Put everyone who tries to get in and out into custody!"

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From a distance, the identification cards seemed like they were for White Deer Knights.

Oh, did the White Deer Knights already notice something wrong and start moving?

The lower-level subordinates couldn't even see through my simple deception and lost the crown prince, but the higher ranks seemed quite capable, unlike the bottom of the ladder subordinates. Perhaps they sensed something was strange and immediately blocked access to all gates. It was a quick decision. The knight who blocked the gate began to question the soldiers, asking if they had seen anything unusual pass through. Without any specifics, however, the soldiers held their heads in their hands trying to remember everything they had seen that day.

"I don't know who gave the orders, but they're competent."

I honestly admired their efficiency. My image of the White Deer Knights was, to be honest, that they were good-for-nothings, especially the vice-captain, ‘Burden’. At this point, it wasn’t too difficult to infer that the six horse carriage had escaped the walls of the capital. I thought a while about leaving things in the hands of the White Deer Knights, but ultimately I decided to keep tracking the carriage. The soldiers at the gate changed shifts every hour, so it was obvious that it would take quite a bit of time to call in the soldiers who left work to question them. I made my way towards the wall and lightly climbed over it, using a bit of magic to avoid being spotted. Outside the capital, the paved road turned into a dirt path, so the carriage would be easier to track. As I ran alongside the tracks, I soon found the six horse carriage traveling along the forest path. Because of its unique width, the sides of the carriage had been scratched up by protruding rocks and branches.

It looks expensive, the kidnappers must have a lot of money to treat it like that. I wonder how many magic-related items they have in there…

I hid my presence, increased my speed, and grabbed the back of the six-horse carriage moving at full speed and hung on. Then, while hanging, I opened the carriage door and went inside. The coachman didn’t even notice me coming aboard, the sound was drowned out by the breathing of the horses and the loud noise of branches scraping across the carriage. Considering that the carriage was empty, it seemed that they had indeed transferred the crown prince to a different carriage in that alley. This carriage was likely used to deceive the crown prince and to confuse the pursuers.

"As expected, it's a bust."

I sat on the chair, took out tea and teacups from my pocket space, made water in the air with magic, boiled it, and relaxed. As I sipped on my tea, I contacted Tristan.

- Tristan, I caught up with the carriage I was tracking, but the crown prince isn’t here. As we suspected, it seems like they swapped carriages in the capital.

- Yeap! I’m almost there, so don't worry, Master! These chirps are very convenient. We can share visual perspectives, and it's great for searching.

- They were originally made for that purpose.

The method of forming a magic circle by engraving magic characters on the chirps was an expedient that I created. Such a function wasn’t the default. The exact name of the chirps was ‘Small Bird-type Wide Area Search Assistance Alchemic Lifeform US-008, ver. 6.7,’ and was made by Elder Mirpa to search for prey. Naturally, the chirps could move well without breaking as they were made for use in the hazardous Olympus Forest. Of course, using them required quite a bit of magic knowledge, so most used tamed hawks. Many of the villagers knew how to use magic, but the name ‘magic user’ was more suitable for them than ‘magician’. Tristan, who lacked magic skills, could still use the chirps because I equipped his body with a receiver so that he could control them.

- Then I’ll keep tracking. But what are you going to do, Master?

I poured tea into the teacup floating in the air.

- First, I'll check where this coachman will take the carriage then interrogate him.

I thought that perhaps he could guide me to their hiding place, or to where the mastermind of their operation was. Since I was on the move already, I thought it would be better to take care of business properly so things wouldn’t become bothersome later.

- Understood! I'll call you when I catch up then.

- All right. Work hard.

After my contact with Tristan, I leisurely enjoyed my tea and looked out the window. The carriage passed through the suburban forest for a long time, heading near where I had a fight with my aunt in winter. People had stopped visiting this area, saying that it brought bad luck because it was quite far from the capital and there was a clearing with a radius of about a kilometer where the forest disappeared. This wasn’t something I should say, but it wasn't a bad place to put a hideout. The carriage gradually slowed down and stopped in the middle of the field.

"Whew... it doesn’t seem like I was followed." muttered the coachman.

After releasing the horses from the carriage, he released five of the horses in all directions, grabbed one horse by the reins, and tied it to a nearby tree.

I don't know whose plan this is, but whoever it is, they’re smart.

He had released the five horses to cause more confusion, and it seemed he was going to ride one himself.

"If I just burn the carriage, will my work be over?" the kidnapper continued to mutter as he opened the carriage door and came inside.

"Hi, do you want a drink?" I said with a smile, offering him a cup. The man froze in shock before falling backwards onto his behind.

"Ahhhh!”

I sipped my tea then looked at the kidnapper and said, "That's rude. Screaming at people."

"W, w, w, w, what are you!?"

I shrugged at the kidnapper, who pulled out a sword with his trembling hand.

"What am I? That's too harsh of a question. If you’re trying to kill me, you should at least know my name, right?”

To be honest, if this kidnapper hadn't messed with me, I wouldn't have paid much attention to whether the crown prince was kidnapped or not. By the time I would have found out, it would have been after the crown prince had already died. I would have felt annoyed and uncomfortable with the White Deer Knights, but would soon shake it off casually.

The kidnapper trembled. "H, h, h-how are you in this carriage?"

He stuttered as if he were looking at a ghost. I smiled and mocked him.

“W, w, what do you mean how am I here? I came in through the carriage door, of course."

When the kidnapper heard me copy his stuttering, he blushed as if his pride had been hurt and took a deep breath.

"Ghost? Whew! If you're a ghost, go away! If you're a person, name yourself!"

"What? I’m sure the ghost will go away easily if you keep shouting like that. You should try shouting more enthusiastically!”

I drank the rest of the tea and put the tea cup back in my pocket space. The kidnapper began to freak out again. How was he doing something like kidnapping when he was so fainthearted? I opened the box next to the chair with a smile. There was oil and firewood inside.

"Here, you're looking for this, right?” I said as I tossed a piece of wood at him. The kidnapper panicked and tried to catch it, but fumbled.

Finding the sight hilarious, I laughed, hitting my knee. My laugh made the kidnapper blush with anger.

"How dare you! Do you know who I am!"

"Who are you? A kidnapper?"

"I-I'm from the Jean-Bert family...!”

I took another piece of wood out of the box. The kidnapper was embarrassed saying the name of the fallen family.

"Well, let's hear that information later, for now I’ll just give you a good beating."

It was none of my business whether they messed with the crown prince, but I couldn’t forgive him for messing with me. I enveloped the piece of wood in my hand with a bluish mana. Screams echoed through the field.

* * *

"Whew~! It's nice to relieve some stress after so long."

After extracting as much information as possible from the kidnapper, I tied him up tightly and hung him upside-down from the carriage. As someone who had directly carried out the kidnapping, he had quite a bit of information about the plan. He knew not only the location of their hideout, but also where they were taking the crown prince, and the families that sponsored the kidnapping. According to this information, the crown prince was still safe.

- Commander-in-Chief, are you busy?

I answered Caradoc’s call, dusting off my hands.

"No, I just finished up, so it's okay. What did the information agency say?"

- It seems the information agency also didn't expect this group called Ramnusia to do this.

I smiled slightly at Caradoc's reply.

"I thought it might be like that. I've got something to tease my aunt and Milpia about now."

- I placed the information from the agency in your pocket space. Also, they said because you provided the information that Ramnusia kidnapped the crown prince, this information is free.

I took out the pretty thick pile of documents from the pocket space and checked them. Even though I was just doing a rough once-over, there was more information there than from the three low-lives who tried to kill me.

"It seems Milpia is also stingy."

The kidnapping of the crown prince. Hot information such as that would be worth more money than this information. Caradoc continued, despite my grumbling.

- Oh, the information I provided them was just that the crown prince was kidnapped and the kidnapping organization’s name is Ramnusia. They said they’d make it worth your while if you were willing to sell additional information.

As expected of Caradoc. He was clever.

“Are you still at the information agency?”

- Yes, I am.

"Then negotiate and try to barter for as much as you can. We’ll hand the information right over.”

Great. This happened just in time, I was a little short on funds to buy magic ingredients.

A distribution network was still being developed for the aphrodisiacs, so that wasn’t bringing in a whole lot of money, and there was no use in stealing corruption ledgers and robbing nobles since the empire was currently undergoing currency reform. The treasury was fiercely monitoring the sales of stolen goods, so even the Big Mama Information Agency was not trading them for secret funds for a while. If they were, they were slashing the prices.

I looked at the kidnapper hanging upside down.

“This one turned out to be a gold mine.”

It was like looking at a sweet dessert. Now it was time to really get started.