Ch 9

The kidnappers coughed as they swung open the attic door.

"There's still a damn lot of dust up here." said one of the kidnappers, who I recognized as the man who had deceived the crown prince.

The old man, who seemed to be the owner of this mansion, smiled bitterly. "Sorry. The servants don’t tend to the attic often."

The man looked at the owner awkwardly and gestured towards the crown prince.

"No, this place is a good fit for someone like him."

Judging by his eyes and the way that he spoke, he seemed to have a deep grudge against the imperial family, specifically the Blood Emperor. I suppose that was why he was doing this kind of reckless and crazy thing.

"But did we leave the window open?" asked the man, looking suspiciously at the window that I had left open.

Tristan, disguised as my captor, replied boldly, "I left it open. It was too dusty."

"Is that so? Well, a tied up unconscious person couldn't have opened the window just because they were suffocating."

Tristan smiled. "Even if they woke up, we gagged them. They wouldn't have been able to even scream."

The owner nodded. "That's true. Come on, let us get moving. That person will be waiting."

The old man spoke as if he was the one doing the work. The kidnapper and Tristan complied, carrying the crown prince and I to the carriage garage behind the mansion.

* * *

The captain and vice captain of the White Deer Knights headed towards the noble street.

"Captain, wouldn't it be better to move separately with the others to search?" asked the vice captain.

The captain shook his head. "No. To be honest, I think there's an insider among the knight division."

The vice captain was so surprised that he choked on his own breath.

"I-is that what the information agency said? Who did they say it was?"

"No. There was no such information.”

The vice captain tilted his head. "Then on what grounds do you believe there is a traitor?”

The vice-captain was usually insincere and a good-for-nothing, but the knights were like brothers to him, whom he trusted with his life. He couldn’t readily accept that one of them might be traitorous, even if the information came from a respected superior.

"There are two reasons for thinking so."

"… Two?"

"Yes. The first is that the only people who knew about the crown prince's trip were a few servants of the imperial palace, Guild Director Glont, and the White Deer Knights assigned to protection duty. As far as anybody else knows, the crown prince is currently residing in his palace and working."

This meant that the kidnapping was only possible because someone leaked the information. Since being a servant in the inner imperial palace was one of the few positions that allowed free roam, they were very strict about background checking each new servant. It would be difficult for an insider to hide among them. On the other hand, the White Deer Knights did not select new recruits so meticulously.

"Secondly, the long-distance guards lost the crown prince too easily. Are your men really such fools?"

"No."

No matter how crowded the market was and how difficult it was to follow with just the eyes, they were still knights who trained their mana. The captain judged that it did not make sense for them to lose someone, especially someone as important as the crown prince. The captain’s suspicions were correct. Members of Ramnusia in the White Deer Knights deliberately distracted the accompanying guards as they passed the bustling market street to create an opening for them to lose track of the crown prince. Although they were successful, they were also deceived by Den, causing them to lose the crown prince's position too.

"So, just the two of us will track this time. If we operate without knowing who to trust, the kidnappers will always be a step ahead of us."

"… I understand."

The vice-captain followed the captain in silence, until they reached their destination, a mansion at the end of the street. The captain rang the bell.

Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.

* * *

Using the eyes of a chirp sitting on a magic lamp, I looked in amazement at the place that had just been the kidnapper’s den.

- Hey, the White Deer Knights have already arrived at the mansion.

I said to Tristan with thought transmission. Tristan was also amazed.

- Wow, they’re really fast. We didn't even tell them the location directly. To already be there, they must be pretty competent.

The time I expected them to arrive was about an hour later at the earliest. They were more capable than I thought. Seeing that it was just the two head knights, the captain seemed to have noticed that there was an insider among his men.

- But is it okay for them to be this close behind us? I thought they'd be a little late, so I left a lot of traces, but what if they crush the enemy before I get a chance?

I smiled lightly at Tristan's concern.

- It's okay. It seems we're almost there.

Our carriage arrived on the outskirts of the slums. It was late, so I could hear only the sound of crickets around me. The kidnapper got out of the carriage, put a cover over it, and took the lead.

“Carry them and follow me.”

Tristan and the dragon tooth soldier carried the crown prince and I and followed after the kidnapper. He seemed to be leading us to a shabby house, but when he lifted the flooring, an entrance to the basement appeared.

“This is probably your first time here. You get to meet that person today, so make sure to mind your manners today." he cautioned.

Tristan nodded and followed the kidnapper, purposefully leaving a trail at the entrance for the knights. The basement was unlike any building in the slums, with a wide luxurious interior. Looking at it, it seemed like a hideout of a high ranking noble. The slum was located at the end of the capital, and no one came by except the people who lived there, so it was a good place to build a safe house. There appeared to be another entrance besides ours, but it didn’t seem to go far. Of course, only those like Count Druval or the prime minister, who had profuse wealth, could create a secret passage from their home to here. For other nobles, it was absolutely impossible.

"You’re here?"

In the corner of the hideout, a man sitting in a rocking chair with graying hair greeted the kidnapper. The kidnapper approached and kneeled before him. Tristan, disguised as one of the kidnappers, also knelt down and spoke with me through transmission.

- I think they’re about to see through our lies.

I smirked at Tristan’s remark.

- They shouldn’t know, as long as we keep our mouths shut.

Tristan glanced at me with puzzled eyes.

- That's not a person. It's a doll that looks like a person. From what I can see, there’s sound transmission magic, illusion magic to make the doll look human, remote control magic, and magic for vision.

- If it's vision magic, doesn't it mean they're watching us from afar?

I snorted at Tristan's question.

- Haha! I’m sure they’ll see well with that trifling magic. They'd be lucky if they could figure out if someone even walked in the room, let alone figure out who they are.

Other magic could have been hidden under the doll's clothes, but in order to see using vision magic, it had to be engraved in a prominent position. So, the smaller the engraving, the weaker the effect. If a talented magician had engraved it, it still would have performed well, but it seemed that they couldn’t hire one. I didn’t know who approved this, but they were a miser I couldn’t relate to.

"I am back from my mission." reported the kidnapper.

The doll frowned in response, as if it couldn’t see well. Because they were watching this place with magic, frowning wouldn’t have helped, but it seemed that the doll and its manipulator were completely linked.

"Bring the crown prince closer.” demanded another kidnapper, hidden in the shadows.

The kneeling kidnapper stood up, opened the box containing the crown prince and brought it closer to the doll. Then, he carefully stepped back to his original position and kneeled again.

"He lost a lot of his eyesight in the process of assassinating the Blood Emperor. So mind your manners." he said to Tristan in a soft voice.

It seemed like he didn’t know that it was a doll, the way he spoke and moved so carefully around it. I figured he must have been manipulated by whoever was behind all this.

- Isn't that Blood Emperor the former emperor of this country? They’re more impressive than I thought.

Tristan remarked, impressed. I sneered lightly.

- There's no way the head of such a ragtag organization could have assassinated the Blood Emperor.

The advantage of an organization like this was that it would be difficult to capture their core, and easy to cut their losses even if they were caught, but the disadvantage was that they couldn’t create a cohesive force. To kill a person like the Blood Emperor, it would have taken a huge organizational power, united and coordinated. Or, they would have needed a member with superhuman abilities who could break into the palace alone, but the more information that was extracted about this organization, the less applicable either possibility seemed.

Tristan nodded disappointedly, perhaps convinced by my explanation.

- Tch! That's no fun.

Above all, if they had actually achieved the feat of assassinating the Blood Emperor, there was no way that they wouldn’t have crossed Milpia’s radar. It seemed to me that my aunt had to have been somewhat involved in the assassination, or at least knew who the culprit was. If not, there was no way she would have had such a lukewarm response when someone who claimed to have assassinated the Blood Emperor appeared. Either way, it was none of my business whether this person was the assassin or not. I slowly started to decipher the location that was linked to the doll, but soon as I was about to really get started, I felt two presences from above.

"Oh, that was quick." I said, accidentally letting my voice slip out.

The kidnapper tried to say something to me, but soon, the door broke open and the kidnapper’s voice was buried by the cry of the two knights charging in.

"Don't move! You’re surrounded!"

The vice-captain naturally lied as he drew his sword. The kneeling kidnapper was frightened by the sudden attack and tried to secure the crown prince. The crown prince, who was pretending to be unconscious, rolled away from the kidnappers grasp. In the meantime, the captain quickly pulled out his sword and shot a blast of sword aura at the kidnapper, slicing off his arm.

“Ahhhhhk!”

“Is Your Highness all right?!”

The captain charged in to protect the crown prince. The kidnapper drew his sword with his remaining arm and shouted at Tristan.

"I was wrong! One of you stay behind to stall for time and the other go escort Sir! We can always start again as long as Sir is around!"

He didn’t even know that he was serving a doll, and shrouded his sword in sword aura with bloodshot eyes to protect it. Blood gushed out from his stump arm.

Clang!

The kidnapper had skill but he stood no chance against the captain.

"That knight said we were surrounded. Will we be able to escape?” Tristan asked casually.

The kidnapper shouted while swinging his sword wildly. "When suspicious people come around, the alarm usually goes off, but it didn’t happen this time! Hurry and escort Sir!"

"Well, ok then." Tristan answered calmly and picked up the doll.

Funnily, the person behind the doll's eyes was visibly flustered. They clearly couldn’t tell what was happening because of the weak vision magic. While the kidnapper and the dragon tooth soldier confronted the captain and the vice-captain, Tristan quietly exited the secret space with the doll wrapped around his back.

The vice-captain tried to chase after Tristan, but the captain stopped him.

“His Highness’ safety comes first. The capital is locked down, so we can catch them later."

The vice captain nodded and joined the captain in attacking the dragon tooth soldier. The soldier blocked each attack and rushed in, as programmed.

"What?!"

The vice captain was caught off-guard by the dragon tooth soldier’s strong attack, but regained his footing and clashed swords with it again and again. I thought very little of the vice captain, but he started to push the dragon tooth soldier back, showing that he wasn’t the vice captain for no reason. Soon, he disarmed the soldier and cut a massive wound into its torso. A normal person would have died, but the dragon tooth soldier stayed on its feet. However, it did not attack during this brief opening. Instead, it took one huge step back and recited a phrase using its built-in TTS (voice synthesis system).

"Ugh. I. Am. Angry."

Boom-!

The dragon tooth soldier entered my pocket space with an explosion, like a defeated monster in a battlefield.

Did I make the TTS too half-hearted?