Ch 10

"Huh?"

When the criminal in front of him suddenly exploded and disappeared, the vice captain spaced out for a moment with a blank face. He soon came to his senses and hurriedly approached the crown prince.

"Your Highness, are you all right?!"

When the vice-captain released the gag and restraint from the crown prince's mouth, the crown prince spat and pointed to the bag that contained me, which nobody was paying attention to.

"I'm fine. Den, the civil servant who was guiding me was caught with me! Hurry and release him!"

After overpowering the amputated kidnapper, the captain put a tourniquet on his stump arm to stop the bleeding, then opened the bag that I was in at the crown prince’s order.

When the bag opened, I let in a massive breath.

"I thought I was going to suffocate to death." I said, huffing and puffing.

The crown prince greeted me by releasing my restraint himself.

"Thank you. If it weren't for the traces you left, they wouldn't have come so quickly. I owe you my life."

The two knights, not understanding what he meant, gave me a confused look. I ignored their gazes.

"No, I only sent a message by magic to a place called Big Mama Information Agency. I told them that Your Highness was kidnapped just before me. And it’s only because those two knights are so skilled that they came so quickly, isn’t it?"

The two knights now nodded in understanding. Since the vice captain had been to Big Mama Information Agency with me, he would have figured out the situation without any further explanation.

"I see. I should also thank the knights. Thank you for saving me."

The two knights bowed in response, and the captain shook his head. "No, you have suffered this great hardship due to our failure to escort you. No matter what punishment is given, we will take it willingly."

Certainly, since the one they were trusted to protect was kidnapped, and especially because it was the crown prince, they could not protest any punishment, even if they were dismissed from their posts.

The crown prince frowned. “No, it's all because of my childish greed, so it's not a matter of reprimanding you guys. You saved me, so I should be rewarding you. You were swept into this mess for no reason because of me. I'm sorry."

I smiled and said, "It's okay. If you're really sorry, please give me a large bonus."

Perhaps he thought my sincere words were a joke, because the crown prince burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha! Do you mean it? I’ll make sure it happens, even if I have to take out all my personal savings!"

Ohhh! How nice that he’s a big figure! Should I take this chance to pull out an imperial flag pole? I was thinking so, but the captain looked at the crown prince and I and said, "Your Highness, firstly, I shall take you back to the imperial palace. You should come with us just in case. I'll protect you until this matter is settled."

All right, it’s safe to say that this eliminated any suspicions that I played a part in the kidnapping. It was worth pretending to be caught.

* * *

At a location not far from the secret base in the slum where the captain and the vice-captain saved the crown prince, a middle-aged man slammed the armrest of a luxurious chair that did not match the shabby house he was in.

"Damn it! Did Yuro get caught?!"

The angry man chewed his nails and muttered to himself as if to soothe his anxiety.

"It's okay. That Yuro guy doesn't know anything about me, so I'm not going to get caught."

Yuro, one of the people involved in the kidnapping of the crown prince, didn't even know that his master was just a well-made magic doll that he thought was the leader of Ramnusia. Besides, although it was unknown who did it, someone thought to be a member of Ramnusia ran away with the doll, so it was even more likely that the middle-aged man wouldn't be caught. As he considered these factors, he felt his anxieties settle down. After the man took a deep breath and regained some stability, he immediately clicked his tongue in annoyance and touched the ring on his finger, engraved with a family insignia. The insignia was that of the Cheroins, a collateral family that gained independence from Marquis Balthain, one of the marquis families of the empire. The ring he wore symbolized that he was the head of the family, Count Cheroin.

"Tch, Ramnusia is no longer usable." Count Cheroin murmured bitterly, more upset that he was no longer able to use Ramnusia than the failed kidnapping of the crown prince.

"It's too bad. There are no bigger pushovers than those who are blinded by a need for revenge."

Those who dreamt of revenge on the Blood Emperor and the imperial family readily gave their all. Even though Cheroin had just lied that he was the one who assassinated the Blood Emperor, they offered him expensive jewelry and accessories, devoted their family's businesses, as well as mining rights owned by their families. There were no better pushovers than those families. It was a pity that he couldn't continue to use those tools.

Count Cheroin sighed deeply. "It should have been either a complete failure or complete success.” There was never such a partial failure in his plans. In fact, he thought the kidnapping would end in failure, as it was just an attempt to appease Ramnusia’s thirst for revenge. His prediction was natural. Regardless of whether they had an insider among the White Deer Knights, he thought there was no way they could get rid of the escorts unless many variables turned in their favor. He just wanted to let them try once and fail to get revenge, so he could exploit them for longer. He planned on telling them not to give up, even if it took ten years. Somehow though, they succeeded. He was in crisis when he first heard that the kidnapping was successful. He had only planned the kidnapping itself, with nothing in mind for what to do afterwards, thinking that it would fail anyways. Cheroin felt dizzy at the thought of coming up with something to do with the captured crown prince, until he remembered a trick. Since the kidnapping was successful, he could have sold out Ramnusia and “saved” the crown prince, making him the imperial benefactor. He had come to the conclusion that selling out Ramnusia would be more beneficial to him than exploiting them little by little. However, he had not planned for this from the beginning, and the knights stormed in unexpectedly and ruined it all.

"Well, it's all right. It's a big loss right now, but since the doll is gone, I can slowly take time to approach the members again, as a new organization. There is no way that all of the members were overpowered during that little fiasco."

He laughed at the thought of exploiting those blinded by revenge again.

"Ahh, that foolish Marquis Balthain. Why did you bother the prime minister's hound after setting up such a great plan?"

Count Cheroin laughed at the thought of Marquis Balthain, who was decapitated alongside his family at the beginning of the year.

Although Count Cheroin was also in great trouble due to his distant business entanglements with Marquis Balthain, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Now Cheroin could take over all of the dirty secret business of the marquis. As he was about to get started on his new plan, dreaming of a rosy future, he saw that the magic tool connected to his doll was shining.

“Huh? Why is it shining?”

“Why do you think! It's because of reverse detection!” a voice shouted from outside.

Boom-!

The shabby wall of the room exploded, shooting out debris that hit the count’s head.

"Come here!"

As blood leaked down his face and his vision blurred, he fainted to the sound of a voice shouting. The last thing he saw was a smiling black-haired boy in a civil servant's uniform. He would be in a prison when he opened his eyes again, but while he slept, he dreamed of his beautiful future.

* * *

I relaxed over coffee and sat on the outdoor terrace of a regular cafe of the Adventurers’ Guild, the same one I had visited with the crown prince a few days prior. I had dressed up a dragon tooth soldier as the version of me that was kidnapped and sent him to meet the man behind the kidnapping, but the person was knocked unconscious and bleeding from his head. Using magic, I extracted information from the unconscious kidnapper in disappointment and handed him over to Milpia. Thanks to this, I managed to get quite a generous reward. I had money left even after buying a new magic experiment device.

"Then is this the end of the search for the magic tower for outsourcing?" Rosellis asked, sitting next to me and gulping down a beer even though it was still daylight.

"Yes. I've looked around all the candidate sites and filtered out the magic towers with embarrassingly bad samples. Upper management will take over from here using the narrowed down pool of samples.”

Rosellis smiled cheerfully and put his beer glass down on the table.

“Then today is the last day of our date!"

It was not a date, it was an escort. But I suppose she wasn’t completely wrong, because we played around from time to time after visiting the magic towers. After the kidnapping of the crown prince was resolved, it was decided by Guild Director Glont that I was to be escorted until Ramnusia was completely wiped out, since I was a victim of the kidnapping too. Rosellis's casual attitude, drinking beer with sliced cheese, was technically not appropriate for an escort. But she was as strong as an ox, so assigning her as my escort was actually a bit excessive on the part of the guild director.

"All the people involved in the kidnapping were beheaded two days ago, so this whole escort business should have ended earlier."

The crown prince, in an attempt to avoid making a fuss about the incident, did not inform the outside world of the kidnapping. Within the imperial court, however, all the members of Ramnusia were executed on charges of conspiracy and treason. As a result, there was a rumor that the emperor might begin another purge, like the Blood Emperor. But the emperor reassured the political community that there would be no more purges, allowing them to breathe easy.

"Hey! What's this? Are you saying you didn't like your date with your Noonim?" she said. [1]

"Ahaha, no not at all." I said drearily.

Rosellis playfully put me in a headlock and gave me a whack on the head.

"You brat! You brat!”

Theft is never good, try looking at [ pawread dot com ].

"Ah! Ah! It hurts!"

After wriggling out of the headlock, I looked around.

"It seems I somehow finished my work before Harvest Day."

The trees along the street had already changed to their autumn leaves, and it'd be the start of the Harvest Festival in a few days. Many of the adventurers of the capital went down to their hometowns, and the civil servants of the Adventurers' Guild had all the time in the world.

"All right, you did a great job. I'm going to buy some more alcohol."

"If you drink too much, you'll be scolded by the guild director."

Rosellis chuckled and went into a nearby pub, despite my concern. It didn't really matter; Rosellis couldn't get drunk off of beer anyways. I picked up the newspaper as someone sat next to me holding a cup of tea.

"Ahem! Is it okay for a civil servant, whose salary is paid by hardworking taxpayers, to drink coffee leisurely during the peak hours of work?" they said in a serious tone.

I couldn't help but laugh when I turned and saw who the person was.

"I thought you wouldn't be able to come out of the house for a while. How are you here?"

It was the crown prince, disguised with magic. The crown prince stammered, flustered that I could recognize him.

"W-why can't I come out of the house? I, khmm! It’s your first time seeing me, how do you know me?"

He seemed to have intended to play a prank on me, but the prank was clumsy.

I sighed sadly and joked, "Well, I thought I knew you well, but I guess it was my own delusions. How could a petty civil servant be a friend of such a noble person?"

I turned things back around on the crown prince, leaving him baffled.

"Oh, no! It's not that...!"

"Pfft!"

I couldn’t hold back my laughter. The crown prince turned red, realizing that I was making fun of him.

"You are certainly insolent!" he said, fuming.

"So, did you not like it?”

The crown prince laughed cheerfully and said, "How can that be? I've wanted a friend like this forever.”

"That's a relief. So, how are you here?"

The crown prince stroked his fake beard.

"I got some help from Sir William. He was certain I would never be recognized, so how did you recognize me?"

I pointed my chin towards Burden, the vice-captain of the White Deer Knights, who was hiding among the crowd a short distance away, glancing over in my direction from time to time.

"If you're going to try and hide your identity, you should disguise them as well."

"Aha! I see. It’s a good thing I came to see you, so I could learn for next time. In that spirit, why don't you hang out with me tomorrow too?”

I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know what that means, but it kind of sounds like you want to play hooky then hang out?"

"In a sense, yes."

"Since we're playing anyway, it'd be good if my friends can tag along too."

The crown prince sipped his tea and smiled.

"That sounds good."

1. More respectful way of saying “noona,” what a male calls an older female. ☜