19. Rescue (1)
19. Rescue (1)
Yuma had no intention of staying at the count's castle.
The being occupying Count Rubelt's body would try to monitor him and his entire group by any means necessary.
If they were going to infiltrate, doing it from outside the count's castle carried a significantly lower risk of getting caught.
-Murphy, Murphy. Please help my oppa. You said you knew where he is.
-Y-You must speak quietly, young lady.
Yuma turned his head toward the direction the voices were coming from.
A young knight with brown hair was patting the shoulders of the blonde young girl, Ruine, whose blue eyes were glistening with tears, trying to console her.
'Alignment: Good.'
[Lv.62] Murphy
He was an intermediate-level Sword Expert. His limit was also intermediate. He was a thirty-year-old swordsman who had already grown to his peak.
Yuma looked at Murphy and Ruine for a long moment.
It was obvious that Ruine trusted Murphy.
Yuma spoke to Hestia, who was sticking close to him.
"Can you memorize that knight's and Ruine's scents? I'll make contact with them separately later."
Hestia's ears, hidden inside her robe, perked up as she nodded.
"Yeah!"
As Yuma left the count's castle, he recalled the conversation he had with Ruine in the VIP room several minutes prior.
-Tonight, be outside the castle by whatever means. It would be better if you could bring along one knight or soldier you can trust. I will come to get you then. I'll help you find your brother who's locked up in prison.
-...The bench across from the clock tower.
If Ruine followed Yuma's advice and ventured out at night, it seemed likely she would be accompanied by that knight named Murphy.
***
Yuma, Cloné, and Hestia filled their stomachs at a restaurant near the inn and waited for the sun to set.
Even while eating, Hestia kept turning her gaze this way and that.
She seemed to be looking around, wondering if her missing little brother might be somewhere here.
"You said he wasn't your real little brother, right?"
Cloné looked at Hestia with her shining golden eyes. When it became clear her little brother wasn't inside the restaurant, Hestia grew a little glum and nodded as she slowly ate her pasta.
"Mm."
"Then how did you two meet? You and that little brother."
"We met in a rural village called Garbel next to ours. A kid with a unique name, Haruk! I saved him from dying to a bear. But he said he was a wanderer, too. He said his whole village was burned down by bandits. He blamed himself so much for being the only one to survive and escape."
It was a common story.
"So we traveled together. Fellow drifters. Which is how we managed to get into the County of Rubelt together. But on the third day, he just vanished. We were staying at a pretty shabby inn. I told him to wait on the first floor...."
Hestia's head drooped low as she explained.
"If I'd been with him, I could've protected him."
Yuma looked into Hestia's green irises.
"Blaming yourself for something that's already happened is useless. Once we meet the eldest son, Kaisen, who seems to know something about this situation, we'll find something out."
Hestia let out a soft laugh at Yuma's indifferent consolation.
"That's right, we'll find him."
The meal slowly came to an end.
Yuma's party got up. They headed toward the bench across from the clock tower that Ruine had whispered about. Not just Hestia, but Yuma and Cloné were also wearing robes.
"Sniff sniff, I can smell them. I think they're here."
Hestia sniffed the air.
Yuma looked around. He thought he understood why Ruine had suggested meeting at the bench across from the clock tower.
A tree with extremely thick branches was completely concealing the bench.
"You managed to sneak out of the castle safely. At this hour."
At Yuma's words, the blonde young girl sitting on the bench raised her head.
The young girl's tiny lips parted.
"If you take the mountain at the back, it takes a long time, but you can get out secretly."
Yuma looked at the young girl, Ruine, for a moment at those words. Beads of sweat were forming on her forehead. Her blonde hair seemed damp with sweat as well.
The brown-haired knight Murphy, who had been standing beside her, stepped forward.
"You there... Why did you call Young Lady Ruine out here?"
"You've heard about it too. They say the eldest son, Kaisen, is in prison. A special prison where no one can even visit."
"...I, too, believe there has been some misunderstanding about that. However, the orders still came from His Excellency the Count."
Yuma's and Murphy's eyes met.
"You, too, must have felt something strange about the Count's actions recently."
Murphy's face crumpled. It was because Yuma was correct. The original Count Rubelt's body had been growing frail. But suddenly he became sprightly, as if full of energy. As if he had undergone rejuvenation.
And even though young boys, young girls, and young men and women were occasionally vanishing from the count's household, he issued no countermeasures and simply stood by idly.
The Count's behavior had sown a single assumption in Murphy's mind, and he couldn't help it from sprouting. A question that made no sense from a common-sense standpoint.
The assumption that the Count might be involved in the series of disappearances happening in the county right now.
"That the innocent eldest son, Kaisen, was locked in a prison with no visitation rights. It probably means he knows something for certain. Isn't it just a matter of hearing what the eldest son has to say?"
Yuma stared at Murphy.
"Guide me to the prison. You know its location, don't you?"
"...I have never been there myself, but I heard the location from my senior. So I know it."
***
The place where the prison was located was a building that rose on the right side of a forest, very far away from the count's castle. It was a prison in a round, circular structure.
Looking from a distance, it was like a giant black gravestone.
"It's bigger than I thought."
It was Cloné's voice. Yuma and Hestia nodded strongly at that.
Yuma looked at Ruine and Murphy.
"Has that prison always been there?"
Murphy responded to that question.
"No. It was originally an abandoned building. It probably started being used suddenly about four months ago. And four months ago is... when Count Rubelt changed a bit."
Murphy spoke with a stiff face.
Only now was he facing the truth he had avoided, despite feeling a terrible sense of incongruity all along.
"...Children and youths started disappearing from the county about four months ago as well."
Yuma watched Murphy, who seemed for some reason lost in self-reproach, and opened his mouth again.
"We're entering. Slowly."
The area in front of the prison was messily covered in thickets.
Yuma looked at Hestia.
If the Cat Tribe in this world possessed similar abilities to the ones in <Loof Blood>, then the one specialized for this kind of infiltration was none other than Hestia.
A species with a nimble body and natural-born talent for stealth and concealment. The Cat Tribe.
This was the time for her to display her innate racial abilities.
"Just find out how many guard personnel there are, get the headcount, and come back. Without getting caught. Can you do it?"
Hestia grinned, showing her white teeth.
"Of course, do you know what race I am?"
Hestia gently flipped her robe backward. It seemed to get in the way of performing the recon role as a Cat Tribe. Hestia's feet, clad in leather shoes, moved.
Sasak-
The sound of her footsteps did not disperse. Silence.
But Hestia's body was moving forward at a rapid pace.
Yuma slowly rose up. And he followed Hestia, who had gone ahead.
Recon was only recon. Unless the guard headcount was stupidly close to a hundred, he intended to break in.
'And that's not going to be the case.'
This was an unidentified prison deeply hidden in the outskirts.
If they stationed that many personnel here, security would actually drop instead. The biggest factor was that the guard forces of the Count Rubelt household were not particularly high-level. Because the County of Rubelt was a place where the chances of monsters appearing, or foreign powers invading, were as thin as a fingernail.
'Probably a small elite.'
It was highly likely that a small, elite force was deployed here.
Murphy, Ruine, and Cloné followed behind Yuma.
Sseuk...
'Two at the entrance.'
Hestia hid behind the shadow of the prison's iron wall, then exploited the blind spot of the two sentries at the entrance and slipped inside. Using shadows and cover, she infiltrated swiftly, and using the muscle strength of her arms and hands and the elasticity of her body, she scaled the wall quickly and quietly.
Hestia's two green eyes were fixed beyond the iron bars. Inside, she could see young boys and young girls sitting listlessly, their ankles bound in iron chains.
Her eyes rapidly examined each child's face. But she did not see the face of the little brother she was searching for, Haruk.
'Haruk...!'
In her heart, she wanted to circle this round prison and examine the faces of everyone locked in these cells, but there was no time right now.
The fastest way was to completely neutralize the military force of this prison first, then rapidly examine every room.
While concealing her body in the shadows, Hestia took note of every soldier visible to her eye. The visible, moving soldiers numbered roughly 18. A large, burly man was present in front of the door to the east. Aside from him, no special combat personnel were visible.
Using the shadows as friends, Hestia quickly descended from the prison. And, just as quietly and quickly as when she left, she returned to Yuma's side.
Something slid right up out of Yuma's shadow. It was Hestia, who had arrived beside him before he knew it.
"How was it?"
"There was only one entity worth paying attention to. To the east, where the entrance seems to be. And... there are children locked up inside. They're probably the children connected to the disappearance incidents. I think we need to subdue the visible soldiers first and examine the prison more."
Hestia paused for a moment, then looked at Ruine.
"Ah, I couldn't confirm whether or not the eldest son, Kaisen, was there."
Murphy, the knight beside her, opened his mouth.
"The young master is probably locked underground. Because they would have put him there so he couldn't easily escape no matter what variables arose."
Yuma looked into Hestia's green eyes after she finished her briefing.
They were trembling faintly. It seemed she had not been able to spot her close little brother.
"Let's go in."
If there were only 18 soldiers, there was no need to even infiltrate secretly. Yuma headed to the east.
He intended to subdue the strongest one holding out at the entrance first.
"Grrrrrrr...."
It was a gloomy sound that didn't seem like it could come from a human mouth. Red light gleamed from the eyes of the bulky man who seemed easily over 3 meters tall.
Those eyes were staring straight at Yuma, who was walking toward him with dignified steps.
"Don't hesitate, just take him down. That's the only way we can rescue these people safely."
Hestia and Cloné nodded strongly at Yuma's words.
"...What should I do?"
Murphy still hadn't drawn his weapon.
"Decide for yourself. Knight of the Count's household."
Yuma stepped forward.