Abduction Is the Goal, Though (1)
Abduction Is the Goal, Though (1)
After the duel ended, a commotion broke out.
We'd fought so fiercely, and far too many people had been watching.
Fortunately, my other abilities weren't exposed, and the Knight Commander hadn't noticed anything suspicious.
The problem was that a huge crowd had watched me fight the Knight Commander to a standstill.
If even Balea and the Princess, who had been traveling with me, were astonished, imagine how everyone else felt.
Joachim picked a fight with me, asking if I'd been holding back the entire time we dueled.
To be fair, I had been holding back.
During the second semester—which had felt several times longer to me than to anyone else—I'd constantly battled heroes inside my Mental World. There was no way the gap in our skills wouldn't widen.
But I couldn't exactly tell him that.
I had no choice but to make excuses, citing our swordsmanship compatibility and claiming I couldn't fight at full strength because the Divine Sword's abilities were sealed.
That excuse didn't work on Balea in the slightest, of course, but it did manage to calm my startled squadmates somewhat.
But there was nothing I could do about the rest.
Right away, the star of the evening banquet changed.
The seats of honor were occupied by the Princess and the Grand Archduchess, but everyone's attention wasn't focused on those two highborn noblewomen. It was on me.
The Marquis's gaze had changed as well. He watched me with a look far more intent than anyone else's.
Could he have heard about me from the Knight Commander? If he'd heard that I could have defeated him, then that kind of look made perfect sense.
I wasn't an ordinary knight; I was an awakened noble. My status as a bastard son was a hurdle, but if someone intended to put me under their command and make use of me, it might actually be an advantage, since fewer ties held me back.
I was sixteen years old.
I'd fought the Marquisate's strongest fighter to at least a draw. There was no telling how much further I would grow.
I was bound to be an immensely tempting prize.
Thanks to fighting to my heart's content, I'd gained quite a bit in swordsmanship and mana cultivation techniques. But now I had to clean up the mess I'd made.
'What should I do...?'
Seeing the eyes of the Marquis's two daughters shining a little differently than they had during the day, I sank into deep thought.
That night, while the banquet was underway.
Unlike in the past, the streets of the Kingdom's capital quickly grew deserted as darkness fell.
The Kingdom's deteriorating situation was slowly revealing itself with nightfall.
Even though it was a weekday, Paula was out on the streets of the capital rather than at the academy.
She hadn't obtained a separate leave permit, and if she were caught, she might receive a warning. But Paula didn't care.
Compared to what she had to do today, a mere warning was nothing.
Once today had passed, such things might cease to matter to her anyway.
She wasn't standing on a main thoroughfare. She was hiding in the darkness of a quiet back alley where few people passed.
She wasn't alone.
A man clad in a cloak just like hers stood with her.
He was an official from the Empire, dispatched to this kingdom alongside Paula. He was also an informant for the Organization.
The man's expression was emotionless, but Paula seemed displeased about something.
"Are we... really going through with this as planned?"
"It can't be helped. Orders came down from above, so we have no choice but to obey."
At the words of the informant, her senior in the Organization, Paula bit her lip.
"But Joachim isn't here, and we're just informants, so our combat strength is lacking."
Their task was to abduct a student from the Royal Academy.
She wasn't in the Knight Faculty, nor did she possess offensive abilities.
On top of that, the Marquis's son, who possessed considerable skill, had returned home.
No matter how she looked at it, this was the best time for the abduction.
And yet, she was anxious.
The Marquis's son wasn't around, but neither was Joachim. On top of that, they were going ahead with the operation using only informants, without any other support...
Although she was the one who had submitted the report, she hadn't expected them to act so quickly.
She'd thought they would take some time to prepare, but within days, she'd received a response instructing them to proceed immediately...
That clearly meant the higher-ups considered the matter just as critical, and her own standing would surely improve significantly for reporting it. But still...
She had never imagined she herself would be dragged out to the abduction site like this.
She was merely a trainee informant. Even though she possessed somewhat offensive abilities, they were barely enough to protect her own life.
She'd undergone plenty of training, but this was her first time in an actual combat situation.
If Joachim were here, she would have worried less.
Her senior seemed to notice Paula's anxiety. He placed a hand on her head.
Then, looking into Paula's eyes, he spoke.
"A knight isn't strictly necessary for battle. Having a knight is nice, to be sure—it's only natural that fighting becomes much easier if you have a knight holding the frontline."
Overwhelmed by the pressure her senior exuded, Paula could only listen.
"But you cannot always travel with a knight to guard your front. You attend the academy, so you should know. The Inherited Ability Faculty stands above the Knight Faculty."
Inside the dark alley, the man's voice continued.
"If nobles possessing other abilities cannot even fight without a knight, who would respect those abilities?"
Paula knew this and agreed, but the tension of being at the scene for the first time far outweighed any rational reassurance.
"Besides, we are people who must carry out our work without such knights."
Fortunately, the confidence in her senior's words kept Paula from feeling too terrified.
"I didn't call you here to borrow your hands. I brought you to this spot to let you observe real combat from up close as a reward for your report."
When her senior asked if she understood, Paula nodded.
Indeed, these seniors had worked in the field for a long time.
They were people who had carried out missions far beyond mere intelligence gathering, across the Empire and other nations.
There was no way people like that lacked proper martial power.
The officials dispatched from the Empire this time were all awakened nobles.
If they'd been sent by the imperial administration, they might have been filled with nobles so that the Carlos Kingdom wouldn't look down on them. But the Organization didn't care about such superficialities.
Just as Paula's anxiety subsided, a small light flashed from the main street, as if waiting for that exact moment.
It was a signal from another informant stationed near the main avenue.
Every single official dispatched this time was participating in the abduction operation.
The Organization's higher-ups were proceeding with the abduction as though it didn't matter if they were exposed.
Unless she got extremely lucky, there was a high chance Paula wouldn't be able to return to the academy once the abduction was finished.
'I heard they sent word to Joachim too, but I wonder if he'll make it in time.'
He was a naive noble boy with almost no connection to the Organization.
That was why contacting him had been delayed, and why he had been excluded from this operation in the first place.
Perhaps they'd withheld even more information from him because of his older brother, who had disappeared a short while ago.
Regardless, if the message reached him too late, he might end up taking the fall for what they were about to do.
He had nothing to do with it, but who would believe that?
'Is it because the branches were all destroyed? The operations conducted in this kingdom seem to be getting progressively more extreme.'
Either this matter was that critical, or something might happen that would make worrying about relations between the Empire and the Kingdom unnecessary.
Though various thoughts flashed through her mind, Paula soon refocused on the operation.
Their target would enter this alley soon.
Ivana.
With Paula's efforts and the ruined organization's capabilities, they had only managed to find out that Ivana was the adopted daughter of a retired royal knight.
Even as the adopted daughter of a royal knight, it wasn't strange at all that Ivana had entered the Royal Academy, given her mysterious ability.
But beyond her ability being mysterious, information about Ivana was extraordinarily difficult to obtain.
Not a single detail could be uncovered—not her status before she became an adopted daughter, nor which family's ability she had inherited.
"An ability user like that must have a hidden sponsor. It's likely tangled up in some complicated family circumstances or domestic issues."
Ability users appearing out of nowhere was a common tale even in the Empire.
The only difference in this case was that they hadn't been able to trace her roots.
"Although I was the one who reported it first, is it really an ability related to time?"
"Who knows. We weren't told precisely what ability to look for, so we have no choice but to act according to what the higher-ups determined."
"Could it be... related to the Prophet...?"
"Enough."
They didn't know that the Prophet had become unable to see the future of this kingdom alone.
The Organization kept secret the fact that the Prophet had lost part of her ability.
Although they felt something was odd since the Organization's tasks kept failing only in this kingdom, the Prophet's authority wasn't so fragile as to shatter over just that.
After all, the reason the Organization's members sacrificed themselves and moved with all their might was to prevent the future foretold by the Prophet.
"She's here."
Shadows fell across the alley where the two were watching.
There were two shadows—two people.
This back alley was a path leading to a famous inn in the capital.
It was the inn where Ivana had stayed when she first came to the capital, before entering the academy. Supposedly, it was also where her adopted father, who had suddenly come up to the capital, was staying.
In truth, Ivana's adopted father wasn't at the inn, nor had he come up to the capital.
Paula and the informants had sent a fake message to the academy.
It was an aristocratic method of sending a proxy to summon a student outside instead of using the academy's visiting room, but it was also a convenient trick for a third party to exploit for an abduction.
Following the shadows, two figures entered the alley.
Paula narrowed her eyes.
One was small, and the other was large.
The smaller one was Ivana, and since the larger one was wearing leather armor, he must have been a mercenary.
Indeed, even in the capital, traveling alone at night had become dangerous lately.
Even though Ivana was an awakened noble, her power wasn't physical enhancement, so it was easy to anticipate that she'd have an escort like that.
"It looks like my turn."
"You don't need to step up."
It seemed he'd intended to hold her back, just as he'd mentioned earlier.
But Paula had no intention of backing down.
"It'll be easier if I make a move."
The fear of her first operation had already vanished. She planned to do her utmost to succeed in the mission and return to the Empire with pride.
Paula stepped forward.
Ivana and the mercenary flinched in surprise at the sudden appearance of someone inside the alley.
"Oh? Ivana?"
Paula feigned surprise as she looked at Ivana.
"What are you doing here? This way is... Ah! Did someone come to visit you too?"
Paula approached Ivana with a welcoming expression.
At that moment, Ivana opened her mouth.
"Do not move."
"Huh?"
"I told you not to come any closer."
At Ivana's words, the mercenary beside her drew his sword.
Shing.
It was an exceptionally smooth motion.
Paula had no choice but to stop in her tracks.
Ivana spoke again.
"While avoiding people since I was young, I ended up developing another capability besides my innate ability."
Paula felt put on the spot.
'Could I... have been exposed?'
"I can sense danger better than others, and I can tell to some extent whether someone approaching me is sincere. The greater the sense of danger, the better I can read others."
Ivana stared at Paula with an expressionless face.
"I didn't like you from the moment we first met, but only now do I understand why. You are my enemy."
Paula clicked her tongue.
It seemed her cover had been blown before the operation had even begun.