The Pursuit (1)
The Pursuit (1)
On the top floor of the castle at the center of the fortress, only one room was lit.
Inside, a woman sat on the bed.
Her head was bowed, her clean hands covering her face.
The room was quiet, save for the flickering of a single candle.
Then the candle flame danced wildly.
Whoosh.
A faint draft swept through the room.
Then a youthful male voice drifted in from the window.
"Did I come to the wrong place? Or is this a trap?"
At those words, the woman covering her face flinched.
Slowly lowering her hands, she raised her head and looked toward the window.
A man shrouded in a robe stood by the open window.
Somehow, he had scaled the outer wall to reach this room so high up, then silently eased the window open.
His face was completely hidden beneath his hood.
It was difficult to identify him from his build alone.
Though slightly larger than an average man, he seemed smaller than the heavily muscled knights.
The robed man stared at her, a dagger gripped in one hand.
A sigh escaped from beneath his hood.
"It was a trap."
"That's right."
The woman replied calmly, her expression composed.
She wore the Grand Archduchess's clothes, with a similar hairstyle and makeup, but she wasn't the Grand Archduchess.
Honestly, she hadn't expected much, but for him to walk straight into the trap on his own... It made her feel almost sorry for throwing a tantrum while putting on the disguise.
Looking at the woman, whose natural beauty had been completely ruined by the awkward disguise, I shook my head.
To think they expected to fool me with a disguise like that.
They probably intended to hide the discrepancies with the dim candlelight. It was a disguise that might have fooled an ordinary person who didn't look closely at her face.
To me, though, it was a meaningless disguise.
Or rather, since it had lured me into this room, perhaps it was meaningful after all...
In fact, when I first approached this room, I simply thought it belonged to someone else.
There was no way I, who could identify people through mana and sensory perception, wouldn't recognize the mana of the Grand Archduchess, whom I'd traveled with for so long.
Since she was clearly someone else, I'd only intended to take a quick peek through the narrow gap in the window, but absurdly, someone inside looked exactly like the Grand Archduchess.
It could have been a coincidence that she was dressed similarly, or it could have been a trap.
That it might be a trap.
Actually, that was a relief.
I hadn't been able to find any trace of the Grand Archduchess or her mana on my way here.
If it was a trap, it meant I might be able to find a clue.
As the woman replied, bloodlust surged from all directions.
Killing intent, heavily saturated with mana.
It was certainly fitting for a trap. Highly skilled individuals were hiding around the room.
Crash!
The first to appear was a massively built man.
He crashed through the ceiling and dropped into the room.
He landed right in front of the window I'd entered through.
Just as you'd expect from a trap, he blocked my escape route first.
Then, people entered through the hallway.
Two men and a woman.
The two men appeared to be noble knights, and the woman was a noble ability user.
At a glance, they all seemed to be formidable ability users.
"I won the bet. Don't forget to hand over the money, everyone."
When the thin man said this to the others who'd entered with him, they scowled.
"Damn it, I mean, it made no sense. Even if there was a bastard helping the Grand Archduchess, would he really chase after her this late?"
The shirtless physical ability user grumbled.
"If he'd been guarding her by her side when we raided the royal palace, I would've won. Why'd he have to show up so late and make me lose my money?"
The sharp-featured female ability user pouted.
With me at the center, the intruders chattered among themselves.
They spoke as if they'd already captured me.
I said nothing, simply listening to them.
"But is he really the guy who's been interfering with us? He looks a bit scrawny."
The woman waved a hand as she looked at me, my hood pulled low.
Mana flowed from her hand as she spoke.
And the bloodlust in the room remained unchanged.
As expected, despite their casual chatter, they hadn't let their guard down.
This time, the lean, muscular man spoke.
"I'd prefer it if you talked freely rather than making us waste time on torture. Which faction do you belong to, and how many more of your kind are there?"
It seemed this wasn't just an ordinary trap designed to catch someone trying to rescue the Grand Archduchess.
"Since you don't seem to understand, let me kindly explain. Because our plans kept failing in both the Kingdom and the Duchy, we suspected someone was interfering with us. But since we couldn't even catch a glimpse of their tail, everyone was getting frustrated, you see?"
They were definitely members of the Organization. And it seemed they'd been searching for me just as I'd been searching for them.
"But not too long ago, we managed to catch the tiniest sliver of a tail. Bernard, who'd taken part as a mercenary in the attempt to capture the Grand Archduchess, hi—"
"Vid."
"Ah, right. We found Vid's corpse. We finally found a trace of the person interfering with us, whose true identity we'd been unable to determine until then."
So Vid's corpse had eventually been found.
Well, considering I'd thought of it as an abandoned neighborhood and hadn't buried him very deep, I'd expected him to be found eventually.
But I hadn't expected them to find it this quickly.
It seemed the Organization had been searching for his corpse all this time.
More than that, why were they explaining all this so diligently? Especially since this wasn't the kind of explanation you'd give before torturing someone you'd captured.
"That's how we came to believe someone was interfering with us and protecting the Grand Archduchess. Since there was no interference when we brought her here this time, we wondered whether we'd been mistaken, but I can't tell you how grateful we are that you've shown up like this."
Though I didn't understand their motive, the explanation was helpful.
Still, since they hadn't told me what I actually wanted to know, I had to ask.
"Where is the Grand Archduchess?"
At the sound of my voice, their expressions turned peculiar.
Should I have disguised my voice more?
Fortunately, instead of questioning me, the thin man kindly explained once again.
"Did you think we'd transport such a valuable item along with everything else? The others are already rushing toward the Empire with her."
It seemed the Grand Archduchess wasn't even in the fortress.
The Organization—or rather, the Empire—seemed to value the Grand Archduchess even more than I'd thought.
More importantly, if I gave chase now, would I be able to catch up...?
I stole a glance toward the window.
In front of it, the massive knight was still glaring at me.
Just then, the woman impersonating the Grand Archduchess spoke up.
"Since the person you wanted has arrived, I can leave now, right?"
At her words, the thin man frowned.
"What are you talking about? Have you already verified everything?"
With a troubled expression, the woman shook her head and said,
"No, that's not it."
In the end, the thin man snapped.
"Then why are you trying to back out already? Why do you think I've been babbling all this time?"
"Well, I'm not an ability user who's skilled in combat, and I'll only get in the way while you're trying to capture him..."
As the two of them bickered, a deep voice suddenly rang out from behind.
It was the voice of the massive man, who had remained silent until then.
"Could it be... it didn't work?"
There was a surprising air of intelligence to his voice.
I'd assumed he was just a brainless brute because he'd crashed through the ceiling, but I'd misjudged him.
"Is it true? You couldn't see anything at all? Is that why you're trying to run?"
At his words, the others gasped in shock.
"It's not my fault. There have hardly ever been times when I couldn't see inside someone's head... It's not as if I got caught, and he didn't deliberately block me either, but I can't see a thing. The only ones who've ever been like this were members of the royal family or the Commander of the Royal Knights, whom I briefly met before..."
This time, even I was surprised.
So there was a reason the enemy had been rambling on with explanations this whole time.
They'd been trying to read my thoughts.
An ability to read another person's mind.
If she hadn't failed, my secrets might have spilled out completely.
I'd thought such an ability might exist somewhere, but this was far too dangerous.
Thanks to my strong immunity to mental-type abilities, I was able to block it, but this wasn't an ability I could simply leave alone.
It was then.
Thud.
The massive man standing behind me slammed his gauntleted hands together.
Mana radiating from his hands swept through the room.
Sparks erupted all around me.
That seemed to be the signal. The auras of those who'd entered the room shifted.
Contrary to my expectations, the massive man seemed to be the leader.
Just as their momentum rose and they were about to lunge at me,
Instead of dodging, I flicked my hand.
Swish!
"Watch out!"
A dagger shot from my hand. The massive man saw it and roared, but it was too late.
Thunk!
The dagger embedded itself precisely in the woman's head.
As she collapsed, blood sprayed from my flank.
Slash!
As expected, the enemies surrounding me were too strong for me to throw a dagger and dodge at the same time.
Judging by the blood flowing from my flank, the wound didn't seem minor, but I was satisfied with the result before me.
"Crazy!"
"Alicia!"
"Kill that bastard! Screw the torture, forget everything!"
Because I'd succeeded in killing the ability user who could look inside my mind.
The enemy had been too arrogant.
They'd been overconfident in their own abilities, believing I would protect myself like anyone else.
Although the enemies screamed, their movements were sluggish. They seemed conflicted about whether they should actually kill me.
I couldn't let such an opportunity slip away. Bleeding from my flank, I kept moving.
My next target was the female ability user. I lunged at her barehanded.
She raised her hand toward me, but unfortunately, she wasn't a physical ability user, so her movements were far too slow.
I ducked beneath her raised hand and thrust my own hand forward.
Then I muttered the spell that had become a habit.
"Summon."
A dagger materialized from my outstretched hand.
Thunk!
The dagger sank deep into her heart.
A thick spear of ice was clutched in the collapsing woman's hand. At the same time, the temperature in the room seemed to drop by several degrees.
She seemed to be an ice-attribute ability user.
Immediately afterward, swords flew toward me, but I spun around and managed to parry them all.
In my hand was a greatsword I'd pulled from my relic pouch as I spun.
"Fighting three knight commander-level experts in a cramped room, huh."
Though I'd taken out two with surprise attacks, the remaining three were no pushovers.
As expected of a thoroughly prepared trap.
On top of that, knights and soldiers were already rushing over, alerted by the commotion. This time, I didn't have time on my side.
Although blood was streaming from my flank, I felt no fear.
The certainty of coming back to life was a terrifying thing.
Without a shred of nervousness, I calmly formulated my next plan amid the surging bloodlust.
Since I'd heard enough, it was time to escape.
I channeled mana into my necklace.