Chapter 118
“Boom-”
“Hmph.”
Arte hummed habitually as she returned to her room.
Although the battle had resulted in a catastrophic loss with nearly all Black Golems destroyed, Arte wasn’t concerned about that.
Arte had never cared much about whether Flora Kingdom won the war.
After all, Arte and Nameless’s objective wasn’t victory for the Flora Kingdom but rather demonstrating the overwhelming power of dark magic to the world.
Winning would certainly be a bonus, though.
“Why isn’t he answering?”
Arte muttered complaints about the unresponsive First Elder as she grabbed the communicator on her table.
If she used this, she’d definitely get through.
“Ziiing—”
Injecting mana into the communicator caused it to light up.
Arte immediately began speaking in an annoyed tone as soon as the connection was established.
“Why aren’t you answering? Don’t tell me you’re still asleep?”
“…”
No response came from the communicator.
Already frustrated from the lack of contact, Arte’s patience began to wear thin.
“This is urgent. The ones who ambushed the Third Elder seem to have shown up here. They brought an Undead Wyvern with them!”
“…”
Still, the First Elder didn’t respond.
Arte had expected him to jump at the chance to recover the Undead Wyvern personally.
“Are you even listening? If you’ve understood, hurry up and cooperate. I can’t handle this alone.”
“…”
“What’s going on?”
Arte finally felt something was off after the continued silence from the First Elder.
As much as the First Elder ignored everyone except the Founder, this wasn’t like him.
Moreover, this news was critical for Nameless.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?”
“…Who are you?”
Arte snapped to attention at the unfamiliar voice coming through the communicator.
It definitely wasn’t the First Elder’s voice.
Hearing a voice that wasn’t a Elder’s from the emergency communicator—something only the Elders had access to—triggered Arte’s instincts.
“An accomplice?”
“An…accomplice?”
The unfamiliar voice now sounded accusatory.
“Damn it.”
“Clink—”
Without hesitation, Arte smashed the communicator.
Hearing the word “accomplice” was enough for Arte to understand.
She didn’t know how, but the First Elder had been captured by the enemy.
It was most likely O’Neill Kingdom.
Arte couldn’t fathom how the O’Neill Knight Order—decimated after the Silver Eagles’ downfall—managed to defeat the First Elder, but the evidence was clear.
“Ha, so much for all that bravado.”
“Crash—”
Arte threw the cracked communicator to the ground, completely shattering it.
Frustration boiled within her.
Discovering the Undead Wyvern had initially been a delight—a chance to capture the meddlers and earn the Founder’s favor.
“Did they all fall?”
The news of the First Elder’s capture was far more grim and infuriating than the discovery of the Undead Wyvern had been uplifting.
The Elders needed to buy time until the Founder regained consciousness, yet they were all being taken down one by one.
“Seriously, what are they all doing?”
Arte gritted her teeth and clenched her fists in anger.
While there had been subtle competition between her and the First Elder, they were still part of the same organization with the same goal.
No matter how much the First Elder annoyed her, him being captured was another matter entirely.
“What happened all of a sudden?”
Arte recalled the last report she’d received from the First Elder.
A perfect bait had been set in O’Neill Kingdom.
A student from Crescent Academy had been abducted, forcing O’Neill Kingdom to take action.
That would ensure the West remained under scrutiny, preventing attention from shifting solely to the Western front.
Arte had believed the First Elder’s words completely.
The First Elder had never failed his missions and was more accomplished in dark magic than Arte herself.
She had been certain that with the plans in O’Neill going well, the Lorelai Alliance would soon run out of reinforcements.
But now, with everything falling apart, Arte frowned deeply.
She couldn’t picture the First Elder losing to O’Neill’s forces, no matter what.
“Wait, Crescent Academy students?”
As Arte’s thoughts lingered, a term surfaced in her mind.
Crescent Empire.
The region where the Third Elder had been operating and captured.
And now, the First Elder had been caught after targeting students from Crescent Academy.
In Arte’s mind, various pieces of evidence began to float together.
Was it a coincidence that the First Elder had been captured after targeting Crescent students?
If not, then—
If the same individual had been responsible for taking down both the Third Elder and the First Elder…
“Hmm?”
Images of the Undead Wyvern flickered in Arte’s mind.
At the same time, she thought of the woman currently imprisoned underground.
No solid reasoning or evidence.
Just intuition.
Arte had always had an excellent sense of intuition since she was young.
Thanks to that intuition, Arte had met the Founder and gained the blessing of dark magic.
Arte’s instincts were now telling her that there was some connection between the silver-haired woman imprisoned in the underground cell and the Undead Wyvern that had appeared on the battlefield.
Perhaps it was also related to the Crescent Empire.
Tap-tap-tap—
As soon as the thought occurred, Arte set off for the underground prison with a hardened expression.
Since capturing the silver-haired woman, Arte had never interrogated her personally.
She had been too busy with the ongoing war and had dismissed the woman as just another of the many spies.
“Maybe she’s more important than I thought.”
Arte’s pace quickened as the thought crossed her mind.
***
The Flora Kingdom was farther than expected.
Even though Greenie ran tirelessly and swiftly, it seemed to take several hours.
By the time the royal palace of Flora came into view, the sun, which had been high above the battlefield earlier, had shifted significantly westward.
“Phew, good job.”
Thud-thud—
As Greenie stomped its final steps, I sent it back to where it came from and took a deep breath.
I had memorized the location of the royal palace’s tallest tower.
Now all that was left was to move there and find where Erica was being held.
“If she’s captured, it’s likely in a place like a prison.”
Whoosh—
I pondered as I teleported to the roof.
The Flora Kingdom likely had numerous protective barriers like other nations, but I bypassed them all in one move.
Upon arriving at the palace roof, I quickly scanned my surroundings.
Perhaps because of the ongoing war, there were barely any guards inside the palace.
Lowering my stance, I began carefully examining potential entry routes.
The first step was to get inside.
For that—
Whoosh—
“Huh?”
“W-who’s there!”
“Ugh!”
The three guards patrolling together, rather than in pairs, were knocked unconscious almost simultaneously.
Struck by the sheath of the mana-infused Black Shadow Blade, they collapsed on the spot without resistance.
“Phew, that armor looks awfully heavy.”
After dragging the unconscious guards onto a flat section of the roof, I removed the armor of the one whose build was closest to mine.
Disguises were always the best for infiltrating indoor areas.
The armor, which looked heavy at first glance, was paired with a helmet I pulled down tightly to obscure my face.
Normally, palace guards wouldn’t be this heavily armed, but it seemed they were fully armored due to the war.
This made disguising myself even easier.
Clank—
The sound of the armor clinking as I moved was annoying, but there was no helping it.
Clank-clank—
With the armor on, I walked as naturally as possible into the palace.
The interior of the Flora Palace was emptier than expected.
It was easy to understand why there were so few guards.
There didn’t seem to be many people left to protect.
“A prison is usually underground.”
As if every palace on the continent had the same architect, prisons were always located underground.
Confident that this was true for the Flora Kingdom as well, I naturally began descending the stairs.
No one paid any attention to the lone guard wandering through the nearly deserted palace.
A few maids passed by, but they simply nodded politely without suspicion and moved on.
I continued descending deeper and deeper.
“Hey, you there.”
Startled—
A voice unmistakably directed at me made me freeze for a moment.
Ahead, a guard gestured for me to approach.
Ready to draw my blade at any moment, I slowly walked toward the guard calling me.
If discovered, I’d kill him immediately and escape down below.
“Shifts are quick today, huh? Hahaha.”
“…Ah.”
The tension eased immediately.
The guard who called me over patted my shoulder with a hearty laugh.
“The princess went in earlier, so be careful not to upset her.”
“…Understood.”
I answered in the deepest voice I could manage.
“Whew, the princess decided to personally interrogate the hostage for some reason. I always knew she was impressive, but still…”
“The princess, huh.”
Half listening to the guard’s chatter, I mulled over the information.
The princess personally interrogating a hostage in the underground prison?
That was definitely unusual.
“Well, take care.”
Nod—
I gave the departing guard a casual nod as he patted my shoulder one last time and continued descending.
The infiltration into the palace and my journey to the underground prison had gone surprisingly smoothly.
Now all I had to do was locate Erica and get her out—it’d be as easy as pie.
“She’s okay, right?”
Everything was going almost too well.
—
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