Chapter 71
‘Alright, judging from everything so far, this guy’s a talker.’
Solinor quickly combed through the experience he’d accumulated during his adventuring days.
If you gathered up all the villains he’d defeated, you could probably form a whole army.
He’d seen cowards, braggarts, sadists, schemers—you name it.
‘I didn’t realize earlier because I assumed he was just a civil servant… but not anymore.’
Preconceptions are powerful.
How you view someone influences how you interpret even the same action.
Now that he understood Sid was a foreign spy trying to kidnap him, countering him became easier.
‘Talkative types love it when everything goes according to plan. They let their guard down and get sloppy.’
Indeed, this was the swift and thorough analysis of someone with wide-ranging experience.
A true adventuring master, Solinor’s brain was already rolling out the next plan.
‘I’ll pretend to accept his offer, then turn the tables and threaten him instead.’
But just as he opened his mouth to set the plan in motion, a wave of awkwardness struck him.
One glance at those skinny little arms told him the plan was completely unfeasible.
‘Wait… this is obviously not going to work. How am I supposed to take him down? Where did that ridiculous idea even come from?’
Of course. Recalling his adventuring days led to plans that assumed Solinor’s own strength.
Back in his prime, sure—he could punch through walls with “Fairy Buff Punch!” or “Holy Sword Strike!” and destroy everything in his path.
But with Muriela’s dainty arms? She couldn’t even give a proper massage.
‘I need another plan—fast. What can I even do?’
While Solinor racked his brain, Sid continued trying to win them over.
Of course, neither Hamilton nor Florina was swayed, even under the threat of death.
Still, time passing wasn’t helping Muriela’s group in any way.
‘Damn. This situation’s really bad.’
From Sid’s point of view, it was like catching rats in a trap.
Despite his earlier comments, time wasn’t actually a problem for him.
It was like stores that set fake time limits on flash sales—just to make people panic.
‘And on top of that, we haven’t eaten or drunk anything since leaving Patrick’s house. We’re not going to last long. We have to escape fast.’
In any siege, the side that loses its supply lines is the one that falls.
Even with fewer defenders, the battle itself might be manageable.
But if the enemy surrounds them and cuts off food and water, it’s over.
This wasn’t a siege in scale—but in principle, it was exactly the same.
Unless Sid’s men all magically fell asleep, there was no path to escape.
All Sid had to do was block provisions and wait. Eventually, they’d win by attrition.
They could even just throw in poison or fire and dispose of the bodies afterward.
‘If I’m not going to pretend to surrender, I absolutely can’t show weakness.’
Solinor used every bit of poker-face training he’d honed in his past life to keep calm.
He wasn’t fast at counting cards, so he wasn’t great at card games.
But he wasn’t bad enough to get scammed by a two-bit crook either.
Hamilton and Florina also steeled themselves and maintained blank expressions.
Keep your wits sharp, and you can escape even a tiger’s den alive.
They didn’t train in elite combat and espionage units just for show.
In fact, they found it easier to maintain a poker face in dangerous moments like this than in daily life.
Together, their composed front exerted unexpected pressure on Sid.
Despite holding overwhelming advantage, Sid wasn’t entirely at ease.
‘How did Princess Muriela find out about me? Damn it… no matter how this ends, I can’t stay in Silbrenoa anymore. I’ll have to wrap this up and flee. Though I’m not even sure I can escape…’
He forced himself to smile and chuckle to appear threatening in front of Muriela’s group.
But internally, he was extremely agitated.
He had no idea how they’d discovered him—or whether they had backup on the way.
Of course, the truth was that Muriela had just stumbled into this mess on a spontaneous outing.
But Sid and his men had no way of knowing that, so they were just as nervous.
For all they knew, city guards could burst through the doors at any moment.
Or they might already be surrounded and about to have their supplies cut off.
That would flip the situation—putting Sid’s group in the exact same position as Muriela’s.
‘Damn it. If this goes wrong, all our intelligence assets in Solineum could vanish in an instant. That would be the end of everything.’
The worst part was that Princess Muriela had chosen today of all days to show up.
It just so happened to be their regularly scheduled spy gathering.
All of the foreign agents stationed in Solineum were meeting in this very house today.
And she picked this day to walk in?
How could that possibly be a coincidence?
Though honestly, it made no sense that only three of them had shown up unarmed and walked into a trap.
Judging from how the princess had boldly cornered him earlier with documents in hand, it was clearly premeditated.
It was even possible that their current situation had also been factored into her plan.
‘Worst case, we kill them… and die ourselves. At least one person has to escape to report this to the homeland.’
The best-case scenario, of course, was kidnapping Princess Muriela and using her as a bargaining chip against Silbrenoa.
But based on their intel so far, her value wasn’t considered very high.
The king showed little interest in his children, and Muriela in particular was treated poorly.
Still, based on what had happened today, Sid was beginning to think he may have underestimated her.
What you see isn’t always the whole story.
Come to think of it, weren’t Katrina and Brandon’s whereabouts still unknown after their exile?
Even elite spies combing Solineum like madmen couldn’t track them down.
Up until recently, they had been in the custody of agents assumed to be working for Silbrenoa.
‘So it’s possible the king actually entrusted secret missions to his children. Training them from a young age to serve as spies? Who would ever think of that? Damn it, I never even suspected it.’
In other words, their exile might’ve just been a ruse to fool enemy agents—part of a much bigger plan.
And now, with Princess Muriela, maybe she too was dispatched on a royal mission to capture spies.
‘Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. What now?’
Still, the two agents he had stationed outside to keep watch hadn’t reported anything.
That meant the city guard or Silbrenoan agents hadn’t surrounded the house.
Which only confused Sid more. What the hell was going on?
Even more baffling was the princess’s behavior.
Any ordinary child would be paralyzed with fear in a situation like this—but she was calm, even commanding.
Sure, the two adults with her were clearly trained, but she was eight years old, wasn’t she?
‘She’s definitely not from the dwarf race. And her face and build match exactly with the Princess Muriela we identified. But even if you teach a child psychological tactics, there’s no way they could act like this.’
He even wondered for a moment if she was a body double—but that didn’t check out either.
He couldn’t afford to stall any longer. It was time to make a decision.
He was the one with the advantage, after all—it was his move now.
“Hey, how about you surrender instead? Hahaha. Open the path and surrender now, and maybe I’ll show you some mercy.”
But the words that came from Princess Muriela’s tiny lips were laced with chilling composure.
At that, the cold sweat running down Sid’s back flowed even faster.
‘That calm… It’s not a bluff. There’s definitely something!’
Meanwhile, Solinor, while outwardly keeping up his performance, was screaming inside his head.
‘Zephyr! Zephyr! Answer me!’
Zephyr, of course, was right next to him.
But unlike Aiorin, Muriela still couldn’t directly command her spirit using thought.
It was a necessary skill to avoid revealing one’s intent to the enemy.
Finally, after dozens of desperate mental cries, the answer Solinor had been waiting for arrived.
‘Yes, Princess. What should I do?’
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