Extra Chapter 8 – The Crown Prince Bothers the Civil Servant (8)
Fifteen minutes before the crown prince woke up…
"Are you there, Master?"
Tristan, who was sitting on top of a mansion on a street where many nobles lived, welcomed me with one eye closed. With the closed eye, he was looking at something else through the chirp.
"Is the crown prince being held over there?"
Tristan nodded. He was looking at a mansion quite far from where we were now, at the end of the street.
"I'm putting the chirp through the chimney right now. I really had a hard time tracking him down, there were so many carriage tracks, but I got it done!" Tristan boasted.
I gave him a slight smile.
"Good work. The knights have been released to collect information, but no one knows where the crown prince is yet."
Of course, among the flurry of information, there was a hint. For two days after the crown prince was moved out of the capital, Tristan had just perched himself by this mansion on this noble street, but he was able to find a lot of information.
"I don't know if I should be happy because no one else knows, or sad because I worked when I didn't have to," said Tristan slyly.
I replied jokingly, "Even if someone knew, I would have told you to keep tracking."
"What? Why?" Tristan asked, looking indignant.
I replied with a shrug. "Because your tracking is more reliable than a kidnapper's words."
"Thank you very much for that… Oh! Isn't that the crown prince?"
I checked the gaze of the chirp connected to Tristan and saw a figure in the dark. It was certainly the crown prince; asleep, bound in a dark, empty cellar-like space.
"Where is that?"
Tristan pointed to the roof of the mansion.
"The attic."
"Aha, did they close the blackout curtains?"
Checking the presence inside of the mansion, I only sensed about twenty people.
"There are probably about three kidnappers, including those who actually participated in the kidnapping, and the landlord. The rest seemed to be just regular servants," explained Tristan.
I smiled playfully at Tristan.
"What is it? Are you going to do something again?" asked Tristan.
I simply shrugged again.
"I'm just going to play a little prank."
I took two dragon tooth soldiers out of my pocket space. They were in the form of skeletons, so I quickly changed their form with a bit of magic. Tristan and I smiled as we watched the dragon tooth soldiers morph into human forms.
* * *
The kidnapper Yuro arrived at Baron Jasmine's mansion, where the kidnapped crown prince was briefly locked up, and rested for a while until further orders were issued.
"Thank you for providing a place for us to rest a bit, Sir Jasmine."
Old Baron Jasmine shook his head.Visit NovelPing for the full chapter.
"No. If I can honor the spirit of my son who died at the hands of the Blood Emperor, then there is nothing I can not do. If you need this body, I will dedicate myself to the goddess of revenge."
"Thank you very much. I won't stay here long though. If I hear from a comrade planted among the White Deer Knights about their movements, I'll get going right away.
The old baron nodded.
"Then rest peacefully in the meantime."
Ding-dong!
The doorbell rang as soon as the baron finished. He opened the door and spoke loudly before the servant greeted the guest, as usual.
"It looks like a valuable guest has arrived, so I'll greet them myself!"
The servant who was heading toward the front door glanced over at Yuro for a moment, then nodded. "What? Oh, yes. I see."
When the servant had first arrived at the mansion, he thought it was strange how the old baron came forward himself, but seeing the baron do so again, he moved on, thinking that must just be how the Baron was. The old baron opened the front door. Three men in black stood at the gate, one of them carrying a bag large enough to fit a human being. The baron wondered if the three men had brought information from the White Deer Knights. Yuro followed the baron outside and eyed them suspiciously.
"Why are you guys here? You guys… the civil… Khmm!"
Yuro was about to say that they were supposed to deal with the civil servant and wait in another hideout, but he silenced himself quickly, realizing that others were listening. Of the three, the man with the bag on his shoulders answered Yuro.
"I guess it hasn't been reported to you yet. Do you mind if we go inside to talk about the details?"
Yuro and the baron guided them into the mansion as they scanned the surrounding street, fearing possible eyes. The baron led the three men along with Yuro to the room they had just been in.
"Weren't you guys supposed to kill the civil servant who was with the crown prince? Why did you come here?" asked Yuro.
The men looked apprehensive, so the baron chimed in. "Oh, this room is surrounded by soundproofing magic, so you can speak comfortably."
The three men nodded and relaxed.
The man with the bag spoke up. "That 'person's' envoy came and told us that the White Deer Knights' condition was unusual, so he told me to leave no trace. He told me to kill the civil servant and lock him up with the crown prince instead. That… that information agency seems to have intervened."
The baron chuckled, impressed.
"As expected of Adrasteia! She predicted the movements of the White Deer Knights even before they started making moves."
The baron immediately recalled the Big Mama Information Agency. If they were involved, it was sufficiently worth it to change the plan. On the other hand, Yuro, whose family's adults were all murdered by the Blood Emperor, looked doubtful. He didn't have the authority to know anything about the Big Mama Information Agency.
"She said the handling of the civil servant is not as important, so it would not be too late to do it later." said the man with the bag.
"Then, is the civil servant in there?" asked Yuro, pointing at the bag.
The man nodded. "Yes, that's correct, and I have orders to place him with the crown prince. Where should I put him?"
"Follow me. The prince is in the attic."
Tristan, the man carrying Den, climbed up after Yuro.
* * *
It was a bit painful to keep my hands and feet tied, pretending to be luggage. Tristan, disguised as one of the kidnappers, put me down and left the attic. I loosened my bindings and stretched lightly. The attic had not been ventilated for a long time, so the air was acrid. The blackout curtains were spread, drowning the whole room in darkness. To start, I opened the curtains and windows to ventilate.
"That's better."
The light from the magic lamp on the street leaked into the dark space.This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
"Now, if I take this annoying friend here, the case will be over, but that would be no fun, right?"
I smiled and woke up the unconscious crown prince with magic, then tied my hands and feet and laid down next to him. Soon after, the crown prince came to.
* * *
The captain of the White Deer Knights frowned as he read the information Milpia gave him.
"Did the information agency know all this in advance?"
Milpia smiled silently. Because she was wearing a veil with perception disrupting magic, he couldn't figure out more about her besides her gender, but he could still tell that she was smiling.
"That is correct… is what I would like to say, but we started collecting information after the incident took place."
Milpia's answer made the captain frown.
"This detailed information? Do you think I'd believe that?"
It was natural for him to ask questions. Knowing of the crown prince's kidnapping, but not informing the knights was the same as being an accomplice to treason.
Milpia smiled bitterly once again at the captain's interrogation, because she sympathized with him.
"It's true, even if you don't want to believe it. Our informant said that he collected information in a pretty aggressive manner because he was short on time, so he asked me to tell you to be careful later."
Given that information, the captain thought that things would become troublesome later, but dismissed that thought for later and asked for more information regarding the kidnappers' movements.
"Hmm, so the carriage that left the capital was bait. That means the criminal and His Highness are still inside the capital somewhere. How much does the information cost?"
Milpia shook her head with a snarky laugh. "Ohohoho. This is an issue of the crown prince's personal safety. How can we, the subjects of His Majesty the Emperor, receive payment? We are all praying for the safe return of the crown prince."
To the captain, it seemed she was implying that it was not an amount of money he could pay. He was half right. Certainly, the cost of the information could not be covered by the operating budget of the knight division alone. But at the same time, Milpia sincerely wished for the crown prince to return safely. Despite the head of Big Mama Information Agency, Talaria, operating the organization like a private organization of the Crows, they had to be wary of the emperor as their primary place of business was within the empire.
"… Then we'll be going."
The captain gave one last mistrusting look at Milpia and took the vice-captain outside. Milpia hummed a little at the sight. She did not receive any payment that day, but decided to sell information regarding how to root out the organization called Ramnusia in the future, with interest. Of course, that was for when the crown prince returned safely, but Milpia was not worried about that. She knew that a monster with more self-preservation instincts than anyone else was protecting the crown prince.
* * *
"Ugh...! Where is this?"
The crown prince regained his senses, opened his gagged mouth and tried to say something.
"Ueup, ue-ueup."
Looking at his expressions, it seemed like he was trying to apologize. He probably thought that I was tied up because of him. I suppose that was not entirely a misinterpretation of the situation. Without the people who tried to harm me, I would have been comfortably reading books and resting in my room without knowing that the crown prince was kidnapped. Of course, the crown prince should have felt sorry. If it were any other civil servant, they would have died there. Ultimately though, it was me who shook the guards in the capital and started the whole mess.
"It seems we've been kidnapped." I said.
The crown prince nodded.
"Don't worry too much. They don't seem to know it, but I can use magic. Before I was kidnapped, I used contact magic to inform my acquaintance of our situation, so the rescue team will be coming in soon."
The crown prince looked at me with surprise. The rescue team would crash in right away if I had actually told them, but that wouldn't be any fun. And to take a bigger bite out of Milpia's operation, I had to find the leader of the kidnappers.
What should I buy first with the money I'll get this time? Come to think of it, I heard that a state-of-the-art experimental instrument was developed and imported in the Mado Kingdom. Should I buy one and put it in the workshop?
I also needed to buy some mana stones for research, but due to the continued shortage from the aftermath of the last flood of demons in the Demon's Territory, the market still lacked stock. As always, money was the problem.
"Things could get dangerous if we rebel, so I think we'd better pretend to still be unconscious." I said.
The crown prince nodded in agreement and laid down again. Shortly afterwards, the sound of footsteps approached.