Episode 253. The princess’s tour (3)
“It is not a wild beast. “They are demon beasts who were forcibly confined somewhere.”
As this was a tour group made up of the imperial army’s elite knights and special attendants, the subjugation of the Hellhounds was accomplished with ease.
After the subjugation, Runab, who was checking the hellhound’s body, stood up and said.
“I don’t feel any magical energy. “They are not magical beasts summoned by magic.”
“Then that means… .”
“The story would be that someone captured the demon beasts of the canyon and intentionally released them.”
The entire tour group could not help but be taken aback.
Some knights clutched their noses at the stench emanating from the corpse.
“I think we need to resume the route to Belias quickly.”
“If we leave now, when will we arrive?”
“No matter how late it is, we will reach the Gate of Belias around dawn.”
Since you were attacked by a demonic beast anyway, the traces and smells might attract other demonic beasts or beasts.
I couldn’t be so reckless as to set up camp in such a dangerous place.
“As the general manager of the tour group, I give this order. “We will resume our journey to Beliath right now!”
The tour group moved their bodies in perfect order.
In this way, the tour group’s carriage resumed its operation and moved without stopping, using the moonlight as a guide.
As the curtain of the dark night lifts and dawn begins to twilight in the eastern sky.
The tour group reached the Gate of Belias.
Although it was much earlier than the originally scheduled arrival time, all preparations to welcome the visiting group had already been completed in front of the castle gate.
Arin got off the carriage and confidently walked in front of the knights.
“Welcome to the Guardian Territory of Belias!”
The knights of Belias all bowed their heads and showed respect to the princess.
“Thank you for your hard work in coming this far. How about taking a moment to relieve the fatigue accumulated in your body? “I will guide you to the imperial residence.”
“I didn’t come here to relieve fatigue. Please guide me to Duke Berthe right now.”
Arin refused the knight’s invitation and immediately requested a meeting with the Duke.
Accordingly, the knights obediently accepted the request and guided the tour group into the territory.
Even though it was early in the morning, the residents of the territory took to the streets to welcome the visiting team.
Unchanging buildings and streets.
Much stricter security than other territories or cities.
It even has a somewhat girly atmosphere.
On the outside, it wasn’t much different from Belias’s true appearance that Arin had seen 10 years ago.
Meanwhile, among the attendants who followed Arin,
“It’s a bit weird to ask this, but wasn’t Belias a relatively wealthy territory compared to other territories?”
Schurz, who was looking closely at the faces of the territory residents, looked at Lunab and asked.
“That won’t necessarily be the case. Since most of the territory’s operating expenses are spent on maintaining the front lines, it will not be easy to accumulate funds.”
However, it was by no means a poor city.
It is said that more than half of the territory’s management was spent on military funds, but Velias was famous for transparent management of funds even within the empire.
Therefore, the territory residents did not starve or have spider webs in their mouths, and grain production was maintained appropriately.
“Is there anything strange?”
“That’s not certain, but… … .”
Schurz narrowed his eyes and continued.
“It looks like many of the residents have starved for several days.”
Although it may not be visible to the eyes of the imperial family or nobles who grew up without any shortcomings from birth, there was something clearly visible to Schurz, who came from a low-class background.
As short as two days, or as long as a week.
There were traces of starvation that were difficult to explain in words all over the faces of the residents of the territory.
However, without raising a separate opinion, he moved along with the tour group.
The princess’s tour group soon arrived in front of the border gate.
The long stone walls on both sides of the boundary gate also maintained their unchanged grandeur as they did 10 years ago.
Originally, it was formality and courtesy for Duke Berthe to welcome the visiting delegation here.
“I’ll take you inside. Princess.”
The driver did not stop walking and tried to lead the tour group beyond the border gate.
“What are you doing now?”
Arin, enraged by this, stopped and fired at the knights on the front lines.
“Where is Duke Berthe?”
“You are waiting in the rear camp beyond the border gate.”
The driver answered calmly, without any sign of embarrassment.
“As the general manager of the tour group, I give this order! “Bring Duke Berthe to me right now!”
At that moment, the surrounding air became heavy, and the gently blowing wind cut through the hall as if it had become a sharp blade.
The knights on the front remained silent without any response.
In response, Arin proudly displayed the emperor’s letter of appointment that she held close to her chest.
“I have come as the general manager of this trip on behalf of Abama, the noble emperor of the empire. I heard that Duke Berthe always greeted the visiting group outside the border gate, both when Abama came and when brothers other than Abama came on tour.”
This was the same 10 years ago.
“There are no exceptions just because it’s me! If you are not ignoring me and the imperial family, tell Duke Berthe to come to the border gate right now and formally apologize to me. “Until we receive an apology, our tour group will not move a single step from here!”
Arin’s attitude was firm.
He is an agent to carry out the emperor’s duties.
So it is right that he be treated the same as the emperor.
Although they might have been taken aback by the princess’s unexpected response, the knights did not blink an eye.
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“I will follow the princess’ orders.”
Then, as if to silently accept this, some knights headed inside the border gate to bring the duke.
As mentioned earlier, Arin and the tour group did not move a single step.
After a while,
Beyond the border gate, Duke Berthe appeared with a number of knights.
* * *
Due to the imperial family’s visit, all eyes in the estate are now focused on the tour group.
In other words, the other side, where attention is not focused, is bound to have relatively less vigilance.
Of course, this means that there are fewer boundaries, but it cannot be said that they exist at all.
What is this?
The boundaries here are overwhelming compared to other places,
It’s very strict.
Even if they are not, they are company level troops.
It is at a similar level to the troops stationed at the border gate where the princess’s tour group will be located.
[It’s at the level of a fortress, not a mansion?]
K-Ram even expressed his admiration and was impressed.
The place where I am is none other than the Bert family mansion.
I came to my hometown where I lived and grew up when I was young.
Taking advantage of the attention of the front-line engineers drawn to the tour group, they came with the purpose of confirming something.
This is not the situation I expected.
As far as I know, Duchess Margaret and her son Kranz are currently living in that house.
However, it did not occur to me that they would have increased the security forces so much just to protect those two.
In other words, besides those two, there is something else in the mansion that must be desperately protected.
Since I had no reason to go back, I headed straight toward the back gate of the mansion.
There were many knights patrolling the back gate, but it was still not as impenetrable as the front gate.
After checking the knights’ patrol movements for about a minute, I quickly infiltrated the mansion, taking advantage of the 5-second gap I had.
They say that the smell of home that I smelled after a long time was so fragrant that it brought tears to my eyes, but for some reason, all I could smell was a dull, dull scent to my nose.
Contrary to the heavily guarded mansion, the inside of the mansion was very quiet.
I quietly went out into the hallway and looked at the atmosphere, but nothing changed.
Where on earth did all those maids and servants go?
It was so eerie that you could believe it was a haunted mansion, not a duke’s mansion.
For now, I continued to move forward, preparing for any unexpected situation.
Eventually we arrived in front of a familiar door.
It was the room of Duchess Margaret Herges.
As I gently put my ear to the door, I could feel someone inside.
-smart
I knocked carefully on the door, but there was no response.
The moment I grabbed the doorknob to see for myself,
“… … !”
Sensing danger, he immediately took a step back.
It’s magical power.
Magical energy flowed through a crack in the door as thin as a sheet of paper.
In other words, there is now a restrictive barrier in the duchess’s room.
It’s also very intricately made.
If this happens, it becomes even more impossible not to enter.
How can we just pass by when something is being hidden so openly?
However, because the magic formula is so complex, it will take a long time to solve it purely through magic.
The quickest and surest way is to simply destroy the barrier itself.
Then the reward for sneaking in would be gone.
-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-bump
At that moment, footsteps were heard from the corner of the hallway.
I quickly turned to the opposite corner of the hallway and hid.
Then, I gently tilted my head to the side and checked the appearance of those approaching.
Five armed knights and an unfamiliar blonde woman between them.
I tried to remember where I had seen it before, but
does not exist.
For me, this is a woman I am meeting for the first time.
Was there a woman like that in the Duke of Berthe?
They soon stopped in front of the duchess’s door, and the knights soon moved to the side as if to make room for the woman.
Then, a white magic circle was created along with light from the hand of the woman who stepped forward.
The work to unravel the barrier has begun.
She completely dispelled the barrier in less than 10 seconds after manifesting her mana.
Then he opened the door and went inside with the three knights.
The two remaining knights waited outside the door and guarded the surroundings.
Seeing him solve that complicated barrier as if he was swimming while holding on to something, I think he is the one who created the barrier.
For a moment, it occurred to me that the person that so many troops outside the mansion were trying to protect might be that woman.
So what should I do? I’ll have to check it out.
The moment I watched silently, waiting for the moment when the woman would appear again,
“Huh… … .”
Suddenly, a faint moan was heard from the other side of the hallway.
“Did you hear?”
[uh.]
Neither I nor Kayram heard wrongly.
This is clearly the sound of someone moaning in pain.
I naturally moved towards the sound.
Eventually, we arrived in front of an old room located at the end of a continuous hallway.
From what I remember, this was a room used as a warehouse to store household goods.
Just like in the previous room, when I gently put my ear to the door,
“Huh… … .”
A moan was heard more clearly than before.
Unlike the Duchess’s room, there was no restrictive barrier in place here.
After looking around once more, I quickly opened the door and went inside.
As I pushed aside the piled up furniture and household goods and went deeper inside,
Soon, they found someone covered in dust and their entire body tied up.
“Who, who is it?”
As if he had recognized my arrival, he asked in surprise.
Although his face was covered by a cloth, I could immediately tell who it was through his voice.
I immediately went over to him and took off the cloth.
“… … !”
When he saw me, his eyes flashed like a surprised rabbit.
If anyone saw it, they would think they had seen a ghost.
“what? “Are you sure you’re Xian?”
“Lower your voice. “Before I strangle you.”
Even though we are blood brothers, he is the fourth child of the Berthe family whom I don’t particularly want to pretend to be close to.
It was Kranz Wert.
“I ask the question, not you. “Don’t open your mouth first, just be quiet and answer what I ask.”
I grabbed his neck and whispered softly into his ear, and he nodded, sweating profusely.
“There is a woman in the mansion I haven’t seen before. What is she?”
There is no need to ask one by one useless things like why the mansion is so quiet or why this guy is acting like this.
I guess I can just ask this one simple question.
Kranz swallowed his saliva once and opened his mouth.
“You know that Brother Eshel came to Beliath because of you, right?”
I was curious as to why it was because of me, but I decided to skip it for now.
“He came shortly after my brother came to Belias! “I thought he was dead, but he wasn’t!”
So who are you?
While I was thinking that if I say something wrong one more time, I will strangle you right away.
-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-jump-bump
I heard footsteps behind me again.
-Kirik
Also, the sound of the door opening.
Someone else had come into this room.
(Continued in the next part)
fantasy,
