Kapitel 33: Chapter 31: Counterattack
After blowing off the door of my room, I wanted to head straight to Verner and the others. Needless to say, though, the member of my guard who was on lookout duty blocked my path.
He immediately reached out for his sword, but didn't draw it. Their goal was to keep me alive and well so they could use me as a symbol. I doubted he'd actually pull out his sword—hurting me would defeat the purpose.
What's wrong, huh? Not drawing your sword? You can't, can you? Ha ha ha! Feeling frustrated yet? Heh heh heh!
I passed him by leisurely. It felt amazing to do that knowing full well he was powerless to do anything to stop me!
"L-Lady Ellize, wait! I was told not to let you leave! If you really insist on going...could you beat me up first?"
Random-traitorous-knight-1... Oh, no, wait—random-traitorous-knight-1 was the one who'd fought what's-his-face. His name was...Sex, or something... Oh! Rex! His name was Rex! I still wasn't over the fact that a random guy like him had such a cool name.
You should take notes from that other generic dude! His name is John, he knows his place!
Anyway, the dude in front of me was another guy altogether. I shall nickname you random-traitorous-knight-2!His real name was Finley Blueye. Did you picture a blond hero with blue eyes? Too bad, the dude had dark brown hair! Babies were often blond and their hair tended to get darker as they grew up. I assumed he'd been born blond, just like I'd been. Plus, his eyes were gray.
Where's the blue, bro?!
Count Blueye came from a house that had boasted beautiful blue eyes for generations, but, from what I knew, only as infants. They almost always changed color as they grew up.
Shouldn't y'all rename your house Grayeye?
Anyway, Mister brown-hair-gray-eyes here had just asked me to beat him up.
I'll ignore the masochist and just move on. You want me to beat you up so you can pretend you did everything in your power to stop me, huh? Do I look like I care about your reputation, huh?! Idiot. I'm gonna leave you high and dry.
"My hands were not given to me so I could hit fellow human beings. The same goes for that sword of yours. I will not harm you, and I strongly believe you will not draw your sword either." I blurted out some goody-two-shoes justification.
I left Grayeye behind without touching a hair on his head and started going down the stairs. To be fair, I had approximately zero percent faith in that dude. I'd maxed out my defensive spells just in case he tried something. In the end, though, Grayeye didn't try anything. He fell to his knees and looked at me helplessly.
I hope they all laugh at you for letting me go so easily!
"Lady Ellize, please go back to your room!"
"Please!"
As I walked down the stairs, a few other knights came running toward me, begging me to stop. None of them managed to do anything more than stare at me blankly, though, their swords left untouched. Eventually, enough of them flocked to me that they'd ended up forming a wall in front of me, preventing me from moving forward.
It was time to call upon my trusty light magic!
People—just like animals—never really saw what was in front of them. What their eyes actually saw was the light reflected by that object. The same went for colors. We never really saw the true color of anything, we saw the colors being reflected by that object...uh, or so my physics classes had claimed. Either way, my point was that, as long as you could control light however you wanted, you could create illusions. I simply had to make it so that I didn't reflect light anymore! I also picked a random spot in the room and mimicked the way I normally reflected light there.
"Lady Ellize, please let us take you back to your room..."
"We can't let you leave!"
The soldiers ran up to that spot and started begging the thin air (well, in their eyes, I was standing right there). I slipped through a gap without difficulty and continued my way down.
The prison was located in the basement, so I assumed Verner and the others had been taken there. It went without saying, but the true purpose of this prison wasn't to hold intruders like them—that space was meant to trap the saint after she defeated the witch.
I stayed in stealth mode and stepped into the basement. For some reason... Verner and his friends weren't in the cell.
Actually, the cell didn't look like what I'd pictured at all. I'd imagined a cage, but what was in front of me was a gaping hole—the type of trap where you pushed people down and hoped they never came crawling out.
Isn't this jail kinda shitty? Escaping would take me five seconds. I can fly.
I heard a voice. "Your Majesty... Please surrender."
Huh? I feel like I missed something.
I had no idea how or when, but Verner and his party had turned the tables on King Aiz. The soldiers that'd been accompanying him were all down, and Four-Eyed Pervert—who'd been getting all chummy with the soldiers a few minutes ago—stood next to Verner as if they were allies. Layla was being restricted by a clay puppet, which meant she couldn't do much at the moment. Four-Eyed Pervert had probably been the one to cast that spell. Earth magic was his specialty, after all.
I was a bit puzzled, though. Layla could easily break free if she tried to. Why hadn't she?
I had a lot of trouble wrapping my head around the whole thing, so I decided to listen in for the time being. It looked like Four-Eyed Pervert had pretended to be on the king's side to trick him, then waited for Verner and the others to be caught. That was when he'd made his move to overturn the situation, saving them and trapping the king instead. I assumed they intended to come to save me after that.
Not that I needed saving—I was already out of my room!
Suddenly, a soldier came running in. He didn't stop to take in the situation, he just screamed, "Your Majesty! I have urgent news from the capital! A gigantic monster—thought to be an archmonster—is marching an army of monsters on the capital! They're getting closer as we speak!"
"What?!"
Everyone panicked.
As I'd mentioned during the events in Lutein, only knights could hope to fight back against archmonsters. However, most of the knights—as well as all the members of my elite guard—were stationed in this castle for the sole sake of keeping me trapped here. At the moment, the royal capital's defenses were lackluster, to say the least.
Naturally, the king had left some knights behind. They'd most likely be able to hold out for a while, but it was sure to turn into a gruesome fight.
The royal messengers most likely used Stil's birds as well. Considering the distance that separated the capital from the saint's castle, it would've taken the bird an hour, more or less, to get here. This meant this piece of information was already obsolete. We had no way of knowing what was going on in the capital right now.
"What of the knights in the royal capital?!" the king asked.
"They're preparing to engage, but...the monsters are too numerous. They're requesting reinforcements as soon as possible."
"How could they fail to notice an entire army approaching the capital?!"
"I-I don't know, Your Majesty... They simply wrote that the monsters had appeared out of nowhere..."
I understood why King Aiz was so flustered.
I'd taken care of most of the monsters and archmonsters in the area. Although I'd obviously missed some, the soldiers and knights in charge of protecting the capital should've been more than enough to deal with the remnants. King Aiz would never have confined me here unless he was certain there weren't enough monsters left to be a serious threat to humanity.
However...archmonsters could appear spontaneously. It was incredibly rare, but as long as a few dozen monsters gathered in the same spot, they could devour one another until an archmonster appeared even without the intervention of the witch. This one must've slaughtered other monsters of its own accord until it'd turned into an archmonster. Then other monsters, who'd hidden all over the place, had flocked to their new leader, creating an army large enough to threaten the capital.
The witch's followers had their backs against the wall. That was the only way to explain why they'd go for such large-scale offensives not just once, but twice. They understood that unless they gathered all of their remaining forces into a do-or-die attack, they had no way to win anymore.
I miiiight have bullied them a little too much. Well, well, no need to despair! The country's in a tough spot, but fear not! I can just take a little trip to the capital and show off my peerless abilities!
It was probably about time I stopped hiding.
Yes?
"Releasing Lady Ellize would be the solution to all of our worries?"
Indeed.
"But would she listen to our request after we treated her like this?"
I mean, yeah. I don't care.
The people of the Bilberry Kingdom hadn't done me dirty—only their king had. I didn't have any reason to punish them. On top of that, I'd had a pretty good time here living my best NEET life.
If anything, I should thank that old geezer for locking me up!
"Lady Ellize?! How... Why are you here?!"
How? I escaped, duh!
To be perfectly accurate, I was trying to look cool while saving Verner and the others, but it turned out they apparently didn't need me to step in at all...
Huh? Why am I here, then? Daaaaamn, I'm the opposite of cool right now!
I felt like an idiot for getting fooled and worrying about them!
Hmm, so what now...? Oh, I know! I heard the old geezer's call for help, so I came running! *wink*
No need to worry about the whole confinement business, I totally forgive you! I'm not mad at all! Yes, yes, I know, I'm the generous type! I welcome all sorts of betrayals, so go right ahead, friend! I'll totally forgive you over and over again, even if you betray me a hundred—no, a thousand times! I'll even come to the rescue in times of need, so don't hesitate to give me a little NEET vacation from time to time, please and thanks!
After I said something along those lines, Aiz started crying.
LMAO!!! Your crying face's seriously ugly, bro!
For some reason, he even grabbed my hands. I had only brought them toward him for the show!
Who told you this was okay, old geezer?! Urgh... His palms are all sticky, eww.
◇
After being caught, Verner and his group had been brought to an underground prison.
Layla—who'd followed King Aiz's orders to arrest them—looked even more pitiful than before. She'd stared at the students with an apologetic expression on her face.
Verner and Eterna hadn't struggled. They were fully aware of how much stronger Layla was, and plenty of soldiers had already caught up to them anyway. They'd decided that there wouldn't be any point in wasting their stamina here. The best course of action would be to meekly follow Layla and the king, then wait for a better opportunity to strike.
However, as soon as they'd seen the castle's prison, they'd understood that they'd made a mistake. Since the king had told Layla to throw them in jail, they'd assumed they'd be locked up inside a room closed by bars—in other words, inside a cell.
Well, they weren't exactly wrong. There was a room and there were iron bars. The thing was that, instead of the room being in front of them, it was located under their feet. A hole, fifteen meters deep, had been dug. The walls were made of smooth iron, and an iron grid had been installed, which meant the pit could be closed off at any given time.
There was no escaping such a place unless you were someone like Ellize, who could fly. A regular person wouldn't even be able to get up to the iron grid.
A few moments after they'd arrived, Verner had heard footsteps. Before long, another group of knights and soldiers had arrived, accompanied by Supple.
"Would you look at this? You've all been caught," he'd said. "That's what you get for storming into such a place without a plan."
Verner had called out the name of his teacher—his enemy at the time. "Mr. Supple..."
Supple hadn't paid him any mind. Instead, he'd forced Verner and his friends to walk a few steps, carefully looking at the ropes that bound them.
"Thank you for your hard work, Supple Ment. We've caught all of the students that you warned us about."
"I work hard every day. Having such poor students is tiring. I still can't believe they charged in from the front door," Supple had sneered. "I can take it from here."
"We couldn't possibly leave," one of the soldiers had answered.
"We're here to guard His Majesty as well," another had added.
Supple had simply nodded, as if he thought that their explanation was perfectly reasonable. The next second, he'd unleashed his magic, and a few clay puppets, tall as people, rose from the ground.
The soldiers had assumed he'd intended to use them to push Verner and the others into the hole, but one of the puppets had suddenly grabbed Layla, pinning her in place.
"M-Mr. Supple?! What are you—"
Before the soldier had been able to finish his question, Supple's puppets had knocked him and his colleagues out. The puppets had then immediately proceeded to surround Aiz, while Supple cut the ropes that restrained Verner and the others.
"Mr. Supple... Why?" Verner had asked, utterly surprised.
"You're a bunch of fools. How could you fail to foresee where your thoughtless endeavor would get you? You ruined my plan as well! I wanted to bide my time, earn their trust, and wait for the perfect occasion to save the saint!" Supple had admonished them, then let out a long sigh. "I would have looked so dashing!"
As it turned out, Supple had never been in favor of confining Ellize. He'd only pretended to be so he could get the king and his men to lower their guard. Then, he'd save Ellize.
Eterna had yet to piece it all together. She stared at him, confused, and muttered, "B-But... You said you thought Lady Ellize had to be locked up so she wouldn't die..."
"I cannot say the thought hasn't crossed my mind... However, while captive birds live longer and do not have to suffer the harshness of the wild, those that aren't allowed to soar in the sky are much more frail. They suffer from depression and oftentimes die untimely young as well, albeit for different reasons."
People and birds lived in different environments. They did not live in the same climate, around the same sources of light and sound... If these factors were too different from their natural habitat, birds often died prematurely. A bird cared for by an ignorant owner was nothing if not pitiful. It would forget how to fly, its wings would lose all strength, and it would simply waste away day after day in a stressful environment, unable to do anything but dream of the unreachable blue sky.
A bird that was forced to rely on the choices of an owner that was ignorant of its needs would only suffer. Even though the owner felt like the temperature was perfect, the bird might have sweltered or frozen to death. Even though the owner thought the room was bright and nice, the bird might be in pain from the blinding light.
"I do believe that caring for a bird in a cage, showering it with love, and helping it live a long and fulfilled life is a beautiful thing. However, this implies you know how to care for it. You need to understand the bird on a deeper level... And most importantly, you need to truly love it," Supple said, snapping his fingers.
Immediately, one of the clay puppets he'd created emerged from the shadows and threw something on the floor: the three princes. They were trapped in clay and couldn't lift a finger. Although Supple ought to have respected the princes of his country, he clearly wasn't treating them delicately. He looked down at them, his eyes cold as ice.
"Do you know what these three tried to do, Your Majesty? These lowlifes dared to lust after our glorious saint. I caught them trying to sneak into her room and assault her. Do you think this is right, Your Majesty? You said you'd keep Lady Ellize safe. Are you not supposed to keep such trash that may hurt her away from her?" Supple said, not bothering to hide the vitriol in his voice.
If anything, he was looking down on him, as if the king was less important than he himself was. As for the princes, he treated them like objects—in his eyes, they weren't even human anymore.
"After coming here I realized how mistaken I was. No one in this castle loves the saint. You do not understand her either. I refuse to cooperate with you under such circumstances. This castle is a faulty cage. It will do nothing but harm her beauty... A terrible place, indeed. I would never allow my saint to remain trapped here. I'm ashamed that you used the taxes you wrung out of hardworking citizens to build such a sad pile of feces," he concluded, glaring at the king.
Supple had never been loyal to the king. The only thing this twisted and perverted man cared about was the saint he worshipped. If he deemed that someone—anyone—risked harming her, he'd get rid of them, no matter what it took.
(3k word count)
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