Episode 145
Meanwhile, at the Heilan Royal Palace, the image of the old watchtower’s underground arena was projected onto a screen.
Tristan watched Elonia disappear, her hand clasped in another’s, and clicked his tongue in disappointment.
“So the apostle has sided with the Ravanta Imperial family.”
He had been testing Elonia since she entered the watchtower, his initial amusement quickly turning into genuine curiosity.
Her quick thinking and resourcefulness in figuring out how to kill the undead creatures, her courage in facing a monster much larger than herself…
He had only needed to confirm her swordsmanship skills, to see if she truly lived up to the rumors of being Chelon Heilan’s equal.
‘But he interfered. He doesn’t look the type, but he’s quite cunning.’
But greed was a dangerous thing.
Tristan, dismissing his disappointment, turned to Felix.
“Your Majesty, what do you think? Facing a chimera unarmed, with no magic? She’s certainly brave.”
Felix didn’t answer. He usually reacted instantly to Tristan’s words, whether with agreement or disagreement.
His eyes were vacant, his expression blank. Tristan was about to call out to him again when,
“About the Ravanta princess…”
“Yes?”
Felix finally spoke, and Tristan, smiling gently, waited for him to continue.
“She looks familiar. As if I’ve seen her before… a familiar face.”
Tristan’s smile froze. His voice, now cold and sharp, asked,
“Have you met the Ravanta princess before?”
Elonia was back in the watchtower basement. Her knights, seeing her safe return, cried out in relief.
“Your Highness, are you alright?!”
“Your Highness!”
But Elonia, ignoring them, turned to Lucius.
“Lu… Cielun! What are you doing here?!”
Damn it, she almost used the wrong name again. The explanation came from someone else.
“I brought him here, Your Highness.”
It was Ricardo. He was supposed to be recovering from his injury.
Ricardo, seeing her questioning gaze, shrugged, rotating his shoulder.
“I ran into the High Priest at the palace, so he treated me. I’m perfectly fine now.”
He grinned, his usual playful demeanor returning, which only annoyed Elonia further.
Why had she even told him to rest? Ricardo, sensing her displeasure, quickly added,
“And I found the Tite Knights, so don’t be too mad.”
“You found them?”
“Yes. They were hidden by the same Holy Power that transported you.”
Lucius answered for him. And there were more people now.
Artius’s knights bowed their heads.
“Your Highness, we failed to capture Marquis Hellington and his accomplices.”
They had found the watchtower, but there was no sign of the carriage or the fugitives.
They had searched the watchtower, and then Elonia had arrived.
“You were here all along?”
She hadn’t seen them earlier. Her voice rose in surprise, and the Tite Knights, bowing their heads lower, apologized,
“We apologize for causing you concern, Your Highness.”
They had been hidden by Holy Power. Elonia looked at Lucius, her eyes demanding an explanation.
But this wasn’t the time or place for such a discussion, so Lucius suggested,
“Let’s return to the palace. This place is dangerous.”
They all agreed.
Elonia, confirming that her magic was working again, created a large teleportation circle.
Back at the Imperial Palace, the knights from both the Imperial Princess’s Palace and the Tite Knights continued searching the border, hoping to find Marquis Hellington and his accomplices.
Elonia, watching them, turned to Lucius.
“So, explain. How did you get here? And what do you mean, the Tite Knights were with us all along? And how did you come with Ricardo?”
Lucius, before answering her barrage of questions, apologized.
“I apologize in advance.”
“For what?”
“I placed a tracking spell on you, Your Highness.”
“…What? When?”
“…When you grabbed me by the collar.”
When she had almost ripped his shirt open. Elonia was speechless.
“It wasn’t my intention at first, but I had a bad feeling when Professor Caroline arrived. But I apologize if it offended you.”
“…Well, it did save my life.”
She was impressed that he had managed to cast a spell while she was practically manhandling him.
Lucius’s spell was designed to dissipate if it came into contact with Tristan’s power. But it hadn’t dissipated, even though she had been gone for a while.
“I thought I was being paranoid. I was planning to tell you and remove the spell when you returned.”
But the spell had vanished.
Something had happened.
“So I went to the palace. I couldn’t reach you directly.”
He couldn’t ride a horse in his current state, so he had gone to seek Ricardo’s help.
Lucius, his brow furrowing slightly, continued his story.
He had been stopped by the knights at the entrance to the Imperial Princess’s Palace, as expected.
“I’m sorry, but you can’t enter.”
“It’s an emergency.”
The knights whispered amongst themselves.
“Should we summon the Captain…?”
No, Alberich wouldn’t do. Just as he was anxiously wondering how to get inside, he ran into Ricardo.
“Young Master? What are you doing here?”
Ricardo had never looked so appealing.
But there was a problem. Ricardo couldn’t track Elonia either.
Lucius suddenly remembered that Valerian had gone to the Imperial Princess’s Palace.
“High Priest Valerian came here. Have you seen him?”
“He was granted permission to enter a while ago.”
“…Do you have the same authority, Sir Ricardo?”
“I do, but…?”
That was it. It would be better to go with him.
Lucius’s hopeful expression made Ricardo realize what he was thinking, and he reluctantly agreed. Lucius, thanks to Ricardo’s authority, entered the Imperial Princess’s Palace. But he was quickly spotted by Garnethia.
“S-Sir Ricardo! Who is that behind you?!”
“Lady Garnethia… Please, just this once…”
“That’s unacceptable…! Wait, you’re going towards Her Highness’s room…! Stop, Sir Ricardo!”
Ricardo, ignoring her protests, quickened his pace.
Garnethia chased after them, but she was too slow. They reached Elonia’s room, but Valerian was gone. Instead, they ran into Llewellyn.
“Hey, you.”
Llewellyn’s hostile gaze told him he had been discovered.
Lucius, since he had been caught, simply smiled and greeted him.
“It’s been a while, Young Master.”
Ricardo sighed inwardly. Of all people, they had to be discovered by Llewellyn. He was about to give up when he realized Llewellyn, having matured, wasn’t making a scene.
“So, what’s this ‘urgent matter’ concerning Elonia’s safety?”
Llewellyn, after they moved to a more private area, interrogated Lucius. He was furious after hearing his story.
“Are you crazy?! Switching sides like that?!”
Lucius, unable to argue, remained silent, which only infuriated Llewellyn further.
“Elonia is in danger because of you! And you have the nerve to show your face here?!”
“That was my initial intention. But please believe me now. I care about Her Highness’s safety as much as you do.”
Just as Llewellyn was about to retort angrily, Lucius quickly added,
“The tracking spell I placed on Her Highness has vanished. We have to find her.”
“You placed a tracking spell on her, and you don’t know where she is?!”
Llewellyn, who wasn’t knowledgeable about magic or Holy Power, was furious, and Ricardo, trying to calm him down, said,
“Young Master, please calm down. The High Priest came here, but he’s not here anymore. Do you have any idea where he might be?”
“Valerian? Why would I care about— Ah.”
“So you do have an idea.”
Llewellyn remembered Sarah’s words.
“He left a few minutes ago. …He was looking for Her Highness, but then he asked to see Prince Simon.”
So that was why Valerian had come here. He had also sensed Elonia’s danger and taken action.
And there was only one place in the Ravanta Imperial Palace where he could meet with a Heilan prince.
“The dungeons…!”
“The dungeons?”
Ricardo asked, puzzled, but Llewellyn, with Elonia in danger, didn’t have time to explain.
“Young Master, we should go together!”
Llewellyn, ignoring them, rushed towards the Main Palace. Ricardo, supporting Lucius, followed him.
They reached the dungeons, and the guards, seeing them, asked,
“Sir Harriott, are you here with Young Master Llewellyn?”
“Yes, it’s an emergency.”
“…Very well.”
Llewellyn had apparently used his connection to Alberich to gain access to the dungeons. Ricardo, using his authority as Elonia’s knight, was also granted entry.
They descended the long staircase, and just as they reached the bottom, Llewellyn’s furious roar echoed through the dungeons.
“You bastard! How dare you threaten my sister?!”
He was grabbing Simon by the collar. Ricardo, startled, cried out,
“Young Master!”
Llewellyn, despite his delicate appearance, was surprisingly strong. Two red marks were visible on Simon’s forehead where it had hit the bars.
Ricardo, abandoning Lucius, rushed towards Llewellyn. Valerian, noticing Lucius, was surprised.
“Lucius, what are you doing here?!”
“Ah, Young Master Allen…?”
It was chaos again, everyone talking over each other. But Simon couldn’t speak. Llewellyn was preventing him from doing so.
Lucius, in the now quiet dungeon, asked,
“What’s going on here?”
“Well…”
Valerian quickly summarized his conversation with Simon.
Lucius, after hearing his story, understood Llewellyn’s anger. He approached Simon.
“How could you be so ungrateful?”
“Y-Young Master…”
“You threatened Her Highness, after everything she’s done for you?!”
Lucius’s hands trembled with anger, and so did Ricardo’s, who knew Elonia’s past life.
It was a threat, just like Llewellyn had said.
Heilan had committed unforgivable crimes. And even though Simon wasn’t personally responsible, he was still a representative of Heilan.
Elonia had spared Heilan because of Simon and Olivia. And Simon had repaid her kindness with a threat. Her reaction would be devastating.
“Your Highness, you must have been receiving information from Heilan after I disappeared.”
“…W-well…”
“It’s best to confess. Have you been in contact with Heilan?”
Lucius, his usual gentle smile gone, his voice cold and sharp, warned him.
Simon, intimidated, confessed.
“…Yes, after you left, I started receiving information.”
Or rather, someone had appeared out of nowhere and forced him to accept it.
He had learned a lot about Heilan during his seven years at the academy.
But he had been too afraid, too cowardly, to act.
“I swear, I’ve never used that information for anything nefarious. Please believe me.”
“Then why did you give false testimony and let the real culprit escape?”
“That’s because…”
Simon’s resolve had changed the day they were captured, the day he realized they were discarded pawns, the day his room was ransacked.
He had been living in a delusional dream.
It wasn’t the time for flower arranging. It was time to fight for survival.
But he hadn’t intended to threaten Elonia.
“I-I just… wanted to protect my sister…”
He stammered, his voice filled with regret, and Lucius, his voice cold, asked,
“Do you think Her Highness would be pleased?”
“…”
No, she would be furious.
Simon seemed to have finally realized his mistake.
Ricardo, seeing the somber atmosphere, asked,
“Your Highness, do you have any idea where Marquis Hellington might have gone?”
Ricardo’s tracking magic was useless without a prior connection.
And Lucius couldn’t rely on his connection to Elonia. He had sensed her entering the border region, but then the connection had been severed.
Simon was the only one who knew where she was.
“Please tell us where she is.”
“…”
Simon, defiant, turned away, but then, unable to withstand the pressure of four grown men, finally confessed.
Fortunately, it was a location Ricardo knew.
“Then let’s go, Young Master.”
“Right!”
Llewellyn’s enthusiastic response was met with a brief silence, and Ricardo, popping his bubble, said,
“Not you, Young Master Llewellyn.”
“Then who’s going?!”
“I’ll keep him here. Go, Sir Ricardo, Lucius.”
Valerian, the non-combatant, restrained Llewellyn. Ricardo and Lucius, with a grateful nod towards Valerian, headed towards the old watchtower.
And as Simon had predicted, they found Elonia and her knights, along with the missing Tite Knights, who had been hidden by Tristan’s Holy Power, their physical forms fading.