Chapter Chapter 27: RATH 27 TL: Eevee (2/2)

She’s going to come back anyway once she realises the doppelganger is a fake, so if I’m caught now the end result is the same anyway.

Should I ask for my face to be hidden? Or, should I ask to be carried away by the mage corps instead of the knights?

“Tell us your demands. Right now thanks to the mages, only you and I can hear each other! So tell me what you want!”

“We had no warning?!”

“They’re serious… is this the skill of the empire’s strongest mage corps?”

To my horror and No.17’s lament. The surroundings were already surrounded with a thick magic barrier.

That meant that we were already trapped, and the barrier could not only absorb sound, but also act as a formation to keep us trapped, and also a method to kill us.

And to think they could trap us like this without any of us getting the slightest warning!

Is this the skill of the imperial princess’s mage corps, that are called the empire’s strongest!

“Then… I surrender on the condition that my identity is not revealed!”

“What kind of conditions are those?”

“Adults have adult’s problems. If my face is revealed right now then I’m in big trouble…”

“Wait, wasn’t this to stall for time for the instructor?”

“Just for old times’ sake, just because the princess was chasing after the instructor, that was why I was running away with you?! But this was just for your own problems?”

Wow, these kids eyes’ are getting icy. If I drag this any longer I thought I might be blindsided by these kids first…

“The reason is… is it because of the other women you met. Or…”

But there was someone else that blindsided me first.

“Is it because of me, Rein?”

“Milady?!”

“Rein, did you really think I wouldn’t recognise you?”

This is a trap! I’m currently under the influence of illusion magic by these skilled empire mages. There, there’s no way that person can be the real deal!

“Hm, by the looks of that expression it seems you believe that I’m an illusion brought on by magic.”

“Ha, how?!”

“Well, it’s obvious on Rein’s face.”

Those blue eyes look into mine and curved into gentle crescents.

Is that really an illusion?

As if he could tell my insecurity, No.1 who was caught as a hostage muttered.

“Um, could you please not hold the knife so close to my neck? You’re shivering a lot right now? Because of that the blade’s brushing my neck a lot, at this rate it really seems like I’ll see blood? Wait, hold on! You’re shaking even more! Dan, dangerous!”

“Now Rein, leave that thing behind, and come to me. Even Her Highness permitted it as well.”

“That thing? Did she just call me ‘that thing?’”

“No.1, I don’t think now’s a time for us to interrupt.”

“Yep.”

“Hey, do you think those words would come if you were in my shoes?!”

No.1’s yelling something, but since the noble lady in front of me took up more of my attention I ignored him.

“When did you know?”

“I’d be lying if I said from the beginning. Just. Out of curiosity. I asked Her Highness, and she told me.”

“Then, why…”

“That’s. because I like you.”

Those were lines that should definitely be giving me a touching feeling, but all of a sudden, for some reason I understood the instructor’s sentiments.

Such as Sia or the princess, just why he went around running away from beautiful women.

“I know. That you were working for the organization. That you handed over the information you got from us over to them. But, you never once told them any of our secrets, and you never lied to us, not even once. And… Rein is too kind so you can’t abandon people.”

The sword at her waist slowly rose higher and higher. But the direction it was pointing at was the opposite direction to its normal use.

“Now, this is a hostage, Rein. If you don’t come to me, this sword will stab the human named Iris.”

“Holding yourself as hostage, are you insane?!”

“I don’t know. For all you know, this is an illusion, like you imagined. But Rein, I’ve told you before. I.”

-Rein. If it’s for you, then I could even die for you.

“Rein, if it’s for you, then I could even die for you.”

The moment the girl wearing a beautiful dress and the knight in armour overlapped in my imagination, a red line of blood started to trickle down her throat.

“Milady!”

“Heheh, I’ve got you.”

If this is an illusion then I don’t have a choice but to be captured…

“Wow, they’re ignoring us and filming a love story…”

“Ah, I’m getting goosebumps. I hate those kinds of things.”

“I only had one meal today.”

Although it’s a heavy love that these kids can’t understand, but I still can’t abandon her.

The warm blood that I touched as I brought my hand up to her neck only served to tell me that this was reality.

“Really, did you have to… eh?”

Click.

“I’ve really, caught you.”

But, as I was wiping the blood off the lady’s neck, at that moment I felt something fasten and lock around my own.

During my tertiary trainee days, the words that the instructor had said to me then flashed through my head.

-Ahh, I nearly died back then. In the pandemonium called the imperial court, I was working under that princess to boot. Plus, the. Princess. Always. Picked. People. Si. Mi. Lar. To. Her. As. Her. Own. People. So. Even. Her. Sub. Ord. In. Ates. Were. All. Si. Mi. Lar. To. Her. So everyone close to the princess were all essentially miniature versions of her.

And not too long ago, what I’d said when we parted from the instructor.

-Just what is the princess to you that you’re doing this…

-A Sia on a bigger scale?

-I can’t refute that.

And, the story of the black rose I’d talked with this girl previously.

-I met Her Highness a while ago, she said she was raising black roses as a hobby. She said she was raising them to give to someone, and I thought that the princess had a unexpectedly girlish side to her. Ah, Rein, do you know what a black rose means in the language of flowers?

And the last thought was, when I told the instructor that I was working as a club host under the Intelligence Agency, he had said this.

-Let me make a prediction. I’ll put one gold on you either getting enslaved or stabbed to death by a girl you meet there.

Ah, instructor. The comments you threw so casually so often became reality, but was that not a joke?!

At least you should have put more money on it to make me more careful!

But was that it? Before I worried about the instructor, did I have to watch out for myself first!

“No.17. Hold on. Something’s weird?”

“Moron, we didn’t see anything. Didn’t you learn this in the organization?”

“Where from?”

“The Intelligence Agency vice-director.”

“I think I get it.”

Right now I wanted to turn my head to those kids and yell at them to save me, but the lady’s hand that had put something around my neck held my face tight and stopped me from so much as turning my head.

“This is a special collar that Her Highness gave to me to put on the person called Ast. It’s a special dwarven collar that has no key hole, and once it’s locked the only person that can undo it is the mana flow of the person of the original user. As a matter of course, it can track the wearer’s location, and it can also paralyze or knock out the wearer. So Rein.”

As her red lips came closer to me and kissed my cheek, she whispered quietly into my ear.

“Now… you can’t, run away.”