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Side Story Chapter 269

‘Something is strange, though,’ Anna thought as she looked down at the plaza, her head in confusion. Her lofty perch gave her a full view of the plaza, but there were curiously few guards in the area, which was why she’d been able to climb onto the palace’s roof at all. A lapse like that didn’t make sense considering that the man kneeling on the scaffold was Ulabis, the famous Flame Emperor.

“We found him!”

“...Finally.” Anna turned to watch Swallow’s imperial knights climbing up a ladder to reach her.

“Be careful!” one of the knights shouted to the others. “Did everyone memorize the location of magic traps on the roof?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Don’t make mistakes unless you want to be butchered. Mages, don’t let the trespasser escape!”

Palaces usually had magic traps installed all over their roofs to ward off assassination attempts against the imperial family.

Anna quietly chuckled. Theta, the Master of the Magic Tower himself, had told her about them. According to Theta, there were two kinds of magic traps. The first type was triggered by a trespasser physically stepping on a magic trap. On the other hand, the second type activated in response to a trespasser’s mana. The second type was obviously way more expensive.

That extra expense was wasted on Anna because she wasn’t a knight or a mage who used mana. She was an elemental spirit mage.

“Given that you’re born with the gift, you can’t ask for a better profession than an elemental spirit mage. I might actually be able to become the best assassin on the continent if I put my mind to it,” Anna idly mused, although Aisha, the current Darkness Emperor, would laugh if she heard Anna say that.

The knights were now getting close to Anna. The mages created Mana Webs, the perfect spell to restrain someone.

“How arrogant of you guys to think that you can catch me!” Anna scoffed.

She could break through their encirclement and escape right now, but she had to buy time at least until Kireua had accomplished his first goal.

“Ohaaaaaaaa!”

“Save His Majesty! Show them Thran’s power!”

Fortunately, the freedom fighters weren’t fools and didn’t miss the golden opportunity that Anna had given them. They leaped into motion from amid the crowd, capitalizing on the confusion.

“Good. Let’s work together for now. Show me that Thran won’t perish without a fight.”

Before long, a storm raged over the plaza.

* * *

“Stop! Stop them!”

The plaza was in utter chaos.

The freedom fighters were wise. After they detonated the bombs they’d installed near the plaza, they didn’t recklessly approach the scaffold, leaving Swallow’s knights floundering for direction. If the freedom fighters had barged straight onto the scaffold stand, the knights would have stopped them even if it meant turning the gathering into a bloodbath. However, the knights could do nothing right now.

“What are you all waiting for? Kill those fuckers from Thran. Just kill them! Don’t hesitate!”

“U-Umm... We can’t tell the enemies apart from the spectators.”

“What?”

“All of Thran’s guys are disguised as our people...! It’s impossible to distinguish them!”

The freedom fighters had blended into the crowd and had slowly made their way toward the scaffold, ready to draw their swords when their time came.

The ordinary spectators belatedly noticed how serious the situation was and tried to escape the plaza, screaming. However, that wasn’t an option for them. Thran’s freedom fighters had prepared so thoroughly that every alley connected to the plaza received a bomb. The spectators were trapped in the plaza, forcing them to suffer the worst of the attack.

“Eeek...! What do they expect us to do?” The man who was in charge of the execution looked up at the palace’s terrace pleadingly.

Those on the terrace quietly watched the plaza as if the mayhem below was none of their business, but the knights couldn’t harm a single hair on the spectators because they were citizens of Swallow.

The knights weren’t the only ones who were frustrated, actually. Duke Voltaire watched the chaos in the plaza with barely restrained impatience; he wanted to draw his sword and go down to the plaza himself.

“...Fox Master, how long are you just going to watch this?” he hissed under his breath.

“Let’s wait a little longer.”

“If we lose the Flame Emperor, Swallow’s reputation will be in ruins.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Fox Master confidently answered.

Voltaire turned to look at her, his face distorted by frustration. “How can you be so calm right now? This kind of negligence is what cost Hubalt’s emperor his head! It’s clear their target is the Flame Emperor. Do you really want to see us get embarrassed in front of the entire empire?”

The Fox Master was used to Voltaire’s rudeness at this point, but there were many other eyes on them. Many of the nobles watching seemed to think that it was only natural for Voltaire to treat her like this.

‘...Nothing can be done about it, I guess.’

The Fox Master quietly sighed behind the mask. “I poisoned the water that the Flame Emperor drank last night.”

“What? Poisoned him?”

“Yes, it’s called Ten-Hour Poison. After ten hours without the antidote, even the most skilled priests won’t be able to detoxify him.” The Fox Master looked up at the sun. “I think it’s about time now... The Flame Emperor will die in less than an hour even if we do nothing.”

Voltaire turned to look at Ulabis. As a Master himself, Voltaire could see how pale Ulabis was; the man was far from okay.

“...Ahem.” Voltaire cleared his throat. “Indeed. You had a plan from the beginning.”

“Of course.”

“My apologies. But on a separate note, isn’t that about time you explain your plan? I don’t think we have to worry about it getting leaked at this point.”

In truth, the Fox Master was going to do that even if Voltaire hadn’t asked her to. There was no knowing what Voltaire would do otherwise with his fiery temper.

“There are two main reasons why we should exercise a little more patience,” the Fox Master began.

“What are these reasons?”

“The first is so that we can eradicate every one of them in this operation.” The Fox Master held up one finger as she looked down at the plaza.

At first, the freedom fighters had approached the scaffold cautiously, but they were enthusiastically fighting their way up it now, thinking that the tide of the battle was in their favor. Everything was working out as the Fox Master planned, although the knights of Swallow were also taking significant damage.

“...I think I understand what you mean.” Voltaire eyed the battle as well and nodded. He finally realized why the Fox Master had ordered the scaffold to not be guarded by the Imperial Knights.

‘That’s why she requested knights from the nobles,’ he realized, his jaw dropping slightly. Goosebumps spread all over his body. The Fox Master had been planning to sacrifice those knights from the very beginning. She was so meticulous that it was actually scary.

This was the execution of the famous Flame Emperor, and it was widely believed among Swallow’s nobility that Thran’s freedom fighters were going to use the execution to rescue Ulabis. The low-ranking nobles, who were hellbent on making their names known, had readily accepted Fox Master’s request for their knights. And the outcome was the ongoing mayhem in the plaza.

‘This is how she’s going to weaken the empire’s nobility.’

Of course Voltaire didn’t have the slightest intention of criticizing the Fox Master’s choice. She had simply made a request, and the low-ranking nobles were the ones who had made the decision. They were eager to join court politics by making as many accomplishments as possible, so they couldn’t blame anyone for their greed. Besides, it wasn’t like their families would decline just because their knights had been killed.

“Then what is the second reason?”

The Fox Master couldn’t supply an answer to Voltaire’s question because she wasn’t sure if the second reason still applied right now. Kireua Sanders should have shown up by now because she knew he wasn’t wasn’t the kind of person to give up his teacher like that. The Fox Master was certain that he had come because she had received a report that Theta had installed two warp gates that led to Avalon and Swallow respectively.

‘...That report is from our spy in the Magic Tower, so there is no way that it’s a false report.’ The Fox Master shook her head and tried to suppress her anxiety. ‘I’ve come this far, so let’s not doubt my plan. I would have thought differently if Kireua Sanders had requested only one teleportation gate, but he asked the Tower Master for a gate to Swallow too. Kireua Sanders will come here. He probably sent most of his group back to Avalon and only came here with a small number of people.’

“...Fox Master?”

The Fox Master broke away from her thoughts and pointed upward. “The masked person up there will tell you the answer.”

“How? What do you mean...?”

“That person is probably...!” Fox Master flinched, her eyes turning downward. “...Wait a minute.”

“What’s wrong?”

Rather than answering Voltaire, the Fox Master shut her eyes and focused on analyzing the presence she felt. A grin slowly grew on her lips. “I knew it.”

“Pardon?”

“The second reason is that the chances of our most valuable hostage showing up will increase the more chaotic the situation is.”

“By hostage, you mean...” Voltaire trailed off.

“Kireua Sanders, the Second Prince of Avalon,” Fox Master confidently answered.

Voltaire's eyes widened. “Ki-Kireua Sanders is really going to come here?”

The terrace the Fox Master and the others were on was attached to the fourth floor of the palace, which put quite a bit of distance between them and the first floor, but that posed no problems for the Fox Master to sense Kireua’s presence.

With her eyes glued downward, Fox Master nodded. “I can say with certainty that Kireua Sanders has just entered the palace.”