Chapter 42: Chapter 42: All back together

Now I have a swarm of fairies looking for Nera, at first I thought that with so many of them it would not take too long to find her, but thinking about it a bit more, this is a really big city and there's probably a lot of places that cannot be found just by wandering around, and if she's in a place they're not allowed to enter they won't be able to find her at all...

Also, I'm back to having nothing to do, I wonder what is taking Arana so long, I'm so bored... I want to read one of my books, but I know that if I do I'll become too absorbed into it to keep watch, I need to resist the temptation.

"This is an emergency! We need to call the captain!"

There seems to be a bit of a commotion, one guard is yelling at another with a panicked expression.

"Someone opened the seal of the controller for the city's mana circuits and made a copy!"

"What!? Who could have managed to force open a seal of such a high level?"

"Nobody, the reason that the controller was placed in a public space in the first place is that the ones who made it were certain that nobody would be able to open that seal, and on top of that it was opened cleanly, no signs that it had been forced open at all"

"Doesn't that mean that the one who did it was someone authorized?"

"Yes... it's very likely that there's a spy"

Eh!? Could they be talking about the controller I copied earlier? No, there's no way, the seal they were talking about is supposed to be impossible to break but the one I found opened rather easily. I can understand why they are worried but that has nothing to do with me.

Wait... when did this book get to my hand? Did it move out of my storage by itself? There's no way that I took it out without thinking, right?

No, I'm sorry, I know that you want me to read you but I need to stay focused on keeping guard. D-don't try to tempt me with the rustling sound of your pages and the smell of your ink, my willpower will not be broken so easily.

Well, I don't think anything will happen if I read just a bit...

"We found her!"

"Ah!"

I quickly hide the book behind my back when I see the fairies return, it won't matter if they catch me reading but I acted in reflex.

"You found her already!? That was fast!"

"It's because there was a fight and when we went to check she was there!"

"A fight!? Is Nera alright!? Where is she!?"

"Around 100 meters in that direction"

'Mana sense'

"Oh! It's her!"

Knowing where to look let's me find Nera's location, now that I've found her I have no reason to stay here so I rush to get her back.

"Is she inside that house?"

I can sense Nera inside of a really big house that looks like the kind of place a noble would live in, the sounds of battle can be heard coming from there.

I enter through a window and sneak around to avoid being noticed, if this is really a noble's house and I'm caught trespassing I would get into trouble... what am I saying, I'm clearly way past the point where I should worry about something like that.

"How can he be this strong!? Wasn't he supposed to be a doctor!?"

"He's not a doctor, he's an assassin"

There they are, the three knights who took Nera, they are fighting against a very serious looking man with blue skin. I don't know what this is about so it'll probably be for the best if I do not get involved, I'll just let them short out their differences on their own.

What I need to do is find Nera... oh! There she is.

"Nera, it's me, are you alright?"

"Mmmm, mmmm"

"Is that a yes?"

The one I don't see around here is Ranna, that's a problem, I think that she's the one who has Arana's hat.

"Who's that!?"

"The queen of darkness! She's wearing a mask but I'm sure that's her!"

"She has the princess!"

Oh, they saw me.

"Please don't mind me, I'm just here to pick up my friend, just continue with what you were doing"

"Of course I'm going to mind you! A knight cannot abandon an innocent person in trouble!"

The catgirl, Silvea, stands in my way with a determined expression.

"Well, that's really honorable and all... but how exactly are you going to stop me?"

We stare into each other's eyes for a bit and with each second she looks less and less sure of what she's doing.

"I... I guess I'll just move out of the way..."

Yeah, that's what I thought.

And so, I leave that house with Nera on my back, I have to say, after all the worries I had about rescuing her I'm a bit disappointed that it
ended up being this easy...

 

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"So Nera, since we are already here I guess we should go and deal with your mother, but I don't know how..."

"Mmmm"

"This is a really pretty city, by the way, you grew up here, right?"

"Mmmm mmmm"

"Why are you not talking? Is something wrong?"

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Oh, wait, something IS wrong, someone used a spell to stop her from talking.

'Mana corrosion'

The easiest way to undo such a spell is to get rid of its mana.

"Can you speak now?"

"Ah, yes, thank you, that was really annoying"

"Well, now we just need to wait for Arana to come back, I wonder how much longer it will take her"

"I'm already here"

"Ah!!!"

Arana just appeared behind me out of nowhere and placed something cold on the back of my neck, that really startled me!

"Why can you never just walk up to us like normal!?"

"Because it's funnier this way," She says, shrugging her shoulders.

"Oh, you are wearing your sister's mmmm"

That was close, Nera almost told her about the hat but I was able to silence her in time.

"Mmmm! Mmmm!!!"

She seems angry, I guess it must feel bad to be silenced again just after I broke that other spell.

"Sorry, I'll undo that now, but don't say anything about the hat please" I whisper to her.

"So, Ara, what were you doing in the castle all this time?"

"I was trying to figure out a way to solve the problem with Nera's mom"

"Really? Did you think of a plan?"

"Of course, all you have to do is go to the castle and kill the queen"

"Eh... what?"

"From what I've seen, this is a really nice and functional country, all of the problems here seem to come from the current queen, so if you kill her, Nera will become the next queen and everything will be fine"

"What are you saying!? I cannot kill the queen!"

"Why not?"

"Why not!? Because I'm not a murderer!!!"

"You always like to make things more difficult than they need to be, don't you"

This is probably just one of her jokes, sometimes she takes it too far...

"It's not just me, I bet that Nera does not want to kill her mother either!"

"Eh!? Well... I guess I don't"

"See?"

"Oh well, since I knew that you were going to say that, I also prepared another plan"

"Then why didn't you just tell us about that plan from the start!!!?"

Seriously, what was the point of that? Nobody would think that I'm the type of person who could kill someone... well, actually a lot of people would think that, but not someone who knows me!

"So anyway, according to the laws of the Agua kingdom, the queen can be dethroned if it's proven that she betrayed the country, and her deal with the demon lord Kalroth would definitely qualify as a betrayal"

"I see... but there's no way to prove that, is there? I don't think that Nera's testimony would be enough..."

"No, but if you think about it for a moment, the proof that she made that deal has to exist"

"What do you mean?"

"Just think, we have a queen that has made enemies of everyone around her and hates demons for some reason, and a demon lord that from everything I've heard about him seems to be just a glorified thug, do you think that there's any chance of those two working together if all they had was each other's word?"

"No, there's no way... wait, do you think that they made a magic contract?"

"Exactly! And that means that the queen must have a 'contract crystal'"

A magic contract requires two people to come to an agreement while touching two 'contract crystals', each one of the participants then receives one of the crystals that can be used to force the other one to keep their end of the bargain even against their will.

"A contract crystal contains the information about the participants and the contents of the magic contract, and there's no way to tamper with them, everyone would have to acknowledge it as definitive proof"

"I see, and do you have any idea of where it could be?"

"That's what I spent such a long time trying to figure out, someone as mistrusting as that queen would not leave something so important in a location where anyone else could go, but after looking around the castle I could not find any places that only the queen can access, and after spying on her for a bit, I'm 90% certain that she just carries it on her person at all times"

I guess that makes sense, the queen is probably very well guarded and nobody would be allowed to take anything from her.

"So now all you have to do is take the contract crystal from her and give it to one of the nobles who oppose her"

"But how am I supposed to take it?"

"What do you mean 'how', just go to the castle, walk up to her and take it, it's not as if any of her guards would be able to stop you"

"Eh!? Wouldn't that make me a criminal?"

"I think that it's a little too late to worry about that"

As much as I hate to admit it, she's probably right...

I guess I'll go break into the castle then.