Chapter 17: A Little Game

Dominic and Cedric being taken away were within Ciel’s expectations. 

The previous emperor was ruthless and left no siblings alive, so his three princes were the only legitimate heirs to the throne. As a result, no one could stage a coup even if the crown prince was extremely young.

On one hand, it was because the unambitious nobles had no reason to stage one, and on the other hand, it was because a young ruler was a good start to a puppet king for the ambitious nobles. 

As a result, gaining Dominic’s favor was the best option for all nobles, especially those who had dipped a finger in the legal but questionable activity known as slave trading. 

Dominic had also conformed to his character settings in ‘The First Saintess’. Ciel could see a shadow of that selfish, profit-oriented shaman who wanted the best for his kingdom in the young third fish’s eyes as he was carried away. Only once he was out of danger himself would Dominic try to save them because they were Fatalite’s children. 

Ciel didn’t know whether or not there had been a kidnapping in the past because this was never mentioned in the novel, it might have not even happened because the cause of the group going out today was him. But it was still fun regardless—he’d never been kidnapped by such incompetent people before. 

They didn’t even use metal restraints, and there was only a single guard standing right in front of the cell. 

‘One thing I didn’t expect though was that the slave dealer’s backing was that terrorist demon sub-organization.’ 

Ciel recalled the small, hollow, wavy black sun symbol stitched on the right shoulder of the pure white outfit that was like a more convenient version of a priest’s outfit. At the hollow center of the sun was an inverted pentagram. It was the outfit another slave trader had worn when receiving Ciel and Erin from the second masked man. Around the slave trader’s neck hung the same symbol.

Before Ciel could get a closer look, he and Erin had been tossed into a cell full of other tied up children. The one common trait they had was that they all had various animal traits. They looked on numbly as new people joined them. There were around ten in total. All of them were in the same condition as Ciel—both hands and feet were bound tightly by frayed rope, and they had the same choker around their necks. Some even had bruises and cuts on their bodies.

Only one guard was outside of the cell, back facing the prisoners; it seemed that the slave traders didn’t think the restrained, mana-less young eves could escape.

Ciel didn’t bother pretending to be unconscious after he was tossed in. He sat up with bright eyes and cheerfully greeted the eves around him. 

“Good afternoon children! It’s nice meeting you all!” 

Most of the children didn’t look at him. Unfazed, Ciel continued talking.

“It’s very nice today, would you guys like to go outside?”

The guard outside banged the bars. It was a warning. 

Ciel smiled as he turned back, “Young man, it’s not like we’ll actually go out. There’s no harm talking to each other to cheer up, is there? Or do you think buyers like depressed kids? Won’t they like it better if the product is lively?”

The guard didn’t respond, only turning his back to Ciel, ignoring him. His goal achieved, Ciel wiggled over to Erin and shook him awake. He would untie his feet but that was easily noticeable and it wasn’t time yet.

That was when the other captured children noticed Ciel’s hands weren’t restrained. Ciel noticed their gazes and his smile became crafty. 

‘I can do the same to you guys if you want, and help you escape.’ He mouthed silently before taking full advantage of his looks to give an angelic smile as he straightened out Erin’s tangled hair into a long braid. 

“Should we play a game?” 

The children took a look at his unbound hands and then at his smile, feeling that an angel had descended. They nodded carefully. 

“Then I’ll explain the rules.” Ciel hopped upright on his bound feet, making a loud thud sound as he re-tied his hands together loosely. Erin was quick-witted enough to notice their situation immediately and sat quietly with the other children to listen. He didn’t panic or fall into depression like the children here had, only looking at Ciel with calmness and trust. 

“The game is called Assassins. In the game, there will be three assassins, two priests, and one seer. The rest will be townspeople. There will also be a storyteller, which is the role I’ll play. I will give out the roles and supervise everyone. The game has two alternating phases, night and day. During the night, my chosen assassins wake up once and agree on someone to kill, then go back to sleep; my chosen priests will then wake up and choose someone to save, then go back to sleep; finally, the seer will wake up and check one player’s identity before going back to sleep. All the others will continue to sleep and close their eyes. After the players wake up, I as the storyteller will tell you guys who died in a story. During the day, the surviving players will debate and try to find the assassins. They all have one chance to vote someone out. The assassins will win if their number is greater, and the other players will win if all three assassins are voted out.” Ciel explained. 

In Ciel’s past world, the game had been called Mafia, and the roles were named differently. But to prevent confusion, Ciel modified the names a bit to adapt to this world’s customs. 

“Any questions?” He asked. 

By now, all the children were captivated and shook their heads. They didn’t even question how this would help them escape. Erin was smarter to think about that but he didn’t question his younger brother. He could tell that Ciel had his own purposes and plans. 

Perhaps even the guard thought that this abnormal child only wanted to play, because he neither turned around nor gave another warning. 

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As an experienced guard, he knew children would do various things to deny their situation when they first came here, playing a game for this child could be his way of denial.

That was exactly Ciel’s purpose.

Ciel put an even sweeter smile on his face. “Then I’ll start. Everyone close your eyes and go to sleep. Of course, remember that this is just a game. Don’t actually go to sleep.” He gestured for Erin to do the same thing as the other children closed their eyes.

Ciel began to hop around like a rabbit, “One tap means you’re the assassin, two taps is the priest, and three taps is the knight.” 

***

“Alright! It’s getting late now. We should all rest.”

Ciel sat down next to Erin as he finished his words. After a few rounds of Assassin, Ciel had familiarized himself with everyone in the cell. 

The children were feeling tired, so they grouped themselves up and fell asleep in piles. They seemed to have forgotten Ciel was supposed to untie them.

Erin whispered softly to Ciel. `What was the purpose of playing games?`

Ciel glanced at the guard still standing stiffly outside. `Guess.`

Erin saw his glance and stopped asking. 

Ciel smiled at Erin’s sensitivity. Erin couldn’t see it, but judging from the amount of the aura the guard was leaking out, he was an intermediate combatant. He could easily hear any sounds made in their small cell.

‘I guess these kidnappers aren’t that incompetent.’

Combatants generally had six levels; a intern was someone learning the basics; a junior mastered new techniques and solidified their style; a intermediate was able to use their skills instinctively; a expert could use all their skills as a extension of their body; a master could bring their aura outside of their soul and infuse it into their techniques; and a grandmaster could freely control their aura into various forms.

Instead of mana, combatants used another form of energy called aura formed by one’s use of their weapon or body. In simple layman terms, it was similar to an individual's proficiency embedding itself in that certain individual’s soul and coming out in the form of aura. 

While a mage’s soul attributes were brought out by mana using their body as a conduit, a combatant’s power was brought out directly through their skills in the form of aura, so they had no need for open mana veins like mages. 

Therefore, although a combatant’s path was easier to start with, combatants that could steadily bring out their aura were very rare. However, all combatants had a certain amount of aura in their body that would subconsciously leak out unless the combatant had the skills to deliberately restrain it. 

Mages couldn’t see aura because that wasn’t mana, but Ciel’s mana senses could feel the lower concentration of mana in that region near and in the guard. That was how he determined how much aura the guard had.

‘Hmm, I wonder what combatant stage I am.’ He had loved fiddling with cards in his past life and he was confident that his skills were ingrained deeply in his instincts. Maybe around expert level?

Unfortunately, a combatant’s stage could only be told accurately through an aura testing device. Fatalite was currently too poor to have a private aura testing device, and Ciel didn’t care enough to privately seek out a aura testing device somewhere else. 

Ciel glanced at the guard again, who had started snoring softly. He carefully untied his feet and saw that Erin had also started sleeping on the ground like the rest of the children.

‘Guess I should do a scan of the area for the collar keys.’ 

Truthfully, if Ciel wanted, he could try to escape right now alone. But the chances of succeeding were very low. There were an unknown number of guards who could potentially be stronger than him or around his level. And in this new world of magic and aura, many guards also had a high chance of having unexpected skills that could counter him. If he was in his original form in his past life, he definitely could escape immediately. 

Well, in his past life, he wouldn’t have been kidnapped this easily. 

With those thoughts, Ciel took out the deck of cards made by Taq from his pockets. Thankfully, they hadn't fallen out when he had been moved around. 

He grinned, twirling a metal card around his fingers. This was becoming more and more like an escape room.

‘How fun.’

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