Chapter 61: 4-4 Kidnapping

Chapter 4, Kidnapping

Stahlia, Twelve Years Old, Second Month of 948

When I arrived at my White Magic class, I still hadn’t come up with a decent plan for what I was going to do about Sitri. Though this information would be huge for Rupert, if an Original Sin was influencing the son of a noble as prominent as Count Francois, we would be able to leverage that into a great advantage. Let’s see, the next time I will see Gustav is the day after tomorrow… I could go to see him of my own accord, but this is a critical junction. I can’t have a rumor started about me and him.

Though… we would be able to steamroll that in the fallout of Rupert announcing our engagement… No. I can’t go and see him with Rowell still tailing me, and If I go out late at night, Jacqueline would know. Either way, I would tip off Five that I’m up to something. I’m sure he already suspects, since my interaction with Jacqueline is awkward right now, and I’ve already taken a bit of independent action. If I act rash he would figure out right away that I’m planning something sooner rather than later.

No, it would be better for me to wait until the day after my kidnapping, then we could deal with Rowell and discuss what to do about Sitri all at once. If we were lucky, my plan for how to dispose of the worm-thing would work out. If Rowell survived the process, then Rupert could do whatever he wanted with him, and I would set up to take care of Jacqueline’s. We would need to time things pretty well so that we removed Jacqueline’s parasite at the same time, or nearly at the same time, as making our political moves so as not to tip him off. But we should be able to manage.

“Stahlia, were you paying attention? Or were you considering how to go about injuring yourself again?” Clarice’s voice was harsh and accusatory. In all honesty, I hadn’t been zoned out for more than a few seconds or two, but apparently, she had it in for me after what happened with Dominic. And it’s not like I tried to injure myself! I just sort of… moved.

“Yes, Instructor Clarice. I was paying attention.” I kept my tone level and was sure to maintain eye contact. I had been a university student; I knew how some teachers could be.

Clarice raised her eyebrow, “Then, answer the question. ‘Why can magic not restore missing limbs or immediately heal major injuries, like having one’s mana pathways overloaded?’”

I closed my eyes for a moment while quickly pulling up the necessary information. Nice of her to repeat the question for me, or I would have been in some hot water, “Magic Spells, even those where the chant is omitted, must describe the process to be carried out. This is done during the ‘Body’ portion of the chant, and the basic body is automatically inserted by the Talent when Talent Casting.”

“Healing Magic is theorized to work on slightly different principles; when a chant is recited, the spell draws on the intentions of the caster to fill in specific details about the injury. The greater the gap in what is described compared to the reality of the process, the higher the mana cost. For something as complicated as a missing limb, you would not be able to describe all of the actions needed to regrow it. As such, the mana cost of such a spell would approach infinity.”

Which doesn’t make sense, the chant bodies I’ve translated thus far aren’t describing the process in any remote degree of detail. ‘O Fire, form a ball in my hand and fly forth to my enemies. [Fireball]’ doesn’t describe any of the details about forming the fireball, defining the enemy, setting the speed, or a hundred other things. All magic has to be drawing on intentions… or something. I had already tried testing this by “imagining” the fireball flying faster or slower, but unless I actually specified the speed with a number by altering the chant body, it didn’t work. I was missing something, clearly.

Clarice nodded and gave me a malicious-looking smile, “Very good, and the second half of the question?”

You mean that wasn’t just a dig at my current situation? Fine. I gave her a brilliant smile, “It varies from injury to injury. In the case of overloaded pathways, the mana entering the target to restore the pathway would instead cause further aggravation and damage. Instead, a spell is used that stimulates the body’s natural healing ability.” Clarice nodded, but I wasn’t done. If she was going to pick on me with targeted questions, I was going to make sure to be as thorough in my answers as possible.

“…Which begs the question of what the difference between White Magic and Miracles are. Since a Miracle can restore missing limbs and heal blindness if the god prayed to chooses to grant one. Whereas White Mages are limited by the laws of Magic, a Priest or Priestess will always be able to grant healing with enough faith.” I sat back in my seat and opened this year’s spell-book to the page I had left off on. Not being allowed to take the books out of the classroom was inconvenient, but controlling the spread of magic was a matter of legality, so no amount of complaining on my part would be able to change it.

Even the books on White and Black Magic I had borrowed last year in order to get a head start, I had to read under the supervision of Gustav and Kell and couldn’t take back with me. Though with my memory, it was only a mild inconvenience; if I wanted to, I could take mental photographs of each page and review them later. But after learning that my [Eidetic Memory] might not be infallible, given the relatively important things that slipped my mind while I was back in Ris, I shouldn’t rely on it completely.

It was an odd experience, committing something to memory while I could already remember it, but if I focused enough, I found I was able to “ignore” the information coming from [Eidetic Memory]. It had taken some practice, but I was now able to more or less ignore the skill whenever I wanted to, without causing too much of a lag in my ability to focus on other things. Of course, I still used the ability. Just now I was trying to use it more like a second hard drive instead of primary storage. Which is a good way of putting it, since I noticed that, rather than coming from my own head, it’s more like [Eidetic Memory] is feeding me memories from somewhere else…

“…Which is why Stahlia’s point was so interesting.” The tone at which Clarice had said my name caused me to snap back. She clearly knew I had zoned out and was ignoring her again. What now? My point? About the miracles? “The main difference between the miracles of the gods and the spells of a White Mage is in the mana. It has been documented, that there is something different about the mana coming from a god or goddess, and that aspected as healing. In the previous example of damaged pathways, a god’s mana derived through miracle would not further damage them. Likewise, when restoring limbs or other healing, a god’s chant is not heard, if they even make one. It is theorized that gods simply will mana to do what they need it to.”

“Now, moving on to the meat of today’s lesson; how basic White Magic can be used to supplement first aid…" Clarice continued on, while I hurriedly “reactivated” [Eidetic Memory] and made sure it was recording what she had said about miracles. It was such a simple explanation, that I had completely missed it. With this, I should be able to still use magic, and perhaps even heal myself If I’m lucky, it might even work on Rowell and Jacqueline. The rest of the class passed by uneventfully, and I was only called on three more times.

She almost called on me a fourth time, to give a practical demonstration, only to “remember” that I wasn’t able to use magic at the moment. So far, she’s been nothing but a pain in the ass… at least she’s fair though. A petty teacher would not have repeated the question for me like she had, instead of making a public display that I had not been listening. Clarice, on the other hand, handled things in a way that let me know she knew while still allowing me to save face with my classmates. Even the consistent references to my injury could be generally interpreted as her abrasively telling me to be more careful in the future, by ensuring I couldn’t forget the lessons learned. So far, I had to rate her as “annoying but fair.”

★★★★★★

The rest of my classes for the day were simple ending with the Alchemy class, where I was helping to plan the excursion the next day. This would be the first time that most of the students in this class went out to gather their own materials; in the earlier years, what was needed would be provided for them. Since I was being used as something of a teacher’s aid already and had experience gathering materials back in Ris, I had been tasked with helping to plan where we would go. Which, while a bit annoying with everything else I had going on, had been quite helpful for planning tomorrow’s incident.

Though, the students in the class other than myself were fairly nervous, and I had a few whispers worrying about “the crazy Ris girl” being the one helping to plan things. I ignored those, and simply did what the instructor wanted while gently steering the outing towards the direction I needed it to go; making sure I would be able to move alone, instead of being saddled with babysitting duties. I might be plotting a kidnapping, but I wasn’t a monster and at least one of my victims had given her consent. I didn’t want to get any of the children involved if I could help it.

When I got back to the inn, I was greeted by a surprise assault from a Catgirl. Felicity’s momentum almost knocked me off my feet, and I would possibly have been injured if not for Jacqueline managing to catch me. Where did she even come from…? “Felicity, I told you that you needed to be careful for a little bit…”

It just went to show how much I had been relying on Blood Magic enhancement without even realizing it. I had discovered almost immediately after being told I couldn’t use it anymore that I had been going through life subconsciously enhancing myself. I didn’t seem to do it for everything, mostly what could be perceived as an “attack”. It was almost like an extension of my reflexes and probably came about owing to how I had been learning to fight from barely two years old. Actually, I first held a dagger when I was one… I was a weird kid…

It had its uses but was something I didn’t want to rely on. I would need to practice not doing it in the future though, for now, it wouldn’t pose much of an issue. Other than minor situations, like Felicity having gotten used to being able to jump on me. Throwing on a melancholic face, Felicity’s tail ducked down between her legs. Though the fact that her ears are still pointed up and alert kinda… ruins the whole impression of remorse. You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you Claire?

“Felicity is sorry, Stahlia Nee-san.” Whatever.

Reaching out, I tussled her hair gently, “Don’t worry about it Felicity, just be more careful about it in the future, alright?”

Her tail recovered its earlier excitement, and the melancholy dropped off her face, “Uhn!”

…Claire taught her some new words. Whatever. “So, why are you so excited tonight?”

Felicity broke out into a massive grin, “Tousan sent us a letter!”

Wait, already? It hasn’t even been three whole days since I sent him a letter about what happened with Dominic though? Even though I had things under control regarding that, I had still written a letter to my father detailing what had transpired. I didn’t want him to worry if he heard about it from another source. Of course, I couldn’t tell him about the arrangement with Rupert, so he was bound to worry anyways. Hopefully, my actions would alleviate some of that before things were revealed to the rest of the world.

No, this must be something else, there’s no way a letter made it from here to Ris, and then the response came back, all within less than three days. The rush postage in this world is impressive, but not that impressive. I smiled, allowing myself to get caught up in Felicity’s pace, “Well, what did it say?”

She put on a very serious expression, though the baby-fat on her cheeks just made it look silly, “Don’t know! Felicity can’t read, and Claire ‘doesn’t know the letters’!”

Pff! Right, that would be a problem… I glanced back at Jacqueline, who was suppressing a laugh of her own, “I told her we had to wait until you got back; she spent nearly the entirety of the past three hours watching the street like a hawk.”

Felicity tugged at Jacqueline’s skirt, “But Felicity is a cat, not a bird?”

I lost it at that, and went to sit on a nearby chair before my laughter caused me to fall over, “Ha! Alright, alright pff. Let’s read the ha! The letter, shall we?” Breathing was a chore, but I managed to in the end.

Jacqueline, had to hold herself up with her arm on the wall as a support, though she managed to avoid laughing out loud, instead I saw her shoulders shaking quietly. It was a sight I hadn’t seen in some time. Actually, the last time she laughed like that, was before Rosial got kidnapped… The thought of my blood-related sister sobered me, but it wasn’t as painful as it usually was. Having a small adopted family around me helped a lot with that.

I’ll get you out back, and then you can share in this as well… After taking a moment with my eyes closed to reaffirm my resolve, I opened them and turned to Jacqueline, “Jacqueline, could you get the letter from my father? I would like to read it before dinner.”

Felicity, who had been looking at the two of us incredibly confused, brightened up again and bounded over to my side, where she scooted her way onto the edge of the chair. I made a bit of room for her, and Jacqueline presented me with the letter. Opening it, I read aloud for Felicity, who hung off every word. I’m glad, that after everything she went through, she’s able to reclaim her innocence and live a carefree life like this.

To Stahlia my first, and Felicity my third daughters.

This letter should find the two of you either shortly before or just after the end of Stahlia's first week back at the Academy. Your mother and I are doing well, work with the remaining knights to track down the few surviving goblins is ongoing, but proceeds well. Not a day goes by that Rosin does not ask one of us when we are going to visit you in the capital, I fear that you will have your hands full with him when we do arrive, Stahlia. Hopefully, Felicity can help you a little as well, eh?

…I am deeply regretful that my actions pushed you into the position you currently occupy Stahlia and, though I am sure you would deny me, I pray to the twelve that you eventually forgive me for real instead of offering empty platitudes. Though, I must apologize that I am not entirely regretful; had you not gone to the capital, Felicity would not have entered your life. Your mother and I think of the two of you every day and are ourselves counting down the time remaining until we see you again.

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Sincerely,

your father, Fynn von Ris.

Your mother, Rosalie von Ris.

Your brother, Rosin von Ris.

I felt a tickle on my cheek and reached a hand up to discover a tear rolling down it. Felicity had latched onto an entirely different portion of the letter; based on her excited demeanor, she was focused on the talk of my… our parents visiting. Seriously though dad, I don't blame you!

It was touching how much my parents were trying, given how last year I hadn't gotten even a single letter. It made me feel warm and fuzzy. I need to hurry and send a reply, now that I know they're trying this hard, I feel like the letter I sent about what happened with Dominic is going to actually cause them to worry more than if I hadn't said anything until after the fact… I would write the letter after Felicity went to sleep.

Dinner was a warm affair, though getting Felicity to sit still and eat turned into a bit of a chore. She kept babbling on and on about the visit, at first I tried to engage with her, but eventually, I decided that she just wanted to hear her own voice so I let her talk herself out. Midway through the dessert course, she started to grow listless, and before too much longer she was dozing in her seat.

I got up from my seat and tiptoed over to her, gently looping my hands under her, I tried to pick her up, only to groan and slouch forward. I'm level twenty-one, what the hell!? How much does she weigh!? Granted, Strength was my lowest stat, but still. Without my Blood Magic to compensate, my build is a bit unbalanced… This put us in a conundrum. There was no way I could move her myself, and Jacqueline wouldn't be able to help with only one arm. Not without waking her up, that is.

"Oh for Pete's sake!" I jumped at the sound of Felicity's voice but managed to avoid calling out in surprise.

Venturing a question, I spoke to the now standing kitten, "Claire?"

"Iie, kono Dio da. Who do you expect?" I rolled my eyes at Claire's idiotic reference, and she responded by merely flicking her tail dismissively in my direction, "I'll bring Felicity up to bed… I think she would forgive me for piloting us in this case. You should write the reply letter and then get some sleep yourself. Big day tomorrow after all."

My heart skipped a beat, but I quickly calmed down; Claire didn't know I was going to be abducted but she did know I had helped plan the field trip, "You're right. Thank you, Claire."

Claire walked Felicity over to the side room of our shared Suite, where I heard some faint rustlings that indicated she was putting the kitten to bed. Turning my attention back around to the table in front of me, Jacqueline presented me with what I needed, and I began writing a letter back to my father.

Dearest Father,

I must apologize if my previous letter caused you to worry for me. I thought it prudent to inform you about events as soon as possible. I hope this letter can set your mind at ease; I am safe and healthy, as is Felicity. Please be assured, that although I cannot go into details, the situation with Dominic has already been handled, and I believe both you and mother will be pleased with the outcome I was able to arrange. By the time both of you come to visit, I expect the situation to be entirely resolved.

Felicity greatly enjoyed receiving your letter, I read it to her just before dinner, and she could not sit still! I imagine that she and Rosin will both be insatiable bundles of energy. Personally, I am looking forward to spending time with you and mother in the capital… though I am unsure how much free time I will have, things will be rather complicated this summer.

…Father, I do not blame you for your actions, you did what you thought was best for me. I hope you will come to believe me when I say that I have no complaints with my present situation. Any problems I do have, Jacqueline is able to assist with; she is, as always, my faithful shadow.

Sincerely and with love, your daughters, Stahlia and Felicity von Ris.

I placed the letter into an envelope and sealed it, “Jacqueline, please have this mailed to my father tomorrow, I would like if you could have it rushed so that he does not need to wait long.”

She took the letter from me and nodded, “I shall do so, will you be going to bed now?”

Standing, I gave an affirmative and helped Jacqueline begin to prepare me for sleep. Hopefully, father is able to put things together from that. I can’t make things any more obvious without risking someone getting any information they shouldn't. Hell, outright calling Jacqueline “my shadow” may already be too obvious. It was my hope that my father, being the former son of a Duke, would be able to pick up on the subtext of my letter. Telling him that I knew about the shadows was a bit risky, but given all that was about to happen, I felt that he deserved some forewarning. Retiring to bed, I was able to fall asleep quickly, a good thing considering what was to come.

★★★★★★

The next day, I found myself with roughly thirty other students standing at the edge of a forest on the capital's outskirts. This was exactly the place where I had told Kurtis and team Red Iron we would be. Everything is going to plan so far. The majority of the students milled around a bit apprehensively waiting for instructions from the teacher, who was busy organizing them into groups.

Per my request and machinations; I was not grouped with anyone. Instead, I was supposed to go from group to group and help people who were individually struggling. It was the perfect excuse to be alone repeatedly throughout the day. I didn’t know when Kurtis was going to make his move, since I had left the specifics up to his team, so I could be accosted at any moment. That scout may even be watching me now, he is a B-rank after all, so he has some skill. Without enhanced senses, it’s conceivable I wouldn’t notice him… Rowell might though.

I glanced at my guard out of the corner of my eye, he showed no signs of anything being the matter, but that could just be an act on his part. I’ve never seen him fight either. Worst case scenario, I’ll have to blow my cover and order him to stop. Clutching the ring Rupert had given me inside its hidden pocket, I said a silent prayer to no god that team Red Iron would be able to overcome him, and wouldn’t require me to surprise him with the voice of the king.

I had already confirmed that I could use it, as it was closer to Blood Magic than chanting. Though it was very painful and made my throat sting there were no serious after-effects and as long as I didn’t overdo it, my injury would not worsen. The teacher wrapped up his instructions and the groups of students began to disperse into the woods.

It was a bit exciting, this was the first time I was playing the role of a “Damsel in Distress”, sure Sitri had thoroughly distressed me, but that hardly counted. The gap between the two of us was simply too great. Following my first group, I began to plan out how I would spend the day. I’ll spend fifteen minutes with this group, then move to the next. After that, every ten to fifteen minutes, I’ll move again.

My first group was looking for a specific grass that grew at the base of trees, and they seemed to be having trouble determining which one was the species they wanted. It isn’t hard; the one you want has ribbed stems. That one has a straight stem. I may as well do my cover job. “It’s this one, see the ribs?”

The girl I was speaking to gave a start, “Ah… Thank you…”

She quickly picked the grass, but other than thanking me she didn’t acknowledge my presence. Based on her crest, she was from a minor house in the late second prince’s faction. Those students were the ones who avoided me the most at the moment, but even if it was expected it was still irritating. Whatever, let’s head for the next group.

I traveled from group to group several times without incident until the sun was high in the sky and it was time for lunch. They haven’t made a move yet… I doubt they would violate the agreement like that… but I’ve given them ample opportunity, haven’t I? A chilling thought occurred, that they might have grabbed the wrong girl, so I did a quick headcount. Everyone is still here… Well, nothing for it I guess; I can only continue to play it according to plan and see what happens.

Taking my lunch, I moved a distance away from the group. This caused Rowell to frown, an appropriate reaction for a bodyguard. But he didn’t voice any complaints; I had been eating on my own since the incident with Dominic, and even before that I had very rarely taken his advice. Sitting down, I opened my wrapped lunch and started eating quickly. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my neck and grew lightheaded. Grasping at the spot where I had been stung, I found a small dart fletched with tufts of grass. Ahh… so that’s… how they're going… to do it… smart…

When I woke up, I was bound with my hands behind my back and gagged. Thankfully, I wasn’t blindfolded, so I could see Rowell was in a similar state as myself, albeit with stronger bindings. So they got us. But Rowell didn’t see a stealth attack like that coming…? He is a shadow, right? I stared at him and saw him begin to stir groggily, though it was just the beginnings of movement; with most drugs I was familiar with he would still take some time to wake up.

One of the men I recognized from my meeting came in to check on us at the noise, “Hey, she’s awake! The guard is still out cold, but given the amount of Sleeping Sap we hit ‘im with that’s no surprise.”

Not wearing a mask? Confident I see. And you used Sleeping Sap as well? That’s pretty clever. “Sleeping Sap” was the sap of a species of Treant that could be found semi commonly in the forest. Though the region we had been in had been cleared ahead of time for safety, it was conceivable that we may have missed one. Assuming the ambush failed, analyzing the anesthetic wouldn’t have told us anything.

“Mmmgh!” I tried vocalizing at him, now that I had been kidnapped, I needed to move things along.

Coming over, the man bent down to look me in the eye, “Well, get it out of your system. Don’t get your hopes up, no matter how you threaten or promise we won’t let you go. If you scream I’ll give you a swift kick and put the gag back.”

He took the gag out of my mouth after saying his piece, and I stretched my jaw a moment before speaking, “Thank you for that, I was a bit worried you would kick me just for making noise. Then again, team Red Iron didn’t strike me as particularly violent, would you please go and get Kurtis? Now that you’ve kidnapped me, I need to tell him where to make the delivery so you can get the other five hundred thousand.”

The man stared at me in astonishment, before blinking rapidly and leaving the room. That was a lot easier than I expected. I wish he had untied me before leaving though… Now, time to wrap this up. I soon found myself sitting at a table with Kurtis and his two men, out of curiosity I asked them how things had looked from their side. Seriously, how did Rowell, presumably a Shadow, get taken down by a stealth attack…?

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