Chapter 9: Arc 2: Princess of White (2)

Ciel was annoyed. He should have expected this. It appeared the almighty royal family of the Curtis kingdom didn’t bother with a proper transport to send them to their doom. Instead, Ciel and Xia needed a half a day road trek to their demise.

Xia looked worse than ever. She didn’t even bother wearing her cape, instead putting on a white button-up shirt and wrinkled jean like a condemned woman. She swayed as she trudged like a drunkard hooked on high-grade Vodka to drown her mountain of sorrow. Ciel was worried that Xia would collapse to the ground dead at any moment. Thankfully, regular chugging of Amy’s brewed stamina potion seemed to keep her functional at the moment, but Ciel still bet she had little time in her battery.

Xia’s dispirited state was the reason while he volunteered to carry their luggage. Truthfully, the bags swung over his back were mostly emptied — its contents were stored inside Caislean’s Treasury long ago and Xia was too depressed to notice.

Ciel expected the difficulty was only going to rise.

…

Unlike the mess of a town called Springsong, Cutler was a vibrant city with pristine wall and expansive farms. From what Ciel could see, the army stationed here was also well-trained and supplied with silver armor worthy of being the soldiers of the magic kingdom.

Ciel believed that the town would be as vibrant as its troops. He couldn’t know this for sure because the young man in suits, probably Lord Cutler himself, and a portly man in silver armor with a twirling mustache to accompany his balding hair, were waiting at the gate to bar their entry to the city.

Ciel groaned. He was impressed at the length the capital went through to force Xia off the cliff. They didn’t even want her to have  foods and a comfortable rest before being thrown into the suicide mission.

Not caring a damn about the blatant attempt at gate keeping, Xia stumbled over to the nearby tree, hit her limit and surrendered to the sandman.

Everyone stared. Ciel was pretty sure she just broke half the decorum for royalty, but alas, empathy happened to be a foreign concept here.

The portly man snorted, “So, this is the disgraced crown princess of that savage pigpen. As expect from the deluded daughter of the mad king.”

“Captain Morn!” The suit beside him warned. “She is still a Louve.”

“Heh,” the captain spat. “A Louve who dirties the dignities of her family. Just look at her, dresses in a disgraceful rag like she is a beggar. Who would have thought the once prodigious flower of the capital would be reduced to such a spineless coward? King Spade should have exiled her into the ocean and striped away her name. Lord Cutler, just look at her and ask if this is what you want from a royalty.”

Cutler took a quick glance at Xia’s messy clothes and unwashed face.

“She is certainly breaking every protocol,” Cutler admitted. “I would never expect to see a member of the royal family disregard the standard and dignity of her office to have an afternoon nap in the middle of a crisis.”

“To be fair,” Ciel said in defense of Xia. “She has been working non-stop for five-days straight. Your request is keeping her awake all night.”

“Who cares?” Morn yelled. “I will not allow the dirty traitor to step into my city.”

“Fine,” Ciel beckoned with his hand. “It appears we are not needed here. Good, I am leaving with Xia and I want fifty millions Accel for my trouble.”

Inside the Residence, the council of two convened at the development.

Amy: Ciel! What are you doing?

Caislean: Good gracious. My master, have the heat and Amy’s food supercharge your guts. Sure, those armies behind the fatso will tear your gut out gruesomely, but I will record that you die a man.

Ciel grimaced (Shut up, Caislean).

“Fifty millions?” Captain Morn blanched. “What are you saying?”

“Too much? Well, twenty-five million then,” Ciel pressed further.

“Wait, who are you and what are you doing?” Lord Cutler said.

“You don’t like it, Lord Cutler?” Ciel raised his eye-brows. “I will graciously discount it given your politeness. Fifteen millions repayment fees for wasting my time.”

“Wasting your time?” Captain Morn said, enraged. “Who are you to say that? Do you know who I am?”

“I am a man whose is directly contacted by Elizabeth La Louve to help princess Xiahana with her mission,” Ciel said without blinking. “To my knowledge, this is a suicide mission, and I have too much to worry about over your fragile ego. I am not Xia and my only loyalty is to my promise with her highness Elizabeth. To translate this in the way you can understand, I am here because your King’s cousin begged me as a favor. I heard that her highness Xia is being suppressed and the possibility of a false-reporting is now more prevalent than ever. Yes, you heard me. Your attitude and obstruction suggests everything is a ruse, an immature prank, so I am collecting the compensation for wasting my time. I hope you have a better response to Elizabeth because I doubt her highness will stop at fifteen million Accel.”

“Wait! I can explain,” Cutler tried to stop Ciel, but the Lord faced much worse opponents before.

“It appears you are misunderstanding. I don’t need your excuses or your lies. I know your superior want me and her highness Xia to suffer. The fact you stand here with this sorry excuse of a toad and an army of straws illustrates that very well. Your hospitality mean nothing to me and I don’t owe your stupid country anything, so let save us all the trouble of pretense and give the briefing, then do me a favor and kill yourself.”

Caislean: Master, you will totally die, but I am so proud of you.

Amy: Ciel...

Morn was struggling to hold himself back, and Cutler was alarmed. Ciel knew they weren’t afraid of him. Both of them expected Ciel to do a Xia and complied, but they forgot one thing; they got no leverage over him. They were hostile from the beginning, which meant favor was no go. Ciel had no position in the government, so demotion wasn’t possible. For Ciel, he could just pen a complaint letter to Betty about the hostility and assume the entire fiasco is a fraud from Cutler to extort the wealth from the crown.

Ciel knew he could make a winning hand. If they dared to attack an investigator, Betty would have a weapon to use against Spade, and the broke on the totem pole would come down hard on these two for letting the debacle happen.

The investigation would be delayed or outright discontinued. If Cutler’s petition was real, he would do anything in his power to avoid that. Ciel’s responses promptly reminded the two about their vulnerability, and they paled when they realized the misplay.

“Please, I—”

“I will drop the issue after you sum your briefing in three minutes and give me the compensation for the slight. After you accomplish that, you can screw off.”

Cutler promptly told Ciel everything he needed to know.

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…

Ciel didn’t sleep under a roof that night, instead he and Xia camped outside the city. He needed somewhere out of civilization to count the delicious cash.

Inside the Residence, the two women were enjoying the superbly cooked dinner as they hung out at the inn’s bar and discussing the situation facing Ciel.

Amy: I am sorry, but this is becoming worrying. I mean, the increases in dangerous predators near civilized area and decreases in other species indicates a severe disruption in the food chain.

Caislean: Wow, it appeared master would be mauled to death as expected.

Amy: Miss Caislean, please don’t speak about something that ominous! It is creepy.

Ciel must admit Amy was the sensible one here. However, the nightmare fuel maid (soon to be relegated to secretarial duty) would be having her attention occupied by another woman.

“I am sorry,” Xia confessed, gazing at their flickering campfire. “I am such a mess.”

Caislean wasted no time.

Caislean: My master, this is the golden moment. I recommend you kidnap her to save her life and seduce her using the good old Stockholm Syndrome.

Amy: No! Caislean, you don’t get any lunch tomorrow! Ciel, we have to help her.

“You must think I am a joke,” Xia continued with her confession. “What kind of crown princess slept while her subordinate was in a meeting? Anyone who used to know me won’t be able to recognize me now. Even I couldn’t see eye-to-eye with myself in the mirror anymore.”

“First, I am not your minion,” Ciel said. “We barely know each other enough to be called friend.”

Caislean: Master, that isn’t how you take out girls!

“But I have to ask. Why? Why are you obeying the order of the people who want you to die?”

It was then Xia lost it, “You don’t understand! I have to protect the law of Curtis; the dignity of the crown. It is the legacy my father left for me. I can’t betray the nation my father loved and the land my ancestor fought for.”

“Even when said regime turns it back on you?”

“I won’t betray the people!” Xia insisted. “I am not Betty who can just discard the truth to guarantee survival. I refuse to go that low! Ciel, I will not be an insurrectionist who tears the country in half.”

“Xia, the insurrectionist already won. You are just making his victory a formality instead of a fight.”

“I will get him!”

“How? You can barely save yourself?”

Confronted with reality, Xia sulked. All energy left her as her mind shut out from raw sadness.

Ciel facepalmed. With Xia in such denial, there was no getting to her today.

So far, this campaign was a disaster.

…

The following morning, Ciel found out that the report from Cutler was spot on. Animals that could qualify as prey pretty much vacated the targeted area. Meanwhile, wolves, a giant bear and a wasp the size of a small child made themselves home in the area meant for rookies.

Another thing Ciel realized about is Xia’s strength.

Despite the horrendous health she was in, Xia remained extremely proficient. She always went for the jugular, severing bears’ throat, slicing the wings of multiple wasps, and punting wolves into a bloody mess in the tree with a single kick. The fallen princess also combined mystic with her brawn, strengthening her body to the point Ciel could hardly track her. Once, she pinned down the charging rhino with White Magic and beheaded it within a blink of an eye.

Ciel needed to admit those consecutive displays of superhuman strength, speed and stamina for someone near his biological age were impressive. If there was any doubt about Xia’s SSR potential, it was dispelled when she strengthened her sword and bisected a tiger in half, lengthwise, in one move, without getting a speck of blood on her.

But even for Xia, the numbers of enemies were wearing her down.

But the thing that alarmed Ciel the most wasn’t a predator.

It was a slime.

Xia quickly dispatched the monster blob with a short comment.

“A low-level monster,” Xia declared as she killed it. “Nothing major.”

Ciel would love to point out that finding a low-level threat in the area this infested was irregular, but he was having a different dread entirely,

Unlike Xia, the young Lord knew how deadly a slime could be.

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