As I entered the adventurer guild after going to the inn Alex was staying at to see if Alice was attacked, I came here running because she was in fact attacked.

I asked one of the guild receptionists where she was. Fortunately, she made it here safely, and everyone was not harmed as well.

When I was in front of the door the receptionist told me about, there was an aura of blood lust seeping out of the room.

Did Alex get everyone angry again? If he did, I better go inside to see the carnage because I was still sore from yesterday when he described me bathing in excruciating detail. I mean, as nobles, our bodies grow up way faster than commoners, and in combination with being told that I look a lot more mature for my age, I look older than I was, closer to Alex’s age.

But still, why does he have to fall for me?

Opening the door, I sadly found out that I just stopped him from getting beat up by the girls. Alex looked at me like I was his savior and jumped to hug me while crying tears of relief.

Instinctively caused by my training in my past life and a massive feeling of revulsion, I knee him in the chin midair. Then, with the momentum of his jumping at me to hug me, I grabbed the scruff of his shirt and redirected him out the door to throw him out, causing him to hit the wall face-first.

We all look at him, pitifully lying on the ground, knocked out. I closed the door, leaving him out.

“You can fill him in, right, Chelsie?”

Chelsie said ya, and I asked what they were talking about.

“I was telling them how I got myself into this predicament.”

I was surprised when Alice said it because I thought she wanted to keep it a secret. I guess she trusts them enough to say so.

“I see, I’m guessing you're from the Palning family then?”

Alice looks confused when mentioning the Palning family, which also confused me because isn’t the Palning family going after her?

“No, what do you mean by the Palning family?”

“The people who are kidnapping you are black knights from the Palning family.”

Alice still looks confused, then she suddenly places her hand on her chin and begins thinking about something deeply.

“It can’t be.”

Looks like she figured something out.

“What is it?”

“I’m not from the Palning family but the Lunslur family, specifically the 5th in line to become the next head. I think my older half-brother Claudius, who is 3rd in line, is using the Palning family’s black knights to kill me.”

Hearing the name Claudius rang some bells. Isn’t he the guy who made a complete fool of himself in a certain royal ball with how arrogant and ignorant he is by insulting a member of royalty, specifically the first Prince Arthur, to their face without even knowing that it was them they were speaking to? Due to that, he never really showed his face in high society again after that incident. He was lucky that the first prince was known to be forgiving and chose not to execute him.

“Why would they work for a complete idiot?”

Alice was surprised that I knew about her older half-brother.

“That is what I’m trying to figure out, but I have seen some letters going to and coming from an unknown individual in that family.”

“I see, that is certainly interesting.”

Nodding, Alice said.

“If we only knew who was in charge, then it would all make sense.”

Hearing that, I said.

“I don’t think that’s a problem.”

I turn and face Wendy and Lucia.

“Remember the person who was tailing us; I follow him back to his base, and their boss is coming there tomorrow.”

Everyone was surprised when I said I found their base, especially Alice.

“We can fight them tomorrow and end it.”

“Guess we better start making a plan.”

“I agree, Chelsie.”

We came together to come up with a plan, which Alice asked to join in, looking like it was personal.

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“I don’t see a problem with it if you remain somewhere safe until we secure the building.”

We plan to capture the person responsible for all this by knocking out and tying up everyone inside, including their master. Then we let the city guards in to arrest them because the city guards probably already knew about the recent assassination attempt on Alice, who was passing by on a carriage, so a group of highly trained individuals who just showed up would be the first suspects in the investigation.

I turned to face Iris, who remained silent as we discussed our plan to ask her.

“Could you limit the number of city guards in the area by the house we’re going to be attacking?”

We don’t want the city guards to go in because, despite the black knights in the building not having the best training, they could still take out a lot of them and let the boss escape. Plus, Alice wanted to see their boss face to face.

“I might have pulled some strings with the guild master, but I can do it.”

“Thank you; I guess we owe you one.”

Then I turn to Maria to ask her to make some things with her alchemy. which she said it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

“Okay, let's rest and leave an hour before the sun rises.”

Iris led us to some rooms with beds, which were for the guild staff who had to work late nights because of how busy they were with paperwork.

Maria went to the guild’s alchemy room to start making the things I asked her to make while Chelsie went out to buy some supplies.

Everyone else went to bed till Iris woke us up when it was about time for us to leave.

When Alex woke up after I had knocked him out, he complained that we left him out of the hallway. I threatened to do it again if he didn’t shut up.

We told him about our plan to raid the hideout of the people going after Alice. Everyone gathers, and I lead everyone toward the base they are hiding in.

When we were near it, I found a building that would give us a good vantage point of the house we were attacking.

We climb up it without anybody seeing us by using one of the back alleys. Then we iron out our plan to approach the house without their master making a run for it.

There were two ways someone could leave, the front and back doors. However, we can’t be sure there might be a hidden passageway we don’t know about.

After finalizing our plan to sneak in and take out all the guards, we waited for their master, whoever they were, to come.

During that time, I tried to talk to Lucia, who was surprisingly talkative.

“Your fire magic was quite impressive when you fought the 10th-floor boss.”

“Of course, I could take that thing down easily.”

Lucia put her hands on her hip and puffed out her chest, showing pride in her magic.

“You want to spar sometime later after we're done with this? I never fought a magic user before.”

With a smirk, Lucia said yes to our sparring match.

Alex looks at her like she just made a choice that she would definitely regret for the rest of her life for some reason, or that I’m seeing things.

“Can’t wait for that; it’s going to be an interesting fight.”

We continued talking till a carriage arrived in front of the building we were watching.

There was a guy wearing aristocratic clothing coming out of the carriage and going inside the house. Chelsie readied her bow to cover the front while Lucia moved to the building to cover the back so they could cut off his escape.

Before we go down, I wanted to make sure of something.

Untying my short sword from my belt, I gave it to Alice.

“Hear, you might not need it, but better be safe than sorry. I’m guessing you know how to use a sword, right?”

"Yes, and thank you.”

After handing my short sword to Alice, Alex, Wendy, and I move toward the building to start taking out the guards.

And Maria and Alice remain with Chelsie so they can make sure Alice stays safe.

We climb up on an open window on the second floor. Once we were in, I made the first move.

There were 3 people on the second floor; I threw 2 spikes at 2 of them. The spikes hit the back of their shoulders; they tried drawing out their sword, but due to hitting them in the shoulder, their arms suddenly were paralyzed, and then the rest of their bodies suddenly collapsed.

The 2 spikes I threw were laced with a combination of a fast-acting paralyze potion and a strong sleeping potion.

At the same time, I immediately jumped on the third person, putting him in a chokehold and covering his mouth so he wouldn’t make any noise.

Alex and Wendy were surprised by how fast I worked, mostly due to the fact that I had learned how to do this when I was trained to become a named pilot in my past life.

Each of us carries the bodies of the people I knock out to somewhere to hide them with rope tying their hands and feet and some cloth to gag them if they wake up.

Then we checked all the rooms on the second floor except for one, which was the room that had their master in it. Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone inside them, just empty beds.

We heard people talking in the room that had their master in; for some reason, that voice sounded oddly familiar.

I whispered to Alex and Wendy to go downstairs to take care of the rest of the people inside while I listened to what they were talking about.

“How the hell have you not captured her already?”

He sounds angry and upset for some reason; again, that voice sounds very familiar.

“I’m sorry, young master; however, we have to stop going after Lady Alice, or else we may deal with another more powerful organization.”

“Again with that? Eude, How do you know that Brat is telling the truth?”

“One of my men, who was tailing on the party protecting Lady Alice, was noticed and caught. There was a black-haired boy at that party who was from a family that we should not make enemies of.”

Snorting, the master said.

“You expect me to believe that?”

There was a short silence, and I presume the person talking to their master was trying to figure out how to explain it to him.

“But young master, that black hair child already knows about organizations and groups like us, and he has already figured out which family we are from.”

“Does not matter; I doubt the kid is even someone special; he is a kid after all; what can a brat do? After all, I’m much more interested in making that girl, Alice, into my slave.”

Saying in a really disgusting and perverted tone, I decided that I had enough listening and decided to kick open the door. Alex and Wendy should be done knocking out all the people downstairs, so I should kick open the door now.

However, as I was about to kick open the door, there was a loud noise coming downstairs and someone yelling.