A great part of the Escort Squad died before the Bride arrived at the castle.
According to Hal, even though the monsters were not that strong, their numbers were the problem. It was an endurance test, a mission to see if the Selves knew how to properly balance their skills. And even by balancing their skills, most of the survivors were people who consumed potions.
Hal included.
「Coat guy gave me a couple of potions to replenish my Vis, too. I didn’t want to use all of them before reaching the castle, but… 」
「They just wouldn’t stop coming. 」
Hal told me he suspected some group might target the Bride once they got to the castle. Especially considering how they chose the Escort members.
「Only the people who performed best during the monster waves were chosen to stay with the Bride, once we got to the castle. The others were dismissed and told they only needed to be present during the wedding ceremony. 」
But even they were depleted. When the mercenaries attacked, most Escort members had used their all their skills or were without Vis. My theories about the similarities between Vis and mana were practically confirmed, at this point.
Hal hid himself in the wardrobe in the midst of all the confusion, but he saw the Bride being taken. At that moment, the boy was resting in the bed.
I sent a message to both Kaduna and Kurosawa.
To Kurosawa, I briefly explained the situation with Hal and the Bride. To Kaduna, I asked her to meet me at the East Wing.
“The guards at the entrance?” I asked her when she arrived.
“I killed them, of course,” Kaduna replied with a smile, her eyes wandering through the room. “They returned to their natural form after death, quite fascinating. I also found the original guards; the creatures stole their appearances. Isn't that interesting?”
“I’m more interested in the underground system and where they are planning to take the Bride. We don’t know if they are planning to kill her or will ask for a ransom. They didn’t mention any rendezvous point in the maps, did they?”
Kaduna shook her head. “We would have to search for them, follow the escape and secret routes.”
“And the more time we waste, the worse it will be…” I muttered, opening my messages again.
[Being part of the Royal Squad, my movements are restricted.
The Groom is supposed to visit the Bride in less than one hour. She must be safe and sound by then.
Can you do this?]
Kurosawa was well aware of our urgency, as well. We had less than an hour to find the Bride and make sure she met with the Groom in the Shrine’s prayer room. And I had no idea how extensive the underground system was. If I knew other teams from the Patrol Squad…yet I knew no one else.
Kaduna contemplated for a few moments.
Then she started to unload the corpses from her inventory, dropping them onto the ground.
I furrowed, my voice sharing the confusion in my gaze.
“What are you doing?”
“We can’t search the underground system in time with just the two of us.”
Did she have a skill, then?
“You have a few of those with you, right? Drop then here as well.”
I did as she told me, and soon there was barely any space left in the ground. There should be fifty bodies or more, both people and mercenaries. I sat on the bed beside a sleeping Hal, giving Kaduna the space she needed to do whatever it was she needed to activate her skill.
She took a deep breath, raising her arms.
It was as if her eyes stole the light from the room, alongside its warmth. A chill ran through my skin, and for a second, I could almost sense another presence in the room.
An eerie glow poured from Kaduna’s skin, one that alternated between violet, gold, and black. The air was filled with whispers, carrying words and sentences I could not comprehend, however, whatever they were saying…I was not sure I wished to find out.
The glow passed onto all the bodies, enveloping them in a cold embrace. Their shapes began to change, the glow warping and shaking, The moment Kaduna let go of the breath she was holding, her golden eyes glowing like flaming stars, I had to cover my eyes as I heard the bodies moving and changing.
It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust, the darkness finally gone.
Yet the moment I saw the room clearly, I wished I had never opened them again.
“…where did you find her?”
I was not even surprised to see Hal awake.
It took me a few seconds to find my voice to reply. “She is my partner.”
Not when I could see small creatures, ones that resembled far too much the ones we faced during the First Trial, staring right into my eyes.
Their expressions were frozen in uncanny grins and wide, glaring eyes. Their skin was dark, as if made of shadows, and they all wore pieces of fabric that hung almost too loose in their bodies. The similarities ended there, however. Each creature had different shapes glowing within their chests, each a different color—abstract forms that kept moving from one side to another. They also differed in height and body shape.
Yet they were all unsettling.
Creepy.
Kaduna lowered her arms, the smile on her lips almost hauntingly.
“They will help us search the underground system.”
I cleared my throat. “Can you communicate with them?”
She nodded. “Distance is also not an issue. The moment they find the Bride or any other clues to her location, I will know.”
Beside me, Hal whispered close to my ear.
“You really are lucky, old man. She is strong.”
I said nothing in response.
Though I knew nothing about Tarot, there were two cards I kept thinking about as I continued to stare at the smiling creatures.
Two possibilities for Kaduna’s Benefactor.
“Let’s go then. We don’t have much time.”
And if she was already this strong so early in the Trials, both possibilities scared me.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
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Hal insisted on going with us. In the end, I thought it was better to have him near my sight than to leave him resting in the Bride’s chamber alone, even if I knew he could take care of himself.
I was surprised when he decided to go with me, though.
“One of the Souls found a trail. I sent two more to investigate.”
Souls. That was how Kaduna called the creatures she raised from the corpses.
“Great. Keep me updated.”
Since we were both exploring the underground system, the earpieces hadn’t lost their range, so it was easier to communicate with one another.
“Hil said someone was caught in the kitchen trying to poison one of the meals.”
Well, that wasn’t surprising. It was safe to assume every Squad would have to interact with the mercenaries in some way.
But if their target was only the Bride, why bother to poison others if the Bride had already been captured?
“Can you ask her which dish they were trying to poison?”
I saw Hal quickly typing in the air, a reply coming a couple of minutes later.
“She said it was the wedding cake.”
A memory resurfaced in my mind, yet I had to be sure. I opened Aída’s previous message, my eyes skimming through the schedules. Sure enough, there it was.
Right after the vows, the Bride and Groom were supposed to feed each other with the wedding cake before serving to the guests. Which meant the group was also targeting the Groom, to some extent.
Yet from what Kaduna had told me when we were going through the maps before, even ones that showed the West Wing and the garden, there was no mention of the Groom. The focus of their notes and instructions was solely on the Bride.
Still…it was strange.
Immediately I sent a message to Kurosawa.
[Has anything happened around the Groom?
Or did your group receive any other reports from the Patrol Squad?]
His reply came a few seconds later.
[None.
Keep focusing on the Bride.]
I clicked my tongue, trying to think.
Was I missing something…?
As I heard steps approaching, there was no need to turn around to know who—or what—was approaching. One of Kaduna’s Soul bumped into my leg, its smile less prominent, its eyes perfect red circles. The creature stared at me for less than two seconds before continuing on its way. Yet in that short time our eyes met…
It looked lonely.
It made me wonder if that particular Soul had been a mercenary or one of the Selves. And then I realized I didn’t want to know the answer.
We walked for a couple more minutes, my eyes stealing a glance from the countdown every now and then. I hadn’t realized the first time I went down, but that place was a maze. There were hidden doors everywhere, and though they weren’t so hard to spot with my current status, it made things more complicated.
And our time was running out.
I was about to ask Kaduna if the trail found earlier had led anywhere when I spotted something.
“Hal, can you see this?”
The boy looked at where I was pointing, crouching.
“You are talking about these scratch marks, right?”
I got closer to the wall. As I knelt, my fingers traced the marks. They disappeared below the wall, and the more I stared at them the less they looked like scratch marks and the more they resembled—
“Did you see what kind of shoes the Bride was wearing?”
The boy took a few seconds to reply, his voice still uncertain.
“I think it was something flat, like a sandal…”
“Do you remember if it had heels?”
As his eyes understood the real meaning behind my question, Hal glanced at the marks once again. He closed his eyes for a few moments, concentrating.
When he met my gaze, his uncertainty was gone.
“It did. They were very small and were quite low, but her shoes had heels.”
I communicated with Kaduna immediately. It didn’t take too long for us to find a way to open the passage, Hil had mentioned Hal’s strongest status was Sword as well. As the door opened, it revealed a narrow and dark corridor—one with only a couple of torches spread out, providing only the bare minimum of light.
I don’t think either Hal or I expected to find out what we did, though.
For the scene we saw at the end of that corridor, beyond the worn and rusty wooden door, was not only some petty vengeance or murder scheme. It was not only about grudges or preventing a wedding.
We were dealing with a coup.