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"... But the king's madness and greed laid claim to anything that might remind him of his dead sister, and that included his niece..."

'She seems to hate her own king quite a bit.... So... why does she work for him?'

".... To make matters worse and to the poor girl's misfortune, Alessia Addari looks a lot like her mother physically, and that's something the king found out about thanks to his demon, and that further incentivized him to do certain nasty things...."

'How heartless could the king of Drial Cenit be? He killed his own sister. Couldn't he just leave his sister's daughter alone?'

"....but even if he hadn't found out that way, he would have found out sooner or later. There are many people who still remember Alessandra's beautiful face and gorgeous figure. She had been one of the most beautiful women in the kingdom, if not the most beautiful, before she disappeared and-"

"What did King Ronald do when he heard about Alessia?" I ask, a little annoyed by the details of the story that don't interest me.

"He sent a group of Assassins from our intelligence service to kidnap her. I was not among them, but, as a member of the kingdom's intelligence secret service, I know very well what the development of the operations to bring back Alessia was," she says with a bitter tone of voice, after which she falls silent again.

'Yes. She definitely looks very upset with the way things unfolded, and yet....

Wasn't she attempting to discover Alessia's location in order to lead her to the same individual who had murdered the girl's mother?'

"Keep talking; what did the Assassins do?" I ask with some impatience.

'I need to understand as soon as possible all the important details of this mess we're in....

Only then will I be able to....

Solve this problem?...

Is that even possible?'

"They tried to kidnap her several times but failed. They discovered that they couldn't kidnap her directly because the girl was well protected by the Adventurer's Guild, her adventuring group, and.... other forces that had been left in place by her mother before she died...." says Beatrice with a mysterious smile on her face.

".... The Adventurer's Guild places many restrictions on its members, but it also takes special care of each member.... If people would only know-"

"Spare me the unimportant details and your opinions, please. Just tell me the facts as they happened," I say in a growl.

"It was simple enough, really, though it took them quite a while to come up with the plan. I think it came to the king himself, though surely his.... minion had something to do with it. If the guild structure obstructed the Assassins' work, they just had to get the Adventurers' Guild to work for them..."

"What?" I ask, but I quickly realize the answer.

'Isn't the Adventurer's Guild supposed to be impartial and unbribable?...

After all, it is an organization that is in all the kingdoms...

I thought it was too large an organization to be influenced by outside factions...

The kingdoms can influence the minor guilds, but the Adventurer's Guild should be immune….

It is more or less the same as with the Solus temple, although the Solus temple has its base in the Sacred kingdom…

Haa'

All in all, we're already getting close to the parts of the story I already knew.

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"... Yes, I see you figured it out. You're smart.... I wouldn't have said that at the beginning of this meeting," says Beatrice with a smile of interest.

"The facts!" I exclaim, whacking anyway with the horsewhip in the girl's direction.

But my blow hits the chair instead of the woman, due to how distracted and affected I am by all this information.

"Yes, yes. Sorry..." says Beatrice, frowning.

' - I thought his interest was just for his own benefit, but he seems to be really concerned and upset about these things I'm telling him.... What kind of relationship does this guy have with Alessia Addari? They seemed close, but I assumed that was only in appearance. If my assumptions are correct, this guy is Alessia Addari's master. That alone explains so much interest in the girl.... Still... his concern doesn't seem like that of a master for his slave.'

"... They bribed certain corrupt higher-ups in the Solus temple to specifically request Alessia's group for an escort mission. In fact, they arranged for the person to be escorted to be a Saint, so they could do 'extra duty', as they planned to eliminate one of the Saints from the Castemira kingdom and kidnap Alessa's daughter-"

"But they didn't kidnap her, and they didn't murder the Saint either," I say, interrupting her words with gritted teeth to prevent her from telling me things I already know.

As I speak, I realize all the damage that the Drial Cenit's kingdom has done to the people I care about.

That is something they will eventually have to pay for.

"How did you know…? Haa... Whatever. Yes, you're right. Because of certain unexpected events, their plan failed, though only partially..."

' - Does he know all that thanks to Alessia Addari? Does the girl trust this guy enough to tell him such things? I... I don't think I could trust anyone like that'

The girl frowns more and more and seems very curious about my sources of information, but she obeys me and doesn't say anything about her thoughts.

"...That day most of the Assassins in charge of the mission died, and they were unable to kidnap Alessia Addari, but at least they were able to get her to become a slave as punishment for failing the Solus Temple mission. Nor were they able to assassinate the-"

"Only what is important to Alessia's story," I say, striking menacingly on one of her thighs with the horsewhip.

"Fine! I get it..." she says quickly with irritation, though I make sure to hit her gently.

"... Erm... Things got a lot simpler when the girl became a slave, or so they were supposed to have been. So... certain details were arranged, and Alessia Addari was sent to the capital to receive her fundamental commands, like all of her kind. I think you know the rest already."

As she finishes speaking, a pleased smile appears on the young redhead's face.

' - I'm starting to be able to move my arms again. Good. I have to distract him just a little bit more.'

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, what are the details? Don't oversimplify the facts so much," I say, annoyed now at her oversimplification of the story.

"Hmm, I see you change your mind a lot..." she says smugly, but hearing the warning growl that comes out of my mouth, she adds. "... Okay, okay. I'll explain myself better..."

The girl remains with a thoughtful expression for a few moments and then resumes the story.

"... So.... The Assassins who were still alive saw to it that Alessia Addari was especially difficult to buy by pricing her very high. But they couldn't price her too high because that would raise suspicions about her...."

'Couldn't they just buy her outright and take her to the Drial Cenit kingdom?...

Why was it necessary to send her to the capital?...

According to what Beatrice just said, it was for Alessia to receive her fundamental commands, but how necessary were those commands?...

Haa... that doesn't really matter now.'

"....For the same reason, they couldn't try to send her directly to the Drial Cenit kingdom. Moreover, the king had imposed certain stupid terms on them, which made their job very complicated. So, to avoid problems, they took it upon themselves to spend large sums of money to increase the general value of the slaves..."

'It seems more and more strange to me the way they decided to resolve the situation... Maybe it has to do with the supposed stupid impositions of King Ronald'

"... The problem that could be generated if her royal blood was discovered was also analyzed, but the blood seal that the girl had from before she became a slave turned out to be especially resistant, so they left it as it was..."

'So the Blood Seal can also be used that way?...

I thought it was just something that blocked certain memories from Alessia's mind. But given this new information....

It's looking more and more plausible to hypothesize that it was Alessia's mother who put the seal on her.'

"...Still, the Blood seal itself was something that would raise suspicions, so they had the girl registered as the illegitimate daughter of a minor nobleman...."

'And that probably ensured that Alessia would be sent to a neighboring kingdom…

Since no Castemira noble would be willing to pay that much money for another noble's illegitimate offspring...

It would be like admitting that they wanted to buy the leftovers of other noble families.'

".... Thanks to all those measures, Alessia was supposed to be sent quickly and directly to the Drial Cenit Kingdom, where the king would buy her and make sure that Alessia Addari would see him as her savior, instead of the person who ruined her life..."

'Maybe that's why Alessia had to go to the capital…

To create the appearance that a neighboring king was buying her off in an act of kindness, and then....

Or maybe I'm overthinking things.'

"... But luckily for her, Alessia was bought by someone before she even left the capital, despite the fact that her price was exorbitantly high, and it was unthinkable that anyone would be so stupid to spend so much to buy a single slave. Now I can already imagine who is the one who bought her...." says Beatrice, winking at me with a meaningful look, but I neither confirm nor deny her comment.

'Since a few moments ago, she seems to be acting more friendly with me.... Is she trying to get me to let my guard down?'

"... But, at that time, the few remaining Assassins could not get the slave house that had sold Alessia to reveal the identity of the buyer. All they could find out was that the girl had been bought by an adventurer..."

She shoots me a meaningful look again, but, once again, I choose to ignore it.

Seeing that I don't react in any way to her glances, the girl sighs in exasperation but doesn't stop talking.