Her ears rang, her heart in pain and racing, almost like how one feels during heartbreak. She sat down on the cold stone floor, her back leaning on a wall. She could not bear to stand anymore, her legs felt so weak as if they would crumble the moment she gave strength.

Her throat was dry, her eyes bloodshot, cheeks stained with her tears. She held both her hands as they trembled uncontrollably. How could the world, people, be so cruel? The weight thrown upon her by the world was too heavy for her to carry. Her bones would break, her flesh crushed.

This was too much.

How much must the world bring her pain? She may have sinned, but couldn’t the gods spare her with mercy from this suffering?

She hid her face in her arms. If only she could seal herself from this world, from everything. That would save her from this pain.

It was hard to breathe, her shoulders going up and down.

The moment Arnaut turned his back on her kept flashing in her mind. Every time, it pained her heart like a knife piercing through. It was hard to believe. She could not understand why the person she cared for, and the one who cared for her, would leave her like that.

Were they playing her all along? Was she a mere pawn in their games? A disposable girl?

Was all a lie? A play of pretend?

Her mind kept revolving to all kinds of assumptions, scenarios, all possibilities, all answers. And her head was starting to ache. But she could not stop. She wanted to understand how he was capable of abandoning her.

She did not know how long she had been sitting here, but she had to stay. She had to wait for someone to pick her up. But, perhaps she was waiting for someone to come back.

No, why was she even hoping for something so truthful?

Which side did she truly want to stand with?

She shouldn’t have even felt betrayed. And yet she did.

Everything’s wrong…

With all of the things that were happening, her mind couldn’t catch up. All was overwhelming. If only there was someone to help her. She needed someone to rely on, to put her faith in.

A footstep tapped right next to her.

Then a man’s voice called out to her. “Allie Jelimis, it’s time to go, as ordered by the princess. There’s no need to linger here any longer.”

Allie slowly looked up to see a man in a cloak, a sword hanging on his waist. He was wearing a casual outfit underneath his cloak. In his hand was a spare.

He could be either from the knights or from the church.

The man slightly tilted his head, puzzled. “What’s wrong?”

Allie shook her head. “N-Nothing… just… take me out of here.”

She stood up, received the cloak from the man and wore it to cover her head, and then began following the man to a particular place, to a safe place to be exact. The matter of what they would do if the situation ended up this way was already planned beforehand, this was something within one of the several expectations. However, it was the outcome they didn’t want.

The moment earlier was a crucial point in this operation, even though the failure was already thought of, this was still a great setback. This made things more difficult and made the operation last longer. Nevertheless, as this was within expectations of the princess’s plans, there was no need to panic.

That being said, Allie still failed her part. With that thought, she suppressed the urge to shudder. Will the princess also abandon her because of it? How disappointed will she be?

“Stay close,” the man said, slowing down his pace to walk beside her. On guard of danger.

While Allie’s mind was going everywhere, uneasy and restless, eventually they arrived at a particular two-story building made of wood. At the front were tables where men and women were casually having conversations. Very normal.

Although, in truth, they were the men under the princess, pretending to be normal citizens. In fact, this entire building here was under the control of the crown, for the time being, to be used as a headquarters.

Allie felt their gaze directed at her as they entered the building. Inside were knights in full sets of equipment, armor, weapons and all. With them were people in dark robes. Allie felt like a small insect in their presence, they were after all powerful people.

The man with her brought her upstairs to a room. The room was neat, with only a large table at the center and all the windows closed.

Inside were the central figures in the operation — Astine, Prince Estevan, Rogan, and Vernon. However, there was one missing. Puzzled, Allie searched around. But there was no one else here.

Rogan approached her. “You look terrible… things didn’t go well, huh. For now, sit and rest.”

He presented a chair, and Allie obliged. “Her highness…?”

“Ah, about that, she left.”

Left?

That was not part of the plan that Allie was aware of. And, all her guards were left here, what was she doing? Where would she go?

“Is it not dangerous…?” Allie asked.

“Of course it is,” the one to respond was Astine. “Honestly, I’ve been wondering if your lady has a death wish.” she directed her gaze to Vernon.

“...She never even told us this…” he replied.

“That’s because she knows we’ll go against it. Especially her family,” said Rogan.

“We’re so finished if she’s found dead out there somewhere…” Astine muttered.

Why would she go out there?

She was only putting herself in needless danger, Allie understood that very well.

“What could she even contribute? Are our men not enough for her?” Astine had a slightly displeased expression.

“Perhaps,” Vernon briefly said.

Astine shook her head. “Be that as it may, she should have brought an escort. I can do stealth just fine.”

“I think it’s not about what you can do, but how well you can do it.”

She slightly furrowed her brows but tried to keep her composure. “We’re trained for this. My apologies but that princess don’t have skills that are on par with a knight.”

“...” Vernon sighed.

“Nothing we can do about it. Although it hurts a bit that as her personal knight she didn’t bring me with her.” It was supposed to be his responsibility to defend her with his life. Leaving the princess alone in danger was unthinkable and a failure on his part. “But she was scary when she said she’s going…”

“... All we can do for now is wait,” said Vernon. “Seeing that the first attempt is a failure, we have to shift to another plan.”

“Yeah, but the princess is still not here. Seriously, I’m getting scared, should I go search for her? She’s taking a while...” Rogan glanced at the door, wanting to leave to search for the princess.

“We’ll wait a bit more.”

At that moment, the door abruptly opened, and everyone instantly turned to look toward the door. The one who entered lowered the hood of her cloak, revealing ravishing platinum hair, and a face so beautiful. Her expression, however, was anything but pleased.

“Princess!~” Rogan exclaimed joyfully.

The princess went straight ahead to the table at the center of the room. “Their senses are sharper than I like,” she said almost in a monotone as she removed her cloak, which Vernon received. “Map.”

“Princess, did you follow them?” Astine asked.

“Map.”

She ignored the question, and so, Astine unfurled a map.

“Something to write with.”

Vernon gave her a pencil. Then she began drawing arrows on the map, starting from where Allie was brought by the beastman. She scribbled the directions her targets went.

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“The men lost them around these areas. It’s ridiculous that the beastmen were able to detect them even in crowds.”

Everyone listened.

“I suspect not by hearing alone but by smell too. Ridiculous, simply ridiculous.” she sounded annoyed. “But thanks to the failure of others, I was able to follow the targets far more than them.”

“Failure?”

The princess paused. “Your men need to be more stealthy, make your footsteps perfectly quiet.”

“Wha—?” her eyes widened as if her pride was just struck. However, the princess raised a hand.

“But it’s not the time for that discussion. As I said, their failure made things fruitful for me at least. I was able to follow them two times, the special part is after our men lost them. The enemy believed no one followed them, so they start making their way to their hideout thinking it was safe.

“This gave me a chance. However, their senses are something else. Before they could lead me to their hideout, they were able to detect me. They move fast. And their leader even discovered me.”

Allie caught that last sentence.

The princess continued. “Still, we should be able to narrow down the search area when it comes to it.”

Two arrows, in particular, one coming in from the north, and one from the south. The two converged to one area, where the princess drew a circle. Around three blocks, in the Northeastern part of the city, the circle even hit the wall at the edge.

“The arrows, the direction, the roads they took after they lost the initial tails...”

“Leads to this area, huh. Should we send some men?” Rogan asked.

“No.”

“No? This could be a chance to get them, your highness.” Vernon suggested.

“I agree. Also, I think we should have taken the chance to capture the ones who met with the girl.”

“I drew this circle as a final resort, and it will be useless to capture just three of them. Others will keep on doing what they have always done. Take out their leader and another one will take his place.”

“Still, this would have done some damage to their ranks,” Vernon said.

“It’s not about making some damage, it’s about capturing most or all of them, or when it comes to it, eliminate some. To wipe the rats, these pests, follow one until you find their nest. Once you have found it, you can take all of them out in one fell swoop, and prevent others from escaping. Do you understand what I’m trying to say? Well, of course you would, it should be common sense. Besides, it is how it’s always been planned, do not change something this crucial halfway.”

“...Understood.”

All of them said.

“Good. Today’s attempt is a failure, but a success in some ways. Tomorrow will decide it.” she turned her head to look at Allie, and she narrowed her eyes slightly. “Hm?”

Allie flinched a little, the way the princess looked at her was scrutinizing as if trying to read through her.

“Allie, did something bad happen?” the princess asked.

“N-No…nothing.” she lowered her gaze.

“What obstructed you earlier from your success?”

“... The elf… Elivar…”

“... Is that so…? What got you so down?”

Allie hesitated, she didn’t want to tell her the cause. “Nothing too terrible…”

“Will you be alright?”

“Y-Yes…”

“... Alright…”

“Princess…” Astine suddenly called and gazed at the princess intently.

The princess looked back at her. “It’s fine.” she shrugged her off and furled the map. “We will be returning to the palace. As planned, you Astine and Estevan will remain here. My servants and Allie will be coming with me. Prepare my carriage.”

Rogan left the room to call for the carriage.

The princess returned her gaze to Astine. “Ah, I will be taking this map, will that be alright?”

“That will be alright, we have spares.”

The princess nodded. “Don’t forget to get the reports from those that were able to track our targets. They may come later on as what is discussed beforehand. Once you have all the reports, have them sent to me. Then prepare for possible new orders.”

A while later, Rogan returned to tell that the carriage had arrived and was waiting outside. Allie after the princess’s beckon came along to go to the carriage while the two of them had their hoods to cover their heads.

When they arrived at the carriage, the princess, Rogan, and Vernon entered first. When Allie was about to enter, the princess patted the free seat beside her.

Allie glanced at the two men on the opposite side for a moment before sitting down beside the princess. The princess smiled, and it soothed Allie’s heart a little. After the door closed, the carriage began to shake as it moved.

“You seem troubled, Allie. Is something bothering you?”

“... Mm…” she lowered her head, hesitating. It was hard to tell someone else a personal problem that cut this deep, even more so when there were two men in front of her. One even oversaw her torture, thus it was a bit hard in this tiny room, almost claustrophobic.

Suddenly, she felt a warm touch on her hand. The princess placed her hands on Allie’s.

“Can you not tell me? Expressing one’s feelings often removes great weight in our hearts.”

She stared into the princess’s eyes, then her gaze shifted to the two men.

The princess noticed this and said. “You do not need to worry about them,” she then turned to the two. “You will not listen, do you understand? Give your attention to the outside.”

The two men stared at each other for a moment before turning their heads to look outside through the window.

“They won’t tell anyone, nor will they listen intently. Imagine it’s just the two of us. Tell me, what pains your heart?”

“It’s just… I never thought that he… Arnaut would leave me behind… just like that… I thought I was special to him.”

Her lips quivered, and the corners of her eyes dampened as she recalled the moment Arnaut rejected her plead for help. “I still cannot comprehend why…”

“I suppose some will throw you into the lion’s den if it saves themselves… even our dearest friends. However, as you mentioned before, someone was intervening, an outside influence. We will see his final decision tomorrow after his deliberation without any interference.”

“Princess…?” Allie could not understand what she truly meant.

But the princess merely smiled beautifully.

Time passed, and eventually, they arrived at the palace. After exiting by the palace doors, the princess spoke to Allie.

“Ah, I’ll be having the magic item back for now. I’ll give it back tomorrow.”

Allie pulled out a small cylindrical object from her pocket and placed it on the princess’s hand.

“Be safe in your room, okay?”

“Okay…”

“And, given that you essentially still failed today… you already know the cost of that, yes?”

Allie lowered her head.

“Yes…”

“I’m sorry, Allie.”

“... It is alright…”

***

Astine and Estevan sat down by the table as snacks like cookies and bread were brought for them to eat. The former merely picked one cookie and took a small bite, her face now stoic and composed. The princess’s sudden decision truly put her a bit on edge earlier.

And the way the princess basically just said that her men could be better irked her somewhat. She took pride in the soldiers of the church, especially those she trained with. They were above any knight under the crown.

It was a bit hard to swallow the way that the princess seemed to be dissatisfied with her men’s performance. There were men that were trained for direct combat and those trained for stealth. Given that the mission to tail the enemy required to be undetectable, they used those who were best for stealth missions, where their movements were silent. And those were spread out around the city.

Although, in hindsight, they could have cast a silent spell on them. However, the church only had very few priestesses, and they couldn’t be everywhere at once to cast spells on every tracker when they start following the enemies — wherever they may be. They also couldn’t cast it to everyone early on as they would still be dispelled after a certain amount of time. In addition, priestesses might get noticed the moment they cast spells. Perhaps that’s why the princess didn’t order that. Besides, the silence spell was not complete silence but only muffled the sound.

With that in mind, perhaps also the reason she didn’t need to do that was because she herself was planning to follow the targets. How confident could someone get?

Bearing in mind the unexpected senses of the targets, it was not certain if even spells would protect them from being detected. Apparently, beastmen can also use their nose. Truly what a troublesome trait. How blessed can one species get?

And we humans can only cast magic at most, without it we’re basically small kickable puppies.

It would be hard to beat the ones with natural capabilities, those beings were almost like monsters themselves, except they have intelligence.

She wondered how the high bishop would fare when it was he that followed the targets. However, guessing from the situation, the spot where the bishop was, was not the place where Allie was brought by the enemy, and not in the place where the enemy came out through. In fact, he was not even assigned around the market.

Also, given that he was the high bishop, it would be hard for him to walk around. People might easily recognize him. Thus he had to hide more that anyone else.

Setting that aside, would he be able to hide his presence from the enemies? Astine was not certain. The high bishop was not focused on stealth, but rather on firepower, his abilities were more focused on offense. He may be able to do some stealth, but it should be around the same level as the church members that were sent out around the city to serve as tails. As they were detected, he would likely also be detected.

If the princess were able to follow the enemies that far, then how much skill does she hide?

Astine glanced at the prince before her.

Is he not bewildered by his own sister?

Estevan did nothing else but bite down on the food.

Astine resisted the urge to frown. “Your highness, what abilities does Princess Estelia have?”

Estevan paused and shifted his wide gaze at her. “Hm? Last I heard she was only practicing some magic spells.”

Although, magic spells would not be enough to give someone the ability to be adept in stealth. It would require training.

“That’s it?”

“Hm, basically yeah.”

“Then she must be capable of powerful spells then?”

He looked up, thinking. “If I’m not wrong, she mainly focused on learning basic spells. So I guess not that powerful.”

“You don’t know how strong she is?”

“Why should I know anyway? As she is my sister, I don’t see the point of measuring her capabilities.” he shrugged.

How carefree can someone get with their younger sibling?

“Are you not… curious?”

“No… not really.”

“Your sister just left our base without any guard and returned. Not only that but she also brought valuable intel by following our targets. Apparently, she had done better than my trained men.”

Estevan slowly nodded. “... I suppose she has been a curious one for a while now. Ever since she began overseeing this operation, in fact. Before this, she was gentle and sweet, but now… she is stern. I never imagined she would ever be like that. But in the end, she is still my lovely sister. I’m sure once this is over she’ll be back to normal!”

The more she thought and heard about it, the more she was weirded out by the princess — as if she was hiding something. This reminded her of the special fondness the high bishop had for the princess. Could that have something to do with it?

“... She appeared to be quite confident with her plans. The first I saw her, she did not seem to be the person who could carry and command this much personnel. Has she always been like this?”

“Nope… Listen, my sister has been going through a lot. I guess she just had enough and decided to take care of it personally. There’s no need to think deeply about her. Just let her be.”

It would appear that the prince was well aware of something strange happening to the princess. However, perhaps because she was his sister, he deliberately decided not to think too much about it and leave it as it was. To him, it was not that big of a deal.

But it was different for Astine, she was bothered, and was thus curious. Perhaps this stemmed from the fact that there may be something special about her that everyone was hiding. She didn’t like it, not knowing anything. The unknown was hard to deal with and extremely annoying. Very much so if she was directly connected or involved in that mystery.

Nevertheless, the prince was right, for now, there was no need to think about this. But only focus on the mission.

Tomorrow, huh.

It would be faster if they just raid every house in the area that the princess encircled. However, what she said wasn’t so bad. Rats scattering would be too annoying to deal with, incredibly troublesome. But the way the princess described her plans, was not something Astine expected she would say.

To see the enemies as mere pests.

It was something she never thought a face like hers would say — a pure princess. But then again, the princess must have been so done with her enemies.