In the mansion, in a rather quiet room, two elves were speaking to one another.
"Hmmph! Bold of them to plan an attack so shamelessly." The older one spoke as he went over the report.
Vertigo had already expected as much would happen once one of his scouts was captured.
Although a disappointing result it was one that they had planned for.
After all, this would bring the other royal guard to them, and with both in hand, there was no chance the high elf would ever reach the island, and they could collect them for their own means.
The aide Nigel shrugged. "We have been selling slaves and traitors through this route for a while. They've probably been on our trail for a while. It was merely a matter of them finally attacking after being provoked for so long." He paused before thoughtfully looking over.
"What do you want to do?" He asked and Vertigo sat there and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"The reports say that one of them seems to be a druid, capable of taking a monster form." The aide brought up.
Hearing this, the captain looked surprised. Most druids avoid monster forms, preferring to stick to animals unless particularly skilled in this ability. After all, although using the form of a monster is better in all ways, it came with the dangerous chance of falling into a monsters instincts, moreso than an average beast, an obvious flaw that had seen the reduced usage of monster forms amongst druids.
It wasn't hard to imagine by what means they were planning to infiltrate the mansion.
He had a wicked smile as he commanded his aid. "Prepare some anti-druid measures. If he is so eager to take monster form, let him keep it." The man smiled cooly, as if imagining what would happen next.
A treacherous elf, turned into a mere beast, to be skinned and hung or sold as they wished.
The aide nodded in agreement. "Very well. And the root?" he asked as he observed the commander's face.
Tapping his fingers against the table thoughtfully, he finally responded. "I believe it's time to move it. It has gathered as much as it can from the teleportation circle here before arousing anger from the local spirits. We can drop the dead weight. It's time to find it a new home, so that the true mistress may continue to grow."
"For the Pando." The aide said reverently, and the commander repeated it. "For the Pando."
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"Ridley Worschesire! For the crime of illegal slave tracking, you are hereby under arrest! Come out with your hands up, and come quietly!"
Came the demand. A huge part of the soldiers garrison had come out to reinforce this operation, as they were suspected of being aided by an A-rank.
Even with 2 A-ranks, there was no guarantee. It may be easy to overpower one A-rank with 2, but hard to keep them.
The soldiers were here to assure that none of the other elves got in the way of the operation.
The door creaked open, as a group of elves stepped forward, many dressed in clothes befitting of assassins or rogues.
Leading them was the aide, dressed formally, whom walked with slow and deliberate steps.
The A-class warrior, a humanoid dragonewt stepped forward.
"Halt! You are suspected of assisting in illegal slave operations. Do not resist and resign yourself to investigation!" He shouted.
Nigel sighed as he fixed his eyes on Servante. "You allowed outsiders to interfere in our ways?" He asked deliberately ignoring the A-rank.
Servante ignored him, watching him warily.
The dragonewt started again. "Sir! You are-"
"Save me the showboating." The elf interrupted. "We both know that I have no intention of giving up quietly. " He said, as the drum of mana began to rise. "Let us stop tiptoeing around, and get to the core of this matter. We have matters to attend to." He said indifferently.
And with that, the fight began.
----------------------------------------
Plans changed. Once the scout finally "gave up" the info, what we heard really changed the nature of the assignment.
It wasn't that my infiltration had been waived, no that was still part of the plan.
The distraction however, had turned into a full frontal assault. An arrest actually.
Frankly, the initial plan had been made with the idea that we would get nothing out of the scout, but now that we had, the situation became far more urgent.
It wasn't merely a few elves, but over a 100 elves had been gathered, alongside a number of other races who'd been captured, with the abnormal number of elves being the most concerning, at least to me.
Do the elves hate another that much? Why?
Unfortunately, the only ones who do know are unlikely to spill. Who would reveal the shame of their race, much less one of the races that prioritize face above all else?
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Regardless, this case had become bigger, and thus a frontal assault had been planned.
I'm infiltrating because chances are, they're not going to give up peacefully, not unless they have a way to conceal their wrongdoing from an A-level mage. Oh yeah, this is serious. Skip town don't tolerate annoying outsiders.
The priority is to save the people there, and monsters who can understand us before defeating them.
They've been exposed after all, so defeat or not, they're not likely to stick around, not unless they want to be hunted down by the temples.
The operation begins formally of course, with the rest of the group, Servante and the "Elves" included.
I'm not there, having obviously chosen to slip away and try sneaking into the mansion.
It looks rather plain and inconspicuous.
I look and cannot detect any spells around, so I tentatively enter the grounds.
As I entered the mansion grounds, a faint humming could be heard as a magic circle activated.
THHOOOOOOOOMM
Reacting immediately, I prepared to dodge whatever incoming attack was launched and swoop into the mansion, abandoning all vigilance, but... nothing.
Stolidus actually spoke up at this moment.
[Someone placed an anti-druid trap for you here. Seems to wrap around the whole mansion too. Pretty nasty thing too, though it focuses on druids alone. And you are not a druid.
Lol. Big fail, much disappointment.] Stolidus said some unremarkable nonsense near the end, but what really mattered to him was the statement.
They thought I was a druid?
Wow, what luck! Had this magic circle been aimed to kill monsters...
Shiver
That could've gone badly quickly.
That's probably not the only tap so I use my vines to climb onto the roof carefully, before finding a chimney.
Perfect.
Attaching a potato mine to a vine, I carefully lower it into the chimney as a decoy.
Seeing no response, I decide to follow it in.
It's an easy climb in.
Crawling out of the chimney, I find myself in the room facing a familiar face.
Ridley, having just woken up, screeched at the sight of me.
Thwak!
That was satisfying. Thanks ore.
Anyway, we started our journey into the mansion from there.No, I didn't take that inconvenience with me. Even if he could make a good bodyshield. He might either be really valuable to them, or utterly useless as a hostage.
Tch.
A shame the system doesn't store bodies in its inventory. It would make everything so much easier.
There was no security to be seen. Given the commotion going on outside, chances are that most of the personnel is outside assisting in resisting the townsfolk.
An A-rank mage and an A-rank swordsman, I do not envy their position. Even if they can't catch that A-rank, they can hit him hard enough that he'll have to lick his wounds for a little while.
The mansion at first glance was understandably barren of any telltale signs.
Now, the next important step was to find the hidden doorway.
The most obvious choice was to check the bookshelves. Everyone chooses the bookshelves, especially the rich brats.
And indeed, it was hidden more thoughtfully than he had expected. The books each had a symbol hidden on them, significant to the formation of magic circles.
They were hidden well, but not extensively so. I find magic based mechanisms are often easier to find than the practical ones. But I don't expect much from rich fools.
Rearranging the books on the shelf, using the books with symbols as the blank space between circles, I was able to create a magic circle that was created with the function of "open". The lettering on the books lit up in response.
Ah, a regent meant to conduct magic was used to write the titles on the books.
The bookshelf parted, and between the halves, a tunnel was seen leading downwards.
And so I went, to explore I went.
----------------------------------------
The stairs did not go that deep, leading into an open room. Clearly, they had confidence that no one would come in due to his immunity as the son of a powerful family.
The worcestershire family by the way. Apparently they specialize in spices and sauce.
Seeing the runes written across the halls, it was clear the room had been intentionally modified spatially, making the room bigger than it really is.
The basement itself was filled with people and monsters.
Citizens of all groups, from dwarves to lizardmen, as well as a staggering amount of beastmen for such a small place.
The elves had it worse by far, They were the ones with the smallest cage, despite being the third highest in number, each in rather rough condition. Their cage was positioned near the kobolds amongst a miscellaneous of other packages.
Taking elven form I walk over, searching for Redgar, before finally finding him, talking with a group of kobolds?
I rush over, calling him.
"Redgar! You ready to get out?"
Seeing me, he looks relieved, before turning to face the group of kobolds.
"See! I told you they'd come to break us out!" He said confidently.
Hmm?
One of those kobolds looks awfully familiar...
Hey! He's one of the three who was sneaking in with a jacket!
Guess they got caught too huh.
The three of them were clearly surprised, but more importantly, were standing near a far taller kobold, with rather brawny arms and a ram horned helmet. Clearly he was the leader of the group.
Looking over, he grunted.
"Thought there'd be more of you." He commented dryly and I could only shrug helplessly.
"The rest are busy storming the mansion. It's an official effort."
This caused him to raise an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"And there's an A-rank amongst their ranks being distracted outside."
Only then did he nod in understanding.
"Alright then. Guess our chances of success have increased." He said briskly.
I continued talking. "Anyway -- "
[Oh?]
Came Stolidus'' curious voice, and I tensed in response.
I wasn't the only one, as in a weird twist, the large kobold looked around as well.
Wait...
[Yeah, that one there! That big ol lizard!]
[Oi brat! What are you doing here!?] Came another voice, more gruff and baritone voice.
The two of them looked at one another with blatant surprise, as if a whole new world had opened up.
"You're a player!"
"You're a player!"
----------------------------------------
The assault on the mansion was stalling as expected.
Against a group of B and C ranks, the local soldiers from the garrison were having a hard time holding their own.
The A-rank mage was supporting from the back, while the A-rank warrior was charging the A-rank elf from the front.
Despite the slow progress, it was still considered a success, for every moment was extra time for the elven "Druid" to get all the slaves out.
Why, it was even going better than expected, and yet Servante looked rather Solemn.
"What's wrong?" Borsch asked the mage. Both were working from the back, so Borsch could see the expression on the elve's face.
When asked, Servante hesitated. "I didn't get a good look at the assailant last time, but I do remember the way they fought."
"And?" Borsch asked worriedly.
"He was an assassin, not a mage." Servante said gravely, as the nearby A-rank mage heard this, his face showed a look of realization and shared a similar look of worry.
Then that means there was a rogue assassin that they had yet to see.
Assassins were the hardest to deal with when unaware.
Equally worrying was the possibility that the mage here wasn't merely a mage, but also an assassin.
In that case he was far stronger than he was letting up.
With no way to communicate this fact to Earl, they could only hope the "druid" was capable of holding his own.