Chapter 163
“Hurry!”
Siren urged his subordinates as he mounted his horse.
The eyes of his men flickered with unease as they looked at him.
“What are you doing! Move!”
Siren shouted, then immediately realized his mistake and clamped his mouth shut.
But it was already too late. The sight of him—so anxious and restless—only made the faces of his subordinates even more rigid.
Damn it.
I should have acted as if nothing had happened, just pretended I’d changed my mind.
Instead, he had failed to hide his anxiety and exposed it.
How could I make such a foolish mistake?
Swallowing his irritation, Siren ground his teeth as he looked toward the palace.
How did that Cloys bastard find us so fast?
This was a hideout they had prepared over a long time.
Moreover, when they kidnapped the children, they deliberately took only those who were good at covering their tracks.
Even so, he hadn’t trusted that alone. On the way, they switched horses several times, winding through different paths to make tracking impossible…
Even Seraphina couldn’t track this fast.
She was a strong mage, yes, but not omnipotent. If she were, the war would have ended sooner.
I should have gathered more information about the palace situation, but I haven’t heard anything.
After sending Eve’s hair, he had hoped to receive a response through it, but all contact with his spies was cut off from that moment.
Everything had clearly been discovered.
These were people he had trained to take their own lives rather than reveal anything.
So, even if they hadn’t confessed about other spies, they wouldn’t have known who they were. That they all lost contact at the exact same time meant…
Duke Kairen, that sly fox, must have intervened.
He had discovered them early, waited for the right moment, and dealt with them all at once.
This also meant that some of the information they acquired through the children might have been deliberately misled by Duke Kairen.
Damn that fox, you never know how he’ll move.
It was always Duke Kairen who had ruined his plans in the past.
Even though the war had ended and Siren thought Kairen had relaxed, it was only hidden.
Meanwhile, the subordinates waited for his command.
Siren wiped the anxious look from his face and issued his orders.
“We’re heading to Tortu’s mansion. On second thought, it’s better to go somewhere even farther.”
He forced a grin as if nothing had happened, but the tension on his subordinates’ faces didn’t ease easily.
“We might as well enjoy the success of our plan a little more. Isn’t it better to eat and play there?”
He deliberately emphasized the words.
The combination of “success” and “enjoy” seemed to work; only then did a few rigid expressions relax.
They must have imagined the food, drinks, and other pleasures waiting there.
Siren turned his head deliberately.
One mistake can happen.
The palace’s well-trained dogs had simply discovered it.
The second hideout wouldn’t be found so easily.
It had to be that way.
“That bastard should think we just got lucky finding them.”
Marquis Lagselv ground his teeth as he spoke.
Cloys listened and examined the traces left in the underground area.
A rolling water jug. Small footprints. And most of all, military codes scribbled like graffiti.
[Ruska. Arcel. Evi. Eve. No injuries.]
It was clear that Arcel and Ruska had left it intentionally.
“Definitely four people were here.”
Cloys checked the walls and then rose to leave.
“Judging by the traces, they haven’t been gone for more than a few days.”
“They didn’t expect to be tracked this fast. Hurry.”
Saying that, Cloys immediately mounted his horse.
While he had been in the underground area, the surrounding knights finished their search and started running toward the traces.
Running with them, Cloys recalled past events.
After the children were kidnapped, not long afterward, a piece of torn hair ornament arrived at the palace along with golden hair.
The ministers went into an uproar.
After the hair, whatever arrived next would be horrific.
Yet some spoke nonsense.
“It could belong to the child kidnapped with them! Let’s not get too worked up!”
The one who said this soon regretted it. Cloys’s gaze was colder than ever.
“The children were kidnapped, and parts of their bodies were sent. In such a situation, does it matter whose they are?”
After that, the minister never entered the meetings again.
Meanwhile, the pursuit of the children continued. But the kidnappers were so well-trained that results were scarce.
Initially, they could follow the wheel tracks of the carriage, but once the path entered frequently traveled roads, all traces vanished.
Eyewitness reports were equally fruitless. No matter how much they asked around, no one had seen the suspicious people.
By then, the kidnappers may have abandoned the wagon and taken the children one by one.
First, a search team was formed, including palace knights.
Naturally, Seraphina was the first chosen.
By character and position, she could not remain idle when three of her students were kidnapped.
Moreover, could the palace’s strongest mage remain inactive when royalty was kidnapped?
The problem was the search area—it was too vast.
“Damn it… that Siren… If we catch him this time, I’ll—”
Even Marquis Lagselv and Count Dersh, accustomed to battlefield curses, paused at the sheer brutality of his swearing.
Seraphina, exhausted after using magic all day, cursed Siren.
In the palace, she could direct magic through a magic circle, but now the search spanned the entire empire.
No magic circle existed.
If searching the palace was like finding a yellow circle on black paper, this search was like finding a tiny stone in the sand.
If only they knew the general direction or area.
Seraphina sighed, scanning the surroundings.
If Siren crosses the border… and harms the children while fleeing…
At her moment of doubt, a message arrived from Duke Kairen at the palace.
He sent a letter along with a map of the empire marked in circles, instructing them where to search.
On reviewing the letter, it stated that the locations were inferred from Sabina and the memories of spies caught at the palace.
It did not say how the spies obtained the information, nor did she care to know.
The important thing was that Duke Kairen had found some clue.
With a narrowed search area, Seraphina’s magic could finally function effectively.
Behind Seraphina were knights carrying mana stones from storage.
Of course, even with mana stones, a mage’s stamina was limited.
But Seraphina gritted her teeth and endured, searching likely areas with magic even that morning.
And finally, they located the house where the children were held.
“This is the basement. I feel the emblem of the royal family here.”
Tracing the emblem, Seraphina tilted her head.
Eve’s emblem was this powerful?
It had appeared faintly on her hand, not very strong. Yet the traces in the basement were far stronger than she remembered.
As if there were another emblem as well.
But that was not the priority.
Every moment spent discussing that was a moment she could have used for tracking magic.
Now, Seraphina was completely exhausted, barely keeping up while riding with the group.
Cloys gritted his teeth and increased speed.
He himself did not know how he had survived the past week.
Whenever he found a trace, he verified it personally and searched ahead of everyone else.
Even when Marquis Lagselv pleaded for rest, Cloys could not.
I’ve lost them again.
Long ago, the daughter he had failed to protect had gone beyond death.
And… there was another daughter who mattered to him.
Cloys gritted his teeth.
It was meaningless to prioritize among the abducted children.
“No child is expendable.”
“Here! The trail continues!”
The knight ahead kept finding traces as they ran.
Unlike before, this time the kidnappers had not erased all traces in their haste.
Just a little longer…
Cloys silently begged the children struggling to keep up.
Please, just hold on a little longer, unharmed.
The children were moved a second time to a place far worse than the first.
The hastily prepared underground room was cluttered with debris and thick with dust.
Their attitude had changed as well.
“They’re acting strange…”
Even Eve could sense their unease.
The children behaved quietly.
The men assumed this was either fear or lingering effects of a drug.
But they were wrong.
“Good. The side effects are gone now.”
Ruska turned her head to look at the ceiling.
Fortunately, the room had a window. Even better…
If we’re careful, we might reach it.
The previous room had been too high for anyone to touch the window.
But this time, if they stood on each other’s shoulders, someone could possibly reach it.
Then…
At least one of us can get out!
After the men delivered food, Arcel immediately spoke.
“We’ll try to reach the window now. We’ll go one by one from the bottom…”
Arcel determined the climbing order: large Ruska at the bottom, then Arcel, above him Eve, and finally the lightest, Evi.
At first, they struggled to balance and fell several times.
After several attempts, the children slowly found their footing.
The problem was their fatigue.
“One last try.”
Though exhausted, everyone nodded at Arcel’s words.
On the final attempt…
Tap!
Evi’s hand touched the window.
