The Only One (5)

“She said she’d avoid suspicion, so is it taking some time? Well, it would be difficult to get out easily.”

“N-nothing bad has happened, right?”

Outside Ernst’s villa, Ethan and Lina, who had made excuses about other business to attend to, were waiting without leaving, anticipating Isilia’s escape.

Although they had already obtained what they wanted, to avoid unnecessary suspicion, they didn’t send any informants towards the villa, so they had no choice but to trust Isilia and wait.

“Surely they’re not…”

Meanwhile, luxurious carriages began to appear one by one in the city where they were staying. These were carriages of those who could be called the power players of the area, all heading towards Ernst’s villa.

Capitalists, officials, nobles, even people from the lord’s family.

Ethan bit his lip as he watched them gathering gradually. In fact, if they were going to make a move for escape, it should have been done before attention was drawn.

While it might become easier to slip away in the confusion of guests gathering, if a commotion occurs when all these prominent figures of the area are gathered, it could turn them all into enemies.

Knowing that Isilia herself greatly disliked such excessive aggro, he couldn’t help but worry.

“I’ve gotten out safely. I’m at the meeting place now, so come quickly.”

“Huh?!”

But at that moment, a faint voice along with the sound of wind came to Ethan’s ear as he stood quietly by the window.

Isilia, who had somehow already escaped from Ernst’s villa, was saying that she had arrived at the meeting place and to come there quickly.

“Did she manage to sneak out well after all?”

“Given Ernst’s personality, he would have guarded it like a fortress, so there’s no way she could have snuck out… Let’s go for now.”

Though surprised, there was no time to hesitate. Ethan’s group hurriedly packed their belongings and rushed out to meet Isilia. The meeting place was a secluded forest clearing on the outskirts of the city.

‘Is that…?’

But Isilia wasn’t alone at the meeting place. The person standing beside her, looking bewildered, was someone Ethan knew well.

“B-Branch Leader Ethan?”

“Laila, why are you here?”

That person recognized Ethan as he approached. Laila, her eyes wide as if she hadn’t known Ethan would come here, looked back and forth between Isilia, who had brought her here, and Ethan.

“I said you could become my master, but I never said just getting out of there was enough, did I?”

Isilia, who had removed her hood, smiled bitterly at Laila’s appearance as she hesitated in disbelief.

In the end, Laila, who had been enchanted by her, didn’t realize this was all a setup, so she had been thoroughly deceived.

“You… seem to have been kidnapped.”

With her whisper, Laila’s ankle, as she stepped back, was firmly fixed by the ground that had shot up.

Laila, who now realized what mistake she had made, turned pale, and Ethan, who had grasped the situation roughly, sighed.

“Come along quietly. You won’t be hurt.”

“No! Mmph…”

Ethan, who ended up having to do the dirty work, forcibly fed Laila the sleeping drug he had.

Laila, who was too shocked to even draw the sword she was wearing, lost consciousness just like that, and Ethan, who had suddenly become a kidnapper, turned to look at Isilia with a resentful face.

“We, we can handle this…”

Feeling guilty, Isilia also slightly avoided his eyes. Of course, as she excused, she hadn’t done this without any thought.

“Let’s leave this place for now. If a rampaging Ernst searches the area and finds us, it’s over.”

In the end, with no other options, Ethan started moving, loading the unconscious Laila into the carriage as well.

* * *

“If Ernst finds out about this, it’s all over. If he learns that the daughter he raised so preciously has been kidnapped, he’ll go mad and try to destroy us by any means necessary!”

Inside the carriage that had started hurrying. Ethan, looking at Laila sleeping unconsciously beside me with a serious face, strongly protested to me.

He was saying why I had brought her along when only my body needed to come out.

“You don’t need to worry about that. This is a runaway incident led by Laila. Ernst himself should know that by now.”

“You’re saying it’s not kidnapping, but running away?”

“Yes. Don’t kids this age usually rebel once? It seems she had a lot built up usually, and I was just a kind of trigger, a bomb that could have exploded at any time.”

I smiled slightly as I fiddled with Laila’s soft hair. As planned, Laila had come to find me again just before the guests arrived, having finished preparations to run away.

While Ernst and others were focused on welcoming guests, she used her advantage as an insider to unlock my chain with a key stolen from her father’s room and disable all security systems.

After that, we escaped from the villa and ran hard on two legs to arrive here.

“She thought she could have me exclusively if she got away from her father. Of course, Laila isn’t completely naive, so she wasn’t planning to run forever. She wanted to hide in a hotel in the city for a few days and negotiate with her father, who wanted to monopolize me, to have me.”

“I’ve heard. It seems that because the commander tried to raise his only daughter away from the organization and normally, the older she gets, the more she wants to distance herself from the organization. But her bold yet calculating side is exactly like her father.”

“She’s still immature, but she has talent. Since I’ve used her like this, I feel I should give her a suitable reward.”

I joked saying “you’ve been kidnapped,” but in reality, if I were truly evil, I wouldn’t have kept Laila alive at all.

From the start, for my plan to absorb Ernst’s entire organization using Laila, I needed to make Laila completely on my side.

Like Ethan and Lina who are beside me now.

“Is it possible? From what I’ve heard, her sense of betrayal must be no joke…”

“We’ll explain the situation and persuade her. Anyway, now that things have come this far, neither we nor she have any other choice.”

I nodded at Lina’s words. I too had faith that I could make Laila an ally, which is why I carried out this plan.

If it wasn’t for that, we would have no choice.

“The villa must be in turmoil by now. They can’t drive away the gathered guests, so for now, he’ll probably deploy all the subordinates he can mobilize to search.”

Ethan muttered as he looked out the darkened window.

Knowing that Laila had disappeared with me, Ernst, who had planned to create an unprecedented event using me, must have been greatly surprised.

The shock will be even greater since I thoroughly acted to make Ernst believe I was just a powerless young elf girl, not even a 10,000-year-old high elf.

“Ugh…”

“The effects of the sleeping drug should be wearing off soon. We could keep her asleep by using more, but that would put a strain on her body.”

“It’s fine. I’ll handle it from here.”

It was late dawn when Laila started to wake up. The carriage had stopped in the middle of some secluded road, and Ethan, sighing as he looked at Laila frowning, got out of the carriage.

Now only Laila, myself, and Lina remained inside the carriage.

“Will she be able to accept this situation?”

“We’ve only talked for two days, but we’ve had quite a lot of conversations. She’s not a stupid child, so if she can use this incident as an opportunity to shed the burden that’s been weighing her down, she should be positive about it.”

Lina’s question was quite sharp, but I had my reasons.

Her father, the boss of the organization, and the strong attachment he sends. Although she’s lived abundantly receiving that from the moment she was born, Laila wasn’t very interested in the organization’s work, which didn’t hesitate to do all sorts of dirty jobs in the underworld for money.

Rather, she felt burdened by it. However, knowing that she would become just a commoner without that halo, she was in a complex state of mind in many ways.

My weapon was that by cooperating with me, she could grow on her own and solve that problem. In fact, I had recognized a talent that even she didn’t know about herself.

‘I myself am also the bait.’

Moreover, Laila was already coveting me to the extent that she impulsively decided to run away at the words that she could have me exclusively.

Using myself as bait and coaxing her gently, the effect would surely be clear.

Unlike what I told Laila, I had no intention of serving anyone as a master, but I was already playing a kind of ‘game’, so there was no reason to feel aversion.

“Are you awake?”

Soon, as Laila opened her eyes with difficulty, I, who had been quietly watching, smiled as brightly as possible at her lying with her head on my lap.