Ch.113Chapter 113. Situation Summary (3)

I woke up feeling dizzy.

How long had it been since I’d been pushed into such a tight corner?

‘Haah, seriously.’

Erika barely managed to open her eyes.

She couldn’t gauge how long she’d been unconscious.

Starting with her vision, the sensations in her body gradually began to return.

Clank-

She reflexively tried to move her hand, but it was tied somewhere and wouldn’t budge.

What followed was a chill and pain.

Trapped in a stone prison, Erika was visibly not in good shape.

Her clothes were torn in several places, and blood was still flowing from her right arm and leg.

Erika had resisted as much as possible when confronted by Princess Arte, but she was ultimately captured.

Caught in a trap set at an unknown time, Erika couldn’t properly grip her sword or use magic.

Judging escape impossible, she resisted with all her might, but in that state, it was beyond her capabilities.

Captured by Princess Arte, Erika endured torture disguised as interrogation.

She had been most worried about mental magic being used to extract information, but fortunately, there were no such mages.

Thanks to that, Erika had somehow endured the physical torture and still hadn’t said anything.

‘Phew.’

Erika grimaced at the pain coursing through her body but remained focused.

Escaping on her own was impossible right now.

At first, she had tried to escape.

She thought it might be possible once her strength returned, as she couldn’t use it due to poison or magic at the time.

But it wasn’t so simple.

The chains binding Erika’s hands and feet completely blocked the flow of mana.

Because of this, she truly couldn’t do anything.

‘It hurts my pride, but…’

Erika bit her lip slightly but smiled.

She had intended to use this only as an absolute last resort.

The enemies had searched her body and taken all her weapons, but they couldn’t remove the magic tool installed inside her body.

Focusing her senses, Erika located the magic tool in her abdomen.

She began squeezing out mana and directing it toward the magic tool in her stomach.

When it was first implanted, she had been assured she would never need to use it.

The small communication device in Erika’s abdomen was something like an emergency escape mechanism created by the commander and captains.

By simply injecting her mana, the connected communication device would vibrate, no matter how far apart they were.

It was an emergency contact system created at Yuria’s suggestion after establishing the current four-captain system.

Erika exhaled a long sigh, feeling certain that mana had successfully entered the small communication device.

“Huaaah.”

“…Awake, are you?”

Thanks to her sigh, the guard who had been dozing outside the cell spoke in a voice still heavy with sleep.

The guard shook his head a few times before approaching Erika.

“If you’ve come to your senses, we should start again. You rat.”

“Go ahead and try.”

“Such bravado.”

Clank-

“Ungh!”

As the guard pulled a rope outside, the chains binding Erika tightened in all directions.

This sent a sharp pain through her limbs.

It was a tingling sensation that instantly cleared her foggy mind.

“Haah, that’s nice.”

“Crazy bitch. Just wait.”

Clank- Clank-

Watching the guard leave to call someone, Erika thought.

She really hoped the commander would come to rescue her.

Or Jacqueline.

‘I don’t want the other two to see me like this.’

Erika was certain someone from the organization would come to rescue her.

The communication device in her abdomen wasn’t just sending an emergency signal.

It was also transmitting the location information of the connected device.

If the commander noticed, he could arrive within minutes.

‘Nngh. The commander’s villa should be somewhere around here…’

Erika bit her lip tightly, desperately hoping the commander would come.

**

The reason wind magic is more useful in non-combat situations than in battle is its practicality in everyday life.

Like right now.

Whoosh-

After showering, there’s no need to dry off with a towel when you can blow away the water with wind.

Someone who hasn’t experienced this would never understand its convenience.

Drying your body with moderately warm wind feels much better and cleaner than using a towel.

“Hmmmm.”

The refreshing feeling after washing with warm water and immediately drying with warm wind.

It felt like all the fatigue from yesterday had completely disappeared.

I was glad I’d come home to shower.

Putting on freshly laundered clothes made me feel even better.

It couldn’t be more perfect.

I’d cleared the quest and hadn’t revealed my identity to anyone.

Though some seeds of suspicion remained, still.

Maybe it was because I was in a good mood.

Normally, I would have returned directly to the O’Neil Kingdom without stopping by the office, but today I felt like visiting.

Woong-

“Addy! Long time…”

“…Commander?”

“Huh?”

I teleported behind Addy’s desk to surprise her, but unexpectedly, she wasn’t sitting there.

At this hour, she would usually be focused on work at her desk.

Instead, Addy was standing blankly in the middle of the office.

With a serious expression.

Seeing her face, I immediately became serious too.

Addy usually looked serious with her expressionless face, but not this severe.

“What’s wrong? Why are you like that?”

“Haah, seriously.”

“Huh?”

Addy let out a sigh that might have been relief or something else.

Though she only said “seriously,” her voice was trembling slightly.

I instinctively felt it.

Something serious had happened.

I grew increasingly concerned.

“What is it?”

“Phew. Just now, we received an emergency signal. From Captain Erika.”

“…What?”

I reflexively turned around.

The star at the top left of the painting depicting a night sea was flashing and shining.

It was certain.

That was the signal Erika was sending.

“Where is she?”

“In the west. We’ll know the exact location when we get closer.”

“The west… Wasn’t Erika with Jacqueline?”

“I already contacted Jacqueline about it. From what I heard, they were moving separately. Captain Jacqueline is with the Laurellai alliance forces, while Erika was infiltrating the Flora Kingdom.”

“Seems the infiltration didn’t go well.”

Erika was even better at concealing herself than I was.

For someone like her to send an emergency signal meant this wasn’t something to take lightly.

There was only one possibility I could think of.

Somehow, Erika had been captured while infiltrating Flora.

“It seems so. Based on the location, she’s inside the Flora Kingdom palace.”

“I need to go right away.”

This worried me even more than when Elaine was kidnapped by the First Elder.

With Elaine, I was certain she wouldn’t lose her life, if only because of the quest.

But Erika’s case was different.

Not only was there no quest, but the emergency signal came from Erika herself.

When Yuria first proposed creating an emergency device for the captains, Erika had laughed the loudest.

She’d asked if a captain-level operative would ever need such a thing.

In fact, unlike the other captains, Erika had never once sent an emergency signal.

For her to use this device now meant she was in a truly dangerous situation.

“Have you been to the Flora Kingdom before?”

“…No. But it’s near the villa. We can start there and gradually work our way in.”

I recalled the approximate location of the villa.

It was quite a distance, but not too far from the Flora Kingdom.

Of course, infiltrating the Flora Kingdom, which was in the midst of war, wouldn’t be easy, but this wasn’t the time to worry about mission difficulty.

The more I thought about it, the worse scenarios came to mind.

Erika would never send an emergency signal by mistake, and the emergency communication device wasn’t designed to activate accidentally.

Yet the signal was still being transmitted, which meant something serious had happened.

“The Flora Kingdom is at war, making infiltration difficult. Especially the palace interior.”

“…”

“Erika probably failed during infiltration, so rushing in without a plan…”

“We have no choice. We can’t just sit here doing nothing.”

“I know. That’s why…”

Addy continued speaking with a stern expression, as if she already knew what I was going to say.

“If infiltration is difficult, we need to invade.”

“…Huh?”

“Trying to infiltrate half-heartedly will only waste more time. It’s better to invade quickly. If Jacqueline and I join you, we should be able to reach the palace.”

“…Huh?”

I thought I’d misheard Addy’s completely unexpected suggestion.

I never imagined she would openly suggest invasion.

I realized that Addy was taking Erika’s emergency signal as seriously as I was.

“Time is of the essence.”

Saying this, Addy opened a drawer and took out neatly folded black clothes.

It was the Black Shadow Corps uniform.

“Addy, you…”

“I’ll inform Jacqueline in advance. Let’s hurry and prepare.”

Addy’s expression was filled with certainty.

She was staring at me as if asking why I wasn’t getting ready yet.

‘Wait a minute.’

Just as I was about to get my uniform, something occurred to me.

Elaine, Cynthia, Emily, Professor Amillion.

If I left for the western continent now, I wouldn’t be able to return to the O’Neil Kingdom for at least a few days.

And according to our plan, we were supposed to return to Crescen tomorrow.

‘…What should I do?’

Would it be okay to disappear without saying anything?