Ch.118Chapter 118. Selection and Focus (4)

Thud-

“Hmm.”

Arte returned to her room, humming as usual.

Though a catastrophic defeat was expected with the loss of nearly all the black golems in this battle, Arte’s concern wasn’t focused on that.

From the beginning, Arte wouldn’t have minded losing the war itself.

After all, Arte and the Nameless Organization’s goal wasn’t for the Flora Kingdom to win the war, but to clearly demonstrate the power of Black Magic to the world.

Of course, winning would be even better.

‘Why isn’t this person answering?’

Arte picked up the communication orb on her table, complaining about the Elder who hadn’t been responding.

If she contacted him with this, she would definitely reach him.

Ziiing-

As she infused mana into the communication orb, it began to glow.

Arte roughly spat out her words in an irritated manner when the communication finally connected.

“Why aren’t you answering? You’re not still sleeping, are you?”

“…”

There was no response from the communication orb.

Arte’s patience, already thin from the long silence, soon exploded.

“This is urgent. I think the ones who attacked the Third Elder have appeared on my side. They brought an Undead Wyvern with them.”

“…”

The First Elder still gave no answer.

She had expected him to immediately come to retrieve the Undead Wyvern upon hearing such news.

“Are you listening? If you understand, come and cooperate quickly. I can’t handle this alone.”

“…”

‘What’s going on?’

Arte finally sensed something was wrong when there continued to be no response from the First Elder.

Although the First Elder was usually quiet and ignored everyone except the Founder, this was unusual even for him.

Moreover, this news was extremely important for the Nameless Organization.

“Hello?”

“Where are you?”

“…What? Who is this?”

Arte became fully alert at the unfamiliar voice coming from the communication orb.

It definitely wasn’t the First Elder’s voice.

Hearing a voice that wasn’t an Elder’s from the emergency communication orb given only to Elders was alarming.

Arte instinctively felt something was wrong.

“Are you an accomplice?”

“Accom…plice?”

The unfamiliar voice was now openly interrogating her.

‘Damn it.’

Crack-

Arte didn’t hesitate to break the communication orb immediately.

As soon as she heard the word “accomplice,” Arte realized what was happening.

Whatever the circumstances, the First Elder had been captured by enemies.

It was probably the O’Neil Kingdom that had captured the First Elder.

She didn’t know how the O’Neil Kingdom knights, whose Silver Eagles had been annihilated, had defeated the First Elder, but the situation seemed clear.

“Hah, acting all tough and then this happens.”

Crash-

Arte threw the cracked communication orb to the floor in irritation, shattering it completely.

Her annoyance surged.

When she had seen the Undead Wyvern earlier, she had been in a good mood thinking she could capture those interfering with the Nameless Organization and impress the Founder.

‘Has everyone been captured?’

The news that the First Elder had been captured was far more gloomy and irritating compared to discovering the Undead Wyvern.

She needed to buy time until the Founder completed the ritual, but now all the Elders except herself had been captured.

“Hah, what is everyone doing, seriously.”

Arte muttered in an angry voice while clenching her fist.

Although she and the First Elder, as the First and Second Elders in the organization, had been in subtle competition, they were still colleagues belonging to the same organization with the same goals.

No matter how much she disliked the First Elder normally, him being captured by the enemy was a different matter entirely.

‘What happened so suddenly?’

Arte recalled the last news she had heard from the First Elder.

An excellent bait had entered the O’Neil Kingdom.

They would kidnap a student from Crescen Academy, forcing the O’Neil Kingdom to act.

That way, the plan for the O’Neil side would also be executed, and attention wouldn’t be focused solely on the west.

Arte had firmly believed these words from the First Elder.

The First Elder had never failed a mission before and had achieved even greater accomplishments in Black Magic than Arte herself.

So she had thought that if the plan was properly executed on the O’Neil side, the Laurellai alliance forces would no longer be reinforced.

Arte unconsciously frowned at the completely derailed plan.

No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t imagine the First Elder being defeated in battle by the O’Neil Kingdom forces.

‘Wait, a student from Crescen?’

As Arte was deep in thought, biting her lip, a word flashed through her mind.

Crescen Empire.

The operational area of the Third Elder and where the Third Elder had been captured.

And now the First Elder had been captured after meddling with Crescen Academy students.

Various circumstances and evidence floated around in Arte’s mind.

Was it really a coincidence that the First Elder had been captured after targeting a Crescen student?

If it wasn’t a coincidence…

If the same person from Crescen had confronted both the Third Elder and the First Elder?

‘Huh?’

The Undead Wyvern that had appeared earlier flashed through Arte’s mind.

At the same time, she thought of the woman currently imprisoned in the underground dungeon.

There was no basis or reason, but the thought just came to her.

Arte had always had good intuition since childhood.

It was thanks to this that she had met the Founder and received the blessing of Black Magic.

That intuition was now telling her that the silver-haired woman in the underground prison and the Undead Wyvern that appeared on the battlefield were somehow connected.

Perhaps they were also connected to the Crescen Empire.

Click- Click-

As soon as the thought occurred to her, Arte headed to the underground prison with a stern expression.

Since capturing the silver-haired woman, Arte had never interrogated her directly.

She had been busy with the war and hadn’t paid much attention, thinking she was just one of many spies.

‘She might be more important than I thought.’

Arte’s pace began to quicken.

**

Flora Kingdom was farther than expected.

Although Greenie ran quickly without rest, it still took several hours.

By the time the Flora Palace came into view, the sun that had been high in the sky during the battle had clearly tilted westward.

“Phew, good job.”

Clop-

I caught my breath as I sent Greenie back to where it came from with a final stomp of its foot.

I had clearly memorized the location information for the top of the palace.

Now I just needed to teleport there and find where Erika was.

‘If she’s been captured, she’s likely in a prison of some sort.’

Woong-

I thought as I teleported to the roof.

Although Flora Kingdom, like other countries, probably had numerous barriers spread out, I jumped over all of them at once.

As soon as I arrived on the palace roof, I quickly scanned the surroundings.

Perhaps because they were in the middle of a war, there were hardly any guards inside the palace.

I lowered my posture and calmly explored which route to take inside.

The first thing I needed to do was get indoors.

For that…

Woong-

“Huh?”

“W-who!”

“Urgh!”

I simultaneously knocked out the guards who were patrolling in groups of three rather than pairs.

The guards, struck by the sheath of my Black Shadow Sword infused with mana, collapsed on the spot without any resistance.

“Phew, those clothes look too heavy.”

After taking the fallen men to a flat part of the roof, I removed the armor from the one whose build seemed most similar to mine.

Disguise is indeed the best for indoor infiltration.

I put on the visibly heavy armor and pulled the helmet down low so my face couldn’t be seen.

Normally, palace guards wouldn’t be this heavily armed, but it seemed they were fully equipped because of the war.

Thanks to that, it was easier for me to disguise myself.

Clank-

The armor made an unpleasant clanking sound with every movement, but what could I do?

Clank- Clank-

I stepped indoors as naturally as possible while wearing the armor.

The inside of the Flora Palace had fewer people than expected.

I understood why there were so few guards.

There didn’t seem to be many people to protect.

‘As a rule, prisons are located underground.’

Whether there was only one palace architect in this continent or not, the prisons in all countries’ palaces were located underground.

Confident that Flora Kingdom would be the same, I naturally went down the stairs.

No one paid attention to a guard walking around the nearly empty palace.

I encountered a few maids along the way, but they all just nodded respectfully as they passed by without suspicion.

After descending quite far down…

“Hey, you there.”

Flinch-

I momentarily froze at the voice that was clearly calling me.

The guard in front of me was gesturing for me to come over.

I slowly approached him, tensed and ready to draw my sword at any moment.

If I seemed to have been discovered, I would cut him down immediately and jump down.

“The shift change is early today? Hahaha.”

“…Ah.”

My tension instantly dissolved.

The guard who had called me patted my shoulder and burst into hearty laughter.

“The princess went in earlier, so be careful not to upset her.”

“…Yes.”

I answered, keeping my voice as low as possible.

“Wow, the princess has taken it upon herself to interrogate the hostage. I knew the princess was impressive, but…”

‘Princess.’

I mulled over the guard’s words while letting them go in one ear and out the other.

A princess personally interrogating a hostage in the underground prison.

It certainly didn’t seem like a common situation.

“Well, good luck.”

Bow-

I roughly bowed to the guard who gave me a final pat on the back before continuing downward.

Surprisingly, infiltrating the palace had been easy, and reaching the underground prison was just as simple.

Now I just needed to find Erika, and getting her out would be a piece of cake.

‘Will it be okay?’

The situation was unfolding very smoothly.