Part 1, Chapter 12, Section 5

At that time. Vladimir Annex Palace.

I mobilized the Azure Syndicate and the Phantom Dragon Unit to find the place where Anastasia was confined.

The main palace where the conference was taking place was inaccessible due to Rasputin’s presence, so we began searching through the numerous annex palaces connected to the main palace.

There were two problems.

“Can you feel Rusalka’s presence?”

“Not at all.”

“Why can’t I feel anything?”

“Usually, in cases like this, a Barrier is cast to block the flow of mana.”

There was no trace of Rusalka. She might have been confined within a Barrier cast by someone while she was under house arrest.

“Then why isn’t she coming out herself?”

“Phantom Dragon-ah. Maybe she accepted the confinement herself.”

“……Isn’t it because she’s too lazy to come out?”

“Do you think Rusalka is you?”

If someone else cast the Barrier, she willingly confined herself within it, and if she cast the Barrier herself, it wouldn’t be much different.

“There’s no way to contact her either….”

Ultimately, to find Rusalka, we had to personally search every annex palace.

And here, we faced the second problem.

“Why are there so many annex palaces?”

“They say it’s an old family with a long history. The total land area is only slightly smaller than my estate.”

“……Both are impressive, but right now, it’s just really annoying.”

“I agree. ……It’s incredibly bothersome trying to find her now.”

It was surprising that the family’s entire estate was the size of a small city, but the thought of having to search the entire area to find one person cooped up somewhere was just irritating.

“If I’d known this, I would have created a Spirit Network with Rusalka too.”

“The one you connected with Rusalka unnie’s daughter? It all broke when you were trapped in the triple Barrier last time. Even if you’d made it, it would’ve shattered the moment Rusalka unnie entered the Barrier.”

“…..That’s right.”

“I have something to say about that…. but let’s just do it later. I’m too lazy to talk about it now.”

“I don’t have the presence of mind to listen right now either.”

The Divided Spirit network for communication between Spirits had not yet been restored.

Due to its limitation of breaking when trapped in a Barrier, there was no need to restore it, and the performance of the magic gear was surprisingly good enough to replace communication via Divided Spirits.

‘Should I get insurance just in case?’

I should make one when I have time. I refocused on the situation in the annex palace.

♪♬

The Mini Phoenixes spread around us began to chirp. To search the nearest annex palaces first, I divided the personnel, and the Mini Phoenixes reported that the monstrous humans had been deployed.

“Then let’s begin.”

The sausage party doesn’t start by cutting off Rasputin’s dick.

“Everyone, from now on, find the bride’s waiting room. Commence.”

To kidnap the bride, we thoroughly searched the entire annex palace for the bride’s waiting room, which was protected by a Barrier.

* * *

The corridor of the annex palace, adorned with splendid decorations.

A guard with a bayonet stood with wide eyes, vigilantly surveying his surroundings from his designated position. His mission was to eliminate any ruffians who might invade the annex palace or to sound the alarm.

‘Please, let nothing happen today.’

It was best if no incident occurred, but if one did, the situation would spiral out of control.

‘Even without this, hooligans with anti-Korean sentiments are running wild…!’

The image of Cheonghwa, who controlled monsters, was 99% favorable, but there was definitely the remaining 1% of dislike.

Things like: Is she showing off with her ability to control monsters? Is she arbitrarily choosing which countries to help and bestowing pity? Is she pretending to help while stealing S-rank Cores? And so on.

Most Russian citizens wished for Cheonghwa to visit Russia, but after the ‘Undine Scandal,’ public opinion rapidly flared up.

‘Our princess is getting to the age where she should marry, but a foreigner is a bit…’

If it were the legitimate son of a prestigious Russian family, it would be understandable.

But suddenly going to Korea, to a city called Busan, not even New Seoul, and casually eating Korean food as if she had lived there for years, and dating a blonde young man-this caused a culture shock among the Russian people.

‘Could it be that the princess met him through random chat or something?’

Although it was a global era, it was also the Great Monster Era, making it difficult to travel abroad. So, she might have fantasized about a young man from another country. The male lead in the Korean dramas she usually watched was also portrayed as a very kind and wonderful gentleman.

‘His name was definitely Lee Seung…. something.’

Did the princess go to meet him and fall for another man? Although it was thoroughly blocked by Suvorov, he still couldn’t forget the video of the princess caught on a park CCTV that he secretly watched.

‘No, that’s not the princess. It’s cosplay to humiliate the princess in Korea!’

Or it might be a trick by another country to sow discord between Korea and Russia, preventing Cheonghwa from going to Russia.

‘Or are the princess and the Korean young man truly in love? Did two people who passionately loved each other in a past life regain their memories in this life and dramatically reunite to continue their unfulfilled love?’

……The guard spent his time alone, guarding his assigned area, lost in all sorts of fantasies. But still, the clock hands hadn’t moved much.

‘Ah, time is moving so slowly.’

“Yawn.”

Even with all the fantasies in his head, barely 30 minutes had passed. The guard blinked his sleepy eyes and opened them wide again.

‘……Honestly, there’s no way an intruder would be in this annex palace-‘

“……?”

Something golden glittered on the bayonet attached to his rifle. He wondered if it was just the ceiling light reflecting as he moved, but a strangely stinging sensation instinctively heightened the guard’s tension.

‘What’s above-‘

“…….”

The young man in question was on the ceiling. That enviable and infuriating foreign young man who kicked the princess’s butt and swayed his waist like light.

“……! Intrud-“

“My apologies.”

The young man, with a deep voice, kicked the guard in the neck. The guard reached for his smart gear, thinking he needed to sound the alarm, but for some reason, the smart gear was already cut in half.

“I came to save my wife, so please understand.”

Fluent Korean flowed from the young man’s lips, and the guard lost consciousness, trying to guess the meaning of the words that weren’t even translated.

Thud.

The young man, Gwanggeom, subtly placed the unconscious guard near the window.

“You worked hard.”

“It’s nothing. ……I’m counting on you.”

Bonghyo, the vice-leader of the Phantom Dragon Unit, who followed him, released his spiritualization, carried the unconscious guard out through the window, and disappeared. The Azure Syndicate and the Phantom Dragon Unit cooperated, eliminating guards one by one and searching the annex palace for Anastasia’s Barrier.

“……This is definitely a crime, isn’t it?”

Gwanggeom stared at the half-cut smart watch for a long time before biting his lip.

“But to save Rusalka, I must…!”

Gwanggeom threw a dagger he created in mid-air horizontally. A maid, who had just noticed him and was about to sound the alarm, screamed as the throwing sword precisely cut the smart watch on her wrist.

“A skilled one-!”

The maid lifted her skirt. Gwanggeom, who closed his eyes wondering what she was suddenly doing, swung his sword at the maid who rushed towards him in that instant.

Cha-ang!

“……She’s not a civilian?”

The maid was an ability user. The maid, who saw Gwanggeom’s surprise, smirked, then realized Gwanggeom’s identity and blushed.

“You trash who treated our princess like a slave!”

“……To be clear about one thing.”

The smart watch was already broken, so the translation couldn’t be conveyed. But Gwanggeom quickly knocked the maid unconscious by cutting her dagger and striking the back of her neck.

“Rusalka ordered me to do all of this….”

Gwanggeom leaned the unconscious maid against the wall and secretly opened the door.

“Wow, Princess, how can you really play like this….”

“A virgin shouldn’t be moving her hips like that, right? Are these really techniques she learned while being with him?”

“I envy the princess…. Hey, what are you doing opening the door from earlier-“

“…….”

Gwanggeom sighed deeply at the group of maids watching his and Rusalka’s love on a large screen, then.

Clang!

He swung his sword as fast as light, knocking all the maids unconscious.

“…….”

Gwanggeom paused the video and quickly moved to find another room.

10 minutes since the annex palace search began.

Gwanggeom and his companions had not yet found Rusalka’s Barrier.

* * *

The Phantom Dragon Unit, optimized for infiltration, became spiritual bodies and roamed through the building, finding blind spots, while the Azure Syndicate secretly kidnapped and knocked out guards, burying them in the ground.

Sometimes their roles were reversed, but the Phantom Dragon Unit was still superior at infiltration.

“Gwanggeom is the most enthusiastic.”

Gwanggeom was at the forefront. As soon as the Phantom Dragon Unit’s ghosts reported the guards’ positions, Gwanggeom swung his sword with lightning speed, knocking the guards unconscious.

“Still, they’re quite elite, so they’re not completely clueless.”

“We’re raiding the palace of the most powerful family. Of course. Yawn.”

I controlled the unit members with Phantom Dragon in a room like a storage room. Since we didn’t know where Anastasia was in the annex palace, we had no choice but to search the entire annex palace meticulously, like looking for fleas.

“I still can’t sense Rusalka’s presence.”

“At this rate, we’re just wasting time.”

Rusalka was definitely somewhere in the annex palace, but her mana couldn’t be felt at all. I continued to give instructions through a channel audible only to my monstrous humans, as if sending a radio message with my magic gear.

“Take everyone you’ve knocked out outside. So no one accidentally dies.”

“Bio-signatures are…. none. Okay, I think we can do this here now.”

I subtly rose from my seat. There were no longer any human traces in the annex palace, and all ‘humans’ had been thrown out of the annex palace by the Azure Syndicate’s monstrous humans.

“…Bonghyo’s report. He says there are no particular traces in the annex palace he’s searching.”

“Tch. Not there either.”

Being a family with a long history, there wasn’t just one or two annex palaces.

We continued our search from the annex palaces other than the main palace where Ryu Cheon-seong and Suvorov’s discussion was actively taking place, and the progress was still less than 30%.

“Are the mansion’s butlers and maids stronger than the bodyguards?”

“…The guards seem to be all ex-military, and the butlers and maids are all ability users. At least C-rank.”

The reason the search was taking time was not only because the search area was vast, but also because maids cleaning or butlers walking the corridors suddenly used mana and intercepted them.

It was fortunate that measures were taken to prevent them from sounding the alarm and to subdue them; otherwise, the alarm would have gone off long ago, and the search difficulty would have increased significantly.

“There’s a limit to infiltration missions…. Haa, even Yuseong Mansion wasn’t this bad.”

The nightmare of infiltrating Yuseong Mansion to uncover Eun Yuha’s true identity began to resurface.

Evading the surveillance of the X-roids patrolling the corridors, passing through all sorts of passages and rooms, they arrived at the chairman’s room, where Chairman Eunhasu was frail and on the verge of collapse. He indeed collapsed and died in front of the protagonist’s party, who had evaded all sorts of Machine Dolls.

And Eun Yuha, who had been held hostage, flung the door open and appeared in her true form, declaring, ‘I am the chairman.’ Chairman Eunhasu, who had exuded a mastermind aura, was in fact a puppet, and Eun Yuha’s revelation of her true identity marked her official entry into the heroine race.

At that time, they searched a whopping 77 rooms. Now, they had to be even more careful, and it wasn’t just one building.

“At this rate, we won’t find her before the conference ends, will we?”

“Tch. Rusalka unnecessarily cast a Barrier….”

She cast a Barrier herself to prevent anyone from entering, so they couldn’t detect her mana from their side either. And they didn’t have time to search leisurely; if not now, there wouldn’t be another chance.

“Are all fathers with daughters the same…. Haa.”

Suvorov was guarding Rusalka, and if they recklessly broke Rusalka’s Barrier, Suvorov might mobilize the entire Russian Association.

Just as Gwanggeom had shown, the wrath of a father with a daughter possessed an unpredictable ferocity.

“There’s no reason to search individually……. Tsk. It’s about time we found-“

“They said they found her…?”

It seemed one of the Phantom Dragon Unit members had finally found the target. I listened intently to the report being conveyed to Phantom Dragon.

“It’s Annex Palace C, the furthest from the main palace, the top tower of the annex palace on an island surrounded by a lake. They said they can’t get in there.”

“An annex palace on an island, then….”

I opened the window and scanned outside. The distant annex palace was connected by a single bridge to a castle on a lake.

“It’s like Rapunzel or something.”

Just like a princess.

The place where Anastasia was confined was the top of the spire in the annex palace on an island in the middle of a lake.