Upon entering the underground prison, where iron bars as thick as duck eggs stood in long rows, Yuliana was startled and
stopped in her tracks.
“Why? Why are we going this way?”
“………”
At the sudden question, the knights looked at one another. It was as if each were trying to pass the explanation
off to someone else. Yuliana folded her arms firmly, as though declaring she would go no farther.
“I don’t want to go this way. So guide me along another route.”
When she stubbornly refused, one of the knights escorting her snapped curtly. He was a knight with a rather
fierce-looking face.
“There is no other route. This is exactly where you belong.”
At those words, like a bolt from the blue, Yuliana’s eyes widened. She had never dreamed they would imprison
her. As if unable to believe it, she shook her head violently.
“Th-that’s absurd. Why should I have to go to prison?”
“If you’ve committed a crime, it’s only natural that you be imprisoned.”
After speaking, the knight grabbed Yuliana by the arm and tried to drag her roughly along. Yuliana coldly
shook off his hand and screamed.
“Don’t touch me as you please. I am the princess of Carsel. I expect you to show proper courtesy.”
As soon as she finished speaking, mocking smiles appeared on the knights’ faces. They had already completed
their investigation into everything.
“Hmph. A place with a population of barely eight thousand four hundred calls itself a kingdom? That’s so ridiculous I’m at a loss for words. Dontrel’s
population alone is more than ten times that. So you’d be better off not putting on useless airs of pride.
We don’t even count the princess of a place that can hardly be called a kingdom.”
Their tone had changed completely. At the aggressive growl that came without warning, Yuliana felt a chill run
down her spine. If they had even figured that out, it meant the other side had taken everything into account.
Overcome by an ominous feeling, she shook her head frantically.
“I-I’m the one who reported the dark mage. Where in the world do they imprison an informant?”
“Informant? We know nothing about that. In any case, you are an accomplice of the culprit, so it’s only
natural that you be imprisoned.”
The knight coldly dismissed Yuliana’s words and gave a look. Then two knights
rushed forward and seized both of Yuliana’s arms tightly.
“Let go of me!”
She thrashed her arms desperately, but she could not shake off the hands of the powerful knights. They
lifted Yuliana bodily and walked toward the prison. She kicked and struggled, but there was nothing she could
do. Yuliana shouted until her throat felt as though it would burst.
“Do you think the Krosen Empire will stay quiet if they find out about this?”
“Heh heh. Who would believe the words of a mere criminal? If you can escape, why don’t you go tell them?”
At the knight’s oily reply, Yuliana’s eyes rolled with fury.
“Do you think you’ll get away with this? I’ll tell my father and bring every soldier in Carsel
here. And I’ll kill every last one of you.”
A fishy smile formed on the knight’s face.
“That sounds amusing. If your population is eight thousand, then even if you call them soldiers, you’d have at most around a thousand…
Mobilizing just one detachment of the Dontrel garrison would settle it easily. Ah! For your reference,
one detachment is composed of fifteen hundred soldiers, and a total of fifteen detachments are stationed
in Dontrel.”
Yuliana was at a loss for words. At the very least, these were people on whom her way of doing things would not work
at all. Only then did Yuliana truly realize that she had been a frog in a well.
Now she could not even bring herself to shout. The thought that Carsel’s standing in Arcadia
amounted to no more than this drained all the strength from her.
In truth, Yuliana had also thought of it as a gamble, but she had not believed it would be utterly impossible
for her to be chosen as the Krosen Crown Princess. In any case, she was the proud princess of a sovereign
kingdom, and she had thought she could at least compete fairly with the princesses of other kingdoms.
But seeing the knights’ reactions, that had been nothing but a fleeting dream from the start. The knight’s answer,
that a small country like Carsel was not even counted as a kingdom, shattered Yuliana’s pride
from the root. When Yuliana, who had been struggling desperately, fell silent, the knights, looking relieved,
quickly locked her inside the prison.
Clang.
After imprisoning Yuliana in a solitary cell located in a corner, the knight dusted off his hands.
“Well then, have sweet dreams… By tomorrow, Sir Wilkerson, a Sword Master, should arrive
from Sovereign Fortress, and at that time we plan to escort you all and the dark mage to the capital, so you’d better get plenty
of sleep.”
After speaking, the knight turned away as if he had no further business there.
Thud.
Yuliana, dazed, sank weakly to the floor.
“I was wrong. I shouldn’t have reported him.”
Regret surged over her like a flood, but the water had already been spilled. With her heart in turmoil, Yuliana buried her face
deep between her knees. Tears streamed down before she realized it. If only she had not given in to vain
ambition and had stayed in Carsel instead…
The root of the trouble was that she had grown sick of narrow Carsel in the first place. Because of that, using the Crown Princess selection
as an excuse, she had left Carsel behind without a shred of attachment, hadn’t she? To Yuliana,
everything was something to regret. But the situation did not leave her in peace.
“So the one who informed on us was you.”
At the voice that suddenly rang out, Yuliana raised her head. The moment she looked into the cell across from her,
her face stiffened. Despair had already settled over her expression.
“Ka-Kasim.”
Astonishingly, Kasim and the other mercenaries were imprisoned in the cell opposite her. The knights had
cruelly locked Yuliana directly across from the mercenaries. A cold expression
hung on Kasim’s face. Since he had realized the truth, it was only natural. Unable to endure
Kasim’s gaze, which glared at her as though he might devour her, Yuliana lowered her head deeply.
Kasim had been practicing mana cultivation with his mercenaries at their lodging. Since it was
quite rewarding, they had been so absorbed in practicing mana cultivation whenever they had time that they lost track of time.
Then something unexpected happened.
Clatter.
The door suddenly opened, and hundreds of soldiers poured in. Without asking questions, they tried to
arrest the mercenaries. There were so many of them that the mercenaries could not even properly resist.
The fact that they had not been carrying weapons because they were absorbed in mana cultivation also had a great effect. Bound tightly
with ropes, Kasim protested fiercely.
“What is the meaning of this? State the reason for arresting us!”
But the soldiers did not readily reveal the reason for the arrest.
“You’ll learn the charges once we get to city hall.”
The soldiers dismissed him briefly and took the mercenaries to city hall without delay. Of course, it went without saying that Mitchell was also
arrested with them.
However, the reason he did not resist was somewhat different from the mercenaries’ case. Since he was well aware
of the secret conversation that had passed between Yuliana and Vertec, he obediently gave up resisting. He thought
he would soon be released. Thus Kasim and the mercenaries were imprisoned
in the underground prison of city hall, and until now they had been racking their brains over the reason for their arrest.
But with Yuliana’s appearance, and through the conversation exchanged between her and the knights,
the reason for their arrest had been made clear… Kasim glared at Yuliana
as though he might devour her.
“You truly are a wretched person.”
“……”
“To think you would sell out your companions. I should have realized long ago that you were this kind of person.”
At Kasim’s reproach, Yuliana lowered her head even deeper. She felt as though, if there were a mouse hole anywhere,
she would crawl into it and hide. She wanted to say she was sorry, but the words simply would not
come out of her throat. Looking at her, Kasim let out a long sigh.
“What in the world did the dark mage do to you that made you think of selling him out?”
“………”
“As far as I know, the only thing he did wrong was stare at you. Did you hate that so much?”
In the end, Yuliana burst into tears.
“Stop, please stop. I’m suffering so much I feel like I’m going mad too.”
Tears streamed down Yuliana’s face. But Kasim showed no sign of ending his interrogation.
“If you disliked the dark mage’s gaze, why didn’t you simply terminate the contract? Then you wouldn’t have had to
worry about his gaze anymore, would you? If you had signed the contract withdrawal document, I
would certainly have returned part of the commission. Then we could have gone our way, and you could have used that
money to hire another mercenary group, couldn’t you?”
“………”
“Though I am a mercenary who wanders about for money, I am a man with pride. I have never
thought of selling out a companion like you, and I never will.”
Yuliana made no reply. She merely kept her head buried between her knees and sobbed silently.
Looking at her, Kasim turned his head.
There, Mitchell was trembling, his face deathly pale. He seemed completely stunned by the fact that Yuliana
had been imprisoned. Mitchell had given up resisting because he had trusted only her.
He had believed that, after a short while, he alone would be brought out. After staring at Mitchell
for a moment, Kasim’s expression hardened as though he understood everything.
“You must have already arranged things with her, hadn’t you? When I saw you give up resisting the moment the soldiers
burst in, I had a rough idea. You joined hands with your princess and sold out your companions.”
Mitchell did not dare meet Kasim’s gaze. With his head deeply lowered, he tried to defend himself
in a voice that crept out.
“I th-think the dark mage was never a companion at all.”
“Of course you people must have thought so. But we don’t. I don’t know when it will be, but there will be a summary
hearing. When that time comes, you’ll know our hearts by how we act.”
After speaking, Kasim turned away. As if he did not want to be with Mitchell even for a moment,
Kasim went to the far end of the cell, leaned his back against the wall, and sat down cross-legged. The mercenaries imprisoned with him
also sat in a row beside Kasim.
Thus a period of silence passed. Naturally, Mitchell and Yuliana had nothing they could say,
and the mercenaries also kept their words to an absolute minimum. In the end, the one who broke the silence was the chatterbox Patterson.
“But, Captain. There’s something I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
Patterson looked at the prison across from them with eyes that showed he did not understand.
“Even if there’s nothing strange about us being arrested, isn’t it a bit strange that they were arrested too?”
“What is strange about it?”
“They were the ones who tattled—no, who reported him. So why imprison them?”
A desolate light appeared in Kasim’s eyes. Having much experience of the world, he could guess
the situation to some extent.
“They say the law can be hung on the nose if it suits the nose, and on the ear if it suits the ear. That’s why people say
the law is on the side of those with money. If you look at the situation from a broader perspective, you can get a rough idea.”
As if he did not quite understand, Patterson scratched the back of his head.
“I, well, I don’t really…”
“Listen carefully. That princess of Carsel never intended to continue traveling with us from the start.
Their original plan was probably to cast us off here, receive the reward for reporting the dark mage,
and hire another mercenary group. Well, our safety wouldn’t have been of any concern to them…”
Hearing those words, Yuliana jerked her head up.
“That’s not true. I never had the slightest intention of that. I only meant to get rid of the dark mage,
only the dark mage. If not for him, couldn’t we have gone smoothly to the Krosen Empire?”
Kasim cut off her words coldly.
“You are wrong. Princess. The truth is, from the moment I accepted the dark mage into the mercenary group,
I committed a crime. If he had committed a crime while staying in Sebain, it would also be applied
strictly and retroactively to us. In other words, you should understand that it means we become accomplices. This is a clause
applied in most kingdoms. Therefore, we had already shared the same fate as the dark mage.”
“Th-then why did you accept the dark mage?”
A complicated expression passed over Kasim’s face.
“You need not know that much. But what is certain is that responsibility cannot be avoided to the end.
You are also, in name, the employer of our mercenary group, so naturally you must bear responsibility. However,
you do have the merit of having reported the dark mage. In other words, you could be excluded from being an accomplice.”
“………”
“But unfortunately, that matter mostly depends on the generosity of the one enforcing the law. If the person
you reported to harbors ill intentions, you may not be able to avoid responsibility either.”
“I-ill intentions?”
Kasim slowly nodded.
“To put it simply, the desire to monopolize the credit. If you think deeply about it, you’ll understand.
There is an enormous difference in reward between arresting someone through a report and arresting someone independently…
On top of that, there could also be the unearned profit of taking the entire bounty for oneself.”
“Th-then…”
A look of realization appeared on Yuliana’s face.