Day 24 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016, night

Military Base Dustor City, Grizzle Province

VICTORIA didn’t feel quite well.

She didn’t know why, either. She felt quite lethargic after coming down the city walls earlier today. Her guards insisted that she stayed in her room for the day. Originally, she tried to resist the suggestion, just to realize she didn’t even have any energy to do so. At last, she obediently went into her room to rest.

It was past sundown and there was no news of an attack, so Victoria thought Lirsk wouldn’t attack tonight. She went back to her mansion, said to her guards that she was going to rest, and to tell her if anything happened, then went to sleep.

Her sleep wasn’t peaceful, unfortunately. ‘Run, Victa!’ The voice kept repeating in her head. It was familiar. Her old friends. Another nightmare. She trashed in her bed and was woken up easily when there were sudden noises outside. “They’re attacking!”

Sounded like some soldiers came bringing news. Victoria tried to get up, but her head felt really heavy. The door opened and Captain Lewis came in, just in time to see Victoria almost falling down from her bed. “Your Highness!” The Knightess admonished her. “You’re still unwell, why are you getting up?”

“They’re attacking?” Victoria asked. Her voice sounded hoarse even to herself.

“You’re still ill and you won’t be able to do anything,” The Knightess said with insistence in her voice. “Go back to bed and rest.”

“But I…”

“Your Highness, please.”

Sighing, Victoria admitted that her guard was right. She was in no condition to be running about. “Please tell me the news of the battlefield.”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

But afterwards, she had fallen asleep.

When she woke, it was because she felt that something off was happening in her room. Victoria opened her eyes and was surprised to find a knife was held on her throat. She tried to see who was threatening her, but her head was dizzy and she could barely keep her head upright. She opened her mouth to speak, but the knife sliced deeper to her neck. “Shut up,” the person said. “Well, you can scream. There’s no one around.” Another person laughed along with the first one.

Goddess. She couldn’t very well be fighting two people at once, unarmed and sick. “Who… are you?” She asked.

“You don’t need to know, Princess,” one of them replied. “Just know that they paid a whole lot of money just to take you away.”

They brought her out of the room and out of the corner of her eyes she saw her guards, lying down on the floor. She felt a twinge of guilt rushing in, but she tamped it down. Another two, dead because of her. She knew it was because of her identity, she knew it was their job… But still… It happened again and she was powerless to stop it.

Outside the mansion was empty of people. Most citizens were staying at home because of the war and the soldiers were all defending. Victoria was worried about the battle, but she figured she couldn’t even be worried if she wasn’t alive, so she tried to focus on her condition first.

The main thing was, she needed to assess her situation completely. It was completely not to her favor, of course. Her magic necklace was still on her and could send a signal, but Luz was still injured and resting. Her heart suddenly thumped when she remembered that one of her best friends was also in the mansion. She hoped these people hadn’t hurt her, or her other guards who weren’t on shift.

She noticed where they were bringing her. It was to the western gate, which was supposed to be closed. She wasn’t sure how they would be planning on sneaking out there, but she needed to… Escape.

But they tied her up, she was weak, and also outnumbered by two professionals… assassins? Thieves? Kidnappers? Didn’t matter. What matters was that it was going to be hard to escape. She had to wait until the situation became favorable for her. But it was not going to be easy.

They brought her out of the city and oddly there were no guards on the gate. It was strange and alarming, but it’s not like she can do anything about it when she was tied up and helpless. A few meters from the gate, a carriage was parked. It seemed like they had prepared for this. Not a welcome notion, because it means it will be harder to escape.

They shoved her into the carriage harshly. There were no windows inside, but she tried to memorized the feel of the carriage while remembering the map of the city. Indeed, she was a bit drowsy, but it didn’t stop her.

It didn’t stop her from eavesdropping either.

“What’s next?” One talk to the other.

“We bring her to the client, of course,” the other answered. “After the others take care of the other one in the capital.”

The other one? Who were they talking about?

“I’m still wondering why they are putting hit on an insignificant guard,” the first one replied.

“Who knows? As long we got the money.”

“Still, helping the enemy…”

“We never have loyalty,” the other snickered. “As long as we didn’t kill the royal family, it’s fine.”

“Right.”

The conversation trailed off. Victoria tried to understand their words. The enemy, loyalty… Lirsk, right? And the guard they were talking about, who? Is it Alize? She was in the capital. After Luz was targeted yesterday, maybe they were targeting her aides.

But who were they?

Mercenaries for hire, that was for sure. Though they spoke of killing… Mercenary with a side of assassins, perhaps. Lirsk hired them. Victoria wasn’t that naïve to think that her mother’s government was absolute and no crime was left, but hearing them speak, it was safe to assume they had some sort of a deal with someone in the government that they wouldn’t do harm to the royal family. But they still kidnapped her despite that deal that seemingly kept this assassin group in business. How much did Lirsk pay for that? Of course, kidnapping and assassinating were different, but still, it threaded a thin line.

And if it was Lirsk… Why would they target Alize? Sure, she was her close aide, but it didn’t impact anything at all. Maybe she was thinking of it all wrong. Not Alize. Something, someone that could impact the war.

The Crimson Corps. Lieutenant Brentley Nile, her however-many-times-removed uncle, the one she instructed to reassembly the Crimson Corps.

He also hadn’t been in contact for a while.

Oh, dear.

That was problematic. She would feel really sad if the man was murdered, but worse still, he held the list of the Crimson Corps member that were strewn all over the place. They were trained super soldiers, sure, but they were scattered and they were unprepared. They wouldn’t be able to fight professional assassins, at least not all of them. There were bound to be casualties.

Unless… No, they haven’t killed him yet. The two kidnappers still spoke of killing him, right?

And Alize… She also asked that girl to checked on Nile. Damn it. She hoped Alize hadn’t gotten involved with these assassins. It was bad enough that she herself got kidnapped. Speaking of which, she really needed to find a way to escape.

They were clever, she had to give them that. They came during battle, right on time when she was sick, too. Which was suspicious now. Did they know? Was it a coincidence?

Did they do this?

Did they poison her or something? But how? There were traitors inside, for sure, but she was always guarded by two guards every time. Where could someone ever poison her? In her food? It was rechecked many times by the guards around her, too. Unless one of her guards was a traitor…

It was another unwelcome notion. How could that be? Were they… Did anyone get to them? Maybe there were other explanation. Victoria felt tired that she was this suspicious of everyone, honestly. The fact that there was a traitor, or traitors, just made her super aware of everyone.

Even her old friend was a traitor.

But it wasn’t time to think about this. She needed to figure out a way to… Well… Escape this situation. It wasn’t like this was the first time she ever needed to escape from her abductors, she thought, recalling her experience wryly. But these abductors just seemed thousand times more experienced.

Which was definitely bad for her.

Victoria laid back, trying to calm herself down. It wasn’t that bad—she was still alive. But she definitely couldn’t use the previous method of escaping. She could sense that these people would know if she tried to pry open the carriage doors. So hateful. Sometimes people are just irritating.

Very, very irritating.

Now she was just pissed off. Which didn’t help her condition, given that her head was still hurting badly. But she needed to escape badly. She could kill these pieces of excrements later.

Trying to focus her gaze, she looked around. Now, how could she possibly start doing that? Picking the lock… Out of the question. The door was off to the side of the carriage. There was a window to the front, with the kidnappers manning the horse, and once in a while, those idiots glanced to check on her. It was just not possible to do in a short time—she wasn’t that good in picking locks. She was a princess, after all, not a locksmith.

Then she needed another alternative…

Before she could decide as to what to do, she heard a crash out there. She couldn’t see it because the carriage was windowless except for the one to the front, but she saw the one of the two idiots looking around like crazy. The other one was already slumped and red trailed down his back from an arrow.

She blinked once. Twice.

And then the other guy got shot as well. Were her eyes playing a joke on her? Someone was rescuing her… Or kidnapping her. And there was nothing she could do because her head started to spin again.

Then, that someone ripped the carriage door open. Victoria blinked again. A man stood in front of her, but she couldn’t quite make his expression because it was dark. “Your Highness!” He exclaimed.

“Major?” Victoria frowned, trying to focus her sight. She failed. She tried to walked forward, out of the carriage, too, but somehow, she stumbled on her steps. Thankfully, the Major caught her before she face-planted into the dirt.

“Your Highness, are you okay?”

She shook her head, trying to control herself. “Uh… Yeah.” She blinked again. The world finally seemed clearer. As she saw the two corpses up front, she frowned. “Are they dead?”

“Yes, I made sure of it.” He propped her up and brought her to a horse. In her confusion, she managed to recognize it as Windrunner, Dev’s black stallion. It whined to her, as if greeting her “We’re too far from Dustor, so we have to stay the night in the town nearby.”

“Where are we exactly?” Victoria asked.

“We are just a couple cities away from the Capital,” he replied as he lifted her up on the horse, then sat behind her.

No way. Did she lose track of time? She could almost swear that it had only been a few minutes, but it must’ve been a few hours already. Her condition was worse than she thought. What did they put in her food?

She didn’t know how long after because she was in a daze, but then she saw a small town in front of her. It was lit with lantern everywhere, although not as much as Duskbury town had been. Seemed like a typical cozy town—hopefully nothing crazy.

“We need… Need to send a message,” Victoria managed to say. The light of the town made her even dizzier somehow. She felt her consciousness going out.

“I’ll manage that as soon as we arrived,” he assured her.

She lost consciousness right on the next second.

Day 25 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016, morning

Firnir Town, Grizzle Province

When she woke up, she found herself on a creaking bed in a dingy room. She tried to move herself, but she felt dizzy and almost fell down. Suddenly, someone stood next to her. “Your Highness, be careful!”

Victoria blinked and saw Dev standing next to her. “Have you been standing guard there?”

Dev looked almost embarrased. “Someone has to stand guard,” he managed to say.

Victoria rubbed her eyes, and suddenly, the telltale of yesterday’s headache came over her again. She winced.

“Drink this,” Dev put a bowl in front of her mouth and Victoria drunk it without complaint. “The doctor said you were poisoned by Night Bane and this is the antidote he prescribed.” Night Bane… That made sense. She didn’t know much about poisons, but she did learn a bit of medicine back at the academy. Night Bane caused the victim to be lethargic, sleepy, and full of fatigue—all of which happened to her.

“Where did you find the doctor?” She asked after gulping down the drug, wincing from the bitterness.

“I asked the innkeeper to find him. Don’t worry, I paid him enough to keep him from spouting nonsense.” He took the empty bowl from her and put it on the table beside the bed. “I managed to pay someone to send a message to Dustor, too, don’t worry about that.”

Victoria frowned while touching her head. “Don’t forget to report your expense to the General. You’ll be reimbursed.” Blinking once again, she looked towards Dev. “Thank you for saving me. Where are we? What happened?”

Dev pursed his lips. “We are currently in Firnir Town. Sir Paulo and I found a coded message on enemy camp that said when they were attacking the city, their hired men are going to kidnap you,” he explained. “Your strategist asked me to ride back and intercept them.”

“Okay,” Victoria said, a bit wobbly as she tried to stand up. “Did something happen to him?” She did think Dev was trustworthy, but Ethan wasn’t usually this trusting to delegate a mission to someone else.

Dev readily steadied her. “He fought their commander and was heavily injured. Also, you really shouldn’t be getting up yet.”

“I’m feeling better,” she answered. “I need to go to the Capital.” She somehow remembered the vague conversation she heard with the two kidnappers. “Those people they hired… I think they also were hired to destroy my plan.”

“Your plan?” Dev frowned.

Victoria glanced at him. Should she tell him? She was surprised to find herself answering yes. Of course, she trusted him; otherwise, she would never advocate his release from prison. She didn’t realize that she trusted him this much, though. “Do you know the Crimson Corps?”

His eyes brightened, as with many little boys when they heard about Crimson Corps, the heroes of the Kingdom. “Yeah. They were dispersed years ago, though, right? After the war ended.”

Victoria nodded. “Yes, but not exactly. You see, Crimson Corps had a vow that they would never be broken up. They scattered, had families, but we always keep track to every single one of them and we had also been training other soldiers to replace those that were lost in the war, or in any other way.” She said all these in the lowest voice possible, making Dev leaned closer to her.

Dev looked in her eyes, astonished. “So, your plans…”

“Well, they would band together again under my command,” Victoria said slowly. “I had commanded my lieutenant to arrange them, but I heard those two hired men speaking about killing ‘the other one’. I’m worried.”

“You think they want to obstruct the reassembly,” he replied, thinking.

“Yes. Even worse if they could find the list of soldiers and their places. I’m not putting Lirsk above assassinating each and every one of them.” Victoria closed her eyes. “Worse, there was still the new soldiers’ barrack.”

Dev winced. “That is bad,” he said. “Arachnids is…” he trailed off.

Victoria turned to look at him. “Arachnids?”

Dev fell silent for a few second before opened his mouth. “The people they hire,” he answered slowly, as if unsure as to how much he should say. “The letter we found alluded to their identity. They are known in the underground, Forewood and other kingdoms too… they are mainly involved in information trading, but there were rumors they also have assassins—well, to be exact, mercenary for hire, since they apparently also do kidnapping.” He shot her a wry grin.

Victoria wondered how he knew so much, but it was his secret and she shouldn’t pry, however badly she wanted to know. “So, these people… they are super secretive?”

Dev nodded. “Very. And they demanded a lot for that secrecy. Not many can afford them, and I suspect not even your family, so if Lirsk can…” He looked uncomfortable and didn’t continue the line of thinking.

If he thought the royal family couldn’t afford it, that this organization must have been more elite that she imagined. “How expensive?”

He shifted on his feet. “I’ve only dealt with their information side of thing, but the cheapest information… was priced on thousands gold coins. I can’t imagine the mercenary side.” He shot her a look. “That is probably why they are so expensive.”

Victoria felt a bit gratified that he was willing to share the information with her. “Thank you,” she said, smiling.

“Yes?” He looked stunned.

“For telling me about this. You know I could’ve gone to your General about the involvement with such… secretive side of things.”

He frowned. “You are the highest general. Also, I’ve left that side of things behind so long ago,” he muttered, and then he looked up at her. “Anyway, you also talked about the Corps, Your Highness, even though I don’t think you should have.”

Victoria laughed. “Okay, but don’t address me formally like that. I think this is the hundredth time I said that.” He looked like he was about to protest, so she continued, “I think it’s fair, don’t you? We are friends now, right?”

He looked at her, a bit disbelievingly. But she put on the most serious face she had and it convinced him. “Very well, Your—Victa.”

Victoria clapped her hand together. “Nice! Now I think we should go to the Capital and stop these hired people from messing with my plan.”

Hearing that, Dev stared at her for a second.

She grinned. “What do you think?”

After a second of hesitation, Dev finally said, “Then let’s stop them.” []