Day 25 of the Fourth Month, Year 1016

Capital City of Naveland, Nave Province

AFTER spending the whole morning on the horse, they arrived in the Capital City of Naveland right before noon. The terrain was smoothened by the stone road, but still, it was quite far. For the Princess, though, it wasn’t much. She used to go back and forth from Naveland to Dustor in secret.

“Actually, I was thinking… You don’t have to do this,” Victoria said as she walked beside Dev and his horse. “You can go back after I arrive in the Capital.”

“True, I have to take care of my company,” he considered, and then shook his head. “No, according to the General’s message, I have to be escorting you. I couldn’t go back until I make sure you are safe.” He glanced at her. “Unless you are planning to report your safety?”

Victoria winced. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s just… Well, if I went to the palace, there was no chance I could go back out.”

“Why do you have to do it, anyway?” He asked. “Can’t you ask someone to do it for you?”

“Probably, but it’s just… There’s not many people that I can trust,” she replied wryly. “With this traitor business and all.”

Dev was silent. “You are right.”

Victoria stopped by the tower of the Capital’s wall and walked up to the guard standing beside the door. “Excuse me, can I meet Sergeant Alize Darkbrown, if she is on duty?”

The guard in Capital Guards uniform gave her a look. He didn’t recognize her, thankfully, especially in her commoners’ getup. “Please wait,” he said slowly before turning to go inside the tower.

“You’re looking for your friend?” Dev asked.

Victoria nodded. “I need her help.”

Not long after, Alize walked out. “Victa,” she greeted. “I had a feeling it was you.” She looked past her to Dev. “And you even brought your friend!”

Victoria laughed. “Can I talk to you for a moment, Sergeant?”

“Sure. Marty, take care of things here,” Alize said to the guard from earlier, who nodded obediently. They walked to a corner wall nearby while Dev looked about, making sure no one was around to eavesdrop on their conversation. “What happened?”

Victoria sighed. “I’m glad you’re alright. What about the task I gave you?”

“Ah,” Alize sighed. “It’s not going well. I moved most of them elsewhere and reassembled them, but some had already gotten killed.” She winced and leaned forward to whisper, “I just went to talk to the Lieutenant this dusk, but I found… Nile is dead. I’m sorry.”

Victoria took in a sharp breath. She thought that might be the case, but she really did hope they hadn’t killed him… She gritted her teeth and focused her mind. “But you moved most of them? What about the newbie’s place?” She tried her hardest not to use the word ‘soldiers’ or ‘barracks’.

Alize looked down. “I tried to secure them,” she said, and Victoria’s heart lurched to her stomach. “It was empty. I think Nile had moved them elsewhere, so I tried to talk to him but you know… Now we don’t know where he had moved them.”

Victoria bit her lip. Those newly trained soldiers were a big part of the Corps, and although they weren’t as good as the veterans, they were still trained hard and generally were better than ordinary soldiers. That was why Crimson Corps was elite, after all. “Okay, I’ll take care of it. Thanks for this, Alize.”

She didn’t want Alize to get involved further, which the other girl understood. Victoria was never too keen on receiving help from her friends, especially if said help would put her friends in danger. Disaster almost happened again with Luz because she was careless—this time she would do it herself.

And Alize knew it too, as she didn’t say anything anymore. “Be careful,” she replied with worry, and then they went their separate ways.

“What are we going to do now?” Dev didn’t hear everything they said, but he could probably see from her face that it wasn’t good news.

Victoria sighed. “Let’s check out these crawling animals. But,” she continued, “if you have to go now, you can just point it to me where should I go to find these mysterious mercenaries.”

“As I’ve told you, I need to make sure you are safely delivered,” he said with concern. “If you’re going on this excursion, I would get in trouble when you get into mishaps.” His lips twitched as he said that, so Victoria knew he truly didn’t mind. “My company can join others. It’s not like I’ve been training them much lately.”

The last sentence, though, was said with a bit of a bitter note in it. The fact that his superior threw him in jail still bothered him. Victoria touched the side of his arm, and he glanced at her. Quickly she withdrew her arm as they entered the city from the Southgate. “So where should we start?” She asked.

The South District of the Capital was a district filled with the city’s middle-class residents, with houses next to each other. It was busy even in the morning, and a few times, they have to squeeze in with Windrunner because the road they were walking on was full of carriages and carts. The Southgate was connected with the Southern Market Road and so there were a lot of people buying goods from the market.

“Well, it should be in the North District,” he replied to her.

Victoria nodded. “Okay. But let me make a few stops first.”

“A few stops?” He looked at her in hesitation.

She strolled towards the residential part of the Southern District and turned a few corners, as she had a clear destination. At the end, she walked up to one door in the row of townhouses.

“What are you doing?” Dev asked with a low voice after tying his horse in front of the townhouse.

“This.” She casually opened the door, walked inside, and looked around. The whole living room of the townhouse was trashed, and it seemed like there was a huge fight happening. The carpet of the living room was bloody. She sighed. Alize had already cleaned up the body, it seemed.

“Is this…”

“Lieutenant Nile’s house,” she replied softly, feeling a twinge of regret in her heart. “He fought hard.”

“He really did,” Dev observed the whole room. A few tables were overturned, blood splattering everywhere, and even the wall was scarred. Victoria was already observing the shelves and looking through the things. “What are you looking for?”

“A clue, if they took anything.” She shook her head. “It probably was in his study. Let’s go.”

She walked a few steps forward to a door on the side of the living room and opened it. A small study that was equally chaotic. Frowning, she went inside and started searching.

“I need to find out where he took the recruits,” she murmured.

Dev started helping her search. They tried to find it between books, in the drawers, under the tables, but they found nothing of importance.

“I’m afraid Arachnids would have already taken any possible clue,” Dev said softly.

Victoria gritted her teeth. “Fine! Alize said she found the Lieutenant freshly dead just this dawn. Maybe we should just infiltrate the spiders’ hiding place and took one of them hostage for information.”

Dev looked at her slightly. “That’s… very fierce… but smart of you, Your Highness,” he said, slowly. “Then let’s go.”

From a few distance, she could see a big park that was so green, it almost seemed like woods. It was located in the Central District of the City, just a few kilometers south of the Palace. Victoria walked in calmly and Dev followed behind her in confusion. “What are we doing?” He asked. “I thought this wasn’t time for leisure.”

“Just follow me,” she answered cryptically.

He pulled the horse’s rein in and followed after her, although he was grumbling a bit. Something about ‘acting mysterious.’ Victoria held her smile.

The Naveland city park was massive. It wasn’t an exaggeration that some even called it the city forest, with all those thick trees in the middle. The both of them kept walking forward and through the forest. The park was not crowded at all, in fact it could be said that it was almost empty. It was early in the morning, after all.

They walked around in the forest quite a while. Dev, who was following Victoria while still holding on his horse’s rein, started to be a bit impatient. “What are you looking for?”

Victoria sighed. “A bit of patience, please?”

Dev didn’t say anything afterwards and just trotted behind her. Victoria walked around for a while, and just before Dev started to be impatient again, suddenly a small wooden house showed up in front of them.

Victoria glanced at him and found that Dev looked startled. “Magic,” she said, as if it explained things. “Tie Windrunner here, would you?”

Dev wanted to ask something, but he decided to shut his mouth and obeyed the princess. He read enough novels to accept that maybe magic did exist in the world. The rein was tied to one of the trees nearby and Dev caressed the horse’s manes before looking towards Victoria. “Now what?”

Victoria smiled wryly. “Now we are going in.”

The both of them walked up to that house and Victoria knocked the door six times with certain rhythm. Fifteen seconds after that, the door swung open.

The one that opened the door was a thin, yet lean man in his forties, his hair a bit grayish due to his old age. “Ah,” the man said when he saw her. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Dev behind her. “Wait.” The door closed again.

“Good to see you too, Rodger,” Victoria grumbled to the unenthusiastic welcome. The man was somewhat of a right hand of Brad Lastain, leader of Blades. It was a bit surprising that he was used in a trivial task such as guarding the door.

And then the door opened again. “Go in. Downstairs.”

He was so perfunctory. In the few times that she met the old man, she was sure she never saw him having any reaction to anything. “Sure, thanks,” she said wryly and walked in, while Dev followed behind her.

The hole down wasn’t much different than the one in Dustor’s base. It was bigger, though, and it was much easier to ease oneself inside. They climbed down the ladder and arrived in a very well-lit corridor. The walls and floor were smooth, too, better than the other Blades’ base.

Victoria kept walking forward until she arrived in a big cavernous room, functioning as a common room for all Blades member. A few people glanced at them as they walked in, but none of them bothered her as the two walked towards a door to the left.

Victoria had been here a few times before, when she needed Blades’ help more than usual. She knocked on the door once and opened it up.

“I haven’t told you that you can come in,” the bear of a man behind the desk said sardonically.

“Eh.” Victoria just lifted her shoulders and gestured to Dev to close the door. “How’s it going?”

“What do you need, Your Highness?” He said without answering, a mocking note on his last words.

Victoria didn’t show any reaction to that. “I need to hire someone.”

Brad Lastain looked up sharply. “Why? What are you up to?”

“It’s for the good of the Kingdom, Brad!” She said, a bit exasperated. “Seriously, give me some credit here.”

“Well, you know the rules,” he replied tonelessly. “Explain or no deal.”

Victoria sighed. “I have no one to trust and I need to deal with the Arachnids.”

This time, there was a strange sort of look dawning in his face. “The Arachnids.” He shook his head. “First, what do you mean you have no one to trust? Aren’t you bringing someone here?” He pointed towards Dev who stood behind her like a guard.

Yeah, she never brought a guard to Blades before. It was just not something to be done, because the risk would be too much to take. She glanced at Dev’s impassive face. “I know it’s not very wise, but you have a good defense here. No one with ill-intention can even come close, can they? Anyway, I believe this person, but I need more manpower,” she said. “Do you know about Arachnids?”

“The real question is how you know about Arachnids.” When Victoria fell silent, Brad looked between the two of them. “Ah, okay. So, this young man had dealings with them?”

“You can say that,” she replied. He wasn’t wearing any military uniform after they both changed in the inn, so it was fine to say it vaguely. In any case, Blades could figure out his identity easily if they wanted to. “So, do you know them?”

This time Brad didn’t evade the question. He sneered. “Of course,” he said. “Wirchij’s bastards getting into Forewood, how could I not know?”

“They are from Wirchij?” Victoria asked, a bit startled by the hostility in his tone.

Brad shrugged. “They are from everywhere. No one knows where they come from, they crept through the underworld like a spider. Fitting. But their foremost base of operation currently is in Wirchij Kingdom.”

“You’re not doing anything to get rid of them?” The princess asked warily. Blades, after all, prided themselves in monopoly of Forewood’s darkest nature. If they let these scums loiter around…

“Not that we don’t want to,” Brad replied, “but we can’t. They are like cockroach. One base we destroy, they popped up somewhere else. It was irritating.” He almost snarled.

“Well, I need someone who knows the intricacy of Forewood underworld to help me,” Victoria said wryly. “And you would even find out more about these scums. It’s a win-win.”

Brad looked at her thoughtfully. “Why do you need to deal with them, kid?”

Victoria looked down. She knew she could trust Brad because he would do anything for the good of the Kingdom. And she was hiring his men anyway, anything they do would come back to him. “I’m reassembling the Crimson Corps.”

Brad was taken aback.

Victoria shrugged. “These spider people are trying to destroy my plan, so I need to mess them up so they don’t mess me up.”

He frowned. “Is it really that bad in the south?”

“You can say that,” Victoria replied. “In any case, Lirsk is getting more vicious. You know how they are, now they even hire something like this… Arachnids.” She wrinkled her nose as she said that.

Brad observed her and Dev for a few second. “Very well,” he said at last, standing up. “I’ll get someone for you.”

“Make sure it’s one of your best in staying hidden.”

Brad laughed wryly. “Don’t worry,” he said. “This one is very good at hiding.” []