CHAPTER 47: Escape
The doorknob turned and the gate opened without a sound.
On outer side of the door in the golden lit hallway stood three figures.
The butler from before whose smile still remained concrete on his face, beside him on either side stood a pair of man and a woman clad in a cloak different from the usual attire of servants in the palace.
Their plan was to capture Arin and Hayato who were fast asleep but as they opened the door, they saw Arin standing in front of them.
His black hair were disheveled and his eyes struggled to remain open. Arin stepped forward before glancing at them.
“What happened?” Arin asked in a tired voice as he rubbed his eyes.
The butler’s smiling façade trembled a bit before again settling into the original.
“Oh my, Please pardon the intrusion, this humble servant just visited to check if the hospitality of our kingdom was to the liking of our guests.”
“In the middle of night?” Arin asked clearly annoyed.
“Ah, of course and to deliver these blankets” he gave a small nod to the female beside him who produced two thick blankets from somewhere.
“……….”
“……….”
Arin stared at her before asking “Where is the washroom?”
“I believe there is one in your room” the butler squinted his eye.
“Flush is not working” Arin replied.
“………..”
“………..”
The butler looked inside the room and saw Hayato snoring peacefully, then turned towards the male attendant beside him “Guide him”.
The male attendant stared at the butler for a couple of seconds before nodding.
Arin walked out of the room along with the male attendant leaving behind three people.
The butler sighed “As expected of a small kingdom” then turned towards Hayato who was snoring peacefully.
Both of them approached him.
“Be fast” the butler smiled but inside he felt that something was amiss. Something was wrong but he did’t know what.
The female attendant stepped forward and took out a tiny glass ball with blue liquid, crushed it in between her fingers and bowed down slightly towards hayato.
As she bowed down a bit suddenly the hairs of her neck stood and a shock went down her spine. However before she could understand it was too late.
A hand came forth from nowhere and twisted her neck 180 degrees.
Crunch!
THUD....
The butler who was beside her saw her body fall lifelessly on the floor, her head turned in the wrong direction.
For a few seconds he couldn’t process what he saw and then Arin appeared in front of him like a ghost.
He opened his mouth to scream yet all he could muster was a tiny squeak before his consciousness was reaped.
“Wake up, the work is done” Arin said as he peeked from the side of window.
None of the cloak figures from before could be found outside now.
Hayato turned and sat on the bed.
The tension from before had passed on for now and the path for them had opened.
“We managed to create a diversion-“ Hayato san continued as he approached the window and looked at the ground below.
“What do we do now? Even if you offer to carry me the best we can reach unnoticed are the inner walls and that also without alerting everyone if we are lucky” he whispered.
However Arin turned around and did something which Hayato couldn’t comprehend even in his wildest of dreams.
He saw Arin staring at the door and then raising his leg only to pause it mid air. Then he raised his other leg while his left leg remained paused as if supported by an invisible platform.
He looked like a magician walking on an invisible staircase. When Arin finally jumped on the floor from an invisible platform he turned around with a smirk only to find a Hayato with hanging jaw.
“My theory is successful, I think we can escape now” Arin said while approaching him.
Hayato blinked once and closed his eyes before calming down.
“You really are- nevermind” he wanted to complain but this was not the time.
“We can leave but still the guards might see” Arin sighed but he saw Hayato smiling.
Arin followed his line of sight and saw the decoration wings and Antler above the pair of blankets bought by the butler.
.
.
.
“Did they start performing Aerial drills even at night?” a guard asked his companion while covered head to toe in steel. His gaze followed an object which looked like a bird with horns and heavy big wings.
He squinted his eye suspiciously as he noticed the rather erratic movement of the bird unlike the smooth flight motion.
His companion rested his hand on his shoulder “No idea mate just let it pass, nowadays the royal palace feels a lot more eerie anyway”.
“I thought at first that they were rumors until the royal palace suddenly replaced its servants a few months back” the first guard said while shifting his eyes from the unidentified flying object to his patrolling path.
.
.
.
“Are you done?” the male attendant who escorted Arin till the bathroom door asked trying to enquire about his condition.
Yet the only answer he got was silence.
He has been standing outside for an hour now. At first he got the replies like “I am here”, “Just a bit more” but the more he waited the more uneasy he felt.
He also noticed that he never heard the sound of flush even once and even Arin stopped responding now.
There were no windows and only dim light from glowing stones. Arin couldn’t have escaped without alerting him that’s what the male attendant thought initially but his patience was beginning to vane now.
He stood outside the toilet and kicked it open.
When the dust finally settled, he saw a doll, a wooden doll in the place of Arin lying above the toilet seat burning away fading until not even the ashes remained.
.
.
.
“Why is ‘he’ so interested in Parshara kingdom?” Ezra asked the masked man standing beside her.
The man beside her had pale features, slim body but as he opened his eyes Ezra felt a chill go down her spine.
He said in a lifeless deep voice “The will of our master cannot be comprehended by ordinary intellect. However it is related to a treasure lost during the era of war”.
This time Ezra’s eyes widened.
A treasure? Could it be a divine artifact? She thought.
She looked around the room and saw that it was filled with different faces than few months before.
She gulped as she remembered that this pale man was the one who had fended off an entire battalion of Aurorian Empire’s army and made the second sword retreat with heavy injuries.
She stood up “I am going to rest for today” she said as if asking for the man’s approval. The man nodded after a couple of seconds allowing her to be relieved of her duties for today.
She walked alone in the hallway as she ascended the stairs one by one eventually reaching a room with a double door.
She entered her room, took a shower and sat on her study table beside the bed with her diary open.
Turning the pages of diary she reached for the entry two months prior.
I don’t know where these men have come from, but they gave me a choice. A choice where we could survive or even win back against the martial might of Aurorian Empire. It is just that they have two conditions which bugged me.
First they wanted me to interfere with the trade routes of Parshara kingdom forcing the country to go bankrupt.
Second was to let them deal with all affairs regarding Aurorian, Parshara, Velmor Duchies, Dahan Sultanate and Nerith kingdom overriding the authority of crown itself.
At that time however our chances against Aurorian empire were looking gravely thin. These men not only were successful in defending against the attacks but also successfully pushed back their army. I had no choice but to go along with them. It feels as if these men are searching for something.
I don’t understand their origin and why are they so fixated on ‘Parshara kingdom’ but they have agreed on leaving once their desired outcome is achieved.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I am extremely sorry for the delay, actually I had a lot of work the following week. I will post another chapter in 2-3 days that will be flashback so that you can understand what happened and how did Arin and Hayato escaped