Chapter 201: The plan
Six hours till the raid.
Seraphina’s special safehouse.
The room was dark, dimly lit by the single mana bulb hovering above, casting a light on the table peopled with a street grid map of the imperial capital city.
Eren stood leaning forward, arms loosely crossed over his chest, his dark blue eyes tracking the red ink lines tracing the perimeter.
"He’s departing tonight, Lord Volsver," Emily reported crisply, standing across the table. "His private carriage just cleared his estate courtyard. Final preparations are underway at the depot."
Aria tilted her head as she studied the map. "Why choose nightfall? Night travel on the imperial highways invites bandit raids, border checkpoints are double-manned, and visibility is terrible. For a cowardly man like Kiliyan, it makes no sense."
"That guy’s aide’s death," Cinon grunted from the corner, his massive arms folded like iron girders. "One of his primary handlers was butchered two nights ago. If I had my subordinates picked off in back alleys, I’d run too."
"Tsk."
A sharp, dismissive click of a tongue cut through the room.
Resting her chin on the edge of the table, looking barely taller than the back of her chair, Norelia shook her head with disdain.
"Illogical," the petite professor piped up, pushing her round spectacles up her nose. "The aide died nearly forty-eight hours ago. If Baron Kiliyan was acting out of pure, unadulterated panic for his own skin, he would have bolted that very morning. Waiting two whole days just to pick a midnight escape? He wasn’t running scared. He was waiting for something—or someone?"
The room went quiet.
At the head of the table, Princess Seraphina had remained silent, her red eyes tracking every word. Slowly, the silver-haired princess straightened her posture, her gaze settling directly on the diminutive woman in the oversized coat.
"By the way..." Seraphina murmured cautiously, her voice dropping into an evaluating register. "Who are you, exactly? Eren brought you to this room without an introduction, and you speak with an absurd amount of operational arrogance."
Norelia didn’t flinch. She didn’t even blink.
"Norelia Vallese," she answered flatly, giving a casual, unimpressed shrug. "Professor of Mana Circuit Engineering and Field Resonance."
The room went silent.
The name hit the princess immediately and everyone wide-eyed opened their mouths—even Eren and Aria.
Eren’s mind scrambled in shock because even though he knew her history, his petite girl never used her last name, even in the game once.
Seraphina’s red eyes widened in astonishment. During her own early years at the imperial academy, the name Norelia had been spoken in legends. The undisputed prodigy whose absolute mastery over offensive magic was so absurdly broken that the academy had to rewrite their combat ranking just to stop her from shattering the records. Back when Seraphina was merely a first-year, Norelia was already the final-year who everyone feared of.
"Wait!" Aria gasped out, her composure completely shattering as she slammed her palms against the table. "Vallese?! Are you related to Vice-Principal Carolynn?!"
"She’s my old hag," Norelia answered casually, waving a dismissive little hand as if discussing an annoying landlord. "A stubborn, meddlesome woman, that’s all."
Seraphina stared at her, genuinely breathless. "You are... the Norelia? The legendary magic genius?"
"Glad to see my records were still remembered," Norelia muttered under her breath, puffing out her cheeks in a small, adorably smug pout. "Though right now, I’m just an underpaid educator trying to keep this guy from causing trouble."
"Alright, as thrilling as this family tree reveal is," Eren cut in, stepping into the center of the light with a clap of his hands, shattering the dazed awe before it could derail the room. "We can trade academy yearbooks after we survive the evening. Baron Kiliyan won’t be in our custody on his own."
"Eren is right," Seraphina said, shaking off her shock and leaning over the map. "If Kiliyan was waiting two days to move, his convoy isn’t just fleeing. Then it’s...."
"... and one last piece of business he couldn’t leave behind."
Emily leaned over the table, tapping a cluster of narrow, winding lanes in the lower-tier entertainment quarters. "Our informants tracked his habits during his previous capital visits. Before embarking on any long journey back to his western estate, Baron Kiliyan always makes a detour to the Velvet Rose—a high-end brothel in Zone B."
Aria crossed her arms, her golden eyes narrowing with sharp distaste.
"Zone B? That district has virtually no regular imperial guard patrols. It’s entirely private security and back-alley syndicates."
"Worse," Cinon rumbled, his thick finger tracing an adjacent avenue, "the Imperial Arts & Antiquities Exhibition opened two blocks away this morning. Nearly every active watchman in the sector has been reassigned to guard there. The alleys around that brothel will be dead quiet."
"Which makes it the absolute ideal location to snatch him before his carriage hits the roads to the western border," Eren noted, a smirk forming on his lips. "So, what’s the plan? Do we breach the front doors, or climb through the attic?"
The room went quiet as they started thinking of options.
Then, Emily’s gaze slowly drifted toward Eren.
Her lips twitched with a speculative gleam, her eyes raking over his broad shoulders, sharp jawline, and effortless nobleman’s posture.
Eren’s instincts immediately flared. ’That is the exact predatory look a commander gives when they’re about to volunteer someone for a suicide mission.’
"I have an idea," Emily said smoothly, tilting her head toward him. "Baron Kiliyan is notoriously paranoid right now. If five armed mercenaries kick the front doors in, his personal guards will barricade him in the panic room or slit his throat before we get answers. But the brothel only admits wealthy patrons. We need someone handsome, aristocratic, and completely unthreatening on the surface to walk in as a customer, wait for him, and capture him silently."
"Absolutely not!" Aria snapped, stepping directly between Emily and Eren like a territorial dragon. "I am not sending my fiancé into a den of paid harlots to play a customer! Do you have any idea what kind of degenerate nonsense is this?!"
"Hey! I am an honorable gentleman on official duty," Eren protested with mock offense. "I have peak self-control."
"Maybe you have zero self-control, you idiot!" Norelia blurted out, stomping her small foot in pure exasperation. She was just an irritated, deeply flustered girl glaring daggers at the reckless boy. "You’ll wander in there, get distracted by some woman batting her eyelashes at you, and probably end up getting your drink poisoned! Or worse, you’ll actually enjoy it!"
"It’s an infiltration, Professor, not a leisure vacation," Eren retorted, leaning down to meet her fiery red eyes with a teasing smile. "You should have more faith in your student."
"Shut up! I’m concerned you’ll do something completely stupid like you always do!" Norelia huffed, her cheeks puffing out as she crossed her arms tightly over her flat chest. "If you go in there and some woman touch you, I’m... What would happen to our mission?!"
"Aria, Miss Norelia," Seraphina cut in, her tone authoritative, "as distasteful as the cover identity is, Emily’s logic is sound."
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{For some reasons, I couldn’t upload image of Violet,}