Chapter 111: Control of the Underground
Jen, the captive alchemist, kept telling me about the royal family and the empire after I told her I wasn’t from there.
The Empress had passed away a few years ago, and her oldest daughter took the throne. The second prince was at the border fighting in the war, and the third princess, who was Jen’s best friend, was helping with the paperwork from their palace.
When I asked her if it was the previous Empress who refused to help Kalusia, she confirmed it as she clenched her fist in apprehension, expressing how it bothered her that the new Empress had to clean up such a mess.
After leaving another food bowl for her, I told her to stay in that room for the time being as we still hadn’t taken care of all the bandits underground.
Jen looked confused when I said "we," so I told Vespera to come out of my shadow and introduced her to the alchemist.
At first look, the pink-haired girl was startled as Vespera suddenly materialized, but when she approached her, she complemented the looks of my companion, which boosted Vespera’s mood.
Leaving Jen’s cell, I kept on checking all of the different paths of the underground tunnels, using magic to boost my speed. Honestly, if it weren’t for Vespera, I would have gotten lost in the labyrinth.
Somehow, my companion could tell which paths we had already checked, so I just followed her instinctive directions as she pointed at me where to go.
At one point, we found a double door at the end of the hallway that definitely looked important.
After using my "search" spell, I could tell that there were people on the other side, so I told Vespera to join me and take them by surprise as we ran to the entrance and knocked it down with a kick.
Just as we thought, a dozen bandits were inside the spacious room filled with desks.