Wizard of the Abyss – Ch. 209

Wizard of the Abyss

[Extra Novels]

Chapter 209 - Blade (3)

After returning to the hall, I sat down with a slightly uneasy expression. Munching on a plum, Elisia looked at me and asked,

"Jern? Are you sick?”

"No, there’s just something that’s bothering me. It’s nothing serious.”

I reassured her worried gaze, then looked toward the center of the dimly lit hall where Lumia, in a formal tone, was lowering a blade to the Knights.

"You have hunted five wild boars during the hunting festival and, through training with sword and spear, have earned the recognition of Sir Kyle. Therefore, I appoint you as a Knight. Lixia, will you accept becoming my blade?”

"Yes! Until the end of my life!”

The Knights, perhaps because they stood before a princess, received their appointments with extreme tension.

And I strangely felt the same. Because Lumia’s demeanor was so flawless.

'No, something’s wrong.'

Was I the first to notice?

That was very likely. If Sharmia had realized, she would never have stayed silent.

In the worst case, the original is already…

I clenched my teeth and shook my head. No matter who had taken the real one, if they had caught a prize as massive as an imperial princess, they wouldn’t just kill her off so easily.

That would be like making shoes out of gold. She had to still be alive.

The real problem started now.

[Princess Lumia has truly grown into her role. His Majesty should have seen this proud moment…]

[Sniff, I might cry.]

Influential nobles and Knights in the hall were practically tearing up as they watched Lumia preside over the ceremony.

Regardless of whether she would become Empress, it meant she was deeply loved. Or perhaps only those who loved her had been invited.

If I were to suddenly stand up here and shout, ‘That princess is fake! I’ll prove it!’—then this hall, and possibly the entire Empire, would descend into chaos. A civil war might even happen.

Exactly the kind of situation Scarlet Abyss would want.

It was fortunate that it wasn’t the Lump, at least. If it were, it would have absorbed her memories. There was no way that it wouldn’t know that I had given her that dagger.

'Then this isn’t something orchestrated by Scarlet Abyss either…’

From their perspective, there’d be no reason to act this covertly. They'd just announce, “We kidnapped your princess. Good luck,’ and proudly spread the news.

This meant this was done by a third party. An unknown force I knew nothing about.

As I kept watching the ceremony, lost in thought over how to deal with this situation, Elisia let out a yawn.

"Yaaawn, this is so boring. When does the elephant show up?”

"You’ll see it soon. About half the apprentices are still left, huh…?”

Trying to distract her, I glanced toward the apprentices waiting for their turn—when my eyes suddenly widened.

I had been so focused on Lumia that I hadn’t noticed.

...Among the apprentices was a distinctly younger face.

"Next..."

As Lumia flipped through the document listing the Knights’ achievements, a faint flicker passed through her eyes.

Then she began recounting a long list of accomplishments.

"You have hunted three bears, five deer, and ten wolves during the hunting festival, earning the highest honor. You have won ten junior apprentice tournaments, twenty-two adult apprentice tournaments, claimed five laurels, and ranked first in every semester…”

Just listing her achievements took longer than it would for three ordinary Knights to be knighted.

And yet—there was no sign of it ending.

"You possess exceptional talent in spear and sword, bow and mace, shield and dagger, whip and net. Every Knight commander in the Empire stakes their blade to guarantee it.”

Much younger than the other apprentices, she stepped forward with a confident expression. At that moment, the Knights watching the ceremony began murmuring.

[The youngest Knight in imperial history…]

[Ahem. There was someone the same age about 300 years ago.]

[What matters isn’t that she’s the youngest, but that she’s not just barely passing. That child’s skill rivals seasoned veterans. The sharpest dagger…no, longsword forged by Carose.]

Even the envious whispers were drowned out by the overwhelming brilliance surrounding her.

"Linmel, will you accept becoming my blade?”

My fellow orphan and the rising star of the Empire.

The blonde girl stepped forward confidently and knelt.

"Yes. I will become the Empire’s blade.”

"...?"

It was a slightly different response. A different emotion, different from pure joy, was mixed in her expression. Only I, who had known Linmel for a long time, noticed this anomaly.

There was a faint tension in her voice as well as slight hostility.

My anxiety had become reality. Linmel, who had been staring sharply at the suspicious Lumia, suddenly moved her hand toward her waist.

'Shit!'

My heart dropped. I immediately used all my strength to suppress her hand with water pressure, freezing it in place.

"?"

Linmel tilted her head as her hand didn’t move as she intended.

There was no time to form proper words, so I quickly used the currents to draw an arrow on her back.

Glancing in the direction it pointed, her eyes widened when she saw me sitting among the audience.

"Hmm? Do you have something more to say?”

"N-no, nothing.”

Fortunately, the disaster of Lumia’s head flying off during the ceremony didn’t happen.

"Elisia, I’m going to the restroom!”

"H-huh? Okay…?”

-Clatter!

I shot up from my seat and, locking eyes with Linmel, who only reluctantly looked away, left the hall.

Heading toward the small waiting room she had gone to, Linmel, who had been waiting quietly behind the door, rushed at me, her expression so bright it felt like she’d be wagging a tail if she had one, and hugged me tightly.

"Jern! Long time no see! D-did you come to see me??”

"Of course. Congratulations on becoming a Knight.”

"But my knighting was supposed to be a secret. How did you know?”

"Well—I’m close to the princess. I asked her to tell me.”

"Jern…!”

I wasn’t clueless enough to call this a coincidence.

Looking closely at Linmel, she looked happier than ever—

Hm, she had grown a bit taller than me.

I ignored that and grabbed her shoulder, asking directly,

"You were about to kill Lumia just now, weren’t you?”

"Ah, it really was you who did that, Jern…”

"Answer me."

"Yeah.”

Linmel, now a bit flustered, nodded instead of denying it.

"I know how terrible the thing I was about to do was. It makes sense that you stopped me, Jern. But just trust me this once. I can explain everything.”

"Princess Lumia is fake, right?”

I went straight to the point, to which she blinked in shock.

"...Huh? Y-you know too, Jern?!”

"I just met her. She’s not the princess I know. How did you figure it out?”

"A few hours ago.”

She bit her lip and began explaining.

"I often go into the Imperial Palace with my master. That’s where I met Lumia, and we secretly became close. She said I was fun.”

"I-is that so?”

Even if the other person was a princess, Linmel’s social skills apparently overpowered even that. She even casually called her Lumia.

"We even talked last night. When I told her I was becoming a Knight, she congratulated me and said she’d be there ahead of time and that I should come in when I see the palace carriage…”

"...And then?"

"She didn’t remember the promise. That part was fine—something could have come up. But—”

Linmel sniffed lightly and muttered.

"Her smell was different.”

"What?"

"She used the same perfume. But Lumia only sprays it once, behind her ear, because she says it affects her dignity. That person sprayed it on her wrist twice. That’s impossible. Limia would never do that.”

Was she a dog?

I’d never even heard of someone identifying people by perfume placement and spraying frequency. But judging by Linmel’s expression, she was completely certain.

"So I checked again during the ceremony. It was definitely different. Her tone, her voice endings. It was a well-imitated fake. So, so…”

Linmel trailed off, then tilted her head.

"But if you knew too, why did you stop me?”

"Of course I had to. Did you tell anyone else about this?”

"N-no. Not yet. I didn’t have time…”

"That’s at least a relief. Listen carefully. We don’t know who kidnapped Princess Lumia or what they’re doing, but for now we have to keep this hidden.”

"Wh-why? What if she keeps pretending to be the real Lumia?”

"She can’t. Not when she’s just at the level where we can already tell. Listen. Those people set up a double because they want to negotiate.”

I explained slowly so Linmel wouldn’t do anything reckless.

"And the foundation of that negotiation is that they’re assuming that we—the Empire—absolutely don’t want anyone to find out that Princess Lumia has been kidnapped. And they’re right. This isn't just anyone, but an imperial princess. If that gets out when the citizens are already uneasy, it’ll be total chaos. They are well aware of that. So they set up a double and are trying to threaten the upper ranks to gain something. Got it?”

"...Yeah! Got it!”

I was absolutely certain, willing to bet all I had, that Linmel did not fully understand.

But at least she now knew she shouldn’t kill the fake Lumia.

"But we can’t just sit still like this!”

"..."

She wasn’t wrong. If Linmel was right, Lumia’s abduction had happened very recently.

This was the golden time. The longer we waited, the harder it would become.

Should I ask Sharmia for help? Or search around on my own…

'It’s all too late.'

There was only one way to find out who kidnapped Lumia.

Someone who already knew.

"Linmel."

"Huh?"

I looked at the innocent-faced blonde Knight and said, with a wicked expression on my face.

"We can’t kill Lumia.”

"Y-yeah, I know that.”

"So let’s just half-kill her.”

"?"

Well...

At the very least, we’d find out where the real princess went.

* * *

After the knighting ceremony ended.

As the performers entered, Lumia had to return to the Imperial Palace.

Linmel and I hid in a back alley where we could see the carriage.

"That carriage. The time she’s inside it is the only time Lumia is ever alone. But once she gets in, they inspect it and depart within three minutes.”

"Got it.”

After confirming Lumia entered the carriage under tight guard, I used the currents to slowly, carefully slice through the top of the carriage.

The Knights were still standing guard around it. I cut it clean enough that the roof could be removed in a single motion, then asked Linmel one last time.

"We can’t make a sound. And you’ll have to avoid all the Knights’ senses…Can you do that?”

"Yeah."

She answered calmly. Like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I’ll finish in 2 seconds.”

"...I’ll trust you.”

Honestly, I wanted to pull her out slowly with the current, but that would take too long and would risk detection. In the end, I had to trust Linmel. I took a deep breath and moved the currents.

-Click.

The last support holding the carriage roof snapped.

"Yah."

Linmel gave a light shout and vanished from within the grasp of my Tide Sense.

A gust of wind rushed through the alley a beat later. I stared blankly at the carriage roof when something black slipped through the opening in the blink of an eye.

"What the…”

Before I could even process what was happening—

"Yeah, I don’t think we got caught.”

"Huh?"

-Tap. 

Linmel landed next to me.

With the bewildered fake Lumia in her grasp while covering her mouth.

"Mm, mmh..."

2 seconds.

She hadn’t exaggerated. It was literally 2 seconds.

'She’s basically on the level of a Knight of Heavenly Retribution already…’.

No matter how I looked at it, she wasn't a normal Knight. I had even been ready to knock out every Knight guarding the princess’ carriage in the worst case, but instead, I quickly pulled out a key and opened the door to a nearby storage building in an alley.

"Good job. Let’s go.”

"Okay!”

We went inside the workshop and tightly bound the fake Lumia to a chair I had prepared beforehand.

Now able to speak, Lumia finally seemed to grasp the situation and opened her mouth in shock.

"What do you think you’re doing? How dare you kidnap an imperial princess…?”

"Shut it. We know you’re fake."

"What kind of nonsense is that?! Release me right this instant, and I may forgive you. But if you don’t, your entire family will be executed!”

"Jern. What do we do now?”

Of course, the fake Lumia refused to admit she was an impostor.

Getting information out of someone like this, especially about the real Lumia’s whereabouts, wouldn’t be easy.

"There’s a way.”

-Click. 

I picked up a syringe from nearby, to which the fake Lumia scoffed.

"Hmpf, is that all? Such crude methods? Unfortunately…”

"Relax. This one’s for me.”

"...What?”

I stabbed the syringe into my own body, leaving the fake Lumia looking quite dumbfounded.

It contained a liquid version of the World-Sealing Elixir Dercia had created—the one that was stronger, but with a shorter duration.

Then I grabbed the fake Lumia by the shoulder and slowly enveloped her with my Water Partition.

She wasn’t a particularly powerful mage, so enveloping her was easy.

"Wh-what are you doing…?”

"Nothing much. I’m a Fallen, you see.”

If she was chosen as a stand-in for the princess, she must’ve been trained to withstand torture.

But the world was incredibly vast.

There were methods far more effective than physical torture.

"How about we have a talk in a world of truth?”

As the sticky sensation of the Abyssal Sea water slowly wrapped around her body, the fake Lumia’s face turned pale.

Now, she finally looked like the Lumia I knew.

_______________________________________________________________________