Chapter 225: Nii-sama Was…

Nii-sama continued speaking. He would normally listen to what I had to say first, but I guess he already heard what had happened from Nico.

“The academy is right next to the castle. The castle is located in the centre of the capital, so the academy is surrounded by a bustling city. I know it’s not allowed, but sometimes the upperclassmen sneak out of the dormitory and go into town to play. Gill knows which hedge and which paths they’d take when they do that.”

“Giww ish a bad boy?”

“I think it’s best not to pursue that.”

Nii-sama smiled wryly and dodged my question.

“The neighbourhood where we slipped out of the academy was noisier than usual, but it didn’t seem overrun by the army. There weren’t any soldiers wandering around either. We quickly slipped into Gill’s favourite cafe while trying to keep our eyes down so people won’t notice us, even though we were wearing our uniforms.”

“So, Giww ish a bad boy.”

“But him being one helped us.”

Nii-sama is a capable person, but there is a limit to what a 12 year old can do. Gill, who was as tall as an adult, must have been reliable.

“The place we went to is a café that’s popular among the academy students. I’ve heard the food is cheap and the servings are big. The students are still growing, so sometimes the food in the dorm isn’t enough.”

He was telling me that it wasn’t a bad shop.

“The owner looked as if he wanted to ask us what was wrong as soon as we walked in, but he swallowed his question down and quickly hid us inside the café.”

That was completely different to Nico and I hiding under the bed and eating emergency rations. They had an adventure.

“Gill told the owner that the academy had been attacked by Easter soldiers and that they were probably targeting us because we were the Four Marquises’ children. Then, the owner told us that a large number of Rug Dragons and soldiers in unfamiliar clothes suddenly ran down the main street to the castle. They didn’t look around town and went straight to the castle. But there were no movements from them afterwards.”

“Ai.”

“The Albans mansion is far away, so we asked him to deliver a message to Gill’s mansion since it’s near the castle. Luckily, they hadn’t made a move on the Four Marquises’ mansions, so we went straight to Gill’s mansion. We sent a message to all the Four Marquises’ mansions starting with the Albans’, then while we were gathering our army, we received a message from the convoy.”

I didn’t know they had done so much.

“Well, I said convoy, but it was Hans. Graces had already left the capital with Stan-ojisama.”

“Hansh, alwight?”

“Of course, he is. But the soldiers who were surrounding the Prince’s quarters were quite disappointed that they let Cyrus and his entourage slip pass them.”

“They shwipped pashsh…”

He could have chosen not to tell me what had happened and said that was the end of it, but Nii-sama told me everything.

“The Easter soldiers invaded the castle on Rug Dragons and took the royal family hostage while the castle soldiers were confused. Then, they barricaded themselves in the barrier room and the Prince’s castle. There was nothing the soldiers could do even if there was a big difference in strength since the Easter soldiers were holding the royal family hostage. Having said that, Easter didn’t make any demands. Something strange happened for the first time on the second night of the stalemate.”

“The barrier magic shthonesh.”

“You knew about it too.”

Nii-sama hugged me.

“Ai. I ushed thhe magic shthone in my bag.”

“I knew you were carrying something dangerous around, but I didn’t think it would be useful.”

Nii-sama laughed a little.

“Everyone in Kingdom has some magic, so I think nearly everyone noticed something strange when the barrier went down. But we were shocked since we knew that the barrier had gone down.

“Howwowsh ath nighth.”

“That’s right. You never know where in the capital the Hollows might gush out from. It’s not like we have any hunters around, and even if we want the citizens to stay inside at night, the citizens don’t know that the castle has been occupied. On the third day when we were prepared to put up a barrier ourselves just like you had, the barrier activated. I was surprised.”

I was surprised to hear that Nii-sama also thought about activating his barrier. It was also a bit of a let down to know that we didn’t have to work as hard as we did.

“The Molesey people gathered at the Lisburn mansion, which was closest to the castle, and we were holed up tightly under the protection of the guards, so we didn’t have to worry about anything. However, as expected, the barrier swayed on the second day, and on the third day, a plan was made to rescue the royal family. However, the royal family might be harmed if we try to rescue them by force. I didn’t care about the royal family, but if something had happened to you…”

That’s disrespectful, Nii-sama. But he sounded so much like Otou-sama.

“We frantically searched to see if there was any way into the castle and to find where the royal family was kept. That’s when we received a report saying that you and Prince Nico had been spotted at a window.”

“We were peewing outh thhe window.”

“I’m glad you did. You were on the third floor, but Hans was adamant that he can get in somehow.”

“Hansh, did he shave Lam-ojisyama two?”

“Hahaha.”

Why are you laughing?

“Hans was in charge of the castle defence as well as the special forces when he was in charge of the convoy, so he was in charge of gathering the cowardly guards to come up with a plan to rescue the royal family. But he’s Lei’s guard now, so he had the soldiers rescue the royal family. Probably.”

“Hansh…”

He’s a bit of a disappointment, but that’s why he’s someone I can trust.

“On the same day, Gill and I went to an unoccupied part of the castle. We weren’t involved in the rescue mission, but we wanted to be able to rush to you as soon as you were rescued. However, we were too busy releasing our barriers that we couldn’t rush towards you or be of any use to you.”

“Nii-syama, you were nexth tho me. Lei wash rewieved.”

“I see. So, you knew where I was because the barriers resonated against each other… You’re really smart and cute Lei.”

I don’t think that what I said could be anything other than smart.

“The barrier mechanism in the barrier room is broken, and it’ll take some time to fix. But they have a spare for when it breaks in the first place, so we only had to keep up our barriers for a day.”

Everything was over before I knew it, so I finally relaxed.

“But he…”

“Prince Cyrus…? There shouldn’t have been anywhere for him to slip out from, but we couldn’t find him anywhere in the castle.”

Where on earth did he go?