“Must be nice. Can’t say I don’t envy you,” Seren muttered after hearing Sidis’s to-do list. But that only caused the pillars to spring out at a faster rate.
“Whoa! H-Hold on, Seren! If you’re not happy, let’s talk it out. I don’t even know what your circumstances are, so why don’t you tell me?” pled Sidis. He had no insight as to the problems that had put Seren into his current mental state.
“You think I’m not happy? Well, I suppose that’s true enough. Since I’m taking you down with me, I might as well tell you that much.”
Seren dispiritedly opened up about his past. He shared how he’d been locked away for years with only the company of a dog. Waves of sympathy washed over Sidis as he learned of Seren’s traumatic past.
“While my adoptive father, Caldo, set me free, he’s only brought me to a different prison. Every day, I’m thrown into this underground facility to produce these damn rocks. Caldo’s never treated me like a son, and he’s only gotten worse. And the worst part is that he won’t even let me have a dog of my own.”
Based on the timeline of events, Sidis figured Caldo’s mistreatment of Seren had begun about a year prior.
“Caldo climbed to the top of the Donan ranks. With me steadily supplying stones for him, he’s gained more and more power. He’s even found a way to deal with you imperial folks,” Seren explained.
“With the power of suggestion?”
Seren nodded. In the incident a century ago, the Donans hadn’t used mind control. Their plan was to simply weaken the Light of Origin, and so they sent someone to throw themselves into the Light with a sword made of black stone. That was why they’d never manipulated Kirstin. It was only very recently that the cultists had somehow learned their stones held such power.
“The only reason why Caldo adopted me is so that I could use my status to go anywhere I want. More precisely, it was to get me into the imperial palace so I could go around unchecked,” he explained.
That made sense to Sidis. Foreign royalty had a lot of freedom and rights opposed to servants. Using the matchmaking event for example, Seren came into contact with guards on duty and could easily control them. And if worse came to worst, he could use the power of suggestion on other foreign dignitaries to turn them into his scapegoats.
“But if you possess such power, why do you not stand up for yourself?” Sidis asked.
“Stand up for myself...?” Seren blinked blankly at that ridiculous statement. “I have far too much to atone for.”
“So it’s true, then? You killed the prince’s fiancée?” Sidis still couldn’t imagine someone so kind to animals was a murderer.
“Oh, so you knew? I only learned of it after they forced me to use the stones to make the green light. Apparently the monsters I lured wreaked havoc on the town where we lived,” Seren said, averting his gaze. His face scrunched up more with every word. “Caldo and his fiancée just happened to be in town when it happened. That’s how she died.”
After learning that Seren’s obedience to Caldo was out of guilt, Sidis hardly knew what to say in response. He wasn’t sure what he’d do to Seren if he were in Caldo’s shoes...but his brooding was cut short when an impact shook the cistern. Sidis scanned his surroundings, but it wasn’t apparent to him that anything had changed. That meant it had to be something above ground. Setting the mystery aside for now, Sidis scrambled to find the words to persuade Seren.
Lyse slipped from shadow to shadow, periodically checking over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being tailed. It certainly wasn’t the quickest way to get around town, but she managed to arrive at the West 10th district earlier than the ransom note instructed. She scanned the area for signs of life and heaved a sigh of relief when she found her own people.
“How did things go?” she asked them.
“We’ve scoured our records and it seems like you were right, Miss Lyse—the cistern really hasn’t been filled in,” replied a man dressed in casual commoner’s clothes. He was wearing a short blue coat, carrying a short sword on his hip, and holding a folded map in his hand—nothing that would suggest that he was a knight or even a soldier. Rather, he was the overseer of the capital’s waterworks department and a mage who specialized in crafting subterranean plumbing. He knew everything there was to know about the water beneath the city streets. “I showed Lord Sidis a map of the interior and told him the same. Judging by the draft from the vents and the fact that he hasn’t returned yet, I’d put my money on the cistern being occupied and in use right now.”
“I hope he’s okay in there...” Lyse muttered to herself.
“We’ll do all we can to ensure the plan goes smoothly, Miss Lyse,” the overseer said encouragingly. “Just one thing, though. The currents have changed lately, so it seems like there’s a new reservoir down there.”
“Do you know where?”
“Right under where they’ve asked to meet you, actually.”
Contrary to its name, Building 13 in the West 10th district was actually a bare plot of land. The residents in the neighborhood even took great care to keep it mowed, as letting it grow wild would attract insects. And, as the overseer reported, it turned out there was a pocket of water right below the lot.
“What are they up to?” Lyse wondered. Had the enemy planned a pitfall, perhaps? Did they mean to plunge Lyse and her knights into frigid waters, then slaughter them while they were in shock? “Well, no matter. First, let’s drain the water. If we hide down below, we can catch the enemy by surprise and eliminate them if all goes well.”
“Yes, ma’am. There’s no existing infrastructure there now, but we’ll get to work right away.” Acknowledging Lyse’s request, the overseer ordered his workers to start the construction immediately. They entered the service corridor and proceeded underground.
“Ah, hold on. Would a few of you accompany us? Just in case the enemy is lying in wait below,” Lyse called out to the knights waiting behind her before they descended together.
As the service corridor led directly into the cistern—in other words, the enemy base—there was a risk that the terrorists might be ready and waiting for Lyse. It was also possible that the terrorists planned to use the corridor as their escape route after they killed her. If a fight were to break out, she wanted reassurance that she could protect the construction mages.
“How predictable...”
Just as she anticipated, Lyse and her party encountered suspicious figures shortly after entering the underground. They swiftly defeated the lot of them and scoured their belongings, but nary a one was carrying anything to prove their identity.
“The prince isn’t with them either,” she said after examining the detainees.
This meant she wasn’t any closer to figuring out what was afoot, but she was nevertheless glad to be rid of the ambush so soon. Meanwhile, the plumbers went about their work.
“We just finished diverting the waterway, ma’am,” they soon reported to Lyse.
“Great. Could you bore a small hole through the wall next? We can use it to observe the situation on the other side,” she instructed.
From the service corridor, they could punch through to the main facility. Since Lyse had no idea as to the size of the enemy force, a peephole would make a good way to gather valuable intel. The overseer transmogrified a small circle of the rock and soil into sand only to find another wall just beyond it. He dug around with his finger, scratching at the new wall, but couldn’t make any progress—for it was made of black stone.
“Hmm... Can’t seem to get through this stuff,” he said apologetically.
“Do we need to make a larger hole, then?”
It was paramount that Lyse and her knights get a peek inside. But even when the construction mages widened the hole, all they found was a massive wall of black stone—or rather, stone pillars that stretched out to form a massive stone wall. They continued to stretch and grow, crystallizing black stone to fill in the hole that the mages had just opened before their very eyes.
“Be careful, Miss Lyse!” warned one of the accompanying knights.
“You’re right. Let’s return for now.”
Heeding the knight’s warning, Lyse agreed to cover up the hole they’d bored and regroup on the surface. Once they’d all hurried back above ground, Lyse dismissed the construction mages.
“This phase of my plan hasn’t gone quite as expected...” she mumbled to herself.
Lyse had intended to take her knights and rendezvous with Sidis to quash the enemy’s entire force in one fell swoop. But now she had little choice but to wait for her foes to show themselves.