After killing those two without the slightest care in the world, I went to see the queen. I knew that Phoebe was probably panicking right now. However, I needed to have a talk with the queen about what I had just learned.
There was little to no chance that she would trust my words. However, I could only hope that she would.
As I left this hidden space and headed back toward the main hall where I had first entered the Ice Castle. I noticed that there was a lot of movement happening right now. There were dozens of people everywhere around me, running around like mad lads, trying to find the assassins.
“Everyone, he’s here! Capture him!” One of those running around suddenly shouted as every single ice elf turned in my direction with clear frowns. “Arrest him, and if he resists, we have orders to kill him right away from the Royal Adviser!”
‘Ah…I should have thought about that.’
After all, I had killed an ice elf in Phoebe’s room. Even if it was an assassin, it was still grounds to get me arrested. I had to admit that the adviser’sadviser’s plan was not bad. He definitely wasn’t stupid. He was actually quite smart. He must have known beforehand that the assassinations wouldn’t work. However, since I killed the assassin, he has grounds to have me thrown into the dungeons.
And it will only get worse once they find the body of that noble back there.
I could only shake my head because of my own stupidity. That adviseradviser also surely knew about my movements. In fact, he might have been looking at me from far away, laughing as I moved just like he had planned from the very beginning.
I raised my hand in the air when I saw all the elves approaching me. There was no point in fighting against them; it would only make my case a lot worse.
Still, I couldn’t help but be extremely frustrated right now. The more time wasted here, the more time it has Zero to disappear. In fact, if he wanted to, he would probably already be gone by the time I reached that lake…
“I demand to talk with the queen,” I said as they tied me up.
However, they were just simple soldiers. They were not nobles. They did not understand me. They simply looked at me as if I was some kind of beast that needed to be tamed as fast as possible.
‘Let’s just hope that she realizes something is wrong with this place. Otherwise, I will have to go meet her by force.’
***
A few minutes later, after going down long stories of stairs, we finally arrived in the dungeons, where Phoebe was already waiting for me there.
“Caedrel? W-What happened? Why are we getting arrested when we only protected ourselves?”
I didn’t even say a word as they threw me inside the cell right next to her.
I just stayed there in silence as I stared toward the stairs, hoping that the queen would appear from there in a few minutes, or in the worst case scenario, hours.
Phoebe kept trying to get answers out of me. However, I knew that it wasn’t a good idea to tell her about what I learned back there. It would only confuse her. Even if I didn’t want to, it was better to keep her in the dark about all this.
One hour passed by, and there was still no one.
Not a single visitor.
Two hours passed by, and it was the same thing.
There was no one. There was no noise; both I and Phoebe were left to ourselves…
Three hours passed by, and still nothing.
Four hours…
Five hours…
Then, when I thought that I would have to meet the queen by my own means. I started hearing a series of footsteps coming from the stairs before me.
I didn’t know who it was, but I could only pray that it would be the queen. She was honestly the only person I could trust in this whole place, and the worst part about all this was that she didn’t know about it. She didn’t know that her adviseradviser was her biggest traitor.
The footsteps were getting closer as they echoed through the halls.
Then, I finally saw who it was who had come to see me.
It was the queen. It seemed she had understood that something weird was happening. However, from the look on her voice, there was definitely something wrong.
Her hair was all messy, and she was still wearing a nightgown as if she had just escaped from her room without anyone noticing it.
“Human, tell me what happened. Why did you kill those three elves? What did they do?” She asked in a whisper, her eyes demanding the answer as fast as possible.
I didn’t know why she was in such a rush, but I answered her. “They are helping the man that I am after. They tried to kill me before I met with him. The noble told me that the person helping them is the Royal Adviser.”
The queen frowned at those words. “My adviseradviser? Are you sure about what you are saying?”
“Yes. It is true. I’m sure of it.”
The queen didn’t say anything else, and we just exchanged a few glances. She stayed silent as Phoebe just looked at the two of us with pure confusion written all over her face.
“What should we do?” The queen suddenly asked me. She seemed lost in thoughts, with absolutely no ideas.
The person she trusted the most was the one betraying her. However, I found one thing quite weird about all this. The fact that she didn’t even question if I was telling the truth made it seem as if she already knew of his actions a long time ago. I had just given her the confirmation of her assumptions.
“Let me and Phoebe out of this place. I’ll deal with this situation myself.”
That’s all for today’s mass release. Thanks for reading and the support.
From tomorrow until the end of the month, I should be able to publish 3 chapters a day at the very least, and I will try to do more if possible.
I hope you still like the story.
