Chapter 85 – Rescue Operation 1 Part 3
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Translator: SFBaka
Editor: Thor’s Stone
“Oi, it’s kind of noisy out there. Is it already time for lunch? We just ate a little bit earlier though?”
Leader seems to have noticed the commotion the three of us caused outside.
“Sir Enders, please keep silent and listen to my question first. Are the other two prisoners held in this dungeon your enemies?”
I boldly called Leader by his surname. Leader opened his mouth, let out a gasp, and did not move for about thirty seconds or so, as if he was frozen in shock. My other teammates reacted in much the same way.
“……No, they are not our enemies. If I had to say, they are actually our allies.”
Good. If they were allies, it would not be a problem for them to hear our conversation and my name for the time being.
“The two of you over there. Please be quiet and listen. I shall hold off on deciding how to deal with you two for the time being. If you let out even a sliver of a scream for help, we shall kill you immediately.”
There was no response from the other two prisoners. I heard some soft noises, but they did not talk just as I instructed.
“It has been so long, Leader.”
“…………Is that you, Dame Norian?”
“That’s right. I have come to fetch you all.”
Selena and Sharon brought out their bladeknives and sliced the hinges of the iron door. They then cut the door in two and carefully removed the resulting halves.
Ah, what an awful smell! And they had to endure this kind of filthy environment for months.
The three of us split up and proceeded to take off the blindfolds and manacles of my imprisoned teammates. The ones who were freed of their bonds first watched us work in a daze.
“……It really is you, right, Dame Norian?”
“Yes. I am undoubtedly Elna Norian, my comrades.”
“Ah, thank the Goddess! I thought I’d finally broken down and was merely hallucinating. How did you come here? No, you must hurry and escape from here first. You might still make it if you run away now.”
“Elna, let’s get them out of this cell first for the time being. This isn’t somewhere a person should be in.”
“Yes, you’re right. Let’s do so. Leader, we’ll talk later.”
I helped him stand up, but he could barely manage to, and could not walk by himself. Of course, we had already anticipated such a situation. With this, it was now time to proceed with step two of the plan.
We lent each person our shoulders one by one and moved them all to the guard station. In here, the other two prisoners should not be able to hear our exchanges unless we talk particularly loudly.
“Dame Norian, please tell me one thing first. ……Did you manage to find her?”
“Yes, of course. I managed to find Cleria-sama in the city of Gotania. I, no, our team had managed to find her first. This is a great honor for us.”
“Ah…… Thank you, merciful Goddess. I see. So she is alive and well. So she really was in this Belta kingdom.”
“Currently, Cleria-sama is also here in the royal capital.”
“What did you say!? Why would you allow her to come to such a dangerous place? Why did you not stop her?”
“Leader, how about we listen to the rest of the story first? There seem to be various circumstances that have happened while we were languishing inside here.”
“……Ah, yes, you’re right, Bruno. My apologies, Dame Norian. It seems I am still a little out of it.”
“It’s fine. I think that’s just natural.”
Sharon and Selena then proceeded to cast healing magic on all nine people. Torrents of light poured out from both of them and enveloped my teammate’s bodies completely.
“I-Is this healing magic by any chance?”
“That’s right. Next, please go ahead and drink these.”
I handed over small phial bottles to each of my teammates. When I urged them to drink the contents, they downed them in one go without any hesitation. Everyone seemed to be frowning at the taste though.
“……Dame Norian, it’s not like I’m complaining, but just what is this concoction? Frankly, it tastes pretty terrible.”
“What you just drank are panaceas. We need you all up and about as soon as possible so we can escape from here so we resorted to letting you drink some.”
“”Panaceas!?””
After a short while, everyone’s pale faces began to have some color gradually return to them.
“……Is what we had really panaceas? The pain in my body has all but disappeared, and it even seems my strength is rapidly recovering.”
Leader exclaimed in surprise and finally stood up on his own. However, it looks like it’ll take a bit more time for him to regain the ability to walk by himself.
“Of course. There’s no mistake. Those are genuine panaceas. Each bottle costs 300,000 Guineas I’ll have you know.”
“……What do you mean by this? Those were not items you should have used on louts like us. What a damn waste. In any case, Dame Norian, would you kindly introduce us to the two lovely ladies now?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. Let me introduce you then. This is Selena Conrad. And this is Sharon Conrad. They are both my dear comrades.”
“Are they sisters? First, let me express my gratitude for rescuing us. The healing magic you ladies cast on us earlier completely cured the aches and pains in my body. My utmost thanks to both noble ladies from House Conrad.”
“By the way, these two are not nobles you know.”
“But they…… No, this is not the time to be talking about these things. The three of you need to hurry and escape from here. I’m sorry for saying this after all the trouble you went through to rescue us, but as you can see, we are in no shape to attempt an escape ourselves. We do not know when other guards might show up.”
“The guards have just changed shifts a little while ago. We have plenty of time until the next shift arrives, and we have already arranged a plan for all of us to escape the castle.”
“But how? ……It looks like we have to talk in detail about your plan.”
“Let me confirm one thing first. Just who are the two people imprisoned in the other cells?”
“One is Lord Leister, the former prime minister of this kingdom. The other one is his son.”
“The former prime minister? Just why is someone like him imprisoned here?”
“It looks like he was caught in a trap orchestrated by the current prime minister. It seems he has been languishing in this prison for close to three years already.”
“……Just why is someone of his status still being kept alive here. Wouldn’t it be better to kill him if they were really so keen to get rid of him?”
“It seems he is being kept as a sort of consultant to the current prime minister. He’s being forced to cooperate by threatening him with the life of his son, and is sometimes asked for advice regarding various government policies.”
“Are the guards here unaware that they are imprisoning the former prime minister?”
“No, it seems they truly have no idea. The two of them have been keeping silent because if the guards were to find out, their captors threatened to kill them. Only a nobleman named Sir Lucilia ever comes in contact with the former prime minister to ask for advice.”
“Do you think it’s safe for us to bring them out of prison as well? Would it pose a problem if they get to know of Cleria-sama’s whereabouts?”
“I personally do not think so. All the former prime minister’s family members have been killed except for his son. He would probably never throw his lot in with the current prime minister at the very least.”
“Well then, we can also bring them out with us if they’d like. In the meantime, please take a rest here for a while, everyone.”
Honestly, I really did not want to take such a risk, but Alan said that if the prisoners were not our enemies and if they wished to escape as well, then we should lend them a hand.
I went with Sharon and Selena back to the innermost cells. Unlike the other cells, the ones the other two prisoners were held in didn’t have any opening on their iron doors, making it impossible to peer from the outside.
“We are the ones who came here to help our comrades. We might consider taking you both with us if you wish, so how about it?”
“………Will you also bring my son along?”
I heard a hoarse voice reply from one of the special cells.
“Of course. We’ll rescue you both.”
“Well then, by all means, please help us. I swear upon my family’s honor that we will never be burdens to you all.”
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