Vol 4 Chapter 38 – Please Hide Inside My Skirt【Vol 4 – Stop Shion’s Fabricated Engagement】

Just before entering the Imperial Capital, Gaspanyol, I decided to act separately from Princess Shion.
General Yuna would accompany Shion as her guard and attendant, while Nagisa would act as my guide.
When I told Shion this, she looked puzzled for some reason.

“Wouldn’t it be fine for Master to come with us?”

“I think it’s fine until we enter the royal castle, but just in case, I don’t want them to find out Shion and I are connected, right? Besides, you guys stand out, so we don’t know where we might be watched.”

“No way. I was planning to have Master by my side the whole time to give me advice. Like during negotiations with the enemy country…”

“No, no, there’s no way I can be with you in a negotiation like that, right? Maybe General Yuna, the Commander of the First Knight Order, could, but…”

“In that case, you can just do that—hide inside the skirt of my dress.”

“Like I can do that!?”

Well, one thing led to another.
In the end, Shion begged, “Please hold me tight, Master,” so I hugged her, thinking she hadn’t changed a bit in ten years.
The fact that two soft mounds—which definitely weren’t there ten years ago—pressed against me and made my heart race a little is a secret.

The Imperial Capital, Gaspanyol, is what you call a walled city; the city proper lies inside high walls, while slums sprawl outside. It’s a common sight anywhere, but the scale here is on a different level.
After securing an inn, we headed out into the city.
Since we parted ways with Shion and the others, it was just Nagisa and me now.

“Now then, Master, where should I guide you first?”

“The royal castle, I guess. If we’re going to probe into important people, we have to investigate where the important people are.”

“That stands to reason. Understood.”

And so, to the royal castle.
Although the entrance security was reasonably tight, it was nothing with the assassin and former Crown Prince Nagisa with me.
We slipped through a secret passage and infiltrated the castle easily.
Once inside, I could divert attention using my breathing techniques, and Nagisa was perfectly disguised as a castle maid.

“Come to think of it, Nagisa, why did you have a maid uniform for this castle?”

“My connections are still alive, you know.”

“I see. Did you read that we might need to infiltrate Gaspanyol Castle? That’s impressive.”

“There’s that, and also, it’s necessary for when my Master feels like playing ‘roughly demanding service from a captured enemy maid’.”

“I just praised you, and you ruined it!?”

While saying such things, I toured the royal castle with Nagisa.
Leaving the heavily guarded important areas for later, we checked the grand hall, the dining hall for servants, the library, the lounge, and the maids’ break room.
From eavesdropping on the conversations of working bureaucrats and maids, I understood one thing.
The reputation of Crown Prince Vakanamesh was even worse than I had heard from Nagisa.

“…Everyone is saying that Crown Prince Nagisa was their only healing, aren’t they?”

“Well, the nobles in this country all have rotten personalities. Not that I, an assassin, am one to talk.”

“Is that so?”

“It’s terrible… Let’s see, if I said they are about three times worse than the person you imagine when you hear ‘corrupt pig of authority,’ would you understand?”

“Isn’t that a little too harsh!?”

Then, as we looked at the gardens, the royalty-only courtyard, and the Royal Guard barracks, and were discussing calling it a day…
I suddenly became curious about a solitary shed located at the edge of the royal castle grounds.

“Nagisa, what is that?”

“Ah, that’s the entrance to the underground dungeon. It’s not a place worth going out of your way to investigate.”

“Hmm…?”

Nagisa said that, but I felt something tugging at me.
I observed it for a while, thinking there was something off about it.

“…There are two guards standing there. And judging by their every movement, they look like quite skilled knights.”

“Well, they’d be in trouble if the prisoners underground escaped or started a riot all at once, so they’d post guards.”

“No, there shouldn’t be a full-scale prison inside a royal castle. So I think that cell is for nobles or people with special circumstances. —But for a noble’s prison, that shed is too shabby.”

“Well, when they imprison high-ranking nobles, they usually lock them in the castle spires, not a dungeon.”

“Is that so? But then, who is that dungeon for… Nagisa, do you know anything?”

“No. To begin with, that underground dungeon has apparently been managed by the current Royal Family’s clan since long ago. So even when I was Crown Prince, I didn’t touch it.”

“Hmm…”

On top of that, the location of that dungeon entrance was strangely perfect.
It was inside the castle grounds yet far from any facilities, and trees were planted to skillfully block the line of sight.
The layout seemed incredibly easy to defend if something happened.
Of course, if told that’s natural for a prison, I could accept all of it.
But what was the purpose of building such a prison there…?

“Nagisa. I want to investigate inside there a little.”

“That’s fine, but how do you plan to do it? Even if Master is a master of breathing techniques, infiltrating under those guards’ eyes will be tough, won’t it?”

“Well, that’s true.”

So, what to do? I crossed my arms and thought.