Chapter 3
Once again, the day of the general cleaning of the palace came, and dust would probably fly everywhere. So Harumasa decided to find Ellen and ask her to skip work. Unfortunately for both of them, they were caught by Lycaon halfway there. The chief butler immediately handed Ellen over to Rina and said he would come back to check in an hour. Harumasa was thrown to Wise.
It was called throwing to Wise, but in fact, he went with him to survey the living conditions of the people. After all, in the future, Wise would become the emperor, so understanding his people was necessary. However, in order to avoid being recognized and assassinated by forces against the current emperor, Wise was forced to disguise himself.
Wise and Harumasa's body shapes were not too different, so when they exchanged clothes, there was no problem with the size difference. Harumasa received the royal hooded cloak from Lycaon, and Wise wore Harumasa's hooded cloak.
This clothing exchange could prevent Wise from being attacked. After all, for the emperor, Harumasa was a servant, and servants needed to protect their master's life at all costs. Not to mention that Harumasa was also a high-ranking butler, Wise's personal servant, so the emperor judged that this was something Harumasa should do.
It was useless to object to the emperor's intentions, so Wise could only follow suit. Although the servants who came along knew that the person wearing the hooded cloak that covered half of his face was not the prince, in order to avoid being recognized by the enemy, they had to protect Harumasa.
The people welcomed the 'prince' very attentively, and even gave him some baskets of vegetables and fruits. Perhaps when he returned, Lycaon would tell them to bring those things to the kitchen and cook some dishes. After all, it was the gratitude of the people, so such delicious things couldn't be wasted.
Harumasa was extremely calm when greeting the people in the capital. He intentionally made his voice a little hoarse and said that he still had a cold, and hoped that the people wouldn't come too close. Since Harumasa's hair was a completely different color from Wise's, he had to avoid letting them see his hair as much as possible.
After going around for a while, they stopped at a more secluded place. Wise and Harumasa both sat in the carriage to rest. Both of them still didn't take off their hoods for fear of forgetting when getting off the carriage.
"Ah... Being a prince is really tiring...", Harumasa leaned back in his chair, almost melting into liquid form.
“Haha, you’ve worked hard. Just try a little harder, and we’ll be back at the palace at two o’clock this afternoon. That way, you won’t have to pretend to be a prince anymore.”, Wise laughed, although he was a little worried about Harumasa’s throat, but he knew that the ‘prince’ had already prepared everything necessary to get his throat back to normal.
“Alright, I’ll try a little harder then.”
Harumasa sat up straight, then he opened the carriage door, slowly walking out. After all, he didn’t like the stuffiness in the carriage. In order to avoid being recognized, the servants quickly bowed to Harumasa as if he were a real prince. They also prepared a seat for him while he got some fresh air.
They had planned to rest for another ten minutes before returning to investigate the people again. But something happened beyond their expectations. Suddenly, men dressed in black, wearing masks, completely covering their faces, appeared. The servants immediately drew their swords and formed a circle around Harumasa.
Harumasa retreated slightly closer to the carriage, stealthily reaching out to lock the outside latch of the carriage to prevent Wise from running out. No matter what, they had to prioritize protecting the real prince's life.
The sharp sound of swords clashing rang out at the edge of the forest. Harumasa didn't have his own weapon, so he carefully retreated to make sure he didn't get in the way of the other servants. At first glance, they could be judged as ordinary bounty hunters or mercenaries, but it was highly likely that things weren't that simple.
The servants sent to follow Wise today all had very good fighting skills. However, since the start of the battle until now, the enemy had not fallen.
Suddenly, Harumasa felt someone gathering magical power. Since he was also a person with magical power, he obviously had the ability to sense other people's magical power, but those people couldn't do the opposite. Just before he could chant a spell to protect himself and Wise, vines appeared from nowhere and wrapped around his left arm. It quickly pulled him into the air, beyond the reach of the servants.
Although he was in a rather awkward and painful situation, Harumasa secretly felt lucky that they had captured him instead of Wise. Because if Wise had really been captured, who knows how angry the emperor would have been.
Those vines pulled him to a position not far from the carriage and the servants who were fighting the enemy. He could see that there were a total of three magicians standing in the distance to cast support spells for those who were fighting the royal servants. Damn it, this was cheating.
"Retreat! We have the prince!", one of the three mages tapped his staff on the ground, the vines quickly tied Harumasa's arms behind his back. He could fight back, but if they changed their target from him to Wise, it would be difficult to deal with. Since Wise's escort team only had one mage, they obviously couldn't chant as fast as the enemy with three mages.
So the people who seemed to be mercenaries immediately stopped fighting and ran towards the three mages. They cast teleportation magic, transporting the group to another place. Harumasa thought that if his hearing was good enough, he might have heard Wise's rare curse.
In any case, Harumasa hoped that the enemy would realize that they had captured the wrong person before it was too late. As long as Wise returned to the imperial palace, where there were many high-level mages, no one would be able to harm the emperor's only prince.
.
As Harumasa expected, the servants immediately escorted Wise back to the palace. When they arrived, the latch on the outside of the carriage was unlocked and they were faced with Wise's angry gaze.
"Immediately summon the senior mages to the conference room while I go report to the emperor."
His servants could only bow their heads in obedience. Obviously, they would also report this to Lycaon, but right now, Wise's focus was on quickly reporting to the emperor and then gathering the senior mages to follow the remaining traces of magical power to search for Harumasa.
Wise feared that in their anger over catching the wrong prey, they might kill Harumasa. Furthermore, Harumasa's health was not good enough in the current weather conditions, if it suddenly rained or something, he would definitely fall ill. No matter how you think about it, they were in a dire situation.
After reporting to the emperor about what had happened, Wise was reminded by the emperor that he would allow Wise to summon the senior mages, but on the condition that Wise would not go directly to the place where the hostages were being held. No matter what, the emperor did not want Wise to risk his life for a servant. The fate of the country was in Wise's hands, so he could not act rashly.
Wise understood that, he obeyed the emperor's orders and returned. The servant helped him summon the senior mages, and they gathered in a room specifically used for holding strategic meetings.
Wise hoped that it would not rain today and that he would not be late. He did not want anything bad to happen to Harumasa.