About a week has passed since I gave my orders too Bram. I've decided on what I'm going to bring on my escape. Obviously the map, my knife, and the clothes and produce I had Bram procure are being taken with me, but I'll also be breaking in to my "father"'s treasury.
The vault requires a code that thankfully was in the game. In the game Bernadette's ruined mansion was actually a post-game dungeon. If you were able to put together some clues and solve a puzzle you would be able to open the vault and get RIDICULOUS sums of money. Of course you could just complete pass by this puzzle and still get through the dungeon just fine. Presuming the code wasn't changed between now and the fall of Bernadette's house I'll be able to get in and "borrow" some funds for the journey.
Another thing I'm bringing along is a cloth mask I made. Using some cloth I cut from the same dress as last time and a sewing kit I found, I made a makeshift surgeon's mask. Its purpose is twofold. The first purpose is obviously to hide my face when I go into towns. I probably have to go into one at some point to resupply and being able to hide my face will be a must. The second is to make sure a new spell I developed doesn't backfire as easily. To put it simply I've found a way to generate poision dust on demand. There are certain elements that the body needs to function that you get from food, like iron for example. However there are elements that are similar chemically that can't be processed by the body. The most famous being arsenic. Because the elements are similar, the body confuses the elements it can't process with the ones it needs. This causes the body to fail its functions resulting in death. I can use this to get the jump on any human enemies because so far mages think only monsters can summon poision with magic. Most combatants would just assume I'm just throwing sand in their eyes to blind them when really its poision.
As for book, after looking in my "father's" library I realized bringing the magic related books would probably be pointless as I know WAY stronger spells. Metal working would probably also be kinda useless as I can just summon titanium tool into existence, but I brought some along anyway. I'll bring some books on leather working and alchemy as well. While you would think alchemy is just rudimentary chemistry, its actually surprisingly useful as theres a lot of materials that didn't exsist in my old world in the form on monster parts.
I plan to carry most of my stuff in a bundle made out of blankets tied together. I'll later use the blankets to help stay warm and comfortable when I sleep. I plan to escape tonight but there is one more thing I must do before I go.
While running away is probably my best chance at survival it doesn't address the root of the problem. If I just run the organization will never be dealt with. Sure their plans will have to be reworked, probably from the ground up, but they will still be around. I can't deal with the organization as I'm too weak alone. While yes my magic is far more advanced and stronger than the rest, I'm still weak to numbers. Casting requires speaking in most cases. So while yes, I can cast big ass fire balls that devastate the enemie's ranks it takes time to do so. Time that can be used to over run me. While I may not be able to deal with the organization there is someone who can, prince Alford.
The reason I waited a week to actually escape is so I can have Alford visit and alert him of the organization while we're alone. The organization wants Bernadette to be lovey-dovey with Alford so the marriage is as smooth as possible. To do this they told Bernadette about all the "great deeds" Alford has done so that Bernadette has a high opinion of their would be husband. Of course the only great thing about these accomplishments are how exaggerated they are. As well as hyping up Alford, they actually allow alone time with him so they can "nurture their love". I can use this to bring up the organization and their plans.
Low and behold, a few hours after breakfast and the prince has arrived.
I greet prince Alford with, "Good afternoon, your highness Alford. The weather is quite fine this day. Would you care for a casual stroll in the gardens?"
"Thank you and good afternoon to you as well, Bernadette. I suppose the weather is just right for a stroll in your gardens, so I'll humbly accept," Replies Alford in a rather monotone voice.
I can tell he doesn't want to be here under the facade he's putting up. The prince is obligated to come for visits upon my request unless there are extenuating circumstances, or risk losing face as the royal couple ignoring each other is a sign of relationship problems. Unfortunately I'm going to have to act like a maiden in love to get across what I want to say without alerting the organization. Sorry bud, if it makes you feel any better it makes me feel sick too.
While Alford and I were walking through the garden I suddenly start clinging unto his arm and whisper an anti-eavesdropping spell before whispering in his ear.
"Relax and play along. I don't like this as much as you do, but we are being watched."
Alford appears to be rather flustered. C'mon man did Bernadette never really try this? Girl was obsessed with the guy. Christ I can hear his heart going like a damn jack hammer. I litteraly said I don't like having to do this. Is he an idiot? Fucking virgin. Haaa. . . Hopefully this isn't enough to spiral into the first plan I dropped for numerous reasons.
After taking some time to straighten out his thoughts Alford responds with, "What do you mean by watched?"
"You see there is a certain unnamed organization that's pulling strings behind the scenes. They likely have ties to the country that tried to invade a few decades ago resulting in the movement of the capital. Apparently conquering Esu through military might is too expensive so they opted to try and worm their way into the top brass instead. This whole engagement between us was there bidding. So far I've been pretending to be a mindless pawn but I'm planning an escape."
"An escape? How? What about your family? Are you going to leave them behind? Doing that would be wrong. Your family cares for you."
Oh here we go with goody-two-shoes lecturing me when he doesn't even know the plan. This is why Alford is the fucking worst. I'll have to just deal with it.
"Escape as in litteraly an escape. I'm running off to go into hiding. As for how I'm not telling you as the less people who know the safer I'll be. And before you say "you can trust me with the plan Bernadette, I won't tell a soul becausetrust is important," even if you plan to hold that promise, people can easily torture it out of you. Have you ever had all your finger nails ripped off? No? Then I imagine you'll spill rather easily. As for my family they're either in on it or have to much pressure on them to be trusted and honestly even if they weren'tin on it I wouldn't bother trying to bring them anyway their treatment of me was borderline neglect."
Alford looks rather aghast. Has he never heard of what happens in an interrogation? This isn't modern day. There's no innocent until proven guilty. You can easily get you ass beat or tortured on little evidence. How as the future leader of this country, has he never heard of what goes on in the palace dungeons? Although I suppose he's still rather young. Did I ended telling something he wasn't supposed to know yet? Although it could be that last part about borderline neglect. Probably a combination of the two now that I think of it.
"Anyway I need you to deal with this underlying problem. I don't have the political influence or know how to deal with them nor the brute force and military might to fight them head on. You do have that, or at least your father does. I need you to at least alert the king of this massive kingdom shattering threat so that I can eventually come out of hiding. Its on your shoulders now. For the rest of the day keep up the poker face and pretend we're having a fun date, then when you get the opportunity sneak into the prime minister's room and find the secret safe behind the painting. The code should be 25 04 36. In there will be evidence of the organization's existence. DON'T. GET. CAUGHT."
Alford nods with a grim expression on his face. Good looks like I can execute the plan tonight.
Huh, I’m actually kind of surprised she got Alford in on it so he can possibly start taking down the evil gang or whatever they’re called. I guess Sam would know the character well enough to know he personality, but she seemed to have a pretty low opinion of Alford in general too
I really hope Sam (and maybe Alford) come up with a flippant, casual name like "the evil gang" to refer to them. It's so wonderfully disrespectful and trivial. Even something as simple as "the organisation" is much more legitimate and almost has an air of competence due to secrecy.
@Ultrabenosaurus "the organization" is pretty much the term used going foward and they were pretty competent, well that is until Sam came around
@Afewconcepts65 I figured as much, I'm fairly late to this story, but I didn't mean that the organisation itself isn't competent - just that the people working against them to [indirectly] save the kingdom / island of Esu should take every opportunity to attack them. Even conceptual attacks like giving them a trivial, childish name to make them butthurt.
I would made a note and put it in his hand while holding it... Just do he doesn't forget the code.
Also Arsenic is a very slow acting poison and MC should probably not rely on some flimsy piece of cloth to protect her.
Great chapter, only 1 thing tripped me a bit. It feels a little wierd someone so obsessed with the game they memorized the made up language spells are cast in, but doesn't know the name of either the secret organization or the country they originate from. Though I dully admit I could have missed an earlier line that stated they were unnamed in the book, i'm dyslexic and it happens.
I intend to just have it so the name of the organization and country of origin weren't mentioned in game.
As for why I decided to arbitrarily make it that way is that I'm terrible at naming things so it took me awhile to come up with a good name for the organization, and by the point I actually came up with it, I was too many chapters in for Sam to just suddenly start calling the organization by its proper name. They both will have a proper name that Sam will eventually learn so please bare with it for now
@Afewconcepts65 Alrighty ^.^
Silly question. On that metal summoning skill it was implied that the mages of the world thought it only made iron. The heroine made titanium. It was further implied that it was good that they didn't know it would make gold. So what need is there to get into the vault other than for cool crap when she could make gold as she needed. ;)
Not nitpicking, but it was just something that occurred to me. Thanks for the story. :)
Selling lot's of gold bars on the market would be VERY suspicious. So rather than draw unnecessary attention its better to just grab a large sum of the country's currency from the treasury.
Thx for the chappie
This visit will bite in the end that turn Alford lovey dovey. Thank you for the story.
Not exactly
The next time Alford sees sam will be very far into the future. By that point he will have met the game's protagonist or at least the commoner from the other routes. This case was pretty much just hormones. I actually intend to make a few side chapters from Alford's perspective. The first one will start with Alford cringing after thinking back on the moment
@Afewconcepts65 Nice I like it.
Space magic should be a thing since she knows the trope of space rings
Thanks for the chapter!
@Afewconcepts65 typos:
I gave my orders too Bram -> to
I can just summon titanium tool -> tools
becausetrust -> because trust
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