I didn’t exactly think that the Sylphid Alliance was a powerful nation based on what I saw from Princess Radeca’s stats and skills, but that was a flawed evaluation.

There had been too many missing pieces at the time for me to properly assess Radeca’s situation, but right now, all of my worst fears were being confirmed.

“This is the absolute worst.”

I turned to Liandra who was hovering in the air as I dashed forward with all my strength. It was the sixteenth time she’d said that ever since we dropped down here. I really didn’t know why she was complaining, because compared to me, she was having it much better.

Here I was, ankle-deep in shit-sludge and piss-water, carrying an unconscious elven princess in my arms, and sweating like a goddamn pig. I swore that I’d never enter a sewer again ever since that time in Count Oswald’s fief.

But here I fucking was.

And still, Liandra had the gall to complain despite being completely clear of all this filth aside from the stench in the air. In fact, she was probably using magic to filter it out anyway.

As I trudged through the grotesque slog that I was a quarter submerged in, I wondered how I got myself into this (literally) shitty situation in the first place.

It had all happened so quickly, I hadn’t even had the time to process anything until now.

One second, I was being questioned by Princess Sella about the scene of carnage that I had painted, and not even a breath later, an explosion had torn through the building.

It had been incredibly improper of me to just ditch the princess while she was interrogating me, especially since I was supposed to be a member of her retinue and had pretty much caused an international incident.

However, all of that didn’t really matter to me at that moment. Besides, that whole thing was just a false identity. In reality, the only person I was actually “beholden” to was King Borea since I was technically a subject of the Zaltsel clan, and even then, such a shackle of loyalty was tenuous at best due to his defeat at my hands.

Ultimately though, my priority was my own sake and that of the eastern tribes. As much as I disliked politics, I didn’t want to see all of Lucrezia and Aurelia’s work on the treaty be for naught. Even Priya worked on it for a little while.

The moment I heard that explosion, I knew instinctively that the assassins who were after Princess Radeca were taking advantage of the chaos that I’d caused. In fact, I was willing to bet that they’d try to pin the blame on me after the deed was all said and done.

The timing was just too good.

After a short scuffle with a few masked individuals, I managed to grab Radeca and disappear by punching a hole straight through the ground. Of course, a few of them tried to follow me, but they soon gave up after failing to match my speed.

Normally, I would’ve stayed and fought in order to capture at least one of them alive so that I could interrogate them, but given my current situation at the academy, it was probably a bad idea to continue remaining inside the Sylphid Alliance.

It was pretty obvious that the country wasn’t exactly safe for Radeca either, so fleeing with her in tow seemed to be the best option at the time. 

I might’ve been jumping to conclusions, but one thing immediately struck me as strange when I dashed to her rescue: her retinue was gone.

Not a single one of her guards was present either inside or outside of her room, which made it all the more suspicious.

What’s more is that all of her attendants were gone as well. There were no corpses or even a trace of combat aside from Radeca’s own futile attempt at defending herself.

It was clear that she was someone to be disposed of, especially after I’d seen the assassins stats. Their class levels, skills, and stats were all only slightly above average. 

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they weren’t the type of assassins that you’d want to send after a high-profile target like a princess, and had Princess Sella been their target, they probably would’ve been defeated handily.

Despite all of this bullshit, I still didn’t understand why anyone would want Princess Radeca dead so badly.

Firstly, she wasn’t even the primary heir to the throne. She had an older brother who was currently the designated heir, and even if he perished, Radeca still had an older sister who was in line before her.

Not only that, but Radeca wasn’t exactly an influential noble. From what Cyrus told me during the briefing, she mostly remained at her estate inside the royal capital and dabbled in her hobbies leisurely.

I couldn’t say that I knew her very well since I’d only met her this morning and I’d barely even conversed with her, but I was willing to bet that Cyrus’ intelligence wasn’t wrong.

“There’s a ladder!” Liandra said, pointing out a rusted, grimy ladder which probably led upwards into some street inside the city.

I shook my head, causing her to pout.

Trust me, I don’t want to stay in this goddamn sewer any longer than you do.

“We’re looking for some sort of drain or exit that leads into a reservoir,” I explained. “Preferably one that leads away from the city.”

Liandra nodded, understanding my intentions. I was glad that she caught on quickly.

If we took the ladder she’d pointed out earlier, we probably would’ve exited into some alleyway or something, and I was fairly certain that we’d manage to evade today’s patrols even if we did.

However, that wouldn’t be enough. I doubted that they would stop looking for us tomorrow and the day after, and stealth wasn’t my strong suit. The best option would be to get the hell out of the Sylphid Alliance entirely.

It’d only been around fifteen minutes since I’d fled with Radeca in my arms, but I was probably being accused of kidnapping the princess already. It was obvious that whoever ordered the attack on Radeca was part of the nobility.

Not only that, but they would’ve been someone who was privy to where Radeca was staying within the academy’s dormitory. It narrowed the list of suspects down, but not by much.

Wait, was that...?

I skidded to a halt as I passed through a cross-shaped section of the sewer, retracing my steps backward. There would be plenty of time for me to continue ruminating about this whole thing, but the first order of business was getting the hell out of here.

Light shone brightly through one of the connected passageways, meaning that it was probably connected to a large drain that led to the outside.

I started forward, Liandra at my side.

“...Hey, Ryuuko. Do you even have any idea where we’re going to go after this?”

I turned to Liandra, grinning widely.

“Nope. Not at all.”