Chapter 808: But Not For Me
The guards advanced upon me and I lowered myself into a battled stance, prepared to fight them off and break the invisible masks on their faces.
Without warning, they charged towards me, their hands outstretched and clearly trying to grab me. Clearly this bastard intended to capture me alive so that he could put that mask on me as well.
Still, I would want to try my best not to kill them if I could help it. I mean, sure, I know that they wouldn't die under the effects of the mask but I don't want to reveal all the cards in my hand if I could help it.
Of course if things got dangerous, I wouldn't hesitate to just kill them to get out of here.
The first guard lunged towards me and I ducked even lower before shooting out my hands to grab his collar and tossing him to the side, knocking him into another guard that had been trying to flank me.
Another one took his place and tried to grab me but I spun out of the way and gave him a kick on his behind, causing him to stumble forward and crash into the wall behind me.
The guy behind him hesitated so I took the opportunity to step forward and deliver a snap kick to his abdomen and sent him flying back to knock over his colleagues.
I was just about to cast [Static Bolt] at the next guy when I suddenly felt my body freeze up and I was unable to move or even cast spells at all.
What? What's happening to me? Who is… Eh?
I noticed that the Queen had her hand stretched out towards me which pretty much told me that she was the one responsible for my current predicament.
I have never seen Levianne fight before so I don't even know what she was capable of. Heck, this could just be a skill from someone else that the guy was controlling that he was using through her or something.
Wait… Does the bangle allow the wearer to control the people under them like their own bodies in the first place? Maybe this is the upgraded version of the bangle?
The guards then approached me and proceeded to tie me up while Levianne continued to hold me in place.
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I considered calling out my Shadow Guards but an idea struck me.
Maybe they would bring me to the leader himself? If they are… I could just attack him from there!
That's a great plan!
Thus, I decided to just go with the flow for now and see where this goes.
Obviously I also took precautions by instructing my Shadow Guards to immediately come out and save me if they even tried to put the mask on me. Failing so, I also instructed one of them to escape and inform the others should I not be able to free myself.
When I was completely bound, Levianne nodded at the guards, "Take her to the torture chambers. I want to know everything that she knows."
They then hauled me up and started dragging me out of the room.
The guard that had planted the bomb in the first place tried to follow along but then a few of the guards stopped him and gestured at the bomb he was holding.
"Let's get this somewhere safe first. We still need to figure out what this is."
He nodded, "Ah… Of course."
Eh? Wait… Why does it look like they don't know each other?
Waiiiiit… Does that mean… I was mistaken about them being controlled by the Off-Worlder?
I peeked at Levianne and she was smiling at me.
That was all I saw before I was pulled out of the room by the guards and dragged off through the corridor.
What was odd was the moment we were far enough from the bedroom, the guards suddenly stopped and let Levianne take over in carrying me.
What's more, she was holding me in a princess carry instead of how they were dragging me along earlier.
The guards bowed to her before leaving, allowing the Queen to continue carrying me down the corridor alone.
She then snapped her fingers and I could move again.
"Ufufufu~ Hello Aster~" She giggled at me, though she still continued to carry me, showing no intention of putting me down.
"Levianne?" I asked.
"My, my~ It shouldn't be 'Levianne' but 'Mama', right?" She giggled.
"Umm… What happened back there, Mama?"
"Fufufu~ I will have to apologise for the rough treatment, Aster. But you came at quite a bad time. That was one of our traps to capture him. We did not want him to escape so we had to be a little rough with you."
"Oh… Umm… In that case, you might want to know that he planted a bomb underneath your bed. That's the thing he was showing off, by the way…"
"Ufufufu~ There's no need to worry, Aster~ We already know what it is~"
I blinked, "You do? Wait… Does that mean he has tried this before?"
She nodded, "In some other places, yes."
My heart sank, "Where… Where did he bomb?"
"Oh, he didn't actually succeed. Or rather, the bomb didn't actually destroy anything. It was left out in the open in the palace garden."
I blinked, "Eh? Just… Left on the ground? It's not hidden inside a bag or something?"
"Fufufu~ I know what you're thinking Aster. But I believe his goal for that particular bomb was to hope that someone would come and investigate the bomb and bring it to somewhere important to inspect it which would then blow that place up. He really thought that we would not recognise it as a bomb."
"Umm… This might sound a little condescending but…"
"How do we know that it was a bomb?" The Queen completed my sentence for me with a giggle. "I suppose there's no need to hide this from you… But there are Off-Worlders working under us in the palace, Aster. As we might have mentioned, you are not the first Off-Worlder we have met. Some of them have found employment under us and they may or may not have told us what they know about your world."
Ah… Ok, that explains quite a bit…
She then brought me to another room which was way more lavishly furnished and decorated than the previous room I was in.
Oh… This was her real bedroom…
She took me over to her bed and lowered me down so that I was seated at the edge, the Queen smiling down at me when she did so.
I then remembered something, "Umm… Just in case you had the wrong idea… The person that you caught in there isn't the Off-Worlder himself…"
"Ah, we know that as well. What I meant was to capture someone he was controlling with the artefact. We just needed him captured to lead us back to the person himself. We even figured out that he found a way to hide the mask on his followers too. In fact, we even have a rough idea of where he could be so this would be more like a confirmation if anything else."
"Eh? How did you manage to find him?"
The Queen raised a finger to her lips, "Fufufu~ I'm afraid that's a secret, Aster~"
Ok… I'm guessing it has something to do with some secret intelligence gathering group under her command… Or maybe she just asked the maids from my Family for help or something…
Whatever, I don't really need to know anyway. What I'm more curious about is what her plan is.
"So… Was this all part of your plan?" I asked.
"Fufufu~ I certainly wasn't expecting Aster to show up today. But I had planned for him to send one of his followers to do something in that room. We weren't sure what he was going to do but you helped us uncover the bomb at least~"
"I don't get it though… Why would you even need to set a trap like that for him if you already knew where he was?"
She sat down beside me and giggled, "Fufu~ That's because we found a way to take advantage of his connection with his followers~"
I tilted my head, "You did? How?"
"It's really simple you see~ We just need to track the connection of the mask on the followers and it would naturally lead us to where he is~ We have already tried doing this from a distance but that only gave us limited range. Thus, we are trying to capture one so that we could use this technique from up close which should give us a more accurate result~"
Oh… I think I have a feeling I know what she's doing now…
"Let me guess… You already have people surrounding the area that you believe the guy to be in and the moment you have confirmation of where that guy is, you're rushing in to capture him?"
She clapped her hands together, "Ufufufu~ As expected of Aster! You're so smart!"
I mean… You practically told me everything already… It's not hard to guess what she was trying to do…
"So what now?" I asked.
"Now? Fufufu~ We have some time to kill since we'll need to trace the exact location of that Off-Worlder… So in the meantime, I suppose I have to… Fufufu… Interrogate you~"
Ah…
How did I not see this coming?