Chapter 294: At Last We Truly Set Out

[A/N: Posting two extra bonus Chapters today because of reaching a milestone!]

After Dee leapt, nobody else jumped. Looking around, they gestured with their hands, after you. That made sense. Nobody knew how well we could move.

Prompted, I leapt up. Voices of "oh!" rose around us. They had not expected much and had been worried we would be a hindrance.

Once we were on the roof, Dee seemed relieved as well.

"Then we depart."

he said, and leapt away. Well, how they kept advancing through such dark footing was something. We followed behind Dee, who glowed faintly. Once my eyes adjusted, I could move more smoothly than at first.

We left the noble quarter and went on into the commoner quarter. It was my first time in the commoner quarter, but we were on the roofs, so I could not tell the difference. Houses closer together, few houses with gardens, lower roofs. That was about all I understood. While I thought that, the houses kept getting smaller. The streets narrowed, and there were fewer straight lines. This part was no different from Marie Kingdom.

Then Dee stopped and pointed down. Ahead was a house on a street corner. No different from the houses around it. The shop was already closed, no lamps were lit, and no light leaked out. So it was the same as in movies. Living mixed among ordinary people, blending into the surroundings.

Before I could finish being impressed,

"Then we go. Roy, please wait here."

Dee said, and went down. Not a single person was on the road. Was nobody on this road the natural state, or was it blocked off somewhere? Which was it?

While I was thinking, Dee and the others split in two, to the front door facing the street and the back door on the alley. A member at the front knocked on the door. That was the same method thieves in period dramas used when forcing their way into a merchant house, I thought, and as expected the door opened and Dee’s group shoved inside all at once. However you looked at it, that looked the same as thieves. If a thief saw it, would he not think they were in the same trade? I thought shouts or screams would be heard outside, but nothing came. The door was shut. What deft work. Would there even be anyone who fled? I thought, and then someone came out the back.

The ones watching the back door chased that person.

"As planned. Let us go as well."

Vee said. Then she leapt across the roofs. We advanced while watching the light of the members moving along the road. The person who had left the house was just barely visible. The members tracking on the road had to keep their distance so as not to be found, and watching from above I started to worry they would be left behind. Which meant we had to be the ones watching.

The one who left the house ran full tilt without looking back. That was an amateur after all. No leeway to mind the rear, and no such training. Convenient for us.

The members on the road were falling behind. Seeing that, Vee dropped something onto the road. After a while she dropped another. What she dropped glowed faintly on the road.

"Those are things we received from Her Majesty."

Vee explained before I asked. Seen this way, was Her Majesty not omnipotent? Meaning you must not think of fleeing from that person.

The one who left the house did not seem used to running. Speed gradually fell, and at last they tripped. They stood, looked back, seemed relieved, stood again, and started running. It was more a fast walk than a run, but they must have thought they were running with all they had.

At last the one who left the house stopped in front of a certain house. Breathing hard with great heaves of the shoulders, they knocked on the door. A sound that seemed to carry through the area conveyed their desperation. Vee marked the road. At last the door opened, and the person from the haberdashery was sucked inside.

"We wait for our comrades, then we breach. If anyone comes out of that house, please catch them. If they are too much to handle, you may kill them."

"Did you let the earlier one go on purpose?"

"Yes. This time we will not let them go. So if anyone escapes, that is outside the plan. There will be no need to determine where they go next."

"Understood."

Vee went down from the roof. She said they would not let them go, but in this kind of thing there was always someone who fled. The one who had just gone in would be telling them what happened at the haberdashery, so they would be on guard inside and ready.

People were gathering on the road below. Dee and the others must have arrived. Fewer than ten, I thought. Would that be enough?

"Lord Robbie, do you think anyone will flee that house?"

Lily asked.

"There will be. Or rather, they will already be trying to pass word to the next place. Even if they call it a breach, it will come to the use of force, so the Empire side will try to pass it on no matter what. They will not think the earlier one was let go on purpose by the kingdom."

"Yes. Then we catch them."

"That may be difficult. The ones they let go are the ones with enough ability to get away, I think, so if we try to catch them we may be the ones who get hit. Let us go in on the premise of killing. If we have leeway we can catch them. Cutting off one or two limbs will be fine."

"Would there be someone that skilled in a place like this?"

"When Lily says that, there usually is."

"Is that so?"

Lily was half in doubt, but it would turn out that way, surely.

Dee’s group knocked on the house door. Needless to say there was no response. They would go in by force. At that moment the back door opened from inside. A person burst out. Of course the waiting members closed in. But the person who came out next swept the members aside. One of them broke the encirclement. Then something thrown by a member hit the one who had broken through, and it glowed faintly.