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Chapter – 11
The place Di pointed to, her face pale with fear, was where a gaunt, nervous-looking man was dismounting from his horse. His eyes, impossible to tell where they were looking, were eerie. He was a man with a gloomy air that perfectly suited this village.
“Lord of Gotins. It’s Gion.”
Di and Lita-der gulped. Gion looked at Di and Amira alternately with unsettling eyes. Then, he walked over to Amira, knelt on one knee, and spoke.
“I’ve been waiting for you. Saintess Amira.”
“Pleased to meet you, Sir Gion.”
‘These damn looks-obsessed people.’
Di, irritated, waved her hand in front of Gion and said,
“Am I invisible? I was right here too, you know, Sir Gion?”
“Step aside. Fake. Before I lock you up.”
“Wait, what does Amira have that I don’t except for one face…?”
As Di tried to argue, Gion stood up and spoke.
“Saintess Amira. It seems this fake might interfere with your official duties. Shall I lock her up until it’s time for you to leave?”
When Gion asked, Amira replied calmly.
“Do so.”
Di’s eyes widened at the sudden turn of events.
“Wh-What? Amira! What kind of behavior is this! This is totally cheating!”
Amira turned her head away as if uninterested, and Gion spoke to his subordinates who had followed him.
“Take that woman away.”
In an instant, the subordinates rushed over and grabbed Di’s arms. Di shouted at Lita-der.
“Lita-der! Save me!”
“I’ll come visit you, Saintess! See you when you go home!”
“Hey!”
The cowardly Lita-der waved her hand, sobbing. After cursing her fill, Di was dragged off to the Gotins castle prison.
Di thought this was all a setup arranged by High Priest Bernadoc and Gion.
No wonder a bear charged at them as soon as they went out for a walk, and after coming all this way, it was straight to prison as soon as they arrived.
As they say, plant beans and get beans, plant sociopaths and get sociopaths. The granddaughter was just like her grandfather.
Dragged along sullenly, Di was horrified to see the prison cell already occupied by about ten previous guests.
“W-wait a minute. You want me to stay with ten men?”
“It’s fine. They’re just petty thieves.”
As Gion said nonchalantly, pushed her in, and locked the prison door, Di grabbed the iron bars with both hands and screamed.
“How is that fine, you son of a bitch!”
“It would be best to stay quiet.”
As he disappeared after saying that, Di turned around with a thoroughly crumpled face, then soon clasped her hands together and grinned brightly.
“So, gentlemen? What brings you to such a humble place… Oh my, sir. You’re sitting on the bare floor.”
Di gathered some straw from around, made a cushion, and patted it.
“Sit here, sir!”
When she spoke, the ten men in the prison glanced at her, then immediately went back to chatting among themselves.
“So, Captain Jin, what’s the plan for the escape?”
“I think selling my hyung might work, but this time I’d really die… Ah. Wouldn’t the bars break if all ten of us pushed at once?”
“But they say the iron in Gotins is mixed with dragon’s blood, so it can’t be broken.”
‘Wow, wow, this is a world with dragons!?’
Di, deciding then and there to walk the path of a dragon slayer, tried to squeeze into their conversation.
“Excuse me, I’m kind of smart, you know? Plus, I have a bit of foresight too? Hey, gentlemen, let me join the conversation too. I’m lonely.”
Di tried to whine her way into the middle of the burly men, but they didn’t give the tiny her any space to enter.
Eventually, sulking, she crouched in a corner of the cell when a pretty-looking man broke away from the group and sat down next to her.
“Don’t mind them too much. They grew up all huddled together with just guys, so they don’t know how to talk to women.”
As he consoled Di, who was hugging her knees, she pouted noticeably and said,
“It’s not just that I’m not eye-catching, right?”
“Th-that’s probably not it!”
The man, Jin Claes, flustered, tried to change the subject. Di, feeling even more wronged, covered her face with her hands and pretended to cry. Seeing her, Jin giggled, then offered a handshake.
“My name is Jin.”
Di accepted the handshake and replied.
“Call me Di.”
“Alright, Di. So, how did you end up here?”
“Ah. Did you happen to hear the rumor about two saintesses suddenly appearing? I’m one of them.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, the other saintess threatened to kill me, saying I was a fake. So, it seems a ghost has appeared in this town, and whoever solves it will be recognized as the saintess… Huh? Wait. Then I don’t have to meet the ghost, right? I’ll just be staying here?”
“Is that so?”
“I don’t have to meet the ghost!”
Di, who had been tense about having to meet a ghost, cheered excitedly. Then she plopped down on the straw cushion she had made.
“Ah. Thinking like that makes me feel instantly at ease.”
Having rapidly calmed down, she asked Jin,
“And you? How did you end up here?”
“Ah, a Gotins merchant sold us defective goods. So, we asked for an exchange, but they didn’t want to do it and reported us as thieves, you see?”
“So you were framed?”
“No. We are actual thieves, but there’s still an unfair aspect to it.”
She wasn’t sure what was unfair about that, but since he seemed to be with those gentlemen, she decided not to comment. Jin continued.
“But you said earlier you have a bit of foresight?”
Jin’s face, with blond hair and dark blue eyes, was mysteriously beautiful even in the dim light. He smiled with his eyes crinkling and asked,
“So? Could that foresight be of some help in escaping here?”
“Ah, I don’t need to escape. I don’t want to meet the ghost either, and they said they’d let me out when it’s time to go home anyway,” Di said dismissively.
Seeming to hear that, Shinta, the burliest among Jin’s subordinates, sat down next to her with a thud.
“Our captain wants to escape.”
At Shinta’s menacing words, Di quickly said to Jin,
“Oh my, of course I’ll help you escape. Might as well become your right-hand man while we’re at it.”
As she swiftly changed her tune, Jin burst out laughing, crossing his arms and shaking his shoulders. She was a really peculiar woman.
Di gathered all ten men and began explaining the escape plan.
The guards of the Gotins castle prison were whispering.
“Hey, Charles. Go ask what they’re doing.”
“How do I ask! What if I get cursed!”
Inside the cell, Di was sitting cross-legged with both hands on her knees, surrounded by the other prisoners who were trembling.
“W-we were wrong! We failed to recognize the Saintess!”
“I dared to be so rude to the Saintess… Eeek! M-my head!”
Shinta, one of the large men, grabbed his head and writhed in agony. Finally, one of the guards, Charles, approached and poked the suffering Shinta with a long pole, asking,
“U-um… Mr. Thief. Are you in a lot of pain?”
“Graaah! It hurts! It feels like my head is splitting!”
“Y-your head is splitting? That’s a big problem!”
“G-guard…!”
Shinta crawled over, grabbed the iron bars, and said,
“If I die… bury my body… in a sunny place…!”
Before he could finish, he collapsed with a thud.
The guards screamed and stepped back. Charles trembled and shouted at Di.
“Y-you! What did you do!?”
“He is dead.”
“What?”
Di pressed a hand to her forehead as if she too was in pain and said,
“He dared to doubt my divine power and has been struck down. I tried to avoid further bloodshed…”
“Th-that cruel act…”
“Guard. Will you remove the corpse? Once I see blood, I tend to uncontrollably crave more.”
At Di’s words, Charles, terrified and sniffling, said,
“B-but even so, that’s…”
“If not, then your… daughter.”
“M-my daughter? I only have a son…”
“Your daughter who will be born next year!”
“Wh-what? Eeeek! No! Not my daughter!”
The guard finally frantically searched for the key. The guard’s hands trembled violently from shock. After several failed attempts, he pulled out the key, opened the door, and dragged Shinta’s ‘corpse’ out of the cell.
At that moment, the ‘corpse’ sprang up, struck the guard’s pressure point, knocking him out. Then, it lightly subdued the other guards who came rushing.
As Shinta, having completed his mission, turned at the sound of applause, Di, who had specifically assigned him this role, was clapping enthusiastically.
“Wow, I didn’t expect you to pull off the role this well. I almost cried at such moving acting.”
She was teasing Shinta excitedly, while Jin was beside her, covering his mouth with his hand, shaking with silent laughter.
Jin, with a pained expression, barely stopped laughing and said,
“Right. It was really amazing acting. I even shed tears thinking Shinta really died.”
Shinta twitched his eyebrows and looked at Di with resentment for giving him such a role, but since she had helped them escape, he couldn’t say anything and just sighed.
Jin, his face full of joy, thanked Di.
“Thank you. I really didn’t know we’d escape like this.”
“It’s nothing. It’s thanks to that gentleman’s great acting.”
“Di. You’re a really good con artist. Want to join us? We like to think of ourselves as righteous thieves in our own way.”
“Hmm.”
Comrades. She seriously considered accepting. It felt like the royal court was such a minefield that following this mysterious man might be better. She said with a regretful expression,
“It’s a shame, but I’ll have to decline.”
“Why?”
Jin asked, looking even more disappointed. Di answered,
“If I get caught stealing, I think Kaiel would kill me.”
“R-right? Actually, I want to pull off a big heist too, but I can’t because I’m scared of the king…”
“You, you too?”
Di, having found a kindred spirit, said tearfully,
“He’s always trying to kill me.”
“Right? It’s a clean slice if you get caught.”
While Jin and Di were bonding, the guards who had been knocked out began showing signs of regaining consciousness one by one.
Jin quickly grabbed Di’s wrist and said to his subordinates,
“Let’s run!”
“Yes, Captain!”
The escapees rushed out in a crowd. Their confiscated horses were tied up in front of the prison. Jin made a step with his hands under a horse and said,
“Hurry, get on. We need to run.”
Di hesitated, wondering if it was okay to step on such pretty hands, but having no choice, she stepped on his hands and mounted the horse. Jin hopped up behind her and spurred the horse.
Di barely managed to find the Gotins shrine and arrived. Peeking inside through a hole in the wall, she spotted Lita-der passing by. Lita-der was walking cautiously, holding a basket full of food. Seeing that, Di muttered,
“Traitor. I survived in prison among these dangerous men, and you’re carrying food around, now?”
“Wow, that kid is really too much.”
Jin, who was also peeking inside through another hole, grumbled along with her. Di turned to him sharply and asked,
“Why are you here?”
“The others went to retrieve our confiscated weapons. I was bored in the meantime.”
“Talking about ‘comrades.’ They’re clearly subordinates.”
“They are comrades?”
“Where do you find such respectful comrades? They treat you like a prince.”
“Since when?”
Jin retorted discontentedly. At that moment, Lita-der, who had let out a deep sigh, looked at the basket she was holding and said,
“I wonder when our Saintess will return… I prepared food.”
Lita-der hugged the basket tightly and mumbled,
“I gathered all kinds of meat the Saintess likes… but she can’t even eat it… I thought escaping from prison would be no problem with our Saintess’s divine power…”
Lita-der sniffled. Seeing that, Di and Jin covered their mouths with their hands and mimed crying. Di swallowed her tears and said,
“To think that kid was like this…”
“She was a good traitor, wasn’t she? My subordinates only look after their own food.”
“Eh? You admitted they’re subordinates.”
“Dammit, in the heat of the moment!”
While Jin was feeling wronged, Di found a slightly larger hole and quietly crawled inside the wall. Lita-der, spotting her, exclaimed in surprise,
“Saintess! You escaped after all!”
