Chapter 39: Hide-and-Seek – 4
I watched the searching team carefully through the small gap in the screen.
At first, Ian wore a confident expression.
He didn’t do anything in particular—just stood still with his eyes closed, concentrating.
But after ten, twenty… thirty minutes, cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.
“This can’t be. This can’t be happening.”
“Um, excuse . Is sothing wrong?”
“Shouldn’t we also start moving to search?”
“It’s already been thirty minutes.”
The searching team began to show signs of impatience.
Then Ian crumpled his face in anger and said,
“Did I not tell you to shut your mouths? My focus broke because you worms dared to speak.”
“H-hiek!”
“If you weren’t on my team, I would’ve killed you already. I told you that as long as you don’t interfere with , you’ll pass—but you can’t even manage that?”
“……We’re sorry.”
“Tch. Useless things.”
He was openly doing things that would destroy his own reputation.
Well, from Ian’s perspective, this ga was sothing he could be confident of winning with his ability alone.
The others were rely obstacles to him, nothing more.
But even his arrogance began to fade after another thirty minutes passed.
Now, he wasn’t just sweating—his whole body was trembling.
“Why—why can’t I sense them? Don’t tell the Audience Chamber isn’t actually the ga’s location?”
“Uh…”
“What is it! Didn’t I tell you to shut your mouth?”
“It should be the right place. The rules said within a radius of 500 ters.”
“Kh!”
In the end, he lost his composure.
“Search for them.”
“Pardon? But earlier you said…”
“I said search! Spread out and scour the entire place!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
I was grateful for his impatience.
With that attitude, it would only get harder for him to find us.
Even though he had eighteen hours of ti, we only needed to endure eight hours without being caught.
And one of those hours had already passed.
Seven hours left.
‘Good. I can do this.’
Ti passed again.
—Six hours ago.
“Nothing here.”
“Sa here.”
“Damn it. Where the hell are they hiding?”
“Calm down. We still have plenty of ti.”
—Five hours ago.
“No, seriously, where the hell are they?”
“Uh, since it’s the Audience Chamber, maybe there’s so kind of hidden secret room?”
“Right! That’s it. Their team has the Princess, doesn’t it? They must’ve all hidden inside so secret chamber she knew about.”
“I-Ian, sir? Could that be true?”
It seed Ian wasn’t certain of that himself.
But after searching so long without finding anyone, he must have thought it was possible.
“……That could be it. The wall. Feel along every inch of it with your hands!”
“Yes, sir.”
—Four hours ago.
“There’s nothing. No hidden rooms anywhere.”
“Damn it, if it weren’t for your stupid idea, we wouldn’t have wasted so much ti.”
“What was that? You said it was a good idea yourself earlier!”
“Both of you, shut up!”
—Three hours ago.
“I’m hungry. I was dragged here right before dinner.”
“Ian, sir. Can we at least eat sothing while we search?”
“Idiots. It’s amazing you can even let such nonsense leave your mouths.”
“But there’s still lots of ti left and—”
“The ti you waste stuffing your faces might beco a regret for eternity, you worms.”
“……”
“Search again. Thoroughly, from the beginning.”
—Two hours ago.
—One hour ago.
—Thirty minutes ago.
—Ten minutes ago.
—Five minutes ago.
‘Alright. Just five more minutes, and even if we’re found, it won’t matter.’
And then—
“Wait a minute. Why is Sir Gear in this position?”
Ian suddenly said sothing that made my skin crawl.
He was carefully staring at the armor’s original owner—the one I was wearing.
Damn. Did he know the face from the start?
“This man was clearly one of His Majesty’s Royal Guards…”
And the next mont—
He widened his eyes and stomped toward .
“Uh, Ian, sir? That area’s already been checked.”
“Uhhahahaha!”
“Ian, sir?”
“To think you’d hide inside the armor! No, to think that would actually count as ‘hiding’!”
“……”
“The number of Royal Guards changes depending on the reason for the Audience. Right, there were exactly thirty today. Enough for all of you to hide, wasn’t it?”
“……”
“Sir Gear’s position was the sixth from the right, wasn’t it?”
His face grew closer and closer.
Through the narrow slit of the helt visor, he glared at and growled,
“Mason Gear.”
“Yo. Took you long enough.”
“That was a clever trick. I an that sincerely.”
“……”
“But not clever enough to beat . Naturally.”
Tap.
He slapped my armor with his palm.
“Found you.”
He smiled in satisfaction and turned away—
To go ‘find’ the others hiding in the other armors.
He had misunderstood, thinking he’d already ‘found’ .
‘Please, just stay mistaken like that.’
But before I could even finish the thought—
“Hm?”
Ian suddenly froze.
He stepped closer again and tapped the armor twice.
“Found you, found you.”
“……”
“Why isn’t anything happening? There should’ve been so kind of signal to show one’s been caught, right?”
“……”
“No, wait, hold on. What were the exact rules again?”
He pressed a finger to his temple, muttering to himself.
Then he grinned.
“Ah. You had to touch the opponent’s body with your palm and say ‘found you.’ The body, not the armor.”
“……”
“I see. So that’s why you hid inside the armor.”
“Well, sothing like that.”
“The Royal Guards’ armors are custom-made by the Empire’s finest artisans. It was a good move. But still—not enough for !”
Srring.
He drew his sword.
Ti. How many minutes were left now?
He was about to swing his sword at .
That was when—
“Wait, Sir Ian de Trosse.”
Suddenly, Arlia’s voice flowed out from the armor beside .
Ian paused mid-swing, then smirked.
“Well, well. So, Her Highness the Princess was inside that armor.”
“Do not forget the boundless favor His Majesty the Emperor has bestowed upon your family.”
“And what does that have to do with this?”
“You’ve received great grace from our royal bloodline. So for now, heed my request. Spare Mason.”
“Hahaha. To think Her Highness would speak so earnestly to save a re commoner. How utterly absurd.”
Then Aina’s voice ca from another armor.
“What’s absurd is the pitiful sight you’ve been showing for the past eight hours.”
“What did you say?”
“I an, we can see everything from here. You looked hilarious, you know? All relaxed at first, then getting more and more desperate.”
“How dare you speak to like that! You’re just the last remnant of a fallen family!”
“Since we’re talking about it, that ti when the Emperor destroyed our family from that very throne—don’t tell you had a hand in that?”
What?
So the Emperor had destroyed the Noel Family?
‘That explains it…’
Even back during the Second Quest, Aina had truly intended to kill Arlia.
I’d sensed she bore a deep grudge against the royal family, but I hadn’t thought it was because the Emperor himself had wiped out her house.
“Asking that now is pointless. And I have no intention of answering anyway.”
Their conversation was clearly a way to buy ti, yet Ian still entertained it without complaint.
After all, in his mind, ten hours remained.
But in reality…
That was when Berseum spoke.
“That’ll do.”
Zero hours left.
“From now until the mont of role change, we can hold out easily. Well done, Aina. You’ve done well too, Your Highness.”
“I can’t believe I had to actually say things like that. I feel degraded.”
“I never expected you, Aina, to bring up your family with your own mouth. You must have been quite worried about Mason.”
“Hmph. Not as much as you.”
Ian’s eyes shook.
With a sour expression, he asked,
“What are you all talking about?”
“Hey.”
I spoke in a leisurely tone.
“Go ahead. Try cutting .”
At my provocation, Ian’s eyes turned red with fury.
“I was planning to kill you anyway, even if it wasn’t part of this quest.”
“Then go ahead and try.”
“You bastard!”
Whoosh.
He moved faster than my eyes could follow.
He reached for his sword, and one second later—
Only the result remained.
Kakang!
A faint blue, transparent barrier shimred for an instant and vanished.
Ian’s sword had been deflected without even touching my armor.
“W-what is this?”
Kang. Kaang!
He struck several more tis.
But every ti, his blade was blocked by the magical barrier.
At this point, calling his expression “nervous” would be an understatent.
He was aghast.
“Ugh! What the hell is happening!”
Berseum finally spoke.
“As expected, quite powerful.”
“You… you said you were a gardener…”
“I am. I just dabble in other things for amusent.”
“This—this phenonon, I’ve never heard or seen such a thing before. C-could it be…”
He swallowed hard and asked,
“Magic?”
“It’s a barrier you could never pierce, not with your ager talent.”
“……!”
“That last strike confird it. You’ll never break my magic—unless you detonate a Kanesella, that is.”
Naturally, Ian had no idea what a Kanesella was.
But he seed to realize one thing: he and his team couldn’t find anyone during their turn.
I spoke with deliberate leisure.
“Shall I give you a piece of advice?”
“Grr…”
“You don’t have ti to be doing this right now.”
His face darkened.
“Better start finding sowhere to hide. Unless you want to die once the roles switch.”
Ian continued his futile struggle for another two whole hours.
He knocked on every armor—Arlia’s, Aina’s, Berseum’s, and all the others—perhaps wondering if mine was special.
But none of our armors could be cut.
Finally exhausted, he threw his sword to the ground and shouted,
“Damn it! Damn it all!”
Then, just as I’d advised, he began to look for a hiding spot after the role switch.
It was quite the sight to behold.
“Um, wouldn’t it be best if we also hid inside the armors over there?”
“No. Aina and Her Highness are among them. For those two, dismantling the armors would be easy.”
“……!”
“Especially Aina—she’d probably pierce through the tiniest crack with a needle. For a daughter of the Noel Family, that would be nothing.”
At those words, the others turned pale and scattered in all directions, desperately looking for sowhere to hide.
‘Heh. Unbelievable.’
Had they panicked so badly that they’d lost their minds?
What good would hiding do while we were all watching them?
Quietly, so my voice wouldn’t reach their ears, I held the Diary Book.
[Your Highness.]
[Yes. I think I know what you’re about to say.]
[Indeed. You’re hungry, aren’t you?]
[Wh—what?]
[Just kidding. Please rember every place those people passed by. After the role switch, they’ll be hiding sowhere among them.]
[You were teasing again!]
I couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
Ti continued to flow quickly.
Now and then, Ian would strike the armor again, unwilling to give up—but it was pointless.
Aside from the blood pooling in my legs from standing too long, it was a rather peaceful ti.
Then, ten minutes before the role switch—
‘Hm?’
Ian, who had been moving restlessly, suddenly froze.
He crossed his arms and began thinking deeply about sothing.
And the next mont—
Smirk.
It was faint, but unmistakable—the corner of his lips curled into a smile.
‘What’s that? What is he thinking?’
I didn’t know.
But Ian had realized it.
A way he could win.
I’d have to see for myself what that was.
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