Nisa and Tony kept telling about the Crimson Scorpions and their plans.
They had been kidnapping people in the small villages surrounding the capital, knowing their security was low due to the war with Kalusia.
As they kept talking, I gradually started to get more annoyed at the whole situation.
"Okay, enough. Tell where the entrance to the underground tunnels is..." I said to Tony and Nisa with severity in my voice.
They pointed in the direction of another abandoned building, so I asked Vespera to get inside my shadow and co with while Gina and Yoru took care of the people in our hiding spot.
[Vesp, we are taking control of the underground tunnels tonight.] I said to my companion telepathically.
When we reached the building that Tony and Nisa pointed at, I turned the chandelier that they told , and a part of the ground opened up, showing a set of stairs that led underground.
If I didn’t have magic and weapons, I probably would have felt a little scared to venture inside, but those feelings weren’t even an option for now.
As I walked through the dark corridors with only the sound of my steps echoing, the path split into three different directions.
’Let’s go in order, I guess. I’ll start with the left path...’ I thought.
A few seconds of walking later, I saw doors on the sides of the corridor, and I could hear voices coming from so of the rooms.
I kicked open one of the wooden doors, only to find two bandits playing cards while sharing a drink, promptly standing up and unsheating their weapons when they saw .
However, just as quickly as they stood up, Vespera and I were already knocking them out.
After Vespera safely secured them with her spiderweb, we kept going through the different doors and knocking out any bandit we found without asking a single question.
I did notice that so of the guys we defeated had the black flower tattoo from the curse on their necks, which led to believe they were under threats like Nisa and Tony. However, I had no ti to heal them all since I was in the middle of infiltrating their base.
’We’ll take care of their condition after we clean up this whole place...’ I thought as we kept on moving forward.
At the end of the corridor, I found a room with a set of stairs that led to another entrance in a different district, prompting to turn back and return to the area where the paths split up.
Since I had gone left previously, I decided to take a right and leave the middle path for last.
Just like before, a set of doors beca visible after walking for a bit. However, these rooms had beds and desks, and not all had bandits inside, which led to believe it was their dormitory area.
The last door led to another exit to the surface, so we returned and took the middle path, which was seemingly the last one.
Nonetheless, I was perplexed when the corridor split again into five different directions, and each of these paths would divide into 3 to 5 more later on, with no doors or anything around.
’I think it’s purposely made to be a labyrinth or sothing...’ I thought as I ran through the corridors since it would’ve taken the entire night to explore the place if I walked.
While rushing, I used my "search" spell to see if I could feel anything strange, leading to a door that looked different than the others, as it was made of iron and was much thicker.
I thought about kicking it open with force, but if sothing or soone was on the other side, they could get badly hurt, maybe even die.
Instead, I used earth magic to mold the heavy iron door in half, leaving ample space for to enter the room.
At the back, a woman with pinkish hair sat with her back towards , working on her desk.
She wore a beige and raggedy dress with a chain around her ankle that prevented her from walking around the room.
"Hey..." I said, slowly approaching the woman who didn’t turn to look at and kept working intently on sothing.
When I got closer, I saw that she was trying to make a potion and had herbs all over her desk in a very unorganized manner.
"I’m still working on it..." she replied coldly, still not gazing at .
"Working on what? What type of potion are you trying to make?" I asked, noticing a strange blue herb that I had never seen on her desk.
Finally turning her head, the woman got startled and jumped back.
"Wh-who are you!? Are you a new lackey of Romanov?" the woman asked nervously.
"No, the complete opposite, actually," I replied with a slight smile to calm her nerves.
The woman didn’t believe at first, but I was able to convince her when I pulled out a bag filled with the little iron scorpion pins.
I had been taking them from all the bandits that we knocked out since I wanted them as proof if I needed them later, but I didn’t know they would co in handy so soon.
After I used earth magic to destroy the chain around her ankles, the woman looked at with admiration, and I noticed the mark on her neck, prompting to give her a holy panacea to cure the curse.
The woman inspected the potion before drinking it and exclaid that she had never seen anything like it, inquiring where I had gotten it from.
I introduced myself as Ichiro, which was the na that appeared on the potion, making the woman extrely happy for so reason.
She introduced herself as "Jeniffer Lovegrad" but asked to call her "Jen." She was a noble of the empire who had been captured by the bandits to make potions for them.
Jen was a talented alchemist in the capital, and when the war against Kalusia started, she was busy making hundreds of potions daily for their soldiers.
However, that talent is what made her a target for the Crimson Scorpions, who wanted the war to be prolonged so they could maintain control in the capital.
After the disappearance of the 17-year-old, her parents put a notice with money as a reward to anyone who could locate her, supported by the royal family since they knew how important she was for the war.
The potions she usually made were healing potions, which weren’t as good as the ones I made, but they were still pretty potent. However, she was asked to create a new potion with the blue herbs on her desk.
When she ntioned that she hadn’t eaten in three days, I pulled out a bowl and a few fruits for her to eat. anwhile, I inspected the strange blue herb that I sohow found familiar.
Checking the information, I realized why the herb looked so familiar. It was the sa color as the plants at the Illusive Woods, and the na pretty much confird it.
"Hey, Jen. What potion did they ask you to make with this?" I asked.
Swallowing a mouthful, she said that they tasked her with making a drug that would make the Empress lose their mind, thinking they could topple her out of her position if she began hallucinating and going crazy.
The leader told the rest of the bandits not to feed Jeniffer until she had completed the drug, which was the reason why she hadn’t eaten in three days.
Honestly, Jen looked relatively calm for soone who was being held captive, which prompted to ask her how she maintained her composure.
Not only were they threatening her life, but they also had thugs stationed outside her house in the nobles’ district that could attack her family at any mont.
"Hmm. I guess I thought I was going to die anyway, so I just went with whatever they asked... Not that poison, though." she replied.
Jen believed she could have completed the poison the leader asked for on the first day. However, she didn’t want to betray her empire for her life, so she resigned to her fate and was ready to die.
What she actually did during those three days was investigate the herb since she was curious about the hidden properties it possessed.
’So, she is addicted to alchemy. Kinda reminds of Reinar...’ I thought as Jen told her story.
"That’s a lot of loyalty for an Empress. Are you that fond of her?" I asked.
Jen smiled slightly, explaining that the Empress was her best friend’s older sister, so she felt a need to protect the imperial family.
"Wait. Your best friend’s older sister? Isn’t the Empress so old... I an, mature woman?" I asked since the way she described her was completely different from how I pictured her.
Jeniffer chuckled and explained that the previous Empress had passed away a few years ago, leaving her oldest daughter on the throne.
At that point, I understood that the current ruler wasn’t the one who opposed helping Kalusia fight the devil when they asked in the past. Instead, she was the one left to fix the mistakes of her predecessor.
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