236 – The Pursuit
[Liberty, Equality, Fraternity]
As soon as I saw the list of those three words, I couldn’t help but notice who was behind the current situation.
Resistance.
Unless they were trying to overthrow the Frankish royal family and establish a republic, there would be no reason to mention the ideology of real France.
We narrowed down the lines of the dragon, but not all questions were resolved. Rather, I can’t even guess why the Resistance attacked us out of nowhere.
I looked around the scene where the graffiti was engraved with a cold face.
I don’t feel the presence of people at all here. Looking outside the window for signs of an explosion that seemed to have exploded, I lowered my eyes when I heard a commotion in the yard below.
All the female students who had not been found on the 3rd floor had gone down at some point.
“·······.”
I decided to go outside, judging that it would be difficult to get more meaningful clues even if I stayed here.
I immediately jumped out of the window and landed lightly on the grass, and the eyes of the children immediately focused on me.
Originally, I would avoid unnecessary attention as much as possible, but now was not the time to focus on that.
“Cro! You were safe! But just now, on the third floor…”
Yulia and Rachel come running as soon as they see me. Fortunately, all the girls in my class, including the two, seemed to be all right, but the most important one was nowhere to be seen.
I asked while trying to suppress the anxious premonition that had been overflowing from the beginning.
“Sharon…?”
Then Rachel frowned and asked again.
“The place you just came down from is the room where he stayed. Did you really not see it?”
“·······.”
After the confusion subsided and the personnel check was completed, I was sure.
Everyone except Sharon is safe. Only one Sharon has disappeared.
With this, it became clear that Sharon was the reason the Resistance caused the terror, and it was possible to predict that she might have been kidnapped.
It was hard for her to figure out exactly what happened, as she was in her room alone, without her roommate.
Of course, the academy was in an uproar. A terrorist kidnapping case against a student while staying in another country for a school trip.
It was hard to see the cruise incident on the first day as a trivial happening, but this time it went beyond that level.
The faculty immediately held an emergency meeting. And I, a classmate who is closest to Sharon and probably knows the case well, also joined the meeting.
“Mr. Morris. Any guesses about Miss Hornsia’s whereabouts or the culprit? It’s fine even if it’s a trivial thing, so please tell me about anything.”
I thought about it for a while. Is it really okay to tell the truth? The reason why I judged the suspect as the resistance in the first place was based on my knowledge of reality. Professors will not accept my argument unless I disclose the fact that I am a suspect.
That said, it’s not a good option to blindly catch someone who doesn’t know. Aside from anything else, Academy is one of the strongest cards I can play with right now. If the professors actively cooperate, the possibility of saving Sharon will inevitably increase.
The conclusion I came to after much thought was to mix the truth in moderation. The next day, at the invitation of the Queen, he alluded to the fact that he had heard information about an organization called the Resistance and had been asked for help.
With the speculation that maybe the information leaked out and moved first on the side of the opponent who felt threatened.
It’s something I didn’t bother to reveal, but since the situation was like this, it was nothing to save Sharon.
The professors who listened to my story discussed solutions with serious expressions.
“First of all, let’s ask for help from the Frank Academy and the Ministry of Magic. Also, if what Maurice said is true, the royal family must be held accountable.”
The king became dangerous because he spread dangerous information to the students without following any procedures.
If this matter became a public issue, it could have an impact on the diplomatic relationship between the two countries.
As such a serious issue, the academy also decided to conduct a separate investigation by selecting professors specializing in pursuit and exploration.
It would be safe to say that this was the best move that could be done right now, but I had no intention of leaving everything to the academy and then lazily sucking my fingers.
“I will move separately.”
“What? For a moment. It’s dangerous to move alone in this situation. You could be a target too, so just be safe…”
The professors were talking and talking, but I didn’t pretend to hear, and I got up and strode outside.
There is no time to procrastinate. Even at this moment, I don’t know what state Sharon will be in.
She must be found as soon as possible, before dawn.
***
It was almost certain that the culprit was the Resistance.
Then it was urgent to figure out where their base was.
At first, the fact that I had to find the hideout of a secret society that would be hiding without any clues in an unfamiliar foreign country where I had only spent a few days was daunting at first, but looking back, I didn’t have any clues.
As soon as I realized that fact, I moved towards the palace.
I quietly infiltrated the guards blocking the front gate without dealing with them. I couldn’t afford to go through all the ceremonial steps and enter. Besides, unlike before, there was no noble next to him who could guarantee his status, so there was a high possibility that he would be ignored if he asked to meet the queen.
The approximate structure of the palace was all skimmed yesterday. Using the least guarded route, it was not difficult to head to the queen’s quarters.
Because it was midnight before dawn, the queen was asleep in bed.
She can’t see it as her fault, but even in this situation, she is carefree.
She managed to calm her mind and quietly woke her up.
“Get up.”
Fortunately, the queen woke up right away. Was she sleeping lightly from the beginning? She couldn’t wake up completely, so the queen looked at me hiding in the dark with her half-open eyes for a while, then let out a long sigh.
“Did you come to kill Jim?”
“If it was something like that, I would have killed him right away without having to wake him up.”
“…That’s right too. Then what is your purpose?”
I took a step forward and showed her my face. As if she hadn’t expected my true identity, the queen blinked her widened eyes several times before muttering in a hazy tone.
“Am I still dreaming? I thought it was pretty cute, but it was to the extent that I thought of it as a dream.”
“My friend was kidnapped by the resistance.”
“·······.”
Perhaps it was only then that she realized that the current situation was real, the queen’s expression hardened somewhat.
Raising her upper body from her bed, she asked closely as she touched her forehead as if her headache was aching.
“Are you sure they are? Why do they want you… No, I think I know.”
From noble mtl dot com
The Queen seems to have come to a conclusion similar to the reason why I made excuses.
She noticed that she had asked us for help and she made the first move.
At first glance, it sounds pretty plausible, but to be honest, I had a hunch that that might not be the real reason.
If that was really the reason, why did they only kidnap Sharon and not me? I was actually leading the conversation with her queen, and Sharon was just beside her, keeping her mouth shut.
It is also strange to show the destroyed Paris. If they really did move with the intention that we would get in the way, there was no reason to show me such a future and warn me.
In fact, something in the shape of Juliet even kindly informed her that if she didn’t find Sharon before dawn, she would all die.
The reason for what happened can be found slowly after finding Sharon. Now, the first priority was to find out where the Resistance was hiding.
I have already thought of the method.
“We will listen to the request you made to us yesterday.”
“Hasn’t that already been discussed?”
“There is something I can tell you about Juliet.”
After hearing my words, the queen’s spirit changed in an instant. The loose atmosphere of her up until now disappeared in an instant, and what took its place was the charisma of a sharpened monarch.
“Why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”
“I didn’t feel the need to do that.”
“Is it different now? Okay. What do you want?”
It’s nice that I don’t have to talk about it cumbersomely.
It seems that the other person wants an immediate answer without rhetoric, so I decided to do that.
“Please let me meet the traitor to the nobility you caught in London.”
I never thought I would end up doing this, but the Resistance picked the wrong opponent.
You dare to steal something from a phantom thief.
I will definitely get it back no matter what.