The Princess Hides Her Identity (7)

Aurora's interrogation method proved even more effective than expected.

Before proper torture even began, Kal had already opened his mouth.

"M, I'll talk! I'll talk!"

Kal shouted, his face pale as a sheet.

Leon casually said, twirling the paper knife in the air.

"I haven't done anything yet. You heard what she said. Do it step by step."

"Step by step, my ass—I'll talk, so move it!"

"Tsk."

It wasn't as if he had some nasty hobby of tormenting people.

If he didn't have to dirty his hands, Leon had no reason to refuse.

"Where did you take them?"

"The east sewer! They're in the east sewer!"

Kal shouted as if he'd been waiting for it.

"Kardin!"

That was when it happened.

One of the men sprawled on the ground barely managed to lift his head and shout in a voice thick with fury.

Kal jerked.

Aurora blinked.

"Kardin?"

"That would be this man's real name."

Leon had guessed right.

Kardin was Kal's real name.

To play Kyle, the male lead of the novel The Princess Hides Her Identity, he'd been using the alias Kal.

"Kardin, have you lost your mind? If you say that, Murdock will kill us all!"

At the mention of Murdock's name, Kal—no, Kardin—went pale as a sheet.

But the silence didn't last long.

"......Shut up."

"What?"

"I said shut up!"

Kardin shouted.

"If I don't say it now, I'm going to die here. What about Murdock? Are you going to die for me instead?"

"You damn traitor!"

"Traitor? That's rich. I was a low-ranking nobody from the start! You never treated me like a comrade anyway!"

Kardin looked back at Leon.

"There's an abandoned logistics warehouse in the east sewer district! There's a hidden path down into the basement there, and they're in it!"

"The young ladies? They're safe, right?"

"Ah, not yet. Before selling them off, we have to check their identities and see whether their families are rich enough to squeeze ransom from...."

"Not yet?"

Leon's voice cooled.

Kal hurriedly shook his head.

"I-I don't make the decisions! I'm just the one who lures them over! Really!"

"How many members are there in the organization?"

"I don't really know about that...."

Leon pointed the paper knife at him.

"Eek...!"

Anyone who didn't know better might have thought it was a joke, but Kardin had experienced the paper knife's power himself.

He jerked his chin back as far as it would go, trying to put as much distance between himself and the paper knife as possible.

"We operate in separate areas, so I really don't know! I don't even know the members from the other districts!"

"Hmm."

"B-but on the day we move the goods, we'll all gather in one place. I heard we'll move tonight!"

Aurora's gaze wavered.

"They're moving?"

"They're selling them off. They said they'll move out the ones not worth squeezing ransom from first.... They'll send them out through the sewer...."

"Where are they selling them?"

"Most of them are.... Outside the capital."

"Outside the capital?"

Kardin continued, mumbling.

"Port cities or places near the border. They send them to places where it's easy to hide their identities. If they're lucky, they might become a rich man's concubine or be sold off as a maid. But most of them...."

Kardin swallowed the rest of his words.

Even without saying it, they already knew.

There was only one place women rejected by this era could go.

A brothel.

Young ladies born to noble families and raised like precious treasures their whole lives drifted there, having lost both their names and their status.

The moment they entered a brothel, it was over.

There was no way back to their family, and no way to prove who they had once been.

"If they get sold there, can they be found again?"

Kardin couldn't answer. His silence was answer enough.

Aurora clenched her fists tight.

"Exactly where and what time do they move?"

"I don't know that much.... I was only supposed to take the one we caught today, report it, and that was it."

"......"

"R-really! Someone higher up in the ranks would know, but...."

"Who's the highest-ranking person here?"

"I think it would be Lady Vera...."

Kardin's gaze shifted to the woman collapsed atop the crate.

"Mm...."

Vera, who had been unconscious, was just now coming to.

As soon as she woke up, Vera blinked groggily at the stares raining down on her.

"......What?"

She seemed not to understand the situation.

But only for a moment.

The underlings sprawled on the ground, arms and legs pinned.

Kardin, deathly pale and clutching his severed wrist.

And Leon standing before him, with the paper knife floating beside him.

Vera's eyes went ice-cold the moment she took in all of it.

"Kardin."

she said in a razor-sharp voice.

"You talked?"

"......"

"You useless bastard....!"

To shut him up, Vera drew a dagger from her waist and threw it.

"-Ting."

It bounced off the paper knife with pathetic ease.

The paper knife changed direction.

Toward Vera instead of Kardin.

Leon walked toward her.

"Don't be too hard on him. This time it's your turn."

***

Before long, Vera was talking.

"......the last evening bell."

Not a single drop of blood had been spilled.

No bones had been broken, and no fingernails had been pulled out.

"When the sun goes down and the last evening bell rings, move. By then the city gates will be closed.... Hic."

Vera, clutching her head carefully with one hand, sniffled as she spoke.

Leon had chosen to inflict psychological pain on Vera instead of physical pain.

Her hair had been utterly ruined.

Her bangs had been cut crookedly, and the hair at her sides was so patchy it looked as if rats had chewed it out.

For women, hair was as precious as life itself.

Especially for Vera, who had spent her time in the back alleys, her flowing long hair was the only property she owned.

Having it ruined so carelessly, she gave in before long.

"Leon is cruel...."

Aurora, beside her, covered her own hair and looked at Leon as if he were some terrifying creature.

The same person who'd talked about pulling out fingernails and slowly inflicting pain was calling him cruel just because of her hair.

Maybe her feminine sensibilities had suddenly kicked in.

Leon didn't give it much thought and let it go.

"Where are we going?"

"A sealed drainage culvert in the southeast part of the capital."

"Drainage culvert?"

"It's an underground drain that used to carry water out of the city when it rained heavily. It's supposed to be blocked now, but in reality we've secretly opened it up."

"In other words, the logistics warehouse Kardin mentioned was both their base and their departure point."

"The drainage culvert Vera mentioned was the route for slipping out of the capital without the guards noticing."

"We've got all the important information."

"Now all that's left is to get moving."

"What are you going to do with these people?"

Aurora asked, looking at the thugs.

They weren't dead.

That said, they weren't exactly fine either.

Left like this, they wouldn't be able to come after them immediately, but there was still room for trouble.

"It'd be best to hand them over to the knights."

But in the current situation, even that wasn't feasible.

This was the outskirts, where patrols rarely came. To call them, they'd have to go there themselves.

The problem was that Aurora couldn't be sent alone, and she couldn't be left here alone either. They couldn't even both go and leave these men behind.

"Aurora, do you perhaps have anything that can prove your identity?"

"Just a moment."

Aurora rummaged through her clothes and took out a brooch.

It was a silver brooch engraved with a tiny imperial crest.

Though she was dressed as a commoner, she'd brought one item to prove her identity, just in case.

"I'll borrow this for a moment."

Leon attached the brooch to the paper knife, then went up onto the alley wall and flung the blade into the air.

The paper knife rode the wind and shot off, disappearing straight toward the main street.

Leon climbed back down.

"Will that work?"

"If someone can look at a thing flying around with the imperial crest on it and ignore it, that would be impressive in its own right."

Leon looked toward one side of the alley.

There were old sacks, rope, and torn scraps of cloth strewn about.

He cut them into suitable strips and made binding cords. He gathered the thugs into a circle and tied them up.

They only looked restrained; as restraints, they weren't much use.

However.

"If you want to run, go ahead. But I won't be responsible for what happens afterward."

"......"

With that one sentence, the word escape vanished cleanly from the thugs' minds.

Leon traced the wall with his finger. Along its path, scratches appeared as letters were carved into the wall.

"What are you doing?"

"If we show ourselves, it'll just be a hassle, so this is minimal information."

Before long, a commotion came from outside the alley.

"This way!"

"Where on earth are they going?"

"It's the imperial crest. Even if we don't know exactly what it is, we still have to go. If we don't follow and get in trouble, who knows what punishment we'll get."

The patrol officers came over, guided by the paper knife.

"Then let's get going before we're spotted. Excuse us for a moment."

"Huh? Ah!"

Leon scooped Aurora up princess-style and leaped onto the wall above the alley.

"W-wait a second...!"

Aurora reflexively looped her arms around the back of his neck.

In an instant, a floating sensation enveloped her whole body.

Her skirt fluttered, and the narrow alleyway dropped away beneath her in an instant.

Leon landed lightly on the wall.

Right below them.

The patrol rushed into the alley.

"What is this?"

"They're all tied up?"

"Captain! There are words on the wall!"

The patrol captain checked the words carved into the wall.

"-Prisoner transfer."

"What should we do?"

"What do you mean, what should we do? The imperial crest was on it. The higher-ups will decide the details. Take them all in."

"Yes, sir!"

The patrol officers took the thugs away.

The two watched them disappear from the alley.

Soon the paper knife flew back and landed in Leon's hand. He returned the brooch to Aurora.

"By the way, I've been curious since earlier, but how does that paper knife fly around on its own? Is it magic?"

"It's swordsmanship."

"That's swordsmanship?"

"Yes."

The sword-control technique he'd once tried and failed spectacularly at.

After that, Leon kept practicing steadily.

He realized that the smaller the blade he controlled, the easier it was to manipulate.

So he wrapped sword aura around a tiny paper knife and used that.

'There are still plenty of things to improve.'

Because it requires a great deal of concentration, it's hard to do anything else while controlling the sword.

This time he'd gotten some good use out of it because the opponent was weak, but it was still lacking for real combat with his life on the line.

He'd need to keep training.

"Let's head out. I'll escort you back to the palace."

"The palace? Why? What about the young ladies?"

"I'll go handle that by myself. Your Highness's role is over too, and there'll be a fight anyway, so why go with me? Rest at the palace."

The way he addressed Aurora had already shifted from informal to Your Highness, as if the game were over.

But Aurora couldn't go back like this.

"No. I'm going too."

"Your Highness."

"Telling me to go back now is like telling me to stop right before the highlight of the novel. This is where the main event starts, and you want to enjoy it all by yourself?"

"I'm saying this isn't a trip for fun."

Aurora crossed her arms.

"Anyway, I'm definitely going with you. If I don't, you can't go either."

"Then let's just not go."

"Huh?"

"If you can't save the young ladies and end up unable to write the novel, the only one who loses is Your Highness, not me."

Aurora belatedly remembered the purpose of this undercover mission.

She'd forgotten because she'd been running around so hard.

"Don't be like that. Take me with you too. Please?"

"Well, I did say this isn't a picnic...."

"After this is all over, I'll give you a lap pillow again. How about that?"

Cutting Leon off, Aurora offered an outrageous reward.

Leon let out a sigh.

Was he a kid? Did she think a reward like that would work?

"......Then behave yourself."

"Okay!"

Seeing how stubborn she was, it was clear she'd force her way along even if he ordered her not to.

He absolutely hadn't agreed because of the lap pillow.