NOVEL WEB Chapter 85.1
Stage 3-19. Shall We Go Rescue The Captive Princess?
The sun had set, leaving only the moonlight to illuminate the path.
The carriage rattled, and every jolt forced us to endure the pain of hitting our backsides against the hard metal floor.
“I never expected they’d go as far as preparing a cage like this.”
Reina chuckled softly, her demeanor the complete opposite of her usual self.
Her hair, typically neat, was covered by a messy, soiled black wig, and her clothes were a mismatched combination of a tattered shirt and pants riddled with holes.
Most strikingly, her hands were cuffed behind her back, and shackles connected her ankles, making walking freely impossible.
She looked like nothing more than a young slave girl picked up in the countryside and being transported elsewhere.
I, too, wore a long brown-haired wig, and my outfit was a half-torn, shabby piece of clothing. Naturally, I was also securely cuffed and shackled.
The only difference was the small item I insisted on sneaking into my pocket.
“Yeah, but the seating could not be worse.”
“I find myself longing for the carriage Father usually leads.”
“Same here.”
The metal floor beneath us was hard, making it impossible to ignore the pain.
It reminded me of how comfortable our usual carriage was.
“And the smell… we’ll have to put up with that too.”
“Slaves don’t wear clothes that smell like detergent… let’s bear with it.”
Reina forced a wry smile, though she was surely enduring the same level of stench as I was.
We had deliberately dirtied our clothes and wigs with sand and muddy water to enhance our disguise as slaves.
In my past life, this would have been a sanitary nightmare, but in this world, the all-purpose magic [Recovery] existed.
As Reina said, we would endure this until Alice was rescued.
“We’re almost at the Andraus estate,” said the Vellet family servant driving our cage carriage, signaling that we were nearing our destination.
The party venue this time was the Andraus family mansion.
…Alright, enough chatter.
I steeled myself. The real battle, a life-or-death struggle, awaited ahead.
There was no room for field trip-level complacency.
Hunching my back, I adopted a huddled sitting position, trying to embody a young man consumed by despair.
Keeping my face down to avoid drawing attention, I perfected my act.
Then, the carriage stopped.
“…………”
Without lifting my face, I glanced at the mansion out of the corner of my eye.
Its size was obscured by the black-painted walls, but it was large.
Light poured from every window, an extravagant glow that clashed with the silence of the night.
The mansion seemed lively, as laughter and music spilled out, audible even from near the entrance.
“…How tasteless.”
“Parties are a simple way to flaunt wealth.”
“I see… oh, looks like they’re done.”
It appeared that Father had completed the procedures at the reception.
The carriage began moving again, heading toward the back of the mansion.
There, two burly men stood as gatekeepers, joined by a slender, bespectacled man who handled the handover.
“Two of them. These are from the Vellet family, so don’t handle them carelessly.”
“Of course. Damaging the merchandise reduces its value, and that’s not something Duke Juke would want.”
“Good. I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Got it. Hey, you two, no funny business.”
Reina and I were hauled out of the cage like luggage by the two gatekeepers and carried through the mansion’s back door… down a staircase into the basement.
There was no point in angering them here. Our goal was Alice’s rescue, and unnecessary fighting had to be avoided.
Unlike the mansion’s glittering exterior, the basement resembled a haunted house.
Dimly lit and damp, the eerie corridors stretched out before us.
Small cells lined the walls, filled with men, women, and children bound hand and foot, lying miserably on the ground.
Young women were particularly common, likely victims of bandits who had raided their villages.
“…Help me… please, God…”
“…Why… Mom… Dad…”
“I want to go home… please, let me go home…”
Cries echoed from all directions.
It was no wonder. Sold to strangers, they faced a life of hell.
If they were lucky, they’d be used as labor; otherwise…
Falling into the hands of twisted nobles meant enduring endless torment until they were discarded.
It was only natural for them to weep.
“Shut it!!”
One gatekeeper banged the wall and shouted, silencing the cries instantly.
“Damn scum, making me lose my temper… pathetic.”
Cursing under his breath, the gatekeeper and his partner carried us deeper inside and threw us roughly into an empty cell.
The impact hurt, but complaining was pointless. Despite being warned not to handle us poorly, they did just that. Typical muscle-brained thugs.
“Are you really slaves from the Vellet family? Your eyes may be clear, but what junk they’ve brought.”
One of them leaned in close, scrutinized us, and spat on the floor.
“Don’t cry, don’t scream. Follow those rules, and you’ll stay alive. As slaves, that is.”
“Better not piss us off. Otherwise, you’ll end up like this!”
He rotated his shoulders before slamming his fist into the wall, cracking it.
“Got it? Behave yourselves.”
Satisfied with his show of strength, the two returned to their posts.
Once their presence had faded completely, I broke the silence.
“…What would you rate that?”
“Ten points. Ouga-kun would’ve punched straight through the wall.”
“Ha, correct. Though I wouldn’t bother with such theatrics.”
To avoid being overheard, Reina and I huddled together.
“Now, how should we proceed?”
“Alice is listed as the main attraction. She’ll likely be presented last in the slave auction, saving the best for last.”
“If we wait too long, we might not find her in time. This mansion is larger than expected.”
Indeed, with a basement like this and the distance we traveled from the back entrance, the mansion had considerable depth.
Finding Alice here would be no small task.
“Then, we’ll act as soon as the party starts. We’ll take out the gatekeepers and the handover guy, then begin the search.”
“Is it okay to eliminate them? Shouldn’t we keep them alive for the auction?”
“As long as we can’t trust them to betray Andraus, it’s safer this way. They may not cooperate, after all.”
“Understood. What about the other slaves?”
“Heh, isn’t it obvious? We’ll take them back to the Vellet territory as per Father’s plan.”
Snickering, I thought about the extra workforce we’d gain.
It was better than leaving them to the whims of depraved nobles.
These people had already lost their homes, and in this world, slaves were only commoners.
Magic users were exclusively nobles, and their status prevented them from falling into slavery.
While there were rare exceptions of fallen noble slaves, they were exceedingly uncommon and never ended up in places like this.
With Reina’s magic, dealing with the three guards would be easy.
“When the party begins, the reception staff will likely return inside. We’ll bait the muscle-heads to come here.”
“And then ambush them. I’ll handle the bespectacled one. He might know something about Alice, and I’ll make him talk.”
“To do that, we’ll need to provoke them into unlocking the cell and entering.”
Based on their earlier behavior, provoking them seemed simple enough.
The plan was set. Now, Reina and I simply waited, silent and still.