NOVEL WEB Chapter 18
The carriage was gathered in one place, and when the ghost horses were released, they vanished like smoke.
The atmosphere of the city seemed somewhat similar to Simmon, but its scale was vastly different.
Serreb was filled with wide and tall buildings that were incomparable to Simmon.
At the entrance of the city stood a thick steel door, firmly imposing.
“This place feels a bit bleak.”
Still, Simon felt it was a city that had a bit more humanity.
“There are four humans, huh.”
The soldier guarding the door was armed with a gun.
“Five… uum!”
Just as I was about to speak, Ririan lightly covered my mouth.
I recalled the story that in Serreb, beast-people are not considered living beings.
“Who is the owner of that slave?”
Aila lifted me up and held me out in front of the soldier.
“How young to have a slave; their parents must be wealthy.”
“Yes, well…”
I didn’t feel very good about it.
As the steel door opened, revealing the interior, I couldn’t suppress my nostalgia.
The feeling of this street and the sounds that reached my ears almost perfectly recreated the era I had lived in.
Walking along the neatly organized sidewalk, I recalled impossible memories.
I also wondered if I would have met my descendants by now had I gotten married.
“Where is the border?”
“Zone 6, but that’s a restricted area.”
Serreb was a city surrounded by a rectangular iron wall, with the innermost part being off-limits.
There were two reasons.
One was that it was a border area that restricted entry, and also it was used as a base for the Knight Order to guard it.
Latnia was thoroughly blocking citizens from crossing into Roran.
“So, is there going to be a fight?”
“The reason for choosing this city was to quietly slip away.”
Leaving the Latnia region without engaging in any battles as much as possible.
Looking at the city atmosphere, it seemed absolutely impossible.
Wanted posters with my likeness were posted all over the streets.
Of course, thanks to the transformation potion, my appearance had changed slightly, so I wouldn’t be easy to recognize.
“Where can we stay?”
“I have a place in mind, but we need to cross to Zone 4.”
Currently, we were in Zone 1.
In other words, we had to pass through three checkpoints installed in each zone.
“Ririan. Let’s change clothes.”
Led by Aila, I entered an alley and tried to retrieve clothes from my backpack.
“Not that, wear this.”
A fluttering dress was handed to me.
“But this is a girl’s dress?”
“Are you a boy right now?”
Thanks to the transformation potion, I currently looked like a girl to anyone.
“Still, this is a bit…”
“The soldiers at the checkpoint didn’t even look at Jema earlier.”
The soldiers were so blatant in targeting only me.
Behind them, there must undoubtedly be Juan.
It was a mystery how Juan had the power to influence even the soldiers of Latnia.
In the end, to hide my identity, I changed into the clothes Aila handed me and applied a light makeup to my face.
“Now you really look like a girl. No, you are a girl.”
“Do you think this will fool anyone?”
“You’re pretty, so it should be fine.”
As I stepped out of the alley, both Jema and Catherine gasped in admiration as they looked at me.
“You’re much prettier than the wanted poster.”
Catherine pulled out the wanted poster she had from her pocket and continuously compared it to me.
“But if you look too similar, won’t it raise suspicions?”
When Jema raised a question, Aila pondered for a moment before pulling out a pair of glasses from her bag and putting them on me.
“Now doesn’t it look completely different?”
“It’s spot on.”
I went through the checkpoint three times, each time receiving the soldiers’ suspicion.
The disguise was perfect, but since my true appearance hadn’t changed, it took some comparing before I finally got through.
Seeing the name of the building designated as our lodging allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief.
JS Hotel.
“Do you know anyone here?”
“I guess we can just go in and ask.”
At the hotel front, an employee was dozing off, but when we entered, he stood up and greeted us politely.
“Welcome. Customer. This is JS Hotel.”
“Can you inform the person in charge that the White Knight has arrived?”
Upon hearing that, the employee immediately stiffly contacted someone.
Shortly after, we took the elevator, and someone came down from the front desk to guide us.
“I’ve heard a lot about Director Choi. I am the manager here. I will guide you to the top floor.”
Being part of the JS Group made it very convenient for Aila, as she could access anywhere freely.
When we arrived at the top floor, the manager handed us the key to the room and left.
As I opened the door and stepped inside, it looked like a luxurious home interior.
There were several rooms, and each of us chose one that we wanted.
“Tonight, we’ll take turns resting.”
“Then I’ll take the first and last watch.”
After Ririan, the order was Jema, Catherine, and Aila.
I found it puzzling that I was excluded, so I raised my hand and asked.
“Why am I left out?”
“Ririan, I’m sorry, but your place to sleep is here in the living room.”
I had many questions I wanted to ask, but soon Aila clarified my curiosity.
“While taking turns on watch, everyone will protect Ririan. The ones they’re after are Ririan.”
“Do you think those guys would dare to attack here?”
“The JS Group is on my side, not yours.”
That was a cryptic statement.
As everyone entered the rooms they chose to rest, only Ririan and Riki remained in the living room.
“I don’t understand why the Latnia Empire is targeting you.”
“To be precise, it’s the son of the mercenary guild in Tolris who is after me.”
“So, how does a mercenary guild son from a small country like Tolris manage to mobilize the army of Latnia?”
There’s a figure named Den, but even with that, it hardly explained anything.
The reasons they were targeting me must be for something else.
I asked Riki if he knew Solche and Alium.
Excluding Aila, they were the only two people I knew associated with Roran, so I figured I’d ask.
“I don’t know someone named Alium, but Solche was originally from the Knight Order, so I know of his face.”
It didn’t seem like the two had a close relationship.
The watches were divided into 3 hours each, alternating for a total of 12 hours.
After Riki, Jema took her turn, at which point I had already lost consciousness.
It seemed I had fallen asleep.
When I woke, light seeped through the window first.
“It doesn’t look like the sun is rising here.”
“It’s mostly lighting because of the buildings floating in the sky.”
Even from the top floor of the hotel building, the sky was not visible.
A large building loomed above like a ceiling, existing at an even higher point.
“Is that the floating fortress I’ve only heard about?”
“Well, according to them, it’s a residential facility, but I wonder who lives in a place like that.”
It was astonishing to think that there existed beings who lived looking down at the ground from the sky.
“Is there a way to get up there?”
“Not just anyone can go up. For reference, no one has come down from there. It’s been about 100 years, right?”
The fact that they hadn’t interacted with the ground for 100 years meant they were either all dead or had the basis for self-sufficiency.
Anyway, our current objective was not that floating fortress.
“Today, the chance of safely getting out of here is about 30%.”
“Why is that?”
“The Tolris investigative team has arrived.”
A team made up of people personally selected by Juan from the Academy.
Even in my disguise, I was hard to recognize, but they would undoubtedly recognize Jema’s face.
Silently moving to Zone 6 now seemed practically impossible.
“That’s why we’re changing our plans.”
In front of us who had descended to the basement of JS Hotel stood the manager we had seen yesterday.
“I’ve prepared what you asked for.”
Behind the manager was what looked like a carriage, or rather, something like a tank, surrounded by sturdy men standing in a firm stance.
“I’ll assign a special security team to you.”
“What do you intend to do with that?”
“Once you cross into Zone 6, we will fire a shot to create confusion. That’s when you should slip over to the border region.”
It seemed like a reckless plan.
Especially if that special security team got caught, they would undoubtedly be killed.
“Isn’t this plan too dangerous?”
“These men have been trained to survive in any environment.”
It was a shaky plan, but at this point, there was no other way.
We decided to move towards the entrance of Zone 6 using the carriage.
“After executing this plan, the JS Group probably won’t be able to conduct business here anymore.”
“Not really? That special security team was probably hired separately.”
In the end, it meant that the JS Group would not particularly suffer from this commotion.
“Then which organization does that team belong to?”
“They are mercenaries. Mercenaries who work for money.”
Thanks to the JS Group’s emblem on the front of the carriage, we easily passed through the remaining checkpoints.
What remained was to get through the Knight Order’s base in Zone 6.
Zone 6 had a much stricter security presence starting from the checkpoint.
“Everyone, please get out of the vehicle.”
A soldier, looking thorough, carefully switched between the wanted posters and me.
“Is there something strange?”
“No, it’s just that you look quite similar.”
It seemed that the transformation potion wasn’t perfect.
It merely made my appearance human but didn’t truly allow me to become someone else.
Of course, it seemed that Solche and Alium had the ability to change into completely different people.
Because of the nature of Zone 6, we couldn’t bring the car in, so we had to leave it behind.
Going out to the border meant ultimately crossing into Roran.
Latnia never easily permitted crossing borders.
Even the JS Group could use business as an excuse to go out now and then, but it was said that guards always followed closely.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As we precisely passed through the checkpoint of Zone 6, three cannon shots rang out.
The sight of hundreds of soldiers aligning in formation in response to that sound was a spectacle.
Zone 6 was made up of lower buildings, unlike other urban areas.
Even including us, the number of civilians wandering the streets could be counted on one hand.
As we approached the exit, there were many individuals clad in blue armor gathering there.
“From here onwards, it’s going to get noisy.”
Riki prepared to draw the sword at his waist, and the rest readied for combat.
Just in case, I also hid one hand behind my back, gripping a dagger.
“That blue armor is the investigative team.”
With Catherine’s words, everyone’s expressions stiffened.
Aila stepped in front of me, deliberately taking a protective stance.
Riki also positioned himself next to Aila, ensuring I was effectively hidden from view.
As I was being guarded by those two, we slowly walked towards the checkpoint.
“Hey! You’re Call, right?”
Someone called out the name that Catherine had been introducing herself by.
He approached us, dressed in blue armor, getting closer and closer.