Chapter 161 Roeni’s Struggle Part Two꞉ A Tense Chase of a Traitorous Knight
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
A knight, carefully set up to hide his tracks, returning all alone. Just considering the meaning of that single fact made her worry for the safety of the Princess he was supposed to be guarding and the others who had gone with them.
What if some kind of accident happened, and he only returned as a scout to announce their peril? She even held onto that faint hope, remembering a shared moment from a past when they’d gotten along. But cruelly, Marcos, desperately trying to fulfill his given task, delivered a clear picture of the knight’s behavior, though his own voice was strained.
”He’s walking slow, with his hood still up! I—I don’t think he even suspects he’s being watched. If he made any strange moves, we’d be the ones who got in trouble for it!” Marcos reported, his voice high with panic.
If the man was reporting an accident, he’d have spoken to the guards at the Gate the moment he arrived. Since he didn’t and was instead trying to disappear into the crowd, they could only conclude that the worst possible outcome had come true.
Pull Marcos back to the business room. Put Mondo-shi on his post instead, and Hatcha, come with me… The pre-arranged instruction somehow caught in her throat and refused to come out. Her thoughts were starting to go blank as she held the receiver to her ear, but a tap on her shoulder brought her back.
”We’ll follow your lead, Boss. If it’s that guy, we can skip going any deeper and still have a good reason to back out. Just him showing up and then running off after dumping the Princess’s escort duty is valuable enough info for the Count, ain’t it?” Hatcha stated with rough certainty.
”—No, I’ll chase him! Marcos-kun, that’s enough, come on back here. Mondo-san, you’re on duty in Marcos-kun’s place. Milka, I’m counting on you for the rest. I don’t think anyone will force their way in here, but in the worst case, take the recorded magic stone and run to my mansion,” Roeni snapped, her voice tight with decision.
”Y-Yes, ma’am!” Milka replied with a nervous obedience.
”Understood—,” Mondo affirmed.
Roeni stepped aside to let Mondo pass, then gave Milka the rest of her instructions. She threw her cloak over her shoulders and exchanged a quick look with Hatcha before bursting out of the business room.
”So. Things have gone way different than planned, Boss. What’s the move now? Surely we ain’t gonna just chase after him and start demanding answers, right?” Hatcha questioned, her voice low.
”There’s no clear proof that he… put an end to the group. He’d definitely lie and say that he was just going to talk to a friendly noble first instead of the Guild, just to avoid making a fuss. So, the priority is to keep the advantage of him not knowing we’re here. And, if possible, I want to know where he’s going to hide,” Roeni answered, her gaze already fixed on the exit.
No matter how confident they were in their abilities, neither Roeni nor Hatcha were exactly expert trackers.
Ideally, they’d want Hatcha’s sister-figure, Turine, to use her scouting skills. But Turine was currently away on a Labyrinth mission.
When setting up this ambush, they couldn’t exactly hire a bunch of scouts; it’s rare to find two people with the exact same special skill in one strong party.
If they started talking to acquaintances everywhere, the whole situation would likely be exposed. So, they were forced to only call upon the two most physically capable members of Hatcha’s crew.
”Let’s go. Keep your faces hidden from here on,” Roeni instructed.
”Got it. Since nobody knows my face, I’ll go first, Boss.”
Just before leaving the trading floor, they both pulled up their hoods.
People leaving the Guild often had newly full pockets, so covering one’s face to avoid attracting attention wasn’t considered suspicious. It was darkly ironic that this common practice benefited both the guilty traitor and the ones pursuing him.
”—There he is,” Hatcha breathed, hushed.
”I see him,” Roeni confirmed.
They sped quietly through the nighttime grounds and joined the flow of people coming from the Gate.
Hatcha, who had reached the edge of the noise first, pulled back slightly and whispered to Roeni. Just as Marcos had reported, the large, hooded figure was moving slowly, showing no sign of panic, about to exit the main gate and hit the main street.
”Heehee. Even if I can’t see his face, I don’t think we’ll lose him.” Roeni almost chuckled, a dark humor in her tone.
”He’s still huge. If he leads us somewhere empty, he’d probably just kill us right there,” Hatcha drawled.
Roeni chided her for such an ill-omened thing, but nodded, reaffirming that the possibility was very real. The target had likely already acted, and if things worsened, he wouldn’t hesitate to silence them quietly.
A cold dread traced its way down her spine. They nodded to each other, and Hatcha took the lead again.
Fortunately, the knight, Arman, seemed to be only looking around the Royal Capital’s town street with a sense of awe, not paying attention to his rear.
His unguarded posture initially made Roeni wonder if it was a trap. But Hatcha, catching up with Roeni at the corner of a street, let out a short, amused laugh:
”Heh. That jumpy feeling, he looks just like a greenhorn adventurer fresh out of the Labyrinth. Kinda cute, ain’t it?” Hatcha observed.
”Ah, that explains it. But thanks to that, even our tailing skills are good enough to stay unnoticed,” Roeni responded.
He was probably just relieved to be back in the world of people. Even if Arman was unbeatable in the shallow levels of the Labyrinth, it didn’t mean he was relaxed.
He was undoubtedly a strong warrior, but his strength was that of a knight, not an adventurer used to the Labyrinth. Therefore, even though he had finished the deed, he must have been on edge the entire time.
Now, seeing the workings of the world above ground, he’d let his guard down, and his vigilance had slipped. Because of this, the heavy feeling in Roeni’s body lightened a little.
The worst-case scenario—their cover being blown, which would activate a far more aggressive pursuit by the Prince’s faction—was now slightly averted. Luckily, the one who carried out the act was a Labyrinth amateur, giving them a small chance to cling to the tail of the plot.
”—This is bad,” Roeni murmured.
”We gotta keep our distance from here on out. If I get spotted, you gotta ditch me and run, Boss,” Hatcha urged, her tone suddenly serious.
For a while, the slightly less tense pursuit continued. The crowds on the main street thinned out, and they moved into the district where aristocratic mansions stood.
They had initially suspected the hideout would be near here, given the scale of the conspiracy.
But precisely because of that, the area had few passersby, making it impossible to blend in. So they were forced to keep a distance of almost two blocks, lurking in the shadows untouched by the magic streetlights to avoid being seen.
”Hey, don’t tell me this is…” Hatcha whispered, her voice a low growl.
”Well… I suppose we should be glad we haven’t lost him in the alleyways yet,” Roeni mused.
And so, the chase, now fraught with the new tension of losing their quarry, finally came to an end.
After climbing a gentle slope along the winding cobblestone street, they suddenly came out into a clear line of sight. On one side, a huge wall surrounding a vast estate stretched far into the distance.
That alone made the mastermind of this whole scheme easy to guess. If Roeni were providing a hiding place for the knight, she’d have chosen a low-key hideout in the commoner’s street or a minor noble’s house.
But the mastermind was fixated on getting a report of success, even if it meant risking their own involvement being suspected. That obsession was confirmed as they watched the tall, hooded figure knock on the back gate far down the wall.
”…Well?” Hatcha asked.
”We got the record. Arman entering the Aprenon Mansion. …Right. We have the evidence, so there’s no point staying here forever. Let’s head back before a patrol spots us looking suspicious now that our guard is down.” Roeni sighed, pulling her attention away from the scene.
Honestly, the fact that things had gone this smoothly was pure luck.
If the returning knight had stayed vigilant until the end, tracking him once the crowds thinned out would have been impossible. They would have been unable to confirm that the Prince’s faction was the real culprit, and the Count would have only received the vague information of the guard’s solo return.
”Even so, I’m surprised the leader of the Prince’s faction was behind this whole thing,” Hatcha stated.
”Yes. But it makes sense. Enticing the neutral Arman and trapping the Princess? That’s impossible for some half-baked noble. At the very least, knowing that the opposition used their full resources to put an end to the Princess’s retinue is information the Princess’s faction needs to know,” Roeni reasoned, her mind already moving on to the next step.
Even with this success, letting their guard down now would be repeating the knight’s mistake.
They couldn’t relax until they finished the cleanup at the Guild and were back at Roeni’s own mansion. They hurried without looking suspicious, slowing their pace and ducking around corners before returning to the main street.
”Boss. We didn’t talk about it while we were tailing him, but is Yuu-boy okay?” Hatcha asked quietly.
”…I don’t know. But if Arman’s target was the Princess, the first ones they had to neutralize were the other escort knights. Targeting Yuuri first would have been a poor move that raised the alarm. Once the attack started, Yuuri’s priority target was probably the lowest. If he understood that and managed to escape, there’s a chance he’s safe, at least his own safety is secured and he’s alive,” Roeni admitted, her voice weighted.
The true value of a Labyrinth Guide is in their ability to survive, using everything the Labyrinth has to offer. So, even a Skill-less Yuuri could potentially survive for weeks if he escaped and hid down to the 27th level.
But Roeni knew that Ashley wouldn’t abandon her mistress, even if she couldn’t win, and she doubted Yuuri could just watch Ashley die.
Even if he managed to escape, abandoning Ashley would leave a deep, lasting scar on his soul. If he were lucky enough to be rescued later, that moral injury of abandoning his childhood friend, who had shown him affection, would surely remain.
”The ideal scenario is that they somehow secured the Princess and Ashley-jou and escaped to an upper level via the 27th level’s random warp, but Arman coming back first makes that hope seem slim,” Roeni concluded, her voice hollow.
”Aw man. Yuu-boy, he’s weak, but he’s ridiculously soft on women, ain’t he? If he’d run alone, he’d have a decent chance of living, but I bet he’s standing right beside her, unable to fight, and just got cut down to be silenced,” Hatcha mused with a cold realism.
For those who challenge the Labyrinth, the best action for survival is the most correct one.
To reject that requires either the strength to overturn the situation or the resolve to die for one’s conviction. And the adventurer’s code dictates that while they don’t scorn someone who dies for their beliefs, they don’t necessarily sympathize with them either.
That’s why Hatcha, who had known Yuuri since he was an awkward boy, showed a cold indifference to the possibility of him dying for a girl.
When Roeni searched her own heart, the strong, logical feeling was that escaping was the right choice. But knowing the two who seemed to share feelings for one another, she also felt it would be cruel to force that choice on them.
They returned to the Guild without incident. When Roeni knocked on the business room door, the only person to answer was Milka.
”—Well done. Was there any outside interference?” Roeni asked.
”No, ma’am. I set up a small trade negotiation to rent this space, so there were no attacks from the Guild or outside,” Milka explained.
Roeni considered that someone might have noticed the guard change, just as they had noticed the knight’s return. She needed to quickly clear out the room and take action so the heat wasn’t focused on her group.
”Marcos-kun?”
”He was scared to go home, fearing an ambush, but I couldn’t let him stay here. I convinced him it was more dangerous to be seen coming to work than going home, and I sent him back to the barracks. Ah, this is the magic stone with the Appraisal record,” Milka said, handing over a transparent crystal.
Roeni inspected the crystal.
What appeared there was clearly the knight, Arman, exiting the Gate, and the results of the Appraisal skill: the two skills, Body Enhancement and Rigid Body. Combining this with the record of Arman disappearing into the Aprenon Mansion, the whole scheme was now clearly the work of the Prince’s faction.
”Hmph. Like they’d bother with a single guard who only had Appraisal, once his job was done. …I can leave the rest to you, right? I’ll let you escort me home, just in case,” Hatcha muttered, already looking for the next action.
”Thank you, Hatcha. From here on, I swear that whatever the outcome, no harm will come to you or your friends,” Roeni swore, bowing her head to the two, who represented all their collaborators.
The Royal Palace was sure to be turned upside down by the coming conflict.
But she didn’t believe the King or the Count would discard those who risked their lives to uncover the truth about their children’s safety. She fully intended to emphasize the valiant efforts of her companions when handing this recorded magic stone to either the King or the Count.
”Well then, Milka. Please handle the retreat here. When Mondo-san gets back, tell him everything went well. Hatcha, please escort me home.”
”Yes, ma’am! Both of you, be careful,” Milka called out.
”Got it. Time for one last job,” Hatcha replied.
As they stepped into the corridor, the sky framed in the window was already starting to lighten.
But even as the night ended, the shadow of the conspiracy would linger for a while. Roeni took a deep breath, steeling the resolve that had momentarily slackened, and started on the path home.
—
Summary:
The desperate, high-stakes chase for the traitorous Knight Arman leads Roeni and Hatcha through the bustling Gate and into the silent, aristocratic quarters of the Royal Capital. The political intrigue deepens when they confirm the knight, who had abandoned the Princess’s escort, is hiding inside the notorious Aprenon Mansion.
The discovery, recorded on a magic stone, unmasks the whole plot as the work of the Prince’s faction’s leadership. Despite the win, Roeni’s concern for her friend Yuuri, lost in the Labyrinth’s depths, adds a heavy emotional cost to their success, setting the stage for the coming struggle for the throne.
—
Character Insight:
Roeni’s character insight here lies in the tense balance between her pragmatic Labyrinth Guide’s logic—which dictates Yuuri should prioritize his own survival above all else—and her deeper, emotional understanding of his loyalty to his friends.
This conflict reveals that despite her sharp focus on the political conspiracy, her personal attachments add a layer of complexity to her decisions, distinguishing her from a purely logical player. Hatcha, on the other hand, embodies the classic, unflinching adventurer’s code, viewing Yuuri’s emotional soft spot as a dangerous weakness in a place like the Labyrinth, highlighting the story’s harsh fantasy setting.
—
Behind the Scene:
The team successfully switched their lookouts, Mondo replacing Marcos, and Roeni and Hatcha used the crowd to their advantage to begin the tailing operation.
The key moment was the knight Arman letting his guard down, having been mentally exhausted by the Labyrinth, which allowed Roeni to confirm the location of the Aprenon Mansion and record the evidence on the magic stone. The scene concludes with the group’s safe retreat to plan their next move, armed with the undeniable proof of the Prince’s faction’s involvement.
Notes:
• Marcos – A young, unsuspecting gate guard who was pulled into Roeni’s covert operation when he was displaced from his shift. He possesses the crucial
• Hatcha – A trusted friend of Roeni from her adventuring days. She’s a quick, lightly armored swordswoman, characterized by her vibrant red hair and a distinct, large scar across her face that hints at a rough past and a violent capability.
• Mondo – An elderly, highly experienced gate guard at the Guild’s ‘Gate’ to the Labyrinth, where he’s been for decades. He wears full, well-maintained plate armor, which gives him a calm but imposing presence even while sitting. He was a caretaker to Roeni during her adventuring days and remains a trusted friend.
• Milka – A junior Guild Receptionist, a promising and well-organized junior colleague to Roeni. She wears the crisp, professional Guild uniform and maintains a neat appearance, but her focus on the paperwork betrays her nervousness.
• Roeni – Guild receptionist, former adventurer, now a baroness—mentor to Yuuri. The wife of Baron Silcro Confianza, and effectively manages the labyrinth exploration business which is the foundation of their house’s power. She is a former adventurer, which gives her a practical, no-nonsense approach to problems. Look like Lisa from certain game, brown hair but neat hair.
• Arman – Knight captain who escort Marina on the first mission.
• Ashley – Count’s daughter, royal attendant, has a crush on Yuuri.
• Ai – The recently-formed sub-divinity/ego who manages the world’s Skills. Her sudden, intense burst of divine will (‘ki’) almost bleached Yuuri’s wicked thoughts. Called Yuuri ‘Elder Brother’ and declared genuine affection and trust based on his efficiency with her Skills.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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