Chapter 259

〈 Chapter 259 〉 Part 1, Chapter 12, 5

At that moment. Vladimir Side Palace.

I was trying to find the place where Anastasha was under house arrest with the help of the Blue Wind Sect and the Illusory Dragon Group.

We couldn’t easily approach the main palace where the talks were taking place because Rasputin was there, so we began searching through the many side palaces connected to the main one.

There were two problems.

“Can you sense any trace of Rusalka?”

“Not at all.”

“Why can’t we sense anything?”

“In cases like this, it’s usually because a barrier has been set up to block the flow of magic power.”

We couldn’t sense any traces of Rusalka at all. Perhaps she was trapped inside a barrier erected by someone while she was under house arrest.

“So why isn’t she coming out herself?”

“Illusory Dragon, maybe she accepted the house arrest willingly.”

“…Is she just too lazy to come out?”

“Is Rusalka you?”

If someone had set up a barrier, then she must have willingly confined herself within it. Even if she had set up the barrier herself, it wouldn’t make much difference.

“And there’s no way to contact her…?”

In the end, we had to physically search each side palace to find Rusalka.

And here we faced our second problem.

“Why are there so many side palaces?”

“They say this family has a long history. If you combine their properties, it might be slightly smaller than my estate.”

“…Both sides are impressive, but right now, it’s just frustrating.”

It was astonishing that the entire property of the family was about the size of a small town, but thinking about having to search the whole area to find a single person hiding somewhere made me irritable.

“If I’d known this, I should’ve set up a Spirit Network with Rusalka.”

“That thing with Miss Ru’s daughter? It all broke when we got caught in a triple barrier last time. Even if we had set it up, it would’ve shattered the moment Miss Ru entered a barrier.”

“…That’s true.”

“I have something to say about that, but let’s do it later. I’m too lazy to talk about it now.”

“I don’t have the mental energy to listen right now.”

The sub-spirit network for communication between spirits hasn’t been restored yet.

Since it gets cut off when trapped in a barrier, we didn’t feel the need to restore it. The performance of magical gear was more than enough to replace communication via sub-spirits.

‘Still, maybe I should set up some kind of insurance just in case.’

When I have some free time, I’ll set one up. I refocused on the situation in the side palace.

♪

The mini Phoenixes surrounding us started chattering. I divided the personnel to start searching from the nearest side palace, and the mini Phoenixes reported that the deployment of the monsters was complete.

“Let’s begin then.”

The start of the sausage party doesn’t begin with cutting off Rasputin’s penis.

“Everyone, starting now, we’re looking for the bride’s waiting room. Execute.”

To kidnap the bride, we searched the entire side palace for the bride’s waiting room surrounded by barriers.

* * *

A lavishly decorated corridor of the side palace.

A guard with a gunblade stood wide-eyed at his designated position, guarding against any intruders who might invade the side palace. His task was either to eliminate any ruffians or sound the alarm.

‘Please, let nothing happen today.’

While it would be best if no accidents occurred, if they did, the situation could spiral out of control.

‘Especially since there are hooligans who already have a grudge against South Korea…!’

The image of Cheongnyeon controlling monsters was liked by 99% of people, but that remaining 1% certainly existed.

Are you using your special ability to sway others? Are you choosing which countries to help based on your own whims and dispensing sympathy? Are you pretending to help while stealing S-rank cores?

Most Russian citizens wanted Cheongnyeon to visit Russia, but after the ‘Undine Scandal,’ public opinion rapidly changed.

‘Our princess is almost ready to get married, but not to foreigners.’

It would be understandable if it were the heir of a prestigious Russian family.

But suddenly going to South Korea, not even New Seoul but Busan, casually eating Korean food as if he’d lived there for years while dating a blond young man shocked the Russian populace.

‘Could the princess have met him through random chat?’

Even in the global era, since it’s the age of monsters and traveling abroad is difficult, perhaps she harbored fantasies about foreign youths. After all, the male leads in the Korean dramas he often watched were very kind and charming gentlemen.

‘I think his name was Seung…something.’

Did the princess meet someone else while going to see him? Although thoroughly blocked by Suborof, he still couldn’t forget the video of the princess filmed secretly in the park’s CCTV.

‘It’s not the princess. It’s cosplay meant to defile the princess in Korea!’

Or perhaps it’s a scheme by another country to sow discord between Korea and Russia so Cheongnyeon won’t come to Russia.

‘Or maybe the princess and the Korean youth really are in love. Could they have found each other in this life after passionately loving each other in their past lives, rediscovering those memories and dramatically meeting again to continue their unfinished love?’

…The guard spent his time alone guarding his assigned area with all sorts of wild imaginings. But the hands of the clock barely moved.

‘Augh, time isn’t passing at all.’

“Hmm…”

No matter how much he fantasized in his head, barely 30 minutes had passed. The guard blinked his sleepy eyes and opened them wide again.

‘…Honestly, will there really be intruders in this side palace-‘

“……?”

Something golden flashed on the sword blade attached to the gun. Thinking it might have reflected off the ceiling lights as he moved around, an odd prickling sensation instinctively raised the guard’s tension.

‘What’s above-‘

“…….”

There was the young man on the ceiling. That envious and detestable foreign youth who had shaken the princess’s hips like light.

“……! Intruder-”

“I apologize.”

The young man struck the guard’s neck with his foot in a deep voice. As the guard reached for his smart gear to sound the alarm, it was already split in half for some reason.

“I’ve come to rescue my wife, please understand.”

Fluent Korean flowed from the young man’s lips, and while the guard couldn’t translate it instantly, he guessed the meaning as he lost consciousness.

Thud.

The young man, Light Blade, gently placed the unconscious guard near the window.

“You’ve worked hard.”

“It’s nothing… Please.”

Following behind him, the vice-leader of the Illusory Dragon Group, Bonghyo, deactivated his ethereal form and carried the unconscious guard outside through the window. The Blue Wind Sect and the Illusory Dragon Group collaborated to remove guards one by one while searching the side palace for Anastasha’s barrier.

“……This is definitely a crime, isn’t it?”

Light Blade stared at the broken smart watch for a while before biting his lip.

“But for the sake of rescuing Rusalka, I…!”

Light Blade threw a dagger he created in mid-air horizontally. A maid who had just noticed him and was about to sound the alarm screamed as the throwing knife accurately cut her smart watch on her wrist.

“Powerful person-!”

The maid lifted her skirt. Thinking she was about to do something strange, Light Blade closed his eyes only to swing his sword at the maid running towards him.

Ching!

“……She’s not an ordinary person?”

The maid was a special ability user. Seeing Light Blade’s confusion, the maid smirked, then blushed upon realizing his identity.

“You trash who treats our princess like a slave!”

“……Let me clarify one thing.”

The smartwatch was already destroyed so translation wasn’t possible. However, Light Blade quickly incapacitated the maid by cutting her dagger and striking her neck.

“It’s all because Rusalka ordered me to do it…”

Light Blade laid the unconscious maid against the wall and quietly opened the door.

“Wow, the princess really pulls off these kinds of plays…”

“Isn’t it weird for a virgin to be doing hip moves? Is this really the technique built up from spending time with her?”

“I envy the princess… Hey, what are you doing standing by the door-”

“…….”

Sighing deeply at the group of maids watching his love scene with Rusalka on a large screen, Light Blade swiftly swung his sword like light, knocking all the maids unconscious.

“…….”

Stopping the video playback, Light Blade quickly moved to search another room.

Ten minutes since beginning the search of the side palace.

Still, neither Light Blade nor the rest of the group had found Rusalka’s barrier.

* * *

The Illusory Dragon Group, specialized in infiltration, became ethereal beings to scout out blind spots throughout the building, while the Blue Wind Sect secretly kidnapped and knocked out guards, burying them in the ground.

Sometimes their roles reversed, but infiltration was undoubtedly the Illusory Dragon Group’s forte.

“The hardest worker is definitely Light Blade.”

“He’s leading the charge.”

Whenever the ghosts of the Illusory Dragon Group signaled the location of guards, Light Blade immediately appeared like lightning, swinging his sword to knock the guards unconscious.

“Still, they’re elite and not completely clueless.”

“We’re attacking the palace of the most powerful family. Of course. Hmm…”

I controlled the members together with Illusory Dragon in a storage-like room. Since we didn’t know where Anastasha was in the side palace, we had no choice but to search every inch of it meticulously.

“Still no sign of Rusalka’s presence.”

“This is just wasting time.”

Rusalka was definitely somewhere in the side palace, yet her magic power couldn’t be sensed at all. I continued issuing orders via magical gear, creating a channel only my monsters could hear.

“Make sure to take everyone we’ve knocked out outside. Let’s avoid unnecessary casualties.”

“Biological responses are… none. Yeah, we can proceed here now.”

I subtly rose from my seat. There were no signs of humans left in the side palace, and all ‘humans’ had been thrown outside by the Blue Wind Sect’s monsters.

“…Bonghyo’s report says there are no significant traces in the side palace he’s searching.”

“Tch. Not there either?”

Because it was a family with a long history, there weren’t just one or two side palaces.

We continued our search starting from the other side palaces excluding the main palace where Ryu Cheonseong and Suborof’s talks were taking place, but we hadn’t even progressed 30%.

“Are the mansion’s butlers and maids stronger than the security guards?”

“…The guards are all ex-military, and the butlers and maids are all special ability users. At least C-rank.”

The reason the search took so long was not only because the search area was vast, but also because maids cleaning or butlers walking down the corridors suddenly used their magic power to intercept us.

We managed to suppress them without setting off the alarms, otherwise the emergency alert would’ve sounded long ago, increasing the difficulty of the search significantly.

“There should be limits to infiltration missions… Haa, Yuseong’s mansion wasn’t this bad.”

The nightmare of infiltrating Yuseong’s mansion to uncover Eun Yuhwa’s true identity started creeping back into my mind.

Avoiding the surveillance of Xroids patrolling the hallways, we entered countless passages and rooms until we arrived at the chairman’s room, where Chairman Eun Ha-su was groaning as if about to collapse. And right before our eyes, he fell over. Then hostage Eun Yuhwa burst through the door, revealing himself as the real chairman with the declaration “I am the chairman!” Turns out the ominous Chairman Eun Ha-su was merely a puppet, and Eun Yuhwa revealed his true identity, entering the official heroine race.

Back then, we searched through a whopping 77 rooms. Now, we had to be even more careful, and it wasn’t just one building.

“Going at this pace, we won’t finish before the talks end…?”

“Tch. Rusalka unnecessarily cast a barrier…”

Nobody could enter, and she sealed herself off so well that we couldn’t even detect her magic power from this side. We didn’t have time to leisurely search, and this opportunity wouldn’t come again.

“Do fathers with daughters all act the same…? Haa.”

Suborof was guarding Rusalka, and if we recklessly broke her barrier, there was a possibility he’d mobilize the entire Russian Association.

Like Light Blade, the anger of a father with a daughter was unpredictable and extreme.

“There’s no need to search room by room… Tsk. Time to-”

“Found it, apparently…?”

One member of the Illusory Dragon Group seemed to have finally located the target. I listened carefully to the report being relayed to Illusory Dragon.

“The farthest C-side palace from the main palace, the tower on the island surrounded by a lake. They say only that one can’t be entered.”

“An island side palace…?”

I opened the window and scanned outside. Far in the distance, the side palace visible was connected by a single bridge, resembling a castle on a lake.

“It’s not like Rapunzel or anything.”

Who’s acting like a princess?

The place where Anastasha was under house arrest was the top tower of the palace on an island in the middle of the lake.