Harrus, who was standing on the deck, narrowed his eyes as he looked at the battle using a telescope.
The moment he saw that Khezmod's flying mount suddenly took a nosedive towards the sea, he felt that something was wrong.
He waited for a minute, two minutes, and then three. However, no matter how long he waited, the Flying Mount never resurfaced.
Harrus could see the bubbles that were rising up to the surface, but that was all that he saw. Several minutes later, he saw two beams of light shoot up towards the sky and fly North West.
It was at that moment when he realized what had happened.
"Those two useless fools!" Harrus' grip suddenly tightened, destroying the telescope in his hands. "Useless!"
The Dwarf roared as he threw the broken telescope to the sea. He no longer needed it because he knew that their pursuers were hot on their tail, and it was only a matter of time before they were overtaken.
"How can this happen?!" Harrus muttered. Even now, he still didn't understand how the Kingdom was able to mobilize a rescue team on such short notice, even being able to chase them to the Port of Draycott, where they planned to take a Merchant Ship to reach their stronghold in the scattered islands that were outside the control of the Kingdom of Gweliven.
The Dwarf with reddish-brown hair could understand if they were able to mobilize a sizable force in order to pursue them. What he couldn't understand was how their opponent knew where they were going.
The artifact that had a tracking spell that the Princess owned was tied to a random bird they found in the forest, which they had sent flying in the opposite direction, so it was impossible for anyone to find out where they were headed.
But still, they were found. This made Harrus, who was the leader of the kidnapping operation, seethe in anger.
'It no longer matters,' Harrus thought. 'Since it has already come to this, a fight is inevitable. We will just use the hostages as a last resort if we are outmatched.'
Now that two of the Rankers on their side were gone, only four remained.
Harrus didn't know how many Rankers were on the two ships that were following them, but according to his estimate, three Rankers were needed in order to defeat his comrades, who had been forced to use their teleportation crystals to escape.
"Floyd, Eric, come!" Harrus shouted. "We got company!"
Three Rankers guarded the room that Princess Anastasia was in, in order to prevent her from escaping. However, two of them were called to the deck in order to prepare for a naval battle.
The last remaining Ranker, who was a woman, frowned, but didn't say anything because it was Harrus who led their group in this operation.
Her name was Carol, and her specialty was Dark Magic.
She was supposed to be the leader of this operation, but their Guild Master suddenly added Harrus to the team, making him the temporary leader of their group.
Carol had concerns about making Harrus their leader because she believed that the Brawler was all brawn and no brains. Still, to her surprise, the Brawler had made very logical decisions for the entirety of their mission.
The only mistake he had made was to agree to Malkahm's proposal to destroy their pursuers and burn the two ships in the sea.
Truth be told, if she were in Harrus' position, she would have also agreed to their proposal, so she couldn't find fault with it. The only problem now was that they would have no choice but to fight with their pursuers, who were closing the gap with each passing minute.
While Carol was deep in thought, Scarlet suddenly stood up and headed towards the door of the cabin.
"Where are you going?" Carol asked.
"Toilet," Scarlet replied. "I've been holding it since an hour ago. Now that there is an imminent battle approaching, I thought that now is the best time to do it, while I still have the chance."
Carol wrinkled her nose, but she still nodded her head.
"Go, but be quick about it," Carol ordered.
Scarlet nodded and left the cabin, where Carol, and five other Initiates, stayed to guard the Princess.
The moment the Slayer Candidate left the room, one of the Initiates snorted.
"So much for a Slayer Candidate," a lady Dwarf said. "She can't even hold it in during a mission, and she's supposed to be a top-class assassin? Isn't that funny?"
"You say that now, but you lost to her during the mock battle three days ago," a Dwarf who was in his early twenties commented. "If you're that brave, why don't you complain when she is around, and not when she's not?"
"Shut up!" the lady Dwarf glared at the Dwarf that chastised her. "What's this? Don't tell me you have a crush on her? Hah~ you just want to score some brownie points."
"It is you who should shut up. Just looking at you makes me puke."
"Oh? Then how about we have a mock battle when we return? I'm going to wipe the floor with your face!"
Carol didn't do anything and allowed the Initiates to quarrel among themselves. Rivalry was encouraged within the Dark Guild because it compelled their members to strive harder in order to surpass their rivals.
Also, just watching over the Princess was getting boring, so listening to the banter between the two Dwarfs served as her entertainment.
Princess Anastasia, on the other hand, sat on top of the bed.
Her hands, and feet were shackled with steel chains that prevented her from using any kind of magic. They had already researched the Princess' ability and found out that she had an aptitude for Life Magic and Wood Magic, allowing her to heal others, as well as manipulate the power trees and plants to do her bidding.
Despite her young age, she was already a Grade B Apostle, but compared to her guards, who were Initiates and Rankers, her rank was of no use.
In the end, she decided to remain silent and wait for her rescuers to arrive.
'Millie must have come with reinforcements,' Princess Anastasia thought. 'Judging by how the enemy has divided their forces, they must have lost two of their Rankers in battle. This is good news.'
She did her best to prevent a smile from appearing on her face because she knew that it would only agitate her captors. For the time being, she decided to just observe the people around her and try to understand their characteristics.
Although the chance was small, it might allow her to use it to her advantage in order to escape.
—---
Scarlet entered the washroom and locked the door, she then looked up at the ceiling and saw a blue slime at the corner of the cramped room.
'The slime is indeed here,' Scarlet reported to Lux. 'Now what?'
'Can you bring the Princess to the washroom?' Lux replied. 'That way, we can drag her away without too much effort.'
'Impossible. Even if she begged, Carol would not allow her to leave the room. Also, bringing the slime to the cabin will arouse suspicion, so I can't take it with me.'
'True. very well, we will be arriving soon and once that happens, there will be explosions inside your ship. I'm sure that the Ranker will keep a closer eye on the Princess when that happens, but if an opportunity arises, make sure to take her with you.'
'Understood,' Scarlet gave the blue slime one last glance before leaving the washroom. 'I will keep in touch.'
'Okay.'
Lux's voice faded from her head, making the Slayer Candidate sigh internally. She knew that the moment the fighting started, it would be next to impossible for her to get the Princess away from Carol.
However, many things could happen when the fighting began, so she was already thinking of ways, and excuses that she could use the moment the Princess suddenly disappeared from the Merchant Ship.
When Scarlet returned to the cabin, one of the lady Dwarfs glared in her direction which made her arc an eyebrow. She remembered shoving her face into the floor because she kept on saying that she just got lucky because the target she assassinated was a weakling.
Naturally, Scarlet couldn't say that the "weakling" that the Initiate spoke off was the same person that killed her and Sid, who were the two highest ranked Assassins among the Initiates that were part of the Assassination Squad called the Reapers, which were considered to be the group of Assassin Candidates that were trained to join the Slayers, which were Twilight Rain's main Assassination group that specialized in killing high profile targets.
All of the members of the Slayers were Rankers, so the moment Scarlet became a Ranker, she would immediately be added to this group, which all of the members of Reapers aspired to become.
"Did something happen?" Scarlet asked the boy, whom she knew had a crush on her. She didn't mind being adored by others. In fact, she would find it incomprehensible if she was not admired by her peers.
She had beauty, strength, and connections.
One could say that she had everything from birth, so it was very easy for her to stand above others. Even so, everyone understood that her becoming a Slayer Candidate was due to the fact that she had been tasked to assassinate a Half-Elf, who had somehow appeared in their Kingdom.
"She was saying things behind your back," the Dwarf replied. "As for what she was saying while you were gone, you can ask her yourself."
"Oh?" Scarlet gave the lady dwarf a side-long glance before yawning. "Sorry. I don't have any interest in the opinions of weaklings."
Scarlet then sat beside Princess Anastasia and leaned on its headboard. Right now, she wasn't thinking about the Initiate who was glaring daggers at the guy that tattled on her.
She only managed to make the situation more volatile, allowing her to think of ways she could make the princess meet Eiko's clone, who was currently crawling somewhere in the Merchant Ship, waiting for the opportunity that Lux and Scarlet would prepare for it.
