Chapter 57 - Couldn’t Espace

Chapter 57 : Couldn’t Espace

===A Certain Empress’ Shadow A===

I am one of Her Majesty’s 〝Shadows〟.

I received an order from Your Majesty to participate in a certain operation.

And that was to track down and investigate a certain undead called the No Life King.

After coordinating with the 〝Shadows〟 stationed in various places, we finally grasped the trend of his movement and reported it to Her Majesty.

The reason behind Her Majesty’s order wasn’t something that a lowly person like me, a 〝Shadow〟, had to worry about.

We were nothing more than Her Majesty’s eyes and ears. All we needed to do was give the most accurate information to Her Majesty.

「A new imperial edict has come. Put the female Holy Knight into a deep sleep and bring her to our capital. Make sure that the No Life King isn’t aware of this fact.」

「「「ACKNOWLEDGED!」」」

It was a deserted city with nothing but a small number of orphans living there.

And then, we received a new imperial edict from the 〝Shadow〟 who act as the messenger.

Thus, after deciding each others’ role in this place, we moved to execute our plan.

By the way, there was no hierarchical relationship in our organization.

Depending on the situation, each one of us only did the task assigned to us, no more and no less.

We were originally orphans who were gathered from the empire and its vassal countries.

Every day, we received hellish training to weed out the untalented ones and choose a 〝Shadow〟 amongst us to support the Empress from behind the scenes.

As I said above, not everyone amongst us could become a 〝Shadow〟.

Some died during that hellish training, some were treated as hopeless incompetents.

Even if some managed to overcome that hellish training, there were still a few more examinations waiting.

The passing ratio was extremely low with a staggering number of those who failed.

Only the elite of the elite who had surpassed all of those trials could meet face to face with Her Majesty as a 〝Shadow〟.

That was why infiltrating the city in the middle of the night to kidnap a woman was as easy as slicing cake.

After we erased our presence, we easily slipped into the slums after the children had fallen asleep.

Naturally, we already located the place of our target too.

「（This is the place）」

It was a slightly dirty building.

Our target should be sleeping in this place by herself.

「（No doubt about it.）」

One of the 〝Shadows〟 confirmed the situation inside the small house from the window.

「（Sleeping Incense）」

They threw sleeping incense into the room from the window.

She would be put into a deep sleep for a few hours once she inhaled the smoke of the sleeping incense.

It was one of few powerful drugs that had been handed down in our organization, the 〝Shadows〟.

After some time had passed and we were sure that the effect of the incense had already kicked in, we entered the small house.

「（Carry her out）」

We wrapped the sleeping woman with a blanket and carried her out.

Put into a deep sleep, the woman didn’t even show a sign of waking.

All that was left was to take her to the empire.

From our perspective, it was an extremely simple duty.

But I remained by myself in this place.

I had no idea about the details, but my duty was to inform the other target that we kidnapped the woman and brought her to the royal capital of our empire.

And that must be accomplished no matter what.

Soon, when the morning had come, the children finally noticed that the woman was gone.

I erased my presence and slowly approached the house of the woman.

「…? This burn trace…」

「It’s the mark of incense called sleeping temptation incense.」

「!!」

“

The No Life King turned around and looked in my direction.

Even though he was rumored to be a terrifying undead, he was nothing more than a white-haired, red-eyed young man in my eyes.

Even if we fought, I could beat him with ease.

As I explained before, we, the 〝Shadows〟 , underwent hellish training which was deemed necessary since some of our duties involved assasinaiton.

Since our target was always protected by powerful soldiers or warriors, we were trained in order to not lose against them in frontal combat.

But then, my current duty wasn’t to fight him.

My duty this time was to act as a messenger to tell him to come to our Imperial Capital.

「We kidnapped that woman. And she should be just about to arrive at Kranzle Empire’s imperial capital around this time.」

「W-…What?」

I kicked the ground to escape from this place, using the gap before the No Life King got a grip on himself.

I stood right in front of the entrance, then leapt up to the roof immediately. From there, I keep leaping around using the roofs of the buildings.

I was leaping so fast to the point that no ordinary man could see me during this moment.

We, the 〝Shadows〟, used a special movement art.

We called it ground shrink. It was a special movement art that enabled us to move so fast as if the ground itself had shrunk.

In addition, it also erased the sound of our footsteps.

It was a perfect movement art for a spy.

Therefore, no matter how powerful a person had become, it was practically impossible for them to catch up with the 〝Shadow〟 who solely focused on retrea―

「…Hey, wait.」

.

.

.

EH?

「GEH?」

Just when I thought that I heard someone’s voice come from behind, I was choked as someone grabbed me by the nape of my neck.

The only part that didn’t stop was my lower body, resulting in me turning around one full revolution due to the residual force from my running speed.

「COUGH COUGH COUGH…」

I coughed violently once the owner of that hand released me from his grip.

When I turned around in a hurry, I saw the figure of the white-haired undead.

「W-What… do you… mean?」

「!!!」

Unbelievable.

Did he catch up with my ground shrink?

Moreover, what… kind of pressure was this?

My whole body, from the tip of my hairs to my toes, was trembling nonstop upon being exposed to this terrifying amount of mana that I couldn’t feel at all from him a while ago.

If I hadn’t undergone that hellish training as a member of the 〝Shadows〟, I most likely would have already collapsed under this pressure.

My senses were ringing uncontrollably, telling me that this one was an extremely dangerous being.

When we underwent that hellish training as 〝Shadows〟, we should’ve already discarded this kind of unnecessary emotion.

…Like hell I could win against that.

This No Life King… was a genuine monster.

「Are you… really, the one… who… kidnapped her?」

「Y-Yeah… b-but, don’t worry… we’ve no intention to harm her.」

After I barely squeezed my willpower to answer him, I felt that the overwhelming pressure coming from him was diminished.

「Your… reason?」

「I-I don’t know… t-they, just told me… to deliver that message.」

The first of the 〝Shadows〟 might have learned the detailed plan when they received the order from Her Majesty.

But to avoid the plan leaked out to our enemies, the 〝Shadows〟 who executed the plan on site like us only knew little parts of the plan.

「…I see. If that is the case… can you show me… the way to the Imperial Capital?」

「T-The Imperial Capital is over there!」

I pointed in the direction toward the Imperial capital.

「…I see.」

Yet, for some reason, he approached me while nodding upon hearing my reply.

I couldn’t move right now since he already rendered me immobile when he caught the nape of my neck before.

W-Was he going to kill me?

But I should have accomplished my duty.

I would have no regrets even if I died in this place.

GASHI.

「??!」

Though I was prepared to accept my death, for some reason, he grabbed the nape of my neck again.

「…You’ll come with me.」

「Eh?」

…S-Seriously?

The next moment, my body fluttered in the air as he started running at an extremely terrifying speed.

The No Life King held me under his armpit like some sort of potato-filled sack.

W-What kind of speed was this?!

Wasn’t this far surpassing the speed of our 〝Ground Shrink〟?!

「GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!」

I raised a loud scream for the first time in years.

◇◇◇

===A Certain Empress’ Shadow B===

I’m one of Her Majesty’s 〝Shadow〟.

Currently, I received an order to participate in a certain operation.

But… What should I do now?

My duty was to carry the woman to our empire territory as bait in order to lure the No Life King to the Imperial Capital.

But it turned out I arrived sooner than planned.

Properly speaking, since the other 〝Shadows〟 would continue my job to carry the girl to the Imperial Capital, no matter how fast that No Life King’s running speed, it would at least take him five or six hours to arrive at my current location.

And yet, not even two hours had elapsed.

Moreover, he carried another 〝Shadow〟 under his armpit.

The 〝Shadow〟 who seemed to be dead tired should be brought along by the No Life King as a guide to show him the way toward the Imperial Capital.

Wait a minute… that guy captured a 〝Shadow〟?

Crap, at this rate, this guy would arrive first at our Imperial Capital before the other 〝Shadows〟 who carried the girl arrived.

「What should I do?」

『Can’t be helped. Change of plan. Guide him elsewhere first.』

「Roger.」

It seemed I needed to gain some time.

Thus, I showed my figure in front of that No Life King.

「…? Your… twin?」

「That girl was taken to a city called Heirun.」

「…Heirun?」

「It’s the name of a certain city in the north.」

「I, see…. I’ll take you too… I’ll be troubled if I stray along the way after all.」

「EH?」

Before I noticed, the No Life King had already carried me under his other arm and started running again at a terrifying speed.

「UWAAAAAAAA?!」