67 Prewar Operations 2

"That could have been close," Jinny sighed in relief.

Jinny chopped the wooden beam in half with her long sword.

The remains of the beam clunked onto the floor as Luke secretly used his mana to put out a small fire on the beam with great desperation and fear.

Luke always sticked to the rules of not using mana in the other districts as the consequences were very severe and serious if citizens of the other districts found out that mana existed.

The action of Luke using his mana right in front of Jinny surprised me as he was going against his own values.

"Why...how are you here Jinny?" I asked Jinny of her sudden appearance.

"To rescue you, of course," Jinny brightly grinned while tucking her sword away.

Both Luke and Cillian eerily smiled at me when finding out the reason for the fire.

'Like how was I supposed to know that they would light up the castle?' I silently glanced back at them.

"It wasn't easy lighting up the castle when security was heightened more than usual," Jinny casually continued while she shrugged.

Jinny stepped closer to me as she expected me to quickly come to her side, but Luke interfered as he stepped forward to block me from Jinny's view.

"How do you know Rika?" Luke asked Jinny politely in a protective stance towards her as he faced Jinny in front of me and Cillian.

"You're her captors. We all know how commoners easily become victims of nobles like you," Jinny fiercely rolled her eyes.

Jinny wore a short dress made of poor fabric and a apron to go with it. Her wooden shoes looked terribly uncomfortable as it didn't look like it was her size.

"I'm afraid you have terribly misunderstood the situation here. Rika is a pure noble." Luke replied with a huge sigh.

Luke gave Cillian a short apologetic glance as Cillian forgave him with a sincere smile like it couldn't be helped.

"That doesn't make sense," Jinny stuttered as she dropped her sword onto the ground.

Jinny looked like her world came crashing down as she turned to denial. Jinny quickly helped herself up after she collapsed onto the ground from the unexpected fact.

"Why would a privileged noble like her help us rebel against the empire?" Jinny argued while looking unconvinced that I was a noble as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Rika is an unique child even among the nobles," Cillian carefully explained under Luke's watchful eyes.

"I'm not a noble-" I screamed in denial.

I really wasn't a noble. I was just a normal girl who came from the third district who somehow went to school in the first district.

I was still in denial that I wasn't a person from the first district. As long as I was in denial, I could convince myself that I wouldn't have to go experience all the heavy responsibilities that the elites from the first district went though.

"My parents always gives me more work during vacation than I do during school," Ellen complained.

Shelly and I were sleeping over at Ellen's mansion after the last day of social week. Ellen's room was decorated with pastel blue tones.

Instead of giving off an luxurious feel from the room, Ellen's room looked relatively modern and minimalistic. It had a huge king sized bed and a small coffee table as the main furniture while the other parts of the room were decorated with a cozy rug and pictures on the wall.

Shelly and I were lying on Ellen's bed while going through the picture albums compiled from the school.

Since we had been separated from our parents at a young age to focus on school, the school made these picture albums for the parents to let them know the how their child was performing at school.

Most of these pictures were taken discretely from the advanced technology of the first district.

"My parents got mad after seeing this picture!" Ellen pointed to the picture that was taken when we were in elementary school.

In the photo, Shelly, Ellen and I were in our usual cafe. We were enjoying our usual cakes and tea while we complained about school.

Now thinking about it, nothing really changed from elementary school. Except that we now had the ability to go on 'missions' and that Miliana and Charles had joined our class.

"Same with my parents. They complained why I wasn't studying during that time instead," Shelly smiled sadly.

"Why are all parents in the first district so strict anyways?" I asked curiously.

Whenever I got the chance to call my parents, all they worried about was if I was faring well in school or if I was healthy.

They were never extremely concerned about my grades, but somehow they mentioned many times how grateful they were, since Luke seemed really reliable when they talked about my grades.

"Well, we are future leaders of the first leader and we have to worthy enough to be able to lead many people that put their trust in us," Ellen groaned.

"And that means we have to work much harder than others," Shelly miserably added.

"I'm thankful that I'm not part of this," I commented while flipping through the album.

"What do you mean Rika?" Shelly tilted her head in confusion.

"Well, I'm not originally from the first district so it doesn't apply to me?" I said as a question at the end when both Shelly and Ellen looked more puzzled.

"But you're engaged to Luke and that means you're a part of this as much as we are," Ellen answered as if it was a fact.

"Stop joking!" I laughed heavily in denial.

"Rika seems tired today," Cillian laughed at my 'joke' as Luke glared at me fiercely to resolve this 'misunderstanding'.

"He means the only sane noble," I put a positive twist to my actions.

"I... have to report back to the leader," Jinny blushed and ran away.

I felt guilty that Jinny and the others all this way to come 'rescue' me as I avoided her line of sight.

Jinny was the only one to truly believe that I was not a noble when all the other rebels were suspicious of me.

"Abandon the plan!" Jinny abruptly ordered the rebels.

"What's happening?" A rebel questioned while running up to Jinny.

The other rebels looked confused as they glanced at each other like they were asking if anyone of them knew what had happened.

"There's a error in our plans," Jinny announced to the rebels.

"See, I knew she was a noble from the start." A rebel complained to Jinny.

The other rebels nodded as they obeyed Jinny's orders with the same complaints as they quickly withdrew from the castle.

After a few minutes, Cillian, Luke and I were left alone in a place full of rubble.