After I left the castle, I looked at the warehouse that Prince Toni told me. If it's as he guessed, then the real King Harold is being imprisoned there. And that warehouse should be where a merchant stored his valuable collection.
Said merchant was supposed to be well-known for his love of magic tools. Hearing that, I made a plan to cause a trouble by stealing from that warehouse while disguising myself as 'Albertus'. If the real king is locked there, the cult members in this city, including the fake king himself will be in trouble once I sneaked in. I need to make sure that 'Albertus' will only leave a trace of himself stealing some magic tools, while erasing all traces of me looking for King Harold.
When I leave Prince Toni, he said he wanted to exchange a message with Fabio. So, Sonia is staying behind. As long as he wasn't caught calling Sonia, I think it will be fine.
I arrive at the warehouse, and was shocked to see that the warehouse is heavily guarded but only on the outside it seems. Does no one truly notice how suspicious this place is?
I looked through the wall, and the many magic items here. I see a hidden passage lead to a cell where someone is locked.
He's badly injure. Both his arms, his legs, all his fingers and toes, his ribs, all are broken. His limbs are twisted in a weird way, but he's still alive. Not for long if I don't save him quickly. His stomach is empty. I guess no one cares about him anymore and he's useless to feed. The filthiness in that cell just want to make me puke. The imprisoned man laying on his own pee, and there's vomit, blood, and poo all over the floor.
Is that the real king? If so, I guess I should praise him for surviving this long.
At this time, there are no doctors who capable of healing him. Unless an expert level mage appears to heal him, he won't live for another day. But if it's me, I can heal him as long as I grabbed him and perform surgery.
But first, I need to see if he's the real king or not. Well, if I beat the gatekeeper who will be his substitute the same way, he will look the same other than his empty stomach. I guess I'll get Queen Carmen to see him first. Though I don't think Queen Carmen will notice him. She couldn't even tell if the current king is a fake until she sleeps with him. Should I go check the castle again and see the king? Yeah, I'll do that.
I returned back to the castle to find the king. This time, since I'm not looking for Prince Toni, I can focus on seeing the king. Previously, since I was just focusing on Prince Toni, I could careless about other people. That's why I forgot to check the king's appearance.
…I found him. If the man in the cell can stand up, he will be at the same height. If he's healthy, he will be at the same weight. I guess that was the real king indeed.
Sigh… I spent too much time already. I need to save him fast.
"Sonia, tell Celestine to go to Fabio's office."
I called Sonia while I'm going to Fabio's office right away at the gate. That's where I first met him.
After arriving, I quickly put the guards to sleep… I was wrong. Everyone is already sleeping. Just how terrible is their discipline? But that's fine. That's making it easier for me to do this mission.
I grabbed the sleeping gatekeeper, and brought him to Fabio's office who is waiting for me. Seems like Celestine was already here before I contacted Sonia. Well, that's much better.
"Here's the plan. I'll kill this guy, and take you two to Prince Bernard's mansion. Sonia, tell Kayla and Sophie that I need their help. They need to prepare for a surgery. Fabio, once you're there, tell Prince Bernard to prepare a room with a bed. I will do the surgery there to save your father." I said.
"What happened to father?" Fabio asked, but I ignored him.
"I will make some trouble while disguising myself as Albertus, and pretend that this guy is an accomplish. That way, no one will think that it's weird for the two of you to disappear." I said to Fabio as I pointed my finger to the still sleeping gatekeeper.
"Tell me, what happened to father?" Fabio asked again.
I paused for a bit, then I casted Air Barrier to make sure that no one can hear us.
"I will give the same injuries to him, as what your father experienced. You will see for yourself." I said.
Then, I asked Victoria to create some Blobbies and turned them into a club. All the damage that King Harold received were from blunt attack. The torturer must be enjoying that very much.
First… his ribs.
"AAAAAAAAHHH!!"
After I hit his ribs with the club, the sleeping gatekeeper woke up in pain and scream. But that's not over yet. I just broke four of his ribs, but the king has all his rib broken. So, I hit him again in the chest.
Celestine looked calm while seeing me torturing the gatekeeper. Fabio was… shocked. He clenched his fists in anger. But that's not over.
I almost forgot. This guy has explosive device in his mouth. Let's take it out first before he kills himself.
After plucking the explosive device, I continued bashing him with the club.
I might not have the best memory, but I remember pretty much the injuries that King Harold received. And I attacked this gatekeeper in the same spot.
Skull, shoulder blade, collar bone, both arms, all his fingers, both legs, and all his toes. After that I twisted them in a weird way that it should be impossible for a human to do that unless they have no bones.
"This is what happened to my father?" Fabio asked.
"Well… this guy is dead after I broke his legs. Too much pain and he died of shock. Should be good for me to swap him with the king now. As for the king, he's stronger than this guy. He's still alive, but won't be for long. Now, you two go to Prince Bernard's mansion, and explain to Queen Carmen and Prince Bernard. Sonia, don't forget to explain to Albert as well. I'll be leaving now."
Sonia has returned after telling Kayla and Sophie that I needed their assistance to watch what I did. Is she interested in watching me bashing someone with a club?
Anyway, I asked her to tell Albert what happen as I opened a portal to get Fabio and Celestine to Prince Bernard's mansion.
Now, I will be with Victoria. I'm disguising myself as 'Albertus', while Victoria shapeshifted into the gatekeeper.
Although the warehouse is heavily guarded, I can still sneak inside. I don't need to hold back as I'm making trouble, so I just smashed the rooftop. Though I made the sound silent so no one noticed.
We dropped to the floor where we are surrounded by many kinds of magic items.
"Victoria, grab everything that you can and put them in one spot. We'll take them to an empty island later. We will then select which one we should take and not dangerous. I'll go get the king."
Good thing that there's no guard inside the warehouse. And from the look of it, it has been a few days since someone visited King Harold. That's just makes it easier for me to swap him.
Once I arrived at the cell he was imprisoned, I used Blobbykey to unlock the cell and asked him, "If you're the real King Harold, blink twice. I know you're conscious."
Through much effort, King Harold blinked his eyes twice.
"Good. I will save you, but you need the will to live if you want to survive. You got this far on your own, so I don't think you are too weak to give up, right? I'll heal you later."
Then I used portal to get the gatekeeper's corpse, and throw it to the floor. I carried King Harold without caring of the filth, and return to where Victoria is.
The portal has caused some scenes as several expert level mages noticed. But they are not panicking yet and just calmly asked someone to open the door to the warehouse.
"Victoria, you done?"
"Yes."
This time, I opened two portals. One to Prince Bernard's mansion where Celestine is already waiting in a bedroom, and another to an empty island. Victoria threw all the magic items into the empty island, as I carefully handed King Harold to Fabio who is waiting.
"Wait for a bit. I will save you for sure." I said to King Harold who is still trying hard to stay conscious.
Noticing another weird magic is used again, twice this time, the guards outside can no longer stay calm and attacked the door with magic to open it.
By the time they entered the warehouse, Victoria and I already exited through the hole in the rooftop that I made. I also carried a lot of magic items to make them think I'm just a thief.
Now that I have left, I can just run on air and make them think I'm a wind mage.
After running for a while and making sure that they can no longer sense me I used portal and transported to Prince Bernard's mansion where Queen Carmen is crying in front of her husband.
I quickly opened another portal to Cassau to get Kayla and Sophie who are already prepared, and asked the other to leave for the surgery. Sonia said that Albert want to come, but I needed to do surgery so I told Sonia that I will get him after the surgery is over.
"Can you save him?" Fabio asked.
"No doctors in this time can, but I'm not from this time." I just said that and closed the door. leaving only me, Kayla, Sophie, and Victoria to save King Harold. I also asked Spot to leave and wait.
Thanks to being an Aura user, my hands move quickly. With Sophie's assistance and Kayla's healing, I used surgery tools made of Victoria's clone to fix all the broken bones and the inner injury that King Harold received.
Even though I'm fast, it still takes more than twenty hours to finally finished with the surgery. I have to say that it was faster than I expected. Both Sophie and Kayla who are already exhausted, are sleeping on the floor as I opened the door and inform the other.
"The surgery was successful. He will wake up in few hours."
I'm also tired, so I carried the girls to a room prepared by Prince Bernard, and the three of us sleep together on the bed.
This is the first difficult surgery that I did after returning to the past. I might encounter more once the war happens. Good thing I have taught some doctors to do it.
After thinking that, I fell asleep. Twenty hours of surgery takes too much energy after all