Chapter 158 Laurene And Arnold’s Little Adventure VII [Bonus Chapter]

'Master level existences, all of them.

How was she able to escape their watch in the first place? Even if she's also a master level, it shouldn't be that easy, right?'

All of the members of the princess guard detail that were present were all master-level existences, this brought the question of how Laurene was able to leave the Duke's mansion without them noticing.

Of course, he was naturally unaware of the fact that Laurene would use the artifact that her dad gave to her for her 'safety', to avoid the detection of those keeping her safe.

He was still trying to rationalize how an existence that was barely level 100, managed to evade the detection of a level 300 being for over an hour.

'I didn't think about it earlier but it's really weird how her guards didn't come right after us the moment she left the mansion.'

Laurene's guard detail didn't only consist of the ten peak master level knights, six mages of similar strength and the grandmaster that were present.

There were dozens of other knights with levels ranging from 90 – 150. With that many people watching her, the teenager didn't understand how she got out without them noticing.

Meanwhile, Laurene who had tossed on a long overcoat over her clothes was currently being chided by the grandmaster.

"Your highness, can you not do such a thing next time?

You gave us a fright when you turned off your tracker."

He was unaware of the existence of her concealment artifact so he assumed the reason the mages couldn't track her was because she turned off the tracker embedded in her clothes.

"I know, I didn't want to have y'all make a wasted trip here so I came over to check the location out beforehand.

Fighting against the orcs was a plan that came afterwards."

The aged man only heaved a sigh of exhaustion as he stared at the young girl in front of him.

'Even if she acts mature for her age, she's still just a thirteen-year-old in the end.'

"But please, do well to switch it back on later."

"Huh? I already did that the moment I entered the forest."

The man's words made Laurene tilt her head in confusion. Her hands moved towards her shirt's collar and she tapped the small gem embedded in the material.

"Yes, we noticed that but didn't you switch it off again? Around…?"

His gaze turned to one of the mages who came forward and completed his statement.

"Almost half an hour, if not more."

The knight was not sure of the time the tracker had gone offline but the mages who were In charge were clear about it.

However, the expression on Laurene's face turned sour as she voiced out a question.

"How did you guys find me here?"

"The earlier explosion."

When the guards found out Laurene went into the forest, they chased after her and were very close to catching her after she switched on the tracker.

Unfortunately, that was when Laurene entered the range of the artifact that nullified the tracking magic, thus they lost track of her location temporarily.

However, when the Orc Lord executed its first attack in berserk mode, the resulting cloud of dust and dirt was enough for anyone to realise that something was definitely happening there, thus they moved in that direction and got to her right after she had ended the orc lord's life.

The time from when they noticed the explosion till when they arrived at her location was at most, five minutes, but things had already ended by then.

That was the explanation they gave, however, Laurene frowned as she spoke afterwards.

"I haven't switched it off again since I entered the forest, in fact, it's on right now."

The eyes of the knights and mages listening widened upon hearing this. Laurene had no reason to lie to them at this point so they believed her words.

But before they could even begin to ask how they lost her location again, her gaze turned in the direction of the structure in the middle of the abandoned town that stood strong despite the earlier battle.

"You two, follow me. The rest, guard the perimeter, not even a fly should get in.

Arnold, you come too."

Laurene gave orders to the knights before turning around and dashing towards the building.

As expected of trained knights, they instantly followed orders and spread out in a circle, spreading out their auras to sense and deter any monster or animal who came close.

,m The mage that Laurene called along the aged grandmaster and Arnold, followed the young princess as she sprinted towards the building.

Upon arriving at the large double doors, Laurene could see several dents all across it, evidence that there had been numerous attempts to break down the doors and enter the base.

When the group got closer, they were finally able to see the same sights Laurene saw, and that included the seven crests spread out in a circle on the door.

"This…?!"

The aged grandmaster who was privy to a bit of classified information instantly recognized those crests and couldn't help but let out a shocked voice.

Laurene gazed up at him before turning to the mage and speaking.

"Each person here is to sign a binding magic contract preventing them from speaking of what they see until the appointed time.

We can't have rumours spreading and causing panic among the masses."

The duo nodded in response and Laurene placed her right palm in the centre of the circle on the door.

In the next moment, she began to pour magic power into the door, causing the outline of the circle to light up with a golden light.

The crest in her eyes glowed with a similar coloured light as the crest on the door resonated with it, lighting up similarly.

**CLACK

There was a sound as the large double doors creaked open, revealing the interior of the building that was completely free of dust and dirt.

It looked as if it had been taken care of every day for the past thousand years, causing even Laurene's eyes to widen in shock.

"This was unexpected."

The young girl's voice rang out as she deactivated the cleaning magic she was about to deploy.

"Let's go."

She called out to the other three who were still stunned, snapping them out of their shock as they followed her into the building.

As they took their first step into the area that seemed to be the building's reception, the entire area lit up as dozens of mana stone-powered bulbs came alive.

'Motion sensing magic? No, these are runes.'

Laurene looked on the ground and saw that there was a lone she had just crossed, the reason why the mana stone bulbs came on as the line was filled with runes that sensed motion and sent the information on that motion to a control module somewhere, which sent the commands to power the bulbs.

'The runes are much more effective when it comes to keeping a whole system like this up for extended periods of time.'

She looked up to see two large curtains drooping from the ceiling on both sides of the entrance to a hallway, with the seven crests of the seven heroes embroidered in them with gold threads.

"Although this place looks simple, the things here probably cost more than the funds used to build the royal castle."

Having the memories of the person who built this base, Laurene was aware of how many millions of gold coins went into building this 'simple' base.

As for the others who heard her words, they had their jaws drop in shock as they stared at her with widened eyes.

"It's a joke, right?"

The mage tried to deny the reality but Laurene walked up to the desk in front of one of the large curtains and picked a random ring that was lying on it.

She tossed it to the mage and told him to appraise it with magic before going down the hallway beside it.

"How the?! An A-grade artifact?!"

She heard the surprised voice of the mage as she calmly walked down the hallway, navigating her way with ease as if she had lived here for a lifetime.

Naturally, this was her relying on the memories of the real owner of the base.

She entered various rooms with the trio following behind her silently, a storage room for artifacts, a study, armoury, research lab, library and even some living quarters.

"Just who owned this place?"

"An ancient group of beings you're very familiar with."

Laurene replied to the grandmaster's casual question as she walked up to the black reinforced door at the end of the hallway that only had one crest on it.

Seeing that confirmed Arnold's suspicion that this 'base', was actually a private residence of the previous 'Fourth'.

As all of the people present weren't blind, they could see that the crest on the door and the symbol in Laurene's eyes were the exact same thing.

"Your highness, how are you…"

'…related to this?'

Is what the aged grandmaster wanted to ask but he held his tongue when he saw the princess's complicated gaze.

"What do you think?"

She turned to Arnold who had been silent as asked with a smile, however, the teenager only stared back at her with a gaze that contained many emotions.

The most prominent of them, being sadness.

'I think I know why Richard was overreacting that day.

How did she deal with the sudden influx of memories and information when she was just an eleven-year-old kid?

Knowing that someone just tried to kill her and take over her body, and upon failing, left who knows how many years' worth of memories in her head.'

He felt sad for the young girl who was carrying a burden much larger than her age, relating to her internally as he remembered how he felt the day he gained the title of hero killer'.

Perhaps noticing his reaction, Laurene let out a short deprecating laugh as she placed her palm on the door and poured magic power into it while speaking in a language those present had never heard of.

"Ego sum ille qui videt omnia quae sunt 'vera'."