Kochugunshikan Boukensha ni Naru

Translator: SFBaka

Editor: Thor’s Stone

Swearing upon one’s family’s honor was the greatest and heaviest promise that nobles can make. With this, there seems to be no problem with helping them escape out of prison as well.

“Well then, please move away from the door. We will now proceed to break it open.”

I nodded toward Sharon and Selena, and they brandished their bladeknives to destroy the iron doors in the blink of an eye.

“Just what–!?”

The former prime minister, Lord Leister, was an elderly man who seemed to be in his sixties, with graying hair. And although he was currently quite skinny due to his time in imprisonment, his eyes remained sharp and incisive. He certainly didn’t seem like an ordinary person.

His son was a young man who looked to be in his twenties or thirties. He was quite young for the son of Lord Leister.

“Lord Father!”

“Oh, Abel, my son!”

The father and son finally held hands for the first time in years.

Unlike the cells where my fellow royal guards we imprisoned, the interior of their cells had traces of being cleaned regularly and were furnished with desks filled with books and illumination magic tools. It seems their confinement conditions were a lot better.

Both of them had no problems walking by themselves, and their steps were firm. It looks like we’ll have no problems with them after all.

“My utmost gratitude to you all, our dear benefactors. I will definitely make sure to return this great favor in the future.”

“It is far too early to be thanking us, sir. I will have you uphold your earlier promise no matter what.”

“……I understand.”

We took both of them and joined back up with Leader and the others.

“Ooh, so we finally meet face to face, Lord Leister.”

“Is that you, Sir Enders? In this damned purgatory, conversing with you was my only comfort as well as one of the limited means to keep myself sane. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude, my friend.”

“No, it was the same for me as well. I thought I would have liked to meet you face to face before I died, so I am very happy now that we have gotten this opportunity.”

Apparently, the relationship built between Leader and the former prime minister was quite good.

“Now then, Dame Norian, we’d like to finally hear your story.”

“Before that, let us first get rid of your beards, cut your hair, and get you changed to the clothes we prepared. Please excuse me for sounding rude, but you all really do stink to high heaven. Go and clean yourselves up right now.”

Leader and the others exchanged glances and sniffed themselves a few times. It looks like they’ve only just realized how unpresentable and dirty they were. It’s good that they didn’t seem to be suffering from any sequelae anymore though.

We took out hairdressing tools from the bags we brought with us, and all three of us proceeded to use scissors and bladeknives to cut my teammate’s hair and shave their beards.

We didn’t really care about making them look stylish. Short hair suited knights better anyway.

Of course, we’ll leave them to clean up by themselves. We brought a good number of cloth pieces with us and found some inside the guard station as well. Sharon filled the two buckets we found inside the station with water.

“Next, please use these cloth pieces to wipe your bodies clean. We will be going out of the dungeon openly later, so please make sure to thoroughly clean yourselves up. I’ll leave the clothes that you should change into here.”

We waited outside for about twenty minutes. When we entered back inside, we found that Leader and the others already made themselves as neat and tidy as they could, and were now wearing the castle guard uniforms we prepared beforehand.

“I could hardly recognize you, Leader. Now then, we weren’t able to bring a lot, but here are some preserved foodstuffs. We also acquired some of the guard’s provisions, so let us talk while filling ourselves up to regain strength.”

“……I understand. But I must say, Dame Norian. You seem awfully calm even though we’re in the middle of enemy territory.”

“Is that so? Well, it’s true that I am not very worried. Right now, our Clan leader, Alan, Captain Selena, and Vice-Captain Sharon are all present inside this castle. The three of them are the strongest in our Clan.

Even if we do end up going against all the soldiers stationed inside this castle, they will have no problems cutting open a path for us.”

“Elna, isn’t that a little bit too much?”

“Really? I think we can do it.”

“Well, yes, we could, of course. But that’s if we don’t care about collateral damage to the castle…… But you know Alan wouldn’t approve of that.”

“Yeah. Alan’s only flaw is that he’s too nice.”

“…………Dame Norian, can you now please tell us everything that’s happened after we found ourselves imprisoned here.”

I prepared some simple meals and related the events that happened, starting with the time I met Alan and the others at the city of Gotania for the first time.

I talked about how I managed to meet with Alan and the others in Gotania city.

After that, I talked about us meeting up with the rest of the royal guards as well.

Then, I talked about how we all became adventurers and went to Gantz city to make a name for ourselves.

We then became quite famous for hunting and capturing countless bandits.

I then told them that Alan actually managed to defeat a dragon and will now be conferred a noble title and a land of his own.

And then, I told them about how our allies overheard two drunk castle guards talking about captured royal guards from the Starveek kingdom in a pub shortly after arriving at the royal capital, and that they even mentioned the prisoner’s names.

Of course, I refrained from mentioning Cleria-sama. I was not going to say a word about her unless I am absolutely sure the two outsiders with us really were trustworthy.

Leader and the others were quite famished and were silently listening to my story while rapidly devouring the food.

“I see…… So it was just a coincidence that you managed to find out we were held here?”

“That’s right. If our allies didn’t manage to overhear the castle guards talking about you all at the pub, we would have left the royal capital after our business here was done.”

“I see. Some of the guards constantly taunted and jeered at us, so I was even thinking of killing them someday if given the chance, but…… Unfortunately, it seems I’ll have to spare their lives now.

But subduing a dragon you say…… Just what sort of person is your leader, Alan?”

“Do not refer to Alan as ‘your leader’, Sir Enders. Alan already regards all of you as our comrades. It was Alan who insisted on rescuing you all, regardless of opposition from the others in the Clan.”

“……It’s true that you’d normally regard rescuing a mere few imprisoned fellows inside a highly guarded castle as an act of madness. Our leader Alan sure is a bold and decisive person.”

“That’s true. I think you’d never find another person in this world who is willing to stage a rescue mission right on the day of his title conferment ceremony.”

“What!? Alan-sama is getting conferred a title today!?”

“I said he is present in the castle right now earlier, right? I’m sure the ceremony is already underway as we speak.”

“………What can I say? I cannot wait to meet him in person now. So what exactly is the escape plan you came up with for us?”

“It would depend on you and the rest’s condition, Leader. Are you able to walk normally without swaying now, everyone?”

They stood up and tried to walk around the room. Everyone managed somehow, but they were still staggering, and couldn’t walk snappily at all.

They at least needed to be capable of walking for a hundred meters or so without staggering.

“We’re still like this now, but we’ve improved a lot compared to an hour ago. We’ll probably be a lot better off given a bit more time since we drank prized medicine and managed to eat our fill. Please give us a bit more time, and we’ll be ready.”

“Of course. Our approximate waiting time has already been considered when coming up with this rescue plan. We will leave here in two hours and proceed to board a carriage we have prepared. Please make sure to be in your best condition possible in two hours’ time, everyone.”

“Understood. We’ll do it.”

After saying so, my teammates all began to rest up. Yes, it might be good to take a nap to recover energy.

Up to this point, everything was going exactly as planned. Was Alan not having trouble on his end?