Otherworld Adventure

lAs Quinn was looking around the docks, he stumbled upon a familiar figure in the distance. When he took a closer look, it turned out to be Katya.

"Hmph, speak of the devil. It's that woman..." Quinn mumbled.

Quinn disapproved of the woman not only because she was hanging around his master with an ulterior motive but mostly because he, as well as his master, were quite aware that she was hiding something from them.

Quinn moved a bit closer until he was able to eavesdrop on her conversation with some of the people at the docks.

"So, someone was going around trying to buy a boat?"

"Yes, Miss Katya...apparently, he was looking for any kind of boat, as long as it could sail. We told him that most of the boats were currently being used to form a perimeter around the bay and we were already strictly ordered by the Lord to not have any boat set out to sea unless they were fishing vessels."

"Can you describe to me how he looked like?"

"I'm sorry, Miss, but he was wearing a thick cloak with a hood over his head. I was only able to judge that he was a male due to his voice..."

"Okay, that's good enough. Just make sure no boats come in or out anymore. I've just received news that the Faustus Archduchy may try something very soon."

"Yes, Miss. We'll do as you say."

"Un..."

Katya finished speaking and walked away. Quinn frowned when he heard their conversation. He quickly chased after Katya and stealthily tracked her.

She went around asking the same questions and giving out similar orders to the people around the docks. Sailors, fishermen, soldiers, everyone was given the orders directly by her. This was a little odd to Quinn since if she wanted to, Katya could have easily sent some of her subordinates to relay the orders for her.

But instead, she was doing it personally. He couldn't understand her objective in doing so. It looked unnecessary and it seemed that she was trying to look amiable to her people.

Katya continued roaming around the port until she eventually stopped at a warehouse. She looked around to make sure that no one was around before casually entering the warehouse after knocking a few times.

Quinn walked out of his hiding spot and scoffed, "This should be interesting."

He disappeared in the next moment before reappearing on the warehouse's roof. He looked around and saw that there were people standing guard on the roof. He quickly hid himself and found an open window.

After he arrived inside the warehouse, Quinn looked around and saw Katya and a few others from her family gathered around. It seemed as if they were waiting for somebody. Quinn made sure that he found a good spot to conceal himself while at the same time being a good place to eavesdrop on their conversation.

It didn't take long before he heard the warehouse's doors opened again and a few people entering into the building. Quinn closed his eyes and tried to sense how many people had entered.

"...4 people... from their gait... I don't think they're from here—"

And Quinn was right. Once he heard the words that came out of the newcomers' mouth, he was immediately able to tell apart the accent they had.

"Hmm... there's only one place where these people could have come from, the Faustus Archduchy..."

He wanted to make sure of it so Quinn moved up a bit and found a better place. He was able to find a good hiding spot in between a few crates where he was able to stay hidden from the guards upon the warehouse's roof while being able to directly see and hear the conversation that was currently happening between the Goldenia family and the people who Quinn presumed to be from the Faustus Archduchy.

"Hm, we meet again, my dear~" A handsome, but slovenly youth said to Katya who was standing in the front of her group. He was wearing some very unique clothing. The young man only had his upper body wrapped up in a rather loose garb and his pants were also loosely dangled below his h.i.p.s. Just judging from his attire, he came from a place where the weather must've been swelteringly hot.

Katya didn't reply to his greeting and chose to remain silent, "..."

"Why the cold response?"

"Bastille... I was pretty stupid back then and didn't know any better which led to me being tricked by you...don't think I've forgiven you for it..."

"Hm? Oh, did being with that new 'fiancé' of yours finally open your eyes?"

"Gr..."

"Don't look at me like that, love. The times we spent together were real and memorable, were they not?"

"Shut up!"

"Hahaha, it seems now that you've found a new man, you no longer care about me, huh?"

"I said shut up! I'll have you know that he isn't even engaged to me!"

"Hm, is that so..."

"Do remember why you're even here, Bastille. We don't want any troubles with your nation..." Katya said as she narrowed her eyes.

"Right, right, of course. Our only condition would be to turn in the fool who attacked our men."

"...Are you stupid?" She immediately replied. The family members, who were behind her, looked at each other and sneered at the young man's unreasonable demand, a few of them had been present when Cecil had taken care of the problems within his territory and they knew just how foolhardy it was if anyone tried to make a move on him or his family.

Bastille only smirked and remained silent, "..."

"That's impossible. Do you actually think we'll turn on our allies? Also, do you know how stupid you are for asking?"

"Well, that's not my problem now, is it? It's yours. That's all we ask and we'll pull back our forces and forego any of our intentions of attacking your lands."

"It's an impossible request!"

"Well...it looks like we're going to have to attack you guys then... I've had my men looking around the area and I've noticed that while your territory is a bit barren, the Silvaria Kingdom on the other hand has quite the nice place~" Bastille said with a sly smirk.

"Fool, if you attack them, you'll only be digging your own grave!" Katya immediately said.

"We'll see about that. Do you think that our nation is as weak as you assume it'd be? I've already had my men do some checking and the Silvaria Kingdom was only recently established and they don't have that many soldiers—"

"It doesn't matter! You don't know... you don't know about the monsters that that kingdom has!"

Katya was referring to Cecil and his wife, Lucia, his sister, Angelia and her horde of monsters, and also the person who had nearly brought down an entire kingdom alone, Fatima.

Even with a few men, Fatima was able to lead the Regulus Kingdom in a counterattack that pushed them all back into their own lands and if not for the falling out that happened later, it was almost certain that she could have probably led Regulus's Army in an attack that would have probably annihilated the Merkruz Principality.

Katya had heard about this from Angelia who always loved to boast about her siblings. Then there was the time when she went on the expedition to subdue the monsters in the Silvaria Kingdom's newly acquired territory.

She had seen the unfathomable power that Cecil had displayed and the shocking battle prowess that his wife had. Then there was the fact that the unbeatable monster that their entire group had difficulty facing had fallen under Angelia's control.

Attacking them or even daring to antagonize the Silvaria Kingdom at this point was literally looking for death. She didn't particularly care if Bastille and his nation wanted to court death by antagonizing the Silvaria Kingdom, but the problem was that they would have to first invade her family's lands before they went to go and attack Silvaria.

Katya naturally didn't want this to happen so she had reached out to contact her enemy to see if they could make peace with each other, open trade relations, or something. Anything as long as her family's territory wasn't invaded.

She couldn't say with certainty that the Silvaria Kingdom would back her family up when the Faustus Archduchy invaded so she wanted to try and do things on her own. The most she could do was if things did go south and negotiations broke down, she could use the newfound knowledge that she had about the Silvaria Kingdom to threaten the Faustus Archduchy into rescinding their notion on attacking.

"Monsters? If you're talking about the little girl who has the unique ability to tame monsters, then my people already knows about her. She's an intriguing little vixen and I do say that I'd rather like to have her by my side..."

"...You sick bastard. That's disgusting and repulsive! She's still a child!"

"If I'm not wrong, she's 12, almost 13, no? In our kingdoms, once one turns 15, they're already eligible for marriage. All I have to do is wait 2-3 more years, hahaha! Also, there's the older sister who's quite a brilliant woman. It's a shame that the Regulus Kingdom's prince has already taken her."

Quinn's eyes when he heard those repulsive words immediately turned cold. He remained in his hiding spot and continued observing the people while at the same time recording everything he saw using a recording marble.

The talk continued but it was mostly about the young man named, Bastille, trying to convince Katya into betraying the Silvaria Kingdom and his roundabout attempts to try and pry information about the kingdom from Katya's mouth.

Seeing as she was still being stubborn about betraying them, Bastille finally grew impatient.

"Why are you so reluctant? It's not like this is the first time, y' know?"

"H-Huh?"

"Oh, did you think we wouldn't have figured it out? About your family under the guise of some defect trying to sell us information about the Silvaria Kingdom and setting us up with that foolish old plebian who tried to betray his own kingdom and family?"

"..."

"Why the shock looked? It's quite an excellent ploy. You set us and the old fool together, we attack the kingdom and try to assassinate some woman and kidnap the brother and mother while your family swoops in and saves the day!"

"W-wha—"

"Don't try to deny it. We know full well it was you guys. I mean, it was such an opportunity that you couldn't possibly pass up, right? If everything went on without a hitch, then you'll be able to have the Silvaria Kingdom owe you a favor and you'd use the opportunity to form more amicable relations with them and hopefully form an alliance, no? I mean, your father went so far as to even sell you to them~"

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about!" Katya stuttered.

���Stop with the acting already..." Bastille scoffed before continuing, "Anyway, all I'm asking is that since you've schemed against them once, so why can't you betray them now?"

"Things are different now!"

"Different? Oh please don't tell me you've fallen for the boy! He's just some 19-year-old brat who has some power behind his fist."

"I haven't fallen for him! I never did approve of my father's plans and I thought it would have been better to approach the Silvarias more directly!"

"Haaah... you still don't get it, do you?"

"..."

Bastille shook his head and said, "I wonder what would happen if the Silvaria Kingdom got hold of this bit of information and—"

"Yes, I do wonder what we'd do..."

Hearing the unknown voice echo throughout the warehouse, everyone looked around in search of the source.

It wasn't until Quinn walked out of the shadows and eyed everyone in the warehouse coldly that they finally noticed that there was a third party here with them.

"...And who might you be?"