ATTEMPTED ESCAPE

“I’m not letting you sleep tonight.”

“Is that the kind of thing you should be saying to your friend?”

“Is this how you treat someone willing to help you cram for exams?”

“Urk…”

Hina was going to be pulling an all-nighter with Hanako, who had graciously decided to let her stay overnight in order to prepare for entrance exams. As someone pulling decidedly less than average grades most days, this was something she wanted to not fail.

Despite how much begging Hanako had done in order to ‘downgrade’ (as Hanako’s mother put it) in order to attend a more affordable school for Hina’s sake, the young heiress’ parents wouldn’t stand for anything less than the best public school Japan had to offer, if she refused to attend a private academy. It might as well have been a lesser academy with how high the tuition was. The only way in without sacrificing an arm and a leg would be to get a scholarship.

While getting one throughout the school year had been out of the question, there was a special one awarded for the top grades of the entrance exam.

Hina was feeling like it would actually be hopeless, but Hanako said she believed Hina would qualify for the scholarship which would allow the two of them to continue going to school together. All this cramming was for both of their sakes. Hina did not want to have to figure out making new friends and neither did Hanako.

Hanako gave Hina a pet on her head, the action comforting the struggling girl.

“Remember what you’re doing this for.”

“So we can go to school together…”

As tired as she sounded, Hina’s inner flame was stoked by the idea.

“I know you can do it. You can do well, when you put your heart into it,” Hanako said, opening up another workbook and flipping through it. Her eyes were scanning for some example questions to throw at her friend. Compared to Hina, Hanako didn’t look the least bit exhausted. In fact, she was glowing.

How unfair, Hina thought. Didn’t matter the hour, time, or circumstances, Hanako looked completely impeccable, not a single hair out of place and no bags under her eyes. She was a little jealous at how her best friend could look so put together at 1 AM.

The way she sat, with her back straight, head held high and poised while her night clothes flattered her, hair set loosely to flow over her shoulder as she read earnestly.

Hanako was honestly very beautiful. Like a character in an anime or an otome game, the kind of perfection you hardly could find in real life.

Hina honestly couldn’t help, but to stare, something she did ever since they were both little. At least her friend’s sharp beauty was no longer intimidating for her. Those early days of the two of them being awkward because Hina was too shy to actually talk to her still haunted the teen girl to this day. Now she just simply snuck looks at Hanako, feeling oddly fluttery and at peace seeing her friend’s face. Was it something similar to looking at fluffy, cute things that cleanses the soul? Hina could admit, she did like beautiful things and Hanako was certainly the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her entire life.

“Pretty,” Hina whispered softly.

The whisper caught Hanako’s attention, making her look over at Hina. A slow smile spread on her lips as she looked at her friend, eyes filled with affection and fondness.

And not long after, a rolled up workbook gently smacked the top of her head, all the while smiling Hanko looked on.

“You know that I love you, but focus, Hina.”

“Waah…Han-chan is such a slave driver, you’re not my friend anymore.”

Hanako merely hummed softly, tapping the book in front of Hina.

“Right, right. Anyways, let’s take a look at page 394. According to my sources, a lot of the exam questions will be from that section.”

Hina groaned, but did as she was told, because the end results would be worth it. Even if her brain felt like mush, her body was tired and she felt resistant to studying, Hina could appreciate the helping hand she was being given. While looking over new problems to solve, she took a moment to make something clear…

“Han-chan…thank you for everything.”

Hanako looked at her quietly for a second, before responding.

“You know, whatever it is, I’ll always help you out.”

Soleil could not believe there were bars thick enough that she could not bend.

Not to toot her own horn, but the young lady was secretly proud of her strength, unlady-like as it was. When Nicolette and her goon left Soleil got back up in order to try the bars once more, feeling more motivated than ever to try and bend them. However, though she could see the shape of her grip in the metal, they would not budge otherwise. There were no windows within their cells, either; a pragmatic choice in case some good Samaritan happened to hear someone calling for help.

And blocking out any natural light just causes everything to feel even more down, Soleil thought to herself. Their conditions were as poor as could be without causing them to die. Just enough stress to force all the girls present to summon divine weapons out of necessity.

Having any weapon would be pretty useful right now, though. Her mind came up with the mental image of using a divine spear as leverage to try and bend the bars, but she distinctly felt like using such an artefact seemed a little sacreligious, even if the weapons themselves weren’t actually holy. She felt like she could snap one in half by manhandling one. Soleil gave herself a dry laugh, before slapping her cheeks to make her refocus on the matter at hand.

What did she have to work with right now, though?

Her cell was threadbare. And nothing was within reach outside the bars. The only thing she could reach were others, through use of her voice, but even that might not be the best thing either. These kidnapped women had been down here who knew how long, frightened and in bad shape, most likely. Soleil’s head hurt, but she was otherwise probably in the best situation compared to everyone else present.

Still, she tried to reach out.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, choosing to stay as quiet as possible in case she made too much noise and caused the crooks who kidnapped her to come back early. Though soft, it somehow carried within the prison.

All she got back were whimpers. She figured this was the reaction she’d get.

Yet, still, she couldn’t sit still when her own survival was on the line. She remembered those videos of airline hosts and hostesses talking about airplane safety, involving how you must secure your own mask before attempting to help someone else. It was like that, right now. In helping herself first, she could more easily help the rest. That’s right, her being freed meant the others could be rescued, too.

Thinking about coming back to rescue everyone, surely Soleil would need to alert the guards, or some authority. There was a flash of a figure in her mind’s eye, Darius for a split second, followed by another – Florian, she realized - but rather than flitting back to the dashing prince, her mind remained on her friend.

Soleil pursed her lips, thinking about the strange Duke.

All right I got two plans: make my escape out of here as quickly as possible or stall for time until Florian finds me.

The second plan was definitely a last ditch effort kind of thing, so she concentrated on the first plan, vague as it was.

Soleil had already deduced that there were very few items that could be used to her advantage. However, pressing herself closer to the bars to peer into the rest of the prison, she did know that there was strength in numbers.

…five…six…ten…twelve…!

There were so many women. Girls, even. Soleil felt a little heartbroken knowing some of these were literal girls, just children grabbed off the street. Did they have families? Or were they orphans nobody would miss? Goodness, that thought was just too sad, she could almost cry.

“Hey, you know, there’s a lot of us here…if we work together, we can get out,” she tried. Rallying people was not her strong suit, downright made her uncomfortable, but circumstances said to set aside her growing anxiety. “There were just a few of them, so if we put our heads together, we can escape.”

More whimpering. There was a random child’s cry that cut through the prison.

“H-hey, no need to cry. It’s pretty scary, but we’ll get out,” Soleil said, trying to comfort the other women. “Seriously, I’m actually pretty strong, you know? I may not look it, but I can crush people’s feet just by stepping on them.”

As if to further bring it home that it was going to be futile, there was no answer this time, not even a sniffle.

Soleil sighed. Now what? She gripped the bars and squeezed them, before attempting to bend them once more. They did not move, but certainly lost their shape a bit more.

That feel when your strength isn’t its usual destructive force, Soleil thought wryly to herself. She had always wanted to be a bit more on the dainty side in terms of how strong she was, but for once, she wanted to actually rely on that strength. However the one time she didn’t mind it, it was useless!

Well, if it was a person I could probably make them fold…

Soleil blinked.

Wait a second…

She slapped her forehead.

What she needed wasn’t help from others, she realized. What she needed was to be a bit more clever. While Soleil had no combat training to save her life, what she did have was strength in abundance and the element of surprise. As far as her captors knew, she was unconscious, so if she could get them to come back and check on her, she could probably overthrow them long enough to get away. However, she had no idea when they would next pass by to check on her. It was all due to chance.

Third option get: I can surprise the guards and make a run for it! Soleil was mentally fistpumping at her incredible logic. It was actually kind of amazing she hadn’t thought of it originally. Then again, when in such a panicked state, it was only normal for an ordinary girl to forget her composure and not think straight. Yes, she blamed her circumstances for why she only just came up with this escape plan just then.

If she can’t rely on others, she just had to figure it out for herself.

Now she merely had to think of a way to get them to come back. Soleil had made note of which way she heard Nicolette’s shoes had gone, so she had a general idea of where a possible exit could be. Probably. After that she would have to figure out the rest of the way. She prayed quietly to the gods that they would guide her once the cell door was wide open for her to make a run for it.

I could fake being sick, Soleil thought to herself. Nicolette probably wanted her in as optimal condition as possible, or at the very least not dead. Once a potential Saint was dead, there was nothing that could make that person’s divine weapon appear and the other noblewoman wouldn’t be able to steal anything from Soleil.

Not that I have anything, came the wry thought. Nicolette, being a child of a Marquess, should have some base knowledge of people within the nobility. Surface level knowledge that wouldn’t require effort. For example, while she may have no intel about Soleil, Soleil’s former lesser saint mother was a different story. Lady Asteria had not been the Saint of the Empire, but her own exploits alongside her husband were pretty well known in their country. One could only assume that Soleil, being her daughter, must be as blessed as her mother.

Joke’s on them, I’m perfectly useless!

Of course, that just meant instant death, if Nicolette had known, not kidnapping her for special use later…

Soleil felt pretty embarrassed about what she had to do, but knew it had to be done, if she intended to escape with her life. With only one chance, she made herself to fall dramatically and fake being severely ill.

She felt like she sold it pretty well. She couldn’t make herself foam at the mouth, but she allowed herself to dribble and made ungodly noises that sounded as if she had been possessed by a demonic spirit. She flailed and made herself shake as uncontrollably as possible. A memory of seeing forum posts about how people faking being sick in order to seek drugs said how they avoided hurting themselves, so she allowed herself to occasionally smack her own face (painful as it was).

Her performance paid off, because the other women in the other cells became quite alarmed and scared, crying out for their captors. Soleil noted distantly that it was more to get her to stop rather than to save her, but she forgave them as this whole scene was probably terrifying to them. Compared to modern Japan where people had a better understanding of medicine and diseases, the people of Aurea were still quite behind and even downright superstitious.

Loud footsteps filled the prison as the people came out from another place, coming to inspect Soleil’s cell. There were two and one of them banged against the cell bars, demanding her to stop.

“Hey, wench, you knock that off!” he growled at her.

Rather than stopping, it actually spurred Soleil on even more, though she was starting to get sore and tired. Open the door, she mentally begged.

“You think there’s something wrong with her?” one of the men sounded unsure.

“Well, the miss would be angry if we let this one die before she could use her.”

“I guess we should check…”

Soleil mentally cheered. Just a little bit more of this farce before she could act. She only had one chance!

There was the chinking of metal and a rattling of a lock, followed by the slow creak of rusted metal moving as they opened the door. The men entered the cell, getting within proper distance to inspect her. One got close, crouching next to her and reaching out to grab her shoulder.

“Oi, you wench. Snap out of it!” the man demanded.

Now! Soleil thought, cutting her acting and immediately headbutting the guard, knocking him away and out.

“What the – “ Soleil didn’t waste time and kicked at the other man where the sun didn’t shine. A rather ungainly action, but she doubted anyone could judge her for acting out of self defense. The man, in clear pain at having his weak spot kicked to high Heaven, passed out almost immediately.

Soleil wanted to yell out triumphantly ‘take that you jerks!’ as she wiped her mouth of residual dribble, but considering the loud commotion, it would not be long before others followed.

“Please let us out!” the other prisoners cried. Pleading, begging, making Soleil want to help, but she wouldn’t have time to open all of them before she would most likely get found out and overpowered. However, there was a compromise.

She quickly located the keys that had opened up her cell, picking them up and locking up behind her, trapping the guards within. And then she went to one of the other prison cells, speaking to the women inside seriously.

“I can’t stay for long, but I promise to get help. Meanwhile, use these keys to get everyone out. I’ll make a big distraction so we can all have a chance of getting free,” she explained quickly to the women trapped. The door unlocked and she swiftly handed them over to the bewildered woman standing closest to the door. “Remember: there’s strength in numbers. It’s easy for them to control one of you, but not all of you.”

With that done, Soleil went off with the sounds of locks being undone behind her.

She talked a big game, but honestly, she didn’t think she’d get this far.

“I sounded cool, but what do I do now?”

Escaping through the door the men had come through, she found herself in a storage basement of some kind. There were many boxes and sacks located within and the place itself was quite large. Big enough to do and hide dastardly deeds, Soleil mused. With the place so cluttered, you would not think anything else would be down there. No wonder there hadn't been any windows in the prison.

Navigating through the mess was not an easy task, but there was most likely a rhyme and reason for how things had been stacked, otherwise getting in and out of the secret prison would prove too difficult, especially if they kept bringing in unconscious women. However, it came to be advantageous for Soleil, as it meant the noise the women made could not have been heard further up and out. Most likely those two had been assigned to guard the door, so they were the only two to be able to hear what had happened.

Still, it did not mean Soleil could dawdle. It would only be a matter of time until she was discovered; she had no delusion that she would be stealthy enough to get out unseen. She could only hope the others leaving right after her would have the sense not to make too much of a ruckus as they made their way out of the prison cells, too.

She eventually came to a set of stairs leading up to a trap door, to which she approached and gingerly tried to see if it was opened. Finding out that it was not locked, she slowly and quietly raised it up enough to peek around. No sign of other guards. They probably assumed the two at the entrance below would be enough.

Carefully, Soleil opened up and climbed through the trap door, coming into a well lit hallway of what felt like a merchant’s home, or possibly even a lesser noble’s. There were decorations that told her that whoever owned the place was definitely not some average commoner.

I should look for something I can use as a weapon. I don’t want to have to get close to someone during an attack, if I can help it. She cast her eyes around to look for something that had a bit of reach – anything at all – when she spotted the windows. Her eyes lit up at the prospect of climbing out. It was undignified, but beggars could not be choosers.

First thing she did was take a good look outside, hoping to recognize where she was. The world outside this building was rather dark, confirming that Soleil had been hidden away for quite a bit. Of course, this also meant she couldn’t quite make out the details of the outside world, other than confirming she was on the first floor. Good news, as it did not mean she would be tumbling down a few stories and hurting herself when she climbed out.

The second thing she did was to try and open the window. However, it was locked tight, though she could feel it buckle a bit under her unnatural strength. If she pushed further, she could surely break it open, no problem. However, there was the noise to consider…

Well, I did say I would make a ruckus, didn’t I? It will give the others a chance to get out.

If Hanako were here, her friend would say what she had done before was reckless kindness. Allowing them to unlock their doors would have been enough, thoughtlessly offering to be a distraction was an unnecessary extra she tacked on at the end.

Han-chan would be so mad at me right now…

Soleil decided that she would attempt to get out at a different place, away from where the other women would eventually be coming out from. Keeping an eye out for a weapon, the young noble woman traversed through the building, looking for another way out.

There was the thought of maybe gathering evidence, but in all honesty, Soleil was more interested in getting out safely. While she did not have confidence that an investigation would go smoothly in the case of Nicolete’s treachery, at the very least the city guard should be able to stop this particular den of criminal activity. A flash of Florian’s face entered her mind then and she gave pause, wondering how Florian must be feeling. Their friendship was young, but she seemed to be the honest and earnest type.

Plus, considering how she dealt with Nicolette back at the first ball, she could only assume how the Duke would react in this case. If she considered the usual Duke of the North tropes she learned from her past life, she would probably be so furious that she would ask for intensely life ruining recompense.

Or worse, Soleil thought, remembering some of the more extreme examples in webtoons she’d seen online. But Florian wasn’t in love with her, so that sort of thing, if she had that kind of predisposition, was highly unlikely. The Duke of the North usually reserved that kind of thing for the person they were madly in love with.

Soleil slapped her cheeks.

Focus, Soleil, no time to be thinking about that kind of thing!

The halls were surprisingly empty, which made Soleil feel suspicious and she made her way around cautiously. An optimistic part of her hoped she and the other women could just get out without issue, but in such a situation, silence like this was more dangerous. It usually meant something terrible was on the horizon.

Having gone far enough from her original exit point, the young noblewoman noticed a door slightly ajar. Curiosity caught her and she inched closer, beginning to hear noise the closer she got. With each step the indistinct noise became the very clear sounds of someone begging for their life. A slapping sound rang through the air followed by agonized sobbing, alarming Soleil. Carefully, she peeked through the crack in the door.

Within the room, several candles were strewn all over the place. Thuggish looking men stood within the room, two of them holding onto a woman who was tied up and crying. Before her was the familiar form of Nicolette who was now daintily wiping her hands of a handkerchief.

“Disgusting riffraff,” the Marquis’ daughter spat. The noblewoman turned about and fetched a dagger from nearby.

Seeing the weapon, the woman was newly terrified, her eyes so wide in fear they were liable to pop out. The angle from which Soleil could view everything was enough to properly see who was in there and the dimmer lighting did not help. The only one perfectly in view for her was Nicolette who had a terrible expression on her face.

“I wanted to take that wretch who embarrassed me in front of the royal family and that female Duke,” she said, her words making a shiver go down Soleil’s spine, “but I want that girl to be awake when I take her. And that Duke, well…everyone knows that family has never produced a single saint. So…I’ll just have to take my frustrations out on someone like you.”

The woman whimpered and a cruel smile spread on Nicolette’s lips as she leaned in, lifting the other woman’s chin with her dagger. Her eyes were wide and wild and Soleil had never seen someone so comfortable with the idea of hurting another human being for her own gain. Not even Nao had ever looked that crazy.

She slapped the woman once more, harder this time. The men holding her down let go as Nicolette went to town, kicking the poor captured woman, cackling as she let out all of her pent up frustrations on this innocent bystander who was unlucky enough to have the powers of a saint and being caught by kidnappers and traffickers.

One blow was so hard, the woman flew back a bit, closer to the door.

When she landed, Soleil was able to get a better look at her and was surprised to see who it was.

Though she was beaten, black and blue, and the fact that they had only less than a handful of times, there was no mistaking who it was.

Laying there in a quivering mess was Alperene, the female lead of the Saint’s Thorny Road.

Soleil had to hold back from gasping. Just what was she doing here? But then she remembered what happened in her favourite novel.

That’s right! One of the plot points had been a massive slave ring where young women got kidnapped from the Empire and sold off. But because of the timing, a worse fate awaited the girls. One of the girls kidnapped had been the heroine herself, though she worked to free herself and the rest of the kidnapped woman with ease within the book. That event was happening in real time at the moment.

So wait, why isn’t Alperene fighting back? She’d be making her grand stand by now, wouldn’t she? That was how the plot went. If I wait, will she finally show her hand and get out of this bad moment?

However, Soleil felt extremely concerned, because Alperene looked so frail and frightened – just where was the gentle, but brave heroine from her story? Their eyes locked through the crack in the door, surprising them both, before Alperene was pulled back and placed back on her knees in front of Nicolette who seemed satisfied enough to progress to the next point of action – sacrificing Alperene to attain the power she had.

Knowing Alperene would be the one with the greatest divine power in the entire Empire and how terrible Nicolette herself was, it was imperative such a nasty woman never take it. The lives of the entire Empire depended on Alperene meeting her destiny. Clearly, things were progressing in the wrong way, otherwise, Alperene would have resolved this issue already.

Soleil internally cried at what she needed to do.

For the other women and for my favourite book not getting derailed…I have no choice.

Taking a breath, she backed off a bit from the door and then kicked it in as hard as she could. Wood splintered and hinges twisted and gnarled from the force of her kick, flying inward and hitting one of the nearby goons. An unexpected boon, but there were others inside.

Several others, in fact.

Alperene looked at her in shock and so did Nicolette, though her expression soon twisted into deep anger.

“You!” she shouted.

Unable to say anything else, Soleil just simply replied with a slightly dumb sounding, “Me?”

Once again, she had not thought things through.

But luckily people were too slackjawed to stop her as she rushed in, threw Alperene onto her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and ran out of there like a bat out of Hell. It didn’t matter where she went so long as it was away from that terrible scene where others must have surely met their demise.

Han-chan would be so mad at me if she were here! She screamed internally, while her body did the work of just running for its life. Behind her, Nicolette’s voice was screeching, while her underlings began the chase, calling out for back up among their ranks. It was about to get very crowded in this building soon.

Crap, crap, crap, crap –

While Soleil hadn’t been one for elaborate dresses, due to her family's modest titles and finances as well as her own tastes, the fashion of the Empire had women wear dresses almost exclusively. Big ones with wide skirts with loads of fabric which were cumbersome, especially in these circumstances. Perhaps she should have taken a moment to gird her loins, or something, decorum be damned. Let people see her legs and be scandalized, she should have done that before even attempting anything remotely heroic, though her actions now felt more stupid than anything. She was just running headlong into the next trouble, one after another.

“L-Lady Soleil?” Alperene finally decided to speak up.

“Hahaha, sorry for the rough ride. But I had to get you out of there as quickly as possible.”

“I-I-I s-s-s-see…Thank y-y-ou.” Alperene could barely talk as she was basically being manhandled during their impromptu escape.

Though they had a head start, there was still the ever prevalent problem of not knowing the layout of where they had ended up and Soleil eventually ran them both into a dead end corridor. And Nicolette’s underlings had finally caught up, cornering them. The other noblewoman eventually made it to them, eyes filled with hatred for Soleil and a thirst for her blood.

Protectively, Soleil kept Alperene behind her, even though it would ultimately be useless.

Nicolette chuckled at them, smiling insincerely.

“I finally have you, you wretch.”