Chapter 23 : The Price of an Oversight

​Merely half a meter away, an armed assassin stood, scanning the area with extreme caution in search of the boy, Vain... or so it seemed to him until this very moment. On the opposite side of the spacious hall, another assassin prowled in utter silence, her sights set on the exact same target.

​Just seconds before this critical standoff, doubt had begun to gnaw at Vain's mind regarding those who had sat at the negotiation table. A mere few minutes after their departure, the assassins had infiltrated the place, absolutely certain that the "Protector’s Guest" had not yet left the hall. This suspicious timing drove Vain to one inescapable conclusion: the mastermind, or at least a co-conspirator, had been right here among them just minutes ago.

​And now, facing this lethal predicament head-on alongside Princess Lyva, he found himself torn in a vortex of contradictions. Despite his initial relief at finally finding an ally who might help him survive this catastrophe, this ally was none other than the First Princess of a country about which he knew absolutely nothing. Lyva had justified her assistance as a means to preserve the "country's honor," deeming that any harm befalling the Dragon’s guest would bring an indelible shame upon the kingdom.

​However, Vain, with his cynical background and pessimistic worldview, was never one to swallow the bait of such noble values or comprehend the idealism of royal principles like "honor" and "duty." Since she had used this romanticized justification as her primary reason to lend a hand and risk her life, Vain did not hesitate to add the princess to his list of suspects, even if he temporarily placed her at the very bottom of it.

​Despite his total ignorance of the rules and customs that govern kingdoms and steer their political labyrinths, Vain’s innate intuition led him to notice one glaring truth: no one here genuinely cared about the status of the "Protector’s Guest" or the weight that such a title carried.

​Based on what the ancient spirit "Zeel" had recounted to him, the scene of his reception was astonishing, especially since he received a personal welcome from both the First Princess and the Head of the Mage Court—even knowing the grandeur was meant for the Supreme Dragon Aetherius, not him. Yet, the moment the mythical beast turned its back and returned to its lands, and the boy woke up to find himself a prisoner within these royal walls, that alleged aura evaporated completely. It was as if the court members had dropped him from their calculations the second the dragon disappeared.

​Even if he tried to excuse them for being deeply engrossed in fateful diplomatic negotiations with the neighboring kingdom, it did not negate the cold marginalization and blatant disregard for his existence... or at least, that was the impression firmly rooted in his mind up to this moment.

​The magical barrier cloaking the boy and the princess slowly faded, and with it dissipated the strange, tingling sensation that had clung to them. In that decisive moment, the assassin stood right in front of them, vigilant, her senses pulled taut as a bowstring, anticipating any movement or whisper of a breath to pounce on her prey.

​Princess Lyva had adopted a purely offensive stance, taking a step back to shield Vain behind her. Beads of cold sweat crowned her forehead from the sheer tension, her eyes blinking rapidly as she ran mental calculations to choose the absolute perfect fraction of a second to strike. Her true panic stemmed not from any weakness in her own abilities, but from her complete ignorance of these assassins' combat prowess.

​The only thing she was certain of thus far was that their magical energy did not match hers. She deduced that their bold, direct infiltration of the royal floor stemmed from a blind confidence in their assassination skills. Lyva was acutely aware of an undeniable fact: the "Protector’s Guest" possessed absolutely zero combat abilities. In any direct fight, he would meet his end in the blink of an eye unless a miracle intervened. In this deadly maelstrom, she realized she was the sole trump card and his only source of protection.

​Thanks to their time spent under the concealment spell, the princess deemed it highly likely that the assassins still believed the Protector’s Guest was cowering alone in this hall. Possessing the element of surprise, Lyva was entirely confident in her ability to take down the assassin standing before her. Her greatest obsession, however, was the second assassin prowling the opposite end of the room.

​Thus, Lyva solidified her plan in a fraction of a second: the moment the clash ignited, she had to end this assassin's life within the first few seconds, freeing herself immediately to intercept the second assassin’s charge before the latter could even comprehend what was happening.

​The magical veil dissipated completely, leaving the two exposed to the naked eye.

​Instantly, the princess launched herself like an arrow toward the assassin, while Vain stood frozen in place behind her, shell-shocked by this sudden decision to initiate the attack.

​One fleeting step was all the princess needed to close the distance. She dropped into a semi-crouched stance, shrinking the enemy's field of vision and paralyzing their ability to mount a quick reaction, allowing her to deliver a fatal blow that exploited the element of surprise to its absolute limit. Within that single stride, she finished weaving a rapid offensive spell. Her hand flared with a blinding light in that split second. The attack was a "Freezing Touch"—a lethal incantation where mere physical contact was enough to entirely encase the targeted limb in ice and halt all movement.

​Since she was striking out of nowhere, she aimed directly for the head. Her glowing hand shot toward the assassin’s face. Up until the very last milliseconds, the assassin's response was dreadfully slow; despite her readiness and vigilance for any movement, an enemy erupting from below at such point-blank range was virtually impossible to anticipate.

​With agonizing slowness, in those final fractions of a second, the assassin instinctively tried to tilt her head back to escape the light radiating from the princess's hand. But Lyva’s flawless execution of the ambush bore fruit. The princess slammed her palm ruthlessly onto the assassin's black-veiled face, freezing her head solid in the blink of an eye. And just like that, the assassin collapsed to the floor—a rigid corpse that never even registered what had struck her.

​In just one second, the one-on-one skirmish ended before it had even truly begun.

​A wave of temporary relief washed over the princess's heart. Although she was fully aware that another assassin was still roaming the room, dropping the first one with such blistering speed granted her overwhelming confidence in resolving this lethal situation without suffering any casualties.

​Without wasting a single microsecond, Lyva snapped her head toward the other side of the hall where the second assassin had been lurking, fully bracing herself for close-quarters combat. The corpse hitting the floor had emitted a muffled thud, and the princess was absolutely certain it was impossible for the other assassin to have missed that sound.

​The princess quickly straightened into her combat stance, marshaling her senses in anticipation of a fierce counterattack. But the sight that unfolded before her made her heart stop for a moment of pure, unadulterated terror... The assassin had vanished entirely from the spot she had been scouting moments ago!

​The princess frantically swept her eyes across every corner of the vast hall, yet she caught no glimpse of a shadow or movement. Cold sweat began pouring down her forehead once more, her tension skyrocketing to suffocating levels as she ran through the logic: The heavy main door remained untouched, meaning with absolute certainty that she hadn't fled outside. Vanishing into thin air in such a ghostly manner within a single second was an impossibility, especially since Lyva was thoroughly convinced these assassins lacked any magical concealment skills.

​In that horrifying moment, the princess realized the cruel truth that shattered her previous confidence: the tables had turned in a flash. They no longer held the initiative or the element of surprise. They had become the prey, being hunted from within the shadows!

​Immersed in her absolute focus on the fight, and for just a fraction of a second... the princess had forgotten the fundamental reason she engaged in this clash in the first place: protecting Vain from his suffocating ordeal.

​Because he was positioned behind her while she took down the first assassin, Lyva had scanned every corner of the spacious hall, save for one blind spot. The most important corner, the very one she was risking her life to keep safe. She had forgotten to look behind her!

​Lyva realized her catastrophic oversight too late. She whipped around at lightning speed to check on the boy who was supposed to be at her back. And there... tragedy struck.

​The princess collapsed to her knees involuntarily, a resounding scream tearing through her lips, shattering the stillness of the night:

​"Damn it!!!!"

​The echo of her anguished scream reverberated throughout the royal floor, her face contorting with fatal frustration and sapped strength. Despite her certainty that her plan had been airtight and had borne fruit initially, she learned the hard way that the skill gap between the two assassins might be staggeringly vast. What had transpired in that single second defied all her expectations. Vain had vanished completely, as if the earth had split open and swallowed him whole.

​(BANG!!)

​The heavy wooden door was thrown open with violent force. From the sound of the heavy, rhythmic footsteps, the princess knew without turning around that it was the guards... five of them, to be exact. They had rushed in immediately upon hearing the princess's sudden scream to investigate the source of the danger.

​The guards froze for a second, struggling to process the scene, until one of them muttered subconsciously:

​"What is happening he—"

​But before he could finish his sentence, Lyva rose, her eyes ablaze with fury, and cut through their confusion with an absolute, indisputable command:

​"Immediately!! Gather as many guards as possible and initiate a comprehensive, lockdown search for the Protector's Guest!"

​Seeing Vain and the assassin disappear simultaneously, logic screamed one undeniable truth: the Protector's Guest had been abducted.

​What fueled the flames of the princess's rage, pushing her to the brink of madness, was the realization that his chances of survival were practically zero. These assassins had breached the premises with the explicit intent of immediate, outright murder. Therefore, Lyva concluded that his kidnapping was not part of the assassins' original plan. It was merely a quick, malicious, improvised maneuver by the second assassin to avoid clashing with her in close-quarters combat, opting instead to withdraw with the target to finish the job in an isolated location.

​In the blink of an eye, the battle morphed from a surprise attack heavily favoring the princess into a desperate race against time. Lyva knew with absolute certainty that they had to find him within the next few minutes. Otherwise, it would be too late forever, and the "Protector’s Guest" would lose his life.

​The guards shot off like loosed arrows, scattering across the royal floor to execute the strict orders. Meanwhile, the princess paused for a fleeting moment, casting one last glance at the corpse of the assassin lying on the floor with her frozen head. Her initial impulse was to kneel and rip off that black mask to reveal her identity and unravel the threads of this mystery, but the clock was ticking against her. Time was a luxury she no longer possessed.

​She made her decision, leaving the corpse behind in the cold hall, and sprinted outward with hastening steps. As she ran, her feverish mind rapidly reviewed the complex map of the palace, pinpointing isolated areas and hidden corridors where the assassin might seek refuge to isolate the "Protector’s Guest" and complete her mission.

​"Hold on... I will find you!!"