Chapter 45 – The Only One (5)
“Did it take so long to avoid suspicion? Considering how hard it would be to escape easily.”
“W-What happened?”
Outside Erns’ villa, Ethan and Rina waited while pretending to take care of other business as they hoped for Irilia’s escape.
Though they had already obtained what they wanted, they had not sent any informants towards the villa to avoid unnecessary suspicion, leaving them with no choice but to trust Irilia and wait.
“Could they be…?”
Meanwhile, luxurious carriages began to appear one by one in the city where they were staying. These were the carriages of the local power holders, all heading to Erns’ villa.
Capitalists, officials, aristocrats, and even nobles’ family members.
Ethan bit his lip as he watched the crowd gathering. To orchestrate an escape without drawing attention, they had to act before becoming the center of it.
While it would become easier to slip away in the chaos caused by the arriving guests, a disturbance among such prominent figures could turn them all against them.
Knowing that Irilia herself disliked excessive attention, he couldn’t help but feel anxious.
“I managed to get out safely. I’m at the designated location, so hurry and come.”
“Huh?!”
But at that moment, the faint voice of Irilia reached Ethan’s ears, accompanied by a whispering wind. She was saying she had already escaped the villa and was asking him to join her at the meeting place.
“Did she really manage to sneak out?”
“Given Erns’ personality, it would be impossible for her to sneak out undetected… We need to go anyway.”
Surprised, but with no time to hesitate, Ethan and the others hurriedly gathered their belongings and rushed to meet Irilia. The meeting place was a secluded clearing in the outskirts of the city.
‘Could it be?’
However, when they arrived at the meeting place, Irilia was not alone. Standing next to her was someone Ethan recognized well.
“E-Ethan, Team Leader?”
“Lila, what are you doing here?”
She recognized Ethan as he approached. Lila stared wide-eyed, moving her gaze between Irilia, who had brought her here, and Ethan, obviously surprised that he would show up.
“You said I could be your master, but you never said merely escaping was enough.”
Seeing Lila’s stunned expression, Irilia, now without her hood, smiled faintly. In the end, Lila, who had been captivated by her, didn’t realize this was all a setup and had been thoroughly deceived.
“You… I think I’ve been kidnapped.”
With her whisper, Lila stumbled backward, her ankle caught firmly by the elevated ground.
Realizing the mistake she had made, panic overtook her, and the situation quickly registered in Ethan’s mind, who let out a sigh.
“Just cooperate. You won’t get hurt.”
“No! Ugh…”
Having taken on a dirty job, Ethan forcibly administered a sedative to Lila.
So startled that she couldn’t even draw her sword, Lila lost consciousness, and suddenly finding himself a kidnapper, Ethan turned a resentful glance at Irilia.
“I-I can handle this…”
Feeling a twinge of guilt, Irilia averted her eyes from him. Of course, she hadn’t acted thoughtlessly.
“First, we need to get away from here. If the rampaging Erns discovers us, it’s all over.”
With no options left, Ethan hoisted the unconscious Lila into the carriage and began moving.
*
“If Erns finds out about this, it’s all over. He’ll go mad when he learns his precious daughter has been kidnapped and will do anything to destroy us!”
Inside the hastily departing carriage, Ethan, looking serious, glanced at the unconscious Lila beside him and protested strongly to Irilia.
Why did they need to bring her when all they needed was to get out?
“You don’t need to worry about that. This is a runaway incident led by Lila. Erns likely thinks the same right now.”
“Are you saying it’s not a kidnapping but a runaway?”
“Exactly. At this age, kids tend to rebel at least once, right? It seems she had a lot built up inside her, and I was merely the catalyst, a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.”
I chuckled softly, playing with Lila’s soft hair. As planned, she had returned to seek me out just before the guests arrived, ready to run away.
While Erns and others were wholly occupied with receiving guests, she had used the advantage of being an insider to steal the key from her father’s room, freeing me from my chains and disabling all security systems.
After that, she successfully fled the villa and ran here on her own.
“She thought once she escaped from her father, she could monopolize me. Of course, Lila is not naive either; she didn’t plan on running away forever. She must have intended to hide in a hotel in the city for a few days and negotiate with her father, who wanted to possess me.”
“I heard that. It seems like the head of the organization tried to raise his daughter away from their business. Now it appears he wants her to distance herself from it more as she grows older. But his bold yet calculating traits are clearly inherited from him.”
“She’s still immature but has potential. I feel like I owe her something since I’ve taken advantage of her like this.”
While I had joked about her having been kidnapped, the truth was, if I were a true villain, I wouldn’t have let Lila live.
In the first place, to absorb Erns’ organization by using Lila, I needed to ensure she would be completely on my side.
Just like Ethan and Rina, who were beside me now.
“Is it possible? Just listening to the story, it seems like the sense of betrayal would be enormous…”
“I’ll have to explain the circumstances and persuade her. Since this has already happened, neither she nor we have a choice now.”
I nodded at Rina’s words. I held the belief that I could indeed turn Lila into an ally, which was why I had orchestrated this.
If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t have had any options.
“By now, the villa has probably turned upside down. They can’t even expel the gathered guests, so I expect they’ll let loose their subordinates to search for us.”
Ethan muttered as he gazed out at the darkening scene outside the carriage.
Upon realizing Lila had disappeared with me, Erns, who wanted to create a significant event using me, would surely be taken aback.
Given that he believed I was just a powerless young elf girl, let alone a thousand-year-old high elf, the shock would only be greater.
“Ugh…”
“The effects of the sleeping agent are starting to wear off. I could maintain her sleep longer if I used more, but that would strain her body.”
“Enough. I’ll take it from here.”
It was late in the night when Lila attempted to awaken. The carriage had come to a stop in the middle of a secluded path, and Ethan, seeing Lila frown as she regained consciousness, sighed as he stepped out of the carriage.
Now, only Lila, Rina, and I remained inside the carriage.
“Can she accept this situation?”
“We’ve only exchanged words for two days, but we’ve talked quite a bit. She isn’t a foolish girl, so if she sees this as an opportunity to shed the burden that has been weighing on her, it could only be positive.”
Rina’s question was rather sharp, but I had my reasoning.
The strong affection from her father, the boss of the organization. Though she lived a cushy life from the moment she was born, Lila had little interest in the dirty work involved with her father’s organization, which she’d endure for money.
Instead, she felt burdened by it. However, she knew that without that backing, she would become an ordinary commoner, creating a complicated state of mind.
The weapon I had was the belief that by collaborating with me, she could grow and solve that dilemma. I genuinely recognized talents in her that even she was unaware of.
‘I’m a bait myself.’
Moreover, her impulsive decision to run away could be attributed to her desire to monopolize me.
By gently coaxing her using myself as bait, it was bound to be effective.
Contrary to what I told Lila, I had no intention of serving anyone as a master, but I was already playing a sort of ‘game,’ so there was no reason to feel repulsed by it.
“Are you awake?”
When Lila finally managed to open her eyes with great difficulty, I smiled as brightly as I could while watching her rest her head on my thigh.
