“-CRACKKK!!!”

“THUD!!”

-Clap clap.

Amelia clapped with an amused face as the sounds of a cracking skull and a falling body reached her mind. She took out the chocolate bar sitting between her teeth and slowly got up.

“Good job! You bought more than enough time, Raeran!” Amelia clapped again, her eyes sparkling like those of a child that had just won a present before a sly smile covered her face. “In your next life, maybe don’t bark when your owner is angry.”

She then took another bite of the chocolate and walked around her room.

‘Now, to check on the rest.’

Amelia closed her eyes and focused her attention on her ears.

-BEEEEEEP

A long, blare resounded in her head. Loud and soft, high and low, hundreds of thousands of sounds were constantly fed into her mind as she sifted through the ocean of voices. Angnarmarak, the palace, the lower floors. After going through hundreds of her enchanted ‘listeners,’ she finally reached the hidden room in the dungeons of the palace.

༛༛ ༛ ༛༺༻༛ ༛ ༛༛

“Hey, did you hear that? That was totally Mike’s scream, right?” A shaky voice asked in a whisper. Inquiring about Mike, the slim guard in charge of the Otherworlder and Cockarista’s cell.

“Fuck, fuck, it was. Oh my god, when do we go there?” Another voice answered, this one much more nervous than the last.

“Unn! Unn!!–”

“–This bitch! Shut up!” the second voice screamed at the muffled sounds that had appeared. “This is all because of you! Shut up!”

-Tap, tap, tap.

The faint sound of hurried footsteps interrupted the two.

“... Do you think they are gone?”

“... Maybe...? We’ll wait for a few minutes and then move.”

༛༛ ༛ ༛༺༻༛ ༛ ༛༛

With a satisfied grin, the princess opened her eyes and sat back down.

‘That stupid Otherworlder. Why did he try to mess with me? Now he’s just a deer waiting to be hunted down. Tsk, tsk.’

Amelia smiled again and leaned back in her chair. A long night was ahead of her.

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ ⟨ ⏣ ⟩ ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

Cockarista and the Otherworlder sailed through the underground prison of the palace with nimble footsteps. Judging from the lack of guards, they figured it was nighttime and walked moved with caution.

‘You are familiar with the structures of this prison as well?’ Cockarista remarked. It was quite notable that the Otherworlder knew his way around the prison well enough to guide him while avoiding all the guards.

‘I’m good at memorizing things,’ the Otherworlder said with a shrug.

They reached a turn and stopped against the wall. The Otherworlder slowly leaned out and looked through the passage.

With a small torch in hand, a patrolling guard was walking right toward them.

‘Goddamnit! Another guard.’ Clicking his tongue, the Otherworlder took a few steps in the direction they had come from. ‘This is not good. That princess will be focused on moving that girl right now.’

‘It’s a race against time.’ Cockarista added.

The two jogged back their steps and went towards the last turn they had taken to take a different path around and also to avoid the guard that was moving towards them.

The Otherworlder continued in the lead while Cockarista followed in tow. He bravely moved ahead and reached the turn. Without hesitation, the Otherworlder stepped around the turn–

‘FUCK!’

–and jumped right back. Another guard was coming towards them from this turn as well!

The Otherworlder hurriedly came back, and this time bumped into the giant cockroach.

‘Uwa!’

He even kept his screams in his mind as he slipped and fell on his side from the surprise. The Otherworlder fell shoulder first against the wall, and it split open.

‘What... the fuck?’

‘Lad! This is a secret passage!!’

‘It is!?’

A mistaken turn and a silly blunder that would have cost him their cover had helped the Otherworlder discover a secret passage in the underground dungeons of the palace!

-Step, step.

The sounds of footsteps from around the turns got louder and louder. They were about to pincered completely. Cockarista lifted the Otherworlder and pushed him into the secret passage before jumping in himself. He then pulled on the moving stone in the dungeon walls to hide the entrance to the secret passage again.

The Otherworlder put his ears against the wall to listen to the guards. Only when both the pairs of footsteps moved away did they step back from the entrance and relax on their backs.

‘Haah, got saved there.’

‘Indeed. A commotion is the last thing we need, especially after killing two of their guys.’

Staying undiscovered was the most crucial step for the two who were planning to help the falsely framed knight. The tail and pursuers were an issue, but they could likely overcome it. Remaining undiscovered had a much more important aspect to it, which was the limitations of the princess’ movements.

If no one knew of the Otherworlder’s escape, she would not have many ways to secure the girl for herself. And if she tried to reveal it on her own, which would be equivalent to asking for help from the rest of the soldiers, the shame that came to her name wouldn’t be easily deterrable.

‘A secret passage... do you think she is using this place to move her?’ the Otherworlder asked.

‘It is likely. I wouldn’t trust that wench with conventional methods, anyway.’ Cockarista answered. ‘She must have ears in this place. We have to walk quietly.’

The Otherworlder nodded and stood up. He swept his gaze over the inside of the passageway. It was thin and short. Due to a gigantic magic circle interfering with mana all over the dungeon, using magic to keep the place lit was impossible, so the dim light of luminous rocks showed the path ahead.

Placing his heels first and toes next, the Otherworlder walked ahead while making as little sound as possible. Cockarista followed, walking without a sound being no enormous task for the superior life form.

After a long walk with few twists and turns, the two finally came to a dead-end in the passage similar to the one they had entered from. The exit was in front of them.

Cockarista placed his middle legs on the wall and looked out for any sound.

‘Hm, nothing,’ he said. ‘We should go outside.’

‘Right,’ the Otherworlder answered, standing behind the cockroach.

Carefully, the cockroach pushed the wall...

... and opened the exit of the secret passage to a familiar sight.

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ ⟨ ⏣ ⟩ ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

The light of the torches flickered as the flames swayed from left to right, creating ripples in the silhouette of the bearish man standing against an empty prison cell.

The sharp gazed man had veins popping out his forehead as his eyes remained affixed to his hand. Holding onto a few threads of mahogany and a strand of wheat hair.