Dark Lord in Chains 76

Leaving Sapphire behind in her bedroom, resting after our strenuous political discussion that allowed us to create a strategy — at least, the beginnings of one — against the upcoming danger, but that didn’t prevent me from feeling empty as I stepped into the secret passage once more. 

A part of it was certainly the exhaustion. I might have not collapsed as Sapphire had, but that didn’t mean our lingering discussion had no effect on my body. And our ‘peace’ talk was hardly the only thing I had dealt with today. 

Yet, the bigger part was about the weight of my decision about the next steps. The ploy of faking Sapphire’s assassination was nice, especially since it came with her full agreement, smart enough to realize that being the target of a powerful enemy was bad, and two competing enemies were much worse. Bringing the Valkyrie back to the capital was an even better development, as she was one of the few opponents that managed to earn the full extent of my respect. She was strong, smart, and beautiful, of course, but those weren’t the reasons I respected her. 

It was her personality. 

She was pragmatic enough to have a very long-term agreement with me, open-minded enough to add some very fun activities to make our occasional trades very relaxing, and most importantly, despite her pragmatic attitude might imply, principled enough to never compromise the benefits of the Empire. 

Or more accurately, the benefits of citizens of the Empire. In our deals, she had arranged the death of more than one noble, which, from the perspective of the nobility, was the biggest treason imaginable. Even Sapphire didn’t have a much different perspective, as among all their fault, no one counted being too concerned for the ‘peasants’ one of them. 

Even the dark families would have targeted her with a vengeance if they knew her approach. After all, despite the constant battles with the Empire, ultimately, in their perspective, it was just a competition. A noble protecting the peasants at expense of one of their noble peers was unimaginable… 

It was the reason that they were so quick to annotate me from coming from the lost families rather than digging down into my heritage. Revealing me as a commoner would have hurt my power, but it would give thousands and thousands of commoners ideas above their station. 

After all, if I could do it, so could someone else. 

So, while her attitude might earn the enmity of her peers and her enemies alike, it only made me fonder of her. Never to the point that forgetting it was an alliance of convenience, of course. Just because I loved her attitude and her muscular yet curvy body didn’t mean I lost my mind when I was with her.  

I couldn’t help but wonder how she would react when she learned the news of my demise was not entirely accurate. 

I shook my head, distracting myself from pointless thoughts and focusing on the real challenge. The next step of discussion. I took a deep breath as I started thinking, trying to pick a strategic direction. 

Then, a name popped into my mind, along with the sight of an aggressive beauty currently locked in a basement in an ironic reversal of our little situations. 

It was time to meet with my belligerent ranger once again, finally from a position of strength. 

Once again using the secret passages, it barely took minutes for me to tensely stare at the building that held Isolde’s prison, covered with several rotating wards using a completely different magical tradition. Though the wards were hardly the source of my nervousness. 

It was the phoenix who was responsible for the presence of the wards, with enough power to scare me even with the famous magical items that were in my possession. 

I carefully examined the wards, expecting them to be changed enough to make the access token I had used useless, already planning the best way to get the attention of the phoenix and find an excuse for her to allow me to visit Isolde alone. I didn’t want my first visit to be with her, because Isolde knew I wasn’t the king, and lacked the skill to lie about it — and the political awareness to understand why such a lie was necessary to help her in the first place. 

I needed to find a way to either convince the Phoenix to let me go down without a complaint, or prevent Isolde from speaking — probably through magical means — but neither strategy was particularly reliable. Yet, after I closed into the wards, using the Blade of Shadows to stay concealed, I realized there was no need to find an excuse.  

The ward was completely unchanged, and reacted to the fake token by creating a gate for me. 

“Incredible,” I murmured, unable to comprehend the negligence she displayed by not changing the wards after knowing I had managed to sneak in during my last visit. I already knew that she was reckless and arrogant, that level of recklessness was an anathema to me, significantly changing her value as an ally, or even as a potential tool.

Even Emma was more useful. At least, her treason was easier to manage.  

Luckily, I wasn’t there for her today, and I sneaked inside using another fake key, crafted at the moment by me, once again getting shocked by the poor defense the wards provided despite the immense power they were throbbing with. 

Once again, I was greeted by the marble statues of hooded warriors, the magic radiating off them enough to intimidate me despite its not being the first time I had seen them. I followed through the corridor, using the same trick to stay concealed, and took the stairs to the basement. 

Everything went without a hitch, and soon, I was in front of the cell, holding the objective of my visit. Isolde. 

I couldn’t help but smirk at the sight in front of me, and not just because of the delicious irony. The cell Isolde was locked in was much nicer than my little empty prison, with a small yet comfortable-looking bed, a chair, and a small table. Even though the table was empty, the broken plates on the corner showed that it hadn’t been empty initially. 

I had a feeling that Lancelot was trying to earn her forgiveness — in the form of, sorry I betrayed and imprisoned you, but a comfortable bed should be enough compensation — but if her frantic walk was any indicator, it wasn’t working as well as Lancelot might have hoped. Her hair was frazzled and her eyes red, suggesting she didn’t sleep at all after she had been captured. Her anger was gone — anger was a hard emotion to sustain without a direct target — leaving its place to pure confusion, no doubt the result of a long yet fruitless night as she tried to unravel the sudden betrayal. 

Poor girl, I thought as I smirked, helplessly dealing with a problem that was outside her comfort zone, and with no warning to soften the blow. 

It was time to talk to her. I let the spell that surrounded me fall, but not before casting a silencing spell to keep the rest of the place unaware, which turned out to be a smart idea. “You!” she shouted loudly as she reached to her back to pull her bow, only for her fingers to meet air. 

Lancelot might be an idiot, but he wasn’t to the level of imprisoning Isolde with her weapons, especially the ranged kind. After all, what she lacked in political ability, she more than compensated with her spectacular ranged abilities.

“Me,” I said with a taunting smirk. It was a bad idea to taunt her, even slightly, under the circumstances, but sometimes it was hard to resist the temptation, especially when facing someone like Isolde who had loved to use violence on me during my imprisonment. Even more, she was the only member of their little party that didn’t pay the required price for my forgiveness. 

Luckily, she was in a prime position for me to extract that price. That soft, beautiful price. 

Or, considering how Isolde treated me, maybe not so soft…  

“I should have known!” she growled in anger as she took a big step toward me. It was hardly the most intimidating sight with the bars of the cell on my way, but as a physical combatant, it was hard for her to break such habits. 

“You should have known, what? It’s not a shortlist for you sweetie, be more specific,” I countered, unable to hold back a little tease. 

“I should have known you are behind my imprisonment!” she growled, missing my subtle insult in her anger. 

I made an exaggerated gesture as I put my hand on my chest, acting like I had been just shot in the heart. “You wound me, sweetie,” I whispered. “I went all the trouble trying to save you, and you’re blaming me for the crimes of that blond braggart. It’s hardly fair.” 

“What kind of nonsense are you talking about?” she growled as her anger was stoked further by my explanation. “Do you think that I’m an idiot you can trick?” 

She wasn’t an idiot, but she was not the sharpest knife either. 

Ironically, however, that made it much harder to trick her under these circumstances. Truly smart people had a habit of rationalization, so, it was very easy to push them into a completely different direction just by giving a couple of clues, just like I did to Sapphire when I implied I had arranged my capture from the beginning, an explanation that turned reasonable after the appearance of two enemies. 

However, one important thing about such a trick was to let the opponent fill in the blanks. If I had given Sapphire a detailed explanation, she wouldn’t have believed it, but by giving her a few clues and letting her connect the dots, it turned into truth in her mind. 

Unfortunately, that strategy wouldn’t work against Isolde. 

I needed to convince her in a different manner…