Prison Games

Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Today’s declaration had a different weight to it than the usual ones. Everyone looked at Elliott’s face seeing a mad dog that had been driven into a corner and knew that he meant every word he had said. Yes, it was exactly like a cornered long hair chihuahua recklessly trying to bite a mastiff to death.¹

Elliott pointed to the earl’s son.

“You go procure the weapons. Rachel has her crossbow. I want at least three shields and three of our own crossbows. If possible, get us three long pikes too so we can stab the body afterwards and make sure she is dead. Take three people with you, and go make the preparations immediately!”

“Yes!”

The Prince then turned his eyes to the other side of the table towards the son of a viscount.

“Take two men with you and watch everyone who goes in and out of the dungeon. In any case Father will be returning tomorrow. Besides the general ins and outs, I’m sure we’ll see Rachel’s minions coming and going as well.”

“Yes!”

“To prevent being found out until tomorrow morning, we’ll do it after the Prison Guard has returned for the night.”

“Although he’s a prison guard, he doesn’t really do any night shift work though.”

“I don’t care about that right now. Now let’s go!”

At Elliott’s command, all of the boys jumped out of his office at once.

A little while later.

A maid who had been serving tea for the meeting left after tidying up the leftover cups. As soon as she entered the servants passageway however, she left her teacart behind and broke out in a run.

The earl’s son was rushing alongside his compatriots when he accidentally leaked out a quiet complaint.

“It’s okay to rise up............His Highness too, I just wish he could have told us about this sooner.”

It was currently dusk.

.............Yes, dusk. The same day as their appointed plan.

The Prison Guard was most likely returning any moment now. And any passing knights running patrols through the castle would have their suspicions raised if they saw a light burning in the dungeon in the middle of the night, so the boys couldn’t put their plan off for too much longer.

“If he had just told us yesterday instead........if he had at least told us before noon, we could’ve grabbed the supplies from home.”

He wasn’t thinking about how he would have smuggled in spears or crossbows past one of the gatekeepers however. Because he was one of Elliott’s men.

Without any idea on how to get the supplies they needed, the men had no idea where to go. And with no idea on what to do, the group of would-be assassins continued to walk aimlessly around the royal palace.

“Should we steal them from the knight’s armory? But, with their security..........”

Right about the time when the blue-blooded son of an earl house was worried about the biggest issue he had ever had to face in his life..........the three men he had brought with him all from different baron households tapped his shoulder.

“There! Take a look over there!”

“Hm?”

Just outside his line of sight.........there was something lying up against some type of warehouse. On closer inspection, it was three shields, three crossbows, and three spears all resting up against the warehouse’s wall. There was even a quiver there filled with bolts for the crossbows.

There was also a sign posted up on the wall.

[Currently being aired out. DO NOT TOUCH! Knight’s Order]

The boys delightedly started patting each other’s shoulders.

“It’s our lucky break!”

“So good, there’s just enough here too! If we take these to His Highness we can finish without him yelling at us!”

So the four men confirmed there was nobody around to see them before hurriedly escaping with the weapons in tow.

Why did there just so happen to be the right number of weapons there?

Why were the knights airing out such a small number of weapons?

Why were the weapons left unattended without any lookouts?

The boys never once stopped to ask any of these questions. Because they were Elliott’s men.

As you’d expect a warning needed to be delivered to the dungeon after the viscount’s son had set up his surveillance.

After leaving the Prince’s office the maid had passed the baton over to a gardener who was now confirming the new surveillance system that had been set up a distance away from the dungeon’s entrance.

He kept his distance, walking around the outer circumference of the area to carefully survey the surroundings.........and then tilted his head.

“They’re not only watching the entrance are they...........?”

Just as he heard, there were three noble boys keeping an eye on the dungeon.

They were certainly there doing their jobs, but the three of them were standing right next to each other out in the open and only watching the dungeon’s entrance. At the moment, there was a knight hiding in a thicket right next to them who was part of the Prince’s original monitoring detail that was confused about what they were doing there as well.

Honestly the gardener thought this was all part of some elaborate trap.........but by all appearances this trap was crap. The gardener was completely confused, but that was because he didn’t understand the qualities it takes to be one of Elliott’s men.

For the time being it doesn’t look like they’ll be an obstacle, so the gardener wrapped around to the back ventilation window. Since the knight in charge of monitoring behind the dungeon was a comrade, the gardener waved the knight over, explaining the current circumstances and asking him to spread the word.

Seemingly anticipating his voice, Rachel responded as soon as the gardener tried talking to her.

“What’s wrong? I’ve never had a direct emergency call before.”

“Yes, in fact........”

The story didn’t take long to wrap up, but Rachel made sure to listen in on every detail.

“Well, were they able to procure their weapons?”

“Yes. Just as a safety precaution we had a knight prepare them some useless weapons for the occasion.”

“Then in that case we will allow His Highness’s group go through with their attack. We’ve gone through great pains to pile up circumstantial evidence, so let’s end this all with a bang and grab something they won’t be able to make any excuses for.”

“Yes!”

Rachel turned her gaze from the gardener to the knight and started giving orders for the knight’s order to follow as well.

“There’s no need to handpick our own subordinates for tonight’s shift. But, try to have one of ours act as the platoon leader on duty at the very least.”

“Should we withdraw the surveillance around the dungeon? His Highness seems to have forgotten the detail he himself put on you.”

“Leave it as is. After the incident, questions would rise about why there was no surveillance on this particular night. Rather, we can have those guards His Highness forgot about run the role of reporting to the knight’s order’s office.”

“Yes!”

At that time Elliott’s group was growing more excited now that they had their weapons in hand.

But Rachel’s side was making their own preparations as well.

When the sky had been completely enveloped by darkness.

“Go!”

On Elliott’s command, all of his followers rushed the dungeon all at once. The sound of their footsteps echoed loudly inside that front room as the men broke off into pairs, one man standing in front with the shield and another standing behind with a loaded crossbow aimed at the cell.

Elliott was the last one to enter and began talking towards the cell’s inhabitant after all other noises ceased. He looked calm on the outside, but when you looked into his eyes, all you saw was madness.

“Rachel, I’m sure you’ve heard that my father is returning tomorrow. If you make an appeal to Father and Mother at that time, then I’m sure your plan was to have my mother who favors you let you out..........but it’s truly regrettable. I’m afraid you won’t wake up to see tomorrow’s sunrise.”

Taking in the scene around her, how would Rachel react? In front of Elliott who was so eagerly waiting to see what she’d have to say now..........Rachel let out a long sigh as if she were truly flabbergasted.

“And here I thought His Highness was finally thinking a little harder...........”

“Huh? What? Did you think I’d never resort to force? I might look sweet, but I’m a man who does what’s necessary when the time comes.”

“Then let me give such a ‘man’ one piece of advice...........isn’t it better to not wait until the other party finds shelter?”

“What!?”

While the men were left confused, Rachel took refuge behind her stacks of wooden crates and set up her crossbow. So, she had set up a standing firing position that served as much better cover than a simple shield.

“Why did you guys allow her to get into cover!?”

“No but, we can’t just suddenly start shooting at her.........”

“You should have yelled, “Don’t move!” at the very least!”

“Oh, I see.”

While Elliott was thrown into a fit of anger at his own subordinates’ incompetence, Rachel offered him some more advice.

“It doesn’t look like you’ve planned for every detail........if you don’t do something like that, won’t you end up with a lot of trouble in the future? At the very least you’ll end up with a butt on fire.”²

Rather than being enraged, Elliott was honestly impressed that Rachel could continue to run her mouth despite being surrounded. This was the result of someone in the mindset where they misunderstand, thinking they’re in an advantageous position, and look down on others while feeling omnipotent.

“Hoh........so even while you’re surrounded by us like this you can still run your mouth like some important person. Hahaha, just keep that mentality in mind. Rather, you’re the one who is going to have their butt on fire in a little bit.”

“You’re wrong Your Highness”

“Fu, your mouth is really good at...........hm?”

As Elliott was talking, his butt suddenly started to feel strange.

Taking a look behind him, the bottom of his pants were burning.

“Huh?”

Shifting his gaze a little further down........at some point Rachel’s monkey had circled around behind them, and had brought a lit match to Elliott’s butt. As soon as he fully understood what was going on, Elliott’s butt started to feel even hotter..........

“Uwa!? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!”