Narrow Victory

Since Iris was tired and Wompa was injured, Kies had to carry the both of them up the stairs from the basement and out of the building. When they made it out, they found Rui riding towards them with the rest of the guards.

"What happened!?" Rui jumped off her horse and ran over to them, seeing how Iris and Wompa were both unable to stand on their own two legs. She saw the bloodied cloth on Wompa's leg and the scratches on Iris' shoulders and arms and let out a curse. "I knew I went down myself..." It was because of her that the two of them were injured.

"One of the thieves was hiding down there," Kies told her.

"What!?"

Kies explained everything that happened down in the basement, starting with the rooms they found, ending with him killing the thief. Of course, he didn't tell her how he killed the thief. He lied and told them that he ended up getting killed by one of the beasts that he released. It was the best excuse that he could think of considering how there was a giant spherical hole in his chest.

"So he was hiding in that room the entire time... What a coward," Rui said distastefully. But it wasn't like they could blame the thief for doing that. If Kies had been in his position, he would've done the same thing. Fighting Rui was the equivalent of asking for death with the thief's strength. It was the right call to wait for her to leave.

"But for me to not detect him... That's very strange. I can detect even the tiniest amount of heat in a room, but somehow, I didn't detect him..."

"This might be the reason." Kies reached into his cloak and pulled out a long red cloth and handed it to Rui to see.

"What is this?" Rui took the cloth and stretched it out. It was around a meter in length. It looked like something a person would wrap around their neck. "Wait... I recognize this!" Rui's eyes widened as she suddenly realizes where she has seen this red cloth before.

"The red-scarfed soldiers." This was the same scarf that they wore. Kies got this off the body of the thief.

"That d*mned traitor..." Rui muttered angrily. She threw the scarf into the air and sliced it into smithereens. When it was destroyed, Kies felt a wave of electricity hit him, disrupting his magic power for a brief moment, and he wasn't the only one. Both Rui and Iris shivered as well in response to it.

"Ugh... I hate that feeling."

"Me too," Iris agreed with Rui. "Just what is it?"

"Wait... You can feel that too!?" the royal guard asked in surprise.

"Yes... Can't everybody?"

"Only mages can."

"Oh..." Iris accidentally slipped and revealed to Rui that she was a mage. Kies shook his head but didn't say anything. Kies had the feeling that this might've been the case, and luckily, he kept his mouth shut about it.

"Well, that's interesting..." Despite learning this, Rui didn't ask Iris about it any further, respecting her privacy. "Anyway, let's get you all out of here. I have a healer that can treat these wounds for you."

"Wait," Kies stopped her.

"What is it?"

Before that, he wanted to know something. "Did you catch the rest of the thieves?"

Rui made a grim expression and shook her head sadly. "No, the thieves were too fast for us. We caught up to them once but they shook us off with a smoke bomb."

"That sounds... Like something they would do."

"Yes. Anyway, back to the main topic. Is there a healer here?" she turned and asked the guards behind her. Two of them walked forward and saluted her.

"Combat medic Isstaeh at your service," the first guard introduced himself. He patted a small bag on his wrist which contained all his medical equipment

"Combat medic? Well... What are you?" Rui turned to the other guard standing in front of her.

"I'm also a combat medic."

"Ah..." Rui scratched her head. "Are there no mages here?"

"No," the guards answered almost immediately. "We do not have any mages in our division."

"I see... Well, please do your jobs then." Rui gestured at the two injured girls. The two guards both nod their heads and each went over to one of them and began treating them. Kies watched for a little bit before going over to Rui and getting her attention for something.

'What is it?" she asked.

"In his dying breath, the thief said 'commander.' Do you know who that might be?" Kies asked her. While the thief could just very obviously be referring to the commander of the Otanian army, it could also be someone else. Kies wanted to make sure he wasn't getting the wrong person.

"He did?" Rui didn't sound very surprised to hear this. She shook her head and told Kies, "It's best if you don't get involved in this. There's a lot of danger that comes with knowing this information."

"I see... By the way, do you think that the two princesses are behind this all?" Kies suddenly asked the royal guard, catching her off-guard with the question.

"Sorry?" Rui wasn't sure what Kies was trying to ask.

"Do you think they poisoned the queen," Kies clarified.

"How-" Rui looked at Kies and instinctively went for her sword. "How do you know that?" she asked in a serious tone.

"I heard it from someone."

"Who!? There shouldn't be that many people who know of this..."

So it was being kept a secret... Kies really thought that considering the number of soldiers involved that the public would also know about it, but it seemed that he was wrong. "From a guard," he lied. He actually heard it from the princesses themselves, but since he didn't know which side Rui was on, he couldn't risk telling her that. This was a test to see if they can trust the royal guards or not.

"A guard..." Rui kept her hand on the hilt of her hilt, ready to cut Kies down should he say something wrong. "The guards shouldn't know about this either though. Only those in the army should know..." she looked back at Kies, waiting for him to explain himself.

"You can't keep secrets forever," he told her. "Word gets out one way or another eventually."

"That's true..." Rui sighed and moved her hand away from her weapon. "Right now, I don't know who to trust. It could be the commander, it could be the princess, it could be neither, or it could be both. I don't know," she admitted. "But one thing that I know for sure is that the commander likely has something to do with all of this. As for your question. I do suspect the princesses as well."

Kies raised an eyebrow. "May I ask why?" he asked, hoping for Rui to explain to him why she feels that way.

"Because..." She stopped herself, hesitating for a moment. She pursed her lips and continued, "They were the last ones to interact with the queen before she went into a coma."

So that was why Rui was suspicious of them. Even though the two were her sisters they were talking about, unless she witnessed it for herself, there was no way for Rui to know they are innocent. With that being said, there was no way for her to know if they are guilty as well, but it was better to think of them as suspects.

"That's basically the entire story that I know of so far," Rui told Kies.

"Iceblade, we're done." The two guards approached them, informing Rui that they were finished treating the two girls.

"Good." Rui thanked the combat medics for their hard work and dismissed them. "Anyway, I asked this before, but who are these two?" she gestured at Iris and Wompa.

"Guard trainees?" Kies answered with uncertainty. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to answer that question. He didn't know how Rui didn't recognize the two, but it may be that she never met them before. But if she served the queen, then wouldn't it mean that she had to know the two sisters? That was something he really didn't get and would have to ask Iris about it later.

"Trainees..." Rui repeated, scratching her chin. "I see." Before Rui could ask any more, one of the guards ran over to her and report something important.

"We should head down," the guard told Rui, handing her a slip of paper with the word, 'orders' written on it.

"Oh right." Rui took the paper and quickly skimmed it. "Yeah, we should head down."

"Whose orders are those?" Kies asked out of curiosity. He doubted that there were many people that ranked higher than her so who was it that she was receiving these orders from? It was definitely not the queen, that was a given. It was not the commander either since it didn't sound like she had a good relationship with him given the conversation they just had.

"These orders? They came from central. Just because I'm a royal guard, it doesn't mean that I don't need to follow it," she explained to Kies. Every soldier regardless of rank needed to obey central command. It was in charge of gathering information and distributing orders.

"Oh."

"Yeah, that's how things work here. Anyway, I better go down. Thanks for your help."

"No problem." Rui saluted Kies, Iris, and Wompa, and then headed into the building with the guards.

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!