Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 715
Chapter 715: Prison (2)
For the first time in a long while, I had been imprisoned.
Though, I supposed I couldn’t really call it a prison.
The underground prison of the palace was the subject of many rumors. People whispered of a great monster locked away here, or how the greatest criminals who were thought to have died in the labyrinth were being interrogated here.
I think I can get warm water faster here than at my place.
The facilities were too luxurious for this place to be called a prison. It was as if I were in the room of a five-star hotel. I had three rooms to myself, and the bed was large enough for me to roll two entire times on my side. There was even a large bath in the bathroom.
“Not bad.”
Of course, not all cells in the underground prison were like this. I was in the special holding cell in a separate corner of the first underground floor of the facility. A place to imprison people who were respected by the palace even if they were criminals.
Well, the goal of imprisoning someone here wasn’t to actually imprison them but to say that they did.
“Baron Yandel, could we talk?”
Not even a few hours into my prison life, someone came for a visit. It was that Knight Gramps that I met not long ago. He talked about how surprised he was at my patriotism and asked me if prison life was uncomfortable in any way. He also told me I could call him whenever I needed his help.
He then informed me that the Noarkans were being held on the fifth underground floor and were being interrogated by agents from the Department of Intelligence. Apparently, the vice-captain was able to survive my attack thanks to an essence.
All in all, he treated me well, and after exchanging some small talk, he left. However, not before making this mysterious remark.
“I’ll be taking my leave now. As I told you before, rest for two days—don’t worry about anything else. The fact that the marquess hasn’t done anything more than this may mean he has other intentions.”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“He might be hoping that you try to escape. Even if your holding period is only two days long, it won’t lessen the crime of a jailbreak.”
Knight Gramps then said he had work to do and left, and I took the time to think.
That does make sense.
After all, the marquess treated me exceedingly well for having put me in prison. Since he knew my personality, he could have put in many more restrictions to make sure I didn’t escape, yet he put me in a special holding cell and didn’t even bind me.
To be honest, if I wanted to, I could rip the door off and just walk outside.
“Are you there?”
For some reason, a second guest came to visit me after Knight Gramps left. Was this a place anyone could just walk up to?
It was a pretty funny thought.
But then again, I guess she isn’t just anyone.
I just happened to know a lot of people in high enough positions that they would be allowed access to the underground prison. Just like the second guest I was about to have.
“Ragna…”
“It has been some time…” she greeted politely. “Are you in any way uncomfortable here? I did hear that the prison was different from what I might imagine one to be like, but I can’t see the inside of your room from here…”
“It’s probably the same as what you heard. I’m mostly alright with it. I think I’ll get decent meals here too.”
“Ah, is that so? That’s a relief.”
“So what are you doing here?”
Ragna hesitated for a second before pushing a wrapped package through the opening that was used for food.
What’s this? A secret document or letter that needed to be given to me?
I silently undid the wrapping and checked the contents.
“Cookies?”
The small box was filled with cookies, and nothing else.
Oh, maybe she put a note in the cookies?
I went to quickly stuff one in my mouth.
“From what I heard, you don’t get desserts during your meals… So I baked them myself. Do… Do you like them?”
“Uh… Huh?” I stammered. “Yeah, they’re good!”
“Haha, no need to shout. I can hear you.”
I’d wondered if maybe the marquess had sent her, but she was really just here to give me some food.
As we continued to chat through the door, it occurred to me that I could use our conversation here to ask a question.
The picture of the woman I saw in the secret office, the woman whom I suspected to be Ragna’s mother. Did she know of her existence?
But in the end, I decided against asking. The marquess probably installed a listening device somewhere, and—
A bulb suddenly lit up in my mind.
“No, wait.”
Ragna paused. “What is it?”
Now that I thought about it, did the marquess ever mention it to me?
Although it was rude to her, I ignored Ragna’s question and repeated the conversation I had with the marquess in my mind.
He didn’t.
The more I went over our conversation, the more I was sure of it.
The marquess never mentioned that secret room.
“So… You really found them while searching my house?”
Even though he should’ve heard about everything I did within his mansion.
“Two days. Just for two days.”
The marquess didn’t say anything about that secret office I had entered alone, let alone try to pry the information from me. And that was something that should absolutely have come up, even if just in passing.
Maybe it wasn’t as big of a secret as I thought, or maybe it wasn’t something he needed to keep secret. That could explain why his reaction was so mild.
It wasn’t a completely outlandish theory, but my life experiences told me otherwise.
No, there’s no way.
It was probably the opposite—the reason the marquess didn’t mention his secret room once was because keeping that secret was too important. And if my hypothesis was correct, maybe my allies in District Seven aren’t the ones I should be worried about.
Maybe I’m the one in the most danger.
Ragna’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “Can I ask what you’re doing right now?”
The answer to that wasn’t something I could just tell Ragna, the daughter of the marquess.
“My stomach hurts!” I declared.
“Pardon?”
“I’ll need to go to the bathroom! Oh, and thanks for the cookies! They were delicious!”
“Pardon? Ah… Alright…”
I used my barbarian evasion tactic and ended my conversation with Ragna. When she left, my stomach actually did start to hurt, so I went to pop a squat on the toilet.
Tink, tink. Ba-rump, ba-rump, ba-rump.
Something that looked like a grenade rolled in through the door flap that could only be opened from the outside. Then, it exploded with a bright, white light.
A flashbang…?
The light wasn’t bright enough to blind me, though, and I couldn’t sense any injuries where the light had touched.
Who is it…?
It didn’t seem like an attack, but just in case, I pulled out my hammer and approached the entrance. There, I heard a voice.
“Are you there?”
The knight captain of the 1st Knight Order of the palace, Jerome Saintred. Or rather, the ancient monster that was possessing his body.
“I’ve come to you with urgent news.”
It was the village chief.
The palace prison wasn’t a playground, so why were there so many people coming down here on the same day to see me? The third guest was the village chief.
“What the hell are you doing here? And what was that before?”
“It’s a magic tool used by the Department of Intelligence. It sends out a pulse of powerful mana waves that disables all communication-type magic tools in the area.”
Hmm, to put it simply, it was something like an EMP grenade?
“It was just in case ears are listening in on us, so I hope you can understand.”
Well, I also assumed that this place most likely was planted with a listening device, so I didn’t really mind.
“It’s fine,” I said. “So, what’s this thing you need to tell me so urgently?”
Then, the village chief actually did get right to the point, as if it were really urgent.
“It will soon begin.”
No… Wasn’t this too straight to the point?
“Begin? What do you mean?” I asked cautiously.
“The day when everything burns.”
I ignored my thumping heart and tried to ask him as calmly as possible, “No, but what does that mean—”
Boom!
A tremor came down from the surface and ripped through the ground for multiple seconds, causing the entire prison to shake. A crack appeared in the ceiling, and the walls supporting it began to give way as parts of the ceiling fell to the floor.
I clutched the iron door in surprise. Just as I was about to ask the village chief what was going on, he spoke first.
“Get out of this place, and quickly. It is no longer safe here.”
“No, just give me an explanation—!”
“That is all I can say to you for now. Survive. I have something to tell you when you do.”
“When I do? I don’t care about that, at least just tell me—”
“It’s about time. The person after me will tell you the rest.”
I could sense the village chief’s presence move away from the iron door, then hear someone’s hurried footsteps as they dashed toward my cell. It wasn’t the village chief or Knight Gramps. I could tell just by the sound of it that it was a regular person without any martial training.
Is it Ragna…?
Surprisingly enough, however, the newcomer ended up being my fourth unique guest today.
Bang, bang, bang!
“Mr. Yandel! Mr. Yandel!”
“Raven…?”
“Ah, you’re here! That’s good! I’ll open the door, so—”
“You don’t need to.” I then ripped open the door that wasn’t holding me in the first place and stepped outside.
“Eh…?”
“Just get to the point. What is going on above me right now?”
“Ah, oh!” Raven regained her senses after hearing my voice and quickly briefed me on the situation. “Thunder! Thunder fell on the Palace of Glory!”
Thunder.
It was the official name of one of the three Magic Weapons the palace possessed.
“I only heard about it through a message on my way here, but the Palace of Glory fell, and we don’t know if the supreme commander, the prime minister, is even alive or not! Everyone is in panic and we’re trying to all evacuate…!”
I grabbed Raven by the shoulder. Although I didn’t know what she saw on the ground floor, she was shaking like a twig.
“W-we need to get out of here now!” she rushed out. “If that f-falls on us again, this place won’t be safe either—”
“Calm down, Raven.”
“But—!”
“Calm down.”
She closed her mouth at my stern command. It didn’t stop her shaking, but it was much better than when she was in a blind panic.
“District Seven…” I began. “Is there news about what happened in District Seven?”
“I-I don’t know. Before Thunder fell, I heard that they were continuing with the operation at Bifron…”
Hmm, okay. So that was it.
I confirmed one last thing. “Is there any more information on what happened to the prime minister?”
“Pardon? No! We don’t even know if he’s alive or not. But from the news I heard through the message, he was definitely in the Palace of Glory when Thunder fell!”
“I see.”
Somehow, I got the feeling that… No, actually, I was sure of it.
The marquess was still alive. And perhaps, even, the one who activated Thunder in the first place.
I still suspected he had something to do with the Noarkans.
“Wait just a second for me.”
“Pardon? Time? Now’s not the time to be doing this, we need to quickly get out of—!”
“Just a little, a little bit of time.”
I then ignored everything Raven said and just continued to think. We were now in wartime, when each second mattered.
It didn’t take long for me to come to a decision.
Yeah, no matter how I think about it…
Running away here and now was the worst option.
With everything thrown into chaos, escaping to reunite with my allies in District Seven would be possible, and logically speaking, that would be the safest choice I could make. However, there was a “golden time” for everything. The initial response to an event could vastly change the resultant outcome.
“Go first, Raven.”
“What…?” she breathed. “What are you talking about? Are you nuts? Mr. Yandel, it’s because you don’t know what happened up… Wait, where are you going!”
Raven was appalled when she saw me walk away. After all, she knew what lay ahead of me. If I continued down the hallway I was going down, I would arrive at the stairs that led even further into the underground.
“The fifth underground floor…” I called back to her.
“The fifth underground floor? Why are you trying to go there?!”
If what Knight Gramps said was true, they were there.
Demon Eyes and the entire special unit of Noark who had surrendered—bound and sealed off from all their abilities.
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