Reasons to Protect the Witch's Son

The building was so old, it looked like it could collapse at any moment. The central prison was the largest among all the buildings. This was the location Hilaire was searching with her knights.

Over the past days she had been enduring and preparing to rescue Edwin. She did the best she could, including understanding the mercenaries’ surveillance system and using that information to identify locations where hostages may be held.

Some people might criticize her, saying she was foolish. It would have been much easier to just sell out Ash as the mercenaries had wanted. She wasn’t related to him by blood so how could he be more important to her than her younger brother?

But Hilaire couldn’t do that. That’s because she had grown up watching and learning from her father, who was stupidly honest and inflexible.

It was the only way she knew how to live.

She then rejoined the scattered knights.

“There’s nothing over there. What about you?”

“The same goes for us.”

No matter how hard they searched the prison, they couldn’t find Edwin.

“There has been no communication from the other party members. It looks like they haven’t found Edwin yet either.”

A knight took out a flat square shaped magic tool from his chest pocket and spoke in a low voice. It was a magic tool used for signaling. Each person had one, and when they found the hostage, they were to press a button and the other knights’ magical items would then vibrate in response. But their magic items were all still.

Hilaire gritted her teeth in frustration.

‘Where on earth did they hide him?’

The hallway beyond the faintly flickering light of the torches was dark and quiet making everything feel infinitely larger, like an endless maze. She suppressed her nervousness and continued the search calmly.

She hid her presence and took advantage of the darkness to leave the central prison and move onto the next building. Meanwhile, she discovered a warehouse with particularly tight security.

‘That place…’

After checking the location on the map, she understood. That was the exact place where the mercenaries had told her to lure Ash. There was most likely a very dangerous trap set up inside.

There’s no way they wouldn’t have made any preparations when they were targeting Ash, the kingdoms best sword master.

‘But there is a possibility that Edwin is in there.’

Hilaire approached the warehouse with the knights and hid in the bushes behind. When she signaled quietly after surveying the area, the knights burst out and ambushed the guards.

“Ah!”

Meanwhile, Hilaire approached the warehouse and opened the door. With a creak, the door swung open. Just as she was about to carefully check inside…

“…!”

Someone rushed up from behind. Hilaire reflexively swung her sword.

Clang!

Their blades clashed together with a sharp sound.

“…!”

At that moment, sparks flew out from where their swords had met. The surroundings brightened for a moment, just enough to reveal their faces in the darkness.

“You…!”

A large scar was visible on the mans face. It was the leader of the group that had come to the Count’s mansion the other day to threaten them. His expression also became cruel as he recognized her.

“What? You’re not the Duke!”

The man swore and swung his sword at Hilaire again. Her face hardened as she blocked the blow.

‘Were they waiting for him?’

The fact that Ash had come to the Count’s residence was information that only a select few had been made aware of. Of course, that also included his participation in todays raid.

‘Was the information leaked?’

But, she couldn’t think about this for long. Sparks flew again as their swords clashed.

“Tsk.”

Hilaire quickly pulled her sword away and stepped back.

‘Was that a magic device?’

Every time their swords clashed, sparks flew from the man’s sword and you could see electricity flowing through it. There was a magic stone embedded in the handle as well. Although she was protecting herself with mana, there was still considerable pain present wherever the current flowed.

It wasn’t a good idea to touch that sword. She no longer parried the man’s attacks but ducked to avoid him. Then, as he lowered his posture, she kicked one of his ankles. Although the man tried to correct his stance, Hilaire was faster.

She closed the distance in an instant and struck the mans chin with her elbow.

“Ugh!”

The man let out a low gran and crumpled to the ground. No matter how many magic tools he had, he was no match for the vice commander of the Knights of Philres. Hilaire straddled the mans back and broke his arm in order to subdue him.

Whether he knew of their plan or not, there were more important things at hand.

“Where is Edwin?”

Hilaire asked in a cold voice.

“Kuk, hehe…”

But, instead of answering, the man only let out a low laugh.

“Ahh!”

Hilaire then took a dagger from her waist and plunged it into the man’s shoulder. In a voice similar to a growl, she spoke.

“If you don’t want your arm to be chopped off, tell me right away.”

The man groaned in pain and muttered something inaudible.

“…tell you…”

“What?”

“I won’t tell you anything!”

He turned his head and spat at her.

“As you wish. I’ll just have to force it out of you then.”

With a cold expression, Hilaire pulled the knife from his shoulder.

“Did you see something flash over there?”

“Yeah, what was with that light? Ah, that’s…!”

The mercenaries who came over after seeing something flashing over the bushes found Hilaire and the knights who had overpowered the guards. The mercenaries then began to shout.

“Intruders!”

“Intruders are here!”

Hilaire gritted her teeth in frustration and the man beneath her twisted his mouth into a smile.

Soon, a loud alarm sounded throughout the prison, alerting the others of their presence.

***

“Ugh!”

“Agh!”

Thud.

The two mercenaries fell over one after the other with a short scream.

“Phew.”

Elaine lightly brushed her hands and exhaled.

‘That could have been bad.’

The moment the mercenaries had appeared around the corner, she had moved towards them at a frightening speed. Then, as soon as they had seen her, she struck them in the back of the neck. The mercenaries had then fainted and collapsed barely even uttering a scream.

“Let’s just hide these guys here.”

Ash walked around the mercenaries and gestured toward the hall. It was a dead end anyway; few people would pass by this location. It would take a while for them to be discovered.

They hid the mercenaries deep inside the hall and turned away. That was when they heard it.

“Intruders!”

“Intruders are here!”

Alarms could be heard sounding one after another along with loud shouts.

“It looks like another one of the groups has been discovered. What should we do?”

Elaine hurriedly turned to Ash and asked in a low voice.

“We still have one floor left we need to search.”

There were loud footsteps heard all around them, both upstairs and downstairs.

“Search the area thoroughly! Rats must have snuck in!”

“Search every single floor!”

Footsteps were pounding as they ran from floor to floor. There were also many people flocking to the floor where Ash and Elaine were located.

“There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

After making his decision, Ash turned to her and said.

“While I draw their attention, you go and search the top floor.”

“What do you mean! I’d rather…”

“I will be able to draw their attention more effectively.”

Their ultimate target was Ash after all. If they found out that he had appeared, they would definitely try desperately to catch him. If everyone was focused on him, the security on the other floors would naturally become lax.

Moreover, the footsteps were now getting closer. If things continued like this, both of them would get discovered.

“There’s no time. You need to hurry.”

He turned around and said.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let them catch me.”

He was right. She didn’t doubt his skills and she also knew that his judgement was the best in their current situation. Elain nodded her head instead of saying another word.

“All right.”

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

With those last words, he ran out without any hesitation. Soon there were shouts erupting from the mercenaries on the other side.

“It’s him! The Duke is here!”

“Catch him! Don’t let him get away!”

The sound of the footsteps started to flock to one place. Elaine stood in the empty hallway and waited for the sounds to fade away.

When the noise was finally at a safe distance, Elaine began to move without delay. She couldn’t let the chance he had given her go to waste. She had to find the hostage as soon as possible. She then ran straight up the stairs.

After checking for any presence, she ran down the hallway. There were only a few guards left on the top floor. The others had all left to chase after Ash. Elaine quickly stunned the guards and began to search the floor.

‘Where could he be?’

But, even this place showed no sign of Edwin Lister. Elaine anxiously removed the magic tool from her pocket however, there was no signal coming from the device. They hadn’t found the hostage yet either.

‘While I’m stuck like this, Ash is…’

Of course, she didn’t think Ash would be easily captured by the mercenaries. However, if the hostage was not found here, not only could the hostage’s life be in danger, but their plans will all be in vain. She didn’t want him to lose someone precious to him again either.

‘So, just once, lets look one more time. Maybe I missed something.’

Praying desperately, she ran back down the hallway. That’s when it happened.

“Ugh.”

A very small and faint sound. A faint moan that an ordinary person would never have been able to detect. But Elaine heard it clearly.

‘Where did it come from?’

She stopped running and quickly looked around. She was currently standing in the middle of an ordinary looking passageway. There was no one else around her, not even a mouse.

“…”

Maybe she had misheard? Could it have been a sound made from one of the guards she had knocked out earlier? But she didn’t think so because… the sound had come from beyond the wall.

Intrigued, she placed her hands on the mossy stone wall.

‘It’s here.’

There was definitely a sound coming from beyond. As she listened carefully, she hard the same noise as before again. She traced around the wall with confident hands. If there was a hidden space beyond, there must be a device somewhere to open the door.

Then, one of the bricks was pushed inward with a click and the solid wall began to move.

Slowly the heavy stone wall revealed a hidden space beyond.

“Found you.”

And Elaine found herself facing a terrified boy.