Chapter 765: Hide and Seek

"You should not have allowed Sir Cassian to go outside, Lady Covendier."

In the dim ghoul tunnels, Miranda carried an everlasting lamp and walked along the dry edge beside the drainage channel, keeping close beside the other girl dressed for travel.

"He is our only Supreme-class knight," Miranda said gravely. "That leaves the tunnels poorly defended."

A few rats ahead of them were startled by their footsteps and fled madly in every direction.

"He is my Supreme-class knight," the eldest daughter of Jade City, Cecilia Covendier, corrected coldly.

"Precisely for that reason, Lady Covendier," Miranda replied without changing expression, avoiding a pit of sewage beneath the everlasting lamp's light, "protecting you should be his first priority."

Hilley gave a disdainful snort.

"So now you are replacing him as my babysitter?"

"His Highness Thales is concerned for your safety, so he sent me here. Compared with rank-and-file soldiers, a female bodyguard is the better choice."

"I do not need anyone's protection."

"I agree," Miranda said without a trace of anger. "The problem is, our enemies are probably hoping the same thing."

Hilley's steps paused.

She turned and stared at Miranda, her gaze unfriendly.

The swordswoman stopped with her, her expression calm, and nodded politely.

"My lady?"

Hilley glanced at her a few times and gave a cold scoff.

The next second, she suddenly leaned toward the wall, bent down, lowered her head, and vanished from Miranda's sight.

"Wait!"

Miranda was startled and hurried after her.

"Where are you going?"

Only when she lifted the lamp did Miranda discover that the place where Hilley had disappeared was a broken hole in the inner wall. The opening was low, concealed, and narrow, difficult to make out in the gloom.

"Taking a shortcut to see Lausanne the Second. Are you coming?" Hilley's voice drifted from the other side of the hole.

Bad.

There was no time to complain. Miranda hurriedly gathered in her clothing and armor, bent at the waist, turned sideways, and squeezed with great difficulty into the broken opening.

How was there a hole here? Was it dug out, or did it collapse open? And why was it so cursedly narrow...

No, faster. If I lose her, things will be worse...

Damn it. This eldest young lady truly never lets anyone relax.

Lamp shadows swayed. After tearing her clothing in several places, Miranda finally squeezed through the wall in a sorry state and emerged from the opening.

The moment she straightened, she saw Hilley standing coldly in front of her. Only then did Miranda release a breath.

Good. I did not lose her.

"I remember who you are now."

Hilley spoke coldly.

"Miranda Arunde of Cold Castle. A distinguished young lady from a powerful family, yet ill-fated. The daughter of a duke bearing guilt. Correct?"

Miranda's expression chilled, and the motion of straightening her armor slowed.

"How kind of you to remember me amid your many concerns, Lady Covendier," the northern swordswoman answered in a steady, indifferent tone. "Especially at a time when Duke Zayen has fallen from power and awaits judgment in fear."

As her words fell, Hilley's smile vanished as well.

Hilley looked at the swordswoman's black gloves and scoffed.

"The grand heir of a northern duke, reduced to being my babysitter and crawling through a shit pit. Do you not feel wronged?"

Miranda moved slowly, but she still arranged her clothes and armor in an orderly way.

"In truth, when I served at the fortress, I once helped stuff a tanner's son's intestines back into his belly. I washed wounds for serious criminals conscripted into service, emptied filth and urine for gravely wounded rogues and ruffians, and even dug graves for rotting, swollen corpses." Miranda's expression did not change as she described these experiences, as if she were speaking of eating and drinking. "More or less the same as now."

Hilley's expression turned cold.

"Perhaps you should have stayed in the North, Arunde. Somewhere you are used to."

"The only place I am used to is the battlefield," Miranda answered in a low voice. "North or south makes no difference."

The two women stared coldly at each other in the tunnel, the everlasting lamp flickering in both their eyes.

"You said 'enemies' just now," Hilley said with a scoff. "But Zayen and Fed have both laid down their weapons and surrendered. Where are these enemies supposed to be?"

"The enemies you cannot see," Miranda said solemnly, "are the most terrifying enemies."

"Is that why something happened to Chadwi?"

Miranda was instantly startled.

"Pardon?" she asked back, her face and heartbeat steady.

"That is probably also why you came to babysit me," Hilley exhaled, her gaze sharp. "Something happened to Chadwi, and the brat was afraid I would go mad, so he sent you to keep me under watch?"

Not good.

Miranda's heart sank.

She still found out.

Miranda kept her composure.

"I do not understand what you are talking about..."

But Hilley cut her off impatiently.

"Yes, as a temple priest, Chadwi is mediocre, careless, weak-tempered, and cowardly."

Hilley's eyes were cold and sharp.

"But here, in every sermon, confession, and gathering he has held for these tunnels, he has never once been late."

Her voice was soft, yet cold as frost.

"Until today."

Miranda frowned tightly.

"And you thought that just because you guarded the main routes, I would have no way to obtain news from above?" Hilley said disdainfully. "Do not forget. These are the ghoul tunnels. My territory. Even Zayen cannot reach into this place, much less you people."

Hearing this, Miranda calmly began to examine the dim, complex sewers around them, with their many branching paths. She thought of the narrow, low hole through the wall behind her.

The young lady was right. These tunnels were a maze.

If the other party used this strange, complicated terrain and tried to shake her off...

Thinking of this, Miranda moved her right hand as if nothing were wrong, bringing it closer to her sword.

The Terrifying Blade had warned her that the other party's identity was sensitive. She could not use force crudely; persuasion had to come first.

So when she "persuaded" her in a moment, she would need to be decent about it.

Ideally, one strike should put her down.

Hilley was still speaking.

"And do you know how important Chadwi is to this place, to this damned place forgotten by all the civilized people in the city?"

"My apologies, Lady Covendier. I do not know that priest, but I can imagine..."

"No, you cannot."

Hilley interrupted her without courtesy.

"Tell me the truth, Arunde." The young lady's voice gradually grew colder and sharper. "Chadwi. Is that fellow still alive?"

Sensing the intent hidden within and beyond Hilley's words, Miranda frowned and did not answer. She merely calculated the angle for making her move.

Hilley showed a look of disappointment and impatience.

Lady Covendier took a deep breath and gazed quietly at the drainage water flowing by her feet.

When Chadwi had still been here, every sentence from him invoked the goddess's grace, every phrase cited the Sunset scriptures. He had made all the monsters in the tunnels grateful, reverent toward gods and spirits, deeply convinced of Sunset teachings.

But Hilley knew.

She had known since very, very long ago, from the first time she was punished by being sent into the temple.

What illuminated this damned place had never been any deity.

"They should not have touched him."

Hilley clenched her fists, turned toward the dark tunnel, and her gaze became cruel.

"No matter what for. No matter who they are. No matter who they believe themselves to be."

She had turned away. A good chance.

Miranda sighed softly, paced quietly to Hilley's side and rear, adjusted the distance, and silently placed her hand on her sword hilt.

"No matter what has happened, please face it calmly and with composure..."

"Calmly?"

Hilley suddenly turned around to face Miranda, and the latter, who had been preparing to act, had no choice but to release her sword hilt again.

"Chadwi was dragged into this because of me, yet I only sent Cassian to investigate instead of going personally to twist someone's head off..."

Hilley, furious beyond measure, raised her voice and advanced step by step until she was right in front of Miranda, almost nose to nose.

"Do you know why?"

Hilley stared hard at Miranda. Her breathing was quick, her chest rising and falling.

Bad.

Miranda looked at Hilley, who was nearly within touching distance, and frowned.

Too close. A weapon would be inconvenient. It seemed she would have to switch to bare-handed "persuasion."

Hilley took a deep breath and calmed her emotions.

"Because I am calm enough."

Miranda's gradually tightening fist froze.

Hilley let out a long breath, turned her head away, and spoke with difficulty.

"I am angry, but I am not stupid."

Hilley turned and paced away, lowering her head to look at her own palm.

Zayen had prided himself on always being one move ahead, but in the end, he had been led by the nose. One trap after another, one step after another, almost as if he had walked himself into prison and lost Emerald Palace on his own, Hilley thought.

She could not, and would not, repeat her brother's mistake.

Moreover, Hilley breathed with difficulty. No matter what had happened to Chadwi, it was already too late for her to rush there now.

"Do not worry. I will keep my agreement with Thales."

Hilley took a deep breath and made her decision.

"I will stay here and wait for Cassian's report, and for that brat's explanation."

Miranda was somewhat surprised.

"Lady Covendier..."

"But you should understand one thing, Arunde. I am staying here because it is my own choice."

Hilley snorted coldly and walked forward.

"If I did not want to stay, believe me, you would not want to play hide-and-seek with me here."

Miranda silently watched her back.

Only after several seconds did the swordswoman sigh and loosen her right fist at an angle Hilley could not see.

She patted her scabbard, shrugged, and followed Hilley with the lamp.

On the other side, from an angle Miranda could not see, Hilley shook her head and decisively tightened her gloves, covering the rough skin covered in burn scars.

And also covering the faint glowing brand of "Soulbone Jacques" in her palm.

Letting it dim again.

"They underestimated you," Miranda said softly.

"What?"

Hilley did not look back.

"I was thinking. Whether it is the Covendier brothers, our enemies, or even the whole of Jade City..."

Perhaps even Mallos...

Miranda pondered and said, "Perhaps all of them underestimated you."

"It is a little late to curry favor with me now."

"Perhaps His Highness Thales was right."

"What do you mean?"

The corner of Miranda's mouth lifted.

"If you were to become the duchess, Lady Covendier, perhaps both we and Jade City would have far less trouble."

Hilley was slightly surprised. She glanced at Miranda.

"If I became... Is that what the brat said?"

But she immediately remembered something, coughed twice, and resumed her elegant steps, maintaining the cold and dignified bearing of a noblewoman.

"A pity. This young lady regards power and influence as dung, and has no interest at all in that troublesome dukedom."

At least, not any special interest.

Miranda laughed softly.

The emotion in her laughter was subtle and complicated.

"He is still alive," Miranda suddenly said.

Hilley, who was still busy regarding power as dung, did not react at first.

"What?"

Miranda considered for an instant and then said with certainty, "The last news I received was this: thugs committed violence in the temple, and Priest Chadwi met with misfortune."

Hilley's steps stopped abruptly.

"His Highness the Prince rushed there afterward and summoned your two brothers."

Hilley's expression turned ugly.

"But no matter what he encountered..."

Miranda said softly, "That priest is still alive."

Hilley's expression shifted slightly. She looked at Miranda, who had also stopped, wanting to ask more, yet hesitated.

"That is all I know."

Miranda's eyes were clear and firm.

Hilley's expression was complex. Several seconds later, she exhaled softly, tired but relieved.

"Thank you, Lady Arunde."

"Mira."

"What?"

Miranda looked at her and smiled faintly.

"My friends call me Mira. Simpler."

Hilley paused. She understood something and gave a soft snort.

"Then would you mind if I made it even simpler? Can I just call you 'hey, you'?"

"That works too."

The two quietly looked at each other for several seconds, then smiled together.

"Hilley. That is my nickname," Hilley said with a shrug. "It is smoother than 'Cecilia.'"

Miranda wanted to extend her hand, but after seeing Hilley's tightly covered hands, she lowered her palm again.

"Pleased to meet you, Hilley."

"Pleased to meet you, you... I mean, Mira."

The atmosphere between them eased somewhat.

Under the illumination of the everlasting lamp, they continued forward, turning past several forks until flickering light appeared ahead. It was the first guard post outside the dungeon. According to the emergency arrangements, Glover and Ralf should be on watch there now.

"Mira," Hilley suddenly said. "What are you doing here?"

Miranda paused.

"Here to be your babysitter?"

Hilley shook her head.

"No. I mean you, Miranda Arunde. Why are you here, in Jade City, doing odd jobs under the brat?"

Miranda raised an eyebrow.

"Under the little... under the prince, I have twice fought a Supreme-class killer, drawn my sword against the Jade Legion..."

And something even more terrifying: wearing an elaborate formal dress so tight it almost strangled her, going to a grand-scale Praise Banquet where she had to meet countless people, exchange greetings, make polite conversation, smile falsely, cheerfully socialize, and remain there for six full hours...

If she had not found a chance midway through to get into a fight, used the opportunity to kick off her high heels and tear apart the binding straps of her inner lining, then hidden in the washroom under the pretext of arranging her clothing until the banquet ended...

Miranda took a deep breath and shook off the unpleasant memory.

"You call that doing odd jobs?"

But Hilley only stared straight at her.

"Mira, do you want to rescue your father from prison, cleanse the shame he left behind, return to Cold Castle, and restore your family?"

Miranda's face stiffened.

"I am working toward that," she said coldly, her hand unnaturally covering her sword hilt.

Hilley carefully studied her.

"But you know this, don't you, Mira? Only if your father is gone, or at least stripped of his title, will you have the possibility of inheriting the dukedom."

Miranda's hand on the sword hilt trembled for no clear reason.

"Whether in law, in the situation at hand," Hilley said quietly, "or in His Majesty the King's calculations."

Miranda clenched her fist so faintly it was almost imperceptible.

"If the current situation continues, you will only ever be the heir," Hilley shook her head, "until the North no longer has a duke for you to inherit from."

The current situation.

Hearing this, the female heir of the White Eagle family looked deeply at her.

"So, Mira, is that why you appeared here?" Hilley said softly.

Miranda pressed her lips together and did not answer.

The lamplight in the distant tunnel flickered faintly, as if the end would never be reached.

"A bit of advice, Mira," Hilley sighed. "Do not expect too much from him, even if his surname is Jadestar."

Especially because his surname is Jadestar.

Miranda narrowed her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"That brat is indecisive and muddled, and he always overestimates himself by taking on things he cannot carry," Hilley said with both disdain and resentment. "Have you ever considered that perhaps one day... he will not be able to help you?"

Miranda fell silent.

But just as Hilley was about to continue, the swordswoman raised her head, her expression resolute.

"But I can."

Miranda looked firmly at Hilley.

"That is enough."

Hearing this, Hilley was surprised and could not help studying her again.

All right. As expected of the iron-hearted vicious woman from the demon twins' mouths.

Hilley sighed and said no more.

"Then I wish you luck."

Each carrying her own thoughts, the two returned to silence and walked with lowered heads, drawing closer and closer to the guard post before the dungeon door.

"You know, Hilley, I once heard my father say..."

This time, Miranda was the one who broke the silence.

"When I was young, my grandfather intended to betroth me to the Covendier family in exchange for support."

Hilley's eyes lit up.

"So you almost became my sister-in-law?"

"Not that close. My young uncle opposed it fiercely. His reason was that girls from the North are straightforward and simple. If they went south, where every place is full of traps..."

Miranda nodded, then shook her head, looking at Hilley with meaningful amusement.

"They would be terribly cheated by those sinister and cunning South Bank people."

Hilley frowned.

Several seconds later, the "sinister and cunning" South Bank girl smiled brightly.

"What a coincidence. A long time ago, some vassal also proposed marrying me north to Cold Castle to forge strong support and bring glory to the house. My father likewise refused in stern words."

"So you also nearly became my relative?"

"To be precise, my stepmother."

Miranda's face darkened.

Hilley shrugged. "Fortunately, my father said the North has always been bitterly cold and barren, its people savage and coarse, backward and primitive..."

The savage, coarse, backward, and primitive northern swordswoman revealed an unsurprised sneer.

But Hilley looked at Miranda and changed direction.

"He said only the strongest and most unyielding fighters can survive there."

Miranda's eyes moved.

"As for me, with my weak constitution, constant illness, greed for food, and laziness, I had better forget it."

The two silently looked at each other for several seconds.

"Believe me, Lady Covendier, you have nothing to do with 'weak constitution and constant illness,'" Miranda said emotionally. "If you had married into the North, the only ones who would suffer would be northerners."

Hilley gave a soft snort.

"Same to you, Arunde. If you really had become my sister-in-law..."

Hilley sighed.

"I cannot say anything else for certain, but someday, my brother would definitely be stabbed to death by your sword."

"So you could conveniently become duchess?"

The two exchanged a glance.

Several seconds later, they both laughed aloud.

"You know, in ordinary years, perhaps we would have met in some other setting. A splendid and luxurious drawing room, for example." Hilley looked toward the faint light at the end of the tunnel, her gaze distant. "We would hold teacups elegantly and properly, cover our mouths as we smiled, politely discuss jewelry, art, and gossip about handsome young men, and become intimate friends in the boudoir."

Miranda gave a light hum.

"Then, in the future, we would each marry, bear children, and manage households. One day we would meet again, sit properly among noblewomen according to our husbands' titles, drink afternoon tea, and virtuously yet shrewdly calculate marriages for our children, preparing dowries and betrothal gifts?"

Hilley was silent for a while. She rubbed her gloves and smiled.

"But we did not."

Miranda nodded and touched the scar at the back of her neck. She smiled too.

"We did not."

Quite the opposite.

Hilley drifted briefly into thought.

They were here now, in an abandoned sewer that was damp, foul, and full of insects and rats, sleeping on straw pallets, eating stewed mush, and taking turns watching over an obsolete old vampire-like killer.

Miranda's gaze focused.

And worrying over how many people outside wanted to threaten, use, and harm them.

"Fortunately," Hilley nodded slowly. "Fortunately we did not."

Miranda nodded as well, her expression firm.

"Fortunately we did not."

Hilley looked at the swordswoman before her and sighed.

"Now I know why the Karabeyan twins are so afraid of you."

"Why?"

"Because although you were born in Cold Castle, you belong to Broken Dragon Fortress," Hilley said with emotion. "And because you are not only Arunde..."

Her expression was complex as she looked at the swordswoman.

"You are even more Miranda."

Miranda was silent for a while.

"And you? Who are you, to make the twins both fear and hate you?"

To Miranda's surprise, Hilley did not speak this time.

Instead, with a complex expression, she only shook her head and tightened her gloves again.

At that moment, Miranda's expression suddenly changed.

She stopped Hilley and looked toward the light at the end of the tunnel, fully on guard.

Around the next corner ahead was the dungeon that held Lausanne the Second, and the innermost post of the Star Lake Guard.

Those on watch now should be... Glover, Ralf, and Doyle?

"What is it?" Hilley stumbled slightly and could not help asking in confusion.

"Nothing. Only..."

Miranda lowered her voice, her expression growing increasingly serious and heavy.

Quiet.

Miranda stared fixedly at the tunnel corner, gently set down the everlasting lamp, and slowly reached for her sword, Eagle Soar.

Too quiet.

Even if Ralf was mute and Glover was taciturn.

There should still be that noisy one, should there not?

Seeing her movement, Hilley's face changed.

"Mira?"

Miranda did not answer. She shook her head, her eyes unmoving.

Not long ago, after she brought Mallos's orders, Glover had reacted immediately and adjusted the post arrangements.

Lausanne the Second was firmly locked up and unable to move, so the number of men watching him at close range had been reduced to one: the only person able to withstand the ability of the Evil Whisper. Miranda was not sure whether Doyle had bargained for this easy duty in exchange for improving the guard's meals, or whether the zombie had deemed him unreliable out of professional consideration.

The manpower saved by that change had been divided into groups of two or three and assigned to the critical passages around this level of the tunnels, establishing layer after layer of warning. That ensured that even if possible intruders found the entrance, they would have nowhere to hide on the way into the inner perimeter.

But now...

Miranda stared at the light beyond the corner, her brow tightening more and more.

Wrong.

The rhythm was wrong.

The Heavenly Music Round Dance sounded within her body, bringing everything from blood pressure to breathing into a strange rhythm so she could sense the movements around her more deeply.

If the ghoul tunnels at this moment were a musical score, then every element within them, the air, smell, sound, temperature, humidity, were notes and rhythms in that score.

From just now until this moment, everything they had passed, heard, and seen, all the sound, light, and motion in the tunnels combined, had followed one fixed rhythm.

But the closer they came to the corner ahead, the closer they came to the dungeon...

Miranda adjusted her breathing, and her expression grew worse.

She had fought Lausanne the Second twice. Especially the second time, with her colleagues holding the line, she had gone all out and used every killing move she had until she nearly collapsed from exhaustion. After that, Miranda's understanding, perception, and control of the Heavenly Music Round Dance had all deepened.

It was not merely that things were too quiet.

Rather, the rhythm woven by all the signs ahead...

Every part of it was wrong.

Out of harmony.

"Hilley," Miranda lowered her voice. "You said the location of these tunnels is known only to you and the people here. Not even Duke Zayen knows?"

Hilley realized something and answered softly, "Yes. But now we have to add your people..."

Miranda suddenly reached out and gripped Hilley's shoulder.

The latter instinctively tried to break free, but Miranda's expression was solemn.

"Hilley. You said earlier that I would not want to play hide-and-seek with you here?"

Hide-and-seek?

Hilley was first stunned, then startled.

"You mean..."

"Actually," Miranda nodded and forced out a smile. "I rather want to play hide-and-seek now."

Hilley's expression changed.

"But..."

"You hide first. Remember to hide well." Miranda's attitude was firm and allowed no objection. "Do not let me find you."

Hide well...

Hilley immediately understood what was happening. Her face filled with disbelief.

"Conversely, if you cannot find me..."

Miranda looked steadily at Hilley.

"Bring the others."

"But how will you..."

Hilley wanted to ask back, but the strength in Miranda's hand increased, stopping her words short.

"In the Jade City of this moment, Hilley," Miranda said in a low voice, "you are more important than I am."

Hilley looked once at the tunnel corner, then stared blankly back at Miranda.

Miranda shook her head, her gaze firm.

A few seconds later, Hilley no longer argued. She nodded heavily and turned decisively.

Miranda watched her walk back some distance. Then, in the gloom, Hilley crouched down, braced both hands on the ground, and her whole person "shrank" into the corner of the wall, vanishing from sight.

Damn it. Is that a hole leading to a lower tunnel?

Miranda looked at the place where Hilley had disappeared and felt a headache coming on.

What if she truly could not find her afterward?

But in the next second, Miranda's face sank. She turned toward the front.

She left the everlasting lamp behind, drew Eagle Soar, pressed her side against the wall, and carefully approached the corner before the dungeon post.

Please.

Miranda weighed the sword hilt in her hand.

Let me have guessed wrong.

Let this be the Heavenly Music Round Dance misreading things...

Before long, Miranda reached the corner. She pressed her back against the wall and leaned out for a glimpse in the direction of the post.

With that one glimpse, Miranda was chilled to the bone.