Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 141.1

Desert Town

Princess Elena Cleydale, the first princess of Cleydale, was attacked and disappeared at the Royal Magic Academy, a supposedly safe place where the main noble children of the Cleydale Kingdom gather.

Eyewitness accounts suggest that the main culprits were a faction of the Dark Elves, known as the Evil Race, who had been at war with humanity for several decades. They were also revealed to be Vampires.

Was it political criminal terrorism by the Evil Race or an attack by a demon called Vampire? Some non-Princesses speculated that the Princess might have died, but her aides and attendants, who were seriously wounded, testified that this was not true.

The purpose of the Evil Race, the main culprit, was to kidnap the princess, and for that purpose, they used a ball containing Magic obtained from a dungeon, and the moment the Magic of the enclosed “Teleportation” was activated, the main culprit, the Evil Race, was defeated by an adventurer baroness who was the princess’ personal guard. The kidnapping of the princess was prevented.

However, the princess and the baroness were caught in a spatial shift that had apparently already been triggered and disappeared somewhere.

The knights who were her aides and bodyguards were interviewed and investigated using Magic, and their testimonies were consistent, so the kingdom’s guideline changed from investigating the Evil Race to searching for the princess.

Regardless of the situation, there was no telling how some of the aristocrats, who had been leaning toward the royalists, would react if they learned that the princess was missing. Fortunately, martial law had already been imposed on the school by the headmaster and information had not been conveyed to the students, so His Majesty the King ordered the school to be closed for three to six months to reinforce the safety of the school, and ordered the investigation department, including the dark side under the Prime Minister, to search both at home and abroad.

The princess was still alive. Even though there were many who believed so, the information could only be contained for three to six months.

If the safety of the princess remained unknown for up to six months, the King decided that the princess would be declared dead from illness to avoid confusion, and Crown Prince Ervan would be officially announced as the next King of the Kingdom.

The deadline for this decision was 6 months. Some people began to move to do what they could during that 6 months.

In his office at the royal castle, the Prime Minister, Melrose Count Bert, ordered the dark side knights in charge of intelligence to search for the princess, and at the same time began to investigate the nobles responsible for bringing the Evil Race into the country.

“Do you think that some noble family brought the Evil Race into the country, Master Bert?”

“Yes. If there was a traitor, they would have to be aristocrats that knew about the security information in the academy. But it wouldn’t necessarily have to be an aristocratic family. The older nobles tend to hold a grudge against the Evil Race, after all.”

At the time of the previous war, Bert was still a young boy, but even so, the Evil Race’s strength and ruthlessness in battle were burned into his memory along with his fear.

Even in noble families, the patriarchs and old-timers still remembered it. Assuming this to be the case, the person who was sheltering the Evil Race in the country could not have been a noble family, but an individual. It was most likely a young nobleman.

Hearing this, Oz, Bert’s personal butler, nodded quietly and brewed a fresh pot of tea for his master.

“I’m not certain that the person who invited them in and the person who sheltered them are the same. I will have them investigate from that side as well. As for the search for Her Highness, what about outside the country? If he was caught up in a space transfer, it is highly likely that he is outside the country.”

“…I think that is very likely. We cannot publicly investigate another country, but Her Highness is an excellent person. And… There was also that one with her… Perhaps they will try to contact us soon. Even from gossip, let them investigate from that side as well.”

“…Yes, sir.”

Oz bowed his head, sensing certain thoughts of his master, Bert, and left the office without further ado.

“…”

Bert, who leaned back deeply in his chair with a slight creaking sound and exhaled lightly, looked up into the void and thought of a girl.

It was not the girl who claimed to be his granddaughter, who had been found a few years before, but the adventurer girl who had gone missing with the princess.

The girl had been adopted by Sera, a dark knight, but her vigilance was so strict that nobles other than those associated with the academy could not approach her, but the image of her, seen only once as the princess’s bodyguard, was still burned strongly in Bert’s eyes.

Her hair was a brilliant peach-blonde. The color of her hair and the expression on her face at a moment’s notice were enough to remind him of his late daughter.

They were the same age. He could see her in her eyes. But there was no evidence. Unlike the young girl whom circumstantial evidence alone had identified as his granddaughter.

How hard could she have worked to gain so much power at her age? But now she was the princess’s escort by virtue of her ability, and if Bert tried to mess with her, she, an adventurer, could easily disappear somewhere.

The fact that the girl was missing, along with the princess, was a source of frustration. Until now, he had thought that he would be able to investigate before the two girls came of age, but now he was afraid that he might never see them again, just like his daughter.

(No, that girl is alive.)