Should the pickpocket steal the rich one or at least, the victim must have money first? Baston asked this question in his mind because he had no money for being a poor class. He was worse than a commoner in this world, yet someone still stole from him. The dinner coupon was his only wealth, so believe it or not, he would take it back with all his strength.
Through the narrow alley, Baston gave a chase over the pickpocket. Because he was so focused on the coupon, he didn't realize he was getting further from the academy. While he was busy, not far from there, Alicia
took her meal in exclusive restaurant she could find in the area. Because the position of the academy was so-so, she could only be satisfied with the facilities around here.
Prius Academy wasn't well-known among nobles. It was because its strength was average, unlike the better one. The reason why Alicia picked this academy because it was far from her family's influence. She could go to the very best academy at the capital or other cities, but she would be dead
tired of always having to talk politics with other students by then. As far as she knew, many noble students would pick the best academy so they could elevate their status in front of people. By choosing this average one, she would get less disturbed by some noble students then.
She had amazing background and many nobles would try to persuade her to enter their factions. The girl only wanted to have peaceful study, so she really didn't care about other things. While she enjoyed the cakes she bought, she had a sight of Baston who was still chasing the pickpocket.
"Baston? What is he doing here? Who is that man?"
There was a sudden urge inside her heart that Baston must be looking for a clue about the explosion before. The news was kept tightly for now, but it was just a matter of time that sooner or later, everyone in the kingdom would know it. She had a hunch that the cult was involved in this, even though she just knew it yet for a few days. As for the purpose, she didn't know but she didn't believe they only wanted to make a distress over the average academy.
Alicia decided to follow him along with her knights. Afraid someone was after her, the family appointed 2 knights who would look and kept her safe if she went outside. Because the academy wasn't in the big city, these knights were already enough to take care of her. The girl didn't explain anything but ordered her bodyguards to follow her closely.
On the other hand, Baston didn't know he was being followed by Alicia and just kept chasing the man until he reached the dead end on a dilapidated house. The man seemingly knew Baston would keep tailing on him if he didn't give back what he stole, so he threw it back and quickly rushed over the window. The coupon was already crumpled down, but Baston managed to catch it safely. He looked at it and breathed a sigh of relief after checking the coupon was still intact.
"The coupon should be able to do the thing. There's not any damage, just needs to smooth it for a while before it looks like a new one again."
While he was mumbling by himself, there was many steps came from behind him. He looked over and was surprised to see Alicia brought 2 knights with her. The fat boy was confused, but in his mind, he could only
assume that since Alicia saw him chasing the pickpocket, she must be calling the security around to help him.
"Where is the man go?" Alicia asked once she got near him.
Baston wanted to say that the man had already escaped and the stolen coupon was retrieved safely, yet he felt if he stated the truth, the 2 knights would frown and felt they were played around. It wasn't a good experience that the security here wanted to help you, but in the end, you just made them a trouble. At least, this was what Baston thought at present.
"He should be nearby… When I got here, he suddenly disappears out of thin air…"
The fat boy answered seriously despite it was a lie created by him. He decided to play a little drama for convincing the knights. In order to appease the savior who came to help him, he made some kind of events right
here. Unfortunately, he was just thinking too much since he didn't know the 2 knights was Alicia's bodyguards.
The knights looked at Alicia and knew that they had to cooperate with Baston. Without being ordered, they searched around to see if there was any secret compartment or not around the house. Most likely, any hidden path would be behind the wall or under the ground. The men from the duke family already got used to this because they had many experiences. One of them scanned the wall and another one checked the ground below. It took a while but the one who checked the ground finally found something and slashed it with his sword.
"BAM!!!"
The hard floor suddenly crumbled down from the impact. The knight looked common, but once they unsheathed the sword, they could perform strong attack. This time, Baston gulped down because he couldn't just block it, even with the help of his magic. All he could do for now was to show-off without any meaning. While Alicia showed an accomplished smile after finding a hidden path, Baston was in gloomy mood.
"Why is there really a secret path in here?" he thought helplessly.
Right now, he must make improvisation. Before, he wanted to convince everyone here with his little drama. The plan was simple because he just needed to summon his puppet in the same face as the man before. Although it wasn't clear, he didn't need to make it exactly anyway. It was because as soon as the puppet appeared and ran ahead, everyone here would be suspicious and gave the chase. Too bad it couldn't happen because his earlier lies
suddenly confronted another secret.
"Be careful…" one knight said, moving step by step.
"We will go ahead first…" the other knight looked at Baston and Alicia.
Alicia nodded, agreed with their opinions. Meanwhile, Baston was thinking what kind of drama he could play against these 2 knights. If he spurted a nonsense, they wouldn't understand, unlike the girl beside him who
was kind of imaginative. Baston formulated the next scene and got ready to act. By the time they got down the stairs, it was just an empty room. There wasn't much of it to see, except a chair, a bed, and the cabinet.
"Miss, I think there's not anyone in here…"
"Yes, I already scan around but I can't sense any living people here which means it's just an empty room…"
Alicia didn't look at them, but glanced at Baston. The matter should rest with him and no one else. Because of curiosity, she just
followed him out of nowhere until this place. The room was empty and nothing could be found, so it was better to search in another place. Baston smirked, but he covered it with his hand, displaying a strange seriousness to her. Both of the knights felt weird but they didn't talk about it since Alicia didn't comment. They waited for a while, yet Baston only focused his sight on the chair. Before they said something, Baston spoke first.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Everyone was confused and started to look at the empty chair. Both of the knights thought this fat boy became crazy while Alicia scrutinized of what Baston looking at. No one among them was able to see what so special about it. There was no one at there, but Baston insisted on it. He still focused his sight to the empty chair with no living soul on it. Alicia wanted to order her knights to check it, but there was a clapping sound reverberated in the room.
"I'm impressed you can find me…"
Suddenly, a man with a mask of clown manifested himself at the empty chair. Although he looked silly in the face, but his temperament was more like gentleman. He stared at Baston while still clapping his hands. Judging by his action, the clown was very impressed that Baston could trace him
easily. Both of Baston and the clown worked together well as actors while Alicia and the knights were shocked to find there was someone in this empty room.
"Who are you?" the knights guarded Alicia vigilantly, "State your name, now!"
"Ha… ha… ha…" the clown laughed, "If you want to know my name, you have to state your name first."
"I'm…" one of the knights replied, before Baston interrupted.
"Don't do it!"
The knight didn't understand why Baston forbid him just to tell the name. Alicia was also confused, but she happened to know some black magic had a cruel history over the curse. She thought by answering their own names, the clown would have the chance to curse them. The feeling of death
would then come upon them at any time. She then hurriedly ordered her knights to close their mouths and just listen. Whatever they did, they must not open their mouths.
"Why so serious?" the clown sneered, getting up from the chair, "I just ask your name and I will then tell my name. It's so simple, right?"
"I'm afraid you will be putting the curse by the time you escape from here…" Baston answered.
"Oh, my. You break my heart…" the clown looked sad before putting a crazy expression, "But I guess you're right. I will just put a curse on them and then they will die terribly. It will be a magnificent!"
As soon his voice came out to everyone, it made Alicia and the knights got goosebumps over their bodies. The clown was crazy, lunatic if they could comment on him. He could kill someone with excitement as the result. Slowly, they started to think that this clown wasn't simple. Just showing
himself from out of nowhere, his strength was very different. The knights had a cold sweat on them because if they just rashly going up ahead, they would already be dead many times.
"Too bad this one doesn't include in the quest. If not, my performance is already good…" Baston thought, continuing his talk with his own puppet, "Where is the man before?"
"I don't know…" the clown just shrugged, "There's no other living person here before you come, except me. If you talk about a dead man, there might be one."
"You kill him?" Baston confronted seriously.
"Maybe yes or maybe no… I don't know… I can't seem to remember it…"
The childish temperament showed by the clown made everyone became impatient, but they didn't dare to act. They were afraid as soon as they made a move, they would become a corpse without knowing what happened to them. Since the clown seemed like to play with words, they might need to investigate him further until he told the truth. Nevertheless, what the most important right
now was to escape from this room.
Baston glanced from the side and the knights prepared to escape from there. The knights had a mission that they needed to bring back their lady safely from here or else, the punishment would soon come to them.
Gripping the handle of the sword, they were ready to make a rush to the outside before the clown clapped hard with his hands.
"It's kind of boring here. Let's play for a while…" the clown took his seat again, "I ask you one question and I will answer you one
question. If you can't answer it, just tell it's a secret. By the way, the one who keeps telling it's a secret for three times will lose."
"What if we don't want to play…" Alicia suddenly asked.
"Well, then it's too bad. This place will blow up and everything becomes smithereens. Anyway, it won't include me because the pieces here consist only all of you."