In Nue, General had a beautiful large residence with a poetic name Swallow's Nest. It was not appropriate for him to live in the Princess Palace. He was her guardian, not her concubine. However, no swallow had so few judgments to build the nest there. If it was someone's nest, then the Imperial Secret Police.
Many believed that the house was a reduced copy of the First Prince Palace, the infamous headquarters of the secret police in the capital. Nobody can confirm it. But the house had better security than the Palace of Princess, and nearby from time to time, people in the uniforms of the secret imperial police moved. The General considered all the fantastic theories what his house contains extremely funny. What kind of fool would like to live in a copy of thousands of years old palace? Even the memory of the First Prince Palace in the middle of the summer caused him to send his servant for the hottest coat he had.
But the truth was that the residence contained some necessary equipment...
He inhabited two modest rooms at the back. Mini bedroom and only a little bigger office.
If not in the palace or on the road, he spent the most time in the office. The wall covered the library overflowing books. The window remained loose, but the books were settled at least on the windowsill. Most of the space occupied a large work desk, a comfortable armchair for his little thing, and a very uncomfortable wood chair for visitors on the other side of the table.
The General enjoyed one of the rare moments of peace. Conveniently seated in the armchair he studied freshly confiscated new printout of forbidden series "Stories of hairy peaches". Procrastination interrupted the knock on the door.
"Yes!?" he closed the book and sent it to the library to the previous parts.
"Sir," the commander Zimo, still in the disguise of the Sien's wandering musician, entered the study. He did not dare to postpone his report nor a second.
"Lieutenant Ayan is waiting in cell number ten," Zimo bowed respectfully.
"In the cell?" asked General quietly. His voice was strikingly similar to the threatening snake hiss. The placement of the cell was definitely not part of his order.
"I am sorry, sir," Zimo knelt immediately, but there was no regret in his movements.
Maybe it was not wisest to send him to this action. Zimo belonged to the admirers of Princess Aida. But the situation in Tulin required quick action, and no one else equally efficient was available. If he wanted to recruit Ayan, he had to snatch him from Tulin before someone managed to kill him.
Ayan was in Nue in one piece and alive. General suppressed anger. Zilo deserved a small reward. Short time in the cell couldn't hurt, and maybe it could also be beneficial of the thing.
"How much it cost?" asked General.
"Six gold," Zimo replied hurriedly. Apparently, he didn't expect General to go over his exaggerated initiative so smoothly.
He waved and over their head slowly began to play the entire purchase from his point of view. It was the classic monitoring magic of the imperial police. In addition to the scene, runes and characters used spells and levels of magic displayed.
The record slowly unfolded from the moment when the pair of killers dragged the Lieutenant from the brothel.
Zimo's work was so gentle that the level of surrounding magic was almost the same. But flashing runes listed one spell after another. General would never expect so bold and direct attack can be successful. Most of the killers had protective amulets against similar incidents.
The pair with their prey obediently walked to the place where Zimo had prepared a portal. They welcomed him as if there was nothing special about their meeting. The six golds were the lowest sum that their mind considered acceptable.
In the end, Zimo did not forget to add the backdoor for future use. It was clean and elegant work.
"Not bad," General nodded. "Save the record to the archive."
"Yes, sir," Zimo almost run from the office.
General caressed his long white beard thoughtfully.
He was still not entirely sure if he wasn't wrong. But cold-blooded elimination of his secretary and commander od Nue from the game blew his original plan. Supervision of Nue after the princess's twenty-second birthday had to be much more subtle. The imperial secret service could no longer be engaged in her things directly.
For a moment, General played with the possibility to stew Ayan in the cell for a little longer.
But the princess placed a prisoner tracking and protection spell over the Swallow's Nest, which they still failed to remove. To put prisoners under even a little pressure in the cell was condemned to failure from the beginning. In addition, the longer prisoner stays, the more cell resembled the hotel room. Remove from the cell magically anchored furniture was not easy at all and took several days. Better was go as quickly as possible.
He came when Albi, an old jailer, completed an inspection of the traditional welcome basket with fruits. Lieutenant Ayan stood in silent amazement in the middle of the cell.
"Bring some bowl and spoon!" General ordered.