"Please. We can offer you a high position in the Capital. A royal's status. It would prevent the law from interfering with you and your party, to an extent of course." The King offered.
"I don't want a royal status. Did you not just here what I said?" I frowned.
"Then," the Queen stood up. "We offer you our daughters' hand in marriage."
"…." I blinked slowly. "No." I heard several sighs of relief come from behind me. At this point, the King was standing straight up again.
"What can we do then?" The King asked, his eyes begging.
I sighed heavily and rubbed my temples as I replied. "I don't know what I want, as I don't care what you have to give. But the thing I do want, is to save your daughter." The King and Queens faces brightened up at that. "My sister ran away once, and I know the pain it brought my parents. I saw it in their eyes. And I see it in yours as well." I looked at them. "I know y'all are suffering, and I can only imagine how your daughter feels as well. So of course, I'll look for her. But I can't make any promises." I scratched my cheek, avoiding eye contact with them. This is my apology for the rant I went on. They better me grateful.
"T-thank you!" The King grabbed my hand and shook it violently.
"H-hey!" He kept shaking as I tried to break my hand from the grip, but it was to no avail. He finally let go, but my brain was already hurting from all the shaking.
"I'm glad you are helping us. I trust you and your party. And even though you denied it, we will still give you Royal Status, giving you freedom from the law, to an extent." He raised his finger at that.
"Tsk. I know that, old man." I retorted. "I'm not going to go killing people and robbing the innocent for no reason." I looked him in the eyes. "But if I have to hurt someone to get the information I need; I suggest the law stay out of my way."
The King laughed cheerfully at that. "I'm glad you are on our side, even though I sense no magic power from you, I can sense a power in you. One that I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of."
I just raised my eyebrow in response.
He can sense a power from me?
What does that mean? I'm literally the weakest person in this entire world, well, next to baby and children. But like, seriously. I'm weak!
I'm level 58 and my stats are equal to that of a level 40! What 'power' has him wanting to be on my good side? Whatever, he's an old man. He's probably just speaking nonsense.
"Is there anywhere we should start looking?" Patora asked. "Do you think we could look at the Princess room, if that's where she was kidnapped from."
"It was," the Queen nodded. "And you may. We haven't touched or cleaned it, so that the search parties we hired could hopefully find a clue. None of them have, however." The Queen lead us up the stairs into a hallway with red carpet and large, clean windows. Golden furniture was on the sides of the hallway.
We stopped in front of a red and golden door, which the Queen opened, showing us the Princesses room. It was a mess. The curtains were ripped, bed torn and the furniture was knocked over.
I walked in and looked around while Sora and everyone were talking to the Queen, asking questions.
"So, do you know how the kidnappers got in?" I heard Sora ask.
"Through the window. It was open when we came after we heard the ruckus. She never sleeps with her window open, but she sometimes opens it to look out at the courtyard. We believe she may have forgotten to lock it."
"Did y'all have any guards watching the door, listening in case she needed help?" Han asked.
"We did. But when we came, we found them both dead at the door."
They continued asking more questions, but I zoned them out, studying my surroundings. I walked up to the window and inspected it.
The window wasn't shattered, just open. So maybe the princess must have not locked it, as the Queen said. But the more I looked at the window the less I started to believe that.
Knowing a princess, or anyone of royalty, they wouldn't make a mistake like that. Never. They were raised to be safe and smart. Even if having to go out in public, so as to not catch the eye of bandits or thieves. So, I inspected the window more and noticed the lock had been damaged. The wood around where the lock locked in was chipped.
I turned around and looked at the ceiling. There was nothing. So, I looked at the bed. There was obviously a struggle here, and there was blood on the sheets. Most likely it belonged to the princess. Or maybe….
"You said the guards at the door were killed?" I interrupted whatever questions they were asking the Queen.
"Yes," she answered.
"They came through the window, yes," I said. "But there had to have been another way for them to come in. There's no way they would have gotten through the window without waking her AND get to the door and open it and kill the guards before she screamed."
"But…there were no signs of entry from anywhere else." The Queen stated. "Maybe they subdued her before she got to scream. A spell perhaps."
"Hmmm." I put my hand to my chin in thought. "That is a possibility, but if that were the case, why would they need to kill the guards?"
"…." The Queen went silent.
"Im fairly sure there's a hidden entrance in her room somewhere, as all castles have them in chambers like this, but they couldn't come through that, as there is no way they would take that passage. It would be to risky.They came through the window, but others must have come some other way. Or maybe…there was an inside man."
"A traitor?!" The Queen seemed to hiss at the word. Very unQueen like. "Who?"