As Ai and I were discussing about ways we could go about healing the Emperor's soul, Lysa came up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"How is it? Did you figure anything out?"
Her words broke me from my thoughts and I turned around, only to see that Lysa was now kneeling down behind me and Velor has already left the room.
"Yes, I know what happened to him, but I don't really know how I could heal him."
Lysa's eyes immediately brightened as soon as she heard my words.
"You do? If you can tell me what that poison is, or where it originates from, maybe some of the doctors might have a solution."
"That's the thing: he's not really poisoned. It's more of an injury to the soul. The blade the assassin used to strike your father was made out of soul crystals, the same type of crystals the Grand Duke was turning the souls of the dead on the battlefield into. That blade polluted your father's soul with other soul fragments and it needs to be cleansed for him to wake up."
"His soul is injured?" muttered Lysa as she looked at her father's pale face with worry. "And you don't have any way to help him?"
"Not right now, no. We might need to find an expert in souls to help us, but someone at that level…" I didn't have to finish the sentence for her to understand what I wanted to say.
Lysa nodded and took a deep breath before saying: "Ethan, I have a favor to ask you."
"What is it?"
"I need you to take father away and keep him safe."
I must admit, that was not something I expected her to say.
"Are you scared your uncle might try to do something to him again?"
She nodded and replied: "Yes. That and, even if I manage to find an expert in souls to take a look at father's condition, uncle might find out and stop me. I need you to take father away and hide him while I quietly look for anyone that might be able to help him. Can you do that? Please."
"I can do it, but I don't really have any other place I can hide him other than the northern continent. I can't really take care of him since I will be busy increasing my level to fight the demons once again."
"That's fine. It doesn't matter where you take him as long as he's safe."
[Ethan, since we can move him now, there might be a way to help him, at least prevent his situation from getting worse.]
'What is it?'
[Same as the protector bride. You can place the emperor in that magic circle.]
'But Senna already modified the circle to only preserve the body and removed it's function to cleanse the soul.'
[Even so, it's a lot better than taking him to the northern continent. You don't know what will happen when the war with the demons begins over there.]
Since Ai's words seemed reasonable, I said to Lysa: "All right, I'll make sure your father is safe until we find a way to cleanse his soul. I just thought of another place where I could hide him and will also help in making sure his condition won't get any worse."
"Thank you. I already told everything to Velor and convinced him to go and get drunk so he would have an excuse to be missing from father's room. Now I need you to attack me and make it look like a wizard attacked and kidnapped him. It will also be good to use spatial magic and take even the bed with you. Then I might be able to convince them that there was another spatial wizard involved and to let Isabella go."
It would seem that Lysa put a lot of thought into this. Nodding my head, I stood up and said as I started channeling my mana: "All right. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
Hearing her agree, I used spatial magic and teleported the emperor's body and his bed in the underground chamber where I found the protector bride. I also teleported a part of the floor and half of the surrounding furniture to make it obvious someone used spatial magic to move the entire space away from there.
Since Lysa told me to make it convincing, I used a huge fireball to attack her and destroy the other side of the room completely. The fireball threw Lysa all the way into the garden, but made sure to use only enough force to slightly injure her. Following that, I teleported back inside the small restaurant Anise was waiting for me in. Grabbing her hand, without saying a single word, I teleported both of us to the underground chamber as well.
Once we appeared there, as soon as her eyes landed on the emperor and his bed, she asked me with an incredulous expression: "Did you kidnap the emperor?"
"Kind off. It was actually Lysa's idea." Following which I proceeded in telling her everything I found out and also explained Lysa's plan in detail.
"I see." She then turned towards the emperor and asked: "And what do you plan on doing with him? Do you want to just hide him here?"
Waving my hand, the circle the bride was sleeping on before manifested on the floor. Anise realized my plan and said: "I see. You want to place him here, but where is that girl?"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you about that. That girl got absorbed inside the staff I received from the trial."
"Absorbed? What do you mean?" said Anise, looking completely confused.
"Honestly, I don't even understand myself what happened back there. I came back to check on her after we came back from the war and her body reacted to the Staff I received in the trials. Once I placed the staff on her body, she disappeared and a white ring appeared on the shaft of the staff."
After explaining what happened with the bride, I turned my attention back to the emperor and levitated his body above the magic circle. Once he was in the middle, I could see what looked like spirit seeping from the circle into his body.
'Ai, how is it?'
[Yeah. Whatever Senna did, changed the circle's functions and will not help healing him, but it's using spirit to preserve his body in soul. This way he isn't in any kind of danger.]
'Good enough for now.'
"How is it? Does it work?" asked Anise.
"Ai said that it's not healing him, but it will preserve his body and soul. We can leave him here until we find a way to cleanse his soul."
Anise nodded and I made the circle once again disappear. Now, even if someone managed to stumble upon this room, they won't be able to find the emperor.
"Are we going north to level up now?" asked Anise after she saw me hiding the emperor.
"Not yet. I still need to meet with the leader of the rebellion." I replied with a sigh. I really didn't feel like meeting those guys once more.
"All right. Do you want me to come with?"
"I do, but I promised I'll go alone so I can't take you."
We then proceeded in laying down on the emperor's bed and I closed my eyes to sleep. I needed to recover the mana I spend tonight.
In the morning of the next day, as I was laying down and gently caressing Anise's hair, I felt the ring on my finger vibrate slightly.
'That's early.' I thought to myself as I brought my hand out from under Anise and started channeling mana into it. Anise also felt it and kept quiet while listening to the conversation.
"Morning, Ethan. I hope I didn't wake you up." the voice of that same woman came from the ring, but there was something different about it compared to the last few times I spoke with her. She sounded a lot more monotonous and bland.
"It's fine. The quicker the better since I am also quite busy in the following days."
"Tell me about it. I heard you managed to kidnap the emperor. A bold and unexpected move indeed."
I chose not to comment on that and asked: "What about the meeting?"
"It's already set. Do you know where Darsig city is?"
I quickly pulled out the map in my interface and found the city. It was located quite far south and was the main city of the Darsig Kingdom.
"I know where it it."
"Perfect. The leader and I are in the sixth room on the third floor at an inn called Pleasure House. You have half an hour to get here or we'll leave. I think you can manage that considering your abilities."
"No problem. I'll be there soon."
After I stopped supplying mana to the ring, I gave Anise and apologetic look and said: "I have to go since I'll need to look for that inn as well."
"I'll just stay here and read through some books. Come and pick me up as soon as you are done."
"Fine." I kissed her on the forehead before asking Ai to help me with the teleportation. Since I've never been there, I needed her help with figuring out the coordinates. Once that was done, I teleported a bit further north of the city, in a small forest.
Looking at the city in the distance, I picked up my pace and rushed to the gate. A guard there stopped me and asked some basic questions. After answering and showing him my adventurer badge, I told him I was here on a quest. Once he said I was free to go in, I asked: "Could you tell me where the Pleasure House is located? I have to meet up with someone there."
The guard gave me a weird look, but told me the way to get there nonetheless. After walking through the city streets for ten minutes, I was finally in front of the Pleasure House with another full ten minutes to spare.
Looking at the inn in front of me, it was exactly what I expected it to be. The pink paint on the sign paired with the face of the men walking in and out told me everything I needed to know. It was a brothel. Letting out a sigh, I walked forward and entered inside.
A young girl, wearing only a dress on the lower side of her body and nothing on the upper side, came up to me and said with a smile on her face: "Sir, welcome to the Pleasure House. May I know if you have a reservation and if it's your first time here?"
I nodded and said: "Yes. I am supposed to meet someone in room number six on the third floor."
The smile on her face stiffened for a second before she recovered and said: "No problem, sir. Follow me."
I followed after her as the girl led me through two flights of stairs before we arrived in front of a door with the number six written on it. The girl bowed without saying a single word before leaving like a startled rabbit.
While wandering what was going on with her, I knocked twice on the door.
"Come in."
As I heard the stern voice coming form inside, I opened the door and walked in. The masked woman was wearing her mask once again and was laying down on the bed with a leather whip in one of her hands. There was also one more person inside the room, which I supposed had to be the rebellion's leader. He was a surprisingly young man, looking not older than 30, with muscles bulging all over his exposed body as he was only wearing a pair of short trousers. He kind off reminded me of those bodybuilders from Earth.
He was laying down on the bed and seemed to be playing with the masked woman's body under her dress, but his eyes were fixed solely on me from the moment I walked inside.
Without getting up, he waited for me to close the door before, without removing his hand from the masked woman's clothes, he said: "You must be Ethan Knott. Quite a troublesome young man. It's great to finally have the chance of meeting you."
I sat down on one of the chairs in the room and looked at the man before saying: "Just tell me why you wanted me to come here. I'm not interested in small talk."
I noticed a dark look flashing by his eyes the moment he heard my words, but it quickly disappeared as he said: "And quite direct as well. Good, then I won't beat around the bush either. I initially wanted to recruit you for our cause, but now that you managed to kidnap the Emperor, I have another deal for you."
I didn't say a single word in reply and just waited for him to tell me his supposed deal.
"You give us the emperor and we don't let the grand duke know that you were the one who kidnapped him. I'm sure that getting hunted down by the grand duke will not be pleasant, even for a man of your capabilities."
I frowned at his words, but not because I was scared of the duke or anything, I just had a feeling that something was wrong with the whole thing.
Since there was no way I could ever surrender Lysa's father, I asked: "So that's why you wanted to meet with me? To threaten me? If that's the case I might as well just leave."
A smile appeared on the man's lips as mana started surging all around the inn, locking the space around us completely.
"So a trap…" I mumbled as I gave the man a mocking smile. Ai already informed me after the mana surge that there were only 24 wizards and their levels varied from 61 to 75. That was quite a force to be feared in the southern continent, but now, after my soul evolved to tier two and I had my staff, it didn't feel that scary anymore.
"You little brat, you dared to kidnap my fiancée and then you reject my deal? Do you really think I will let you leave here alive?"
"I think so yes, but before that, do you mind telling me who you guys are? Managing to gather 24 wizards over level 60 is quite something. Are all the southern kingdoms part of the rebellion?"
The man's expression became quite ugly when he heard me mention the exact number of wizards he got. He grabbed a greatsword that he hid under the covers of the bed before sitting up.
"I must admit, you are quite strong, but you can't hope to go against the entire army of my kingdom and the rebellion together. I'll have a lot of fun torturing you after this."
As his words ended, dark mana started coming out of his body before covering it together with his greatsword. Taking a look at that dark mana, my expression also turned serious.
[Ethan, that's demonic magic.]
'I know.'
"So the demon's reach extended so much south, troublesome indeed." I mumbled as the Staff of the Eternal appeared in my right hand.
"Protector."