"Are you able to keep up?" Guy asked Kim as she hobbled along, trying to keep from putting any real weight on her injured leg for any period of time greater than a second.
She found it ironic that she was the least injured of those who had assisted her fighting those who guarded the front doors but was the one injured in such a way that reduced her walking speed. She was sure that if she wanted to, they'd carry her, but she didn't want that to happen at all. Not if she could help it at least.
"I'll manage," Kim said, though she wasn't really confident in her statement.
"We can slow down if you need to," Guy suggested. "Or if you want, we could carry you. It wouldn't be a problem."
Kim merely shook her head. "No, it's fine. I'll manage somehow," she replied, not wanting to discuss the matter.
"We'll slow down then," Guy said, making Kim grit her teeth in annoyance. She just said that it was fine, yet Guy still went with that option.
"I said it's fine," Kim reiterated. "There's no need for you guys to slow yourselves down just for me."
"Maybe, but if you're not with us, then what'll we do if we come across something dangerous?" Guy asked. "If you hadn't given the order to pull back at the front gates, we'd all be dead anyway."
Kim couldn't argue with that. Though, if she hadn't been there in the first place, they probably would have gotten themselves killed anyway, sine they were ready to head out the front door without any sort of armor. So, she had to admit that they were likely alive at the moment because of her.
Although, on the other hand, she didn't really care if they had died. Even Guy. She just didn't want their deaths to be on her conscience. Which she knew they would have if she hadn't said anything. Both with the demands they wore armor and for them to fall back.
"Whatever you need, we'll be there to help you with it," Guy assured her.
What if I need to be left alone for just five minutes? Kim asked in her mind, as she closed her eyes.
While she didn't mind them feeling like they owed her for saving their lives, she also didn't really care to have them around her this much. She would have been fine if they just found a way for them to catch up with the others, though she doubted any of them would be able to do that, given none of them knew where Jonas had led them.
While they had started off slow, she hadn't been surprised to see the others slowly pick up their pace a little shortly after they were moving, to the point where she was having a hard time keeping up with the others so she didn't get left behind. Though, it wasn't until that she started speculating that it might be better if she just let herself fall behind completely and try to find her way on her own that Guy seemed to notice her struggling.
Then when she completely caught up with the others, moments after Guy said that they'd slow down, Kim really felt her annoyance spike. They weren't at the servants entrance yet, so she couldn't see why they'd have stopped other than if they were of the same mindset as Guy and wanted to keep her with them.
However, as she opened her mouth to complain, she saw that the others had clearly seen her but didn't show signs of starting to move again. Which meant they had stopped for a completely different reason. Which did help quell her annoyance. At least a bit.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"We, uh, kinda don't know which door to take," one of the men said sheepishly.
Kim nodded. She doubted they regularly took the servants entrance so she couldn't expect them to be intimately familiar with where it would be, but she had hoped they'd be able to at least get there without something like this happening.
"Did you look through all the doors?" Kim asked, feeling like they should have already thought of this and told her the results.
"They're all locked," the man said. "We tried breaking them down, but they're heavier than we expected."
Kim sighed. If that was the case, then she couldn't say that whoever their enemy was, they'd probably anticipated this happening. Or at least the possibility of it.
Kim was about to say something else, but that thought disappeared out of her head when she suddenly heard something. It was faint, but she was quite confident that it was a sound.
"Everyone, quiet!" she snapped, wanting to make sure not only of the direction of the sound, but possibly the distance. Though, she could only hope that it would repeat after the others were quieted down.
It took a few minutes, but the others did get quiet, and Kim found herself even holding her breath as she waited to see if the sound would repeat. Time dragged on, and even as her allies began to grow restless with staying quiet, though none of them made more noise than the usual rustling of their clothing as they moved around quietly, doing whatever it was that came to their minds about trying to get through the doors.
Suddenly, Kim heard it again. It wasn't loud, but it was close. It sounded like a whimper or something close to it. Then as she thought about it, she realized that it came from the room to her left. Past one of the locked doors.
"Open that door!" Kim commanded, pointing to the door that she knew blocked their way to whatever had made that sound.
Then as the men started to try and break the door down by using their own weight, Kim shook her head in annoyance as she watched them engaging in an exercise in futility. Which given the current situation, she wasn't going to let them waste her time doing such idiotic things.
"Step back," Kim commanded, and the men did.
Kim then examined the door, it was a thick wooden door that she was quite sure was well made. The lock looked rather simple, especially since it wasn't anywhere near as complicated at the locks from her world. For one thing, the key needed for this lock was rather large and made Kim think of some of the older locks she'd had to get through when she had been testing the security in older buildings.
Which meant she was confident that she'd be able to pick the lock. She just first needed to see if she could find a tool that would work. However, as she looked around, nothing stood out to her, so she merely took her sword and decided to see if she could just break the lock to get through.
As she slid her sword along the side of the door, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Kim looked and saw one of the other men holding out a small metal rod. Kim was at first confused as to what was being offered, but then she suddenly realized what it was for. This man probably had some experience picking locks, Kim put her sword away and took the rod with a nod to the man before she started working it into the lock.
While Kim had experience in picking locks, she never assumed that it would get done so quickly. The lock popped open almost as soon as she started. Not that it really surprised her. The lock was probably considered a difficult enough to keep most people out and the door was far more sturdy than most of the other doors around here.
Kim then opened the door and was surprised at what she saw. Inside were several people all tied up and gagged. They all looked at Kim by the open door with fearful expressions. The people in the room appeared to be wearing a uniform of sorts, though she couldn't say what it signified.
"I was wondering where they all went," one of the men remarked to himself.
"What're you talking about?" Kim asked.
"Those are the servants," the man answered. "I had noticed there didn't seem to be any around, so I thought that they have been told to stay clear of where the party and guests would be. I didn't think that they had all been tied up."
Kim shook her head, not sure what to believe at the moment. Then she entered the room and began cutting the cords used to bind the servants and let them remove their own gags. She wasn't sure what to expect from this, but she didn't feel like just leaving these people to remain here and whatever fate would come for them.
She was aware of some of her allies helping untie the bound servants as well. Which she didn't mind. It would make the task go a little quicker. Especially since there were so many people inside the room.
When she was done, she then looked at the servants, who were massaging their limbs that had been bound for who knew how long and were trying to restore circulation to the rest of their bodies.
"What happened here?" Kim asked, hoping they'd be able to give them some kind of information about what was going on that she didn't know.
"We were asked to come here by the chamberlain," one of the servants said. "He said he had a task for us to do, but when we all arrived here, the door closed and then there was a strange smell and when I woke up we were all tied up like that."
"Can you open the doors to the servant's entrance," Kim asked, ignoring some of the finer details of what they'd been told.
The servant shook his head. "No, none of us have a high enough position to be trusted with keys.," he replied.
Kim nodded, then turned to head back to the room they'd just come from. Though, as she reached the doorway, she paused. "Can you at least show us the way to the servant's entrance?" she asked.
There was a sudden murmur of assent from the entire group of servants and Kim nodded as she turned and reentered the room. Then as they directed her to which door to open, she began to pick the lock to open the door and make their way to the possible exit for themselves.
However, as she started to open the door, an arrow pierced through the door completely, which told Kim that they shouldn't bother with this entrance. It was clearly guarded just as closely as the main entrance had been.
Though, as she looked at the servants that were now following the, she had to consider this wrong choice to at least have some good come out of it. The servants had been tied up, so if something happened to the manor, their lives would have been in danger, so it at least had been worth it to try this way. Even though it was otherwise a waste of time.