Hurrah. More carpets were sold the next week. Now Jylan and Sebastian were happily making a decent amount of money, enough that they didn't even need to take all of the orders. But this was all halted one day when an imperial guard showed up at their cottage to knock. Sebastian and Jylan threw on their wigs and contacts before answering. Of course, they were still arrested without any explanation.
"H-Hey! Wait!" Jylan said as a guard held his hands behind his back. Sebastian was also desperately struggling, like a fish on land, but nothing worked against the guard's iron grip. They were both thrown into a carriage after being tied up, where they lay side-by-side, quite uncomfortably at that. Finally, Jylan, after a decent amount of wriggling, got something out of his pocket. It looked like a flat piece of metal surrounded by an equally flat piece of leather, but, when he flicked it out, Sebastian saw in the dim light of the carriage that it was, in fact, a pocket knife. Sebastian watched as he awkwardly tried to cut the ropes free with his knife, but soon enough it fumbled out of his hands and dropped onto the floor with a small chime of metal.
"Here, let me try," Sebastian said, also wriggling into a semi-sitting position with some difficulty. He moved both of his arms to loosely grab the knife and then tried to cut Jylan free.
It didn't work. I mean, I guess the thieves had good taste in rope - or at least they knew how to make a good knot.
Sebastian leaned closer. His chin was resting on Jylan's shoulder, and he was breathing slowly right next to his ear. Jylan was frozen still, and finally, the ropes broke free.
Sebastian turned around.
"My turn, butler."