Chapter 35: Caught in the Candilac Trap

A thick, potent beam of light erupted from the ground, soaring skyward.

Qi Lin, who had been flapping his wings in the sky, poised for escape, found himself struck alongside Nia and Ailin, the two Beastmen, before they could even attempt to dodge.

The intense impact of the beam caused all three to instinctively squeeze their eyes shut.

Yet, the anticipated searing pain never materialized; instead, a peculiar sensation of constriction enveloped them.

Qi Lin’s eyes fluttered open, his brow furrowed in confusion.

It was then that he realized the beam, just moments before impact, had morphed into five colossal fingers, seizing them with the effortless ease of plucking birds from the sky.

Having already reverted from his bat form to his human guise, Qi Lin thrashed with desperate ferocity.

His efforts, however, proved utterly futile.

The powerful beam began to retract.

Within moments, the three were gently lowered to the ground.

“Hahaha, I’ve got you now!” Deboli declared, a weary smile tugging at his lips as his gaze fixed upon the three bound figures.

Qi Lin met his gaze, his eyes wide with unconcealed fury.

“Oh ho? Little sister, are you perhaps… vexed?” Deboli chuckled, a genuine smile spreading across his face as he met Qi Lin’s furious stare.

“How did you manage to find us so swiftly?” Ailin demanded, his voice a low growl as he clenched his fists.

Scarcely ten minutes had passed between their arrival on the plains and their capture, and Ailin struggled to comprehend how such an impossibly rapid apprehension had occurred.

While he had anticipated discovery by Candilac’s border forces, the sheer swiftness of their capture struck him as utterly preposterous.

It was almost as if their arrival had been predicted, and the enemy had simply lain in wait, ready to ambush them.

“To that question, my answer is unequivocally this: our Emperor’s foresight is truly divine!”

Deboli accepted a restorative potion from a nearby subordinate, drained its contents, and then fixed Ailin with a penetrating gaze.

“Divine foresight? Ha, preposterous! You speak of Emperor Novas, that butcher, that executioner?” Ailin spat, his voice laced with venomous hatred, his teeth grinding audibly.

“An executioner? You dare to call our revered Emperor an executioner? Ha! Hahaha!”

“What finds you so amusing?”

Ailin, his face a storm cloud of anger, watched Deboli, who was now doubled over with laughter.

“What am I laughing at? Ha, I laugh at the pathetic, pitiful lot of you Beastmen, still clinging to thoughts of vengeance against the Empire! Your efforts are utterly in vain.”

“You—!”

Stung by the truth of his words, Ailin’s furious glare intensified, burning with resentment.

“Enough of this. Haven’t you Beastmen yearned to enter the glorious realm of Candilac?” Deboli murmured, his voice low and eerie, as he seized a handful of Ailin’s hair.

His eyes locked with Ailin’s, which blazed with a desperate hatred, wishing to tear him limb from limb. “I shall grant you that wish. However, you will enter as condemned criminals.”

“Ah, I neglected to mention this,” he added, a hint of false benevolence in his tone, “I am, after all, a benevolent soul. Once we reach Candilac, I might even arrange for you and your friends to meet more of your own kind. Won’t that be delightful?”

Receiving no response from Ailin, a feigned sigh of regret escaped Deboli’s lips as he released his grip and stepped aside.

“You few, escort them away.”

With a casual gesture towards a handful of knights, Deboli turned and strode towards his private office.

Pushing open the heavy door,

Deboli found the Colonel, who had arrived bearing the Emperor’s direct orders, comfortably ensconced in his own office chair.

“Colonel Ketia, I trust you find that particular chair to your comfort?”

Deboli offered a slight bow, his gaze fixed on Ketia, who still occupied his chair.

“Ahem, quite comfortable, thank you.” Ketia replied, his eyes, which had been narrowed in contemplation, now opening fully.

He cleared his throat before rising to his feet. “Colonel Deboli, what brings you here?”

“The targets have been apprehended.”

“What? So swiftly?” Ketia’s brow arched in surprise.

Could it truly have been so quick? The individuals the Emperor commanded to be captured had simply… surrendered? It seemed highly improbable.

“Pray tell, Colonel, do you doubt my word? Or perhaps you question my capabilities?”

A flicker of displeasure crossed Deboli’s face.

While Ketia might be a favored confidante of the Emperor, that did not grant him license to challenge Deboli’s competence.

“Hehe, Colonel Deboli, you jest,” Ketia chuckled, a dry, forced sound. “How could I possibly question your abilities? Everyone knows your prowess is unmatched; otherwise, the Emperor would hardly entrust you with the defense of our borders.”

“Hahaha, Colonel Ketia, you flatter me unduly,” Deboli responded, clearly pleased by the praise. “Might I inquire as to when you intend to escort these criminals back?”

“…Take me to them first!” Ketia declared after a brief moment of contemplation.

“Indeed, an excellent suggestion.” Deboli concurred with a nod, then gestured towards the door.

“Then, Colonel, after you!”

****

Within the confines of the prison cell,

Qi Lin, Nia, and Ailin found themselves bound together by shackles as thick as a man’s arm.

“Alas,” Nia sighed, her ears and tail drooping in despair, “we weren’t seized by Ditters, but rather by Candilac’s own forces.”

“Indeed,” Qi Lin affirmed, his gaze fixed on the grim prison door.

“…No, this won’t do! We must devise a plan to escape this place!”

Ailin, who had remained broodingly silent since their incarceration, abruptly sprang to his feet, the sudden movement rattling his shackles with a metallic clang.

“Escape? We would dearly love to, but how can we possibly flee in our current predicament?”

Qi Lin reached out to touch the cell door, only for a shimmering array of dense runes to instantly flare across its surface.

He then spread his hands in a gesture of helpless resignation towards Ailin.

Had the cell door not been imbued with such potent enchantments, perhaps they might have entertained the notion of an escape attempt.

Yet, it was crucial to remember that those who imprisoned magic-wielders would undoubtedly employ countermeasures against their abilities.

‘…’

Ailin sank back to the ground in disheartened silence.

Truly, in their current plight, all that awaited them was a slow, inevitable demise.

Only a miracle could save them, but was such a thing truly possible? They were ensnared in an inescapable trap.

The enchanted prison door alone rendered any escape utterly impossible.

Even if they somehow managed to breach it, a host of watchful knights stood guard outside, their gazes menacingly fixed upon the cell.

In such a dire situation, salvation seemed beyond reach.

A miracle, quite simply, would not manifest.

“Oh, to think,” Nia murmured, her head bowed as she stared at the grim, grey-black shackles binding her wrists and ankles, “I haven’t even truly seen the world yet, and already I am a prisoner.”

The sight of Ailin and Nia’s despondent forms stirred a faint pang in Qi Lin’s heart.

‘Alas,’

Yet, what good was such a fleeting emotion when he himself was powerless? Qi Lin sighed inwardly.

Just as the trio succumbed to a heavy silence, the distinct creak of a door opening echoed from beyond their cell.

Footsteps steadily approached, revealing Deboli and Ketia, both striding with their hands clasped behind their backs.

“Colonel Ketia, these are the individuals in question.”

From outside the cell door, Deboli gestured towards the three silent figures.

“Indeed,” Ketia mused, stroking his chin as he offered a slight nod, “they are precisely the targets the Emperor entrusted us to apprehend.”

It appeared, then, that the Emperor’s directive had been successfully fulfilled.

And yet, these individuals seemed remarkably weak, didn’t they? To be captured with such effortless ease was rather perplexing.

He wondered why the Emperor would concern himself with such seemingly insignificant captives.

After a moment of careful scrutiny, Ketia found himself marveling at their apparent ordinariness.

Two young Beastmen, their fur barely fully grown, and a Maiden of an unidentified race—he couldn’t discern anything particularly remarkable about any of them.

“Well, Colonel Ketia, what do you say? Was I not correct? These Beastmen, especially the younger ones, are remarkably easy to apprehend.

Even the Emperor, truth be told, hardly needed to dispatch colonels like us for such a simple task.”

“Ahem, what was that you just uttered?”

Sensing the dangerous edge in Ketia’s gaze, Deboli instantly snapped his mouth shut.

What had he just done? He had dared to speak ill of the Emperor in the presence of his most favored confidante.

Even if his words hadn’t been a direct criticism, merely hinting at such a sentiment was utterly unacceptable.

“Colonel Deboli, mark my words: learn to control your tongue.”

Ketia admonished, casting a sharp glance at Deboli before turning his attention to the three figures within the cell. “Regardless of who or what race the Emperor wishes to apprehend, and irrespective of whether the captured individuals are weak or mighty, remember this: those who receive a direct command are to harbor not a single shred of complaint.”

“Colonel Ketia, your counsel is well-received.”

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