Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Cath - Ch. 84

This is what I feared the most.

The day when we were to be separated has come. The Princess already struggled to hide her identity, her hair grew just enough in the last week since we were locked up that if I knew where to look, I could see her original purple color peeking out. And the Sea People decided to move us upstairs after seven days into a separate cell, which meant I couldn't even protect her anymore.

"Cath, can we break out from here?" She asked me, whispering. I wondered about that too, but it didn't seem likely.

"I don't know enough of this dungeon to tell, and the chains don't help us either." I shook my head. We quietly talked so the guard pulling us along wouldn't hear it. His boots and armor combined with the noise our chains made, should have been able to suppress our voices. "It's only one soldier, but we can't exactly go through the walls."

"What about your disappearing trick?" The Princess nudged me from the side. Of course, I thought about that, but I still needed somewhere to go, the miracle itself couldn't get us out of there. At least we had plenty of time to strengthen ourselves, and I prayed to Remmol a lot.

"If I see an opening, can you follow me through?" I whispered into her ears. If someone saw us from the outside, we might have looked like a lovey-dovey couple, trying to spend their last moments together, chained up, before they were forcibly separated. It did feel like that to some degree. We spent most of the time together lately, and we started to grow closer too. "We won't get a second chance."

"Don't mind me, Cath." She shook her head. "If you can get out somehow, don't wait for me. I trust you would be back to bust me out one way or another. You make better decisions than I do."

"I won't leave you behind" I protested, even if what she said made some sense. I had a better chance to escape if I didn't have to drag her along. I could even make it back to Nateaser, and ask their help, but that would have taken a long time. "If I got out, they might punish you for it, and what if they figure out your true identity?"

The guard glanced back for a second and yanked on our chains. I was too loud, but he didn't seem interested in our chatter. Rather, he wanted us to shut up. The armor he wore had an oriental design, a metallic mask covered the face with only a cutout for the eyes. The helmet went over it a pointy, open design, but very different from my own. I could not forget that either, I wanted to get my things back. My helmet, at the very least, as the armor turned out to be less useful than I had hoped. It was a powerful item too.

"If neither of us manages to get out, we'd be separated so you couldn't do much about it." The Princess told me roughly a minute later. We arrived at a staircase, spiraling up and down to the other levels, torches lining its walls the entire way. When they brought us here, we still had our eyes covered, so I couldn't even guess, if we were going on the same route, and where it would lead us.

"Cut it out already." The soldier yanked our chains again before he started up on the stairs. "I'll have ya ladies know, there is no escape from this prison, no matter how much you chatter about it."

He heard us after all. Still, just one guard and in a narrow place like this? If I jumped him from behind, I could have snapped his neck without anyone even noticing. It was tempting but also foolish. I would only make things worse for us before I figured out where we were going. The Princess turned more and more pale.

We kept on climbing, leaving behind a few doors on our way. It must have been at least five levels when the stairs suddenly ended, and we arrived at a small room overseen by a guard post and a few additional soldiers. Some also led a few captives like us, but only humans.

"All right, ladies. You will be taken to the palace's garden next for selection." One of the guards explained once we arrived. His armor had a silver lining along the plates, making him stand out from the rest who wore those rust-colored pieces. "You might see males up there too, but don't go near them. You will stay in the line until someone calls for you specifically. The ones selected will be transferred to their new place, and you two from the dungeon: it seems you were deemed interesting enough to skip a few steps."