“Even if you say it will cause a problem, we can’t fulfill our objective if we don’t enter the castle.”
Ariane spoke in a sullen tone to the small boy who was holding out his arms in front of her.
This boy had revealed the location of the secret passage into the castle to us, yet he was telling us not to use it.
Ariane was an elven warrior who had a mission to fulfill, yet she still seemed slightly irritated lately.
“Sil, if you have a reason we should not proceed then speak up.”
I closed the panel and sit on the stairs so we could listen to what he had to say.
Sil’s eyes restlessly dotted back and forth while he was lost in thought before he started talking again.
“Hoban is already suffering due to the heavy taxation…… The unreasonable tax even caused my mother and father to die of illness…… The citizens were planning to start a revolt…… however, right before the plan could be carried out, another feudal was assassinated. As a result, the guards in the town and castle have been heavily reinforced……”
When Ariane heard Sil’s words her eyes started to swim while I awkwardly looked down.
The increased number of guards and the strange inspections were all because of that Lord’s death due to Ariane’s actions. Hoban’s lord was probably scared of an elven surprise attack.
A feudal lord selling elven slaves had been killed, so those who bought said slaves would naturally act more cautiously.
“It took a large amount of money to reinforce the guards, which caused the taxes to be raised even higher…… The person who told me about this secret passage is part of the rebellion, but due to the increased amount of guards they had to change their plans for safety’s sake. The panel was something they believed to be impossible to lift with human strength……”
He kept looking at me as he talked as if he had something difficult to say.
Certainly, if the guards had been strengthened then our secret entrance could be blocked, but a rebellion might solve that problem.
Sil had said that the entrance shown to us as a reward was believed to be unusable and that he thought I’d be upset that it wouldn’t open. He even prepared to offer me a different reward instead.
In any case, had Diento’s lord not been assassinated, then the rebellion would have gone on as planned, and there’d have been a chance that the elves would have been freed……
When I turned to Ariane, I saw that she was crouched down on the floor while still holding Ponta.
Since we were somewhat responsible for this, we couldn’t say no to a way to fix both problems…… I think.
“Hmm, how about we sneak into the castle using the rebellion as a cover?”
While the rebels try to overthrow the feudal lord, we’ll use this entrance to get inside the castle. With the rebellion underway, we could search for the elven slaves without much issue.
If we carry out our operation in the midst of the confusion there would be no need to fear pursuit either.
“I don’t particularly mind…… when will the revolt start?”
Ariane’s mood seemed to improve as she crossed her arms in tentative approval and asked for the date of the revolt.
It surely would be awkward if the new date of the revolt was set in January or the like.
“I can’t tell you without speaking to Labatt first……”
Sil looked down with a sorrowful expression as he spoke.
It’s something that couldn’t be helped, I doubted that a kid like Sil could lay the groundwork for a rebellion of this scale.
Without the agreement of the person behind the rebellion, it would be impossible to coordinate the operation. The question is if that person would be willing to accept the proposal of two unknown people……
It’s a pretty thin hope───
In my heart, I let out a sigh.
Following Sil’s suggestion, we quietly let him lead us to the base of the person called Labatt.