The Extra of The Lunerra

Chapter 446 - 79: Questioning the False Prince

Not a single sound came from anyone. As if time had stopped, no one moved a muscle, they just stayed where they were.

Including me.

But it wasn’t because I was calm, because I kept my cool.

Rather... I was frowning, confused.

Why did he look at me, specifically?

If he had accepted that he was caught, that he was going to die... why did he need to look at me when he asked that question?

Was it something random?

It didn’t look like it, to be honest.

"Hah..."

I paused with the voice echoing in my ears.

"Ahahahah...!"

And the laughter that followed.

I pushed my thoughts aside and looked at the man in the center of the room who couldn’t stop laughing with his lips curled upward.

He was laughing like he had lost his mind.

"D- dad?"

His daughter, Phloria, took a step toward him with a worried expression.

But King Faelan ignored her and continued to laugh.

Finally, Phloria gritted her teeth and turned her gaze from her father to her brother.

"Y- you..."

Her pale yellow eyes sparkled, mana began to swirl around her. Alith continued to stare at his sister without even blinking as if she was provoking her.

I watched everything that happened in silence.

But, just as Phloria was about to finish her spell and attack Alith, the source of the laughter in the room slowly stopped. Then, a hand appeared on Phloria’s shoulder.

The mana that had accumulated in the room suddenly stopped, and Phloria’s eyes widened.

"Stop, Phloria."

Phloria instantly listened to her father’s words. The glint in her yellow eyes receded, and a look of confusion crossed her face.

King Faelan, though, didn’t look at her again after he stopped her. He took a deep breath and gave Alith a very cold look.

"You have no intention of running away."

All the seriousness, the coldness disappeared from Alith’s face. A normal expression took its place, and then he shrugged his shoulders.

"There is nothing I can do. I am aware of my capabilities and limitations."

Faelan looked him up and down for a brief moment, then, without another glance, he turned away and moved toward the door of the room.

"What we do about you... will be determined privately later."

Alith’s expression never changed. It was really impossible to understand what he was thinking about his father’s decision. Yet he remained silent, neither objecting nor seeming to accept it.

King Faelan opened the door to the room. The guards waiting behind him immediately turned toward him and bowed.

"Take Alith Aroniel to the dungeon. Restrict his mana, and have at least five people watching him at all times. I don’t want there to be a single second when he is not under surveillance. Search his room thoroughly, quarantine anything suspicious, and report back to me."

Faelan walked out of the room as if he didn’t care about anything that had happened as the guards quickly stood up and approached Alith, who was sitting on his bed without causing any trouble.

...

Whatever they called the place they lived in now, it was complicated.

It was easy to disguise my existence as a spirit as the whole place was overflowing with mana, though finding the dungeons at Aiden’s request was not easy.

The benefits of being able to walk through the walls are endless, but the complexity of the structure caused me to waste a lot of time before I found what I was looking for.

When I finally found the dungeon where Alith Aroniel was being held... I couldn’t help but be surprised.

Because this ’dungeon’ didn’t look like a dungeon at all.

Dungeons were usually dirty, poorly maintained. They were places where prisoners were kept, after all. There was no need to pay too much attention except for security and surveillance.

But this place?

This was different.

The reason was that it resembled a full-fledged guest room... rather than a dungeon where a prisoner was kept.

If I hadn’t been able to see the person chained to one of the walls of the room and the guards constantly watching him, I certainly wouldn’t have believed that this was a dungeon.

Strange, I thought to myself. Yet I didn’t let myself get too carried away by this strangeness. I had a mission, after all.

And so I approached the chained prisoner, Alith Aroniel, prince of the elves, with a steady concealment of my presence.

His lips were flat, his expression normal, his eyes closed. He was chained to the wall with his arms outstretched to his sides and forced to his knees.

His clothes were clean, his skin smooth, though slightly pale.

After sighing slightly, I began to turn around and examine his body. Although his use of mana was completely restricted, there was nothing strange or wrong with the flow of mana in his body, his vital activities were quite normal. There didn’t seem to be anything hidden in his clothes, and if there was, it had probably already been found by the guards and reported to the king as he had requested.

So, for several minutes, I stayed where I was and observed him.

I waited more.

I checked further.

...

Yet, no matter how long I waited, I saw nothing unusual, nor did Alith Aroniel open his eyes. It was exactly the same now as it was when I first arrived.

The same...

Without any difference...

Boring, even, after a point.

But that didn’t change anything. Just because it was boring didn’t mean I was an idiot Aiden couldn’t trust. So I kept watching the prince, relentlessly.

Finally, when I realized I wasn’t going to find anything, I let out a deep sigh.

Half an hour had already passed. I had even waited longer, about forty minutes, just in case.

It would have been better to go back and tell Aiden that nothing had happened. He was going to send me back here later anyway. Or give me another assignment, if I knew him at all.

So I started to go back to the room, thinking it would be okay. I kept replaying what I had seen, to make sure I hadn’t missed anything, to confirm that nothing suspicious had indeed happened.

But, then... I paused.

I was barely halfway between the dungeon and Aiden’s room when my brow furrowed. I slowly turned around, right in the direction of the dungeon.

I closed my eyes, sharpening my senses, not afraid to use Aiden’s mana.

And... I found it.

Something suspicious.

A trace of mana.

Aiden’s suspicions... were correct, it seemed.