Chapter 12: Alexia's Kidnapping

Rumors about Alexia dating the son of a baron are the hot topic around school right now. It's funny how desperate she is at avoiding me that she resorted to such drastic measures. I gave no comment on that of course. I just listen as the rumors continued growing wildly, though the rumors seem to heavily favor Alexia, making it seem like she's the victim of a blackmail of some sort. Poor guy.

Out of pity and curiosity, I started digging and found out the son of the baron is Cid Kagenou, Claire's younger brother. What I see is… shocking. While not completely so, he resembled Kageno Minoru-kun! Not just that, he even behaved like Minoru-kun would, which is like a mob! Is he…. Is he really…?

No. Impossible. I've already established that it is impossible for him to be Minoru-kun. Minoru-kun died before me so he can't be born after me in this world. Claire being Minoru-kun reincarnate is actually a higher possibility and yet she showed no sign of resembling Minoru-kun at all. This is mere coincidence, just like how their surname is the same as Minoru-kun's.

I decided to ignore him as he walked away with Alexia hugging his hand, pretending to be a happy girlfriend while he just nonchalantly goes along with the farce.

Also recently I feel like I've been watched by someone. Whenever I'm in school I felt someone's eyes on me but when I looked back, they're gone. I tried to find them more subtly by simply looking at their direction from the corner of my eye and I see a plain looking girl with brown hair styled into a bun wearing glasses. You know what that means…. I have a stalker! And she's a good one! Her skills could've made her a professional assassin! I wonder if I could recruit her. Eh. That would come later when I can catch her off guard. As the professional stalker she is, she knows to keep her distance with me and would run away as soon as I faced at her general direction.

Anyway, now I am attending the Royal Bushin class, of which Marquis Zenon Griffey is the teacher. He obviously didn't know that I am the Necromancer, his rival within the Cult, and yet whenever I attended his class, he seemed to pay close attention to me. My stalker has made me pretty sensitive to other people watching me it seems. Not that I'm not used to the attention. It's just that… I find their eyes more intense than others. For my stalker, I understand. For him though… Did he already suspect that I'm the Necromancer?

"Mr. Normann." He called me after class is over, the few students who remained watched curiously.

"Yes? What do you need, Mr. Griffey?"

"Have you heard of the news about Alexia?" He asked curiously, not bothering to whisper and letting everyone listen to what he has to say.

"Hasn't everybody?" I replied.

"What do you think?"

"I think the Princess is just bored and wants to play. I sort of pity the guy though."

"Is that so? You're not mad at all? You are one of her suitors after all."

"Same as you, Mr. Griffey."

"Hmph. I share your opinion in this matter, Mr. Normann. Though I hope you don't do anything reckless."

"The same goes to you, Mr. Griffey." He frowns and left.

He seems to want to get me to say something implicating. I smell conspiracy. So you're about to make your move, Zenon. I shall watch and admire your evil plans then. Heh heh heh. Oops I grinned again. It's been a while. I should do something about this habit or people will start noticing how evil I am.

Few days later we heard the news that Princess Alexia has been kidnapped. What a surprise! My main suspect is obviously Zenon Griffey. He was planning to implicate me for this kidnapping. That's what our conversation few days ago are for but implicating me means implicating himself as well because our positions are the same. He was forced to just arrest the poor mob Cid Kagenou. But why would he kidnap Alexia though? Did her sharp tongue actually got to him too? But surely someone like him wouldn't be affected by words.

Because I was curious about it, I sneaked into the Capital's Knight Order headquarters to investigate. It's been a long time since I last sneaked into Knight Order headquarters.

"UWAAAHHH! PLEASE SPARE MEEEE!"

I heard a pathetic noise echoing in the halls and decided to ignore it. Like before, I entered their officer's rooms to search for clues. Unlike in the headquarters in Everick, they don't mix the Knight Order documents with Cult of Diablos ones. How professional. I suppose I should've known it wouldn't be easy for me to find these things. And I can't rely on my subordinates because this is someone else's base.

"Who's there!?"

Ah. It's this scenario again. I must admit that I suck at infiltrating. I suppose recruiting my stalker is a better idea than I thought. Now I just have to threaten the knight who found me…

"Well well well. Duke Normann's prodigious son entering the Knight Order's headquarters without permission."

Except I'm not in my Necromancer getup. I'm still Claude Normann now. Wearing only my academy uniform. Crap.

"Sir Zenon wanted a reason to capture you and now we have the perfect opportunity to do so." The other Cult affiliated knights entered the room and surrounded me. Now this is a familiar scene.

"Why would he want to capture me?" I asked cautiously.

"Because you're in the Cult's way, boy!"

"Hey. Don't speak of that!" His comrade scolded.

"It's fine! He already knows about the Cult. That's why he's here after all." Hm? I don't remember letting the Cult know that as Claude Normann I know about the Cult. Did they know that I'm the Necromancer?

"Now, don't resist if you know what's best for you, boy. Even you won't be able to defeat this many knights, especially armed with these." Said the knight, flaunting the sword I enchanted.

"What are those!?" I asked, pretending to be ignorant.

"Pseudo-Artifacts that a certain benefactor supplied. You probably know of him. Heh heh heh."

"Yeah! With these babies in our hands, we're stronger than your average knights!"

Yup. Confirmed that they don't know that I'm the Necromancer. But why did they think that Claude know about the Cult's existence? Hmmm… I recall Gilfried mentioning that too when we first met… Now I'm curious. I suppose I should let myself be captured so they can run their tongues freely.

"Dammit…!" I pretended to curse.

Then I allowed myself to be arrested and was dumped into a cell facing a not so random mob who has been stripped down to his underwear and beaten until I almost couldn't recognize his face. The mob is strangely calm despite his circumstances.

"Hey." I called out to the mob out of boredom.

"Hm?"

"Tough day?"

"Yeah."

"How did you get here?" I asked the mob.

"Hmm… Because I got involved with the wrong people I guess."

"Really? Me too." Alexia and Zenon got us both here.

"…." A moment of silence passed.

"Hey." I called out to the mob again out of boredom.

"Hm?"

"How's school?"

"It's fine I guess. Though it would be better without troublesome girls like my sis and a certain princess bothering me everyday." He answered with a little complaint.

"I perfectly understand. My sister also wouldn't leave me alone. I also got quite the verbal lashing from a certain princess recently." I replied, understanding him.

"Ha ha ha. That certainly sounds like her."

"How has she been treating you, Mr. Boyfriend?"

"Like a dog."

"Really?"

"Literally."

"Wow. She's worse than I thought."

"You sure you wanna marry someone like that, Mr. Suitor?" So Alexia told this mob about me.

"It was a political arrangement. Whether we like each other or not may not matter in the end. Though I think she at least needs to grow up before then. She has been avoiding me so much that we have only met twice so far. The first time was years ago."

"That's tough."

"Yeah. It is. More than I thought it would be with a princess like her. But I'll manage."

''Good luck. And don't let yourself be treated like a dog by her."

"I won't. Thanks."

I like this guy. He's pretty chill.

The next day the mob was released while I was scheduled to be "interrogated". They escorted me to an interrogation room and strapped me into a chair with magic sealing cuffs, which doesn't actually work on me, though I won't let them know that. I'm going to turn this "interrogation" upside down.

"Heh heh heh. With this Artifact, you're just a helpless civilian now." Said the knight who is assigned to "interrogate" me.

"Sure. You guys are such wimps that you have to gang up on me and seal my magic."

"You seem to not know the situation you're in, boy."

"I know better than you." And I wasn't exaggerating.

"You arrogant-" He raised his hand, intending to punch me. But I broke the cuffs, stood up, and punched him in the face before his fist could land. He stood back up, his hand covering his bleeding nose.

"Aghhh! H-How did you do that!?" I punched him in the face again. "Aaaagh!"

"By being better than you."

"Y-You bastard! You think you can get away with treating the Knight Order like this!?" I punched him in the face yet again. "Uaaarghhh! My face!" Aww. He's crying now.

"You chose now to pretend to be a knight? Even though you guys haven't behaved like proper knights since last night? You can't even pretend to a knight properly. You're better at being a whiny girl!"

"You…!" I punched him again. "Uwaaahhhh!" He's a sobbing bleeding mess now. I tugged on his collar and pulled his face up.

"Now answer me. What is the Cult's goal on kidnapping Alexia?"

"Ughh…. M-Marquis Zenon… wants to harvest her blood… for the Cult's research…"

"Why?"

"B-Because the royal family… inherited the blood of Heroes…"

"Good. And how did you know that I know about the Cult?"

"F-Few years ago… One of the spies we sent to monitor your sister… who worked as your sister's maid… You discovered her true affiliation… didn't you?"

"Before my sister's kidnapping?"

"Y-Yes…"

"Ahh… I remember. The maid with the funny name." What was it? Mini On? I don't remember what I said to her but it seems to made her believe that I already know of the existence of the Cult since years ago.

"Funny?" The knight asked, not understanding the joke.

"What's your name?"

"W-Whiny Jerkass."

"Pfft…. Ha ha ha ha ha!" I have to appreciate this world's naming sense. And also bless them for not understanding the joke due to language barrier.

"Heh! Laugh while you can! We will soon get to your precious sister too! And then you'll be the one crying!" He left the interrogation room while crying and his comrades fearfully entered the room, with their hands around the hilt of their swords, to escort me back to my cell.

Author's Note:

So Claude finally interacted with Cid for the first time and they found that they have things in common. Naturally they both don't know each other's alter ego so they are able to converse with a relaxed attitude.

Anyway, I might have less time now so I probably won't be able to release new chapters daily anymore.

J-More: oh, now you got me excited for a Mundane Man vs Claude

Answer: Hope I can get to that part even when I get busier.

CrazyMeem: Don Jon.

Dungeon.

lol

Answer: Yes. Also the Don is sort of common for Italian Mafia Boss if I recall.