Chp.32: How to save the brother
"...and as a result, we now know that Haku is in the capital of the Jurao Kingdom, incidentally in the arena. The question now is, what obstacles will we face in order to free him?"
After obtaining the much-needed information, Serengal had immediately reunited with the rest of the group and confirmed to them that she had been successful; at that point they had returned to the inn where they were staying and had segregated themselves inside one of the rooms. Even though they were a little cramped due to the fact that the room was only made for two people, they could still sit on the floor and discuss what to do. Resting on the floor were two maps, one showing the entire Jurao Kingdom and one showing the capital of the kingdom, which according to what was written on the paper was called Akirana. The group had bought them before returning to the inn to get a sense of how difficult their undertaking would be.
Sarah sighed as she looked at the maps. "If your brother really is in the capital, then saving him won't be easy" she said pointing to Akirana on the Jurao Kingdom map. "The capital is almost in the exact center of the kingdom. Let's assume that you manage to reach it, free your brother and escape. And then? Even if you are able to do all this without being discovered, surely the guards will notice your brother's disappearance within a day. Do you think they would let a dragon loose in the kingdom? You wouldn't even be able to reach the nearest town before being captured. Even using your rune that allows you to become invisible and create illusions, it will be extremely difficult avoid all the patrols. Reaching the border will be almost impossible"
Rhaegal, Corgorin, and Serengal knew the woman was right. However, they had had to make many detours on their journey from Karbraland Great Forest to Yuthia Desert to avoid encountering the patrols, and they weren't even looking for them. Escaping while being pursued would be hard and uncertain. Even though they had the invisibility rune, they couldn't use it constantly, and if the patrols had created a perimeter that would have prevented them from leaving the area they were in, they would have been closed with no escape and would eventually have made up for the lack of food. either one of them would make a mistake and show up, or maybe the humans would use some magic to locate them… the possibilities were limitless. Evaluating the odds, the dragons were the losing side.
"Not to mention the fact that pulling your brother out of the capital will be an impossible feat in itself" Efren said, taking Akirana's map and pointing to the arena. "The arena is located in one of the most guarded points of the city, and what's more, no one has ever managed to escape from there. Even if reaching the exit seems easy, since it is enough to memorize the path, in reality it is full of traps hidden in the walls so well that they are practically invisible. On top of that there are dozens of guards who constantly patrol all the corridors. Finally, all entrances and exits of the arena are barred with magic when not in use, preventing anyone to pass through them. There's a reason the most dangerous criminals are sent there: there's no chance they'll escape. The arena serves as both a place of entertainment and a prison"
"And even if by some miracle you managed to get your brother out of there, you'd still have to get out of city" Carlos continued. "It is known that an ispector is sent out every hour to check that everything in the arena is okay, but it is likely that they do it at even faster pace. If they notice that something is wrong, the alarm goes off immediately. for the strong paws of a dragon to reach the exit of the city in less than an hour.As soon as the guards know that your brother has escaped, the city gates will be magically barred and the walls will be enchanted to prevent anyone from entering. climb. The streets would be overrun by soldiers who would look everywhere for your brother, and it will be impossible for him to hide since your rune doesn't make you incorporeal"
Rhaegal, Corgorin, and Serengal looked blankly at the maps. The previous excitement at the thought of having found their brother was replaced by awe. There were too many obstacles and too many things that could go wrong. Just pulling Haku out of the arena would have been a challenge, then getting out of the city would have been nearly impossible, and finally reaching the border would have been permanently impossible. Everything indicated that it was a hopeless mission. "Corgorin, go to our siblings and tell them what we've discovered. Maybe they'll make something up" Rhaegal said.
Corgorin nodded and closed her eyes; after a moment, her body shivered and the illusion dissolved, leaving only a corpse that fell to the floor with a thud. Meanwhile, far away, Corgorin awoke in her real body and found himself in front of her siblings. That was their way of communicating: since they could change bodies at will, one of them would periodically return to their sisters to inform them of what had happened.
Corgorin quickly explained to her sisters what had happened; she even made drawings on the ground to illustrate Haku's location and the obstacles they would encounter to free him. By the time she was done, everyone was quite discouraged. "Well… humans sure know how to hold a prisoner" Tikka murmured when the explanation was over.
Even Kotaru didn't know what to do. "Some idea?" she asked hopefully, but hardly anyone answered.
"None" Darbi grumbled. "Here we need Haku. He would be able to figure out what to do"
It was true. They all knew that Haku would have already found a way to be able to save one of them if he was in the same situation. But Haku wasn't the savior this time, he was the victim. And it was their job to get him out of his prison.
"Why don't you use the body of a dragon?" Lisah suddenly asked, who was tied up nearby and had been listening to the whole conversation. "I mean, we've seen that you have your father's body in your bags. You could use it to..."
"Lisah, shut up or I swear I disown you!" screamed an angry Martha, who was tied up beside her. Seriously, how naive could her sister be? Suggesting that psychopathic dragons use the body of an adult dragon was like condemning thousands of people to death!
"You can rest assured, we've already thought about that. And we can't use it" Maldor reassured her. Using the body of one of their parents had been the dragons' first thought after they discovered how to connect to dead bodies to maneuver them; that way, they would have to fear almost no enemies. Saving Haku would have been child's play. But sadly, since the dimensional bags were limited in space, their parents' bodies had been cut apart to be stored in there. And stitching them together was impossible: most of the dragons' bodies worked because the mana allowed it. Now that they were dead, the bodies were being crushed by their own enormous weight. It would have been impossible for dragons to reconnect all the nerves, veins, arteries, muscles, and bones that made up their parents' bodies. Thus, using the body of an adult dragon wasn't an option.
That was a bit depressing, because it meant giving up the chance to save Haku easily. But strength wasn't everything; often, loopholes existed in even the most perfect security system. "I have an idea" Sisna said. "If we can't take Haku out, then let's not. We have something that can allow us to bring Haku right here in an instant… the portable gate!"
The others widened their eyes. Of course, they almost forgot about that possibility! "But Haku had the portable gate" Keita reminded them. "Now it will be in the hands of humans"
"Yeah. But maybe we can recuperate it" said Sisna, then looked at Corgorin: "Sister, go back to Atharka and ask your fellow adventurers where humans could have brought a magical jewel of inestimable value... but that they don't know how it works" she added, remembering that humans longed to learn fairy magic, and consequently they would have been very inclined to study the portable gate if they had obtained it.
Corgorin nodded and closed her eyes again, reactivated the connection with her fake body, and in a moment she was back in the room of the inn together with Rhaegal, Serengal, Efren, Sarah and Carlos. Very quickly she explained to them what he had been discussing with the siblings, and she asked them the question.
The adventurers didn't even need to think about it to answer. "Should the king come into possession of a magical artifact that he doesn't know how it works, then it can only be found here" Efren said, pointing to a point on the map of the capital. "In the Academy of Magic"
"The Academy of Magic? Would they bring such an important item to a school?" Rhaegal asked doubtfully.
"The Academy of Magic is not just a school. Of course, magic is taught inside it to new mages... but many areas of the building are closed to students and extremely protected by thousands of spells" Efren explained. "This is because new types of magic are also studied there. The teachers of the academy are also researchers. The headmaster herself, the mythical sorceress Hara, is one of the three legendary levels of the kingdom. It is impossible to steal anything from within. Therefore, whenever the king comes into possession of some new artifact, he sends it there to be kept and studied until its secrets are revealed, which are then taught to the next generation of mages of the kingdom"
Rhaegal nodded. Indeed, it was very convenient to keep a magical object in a super-protected place and at the same time designed to study it, as well as directly connected with the future generation of mages so that they learned its properties as soon as possible. "I guess stealing something from here is also impossible"
"Exactly" Efren replied.
But Rhaegal didn't look convinced. "Not necessarily. Maybe, if we manage the situation well, we can do it". His gaze became more intense. "I have a couple of possibilities in mind, but at the moment we still have too little information to understand if they will work. We will have to study a plan carefully in the future. In any case, getting into this Academy of Magic should be easy, right?"
"Yes, if you're a student. But students can't enter the restricted areas, as I explained" Efren replied. "Only teachers can do that. And becoming a teacher isn't something you can do overnight. First, you need to be at least a level mithril mage. Second, you need to prove you're a qualified mage and not a criminal. Even if someone claimed to be from another country, it would still be easy to discover their origins"
"Why? No one made such a fuss when we got here, and we're phenomenal" Corgorin said.
"You are only level gold adventurers. You don't have access to important artifacts and you don't have a great level of strength. You don't need to prove that you are honest people" Efren explained. "But above the level gold, things change. From the level diamond onwards, you must necessarily be part of the army (which includes multiple areas, including precisely that of teacher at the Academy of Magic), and to confirm it, people who are part of it receive a plaque with their name, surname, city of origin, age and strength level. In this way it is immediately possible to understand if that person is a qualified and law-abiding subject of the kingdom or is a criminal, because if he was a level mithril but didn't have a plate then he would surely be breaking the law. And in almost all other countries there is a similar system; some have different criteria, some calculate the strength level limit differently, but all of them release a plate or a document confirming that that person is really who they say they are. Without that document, becoming a teacher of the Academy of Magic is impossible. And I doubt that you have one"
"So you have to join the army, mh?" Rhaegal murmured. "How long does it take to become a member of the military?"
"A recruit stays a rookie for no less than five years. Only then does he actually become a part of the army and receive his plate" Efren explained.
"Too long" Rhaegal said. "Corgorin, go and ask the others for advice"
Her sister nodded and again dropped her fake body and returned to her real body, and quickly explained the situation to their siblings. When she was finished, Sisna seemed to have something on her mind. "I bet there are other ways, even not exactly legal ones, to get one of those plates"
Corgorin turned back and relayed his sister's words to the others. Efren, Carlos and Sarah looked a little uncomfortable. "The only legal way to get that license plate is to join the military. Illegal... you could ask organized crime"
"What is organized crime?" Rhaegal asked.
"A plague on this country" Efren replied. "Organized crime is a group of people who pursue unlawful acts, such as bribery and extortion. They are usually led by a noble or a group of nobles. A long time the aristocrats could carry out these acts freely, but with the new laws due to the current king and his predecessors they had to change their attitude and therefore they built the organized crime. Unlike ordinary gangs, these people are very skilled at their job, rarely engaging in in violent acts and mostly use threats, that's why they are so hard to eradicate. It is said that if you can get through to them, they can give you anything if you pay well... even a new identity. If you approachedmthem, perhaps they will be able to transform a poor man without any credentials into a skilled and absolutely qualified mage"
Rhaegal smiled; that was exactly what they needed! "How can this organized crime be contacted?"
"I don't know!" Efren snapped. "They are usually the ones that contact you, if they know you need help and can pay well. None of the three of us have any idea how to contact them in person. Do we look like criminals to you?"
Rhaegal sighed. If the adventurers didn't know how, then they didn't know how to find out. He certainly couldn't go around asking people if they were criminals in disguise. He nodded to Corgorin, and she immediately understood and returned to their siblings to warn them.
When she finished explaining, however, Sisna didn't look disappointed at all. "Good" she said with a smile. "If the organized crime is the one that contact its clients, then we will wait that it come to us! We will welcome it with open arms! Sisters, it's time for a trip to the capital!"