Taking the Luggage Out

Step one in breaking out of prison with luggage: get out of the cell.

Ciel hopped to the front of the cell, trying to seem pitiful. "Mr. Guard? Can I go to the bathroom?"

His tone was neither loud nor quiet, waking up the guard immediately. 

He was ignored grumpily. 

Ciel smiled and started to sprout out bullsh*t, still trying not to wake the children he had deemed as luggage.

"Hey hey, if I go here, won't all the flowers stink when you auction them off? Consumers want goods, not malnourished stinky children. You don't know why me and my friend were suddenly transferred here right? In my previous cell, the guards were extremely irresponsible and all of us has to sh*t inside. Then when our group was brought out, only the big brother who was a clean freak was sold. Our stench directly drove the other masked ones away! Then I heard the guards were punished for not taking care of the goods and we were transferred here. I was a little resistant to the drugs and woke up early. Guess what I saw? The whole prison was burning down with the previous guards in it! It lit up the night, and there were even a few knights inside~"

Before he could say more, the guard opened the door, the numerous keys making soft clanking noises as he locked the cell behind Ciel. 

"Come on." A grumpy voice sounded out from behind the mask.

Ciel smirked. 

'Simpleton.'

The cell was underground and above it was a simple room that seemed to be a house's living room. The only abnormal thing was that there were no windows, nor a door. Ciel admired the style that seemed to combine modern and medieval aspects together into a perfect fit as he was pushed into a small bathroom. 

But for a moment, his thoughts strayed from his goal. 'Why is the mirror so big?' 

Behind the sink was a huge mirror that covered the entire opposite wall in the tiny space. Curious, Ciel tapped the mirror, before his eyebrows rose in interest. There was no gap between his fingernail and its reflection. 

A bit of craftiness seeped into his harmless smile. 

Step two in breaking out of prison with luggage: find an escape route. 

Ciel wrapped his hand in toilet paper, and punched the mirror. It was like hitting a rock with cotton, making a barely audible soft thud. Ciel could only draw back, shaking his hand. 

'F*ck this weak body. Can't even break a mirror. If only my magic wasn't restricted.' Ciel could only take out the customized metal cards from his pocket. He usually had a deck of cards on him but he hadn't had a chance to use them yet. Idly playing with them didn't count.

Picking out a random card, Ciel whipped it at the mirror. His physical strength as a whole was weak, but his wrist and hand strength was nothing to scoff at. 

*Crack*

This time, the glass shattered neatly. 

Step two complete.

'As expected, it's better with weapons.' Ciel picked up his card and quickly ran into the tunnel that appeared behind the broken glass mixed with metal. 

'I knew there would be something behind that mirror! After all, the previous room had no entrances nor a second floor, how else would people enter and exit?' 

Hearing the guard slam the bathroom door open behind him, Ciel quickly took out more cards and threw them without looking back. 

The thudding footsteps behind him faltered. Stunned, Ciel looked back.

The guard was staggering, he had barely dodged Ciel's cards which had been aimed at his vital points. His leg had been scraped, and a card was embedded in his arm. Ciel's accuracy, speed, and force with cards were comparable to a gun's firepower. 

The guard was in pain. He didn't understand why mere cards were able to act like sharp blades.

'Huh? He's surprisingly weak?'

Ciel slowed down to a walk and made a U-turn. 

He activated his mana senses, examining the guard closely. He hadn't noticed it before because he was focused on the guard's aura level, but in terms of mana, the guard was completely a normal person. From how he had been unable to completely dodge Ciel's cards earlier, he wasn't that adept in battle.

Ciel laughed. 'How could I forget? A combatant's aura level is how proficient they can use their respective techniques. It doesn't represent how strong a combatant is. A person can be a grandmaster but still fail at fighting. Though, it takes battle experience to explore and master a technique.'

The guard in front of him was obviously the type who had trained his techniques everyday but had little actual experience.

'In that case, all the later steps can be scrapped.' Ciel walked closer, and before he could react in time, the guard was pinned to the ground by his cards. He tried to stifle his groan of pain—a card had pierced his hand through his flesh and onto the ground.

In the guard's eyes, Ciel had changed from a helpless but cheeky merchandise, to something that resembled the devil. Ciel's smile that had seemed so angelic to the children felt incredibly malicious to him. 

"Wha-what do you want to do?" The guard wanted to move away as Ciel neared him, but the piercing pain in both his hands stopped him from forcibly yanking his hand away. 

F*ck, why was he feeling so afraid of a brat?!

Ciel tilted his head in an innocent way, "Don't worry, I only want two things from you."

He stopped before the guard. The guard was sitting down now, but Ciel's height made it so that they were still on eye level. Bending down, Ciel easily unclipped the ring of keys around the guard's waist. After trying some out, he finally unlocked the collar around his neck. 

'Ah, that's much better.' 

Before, it felt like his blood flow was being restricted and slowed down, making him feel suffocated. 

As for the second thing he wanted, Ciel plucked out the cards from the guard's body and wiped them clean on his shirt. He adopted the most friendly face he could have and started to dig. 

"Are you the only guard here? Ah, you should know there's no benefit in lying to me right?" In the dim tunnel, Ciel's blue eyes gave off a feeling of oppression that seemed to be able to look through him.

The guard grit his teeth.

"Huh? You aren't talking? Do you want more cuts?" Ciel dangled a joker in front of the guard's left eye, swaying it threateningly. 

"You little–don't get too arrogant!" The guard broke out of the trance the pain had put him in and pulled out the sword strapped to his waist. Unsurprised, Ciel jumped back, barely dodging his swing. He was supposed to be wary after freeing the guard from his cards, but after seeing the guard so easily overtaken by pain, he decided to play a bit. 

The guard was no longer deemed a threat, especially after Ciel took his mana restriction collar off.

After adapting a bit from the pain in both his hands, the guard calmed down, and his intermediate level swordplay came out. The reckless swinging became more and more refined as blood dripped from the sword's handle. But soon, the guard became frustrated. 

None of his attacks were landing. 

Ciel agilely moved around, utilizing his small body to the fullest and used mana to make himself even lighter. He was always dodging the guard's blade by just a bit.

Just as the guard thrust his sword straight towards him, Ciel used the wall as leverage and landed neatly on his blade. 

"Done yet?" Ciel was bored. This had to end soon. Besides, his stamina was still trash. 

"My turn."

A spades flew out along with a diamond card. But this time, the guard was prepared, avoiding both. Yet before he could be happy, a thin, cold card was pressed under his chin. 

"If you don't want this to be stabbed through your chin, you better talk. Alright?"  More than a head shorter than him, Ciel's blue eyes glinted like innocent jewels while his harmless smile was smeared with the guard's blood. For the first time in a while, the guard felt helpless.

This wasn't a child, this was a monster he couldn't beat. The guard gritted his teeth and made his decision.

Just when Ciel thought the guard was finally willing to talk, the guard gave a pious smile, as if he was going to be freed. 

"For the golden age of Natas."

"Hah?" Ciel watched the light dim from the guard's eyes. The guard had died instantly, and his last words sounded very cult-like. 

'But wasn't he someone from a demon sub-organization? Demons all worship the demon king as their god.' Paying no attention to how the guard had suddenly kicked the bucket, Ciel racked his brains. He didn't recall the demon king's name from the novel. The protagonist and everyone else had always called him the demon king. 

'Perhaps Natas is the demon king's name?' But even the demons had always addressed the demon king as, 'my king'. Why would a lowly guard from a sub-organization dare to directly call the demon king by name?'

Ciel couldn't stop his lips from curling up. 

'Looks like the future will be pretty stimulating. Unusual things will always lead to a good show to watch.' The guard's cold body was dropped carelessly on the dirt floor as Ciel turned around to go back to the cell.

"I originally wanted to experience an exciting prison break chase, but you had to be this weak. Oh well, there's always a next time." Ciel sighed.

No one had come after all the ruckus he had made. So Ciel concluded that the guard was the only one looking after the imprisoned children. 

"Well then, I can take the luggage out now."