Clashing with the Empress 4

Enki woke up in a dark cell. At first, he was confused as to where he was, but the slight throbbing of his head made him recall the recent events. He quickly realized that someone had kidnapped him.

'But who and why?' Enki contemplated. Frankly, the list was too long. He was an obstacle to a lot of people. Deciding that figuring this out could wait until he was clear from this mess, Enki looked around his surroundings.

The cell was damp with water leaking from the ceiling, and there were no windows or other sources of light, except for a torch that was burning few meters away from the cell, next to a stairwell that led up. The cell had a simple wooden block that was likely to serve as a bed, and a steel chamber pot, secured by metal bolts into the ground.

Enki himself had been stripped of most of his clothing. His boots, belt, and jacket were taken and his pants pockets were emptied. He only had a white silk undershirt, underwear, and leather pants.

'So they left me with nothing that could be used to escape. The people behind this are most likely hired professionals.' Enki brooded while starting to feel discouraged. He didn't want to quietly just stay and wait for his fate, but he couldn't come up with anything that would allow him to escape.

His blue-core cultivation wouldn't be enough to pose a threat to the kidnappers. The fact that he was a blue rank Warrior was public knowledge and considering that these kidnappers had been so thorough, the fact that they didn't bother to restrain him meant that they didn't think it would allow him to escape.

To confirm that his thoughts were true, Enki used half of his strength to punch the bars of his cell. With a thud, his fist hit the bars, and he could see some runes glowing briefly before the impact was completely absorbed. The iron bars remained unharmed.

'Tsk. They have enchanted them. I have no chance of escaping by using brute force.' Enki noted.

Sighing to himself, he sat upon the wooden block and waited for someone to check upon him. They would likely have gotten some kind of signal that he had activated the runes on the bars and would come down shortly.

A few minutes passed, and Enki could hear footsteps from the stairwell. They were slowly getting closer. Apparently, the men didn't want to take any chances, just in case he somehow had escaped against all of their predictions.

Soon he could see four men entering the dark underground area. The men wore all common dark clothes and had masks on their faces, giving no indication of whom they might be or what organization they belonged to.

The four men were slightly surprised to see Enki calmly sitting in his cell. Usually, the nobles they kidnaped went hysteric and started to scream and shout, or begged for them to be released or offered them more money than their employer. Not that it ever worked. They were professionals, and they would go out of business if they screwed their clients over.

"So, how long have I been holed up in here?", Enki asked them.

"It has been two hours since we took you. You have been here for an hour or so.", replied one of the men.

The four men glanced at each other and another one of them asked; "Aren't you going to ask why we brought you here? Or what we want from you?"

"Well, you didn't try to forcibly wake me up and didn't bring any torturing tools with you, so you clearly have no need to question me. As for why you kidnapped me, the fact that I'm not injured indicates that you need me unharmed, so it's most likely that your client is going to use me as a bargaining chip or for an exchange.", Enki replied while analyzing the situation.

The four men glanced at each other in surprise. The young man was spot-on.

"I wish all the people we kidnapped would be as sensible as him.", one of the men muttered under his breath, earning nods of approval from the other three.

"All right, since you have a good grasp of the situation, I only have two rules for you to follow. First, don't try anything stupid, like escaping. Second, don't try to scream for help. No one will hear you, but it gets annoying over the years, so we wish to spare our eardrums. Follow these two rules and we will let you be here in peace and bring you some food and water. Otherwise, we need to knock you out again and gag you.", the leader of the men declared while observing Enki.

Enki simply nodded. He was well aware of his situation and no desire to make his stay in the depressing cell any worse.

Satisfied with the young man's attitude, the men turned around to leave.

"Right. You mentioned food. I haven't eaten anything today, so could you bring me some?", Enki asked innocently.

Hearing their prisoner make the request so brazenly made the brows of the four men twitch.

'Can't you act a little more reserved? We are criminals, you know? All of us are wanted men with high bounties, yet here you are, acting without a care in the world!' they shouted in their minds.

The leader of the men gave a curt nod before they continued to go up the stairs.

'All right. I have some time off work and get some free food. Things don't seem too bad.' Enki convinced himself, trying to remain positive.

Time passed slowly, food and some water were delivered to Enki and he ate the stale stew happily. One needed to conserve their strength while being held captive.

After eating, Enki spent the rest of his time training his inner core. He hadn't had a chance to truly practice since he entered the Imperial palace, so now was as good a time as any.

Hours went by and soon night started to fall upon the capital and the men returned to fetch Enki.

"Alright, put these on.", the leader said and threw Enki a pair of handcuffs and a black bag.

"Is this really necessary?", Enki frowned.

"No. We can also knock you out again if you prefer.", the leader retorted flatly.

Sighing, Enki put on the handcuffs and pulled the bag over his head.

"All right, let's go.", the leader said and opened the cell door, and grabbed Enki's arm. He then proceeded to escort Enki outside.

Enki was escorted into a tunnel that led to the sewers. While Enki could not see, he could still sadly smell. The pungent smell invaded his nose, forcing itself upon him. The smell made Enki gag several times, and thanks to the fact that Enki could not see, he stepped several times on something soft and gooey.

'God, how I wish that is just mud.' he silently prayed.

The men walked within the sewers for close to an hour before stopping. The leader of the men first snuck up to take a look if anyone was nearby. Seeing that the alley they wanted to exit from was deserted, he signaled for the others to come up.

Upon exiting the sewer, the men knocked on the door of a house in the alley. The door opened and Enki was ushered inside.

"Alright, the goods have been delivered, now pay up.", the leader demanded from the people that were within the house.

Enki couldn't hear any reply, but he could hear the sound of something being thrown, which was followed by the jingle of coins.

"Pleasure doing business with you.", the leader called out while walking back to the alley.

Enki was led to a cell within the new place, and this time the hood was kept on and he was chained to a wall. These people clearly wanted him to know as little as possible about them since they didn't even make a sound around him.

'Probably using hand signs to communicate. Most likely mercenaries or soldiers then.' Enki assumed.

'Since they don't want me to hear their voices, could they be people I can identify? That would mean that Imperial guards or some noble's personal guards that frequently visit the palace. Or an Imperial family member's personal guards.' Enki deliberated.

Of course, Enki was fairly certain who the culprit was, but he still wanted to cover all of his bases in order to deduce based on the facts, not just guesswork.

After being chained to the wall, Enki was left there in the cell, all alone. Time went slowly by. Enki had no idea how much had passed since he was brought here, having lost all track of time in the silent and dark room.

Meanwhile, Madelein had just made her way to the place written on the note. She could spot men that were trying to look inconspicuous guarding the place, dressed as commoners.

'Looks like I came to the right place.' she concluded. Now in which of these buildings was the slave driver being held?