Fritz, Karl, and Heinrich all tried their best to scour the city throughout the morning. Fritz and Heinrich led the wyvern knights at scouring the central district and various wealthy areas, while Karl’s soldiers were deployed all around the city in general.

  By midday, they regrouped at Branburg’s garrison’s HQ to talk about their findings. Inside Karl’s office, the faces of the three officers were weary and darkened, as if their entire efforts were for naught.

  “Shit, did she slip from this city?” Karl lightly bashed his fist on the table. “I’m going to look like a clown to our higher-ups.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m in the same boat.” Fritz rolled his eyes as he looked away. He was quite disappointed about Karl, as his soldiers weren’t really up to the tasks of searching and chasing leads either.

  The best thing they did was rough up a few civilians on the streets for questioning, enough that Fritz decided to not bring a single one of them when he knocked on the doors of wealthy businesses around town. Most of the time, Karl’s soldiers just slapped posters and announced rewards for finding Stella Rosette.

  “None of what we did will lead to anything good,” Fritz took a seat on a chair in front of Karl’s table. Then, he grabbed a glass that was prepared for him, pushing it slightly in Karl’s direction.

  The garrison officer grumbled a bit before opening the cork of the wine glass that was on the side of his table. Then, he poured wine into Fritz’s glass. On the side, Heinrich placed his hand on his chin.

  “Is it possible to send people on the roads out of Branburg?” Heinrich asked. “Let's try that.”

  “No,” Fritz answered.

  “I can get my boys out there,” Karl said.

  “No.” Fritz shook his head. “It’s not going to get you that far.”

  “Why so? Are you insulting my soldiers's competence?”

  “Why make that assumption?”

  “You’re presuming that we’re going to fail. Sir, I tell you what, the men of Branburg are ready for a simple search operation! Give me the word, and I’m organizing search platoons outside the city.”

  “I said it’s pointless because the princess knows how to disguise herself, and neither you nor my men have any mage specialized at dealing with that.”

  That caused both Karl and Heinrich to raise their eyebrows. Heinrich especially…he was extra surprised about that information. Come to think of it, ever since they started searching around town, he’s been uncharacteristically stiff.

  It only added fuel to Fritz’s suspicion that Karl did indeed meet Her Highness, although he was hiding it. What a bad liar.

  He shook his head.

  “We may have already walked past them on the streets. She’s already alerted to our presence, and for whatever reason, she’s choosing to hide.”

  “All this doesn’t make any sense.” Karl toyed with his mustache, his brow furrowed. “Did she betray the kingdom, perchance?”

  “How dare you suggest—” Heinrich suddenly spoke up before stopping and straightening himself. “Sir, there’s no chance that Her Highness, an ordained [Saint] by the goddess, will betray the kingdom.”

  “Well, you never know,” Karl scoffed. “If she disappeared without a word for no reason, not revealing why, all while holding the [Saint] class, she might as well have betrayed us. Unless she’s dead and we’re chasing ghosts.”

  “...I wouldn’t theorize about her loyalties that way,” Fritz sternly warned Karl before turning to his subordinate. “But, Lieutenant, don’t think I didn’t notice your outburst. Out with it.”

  “Out with it?”

  “You have suspicions, correct?”

  “Yes, but they are outlandish.”

  “I see.”

  So that’s the furthest to ‘yes’ that you’ll say to me, huh?

  Did she perhaps tell Heinrich to not reveal herself? After all, it wasn’t like Heinrich was lying to Fritz with malicious intent; he didn’t come off with that kind of attitude. While he was a cocky, overambitious, and overconfident bastard, he’d never lie to Fritz.

  Unless he had a reason to do so. His defensiveness of Her Highness, therefore, was suspect.

  “We’ll continue our search,” Fritz declared. “Though, we’re going to need extra hands today.”

  Karl lowered the glass in his hand after drinking from it. “What?”

  “We need mages capable of unmasking our beloved 4th princess.” Fritz then smiled. “Branburg’s adventurer’s guild is quite sizable, isn’t it?”

  “Looks like they’re planning to unmask you soon.”

  “I feel even more sorry about them now. I’m causing them so much trouble.”

  Stella and Marcus both walked away from the HQ building of the city’s garrison, which was conveniently located just a few blocks from the Continental Bank’s Branburg branch office. It was a small walled complex, containing three buildings, enough that it housed around two hundred soldiers and staffers of equal number.

  Including the soldiers patrolling outside of the garrison HQ itself, alongside the city guards that could be mobilized, Marcus estimated that there were at least a thousand armed soldiers in Branburg, give or take.

  Of course, they wouldn’t be able to mobilize all of that, not when there was zero active threat to the city, but they've already been dealing with dozens of squads roaming around the city. It was getting a bit hairy, to say the least.

  So, Marcus and Stella had to act now if they wanted to fix this predicament quickly.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  They walked straight into a deserted corner before Marcus held Stella’s hand, a prerequisite so he could effectively use [Blink Step] with her. He was used to holding her a lot at this point, as [Blink Step] was something he employed liberally, but this time around, he noticed that her hand was a bit colder than usual.

  She seemed a bit twitchy too.

  “Alright, are you ready?” Marcus asked, concerned.

  Stella took a deep breath before answering. “I think so?”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. I’m just…not sure what I’ll say to them. I’ve made a big show to you about trying to meet my parents to calm things down, but now—”

  “Stow those fears away.” Marcus gripped her hand tighter, as if trying to show her support. “I’m here. I told you I’ll help you out. If it gets too awkward, I’ll drop a shitty joke out of nowhere.”

  “W-what?”

  “I’m telling you. I’ll do anything to get you out of any hairy situation.” Marcus smiled at her. “You’re my friend, after all. Don’t worry about this. You’ve dealt with worse already, remember?”

  She nodded at Marcus as she smiled a bit.

  “You’re right. Why am I so nervous…they’re my parents, and those guys are soldiers from my country.”

  So even she struggles with social problems sometimes. Surprising.

  “Heh,” Marcus laughed, looking away. “Guess we’re not too different, huh?”

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing. [Unseen Veil], [Blink Step].”

  Undetected, the two teleported their way into their hotel. There, they went to their respective suites to change to their White Watch clothes, with Marcus electing to keep his mask on. Then, they sneaked out, using [Unseen Veil] and [Blink Step] as well.

  It wasn’t a perfect combination in broad daylight. If anyone looked at the two directly, they would be caught, so Marcus had to travel using areas where people didn’t congregate too much. Soon, the two stopped in the same deserted lane they were on earlier, now in their White Watch attire.

  “Alright,” Marcus looked at Stella. “So the plan is, we’ll walk in there, while I keep my mask on, then you’ll introduce yourself. Sounds good?”

  “Yes,” Stella nodded. “I’ll remove my disguises now.”

  Then, that was when Marcus saw as her face shifted. She dropped her spell, causing the almost imperceptible distortions on her face to change. Her human ears grew into their knife-like shape, her previously amethyst irises turned slightly thinner, and the imperfections on her pale skin disappeared.

  He’d rarely seen her elven form; quite frankly, she only really showed it in their travels when she slept, and Marcus never slept with her in the same room. The only time she ever slept with him was back in that cave near Pinkerton City.

  And he never dared to look at her that night. He went straight to sleep. Even when he woke up first thing in the morning, he went straight outside to cook. He wasn’t the type to stare at her, however beautiful she was.

  After all, Marcus was empty inside most of the time. He didn’t have much ability to appreciate beauty. But now, for a few seconds, he was transfixed as he looked at her.

  She was so beautiful, so perfect, that it was inhuman. Well, she wasn’t human; she was an elf, and elves always had quite the different level of beauty from mediocre humans like him. But Stella was on a different level, at least in Marcus’s opinion.

  He coughed as he looked away. Thank goodness he didn’t stare at her for more than three seconds. That would be weird.

  “Say,” Stella called out. “Do I look good? Uhm…I don’t look too bad, right?”

  “What?”

  Marcus looked back at her as she stared at him, her cheeks slightly flushed. She seemed quite shy, as she kept her hands tucked in her back, her face practically asking her question again a second time.

  “Do I…look good? I don’t want to embarrass myself. I’m royalty, after all. I have an image to maintain.”

  “Of course you are.” Marcus said, as if he was saying the most obvious thing in the universe. Though, he didn’t like the fact that he stammered a bit while doing that. “Don’t worry about it. You look…princess-y?”

  She leaned close to him.

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “I’m glad,” she retreated, before nodding to herself. “Alright, I’m ready now. Let’s go, Sir Marcus!”

  “You people are going to reimburse us for this, right?” Karl complained loudly in the hallways as Fritz, Heinrich, and Karl walked quickly. “Come on, the finances of my garrison are already bad enough, and you want me to shoulder the hiring of mages?”

  “Come on, ole Karl,” Fritz shrugged as the trio turned a corner. “If you find Her Highness, the king will be extremely pleased. Think of the honors and rewards. Maybe they’ll even send better equipment for you guys next year.”

  Karl seemed red-faced, as he didn’t like being strong-armed for this. He preferred to just send his boys out, because that would be cheaper and he wouldn’t have to use the limited budget he had for his unit. The budget, of course, was something Karl seemed to like to preserve.

  It was common in the Sordalian military. Lots of officers took cuts on the budget assigned to them. Some of the most craven ones even sell the equipment meant for their troops. He didn’t have evidence about it, but Karl probably was one of those types.

  And really, Fritz wasn’t going to make an outburst about it. Almost everyone in the main army did it, as the discipline and culture of the Wyvern Knights Corps didn’t extend nowadays to the rest of the military, so it was pointless.

  He was just annoyed about it, because now, Karl continued to blabber on and on about why hiring mages would be stupid and why, actually, there probably wasn’t anyone in the Adventurer’s Guild capable of unmasking the magic of a literal [Saint].

  “But that’s why we’re going to ask around,” Fritz declared. “We’re going to find out if we have the people we need or not. And if we do find them, then we’ll hire them.”

  Karl facepalmed, slightly fuming. “And I was planning to increase the pay of a few high-performing platoons in my unit.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Why? They deserve it.”

  You mean you deserve the pay raise, you sly bastard.

  Fritz decided to finally ignore Karl's bellyaching as they reached the entrance of the building, exiting out of two wide open doors. As they descended on the stairs, troops outside saluted the trio, and of course, they regarded them briefly.

  They soon reached the gate of the walled complex. Fritz picked up his pace further, annoyed at the growing warmth of the sun that was beating down on him. Winter was close, right?

  Then why was it still so warm?

  “Once we’re done, we’ll gather up our searching parties,” Fritz continued. “Then we’ll—”

  He stopped. Outside, on the busy street in front of the garrison complex, two figures in white cloaks stood still. They were both staring at Fritz, Karl, and Heinrich. One of them had their hood up, wearing an ominous white mask that only had holes for its eyes.

  The one on the left, on the other hand, had her hood down. Sunlight gently bounced off her shimmering silver hair, her amethyst eyes calmly observing the three officers with a small smile. Then, Fritz’s eyes fell to her knife-like ears.

  She was an elf.

  A silver-haired, purple-eyed elf.

  Both Karl and Fritz had their jaws practically drop at the view. Heinrich, on the other hand, inhaled deeply out of nowhere before slightly bowing his head out of respect.

  “W-what—?” Fritz had no words. Why did she just suddenly appear in front of them, after all their desperate effort to find her?!

  “Hello!” In contrast to her elegant poise, her voice came out bubbly and bright. “You must be Captain Fritz Stiglitz, right? I heard you’ve been ordered by my father to search for me.”

  Her smile widened.

  “Well, here I am. I’m the fourth princess—Stella Rosette vi Sordale. Nice to meet you, and sorry for hiding way too well!”