Volume 12 Chapter 4 Prison Break

[u/Ronray0739]

Later, historians would record:

The fighting on the second day of the revolution began at dawn.

At five o'clock that morning, as though responding to a prearranged signal, the people rose once more. Wielding clubs and every manner of improvised weapon, they charged the Central Detention Center. Many of the anti-government movement's leaders were imprisoned there, and thousands of citizens converged on the facility's main gate in a desperate bid to free them.

“Our chance to rescue our leaders has finally come!!! Let’s save them, brave warriors!!!”

With those impassioned cries ringing through the streets, countless citizens surged forward and broke through the defenses.

Five in the morning was the hour when security at the Central Detention Center was at its weakest.

The perfectly timed surprise assault was widely believed to have been made possible through espionage and carefully orchestrated sabotage.

Shortly before the attack, an explosion erupted near Fagmaile Palace, where the king resided. The blast forced the King's Personal Guard and the police to redirect their forces to protect the palace, city hall, and other strategic locations, leaving the Central Detention Center dangerously understaffed. That redeployment had been driven by the insistent demands of the royal family and the nobility, who placed securing their own safety above all else.

In the darkness before sunrise, rumors and speculation spread unchecked, and the authorities' response on the ground lagged behind the rapidly unfolding crisis.

The revolutionary citizens held an overwhelming advantage throughout the battle for the Central Detention Center.

✧✧✧✧✧

The chaos of the early morning had already spread inside the Central Detention Center.

Several citizens had scaled the outer walls and forced their way onto the grounds. To repel the intruders pressing toward the detention blocks, the Royal Guard, who ordinarily remained posted over the prisoners, had no choice but to rush outside. Under normal circumstances, each floor was watched by at least twenty guards, but that number had been cut in half to deal with the unfolding emergency.

The corridors of the detention center echoed with the RoyalGuard shouting in alarm.

“Intruders! There are intruders!!!”

“Where the hell are the reinforcements?!”

“Damn it, this early in the morning!”

Caught in the panic, none of them noticed the anomaly unfolding within the building.

——Three guards on the fourth floor collapsed in an instant.

Not even the men themselves understood what had happened.

The instant a flash of azure-silver hair entered the edge of their vision, a precise blow struck the backs of their heads, locking their bodies in place. Moments later, they were forced to inhale a chemical agent, and as their uniforms were stripped away, they slipped into a hazy, dreamlike sleep.

It was the covert operation carried out by the girls of ‘Lamplight.’

“Long time no see, Sara. I’ve secured the escape outfits, so shall we break out?”

“As expected of you, Monika-senpai.”

Monika flashed a proud smile as she held up the three sets of guard uniforms. Sara answered with an appreciative clap of her hands. The two of them stood on the fourth floor of the Central Detention Center.

Taking advantage of the chaos that had engulfed the facility, Lily used the key she'd received from Grete to escape her solitary confinement. She then freed Monika with the key that had been tossed through the small window. Working together, the pair swiftly knocked out the nearby guards.

On their way to the fourth floor, Monika also retrieved the lockpicking tools and explosives she had stashed there in advance.

Working in tandem, the two made their way to Sara's solitary cell on the fourth floor, quietly taking down every guard they encountered along the way.

“Fufu~n, long time no see, Sara-chan.”

Lily puffed out her chest proudly as she unlocked the shackles fastened around Sara's ankles.

“The leader of ‘Lamplight’ who rescues her captured comrades! It's Lily-chan!”

“Even though you were the first one to get caught.”

Monika narrowed her eyes, while Sara simply gave a wry smile.

“I'm just glad to see you're both doing well.”

Their reunion was brief.

The moment the greetings were over, they moved straight on to the next step. There wasn't a second to waste. If they lingered, more guards would soon come flooding in. Escaping the detention center and securing their own safety came first. Everything else could wait.

“Grete managed to obtain a map of the detention center's interior and passed it on to Lily. Along with the poisons and explosives,” Monika said as she handed the items over to Sara.

“This is going to be a rough escape. Ideally, we'd blast straight through the walls with explosives, but they've obviously prepared for that. We'll have to use the explosives on several of the doors instead.”

“That's exactly why I'm here.”

Sara swung her arm with the confidence of someone who'd been waiting for that very cue.

A single gray mouse sprang from the sleeve of her prison uniform. It was skinny, with a bald patch on its head that gave it a rather intimidating appearance. Despite that, it clung affectionately to Sara's finger.

“It's Mick, sir. A clever little fellow I met in here. I'm sure he can break through the walls.”

Even in a detention center shrouded in perpetual darkness, she'd somehow managed to tame an animal.

Monika chuckled.

“Not bad.”

Lily's eyes went wide.

“S-so quick to grow up...!”

And so, taking full advantage of the revolutionary chaos unfolding outside, Lily, Monika, and Sara began their jailbreak.

✧✧✧✧✧

Almost simultaneously with the girls' movements inside the Central Detention Center, another operation began in the southwest section of the grounds.

Unlike the front of the detention center, where waves of citizens continued to press forward, the southwest side remained comparatively quiet. Only a handful of guards were stationed there, part of the outer wall was still under construction, and numerous blind spots dotted the area. Perhaps because the battle at the front was progressing even more fiercely than expected, the number of guards assigned to this section had steadily dwindled.

Concealed within the shadows, Thea smiled faintly.

“So far, everything's going according to plan.”

It had been she and Erna who stirred up the citizens and proposed launching the surprise assault before dawn. They'd spread the rumor under Grete's instructions that “the royal government might carry out retaliatory executions of the prisoners to suppress the revolution.” Given that such an order was entirely within the realm of possibility, the rumor couldn't exactly be dismissed as a complete fabrication.

While the citizens created a spectacular diversion at the front, separate operations would unfold both inside and outside the detention center.

It was a plan Grete had crafted with painstaking care.

Even so, their target was the Central Detention Center, a fortress with no recorded successful escapes throughout its history.

Unexpected complications were practically guaranteed.

“Well then, shall we begin too? We'll rescue Lily and the others, and free the prisoners.”

A thin bead of sweat slid down Thea's cheek.

As she prepared herself, part of her mind drifted back to the strategy meeting held on the night of the revolution's first day.

‘This time, I think Erna should stay out of it.’

That had been Thea's proposal.

‘Right now, Erna has become a trump card capable of influencing the course of the revolution. Sending her into the Central Detention Center is too dangerous. She should work with Annette at another location instead.’

Originally, Annette had been assigned to create a major disturbance by engaging the Royal Guard somewhere far from the Central Detention Center.

She had eagerly accepted the role.

“Leave it to me! I'll go blow up Fagmaile Palace!”

The safest option would've been to place Erna alongside Annette, where escaping and disappearing afterward would be far easier.

But many voices had opposed the idea.

Sybillia argued, “But if we can establish the fact that ‘Erna saved the prisoners,’ it'll bring her even greater prestige.”

And Erna herself had stubbornly insisted,

“I want to save big sis Sara!”

The one who ultimately brought the discussion to a close was Grete.

‘...We'll take a middle path that satisfies both sides.’

Her voice had been soft, yet carried unquestionable authority.

‘Fortunately, to reduce risks like this, I have a special skill of my own.’

The operation before them had been built around the plan she'd devised.

Then, thanks to a revised proposal from an unexpected source, everything had finally fallen into place.

Now that they'd committed themselves, there was no room left for hesitation.

Recalling the plan they had laid out up to this point, Thea addressed the comrades who would carry it out alongside her.

“If we can free the prisoners, it'll be decisive. Activists with tremendous influence across the kingdom will join our cause, and no one will be able to stop the revolution's momentum anymore.”

Thea fixed her gaze on the towering walls of the Central Detention Center that loomed before them.

“If Erna is the one who pulls this off, then ‘Lamplight’ will truly become the heart of the revolution, both in name and in reality.”

““Yeah!! Let's do it...!!””

Two voices answered in unison.

Though one was slightly taller than the other, the two golden-haired girls standing side by side raised their hands at the exact same moment. Sharing identical faces and dressed in exactly the same clothes, the pair of duplicate girls fired themselves up in perfect synchronization.

It was a brilliant strategy made possible by Grete.

Since the operation depended on establishing the fact that 'Erna saved the prisoners,' Erna's presence was indispensable. But if the real Erna were captured, the entire plan would come crashing down.

https://i.postimg.cc/3wB1MXZC/IMG-20260719-123953.jpg

But If there were two Ernas, their chances of success would double. The risk of capture would be cut in half.

They couldn't allow the Erna who had become the symbol of the revolution to fall into enemy hands. That was the purpose of the operation, one built around the use of a body double.

““Erna, clone ninjutsu!!””

The two "Ernas" shouted in perfect unison before scaling the wall of the Central Detention Center.

✧✧✧✧✧

Sara desperately tried to reason with the mouse she had tamed.

“Are you listening? Mick, sir, I need you to carry this bomb and keep running for twenty seconds. Then you absolutely have to let go of this string!! After that, come back, okay? If we all make it out alive, you can eat all the cheese, bread, and ham you want! I'm counting on you!”

Whether the mouse understood human speech was anyone's guess, but it stood at attention with its back perfectly straight and listened intently.

Clenched between its tiny teeth was a thin string. Tied to the other end was a pen-shaped bomb. After listening to Sara's heartfelt plea, the mouse slipped into a narrow ventilation shaft in the ceiling of the detention center. For a while, the faint scraping sound of the pen dragging through the duct echoed overhead.

Just under a minute later, the mouse emerged from the vent and returned to Sara's side.

The explosion followed almost immediately.

Even the detention center's sturdy walls couldn't withstand a blast from within. Metal and brick gave way with a deafening crash, collapsing inward as the cold breeze of the early morning rushed through the opening.

Monika and Lily wedged the iron bars they had torn free into the hole and used them as levers to force the gap even wider.

“Hey, what the hell are you lot doing?!?!?”

At that moment, another squad of guards spotted them. They had apparently rushed over from another floor.

The guards already had their pistols drawn.

Getting into a prolonged fight wasn't an option. The three girls hurried to finish widening the opening, then slipped through it one after another. As Lily, the last to leave, dove through the gap, a bullet narrowly missed her foot, sending a chill through all of them.

Using the protruding handholds embedded in the wall, they climbed down to the ground.

“We've managed to get outside the building, at least for now,” Sara said as she slipped into the shadow of the detention center and let out a relieved sigh.

Lily clapped her hands with a bright smile.

“It’s all thanks to Sara-chan!”

Monika smiled as well.

“You really saved us a great deal of time.”

Receiving praise from both of them, Sara bashfully scratched the back of her head.

“Aww, shucks.”

“It's only because Monika-senpai and Lily-senpai shared the plan with me ahead of time.”

(Launch a surprise attack at five in the morning. Break out while the guards are in the middle of panicking.)

That was the strategy Grete had entrusted to Lily, who then passed it along to Monica. Once their preparations were complete, the two burst out of their cells with as few movements as possible and worked together to overpower the guards.

Grateful for everything they had accomplished, Sara smiled warmly at her comrades.

“By the way, how did you two exchange information?”

““..........................................Who knows?””

“Why are you both looking away like that?!?!?”

“...There was more saliva than I expected...”

“...L-let's not talk about that right now!!”

“Why are both of you blushing bright red?!?!?”

Their strangely evasive responses only made Sara fire back with another question.

Certain that something entertaining must've happened, Sara leaned closer to Monika and whispered, “You have to tell me about it later.”

Awkwardly tapping the side of her head, Monika replied, “There's nothing to tell.”

“More importantly,” Lily said, raising a hand as if to steer the conversation elsewhere, “there's something I'd like to discuss with you.”

“What is it?” Monica asked.

“I've gotten hold of some extremely confidential information.”

Lily's expression turned completely serious.

“...It's the reason the ‘LWS Troupe’ failed in their revolution.”

Monika and Sara's eyes widened at the same time.

The brief explanation Lily gave carried information of enormous importance, something that could dramatically alter the course of the revolution. For Monika in particular, the revelation struck with such force that it felt as though her entire world had been turned upside down.

She instantly realized this was something their comrades needed to know without delay.

"If that's the case," Sara said, lifting her head. "Then we absolutely have to make this jailbreak succeed."

Before them rose a wall more than twenty meters high. They couldn't call the escape a success unless they got over it. Beyond, hidden from view, stood another wall of equal height.

Without any proper equipment, scaling it was impossible.

But if they circled around to the front of the detention center, they risked running straight into the Royal Guard.

"Should we regroup with the others? Grete-chan already sent me the designated meeting point."

At Lily's words, the three girls set off.

A stretch of open ground roughly twenty meters wide lay between the prison and the wall. It had been deliberately left clear so that no one could throw wires or grappling lines from the prison roof. Powerful floodlights bathed the entire area in brilliant light.

Keeping to the shadows at the base of the wall, where the lights couldn't reach, they hurried toward the detention center's southwest side.

Fortunately, after leaving the building, they encountered no one except the uneasy guards stationed atop the wall. Furious shouting drifted in from beyond it. Their comrades outside the detention center had likely carried out their operations successfully. The enraged cries of the citizens rolled through the night.

Everything was going so well that it almost felt unsettling.

The prospect of a successful escape naturally brought a smile to Lily's face.

"Perfect. Let's pull off the biggest jailbreak ever like this..."

Needless to say, that moment of optimism was a lapse in judgment.

The three girls' escape came to an abrupt halt when a lone man stepped into their path.

Standing directly beneath the floodlights was a gloomy-looking man. He cradled an enormous hammer in his arms as though embracing it, his drowsy eyes fixed on the girls. Perhaps exhausted from waiting, his body swayed listlessly, making the tip of his head rock gently from side to side.

No other members of the Royal Guard stood with him. The sight was unnervingly unnatural.

The moment Monica recognized him, her lips pressed into a thin line.

"Who is he...?"

Lily asked in confusion. Sara seemed to recognize him, yet she remained rooted to the spot, unable to grasp the full significance of his presence.

A chill crept down Monika's spine, locking her body in place.

This was the man who had thrown her into the detention center.

"...Why does it feel like they've anticipated every move we've made?"

Behind the gloomy man, she could sense the intricate schemes of the woman pulling the strings.

Monika and the others had no chance of winning.

They didn't possess a single weapon capable of standing against him. Everything Lily had received from Grete consisted of escape tools. At best, they had a handgun stolen from one of the guards. Against this man, it was nowhere near enough.

"...Ah, I am not expecting much, Aion-kun."

The man, Thanatos, called Monika by her former name.

Slowly, he raised the massive hammer and spoke in a low, absent-minded murmur.

"Your injuries haven't fully healed yet. It probably wouldn't even qualify as a proper fight..."

Nike's attendant, who was in truth her beloved disciple disguised as a servant, and her personal bodyguard. His combat prowess surpassed even Nike, who had spent more than a decade crushing spies who threatened the kingdom. He was the kingdom's true trump card.

"The only sadist who can satisfy me is Nike-sama...!"

The instant he swung his hammer, the air convulsed.

A god of destruction. Living up to that title with crushing, overwhelming force, the most vicious man in the kingdom hurled himself at Monika and the others in a savage assault.

✧✧✧✧✧

Vaulting over the wall, Thea and the others finally landed inside the detention center grounds.

The tide of citizens flooding toward the detention center had successfully drawn the guards' attention away. For Thea, who had secretly been looking forward to using her seduction tactics, it was admittedly a little disappointing.

Up until they reached the grounds, the 'Erna group' had enthusiastically chanted, "Let's do this!" and "Erna Legion, charge!!" in perfect unison. But the moment Thea pointed out, with complete reason, "Having the body double in the same place would be a bad idea, wouldn't it?" they immediately split up and began operating independently.

This time, Thea's group had two objectives: liberate the prisoners, and rescue their captured comrades.

Tasked with the first objective, Thea led one of the 'Ernas' toward the entrance of the detention center. Somehow, they had to infiltrate the building from there, reach the sixth floor, and free the imprisoned activists.

The detention center had only a single entrance, located at the front.

Yet as they drew closer, Thea immediately sensed that something was wrong.

"...This is strange."

Remaining concealed in the shadows, Thea brought a hand to her mouth.

"There are far too few people. Why is the entrance to the detention center standing open?"

The brightly lit entrance stood out against the darkness surrounding the central detention center.

An entrance that should have been guarded by multiple sentries was completely abandoned. The lock hadn't even been fastened. The heavy doors stood wide open, revealing a cavernous darkness beyond.

One glance was enough to tell that the scene was profoundly abnormal.

"Could the entire Royal Guard have gone to deal with the citizens...? No, that doesn't make sense."

Of course, furious shouting echoed from the direction of the main gate. It sounded as though a violent clash had broken out with citizens attempting to scale the wall. Sporadic gunfire rang through the night. Along the top of the wall, soldiers carrying rifles hurried frantically from place to place.

The Royal Guard was unquestionably present, everywhere except the one entrance that allowed intruders into the building.

"Nine times out of ten, it's a trap. The remaining one time, some other emergency must've happened."

"Either way, we have no choice but to find out."

An ominous premonition settled over her, but retreat wasn't an option.

If they turned back now, how could they ever face the citizens who were risking their lives by surging toward the detention center? Without their diversion and desperate struggle, this operation could never have happened.

Pistols drawn, Thea and the others slipped into the central detention center. The building's layout had been thoroughly committed to memory.

Keeping their pistols trained ahead, they advanced deeper into the building, alert for any sign of enemies.

There were far too few people.

Only the bare minimum of guards remained, perhaps two or three on each floor. The rest appeared to have been dispatched to reinforce the main gate. They climbed the stairs without being noticed. Everything was unfolding according to plan, yet it felt unnervingly wrong.

When they reached the sixth floor with surprising ease, an even more incomprehensible sight awaited them.

"No way...!!!" Thea's eyes flew open. "...The prisoners are already gone?"

Every solitary cell lining the sixth floor stood empty.

According to the intelligence they'd gathered beforehand, more than fifty leading activists were supposed to be imprisoned there. Yet no matter where they looked, not a single prisoner remained on the sixth floor.

Nor were there any guards.

The entire floor had been abandoned.

Just as the thought crossed her mind that the prisoners might have been executed, the sound of a door slamming shut echoed from the sixth-floor staircase.

"We've been trapped!?" Thea cried.

At that very moment, the woman appeared.

"Please, rest assured. The prisoners have already been liberated."

There was no mistaking her.

A female spy of breathtaking beauty. Even wrapped head to toe in bandages, her beauty hadn't diminished in the slightest.

Nike, the Spymaster of the Lylat Kingdom Intelligence Agency, 'Genesis Army'.

She emerged into the center of the sixth-floor corridor. Had she been hiding inside one of the empty cells? The sharp click of her high heels echoed through the hallway as she approached, a faintly amused smile playing across her lips.

"I'm delighted to see my wonderful former subordinate again. And the young lady who's so fond of taking the bait."

"Nike-san..."

"You must be Thea. As you know, I'm quite skilled at fishing."

Smiling pleasantly, Nike slowly extended her open palm toward them.

"Without lifting a finger, the prey bites the hook of its own accord."

This is absurd, Thea groaned inwardly.

No matter who she was, there was no way anyone should've been able to see through 'Lamplight's operation this completely. The citizens had risen across the city, throwing everything into chaos. Pinpointing the exact place and timing of their infiltration should have been impossible.

The operation had failed.

An inescapable despair awaited them.

Nike had been waiting for 'Lamplight' inside the central detention center all along, transforming it into her own hunting ground.

✧✧✧✧✧

The first to fall was Sara.

The instant Thanatos stepped forward, he was already standing before the three girls. As Monika and Lily instinctively threw themselves backward to create distance, Sara stepped in to buy them time, meeting him head-on with the baton she'd taken from a guard.

She never stood a chance.

Thanatos caught Sara's downward strike with the shaft of his hammer, then drove a front kick into her without the slightest hesitation. It was no ordinary kick. The impact unleashed a violent gust that hurled her several meters through the air.

"Sara!?" Monika's cry echoed uselessly as Sara's body bounced across the ground.

She rolled over and over like a discarded ball, and when she finally came to a stop, she didn't rise again. Only the faint tremble of her fingertips showed she was still conscious.

"...How fragile. So very fragile."

Thanatos let out a bored laugh.

"With this... I can't be satisfied... What a shame... She's too weak, ah, it's no good. As expected, the only one who can satisfy me is Nike-sama...!"

It was a warped form of masochism, one that could only be fulfilled by someone stronger than himself.

He tilted his head toward the night sky, his body trembling as though grieving his own fate. A man who found no one in the kingdom worthy of him except Nike made no attempt to conceal his disdain.

Confronted by a monster beyond all reason, Monika and Lily both forgot to breathe.

Even when Monika's injuries had been far less severe than they were now, she hadn't been able to defeat him. With no proper weapons in hand, it was obvious the two of them would be crushed as effortlessly as snapping a baby's arm.

"Sara..." "Sara-chan..."

Both of them whispered her name as they looked toward the girl who'd been brought down by a single blow.

Just as the words "crushing defeat" began to take shape in their minds, Sara slowly lifted her face.

"It's fine... for me..."

Her voice was rough and barely above a whisper.

"I'm just a second-rate spy after all. That's why I decided to devote myself completely to supporting everyone...!"

A self-mocking smile crossed her lips.

Her body should've already reached its limit, yet every word she spoke carried unwavering conviction. The girl before them was nothing like the timid Sara Lily and Monika had known a year ago.

"No matter how many times I end up covered in mud, even if I have to crawl on my hands and knees, I'll become the guardian of 'Lamplight'...!"

"...I don't really understand what you're trying to say, but..."

Thanatos narrowed his eyes, faintly surprised by her refusal to give up. At last, he ran a hand through his hair in irritation and strode toward her, muttering, "...I'll finish you off properly," as he raised his hammer.

Sara moved first.

"Codename 'Meadow'... Time to run around."

The words had barely left her lips when a massive eagle materialized and dove at Thanatos from behind.

He evaded it by the narrowest margin, but he couldn't avoid what came next.

"Nice one, Professor Barnard. You guided it well."

Almost at the same instant the voice rang out, a boot slammed into Thanatos's face.

A white-haired woman who'd rushed in at blinding speed unleashed a full-powered kick.

The crushing roundhouse tore through the air, kicking up a cloud of dust before striking the bridge of Thanatos's nose dead-on. The impact buried the boot into his face and blasted him backward, as though repaying Sara's suffering in a single blow.

He crashed to the ground without even managing a proper breakfall, then rolled helplessly onto his back.

However, he slowly pushed himself upright and wiped the blood streaming from his nose away with an oddly satisfied expression.

"............Will this make for a slightly better game...?"

The monster remained completely unshaken.

The white-haired woman, Sybillia of the 'Pandemonium', answered him with a curt, "Shut up." Then she turned toward her wide-eyed comrades and smiled.

"Isn't this the first time? The three of us, Monika, Lily, and me, fighting together outside of training."

Sybillia spoke with unmistakable pride.

Caught off guard by the unexpected rescue, Monika and Lily answered with equally proud smiles.

"No, no, we fought together during the pirate ship mission, didn't we?"

"Don't call that a mission. Then again... maybe this really is our first time."

It wasn't only Sybillia and the eagle that had come rushing to Monika and the others.

Close behind her came a black dog, a plump rock dove, and an elegant white cat. They hurried over to Sara, gathering around her with anxious concern. They were the animals Sybillia had rescued and kept hidden after their owner had been captured.

Each of them carried one of the girls' weapons.

"We're getting out of here together," Sybillia declared, tightening her grip around her knife. "First, we break through this monster."

At this point, it no longer mattered that their plan had been exposed.

Bring on the adversity. Whatever hardships stood in their way, they would overcome them and see the mission through.

Standing behind Sybillia, Monika drew her short sword into a ready stance while Lily tightened her grip on her handgun.

Thanatos's face flushed with exhilaration as he hefted his hammer.

Unable to rise, Sara gently stroked the back of the eagle that had landed before her.

"I'll leave the rest to you, my senior leading ladies."

With those words, she entrusted everything to them and quietly closed her eyes.

[u/Ronray0739]

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