Chapter 82: The Two Girls Who Tried to Escape

“At this time, Her Highness should have already reached the mines, right?”

Sitting in the inner courtyard of the Castle Lord’s Mansion, Annie Donald looked very worried.

The sky had already darkened, just like her mood.

Even though the night sky here seemed so high and clear, Annie didn’t feel like admiring it at all.

After replacing the Castle Lord’s Mansion guards with the five hundred soldiers she brought, Hill Yu turned the corner of the inner courtyard wall and appeared in Annie Donald’s line of sight.

She seemed to have heard the girl’s self-talk just now.

“Don’t worry about her. I’ll go find her in a bit.”

Hill Yu said.

“Your Highness!”

Annie hurriedly stood up to salute, but Hill Yu stopped her.

“Between you and me, let’s not bother with such formalities.”

Hill Yu waved her hand, then sat down next to Annie.

At first, Willis said this girl named Annie Donald admired her and that’s why she tried to get close.

But after spending these days together, Hill Yu didn’t think it was like that.

Hill Yu had seen those students or nobles who admired her.

In front of her, those people either breathed rapidly or acted stiffly.

None were as calm as Annie.

Even if Annie was different, Hill Yu wasn’t an idiot.

Through these days of observation, she found the other party didn’t care much about her, but was abnormally concerned about her imperial sister.

“Your Highness, do you really want Her Highness Willis to do such a dangerous thing?”

Just like now, the name Annie spoke was also Willis.

“The miners in that mine all hate her to the bone. If they discover her identity, wouldn’t that…”

Hearing this concern, Hill Yu had some guesses, but her face didn’t show it.

“Don’t worry. Since she dared to do it, she’s confident she won’t be exposed…”

“Besides, isn’t Victoria with her too?”

But Annie really couldn’t understand.

“Why does Her Highness want to do such a thing?”

“I don’t know either… Willis said she wanted to solve the problem in Ushi City once and for all…”

“How is that possible…”

The forces in Ushi City were complicated, with many officials, and Hill Yu also sensed several powers stirring up trouble in the city.

This really wasn’t something a single lord could solve at once.

It was likely to be a long-term process.

Of all times, Willis had to get it into her head to become a miner.

Who knows what she’s thinking!

But she sighed again.

“Compared to Willis, I’m more worried about Ushi City itself.”

“When you entered the city earlier, you saw it too—businesses withered, the people in rags, crime everywhere, foul air.”

Hill Yu clenched her fist.

“I didn’t expect Ushi City to become like this during the time Willis and I were away!”

She didn’t say that Deputy City Lord Mike Millen deserved death, as many things still needed investigation.

Her words made Annie recall the scene from more than a year ago, when she was rescued by the other party and Willis.

Leaving the Castle Lord’s Mansion and turning a street corner, she reached the alley where she had once been cornered.

“It’s all right. Her Highness Willis will definitely be able to bring order here!”

Annie encouraged.

Although Hill Yu didn’t know where her confidence came from, she still made up her mind.

“This chaos in Ushi City must not continue!”

After speaking, Hill Yu stood up and said a brief goodbye to Annie.

She was going to the mines to find Willis.

And Annie went to check on the captured bandits and the elves Willis had specifically instructed her about.

The bandit miners were held in Ushi City’s main prison, which wasn’t located on Tianhe Street where the Castle Lord’s Mansion stood.

Leading a squad of City Defense Army soldiers, Annie left the Castle Lord’s Mansion and first looked nostalgically at a small courtyard nearby.

That was where she and her grandfather used to live.

Heading southeast, she could see from a distance the alley where she was bullied by those miners.

There, she fell in love with Willis at first sight.

Since then, she had hopelessly loved that infamous Imperial Second Princess.

She had no intention of going to see it, and led her people toward Buna Street.

The prison was on the outskirts of Tianhe Street, in Buna Street.

There were guards here day and night, half of them former Castle Lord’s Mansion guards.

Hill Yu also reassigned some City Defense Army soldiers to help guard the place.

Now, the prison was packed full, with shouting miners everywhere.

When Annie arrived, she could hear them from far away.

She didn’t feel like staying here long.

After checking the prison’s security and guard levels, she turned to leave.

As soon as she returned to the inner courtyard of the Castle Lord’s Mansion, Annie saw Ofilia sneaking into Winnie Kanasha’s room.

She stealthily followed.

Soon after, voices sounded inside.

“How about this? Since we both hate that person, why don’t I help you escape and you take me with you?”

Ofilia’s careful voice floated out.

She didn’t notice Annie was sneaking up to the door to eavesdrop.

Inside, Winnie Kanasha gave Ofilia a strange look.

“Help us escape? I thought you were her loyal maid.”

“How could I! That demon! She…”

Ofilia hesitated.

In the end, she changed the topic.

She didn’t want to mention how Willis bullied her before.

“Anyway, she’s not here now, and the Grand Princess just left, so this is the best chance for us to leave!”

Hearing Ofilia’s plan, Winnie Kanasha frowned tightly.

This girl, was she making it up on the spot?

She fiddled with the metal magic-suppressing collar on her neck.

Cold and light, yet it completely sealed her magic.

“Yesterday, Willis used this thing to seal the magic of me and Mother Caro. Can you remove it?”

“If you want to help us, show some sincerity. Otherwise, why should I believe you’re serious?”

Without magic, even if they escaped the Castle Lord’s Mansion, they’d probably be captured soon.

Taking them along would only endanger more people.

Winnie had tried to remove it herself.

But the collar had no latch, and only a specific unlocking magic circle could take it off.

Other magic not only had no effect on it—even touching it would be absorbed.

Maybe it was because Winnie’s power wasn’t strong enough.

If she were a Mage-class powerhouse, she might be able to break it with brute force.

Faced with Winnie’s problem, Ofilia also tried using a micro-magic spell to attack the collar.

“Useless. This thing seems to need a special magic circle to work.”

Winnie clenched her fists, her eyes blazing.

“I don’t know where that wicked woman got this thing from. It’s so infuriating!”

Before putting it on, Winnie thought it was just one of Willis’s evil pranks.

After all, humans liked to brand their captured elves, and the cruel ones even burned marks into their skin.

Willis only put a collar on them, which was already quite mild.

Who would have thought that once it was on, all their magic would be sealed!?

“It should be a Magic Sealing Stone…”

Ofilia said uncertainly.

As the second daughter of the Laiensi Family, even though her family had fallen, she still had some knowledge.

“Magic Sealing Stone?”

Winnie seemed to have heard of it too.

“But isn’t Magic Sealing Stone rare and expensive? And I’ve never heard of anyone wasting it to make a collar…”

But thinking that the other party was Willis, Winnie didn’t find it impossible.

The key was that the other party had added so many delicate protections to prevent them from taking off the collars, as if it had all been prepared specially for them.

“Willis!”

Winnie’s teeth nearly shattered from anger.

But at the next moment, a voice scared the two girls so much they almost knelt on the spot.

“What? Miss me?”