Chapter 41: Operation Run

"This is my identification, please take a look."

Handing the brass pocket watch to the guard at the interrogation room, Ron successfully obtained a clearance pass.

Without delay, he immediately pushed open the heavy door and stepped into the dim and damp corridor.

Although he had been assigned the role of a so-called deacon, Ron felt no sense of relaxation; instead, a faint sense of urgency gripped his heart.

Because the logic simply didn't add up.

He was no Golden Lion; it was impossible for him to be regarded with such high importance everywhere he went.

Three consecutive months of failed job hunts had forced Ron to face reality quickly, making him suspect that Mr. Snake's true identity might have been exposed from the very beginning.

And that suspicion had inevitably implicated him as well.

This made the young man realize that, no matter what, the undercover operation had to be completed as soon as possible.

Otherwise, Mr. Snake's dreams would be nipped in the bud!

Tap, tap, tap—

His steady footsteps echoed through the corridor. Ron quickly scanned his surroundings and located the interrogation room where the maid was being held.

After leaving the classroom, he had not acted rashly, but patiently waited until noon to head to the cafeteria, where he had a brief discussion with Mr. Sid.

In the end, Investigator Ron and Department Head Sid reached a consensus.

The most important task right now was to find a safe route and smuggle the intelligence out.

Once that was done, all difficulties would be effortlessly resolved.

The problem, however, was that their time undercover had been too short; they hadn't even learned all the paths yet.

Moreover, the stronghold operated under military-style management, with magical surveillance eyes everywhere, making it difficult to slip out through the main entrance.

Therefore, they had no choice but to search for less heavily guarded side paths.

This had caused Sid Flores to lament loudly, complaining that he couldn't capture a high-status cultist alive to interrogate them using the 'Pythagorean Theorem 2.0'.

At this, Ron felt deeply relieved and quickly offered his own proposal.

They would split up: Sid would go ask Mr. Snake if there were any safe exit routes,

while he himself would go find the maid, to see if this poor soul who had suffered such brutal interrogation still remembered the path she had taken when she was abducted.

---

A vast, blinding expanse of white once again awakened Catherine. She rubbed her eyes, looking around in a familiar yet bewildered daze.

Here again!

She had been trapped in this place for two whole days.

As far as the eye could see, a radiant white glow filled her vision, and in the distance, golden clouds drifted leisurely with the wind.

Ten colossal stone pillars, carved with countless knights, stood before her, and a magnificent "Sanctuary" revealed a vast corner of its grandeur to her eyes.

This often made Catherine wonder if she had already died, and upon death, had arrived inside the "Sanctuary" that generations of the Heinleth family had revered and worshipped.

Yet just as she was deep in thought, she suddenly heard the crisp sound of footsteps approaching from behind.

Crisp, efficient, and steady, they sounded intensely familiar.

These were the sounds of her own footsteps!

Catherine turned her head in astonishment, feeling as though the concept of distance had suddenly manifested in this world composed solely of white light.

Then, she saw a young girl with the exact same golden hair and emerald eyes as her own appearing behind her out of nowhere.

Although the two of them matched in height, hair color, eye color, and even breathing rhythm, their current appearances were worlds apart.

The girl on the left looked as though she had stepped right out of an epic myth, wreathed in countless rays of brilliance, resembling an angel sent to the mortal realm by the gods.

The Catherine on the right, however, not only possessed ordinary features, but her face was also speckled with tiny freckles, making her look like Cinderella, who had to clean out the hearth ashes every day in a fairy tale.

"Who are you?" Catherine asked cautiously.

The golden-haired, green-eyed girl did not answer, merely gazing coldly at the princess.

After a long while, she cried out with a face full of bitter resentment:

"Get out of my body!"

"You base descendant of a horse groom!"

Your body?

Hearing this, Catherine froze momentarily, completely failing to understand what this angelic young lady was trying to convey.

Before she could ask for clarification, however, she watched as the girl before her drew a knight's longsword from the surrounding light and thrust it straight toward her chest.

Catherine's body stiffened, her instincts urging her to dodge, but the Sanctuary behind her suddenly burst into an overwhelmingly dazzling white light, pinning her firmly in place.

The very Sanctuary that generations of the Heinleth family worshipped had now restricted her movements!

The blade was as swift as lightning, and Catherine could feel the agonizing terror of death with agonizing clarity.

Yet right at that critical, split-second juncture—

Slap!

A sharp, crisp sound of a slap landed heavily across Catherine's right cheek, as well as the right cheek of the angelic girl.

"Miss Maid, Miss Maid, stop sleeping, wake up!"

Slap, slap, slap!

Blow after crisp blow battered Catherine and the angelic girl, making their bodies sway incessantly, rendering them unable to stand.

"Miss Maid, Miss Maid?"

Accompanied by the familiar calling voice, Catherine, her cheeks swollen from the beatings, collapsed weakly to the ground,

watching wide-eyed as the "Sanctuary" worshipped for generations by the Heinleth family trembled violently beneath clusters of golden holy light,

before collapsing into a heap of ruins with a thunderous roar.

No!

The thought had barely flashed through Catherine's mind when her eyes snapped open.

And then, she felt a tearing, bone-fracturing agony so intense it made her wish she could simply kill herself on the spot.

Gritting her teeth, she wanted to scream, but muscle spasms and pure instinct left her utterly incapable of making a sound.

"You're finally awake!"

Seeing the maid finally regain consciousness from her faint, Ron's little face lit up with joy.

Yet to Catherine, that smile looked nothing short of demonic.

"Miss Maid, why aren't you speaking?"

"Are you still hurt somewhere?"

Seeing Catherine remain silent, Ron's palm once again burst forth with brilliant holy light.

This frightened the "maid" into shaking her head frantically, scrambling backward on all fours into the corner of the interrogation room.

She had to admit that Ron's healing magic was indeed effective; if it had been just a little faster, it might have even outpaced her body's natural healing rate.

"Ha... ha... Thank you. If not for you, I truly wouldn't have known what to do."

Catherine caught her breath, then said with a tone of profound regret:

"If we weren't in a place like this, I would definitely introduce you to the Princess."

"That would still be far better than being a mere cultist."

Your attempts at winning people over lack any sincerity at all; you'd be better off just saying 'save me and give me fifty Golden Lions'......

Ron curled his lip, growing quite accustomed to such empty flattery.

After all, a clueless woman like Olivia was still quite a rare sight in the royal capital.

"Miss Maid, I have something to ask you."

"I am not the Princess!" Catherine replied instinctively as a reflex.

Hearing this, the corner of Ron's mouth twitched as he shook his head and said:

"No, you misunderstood me. I wanted to ask, do you know how you were abducted and brought here?"

How she was abducted?

Of course it was that bastard Lair Heinleth who tricked me out!

The princess gritted her teeth, though her face still maintained a hesitant expression as she asked in return:

"You mean the path we took to get here, right?"

"I remember it very clearly. Well then, are you willing to make a deal with me?"

Of course she remembered the path she had taken.

After all, Catherine had been invited here to hunt by Lair Heinleth, her own younger brother.

She had already scouted the surrounding terrain, and she had firmly memorized the exact route by which she had been brought here as a captive.