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“You are saying that Tiana went into the restricted area?”
Alan asked with a doubtful expression as he looked at the blueprint sketch of the entire White Rose Palace which was spread on the table inside the reception room in the guard barrack.
“Why do you think so?”
Even Cyrus has a puzzled expression on his face.
“This is only a guess but well, Nice-san, the prisoners also have access to this blueprint sketch, correct?”
“Y, yes. We do not want them to get lost during the excavation work so we put this sketch up here and there so that everyone can see…….”
“And this is the only version of this blueprint right.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then, please take a look here. This area at the center of the White Rose Palace—- and the underground passage leading outside the royal quarter, the sketch of these two places can be accessed by anyone as well, correct?”
“Yes.”
“I understand now. Thank you very much.”
“Oi, Olivia, don’t just keep it to yourself, tell us what’s going on.”
Frustrated, Alan started tapping the table with his finger.
Acknowledging that, Olivia nodded and pointed to the central area on the blueprint.
“The reason I thought that Tiana might have gone into the central area is that she doesn’t have anywhere to go within the country. All her relatives have been captured and deprived of their status, of course, her house’s assets were all confiscated as well. Even if she makes contact with a distant relative, I don’t think that they would be willing to hide her after her escape. In other words, she has no one she can turn to. Certainly, there’s a possibility that she might try to survive on her own in this country but knowing her personality, I don’t think that’s an option for her.”
“Well, your logic certainly sounds. I can’t even imagine that Tiana would be prepared to live a life without luxurious meals and the latest trendy dresses until she dies after all.”
“But even with all that I don’t see why you would think that she has gone in there though?”
Alan agrees with her reason while Cyrus asks for her to elaborate.
“If it’s no good within the country then leaving the country might be better——if it’s Tiana then I think she may have that kind of idea.”
“Eh?”
“Wait a minute.”
Unable to wrap his head around that, Alan holds down his temples.
“Why does she need to head inside the White Rose Palace to escape the country? There’s not even an exit in there right.”
“No. The underground passage still exists.”
“Olivia, that underground passage has already collapsed and it’s impassable now you know.”
“Yes, but…….”
Saying so, Olivia pointed at the underground passage drawn on the blueprint sketch.
“This sketch doesn’t provide that information. It didn’t say that the passage had already collapsed midway through, but it did have [Underground Passage to Karzol] written on it. If she has only this sketch as her reference then she would have no idea that the passage has already collapsed and there’s no way to get through. Nice-san, do the prisoners here know about the passage’s collapse?”
“I believe that anyone who has been working here for more than half a year should already be aware but……..since the center area was off-limits in the first place and no prisoners in their right mind would try to get inside, we didn’t think that it would be necessary to tell them about it.”
“Thank you. It has only been recently that Tiana arrived here. It wouldn’t be strange if she doesn’t know about it.”
“I see, Tiana didn’t know that the passage had already collapsed in the middle so she thought that she might be able to use it to escape to Karzol, is that right?”
“Yes, but there’s one more thing that’s on my mind…….if Tiana thought about escaping from this place, did she truly escape alone?”
“What do you mean?”
“Even if she flees to Karzol, it doesn’t change the fact that Tiana is still penniless. Due to our relationship with Karzol, I’m sure that at least she can avoid getting recaptured there. Even so, it should be difficult for her to get by on her own. Was Tiana really someone who would choose such a life?”
“So?”
“Perhaps she’s escaped because someone guaranteed her a better life?”
“And who’s that?”
“I can’t say. However, it’s possible that we might have a third party at play here.”
“But if that’s the case then that someone may have recruited Tiana as a guide to go to that collapsed passage?”
“Yes, that’s why I can’t say for certain.”
Olivia closed her mouth with a difficult expression.
Meanwhile, Cyrus stood up with the blueprint sketch in hand.
“Anyway, we can just ask Tiana herself once we found her right. It’s Tiana we are talking about after all, maybe she didn’t think that far ahead and went inside thinking that she can escape you know?”
“……that does sound possible too.”
As Tiana’s former fiance, Alan let out a sigh and called the soldiers outside into the room.
“We will organize a search party just in case. Also, Nice, sorry but can you make all the prisoners leave the ruins for the time being? It would be hard to properly look around with them inside.”
“Y, Yes, Your Highness! I will immediately arrange it!”
Nice practically tune out of the conversation midway through since he couldn’t keep up but his mind immediately snapped back at Alan’s order and leaped out of the room.
After Nice gave his order and returned to them, the party accompanied by the soldiers headed for the center of the White Rose Palace.
TLN: Tiana……..