The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

MARIUS

I arrived at the festival square with Sergeant Pence and two other Royal Knights. It was an honor to be included and to work as a team with the full Knights, but—

My eyes couldn’t help but catch a glimpse of Skylark and Falken standing together on the other side of the square. As they talked, Skylark often laughed, as if they weren’t on any mission and were just enjoying the festival. It was very odd that Falken was doing this now, shortly after the moment of ruthless efficiency and speed in operational organization he had shown earlier.

Nevertheless, I had an important job at hand—to find the magician who had escaped from the circus. While the circus tent of the Grand Salvani Company was locked down by Royal Knights, with a few of the Knights undoubtedly already inside going through the crowd to check—together with Isabelle and Beatrice, led by Sergeant Becker—we suspected that the magician was already out of the tent and was probably looking to get away.

I scanned the area, fully concentrated. At first, I saw a lot of other Knights circling the area and standing at the entrance of each street that branched out from the square, but inexplicably, they were all gone without me noticing their departure. Then I saw Falken leave Skylark behind, alone, which bothered me more than I cared to admit.

’Stop losing your concentration to other things, Marius. Focus on the task at hand,’ I told myself again and again.

Then I saw something strange again—almost in the blink of an eye, the Royal Knights were back in the square in full force, patrolling the area and blocking the streets leading out of the square just as before.

I shook my head in disbelief—what was going on? Was I having heatstroke?

It was then that I spotted a man with dark hair. He had hair similar to the magician’s, roughly the same height and build as him, and on closer inspection, the confirmation came from the fact that although he had changed his top, he was wearing the same loose black trousers.

"Sir, I found him," I whispered to Sergeant Pence.

"Where is he?" he asked me quietly in a low voice.

"Eight o’clock. It’s the man in the brown shirt and black trousers. Dark hair."

"Are you sure?"

"I’m certain, Sir."

"Okay, let’s move in—be discreet," he said to me, then gestured for the other two Knights who were with us to flank the magician.

The magician, whose face I could clearly see now, seemed unsettled, understandably so, considering the area was flooded with Royal Knights now.

"Don’t worry. He has nowhere to run. All the streets are blocked. We just need to grab him without causing too much of a scene," Sergeant Pence told me.

But the magician, although he did not see us, seemed to be alerted by something and began to hasten in another direction. I looked over and noticed that there was an opening to a curving street that was unguarded.

"Go, go, go," Sergeant Pence ordered, seeing what I was seeing, and we rushed toward the street the magician was heading for. I was concerned that we might lose him, as we couldn’t quite close the distance while running through the crowd, but when we got there and went around the curve, we saw that the street was actually a cul-de-sac, and there were two Royal Knights waiting for him at the end. The magician was turning back to run out of the street again, but he stopped when he saw me and Sergeant Pence.

A perfect trap.

Was it Falken’s doing? Flooding the square and leaving one opening that led to a dead end?

The magician then closed his eyes, and suddenly, smoke began to rise from the ground he stood on, but Sergeant Pence was fast—he dashed toward the magician, pulled out the whip he had on his belt, and swung it with incredible precision. The whip landed and wrapped right around the magician’s neck, making him let out a sharp scream of pain and choke.

"You are under arrest," the Sergeant said, and the four Knights—two who were waiting and two who had caught up with us now—swiftly moved in to grab him by all four limbs. The Sergeant then took out a black linen bag, walked over to the magician, and covered his entire head with it. The magician let out muffled screams, but a few punches to his stomach made him go silent and become more compliant.

All the while, I stood and watched. It was certainly not a pretty sight, but a well-practiced maneuver executed cleanly.

"Clear the way for us, Marius. We will bring him to the transport carriage waiting just outside the square," Sergeant Pence commanded, so I headed out of the street first and addressed the small crowd that was beginning to grow, undoubtedly gathered after having heard the screams.

"Move out of the way! This is a Royal Knights operation!" I yelled at the civilians. They did not budge. I yelled again, but with no effect.

But once the magician was carried out of the street and people saw him being grabbed by all four limbs with a black bag covering his head, they began to disperse.

"That way, Marius," the Sergeant told me, pointing to another street entrance with his chin, so I began to move first, yelling, "Move out of the way!" again and again.

Then I saw Skylark standing not so far from us, in the middle of the crowd but clearly looking at what was going on, with Falken next to him wearing the smile of a fully satisfied man—a stark contrast to the terrified look on Skylark’s face as he watched the magician get carried away.

That look on his face wiped away any sense of pride I was feeling at having successfully caught the man we were hunting.

’Why are you making a face like that, Skylark? We got the job done. Didn’t we...?’

I wanted to ask him as soon as the operation was over, but for now, Falken had turned Skylark around, and they were walking away from the festival square.

I thought I saw Skylark’s small back tremble.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!