My Engagement was Cancelled so I will stop Pretending to be a Fool

After taking the items they found in the trash can in Tiana’s room, Olivia and the others headed back to the guard barrack.

The crumpled papers were spread on the table of the reception room of the barrack. They found 3 sheets of paper crumpled inside Tiana’s trash can and all of them appear to be the map of the White Rose Palace ruins hand-drawn by Tiana herself.

All of them appear very similar with one difference. Each of them has some kind of number written on them.

“Do you have any idea what these numbers could be?”

When Olivia asked Nice for input, he rubbed his chin and pondered on it a little before muttering [It can’t be…….] and hurried out of the room.

When he returned, he brought with him a small book. He then opened it and compared the number written inside with the one on Tiana’s maps before saying [I’ve got it] and nodded to himself.

“These are the excavation sites and the number of prisoners and guards assigned to each area. We normally rotate 4 areas in a single workday though.”

“Can I take a look?”

The booklet Nice brought did not have maps drawn on them, it only had the number of prisoners and guards. It also describes when and where the group will relocate to each day. They seem to change the rotation every two weeks and the numbers written on Tiana’s hand-drawn maps matched the recent number in this book. The strange thing here is that there are only three maps found inside Tiana’s trash can even though they have to rotate 4 locations each day. Which means one of the maps is missing.

“……It might be my mistake since I’ve only taken a quick look but if that’s the case, one of the maps……the one for the evening shift is missing isn’t it?”

From the book, it seems that the four shifts were divided into two in the morning and two in the afternoon. However, the maps they have now seem to only describe the locations and the number of prisoners matching the first two shifts in the morning and one shift in the afternoon of the current rotation.

“That’s true, it’s as you said, My Lady. The map depicting the last shift is missing.”

“Tiana’s prisoner No. was 214 correct? If that’s the case then she should have been assigned to site No.8 on this shift……..am I correct?”

“Yes, that would be the case.”

“It seems that the guards were stationed quite a distance from that place weren’t they.”

“Yes. We focused our manpower on the exit to prevent the prisoners from escaping. For this site, this route is the only one that can lead to the exit, the other one would lead you right to the center of the ruins but there is no exit there, My Lady.”

“I see……”

As Nice says, site No.8 where Tiana was last assigned only has one route that leads to the exit. The other route there will lead her straight to the royal quarter where the royal family used to live. Originally, it seemed that there used to be a wall obstructing the passage there but it recently collapsed and you can now take that route straight toward the center of the ruins.

“The place Tiana was assigned to on the morning shift was site No.7, right next door correct?”

“Yes. we only allow short breaks for the morning shifts so we made the next assigned area close by for ease of mobility.”

“How short is this break?”

“Around 20 minutes I believe.”

“During that time, are the prisoners allowed to leave the ruins?”

“Yes. Most of them usually leave during the break.”

The break time is 20 minutes. During that short time, Tiana can’t possibly escape outside under the watchful eyes of the guards. However, the fact that she was nowhere to be found when the final shift was over makes it reasonable for them to assume that she either escaped during the break time or when she relocated to site No.8.

“Can you take me to this site No.8?”

When Olivia voiced her request, Nice immediately panicked and began looking at Alan and Cyrus for help.

“Umm…..the prisoners are working there at this time so…….”

Perhaps they don’t want to let a noble lady like her go anywhere near the convicts here. Even Alan and Cyrus also seem to be troubled.

“It has to be now. Also, if possible, I’d like to speak with the people who were working at site No.7 and No.8 with Tiana as well.”

“You wish to speak to the prisoners, My Lady!?”

Nice’s eyes opened wide.

At the same time, Alan holds his temples while gazing at the ceiling while Cyrus simply grins at the situation.

“Olivia always has the weirdest kind of courage after all, how troubling.”

Said Cyrus as he peeked at Tiana’s hand-drawn maps in Olivia’s hands.

“Like Olivia pointed out, it is certainly worth looking into………”

“She wouldn’t back down no matter what we say anyway right. Nice, sorry but can you pick out the prisoners who were working with Tiana for us? Just the ones with good conduct if possible. Also, Olivia, you are not allowed to ask unrelated questions to those prisoners okay. It’s you we are talking about after all. If they bring up the topic of some rare items they have excavated then you would forget all about what we came here to do after all.”

She was a little offended when Alan put it like that. However, she definitely can’t deny that she might get absorbed into talking about such topics.

“Olivia, the only prisoners you are allowed to speak to will be only the ones Nice pick out for us okay. You absolutely can’t go talk to the other prisoners. Understood?”

Even Cyrus is treating her like a child.

Olivia still couldn’t accept all their conditions but since it would be bad if they forbid her from going with them, she obediently agreed.