Following the coordinates provided by the Fat Duke, Tribios opened a Century Gate. Olivia, Tide, Jay, and Tribios herself stepped through one by one.
Beyond the Century Gate lay a spacious and opulent hall. The first thing that caught their eyes was a circular table, approximately two meters in diameter, at the center of the hall. The table's surface was carved with a dragon's head motif, and gemstones were embedded at regular intervals along its edge.
Above the table hung a colossal crystal chandelier. These two pieces alone were likely worth a fortune.
Jay surveyed the hall. It was empty; after all, it wasn't meeting time. Even if there were guards, they would likely be stationed outside the doors rather than inside.
"Looks like the Fat Duke was telling the truth," Jay said. "I'll use magic to disguise us. We'll lie in wait here, and once the king and the other dukes arrive, we'll launch a surprise attack and capture them all alive!"
The "Third Plan" mentioned earlier wouldn't end the war by simply capturing the king. According to the Fat Duke, the Kingdom of Ukel was currently ruled by the king and four dukes. The fifth duke, being blindly loyal to the king, was considered insignificant.
Therefore, if they could simultaneously capture the king and the four dukes and "have a good chat" with them, they could potentially force Ukel to surrender without further bloodshed.
Just like the Fat Duke, the other Grand Dukes were all cowards who valued their lives above all else. When explaining this, the Fat Duke had said, "If they were captured, they'd betray me without hesitation. Why shouldn't I betray them first?"
"Oh, wait—it's not betrayal! It's just recognizing the times and seizing the moment!"
Returning to Jay's perspective, he murmured a few incantations, and a surge of magic power enveloped him. In the blink of an eye, Jay vanished, replaced by a tall flowerpot.
The flowerpot declared, "How's this? By enveloping myself in a Minor Illusion, I can appear as a flowerpot—even emit a faint floral fragrance if you come close enough."
As he spoke, Jay likely took two steps forward. In Tribios's eyes, however, the flowerpot appeared to glide forward, looking like a player transformed into a bizarre object in the hide and seek mode of a shooting game she'd played in her past life.
Considering what they were about to do, well, well, isn't this literally Prop Hunt?
Though the flowerpot looked remarkably real, knowing it was Jay, Tribios naturally had no intention of smelling it. She stepped back two paces. "I trust you, so hurry and cast the spell."
The flowerpot replied, "Alright. What do you want to transform into? Oh, right, since this magic creates a phantom shell around your bodies, you can only disguise yourselves as something larger than you."
Midway through his explanation, the flowerpot paused abruptly. Tribios realized something too and glanced at Tide beside her.
After a moment, the flowerpot continued, "Perhaps... Tide, you should go back. Olivia and I can handle this..."
But Tribios countered, "I have an idea. Why not just disguise Tide as a load-bearing pillar?"
After all, in Prop Hunt, the seeker never looks up, and larger objects are actually less likely to be noticed.
Hearing her suggestion, Jay was stunned. "Huh? Are you serious?"
Tribios glanced around the grand hall and noticed eight golden load-bearing pillars, each adorned with intricate Gold Dragon carvings. The pillars were symmetrically arranged on either side of the hall.
"Adding a pillar out of thin air would definitely raise suspicion," Tribios said. "So, disguise me as another load-bearing pillar. I'll stand to Tide's left, and you to his right, flanking the entrance. Trust me, they won't notice!"
The areas flanking the entrance were natural blind spots. Most people would step inside without glancing back at the sides of the door. If the king and dukes rarely paid attention to those spots, even if they happened to glance there this time, they might not find it suspicious, assuming the pillars had always been there and they'd simply overlooked them before.
Jay blinked. "Huh? You're staying too, Tribios? I thought you'd drop us off and leave. We could handle the ambush alone."
Tribios, with one hand on her hip and a pout on her lips, retorted, "I'm not some frail damsel helpless as a chick. A king and three dukes—that's perfect, one for each of us! Just make sure you don't get knocked out by the Fat Duke's punch again like you did earlier, Jay."
"That was just a fluke, a total surprise," Jay protested. "Who could've guessed that tubby guy packed such a punch?" He paused, then called out, "Half, are you there? Lend me a hand later!"
The Little Husky materialized beside Olivia, his expression disdainful. "Fine, fine," he grumbled.
Turning to Tribios, Half declared confidently, "Don't worry. With my help, capturing a mere mortal will be child's play!"
Under Jay's spellcasting, two new load-bearing pillars materialized on either side of the entrance. Finally, turning to Olivia, he asked, "What do you want to transform into?"
Suddenly, Tribios remembered something. "Wait a minute... isn't Invisibility a Second-level spell from the Illusion School?"
"Yes, it is," Jay confirmed. "Why?"
"Then why don't you just use Invisibility?" Tribios demanded.
"Isn't it obvious?" Jay replied. "Because I don't know how to do that."
Tribios sighed inwardly. From any perspective, she felt that what Jay was doing—turning someone into a flowerpot capable of smelling flowers—was far more complex than simply turning someone invisible.
In the end, Olivia considered her options and chose the same flowerpot as Jay. The two then took up symmetrical hiding positions.
And so, the four of them lay low as time slowly passed. Since the disguised pillars were quite large, Tribios didn't need to maintain a rigid posture. She could sit or lie down as she pleased. Currently, she sat sideways on the ground, her legs drawn together, both shins extending to the left. Sitting cross-legged felt too undignified, while kneeling was uncomfortable—this seemed like the most appropriate pose.
Bored out of her mind, Tribios softly called out to the System in her mind. As before, only three endlessly loading dots appeared before her eyes.
Tribios suspected that the System's core might be residing within Cipher. This would explain why she had lost contact with the System after crossing the timeline.
Upon reflection, Tribios realized that if she could still use the System, some temporal paradoxes might arise. For instance, Mydei was still in the System Warehouse. If the Tribios of this timeline summoned Mydei, wouldn't Mydei vanish into thin air for Cipher three centuries later?
Then, what if Tribios never returned Mydei to the Warehouse, allowing three centuries to pass until Cipher's first lottery draw, when she summoned Mydei to fight the Dragon Ember Empire? At that moment, Mydei would be elsewhere. Wouldn't that create a direct temporal paradox?
Alternatively, what if Tribios summoned Mydei for some purpose and then returned him to the Warehouse? Three centuries later, Cipher summoned Mydei for another purpose. In that scenario, wouldn't Mydei exist simultaneously in two timelines separated by three hundred years?
Suddenly, Tribios realized that since each version of her was considered the "main body," if she could summon Mydei, Mydei could reciprocate by returning her to the Warehouse. Three centuries later, Cipher could then release her, effectively sending Tribios back to the future.
By repeatedly exploiting this glitch, she could essentially travel through time at will, with no cost.
Could the System have shut down because of the time paradoxes and Tribios's potential to abuse such bug-like operations?
Of course, these were merely speculations. But the fact remained that the System was offline and unusable. Tribios sighed softly and began toying with her hair, twirling a strand near her ear around her index finger, releasing it, twirling it again, and releasing it repeatedly, enjoying the sensation of the smooth strands sliding across her fingertips.
After playing with her fingernails for a while, half an hour later, finally, footsteps echoed outside the door.
"Your Majesty!" A middle-aged man in his forties pushed the door open, his voice respectful. Duke Moustache and Duke Glasses followed closely behind.
Perhaps due to the gravity of the Fat Duke's abduction, the three men appeared visibly anxious, completely oblivious to the two new pillars in the room and the two extra flowerpots in the hall.
The King paced as he spoke, "Duke Phat was captured right in the capital! Doesn't this prove that the enemy's influence has infiltrated the heart of the Kingdom? They could launch an attack on us at any moment!"
Duke Moustache exclaimed in shock, "So those high-end art merchants were truly the enemy! In my opinion, we should immediately torture all the other captured merchants to extract detailed information about the enemy!"
Duke Glasses chimed in, "I support this approach. At this point, we don't even know who or where the enemy is. We're at a severe disadvantage!"
The three Dukes took their seats around the round table. Tribios frowned slightly, noticing that one person was missing. Should we strike now, or wait a little longer?
She glanced at the two flowerpots where Olivia and Jay were hidden. Seeing no movement from them, she decided to continue waiting.
Approximately five more minutes passed before Duchess Witch's Hat finally arrived. She hurried into the hall but stopped abruptly midway, turning to gaze suspiciously at the two load-bearing pillars near the entrance. "Wait a minute," she asked, "were these pillars here before?"
Duke Moustache was momentarily confused. "What pillars?" he asked.
"These two pillars," Duchess Witch's Hat said.
Duke Moustache frowned. "I think so? I can't quite remember."
Duke Glasses interjected, "What's the point of worrying about pillars at a time like this? Let's focus on rescuing Fat Duke first!"
But Duchess Witch's Hat remained silent, slowly raising her right hand. Seeing this, Jay lunged at her without hesitation, shouting, "Attack!"
If Feidric were here, during a battle between two wizards, he would have waited for the opponent to cast their spell, then countered it with a targeted Abjuration School spell to block the attack. Alternatively, he might have disrupted the casting with Counterspell the moment it began.
In a sense, Jay did something similar. He tackled Duchess Witch's Hat, pinning her throat with one arm while clamping his other hand tightly over her mouth, physically interrupting her spellcasting.
The next moment, Jay yelped, "Damn it! Why are you biting me? That hurts like hell! Half, get her! Bite her!"
Half swiftly lunged forward, sinking his teeth into Duchess Witch's Hat's wrist. The Duchess screamed in pain but, after a brief pause, clamped down on Jay's hand with even greater force. This time, Jay had learned his lesson; he quickly pulled his hand away, abandoning his attempt to cover her mouth. Instead, he jammed two fingers directly into her nostrils—as a fellow wizard, he knew exactly how to disrupt her spellcasting!
The trio—a man, a woman, and a dog—tumbled into a chaotic brawl on the ground.
The sight left everyone dumbfounded. The King, the other two Dukes, and Tribios' group of three were all frozen in shock.
After a moment of stunned silence, the King roared, "Soldiers! Protect me!"
Olivia surged forward, delivering a swift punch to the King's forehead. He collapsed to the ground, instantly falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Olivia paused, stunned again, before grabbing the Glasses Man who was trying to escape. Unlike the weakling king, the Glasses Man was clearly a Class Holder, swiftly drawing a dagger, and the two clashed in a close-quarters struggle.
Hearing the king's shouts, soldiers outside the door rushed to burst in, but Tide blocked the entrance. Though unarmed, he bent slightly, grabbed one soldier by the waist, and hoisted him up like a spear. With a powerful swing of his arm, he nonchalantly hurled the soldier out the window.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh—!!!"
Only a rapidly fading scream remained. Watching this, Tribios inexplicably thought of the phrase "Barbarian Teleportation Art, physical version."
Her Gate Authority allowed her to discern the destination of Teleportation Magic and pull it back. But against this "physical teleportation", she had no way to track the landing point.