A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 394 Who told you to take out your gold coins?

After witnessing everything, the head guard approached the responsible mage: "The royal family hasn't traveled this far in a long time. The journey has been bumpy and tiring. Would you like to take a short rest before teleporting?"

The noble mage nodded understandingly, "Please do as you wish. The magic array still needs a little more time to be ready. About fifteen minutes, is that alright?"

The head guard nodded: "That's good."

The mage didn't seem to care and returned to his post. His assistant then approached him to confirm the spell: "Little Armand, is there a loop in your spell circle drawn incorrectly?"

Armand quickly made a "quiet" gesture: "Shh, someone's offering a price, higher than the sergeant's."

"Who?"

"Who else could it be?" The monk revealed a mocking expression: "Our old acquaintance, the noble friend of the commoners, the famous 'Mr. Equality'."

The steam engine roared, and the emitted steam was carefully controlled to prevent it from drifting out and revealing the location. The loops on the magic circle gradually brightened, and the alchemical liquid began to boil.

First, a man wrapped in fur emerged from the teleportation array. Speaking with a lowland coastal accent, he shook hands with the chief guard and congratulated him: "Congratulations, my friend, the teleportation is now complete!"

"Thank you for your cooperation, sir." The chief guard had communicated with this duchy's envoy multiple times, and his appearance here from the lowlands proved that the teleportation path was correct.

The coachman calmed the horses, then pulled the luxurious six-wheeled carriage step by step into the giant teleportation array.

The light surged, engulfing the luxurious carriage.

"Commander, aren't you going to teleport with us?"

The chief guard revealed a look of grim determination: "No, I'll rush back to Valuwana right now and mislead the National Assembly's judgment, which will buy His Majesty some time."

Everyone present was deeply moved: "Having such a loyal minister is a blessing for His Majesty and for the kingdom!"

So the captain of the guard led the servants in a carriage and the cavalry away from the teleportation site.

The capital city at the same time.

"Make way! Make way!" "No passage allowed here."

The main square was cleared out once again, with a group of guards on guard, leaving a large area in the city center vacant.

The citizens of the capital were used to this. Based on experience, they knew that some important figure would come to give a speech and mobilize them to defend their country, using methods such as going to the front lines and paying more taxes.

But everyone was wrong. With a sudden explosion, a luxurious six-wheeled carriage appeared in the square!

Is this magic? Everyone got excited and pushed forward to find out.

The guards shouted, "Don't move!" They were speaking to both the onlookers and the people inside the carriage. First, the coachman was restrained, the horses and the carriage were separated, and then they knocked on the door.

The carriage doors were locked and sturdy. The soldiers tried to smash them with rifle butts, bayonets, and swords, but to no avail except to damage the paint. The soldiers, who had already heard that the royal family was inside, grew increasingly impatient. They simply removed one wheel and shouted, "One, two! Push!" and managed to flip the carriage over.

Only then did the passengers inside surrender, open the doors and windows, and crawl out—the noble guards, maids, cooks, and others, all covered in blood.

"Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me! I'm not the king! I'm not Charles!" Although they failed to capture the royal family, the entourage confessed to Charles XVI's escape in full view of everyone.

One of the noble guards, under repeated beatings with his rifle butt, revealed the entire plan, and the king's intentions deeply shocked the citizens and soldiers.

The motherland has been abandoned by its former masters, and the citizens have been betrayed by the king! Moreover, he has attempted to bring in foreign troops to slaughter those who disobey him.

What's even more infuriating is that they pulled out gourmet food and wine, exquisite goldware, countless jewels, and even a dressing table and a chair wrapped in silk from the luggage compartment of the carriage.

The royal family's "luggage" became spoils of war, displayed piece by piece in the square. Most commoners would never see such grandeur in their entire lives, an extravagance that left people speechless. They were ironclad evidence of their crimes, the pine resin that ignited the people's anger.

The captain of the guards didn't know what had happened on the other side of the teleportation array, but at the last moment, he changed his mind based on his intuition and activated the second plan—to break out of the country by relying on the speed of men and horses.

"Have we arrived? I didn't feel anything when we were teleported?" The Queen's voice came from the servant's carriage.

The head guard steered the horse at a brisk pace, keeping close to the thin wooden planks of the carriage: "Your Highness, please keep your voice down. We don't have teleportation."

"What? You—" The queen's scream was interrupted, as if someone had covered her mouth.

Then came the king's voice, softer than the queen's, low and deep through the wooden panel: "Is something wrong?"

"You are right, Your Majesty. The French dogs are unreliable; those who came out of the teleportation array in the first place were not Lowlanders!" The coastal areas of the Lowlands eat sea salt. Due to the special minerals in the salt-producing areas, the teeth of the people there, regardless of their social status, will have a very faint bluish-green luster whenever they eat salt.

But the messenger did not! He was merely dressed in a winter outfit popular in the Low Countries.

While the sorcerers were preparing, the chief guard used the excuse of rest to have the royal family and servants switch carriages. To ensure he could fool the sorcerers, he also used a precious disguise scroll.

Was this a blessing in disguise? The chief guard breathed a sigh of relief—because of the unexpected, the royal family was no longer riding in their ostentatious luxury carriages and had gotten rid of the extra people.

However, this also means that their escape attempt will be completely exposed, and the next operation must succeed or fail.

The captain of the guard's mood inexplicably improved, but the queen began to sob: "My jewels! My dowry, Charles, and that dressing table!"

"They'll come back; we can just buy new ones." The king offered a perfunctory consolation, having become even more cautious about security and concealment after the near-failure: "Chief Guard, do you have any more disguise scrolls? They're no longer effective."

The chief guard smiled wryly: "Your Majesty, the disguise scrolls are strictly controlled by the guilds and the Tower of Stars. All those circulating on the black market have been used."

"But don't worry, as long as we stay away from the big cities, I'll send the cavalry as the vanguard to find out if any lords loyal to the royal family are willing to provide supplies and resting places."

However, the cavalrymen found nothing, and as night fell, the cavalry commander said that the horses had reached their limit and they needed to return to camp to rest.

"Then let's play the role of merchants. We're far enough from the capital, no problem." The captain of the guard finally decided to take the risk and rest in the towns along the way with the carriage.

He didn't want to cause any more trouble, but the queen and the king's children insisted on "getting the necessary food and rest in a suitable place," which obviously couldn't be provided in the wilderness.

The town they arrived at before dark was surrounded by wooden fences and guards spontaneously formed by townspeople and nearby farmers. At the gate, guards carrying "village guns" checked the vehicles and horses of the newcomers.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"Sir, the people in the carriage are businessmen, and the few of us on horseback are bodyguards." The head guard called the villager "Sir," feeling a bit ridiculous inside, but putting on an even more obsequious tone than his subordinates.

The guard didn't ask for identification; he only wanted one thing: money.

"Hey, who wants waste paper?"

"I took the wrong one, I understand." The captain of the guards didn't have any silver in his wallet, so he could only take out gold coins.

The guard took the money and examined it for a moment. He was slightly startled when he saw the gleaming gold, and before the chief guard could stop him, he abruptly pulled open the carriage window: "How many people are inside?"

In the flickering light of the torches, the panicked man inside the car overlapped with the portrait on the gold coin.

The guard's eyes widened: "It's Charles XVI! The King has fled here!"

(End of this chapter)