Dominic followed the Guard through the crowd, headed straight for the far side of the platform.
They were following the direction on the Magitech Orb, and hopefully that would be exact enough that they would know who it was by the moment when the directional arrow turned.
As they neared the edge of the platform, Dominic began to worry that they had missed their destination. But then, the glowing spot suddenly moved to the right, pointing at open air.
Dominic cast a reduced power version of [Chain Lightning] in the general direction of the glow, and agonized screams filled the platform. A man in workman’s coveralls appeared from the empty space as he twitched and flailed for a moment, then tumbled backward off the platform.
"Dammit." The guard muttered, then stepped to the edge to see where the man had landed.
Dominic looked over the edge and frowned. It was seven stories down to the cobblestone driveway of the keep, where a horrified groom was looking at the body which had just landed next to the horse he was brushing down.
"I am blaming you for this one." The Guard noted dryly.
"I am telling the Princess it was a suicide." Dominic agreed.
How was he supposed to know that the invisible target was standing right at the edge of the platform?
With all the noise, only a few had noticed the commotion, but the presence of the Royal Guard said that someone with authority had already arrived, and they could ignore the issue until their work was done.
Or longer if it involved paperwork.
Dominic followed his escort down to the entry of the Keep, where panicked guards were milling around, wondering what was going on. They had been called for the man who fell off the platform, but nobody was sure how it had happened, or who this man was.
He was in uniform, but none of the staff present recognized him.
"Have there been many new hires recently?" Dominic asked the groom, who looked like he couldn’t decide whether to cry or vomit.
The man shook his head, then stared at the soft brush in his hand.
"The Marquis hasn’t hired anyone new in six months. He said it was to help build teamwork, so that all the new people started at the same time every year. It left a few areas shorthanded when people quit, but we should know almost everyone by now.
Especially our group, you know? We work at the front gate and the guards check ID when workers who live outside the Keep come in for work in the morning."
Dominic turned to the gate guard, who was staring at the man’s body in confusion. As the groom had said, he had no idea who this man was, but he should have seen him every day for the last six months.
Boots marching to the gate marked the arrival of more troops, and Dominic saw Dax, the younger son of Marquis Burton, leading a team from the Natural Sons’ Regiment to their location.
"Advisor, Princess Alexis has instructed us to assist you in the apprehension of the fugitive." Dax announced.
"Well, he’s not going far. He fell off the Airship Platform when we were chasing him." Dominic explained.
Dax nudged the body with his boot and frowned. "Well, that’s not quite what she was hoping for. But apprehended is apprehended, I suppose. The man from earlier has begun to talk, and he identified his companions."
Then Dax paused, and crouched down to wipe blood from the man’s face.
"Well shit. I know who this is. That is the Viscount of Boscom’s nephew. We went to school together. He’s a Dagos Noble. Or, he was until a few minutes ago." Dax explained.
Dominic didn’t know where the Boscom Family’s holdings were, so they probably weren’t a border holding. But that did confirm that these were foreign spies.
"I should inform the Princess of our findings." Dominic sighed.
Dax shook his head. "It’s better that I do it. You’re... of a tender age to be seeing what is going on in the dungeons."
Dominic resisted the urge to point out that both Dax and the Princess were at most only a few years older than he was.
He already knew that everyone underestimated his age.
Dominic’s mind briefly wandered back to that day Dagos attacked Wavemates, and the raid on Wistover township. He had been out in the forest, gathering herbs and root vegetables for his mother when the attack began, and he didn’t even hear the battle until he was nearly home.
By then, the Dagos Army had already sacked the village, and his extended family, even the small children, had been executed on the front steps of the manor house.
He had rushed home, hoping to warn his parents, only to find a raiding party burning his house.
After that, things got blurry, and the next clear memory was kneeling in the centre of town, surrounded by dead soldiers. But what he did remember in between, he didn’t care to reminisce about, so Dominic focused back on the present.
Where he had again taken the life of an invader from Dagos.
But he found that he simply couldn’t feel bad for the dead man.
"Alright, the show’s over, folks. Someone, let’s get this cleaned up. The Princess will want the physician to examine the body. However, it doesn’t need to be here in the entry, we already know how he died." The Royal Guard insisted.
The staff began moving, getting as far as possible from the scene before they were nominated to clean up, and the Royal Guard leaned over to whisper to Dominic.
{Next time, just shoot them or something. It’s less likely to be fatal than trying not to kill them.}
Dominic did his best not to laugh.
{Well, I’ve got a mana revolver with me. I can probably make that happen.} He replied.
A man from the horse stables came over with a wheelbarrow, and loaded the body, then moved it off to a storage room out of sight of the entrance. That gave the cleaners a chance to come out and douse the area with buckets of water, washing the blood down into the gutters.
Good enough to start using the area again.