The palace guards had clearly tightened security considerably—it was a far cry from when Claudia had first disguised herself as Princess Yamalana and infiltrated the palace.
This was probably entirely because of what had happened at the banquet, which had prompted the palace to strengthen its defenses.
But Mr. Otto and Claudia's escape had gone smoothly so far... The only thing troubling Claudia along the way was that she still had no news of her new classmates. That was probably her sole concern at the moment.
Perhaps it was because they all shared the feeling of being outsiders here, people from the modern world.
"Shouldn't we do something about that Ibn?" Claudia suddenly remembered Ibn, who had been knocked unconscious by Otto at the beginning and then hidden away.
Otto answered directly, "He's Ibn. The one I know is Aliyah. He's still outside the oasis temple."
Claudia fell silent for a moment before murmuring, "Mr. Otto, can you really tell them apart? Between these two worlds, there are people like me, people like Aliyah, and even..."
"Even what?" Otto turned around at once.
Claudia opened her mouth. She had wanted to say that there were even people like the High Priest, just like her father, but when the words reached her lips, they became, "Perhaps there are even people like you."
"That's all the more reason to leave this place." Otto spoke expressionlessly. "If you remain immersed in falsehood for long enough, one day even you will be assimilated by it."
Assimilated by falsehood... Claudia's heart jolted. She seemed to have grasped something vaguely.
She was just about to say something when Otto, who was leading the way ahead, suddenly stopped and interrupted her. Seeing Mr. Otto standing there, Claudia instinctively frowned. "What happened?"
"Hide yourself later." Mr. Otto suddenly