CHAPTER 63……………………………
“May I at least ask your name?”
“…Aris.”
Even with just that small answer, the man smiled as if it were enough. It was a far more striking and handsome smile than when she had looked up at him.
There were many handsome young men in high society, but perhaps because of his tanned skin…
The man possessed a kindness and maturity, yet an ungraspable wildness.
Aris, unable to help herself, was drawn to the skillfully curved thin lips. Their eyes met, and her cheeks flushed.
“Um…”
“Call me Jacques. I’ll stay by your side until your tears stop.”
Thump!
Thump, thump!
Her heart raced. Aris covered her face with the cup, worried that her reddened cheeks would be noticed. She hadn’t expected that they already had been.
A glance. A sidelong look, and their eyes met again. Jacques smiled naturally. Her heart fluttered once more.
His smile toward her, despite her averting her gaze, deepened.
Aris didn’t notice that there wasn’t a single server around.
Peeng!
The arrow she had shot lost its power and fell. Not even close to the target, Princess Laratu slightly stuck out her tongue.
“I guess I have no talent for archery.”
Ping!
Giovanni’s arrow pierced the very center of the target. Princess Laratu gasped, clapped her hands, and jumped up.
“That’s amazing!”
“You need to pull the string harder than you think. Be careful not to let your elbow wobble.”
“I’ll try again.”
She drew the arrow with all her strength. Despite her effort, her arm shook, and the arrow tip wobbled up and down.
“I’ll hold it steady. Don’t let it shake.”
Giovanni grabbed her elbow. Princess Laratu’s cheeks turned red at the contact.
Kichev, watching the scene, shook his head and coughed as if about to vomit.
“Did the matter you asked about go well?”
Princess Laratu asked while aiming her bow at the target. Giovanni and Kichev exchanged a glance.
The death of the priest’s attendant that day had been kept secret.
If an assassin from Ammak had entered the kingdom, it would have been a serious problem.
A mistake could have resulted in them taking the blame for everything.
It was clear that Lodraki was playing an unpleasant game. Discovering the assassin’s purpose and whereabouts without the royal family knowing was urgent.
“Good.”
“That’s a relief. If you need help again…”
Then it happened.
“Ughhhhhh!”
Kichev dropped to his knees, vomiting.
“….”
“…Oh my.”
Kichev’s condition wasn’t improving; it was worsening with time.
Giovanni turned his darkened gaze to Princess Laratu.
“I hope you can introduce me to a skillful physician.”
One shouldn’t feel happy in such a situation. Suppressing the smile creeping onto her lips, Princess Laratu nodded firmly.
“I’ll introduce my personal physician.”
The poor, the hunted, all kinds of criminals, and those with shady pasts naturally gathered in Riorsa’s underground world, Amtein.
In particularly secluded corners of Amtein, small houses clustered together. A refuge for the lazy and weak.
The alleyways were noisy with drunken shouts. In areas where the unprotected poor lived, there was no real law enforcement.
The royal family’s indifference drew lawless people, tempting all sorts of criminals, ultimately forming the Amtein of today.
A few vagrants shuffled down the streets of Amtein.
“Yeah! Next time, let’s drink again! Don’t get kicked by Emily for something small, just have a good time!”
“Shut your mouth?”
Squeeeek.
The cheerful expression of the man, who had been joking with the vagrants moments before, changed the instant the door closed.
He pressed his old hat low to hide his face and walked deep into the house.
Like the other houses in the alley, it was a shabby two-story dwelling.
Outwardly, it looked ordinary, but the hidden parts of the house were much larger than the visible ones.
Step, step.
The worn front of cheap suede shoes hit the floor without hesitation.
With a creak, the man entered the filthy kitchen and pushed aside the dust-covered carpet.
A square door was revealed. Opening it, a gloomy staircase appeared. The man stepped down without hesitation.
Surprisingly, the basement of the two-story house went very deep.
After walking down solid stone steps for a while, suddenly, a chilling scream echoed.
The man quickened his pace.
How much farther?
Finally, the floor.
Torches were lit, but the space still exuded the damp, oppressive atmosphere typical of a basement. Two men sat head to head.
One of them lifted his head at the sound of footsteps and stretched his cramped legs. The scar on his cheek twitched.
The man approached the other, who was loosening the muscles of his tense body.
“Have you opened your mouth?”
“I opened it long ago.”
“And yet?”
The man removed his old hat and placed it on a chair. Brown hair, tanned skin from the sun, and a quite handsome face were revealed.
“As you can see, he knows nothing.”
The scarred man shrugged.
The thing he had been working on just moments ago was a lump of meat in human clothes.
Someone who had been healthy yesterday was reduced to meat in just one day.
Even looking at the man, who now hung his head and couldn’t even moan, the other spoke calmly.
“Fools. They have a power ordinary humans don’t possess, yet they don’t even know what it is.”
The scarred man clicked his tongue.
“It’d be better to make the other priests talk. This one will die soon. It’s easier than expected. They’re so coddled by the kingdom, they never think anyone could harm them. There’s no vigilance, and yet it’s worse than that.”
“Still, dragging it out does no good. Kun wants the kingdom’s secrets. We must open as many priests’ mouths as possible, and if there’s no result, we take them alive. Could be useful as a living sprinkler.”
“That’s right. Jacques, how’s the work outside going?”
A mischievous smile appeared in the man’s eyes, and Jacques snorted.
“Not too difficult. I just calmed the one crying, and they opened up quickly.”
“She’s an important target, right?”
“Yes.”
Jacques took out a paper scribbled with the target’s information.
Aris’ appearance. Her status as a priest. Close ties with Count Hubert Lorenst, a theologian and confidant of the king.
Jacques smiled lightly.
“A target worth it.”
The man glancing at the paper smirked lecherously.
“She’s quite pretty. Don’t get careless. Don’t forget your mission.”
“Of course. If I ruin the mission for personal desire, Kun will rip me apart.”
Then a choking groan was heard.
“Ugh…”
The motionless man like a corpse had convulsions.
A foul smell filled the air.
The two men covered their noses and stepped back.
“Damn, looks like he’ll die today. Sanchai! When he dies, take him up and throw him in the well.”
The other man, who had remained quiet, nodded silently. Despite the dim light, he was visibly large and solid.
“Shinu, let’s have a drink. Brought a bottle like you said.”
“Excellent! This wine here is amazing. Even cheap wine tastes better than the empire’s expensive stuff. The kingdom—hogging all this blessed land!”
Grumbling, Shinu popped the cork of the wine bottle Jacques handed him.
The fragrant grape aroma rose.
Shinu’s expression became ecstatic. He drank without even pouring into a glass.
Jacques frowned but didn’t stop him.
Unlike Jacques, who handled outside missions due to his handsome looks, Shinu, in charge of torturing the target here, couldn’t freely go outside, which must have been frustrating.
But it couldn’t be helped. Shinu and Sanchai, unlike Jacques, had distinctly imperial features, making suspicion easy.
Shinu, Jacques, and Sanchai.
They were hybrids, born between kingdom citizens and desert warriors, raised in the empire.
They had been taken in by the empire’s Kun, Lodraki Doberakan, to be used as spies instead of imperial citizens vulnerable to the kingdom’s endemic diseases.
Trained for over twenty years in the empire, they had infiltrated the kingdom during this imperial delegation visit and were operating secretly.
Thanks to Lodraki’s alliance with corrupt kingdom nobles, disguising their identity was easy.
“Checked on the Fifth Prince?”
“No.”
“Too bad.”
“If we get traced, everything’s wasted.”
“Still, you should at least know what’s going on, right? I’m stuck here with squeaky rats.”
Grumbling, Shinu gulped down the wine.
“Hearing rumors isn’t hard.”
“So, anything new?”
“Looks like he recently went on dates with a fake princess.”
“Dates? The Fifth Prince? With a woman?”
Shinu’s bulging eyes widened. Jacques looked closer to a kingdom native, while Shinu looked more imperial.
His dark brown skin made the whites of his eyes stand out.
“Really? Is he planning to marry a local woman, just like Kun ordered?”
Shinu’s neck bobbed in disbelief. The smell of wine came from his open mouth.
“And she’s not even the legitimate princess? The king couldn’t give the real princess, so this stand-in was chosen?”
Shinu shook his head.
Jacques chuckled.
“The Fifth Prince has a pitiful situation. In the empire, there are countless women vying for his heart.”
“Of course. Out of respect for Kun, they hold back. Otherwise, they’d be clamoring to grab his hand again!”
“The empire’s glory, indeed.”
Jacques coldly sneered, snatched the wine bottle from Shinu, and gulped it down. Not much remained.
