Chapter 155 : A Familiar Voice

“What about Oren, who followed you around like a shadow, brother? Did you send him out for a drink or something?”

For Zayd, it was the worst-case scenario.

The blond madman in front of him was one thing, but that younger brother, who was sharpening his blades to push him aside using the poison master incident as an opportunity, was an even more dangerous fellow.

The former had said he wasn’t interested in his life, but the latter had a great deal of interest.

But he couldn’t show any weakness in this situation.

“……There’s no need to waste valuable manpower on a single piece of unconfirmed information. And this friend here is stronger than Oren. Don’t look down on him and get yourself embarrassed, Freddie.”

At those words, Freddie’s expression twisted.

“Stronger than Oren……?”

As the angular face, a contrast to his own which was said to resemble their father, turned its gaze, the blond monster smiled brightly and bowed his head to him.

‘Phew……. Passed one hurdle.’

Muno sighed in relief internally.

Fortunately, Zayd chose to compromise with reality.

I had been prepared for a chaotic sword fight if things went south, but it seemed the succession dispute within Aslan, which I had only heard about in rumors, was more severe than I thought.

“I am Ryut Exeo, Young Master Freddie. I have heard much about you.”

Muno, who had bowed his head, mentioned the surname ‘Exeo’ and subtly scanned his surroundings, but as expected, no one paid any attention.

Despite it being quite a rare surname.

‘Well, it was what I expected, but…….’

Instead, a nerve-wracking remark came back.

“You look to be in your mid-twenties at best, and you’re stronger than Oren…? Hard to believe.”

Mid-twenties?

I almost got choked up.

Is it the blond hair, after all?

I lightly suppressed my slight annoyance and greeted Freddie with a smile.

“Lord Zayd is just looking upon me favorably. All I did was barely win a spar against Sir Oren.”

“……He is a talent that Oren discovered. That’s why I entrusted him with my protection.”

Zayd’s nonchalant response followed.

‘Heh, even in this situation…….’

In preparation for me causing a scene, he was shifting the blame to his dead subordinate.

I thought he was a venomous snake, but for me right now, there was nothing bad about the situation.

“Oh-ho. To have beaten Oren at that age…? Surprising. But you look like a mercenary?”

“I have spent my entire life training and only recently came out into the world. My father was a mercenary.”

Freddie’s surprised expression turned back into a sneer at that one answer.

“From the countryside, I see. It seems that fellow Oren brought someone just like him. Or perhaps they only share a mother? Phuhu.”

I didn’t know what was so funny about that, but for some reason, the words I had vaguely made up seemed to fit the puzzle perfectly, so I remained silent.

“By the way, why are you standing here? With all those troops.”

Zayd pointed to the hundred or so soldiers lined up behind Freddie, and he snickered.

“Ah, that……. You know too, brother, don’t you? That the security here is quite strict. They’ll probably let only a select few elites in, so what can I do but bring this many.”

“……You’ll follow the rules even in this situation?”

“Well, it must be nice for you, brother, since you only have one. I guess all the troops you brought can go in.”

I felt Zayd flinch at those words, but fortunately, he didn’t have a fit.

Rather.

“Ah, and there’s something I need to make clear…….”

“……?”

“Since I came first, I will go in first. I’m saying I’ll be the first to interrogate that bitch named Rau-something. Got it?”

At the words that followed, Muno himself almost had a fit.

‘Rauel!’

I never expected to hear her name so directly like this.

‘So these guys really came here because of Rauel.’

The more I thought about it, the more I wondered what on earth Rauel was up to.

Just then, Zayd, whose lips were twitching as if he had something to say, glanced at me and immediately shrugged.

“……Doesn’t matter. Do as you please.”

This guy……?

But it seemed I wasn’t the only one bothered by that.

“Hmm? Really. You’re being unusually strange today, brother.”

“A trained assassin won’t react to your tricks. Especially not over a difference of a few minutes, or a few tens of minutes.”

“That’s what you think, brother.”

“You’re the one who’s still overconfident.”

“Hmph. No matter how elegant she pretends to be, if you cut off a few fingers and toes and burn her eyes or her privates, she’ll spill everything.”

……What, you punk?

At Freddie’s words, Muno unknowingly clenched his teeth.

Only after unknowingly glaring at the man did I realize my mistake.

Fortunately, the feuding brothers seemed to be engrossed only in their conversation.

“Father weighs merits and faults. If the information that woman brought is true, you’ll be turning a meritorious subject into a cripple.”

“She’s a traitor in the first place…… No, putting all that aside, is our family in a position to worry about such things right now? The fact that both you and I have come here in person instead of a messenger proves it.”

“Hmm. If you think so, then go ahead and do it.”

As Zayd responded nonchalantly, Freddie smiled even more broadly.

“Hmph. It must mean he wants us to resolve it one way or another. I believe that’s the meaning behind our father not stopping us.”

And just then, a voice was heard from inside the Inner Castle gate.

“Young Master Freddie Aslan and three of his knights have been permitted entry.”

“Oho. Then, see you later, brother.”

As Freddie disappeared with a smile, Muno unknowingly glanced at Zayd.

‘Himself and three knights. He came with the exact number.’

If it wasn’t a coincidence, it meant he had predicted the number of people who would be allowed in beforehand.

And yet, he was testing his younger brother earlier by talking about troops.

‘He really is a snake.’

A detestable type of person, but now was not the time to be concerned with that.

Because what that bastard Freddie said was weighing heavily on my mind.

“Young Master, shouldn’t we also enter quickly?”

Conscious of the gazes from the troops Freddie left behind, I hid my impatience and asked politely, but the answer came a beat later.

“……We should.”

Zayd stared at me with a gaze filled with anger, annoyance, and all sorts of negative emotions.

Soon, he whispered to me in a very small voice.

“Seeing your reaction, it seems you’re looking for Rauel. In that case, how about we make a deal?”

Ha, look at this guy.

If my intentions have already been discovered, there’s no reason to hide them.

As he looked at Zayd’s coldly hardened face, a chilling smile formed on Muno’s lips as well.

And his intention was also conveyed in a whisper.

“That deal, you can only make it while Rauel is still in one piece. So you’d better hurry.”

With heated emotions contained within cold words.

***

Clank.

As her arm, which had flinched without her realizing, rattled the iron chain, Rauel’s eyes slowly opened.

‘Why……?’

The thick iron chain wrapped not only around her limbs but also her waist was bothersome, but that wasn’t the reason.

She was someone who had been trained to stay in this state for a year if she put her mind to it.

That is, under the premise that her energy would be supplied.

‘Why did I move?’

She had already anticipated before coming here that the Baron would try to get information from her by starving and thirsting her.

That’s why she had decided to conserve as much energy as possible in a state of semi-hibernation while bound, and to act like she was struggling only when the guard was watching.

A moment ago, she had broken her own rule and moved unconsciously.

Because in her dream, she felt like something she longed for was coming closer.

A bitter laugh escaped her at that thought.

‘……How long have I been away to become so discomposed.’

But that feeling wasn’t so bad.

After meeting Muno, she came to know freedom.

And because she knew freedom, she was able to undergo her fifth evolution.

Her current abilities were completely different from what Aslan knew.

In the first place, breaking free from these restraints wasn’t difficult either.

Crack.

‘The Piercer’ was a trait that received extreme sensory correction when trying to penetrate something.

When it underwent its fifth evolution, it became an insane trait that even made it possible to momentarily imbue an arrow with mana, for which she originally had no talent, and multiply its destructive power several times over.

And only then did she realize.

For her senses to be amplified several or even dozens of times in an instant, her body had to be in a state of extreme elasticity and flexibility even under normal circumstances.

To the point where she wondered if her focus on flexibility training had been an instruction from her instincts.

Well, anyway, as a result, she became able to bend or contract her body to a level impossible for ordinary humans.

Meaning, she could slip out of the iron chain and rings currently pressing down on her at any time.

But she shouldn’t.

‘No matter how much I think about it, this is the only excuse.’

The only way to return to the Aslan main house.

With the Aslan ducal family cornered by the magician incident, she had thrown out bait in the form of information that seemed highly related to it.

The information she had prepared was fabricated, but that alone was enough.

Since it was information related to none other than the Dragon Sword Duke.

‘To confirm it, the Lightning Blade Sword and the flame burst user will have no choice but to move together. That will be enough.’

Her goal was not to assassinate Lenok Aslan.

Since it was just a matter of retrieving a strange artifact that was completely inefficient unless she used it herself, there would be no problem escaping as long as those two were gone.

Aslan wouldn’t search for the ‘Ghost’s Bow’, which was too ambiguous to be called an assassination weapon, with bloodshot eyes.

And even if they did search for it belatedly, by then, she would already be by his side.

‘If I have the Ghost’s Bow, I can be of help too.’

In Lord Muno’s, in that person’s fight.

When she closed her eyes again, she thought of him.

A reliable face that looked to be of a similar age, despite him clearly being younger than her.

The person who taught her freedom.

And then again…….

– Fucking…… pretty.

– Who said you could…… touch my stuff!

……The person who made her want to be restrained.

Thump.

She didn’t know what this feeling was, this heart that pounded when she thought of him.

But she wanted to be helpful to him.

– I want to be by his side.

That feeling alone, she clearly recognized.

For that reason too.

‘I must be helpful. I must prove my worth.’

She never wanted to feel helpless again, like she did during the fierce battle with that monster.

The experience of shuddering at the fact that she was a burden was more than enough with just one time.

The only problems were when the Baron would send her to the main house.

Whether the assassination instructor Alex would help her.

And the worry of how many spies there were who might have recognized her exposed face when she entered Raon and reported it to the main house.

‘Betting on all three possibilities… would be unreasonable, I guess.’

The Aslan main house needed to find out she was here quickly and summon her.

‘I will definitely find the Ghost’s Bow and return.’

She renewed her resolve and checked her body’s condition.

It had already been two weeks since she last ate, and over three days since she drank water, but she was still okay.

So she would endure a little longer.

Just as she was making that resolution, she felt a commotion outside.

– !@#…… Young Master……!@#!

Clatter.

Thump.

‘Young Master?

The moment she furrowed her brow at the only word she could make out.

Creeeeak.

From a distance, the sound of the dungeon door opening could be heard.

“It’s here, Young Master Freddie.”

It was the Baron’s voice she had expected, but its content was completely unexpected.

“Ho. Is that the bitch? It’s truly fascinating every time I see her. How can a person have that skin color? Unless she’s an animal.”

“Ah. Ha, haha. Aren’t those beasts from the south famous? At least that one is a bit mixed, so she looks like a person.”

“Hmph. Still a mixed-breed.”

A voice she had heard somewhere before and disgusting words.

An unexpected figure entered her vision as she opened her eyes slightly.

Leaving the knights aside, one person was the problem.

The 2nd Prince, Freddie Aslan.

It was an appearance she had never considered.

It seems…….

‘The second-in-line to the succession came in person……?’

The situation in Aslan seems to be worse than I thought.

The moment she thought that.

“Stop right there! We were first.”

A familiar and longed-for voice was heard.

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