“Madam, are you alright?”
Helena flicked the blood off her dagger and approached Rose.
“I thought my neck was going to snap waiting for the signal.”
“Thank you, Helena.”
Rose twisted the rope binding her wrists. The rope seemed to have been loosely tied from the start, unraveling easily with just a little force.
“I’ll help.”
Helena slipped the dagger between Rose's wrists.
As Rose pulled the rope taut,
Tuk, tuduk-!
Helena's blade cleanly severed the rope.
Rose flicked the remnants of the rope onto the floor and lightly brushed the dust from her clothes.
“I learned a thing or two in the carriage.”
She then turned and stared at Henrik.
“If you're not going to tie someone up properly, it's better not to tie them at all.”
At that moment, Dane laughed out loud from behind Henrik. Whatever it meant, it was clear he found Rose's remark very amusing.
“I was certain you'd try to use me as a hostage.”
Rose scoffed at Henrik.
“Because you, Henrik, would never do anything that might get yourself hurt or put you at a disadvantage.”
“…….”
Henrik realized he was completely surrounded on both sides without a gap.
On one side was Dane, radiating a fierce aura like a tiger, and on the other was Helena, watching him sharply like a lynx.
‘Where were you hiding?’
That assassin girl had suppressed her presence so perfectly that he hadn't even known she was there until she appeared.
He was unsure if he could escape this place even if he only had to face Dane. But with his adjutant having just died, the chances had dropped even further.
“Hah…”
Killing his damn nephew was truly not an easy task.
He had prepared for this just in case, truly just in case, hoping he would never have to use it.
“Did you say no one would leave this room alive?”
Henrik twisted his lips into a smile. It wasn't a gesture of resignation.
“…….”
Just as Dane tensed his wrist as if sensing something,
“Let's all go to hell together!”
With a mad shout, Henrik raised his hand. A black orb imbued with a violet toxic gas was glowing hideously within it.
He had taken an antidote before coming here. If he threw this poison orb to the floor and shattered it, everything would be over.
“No!”
Helena reacted instantly.
Tadat!
She lunged at Henrik to contain the imminent poison cloud with her body.
She had no thought of the danger to herself. She simply didn't want to see her master, and the madam her master loved, get hurt.
That was her only thought.
“Helena!”
Rose reached out toward Helena as she rushed past.
Pavavat!
Mana swirled within Dane's hand. From the end of the short hilt, a transparent and sharp spearhead extended at lightning speed.
Just as Henrik put force into his arm to hurl the poison orb,
Seogeok!
An instantly extended silver trajectory pierced right through Henrik's hand.
“…?”
Henrik felt his senses failing to catch up with reality.
The moment he thought something cool had brushed past, three of his fingers holding the poison orb flew helplessly into the air.
Chwak!
Fresh blood spurting from the severed fingers splashed across Henrik's face. At the same time, the dropped poison orb began to fall to the floor.
Right before the poison orb collided with the ground,
Tat!
It was effortlessly snatched up by Helena's hand.
“Ugh!”
Henrik belatedly clutched his hand and stumbled back. His eyes, twisted with horror, seemed unable to comprehend the situation.
“Haa, haa…”
Helena crouched on the floor, panting. Her heart pounded wildly from the intense burst of adrenaline in that brief moment.
“Just now, how…”
She couldn't believe it even though she saw it with her own eyes.
She had lunged in ready to die, yet Dane had subdued Henrik effortlessly, as if he had anticipated this exact outcome.
“Helena.”
Dane's calm voice pierced Helena's ears.
“Are you trying to die without my permission?”
It was a voice that reminded her of the first time she met him in prison.
‘Why is it something to be despised, to use any means and method to survive?’
That time, when he said he would use her as his shadow.
“…Ah.”
Helena trembled as she looked at Dane. Her heart beat abnormally fast.
He was telling her to survive and watch his victory by his side.
She had lived her whole life as a consumable, believing that dying for someone else was her only value.
‘Ahh, so that's why….’
Helena's eyes grew hot.
For this man, she felt she could gladly sell her soul.
Kkuk.
Feeling her chest swell with emotion, Helena stood up. She then stepped in front, shielding Rose from Henrik.
Her master did not need her protection.
If so, protecting the person he cherished the most would be the greatest duty Helena could fulfill.
“Henrik.”
Dane took his eyes off Helena and looked at Henrik.
His gaze was utterly unmoving. His attitude was as indifferent as if he had merely plucked a leg off a bug.
“This is excessively disappointing.”
Dane slowly approached Henrik.
Kkuk.
He stopped after crushing Henrik's severed fingers scattered on the floor.
“It was better when you were dealing with Count Olsen. At least he wasn't cowardly.”
Dane's voice was eerily peaceful. Like the calm before the storm, layers of suppressed murderous intent were piled up within it.
“Have your skills rusted? To the point where you can't even hold a sword?”
“You… arrogant…!”
Henrik growled, clutching his severed hand.
“Back in the days when you were teaching me the sword, I don't think you had eyes like that.”
A cold smirk hung on Dane's lips.
From the depths of his memory, the figure of Henrik's back as he taught a young, boyish Dane how to wield a sword resurfaced.
Henrik—his uncle—had looked much larger and sturdier than he was now.
But now….
“You were quite a convincing teacher back then.”
That shrinking figure, clutching his bleeding hand, was no different from a mere rat.
“Look at yourself now. Not even a trace of a knight's soul can be found.”
Henrik didn't answer. No, he couldn't answer.
“Kugh…”
His reflection in Dane's blue eyes was so pathetic. A shame worse than the pain of his severed fingers poked at him.
‘That's why I tried to avoid a head-on confrontation.’
Dane's talent had already far surpassed his own. Facing him head-on was nothing short of suicide.
What did chivalry matter anymore? Such things were the romance of lower-ranking knights.
History was always written by the victors anyway. He had simply used the most efficient tactics for victory.
Kkadak.
Henrik stared at his hand, now missing a few fingers.
Fighting the kingdom's strongest swordsman in this state was completely insane.
Tat!
Suddenly, he jumped up and turned his body.
“-!”
Helena and Rose tensed their bodies in alarm, but Henrik wasn't aiming for them.
Deolkeodeong!
Henrik kicked the door open as if he were going to break it.
“Hey!”
He shouted toward his remaining forces, the troops supposedly guarding the hallway like an iron wall.
“Right now—!”
Henrik couldn't finish his sentence.
The pungent smell of blood, thick in the hallway, pierced his nose.
Henrik's troops, who should have been standing guard in the hallway, were reduced to lumps of meat scattered on the floor.
They couldn't resist at all, even as they clearly saw the blade touching their necks. They merely rolled their eyeballs before meeting their gruesome deaths.
Puk, seogeok-!
The first thing to enter Henrik's field of vision was the chef, Fabri.
Holding the meat cleaver he used for preparing meat, he was unhesitatingly slashing the throat of a soldier who couldn't move.
“This one has too much fat. The knife doesn't go in well.”
Fabri muttered callously as he wiped the blood off his blade onto his apron.
At his feet, five or six soldiers were already convulsing, spewing fresh blood from their necks.
It was a pure scene of slaughter.
“Ugh!”
“Agh!”
At the end of the hallway, a few soldiers trying to escape were being grabbed by the scruffs of their necks by Schmaichel's guards.
“Stop!”
The guards raised their spears and bravely blocked the hallway. It was a seamlessly coordinated movement without a single hitch.
Puk!
The captain of the guard's vicious spear pierced the chest of a fleeing soldier. Shaking the spear clean, he began chasing another soldier to butcher.
‘You will regret this, Young Master-nim.’
It was clear that the captain of the guard stepping aside for Henrik earlier had been a temporary retreat for this very moment.
Proving this, the number of guards filling the hallway had drastically increased from before. They had deliberately hidden the guards to deceive Henrik's eyes.
“S-Save me!”
“Kraagh!”
There was not a single exception.
None of Henrik's rats who set foot in this castle today survived.
“Ugh, ugh…”
Henrik's hand gripping the doorframe trembled violently. He hallucinated his three severed fingers rolling through the red liquid flooding the hallway.
“You aren't the only one who uses poison, Henrik.”
Rose's amused voice rang out from behind him.
“The hallway is a narrow and enclosed space. The moment they stepped in here, the soldiers were essentially trapped.”
Henrik barely managed to turn his stiff neck to look behind him.
“How is the massive tomb prepared just for you? Do you like it?”
Rose looked at him with a beautiful smile.
Her red hair and green eyes, like a rose in full, magnificent bloom, were radiating a deadly poison.
Sabak.
Behind her, Helena moved to flawlessly shield Rose.
Jeobeok.
Beside them, Dane walked over and stood.
His low, prowl-like gait was akin to that of a beast of prey. He was ready to tear into Henrik's nape at any moment.
“Heok…”
Now, Henrik had no options left.
The hallway was already blocked by corpses, and inside the room stood monsters far more terrifying than those corpses.
Tadat!
Henrik hurriedly turned around and dashed out into the hallway. It was a desperate struggle to survive by any means.
“Go ahead, Uncle-nim.”
Dane's voice struck the fleeing Henrik's back like a frosty gale.
“I'm curious to see how far you can get.”
Without even adjusting his grip on his sword, Dane slowly stepped out into the hallway, passing by Rose as if he had found an entertaining spectacle.
The cruel amusement of a tiger cornering its prey was reflected in his eyes.
“Damn it, damn it…!”
Henrik stumbled as he sprinted down the hallway. He didn't even have the time to feel the sensation of the corpses being trampled beneath his feet.
He just ran.
He fled desperately to escape the cold murderous intent sweeping over him from behind, dodging the grim reaper's scythe aimed at him.
‘O-Outside the castle…!’
There were private soldiers hidden in every corner of the Schmaichel estate, their identities concealed. They were ready to turn the estate into a sea of fire at any moment if Henrik didn't give the signal.
If he could make contact with them, they could somehow cover his retreat and open an escape route.
Tat!
However, the moment he climbed the stairs and looked down at the first-floor lobby,
“…!”
Henrik froze right on the spot.
“It's been a while.”
He saw the Knight Commander, Matthias, standing casually.
“Do you have some urgent business?”
A mischievous smile spread across Matthias's lips.