Lucia

(3)

After confirming that the Madam had completely left the break room, Roy spoke icily to David.

“You have not seen the Madam here today. Do you understand?”

David gnashed his teeth furiously. He was definitely going to make this bastard live a life worse than death. He wasn’t just rude. A mere vulgar commoner-born knight was insulting a Count heir to a Duke.

When David angrily tried to go past Roy in a huff, Roy blocked his path.

“What!”

“Answer before you go. My Madam was never here.”

David snorted.

“Didn’t you hear me? I came here after being invited by the Duchess.”

“This son of a—”

Roy growled. David flinched, then he was filled with indignation at the fact that he was overwhelmed by an ignorant knight’s attitude.

“And if I keep my mouth shut? Do you think you can hide the fact that the Duchess was here? What will you do about the knights guarding outside?”

“I just need to tell them to never speak of it.”

“How do you know that no one beside the knights and I know?”

Roy’s eyes took on a gleam. David wanted to upset Roy’s mood even more, so he kept mouthing off.

“Soon, people will come here. I am in the princess’ break room and the Duchess’ guard knight is together with me. Look forward to how I will explain this situation.”

“…Someone will come?”

“The Duchess’ guard knight left the Duchess and fought with the Count over a love affair. It’ll be very interesting.”

All expression died away from Roy’s face. Lifeless eyes, void of emotion like that of a wild beast, met with David’s eyes.

“…I see. This is a plot of yours.”

Roy smiled. It was an immaculate, bright smile.

David broke out in goosebumps. It was an instinctive sensation of life, responding to the threat of death. David tried to say something, but it was already too late.

Roy’s two hands grabbed David’s head and twisted it. Crack, along with the sound, David’s consciousness was cut off. Roy placed the unbreathing David on the floor and stood up. He looked around the break room with a subdued coldness in his eyes. It was completely different from his usual frivolous and careless appearance. Just like a beast that held its breath as it crouched just before taking the leap, there was a calm but ferocious energy around Roy.

Roy had now returned to being a hunter. He revived the sensation of his time in the north, when he had hunted down and killed barbarians.

‘The Madam definitely came here with her maid.’

Roy checked every corner of the break room. And he discovered the two unconscious women on the floor of the restroom. The first woman he saw was only in her underwear, and the other woman was his Madam’ maid. The lips of both women were dark in color, displaying the typical symptoms of poisoning. Their chances of survival didn’t seem very high.

‘I can’t leave the maid behind.’

If he was alone, he could get out of here without leaving a trace, no matter what. But taking an unconscious woman along would make things difficult. However, leaving the maid behind with the corpse of the Duke’s successor, meant that the Madam would get caught up in the situation.

‘Moreover, there is an accomplice.’

David said people were coming. That meant that there was a promise or an agreement for that to happen.

‘The person that brought this bastard here. They will definitely come back here.’

Roy was reminded of the handmaid that had passed in front of him earlier and the unpleasant woman that kept grating on his nerves. The two different looking people had the same smell. There was some kind of relationship between the two.

‘Who are they aiming for? The Madam? Or the Lord?’

While escorting the Crown Prince for more than a year, Roy learnt a lot of things. He witnessed the battles of aristocrats, where they made rumors and spread them in order deal with their enemies.

At first, he thought ‘a man should pick up his sword and fight fair and square, what sort of crappy act is that’. But he came to the realization that sometimes, the effect of a rumor was much more fatal than that of a sword.

‘The Madam is a woman. A rumor is not good for a woman.’

Regardless of who they were aiming for, if they harmed the Madam, the result would lead to his lord being harmed as well.

‘The accomplice must be eliminated.’

Roy gave up on escaping. And he thought of cleaning up. He decided to get rid of all traces of the Madam ever being here. A true hunter should not leave any traces or any causes for future concern.

He had to start with getting rid of the witnesses. He broke the necks of the maid and the handmaid, killing them instantly. He felt a little sorry to the maid whom he was slightly acquainted with.

‘Sorry. I’ll beg for forgiveness in hell later.’[1]

He dragged in the knights who were strewn across the floor at the entrance. They were witnesses to the scene of the Madam entering the break room. As expected, he killed them too, and leaned them against the wall in an inconspicuous blind spot.

The whole process was over in the blink of an eye. Many lives were lost in an instant, but for Roy, it was a hunt. There was no fear or any feeling of guilt in him after murdering ordinary people.

Roy sat on the sofa, closed his eyes and waited patiently. His sensitive senses caught the sound of a group of people heading in his direction. The gradually approaching footsteps stopped in front of the door to the break room.

The moment the door was opened with a tiny click sound, Roy opened his eyes. The middle door opened. A dozen or so noblewomen piled into the break room, discovered Roy and stopped.

Roy’s eyes flashed. He saw the eyes of the handmaid quiver relentlessly as she stood, holding onto the door latch.

Anita thought something was strange from the moment she didn’t see the Duchess’ guard in the hallway, and when she saw that there were no knights in front of the break room, she felt something wasn’t right.

However, she couldn’t refuse the noblewomen who were following her and urging her to quickly open the door. If she ran away like that, it would be way too obvious. She thought that regardless of what had happened, after bringing the noblewomen inside, she would take the chance and naturally remove herself.

The noblewomen would never open a door with their own hand. Anita was annoyed even though she herself was such a noblewoman. As soon as she opened the middle door, Anita came face-to-face with Roy, who was staring straight at her. She couldn’t move an inch as if she had become a frog in front of a snake.

‘So it is you.’

Roy instinctually judged that this woman was at the center of all the things that had occurred. Following the temperament of a hunter, which relied more on the body’s senses than reasoning, he pulled out the hidden dagger that he always had on him, and immediately threw it at the woman’s neck.

Translator’s Corner:

[1] This is more like ‘I’ll beg for forgiveness when I go to hell later’.

E/N: Wow, didn’t expect such a bloodbath here heh, but gotta give it to Roy for his way of handling things. This dog approves of it, the dead cannot talk. XD

*Hope you don’t mind the editor’s comments. I’ve been leaving them in cause it’s the end of the chapter anyways and you can think of it as a comment.