Chapter 27

Chapter 27 : Of Traitors and Sorcerers, and Troublemakers (2)

Upon arriving at the underground prison, Legina faced the assassin, accompanied by the guards and Theore’s personal club, Titi, which she had instructed Una to bring for her peace of mind. Her gaze, stroking the comfortable grip of the club, was chillingly calm as she looked at the assassin.

He lay slumped on the floor, his limbs bound. His slow, heaving chest indicated he wasn’t dead, but his breathing was too shallow and faint for a living human, which troubled her.

“How long has he been in this state?”

“Since he regained consciousness.”

“Did I hit him too hard?”

“It wouldn’t be just that.”

“…So you’re saying it is partly because I hit him?”

Legina feigned ignorance of the warden, who avoided her gaze, and carefully sat on a chair placed in front of the assassin. Johan and Hermann had taken their places behind her, on her right and left respectively.

“Has he confessed anything?”

“No.”

“I expected that.”

“What?”

“A brave man who dared to point a sword at His Majesty wouldn’t easily open his mouth.”

Even a timid man wouldn’t open his mouth. Legina suppressed the urge to check Hermann’s face behind her and looked at the assassin, who was bound and slumped, head bowed. It was strange that he showed no movement despite having regained consciousness. She gestured to the warden, and a waiting soldier approached, grabbing the assassin’s hair and pulling his head back.

“Ugh…”

“Did you torture him?”

“What? No. Not yet.”

“Then why does his face look like this?”

“Well, that is, um…”

“Your Highness struck his face, didn’t you? With a chair made of Dacon wood, which is famously sturdy. Why does someone who knows so well ask such a question?” Hermann answered in place of the sweating warden. Legina gave a small cough and looked at the assassin’s face again. One side of his face was severely swollen, but his eyes, which were definitely conscious and looking at her, trembled faintly.

It’s the sorceress’s doing.

Legina was certain, seeing his unfocused, hazy eyes. Before her regression, those who betrayed her had eyes exactly like that when they stabbed her in the back.

“If this is the case, it’s hopeless…”

The traitor’s sorceress mesmerized people’s minds. She manipulated them by shaking their rationality, making them believe wrong was right and right was wrong. The most wicked aspect of her power was that the controlled individual didn’t even realize they were being controlled until the sorceress relinquished control. The change was so natural that even those betrayed by them didn’t think they were being controlled.

I lost so many people like that.

The despair of seeing trusted individuals not only stab each other in the back but then turn their blades on her was indescribable. The problem was that even if they realized they were under the sorceress’s influence, they didn’t know how to break the spell. Furthermore, if the sorceress released control, they would become like the assassin before her now, neither truly alive nor dead.

This one has already been discarded.

The only lingering trace of the sorceress was his hazy eyes. His tail had been thoroughly severed, making further investigation pointless.

“Still, I should check.”

Legina lifted the assassin’s chin with the tip of her club. His pale face was already devoid of vitality, but he would surely react to these words.

“My lord, what do you think of His Imperial Majesty Bernhardt G. Alpere, the First Emperor of the Ellias Empire?”

The reaction was immediate. A fierce hostility overflowed from behind his hazy eyes, and a savage animalistic growl erupted from the assassin’s mouth, threatening to envelop Legina. It was fortunate his limbs were bound; otherwise, he would have lunged at her and torn at her throat. Legina nodded at his reaction, now certain this assassin was a hound sent by the sorceress.

“Your Highness? What did you do?”

“Well, I didn’t do anything?”

She had truly discovered by chance that those under the sorceress’s spell reacted this way to the First Emperor’s name. This accidentally revealed fact had allowed Legina to escape various threats before her regression.

But why does he react to the name of His Imperial Majesty, the First Emperor?

It was a lingering question she hadn’t solved since before her regression. The Ducal House of Slyveig had been elevated to a ducal house several generations after the First Emperor’s death, and Annetta’s lineage, Veedis, which the sorceress belonged to, had only barely made it onto the list of noble families a few generations ago. One could investigate their past actions, but she wasn’t confident she would find anything that would make them bear a grudge against the First Emperor.

“With those hazy eyes… What could I possibly find out from him?”

“His Majesty said he would personally find the mastermind, so we should be able to find out something soon.”

Legina listened to the warden’s reply and rose from her seat, turning her gaze away from the furiously barking assassin. She had hoped, but as expected, there was nothing to learn from this man. He was merely a culprit fortunate enough not to be re-used by the sorceress or spout nonsense. The thought that it would be far more beneficial to kill him than to keep him alive momentarily crossed her mind, but she did not want to see unnecessary blood.

How many have I killed with my own hands? It’s funny to be thinking like this now.

Before her regression, she had killed many while struggling to survive. She had no choice but to kill, for if she didn’t, she would die, but she never wanted to feel the sensation of hot blood on her face cooling and drying again.

Anyway, he’s calm, isn’t he?

Legina, leaning on the backrest of a chair, thought this as she looked at Hermann, who was only smiling with his lips. If the sorceress had used her power on that assassin, the order must have come from the man before her now. To be smiling at a moment when the mastermind might be exposed if the sorceress’s spell failed… She couldn’t tell if he trusted Annetta that much or if he had thoroughly prepared an escape plan even if he was exposed.

I really hate those cloudy eyes… Huh? Cloudy eyes?

At a sudden thought, Legina flinched. The biggest commonality among those under the sorceress’s spell, no matter what anyone said, was their cloudy, hazy eyes. Of course, it was a subtle haziness, hidden skillfully enough not to be noticed unless one looked closely, but it was enough to make someone who knew the person’s original gaze feel puzzled. And Legina remembered the clear eyes of her fiancé when she first met him at their engagement ceremony as a child.

What if Hermann was also under the sorceress’s influence?

Why didn’t I ever suspect it?

Hermann and Annetta, the traitor and his sorceress. She had naturally assumed the sorceress followed the traitor, so she hadn’t suspected it. However, with this new realization, the suspicion that her own thoughts might have been wrong began to sprout. Legina stroked the handle of her club and fixed her gaze on Hermann’s eyes, then spoke to him.

“My lord.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“What do you think of His Imperial Majesty Bernhardt G. Alpere, the First Emperor?”

Hermann’s body flinched. Legina, gripping the handle of her club tightly, stood looking at Hermann.

“I believe he was a magnificent individual.”

“…Really?”

“Is there anyone in this Empire who is unaware of the First Emperor’s greatness?”

She squinted, scrutinizing Hermann’s face, but aside from the flinch when he was questioned, she found no other change in his expression. Was it excessive suspicion? Just as Legina was about to speak to Hermann once more, tilting her head, it happened.

The assassin, somehow having broken the chains binding his body, lunged at Legina. Legina quickly assessed the situation, saw Johan drawing his sword, and barely dodged the first attack. However, the assassin’s movements, driven by blind hostility, were too fast.

“Your Highness!”

“Ugh!”

Legina blocked the assassin’s second attack with her club, successfully binding his right hand, but a third attack was too much. Legina gritted her teeth, looking at the assassin’s left hand flying towards her. She wouldn’t die, but she would likely sustain an injury that would make it difficult to move for a while.

SWISH!

As she prepared a counter-attack, accepting her impending injury, Legina heard something being sprayed onto the thick fabric covering her face, as if to protect it.

“Your Highness! Are you alright?!”

“I’m fine, Johan. Move the cloak. I need to see the situation.”

“It’s a sight that cannot be shown to Your Highness, who is still young.”

“Johan. That’s an order.”

“Forgive me.”

Johan, wrapping Legina’s face and body in his own cloak, embraced her and quickly began to exit the underground prison. And as she was carried rapidly towards the surface in his arms, Legina could smell the metallic scent of blood through the cloak. It was an unmistakable smell of blood, making her feel as if the blood in her entire body was chilling.

“Explain, Johan.”

“…Sir Hermann cut down the assassin who lunged at Your Highness.”

“And?”

“Only his arm was severed, so he won’t die immediately, but… it will be difficult to stop the bleeding.”

“So, he’ll die soon, then.”

“I apologize.”

She could feel the sunlight through the cloak, but Johan did not put Legina down. She heard a small scream and murmuring from someone, and Selma’s voice calling her name from afar. Legina leaned her head on Johan’s chest, slowly clenching and unclenching her stiff, cold hands, and began to sort through the haphazard questions raging in her mind.

How did the prisoner’s chains come loose?
The sorceress’s hound was still a useful pawn to Hermann.
But why did he kill the assassin?
Was killing the assassin beneficial to their plan?
Or was there a problem with the spell the assassin was under?

“More and more unanswered questions keep piling up.”

Her head throbbed. Legina closed her eyes, overwhelmed by a sudden headache, and fiddled with the handle of the club she still held in her hand.

– Mochinuna.