Chapter 153
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 153
Muffled groans, as if from someone with a cloth stuffed in their mouth, drifted from the carriage, accompanied by the metallic tang of blood. On top of it all, the scent of slaughter clung to the coachman.
Thebes, who had been about to bare his teeth at Abel, snapped his attention to Seo-ah and followed the moment she moved. Abel, standing to her left, did the same. The drivers of other carriages lining up to exit glanced their way, but Seo-ah’s eyes remained fixed on the brown carriage as she walked forward.
The news that had arrived after Oscar’s departure was utterly unbelievable.
Surely nothing could have happened to Lady Barbara. But then again, hadn’t even her formidable Master died?
Suddenly, a particular scent wafted toward her. The coachman of the brown carriage turned, his gaze locking onto her as she approached.
Seo-ah stopped in her tracks.
His sharply upturned eyes were intimidating, but she felt no fear and did not avert her gaze.
“…How is it?” Thebes asked quietly.
Seo-ah turned her back to the coachman and whispered, “I smell blood and hear muffled groans.”
Thebes nodded. Then, acting as if he had heard nothing, he led her toward the manor wall where the other Wolves were waiting. Handing his umbrella to Abel, he issued an order to his subordinate.
“Seize that brown carriage. Just keep it out of sight. Divert its route completely.”
“…What?” the Combat Wolf asked blankly, but he hurriedly nodded at his superior’s fierce glare.
“Understood, senior.”
Thebes’s entire demeanor shifted, his body language becoming that of a predator setting out on a hunt.
“Move.”
At his single command, the expressions of the Team 1 Wolves, who had been stamping their feet in anticipation, transformed. Their auras changed so entirely it was hard to believe they had been restless just moments before.
As Team 1, the highest-ranking of the Combat Teams, began to move, Karl’s direct Wolves dared not speak to them and simply backed away.
However, Simon, who had just stepped out of the manor to check on the situation and witnessed the scene, was another matter. He stood dazed for a moment, unable to believe Thebes’s order to raid the carriage. After blankly watching the Wolves file past him, he flew into a rage.
“What the hell is that crazy fighting dog trying to do?!”
Simon strode through the rain and blocked Thebes’s path, baring his teeth as his blood-red eyes flashed.
“Do you think this is the battlefield you used to wallow in? A place where you can just sweep your mistakes under the rug? Who do you think is in that carriage that you’re launching an ambush?”
“Is there a dog barking somewhere?” Thebes muttered, picking at his ear.
“If you raid that carriage and some figure we can’t handle is inside, the responsibility—”
“I’ll pay with my life. Happy? Now move.”
Simon squeezed his eyes shut in frustration, then snapped them open and exploded.
“That’s a punishment, you son of a bitch! That’s not taking responsibility!”
“You talk too much. That’s why you’re useless, you fucking lapdog.”
Thebes gestured for his subordinates to move past them quickly. As the Team 1 Wolves tried to slip by, Simon glared at them with bloodshot eyes.
“Are you going to defy me?”
Even Team 1, who would have ignored anyone else’s orders, hesitated for a moment before the vicious devil’s wrath. Seeing this, Thebes’s anger erupted like a volcano.
“Whose orders do you listen to?! Move!”
As Team 1 scrambled to obey their superior’s roar, a vein bulged on Simon’s neck. Thebes was equally furious at Simon for obstructing him at every turn.
“What do you think the chances of your fucking intuition being right are? If we mess with a Vies noble, His Excellency has to take all the responsibility, and you’re talking nonsense about giving up your life?”
“Oh, is that so? Then why don’t you calculate this with your precious probabilities: What were the chances of us coming out of the Rock Forest alive?”
“……”
“Probability? Fuck that. You all would have died there. I know that cliff. It’s so damn thick that you can’t hear a thing from the other side, let alone know there’s a whole other path beyond it. But she noticed it and saved His Excellency and all of you. Compared to that, is one flimsy carriage really such a big deal?”
When Simon remained silent, Thebes grinned and straightened up.
“So, my dear fucking Count, I don’t act based on probability.”
He patted Simon’s shoulder as he walked past.
“I act based on ability. Her ability.”
And I believe in that ability.
“Why is no one else thinking of how to utilize it? Isn’t that what’s truly strange?”
Thebes chuckled, then vanished into the darkness. Simon, suppressing his rage, stared at the spot where he had disappeared before turning his head. His gaze landed on Seo-ah. Under the umbrella held by Abel, she was still standing there, examining every carriage that passed through the main gate.
“Team 1 is on the move. Where are they going?” Karl asked, having returned from giving orders to the Search Team.
Simon ground his teeth and shook his head. “I have no idea, senior. We’ll see whether that fighting dog, now off its leash, makes a mess of things or not.”
“A fighting dog off its leash? What did Thebes do now…”
“Whatever happens, happens. It’ll be fine if he pulls it off, but if he ruins it…”
“If he ruins it?”
“I’ll finally have an excuse to slit his throat. So either way, it won’t be all bad.”
At the devil’s dark muttering, even Search Team Leader Karl frowned.
*
A giant man and a pale woman.
What were they?
In the corner by the wall, where the shadows of the forest lingered, the encroaching darkness and pouring rain obscured the vision of Peter’s subordinate, preventing him from getting a clear look at the strange pair.
They must be Wolves, of course.
Still, it wouldn’t be a problem. They had a backup plan. No matter what happened, this operation would end in success.
Having escaped the congestion near the manor, the carriage began to pick up speed. Only then did Peter’s subordinate draw back the tightly shut curtains. Cold rainwater, leaking from the window seams, splashed onto his face.
“Good.”
The rain would obscure vision, making it easier to evade any search. He smirked, pleased with the convenient downpour, but his eyes were suddenly caught by another carriage just outside the window.
“……?”
Carriages were common enough. This was Vies, the capital of Luxen, a city teeming with people and vehicles. With the party at the Marquisate Residence ending abruptly, countless carriages were pouring out at once. He tried to shake off the inexplicable, chilling feeling that drew his eyes to that specific carriage, but just as he was about to look away, his subordinate spoke.
“Sir, there’s a carriage…”
The man on the opposite seat, who was pressing Barbara Wald’s neck down with his foot, was also staring out the window.
“……”
An indescribable chill shot through his body like an electric current.
As he turned his head back to the window, the other carriage suddenly accelerated, and the angry voice of his colleague on the coachman’s seat rang out.
“What are you doing? This is dangerous!”
“What is it? What’s wrong?!” he shouted, trying to see outside, but the small window offered a poor view of the situation.
“Get away from our carriage immediately! Do you have any idea who is riding in here?!” the driver yelled, putting on the air of a loyal servant protecting a noble.
Hearing the shout, Peter’s subordinate immediately adjusted his appearance. He straightened his jacket to look like a proper aristocrat and fixed the forged insignia on his chest. He then gestured to the man sitting across from him, who shoved the bound Barbara Wald under the seat and pulled down a long decorative valance to hide her completely. With that done, the man picked up a file, posing as a servant.
Just as they finished their preparations and simultaneously looked back out the window, they froze.
“……!”
When had it gotten so close? The other carriage was now within arm’s reach.
“This is insane!”
Driving a carriage this close was madness. If either of them hit a single stone, they would collide, risking a catastrophic overturn for both.
Just then, lightning flashed, and Peter’s subordinate made eye contact with the man in the adjacent carriage.
It was the giant man from the entrance of the Marquisate Residence. He was grinning, his fangs gleaming in the blinding flash.
He mouthed two words. Finish them.
No sound could be heard, but the meaning was unmistakable.
“……!”
His mind went completely blank.
Finish them? Here? Who do they think is in this carriage to try something so reckless—
Before he could form a coherent thought, the carriage lurched without warning.
“Ugh!”
He quickly grabbed a handle on the carriage wall to steady himself, but a suppressed groan came from the driver’s box.
“Mmph, hmph, mmmph!”
The faces of Peter’s subordinates turned deathly pale.
Meanwhile, Thebes, having used a reinforced combat carriage to pull alongside the brown one, had given the signal. A Wolf leaped across the gap to the exposed coachman’s seat. For men who had seen every kind of battlefield, crossing between moving carriages was child’s play.
The Wolf instantly struck the back of the fiercely resisting coachman’s neck, knocking him unconscious. Once he had seized the reins, he looked to Thebes, who was pulling on a pair of flexible leather gloves.
Thebes gestured with his chin. “Senior. There’s a bridge nearby. Shall we go under it?”
“Sounds good.”
As soon as Thebes gave the order, the Wolf at the reins opened the small window to the cabin and gave a hand signal. Watching this, the men inside turned ashen.