Episode 87
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 87
"I was taught to use whatever is at my disposal without hesitation."
Evan recalled Elysia bursting into laughter in disbelief when he’d told her he’d been captured too. It was the truth. He had been captured and dragged to the basement.
What he hadn't had the chance to tell Elysia was that his capture had been entirely intentional.
Fourteen hours earlier.
Evan witnessed a crowd of people bustling out to move something and hid behind a wall. There were twenty men in sight alone. There had to be more inside.
Taking them all down alone and escaping with Elysia, whose location was unknown, was practically impossible. But leaving to get help would take too long.
He quietly looked up at the second floor of the abandoned building diagonally across from him. He couldn't hear a sound, but he instinctively knew someone was standing beyond the wall.
Evan hesitated for a moment.
He had known for quite some time that someone from the House of Sylvester was tailing him. He’d noticed as soon as the guards arrived and began hovering around him, so he’d been aware for a little over two years.
He didn't know the reason. Perhaps they were monitoring him to ensure the second son, who had turned his back on the family like a scoundrel, didn't cross any lines. But Evan suspected they had been sent to ensure a family member's life was preserved.
He had been aware of them until now, but he had never tried to uncover their identities, simply letting them be...
Given the circumstances, what choice do I have?
The House of Sylvester, the most powerful of all the noble families in Löwe, which held the continent in its military grip, wouldn't have sent just anyone. They must have sent the elite of the elite.
But he couldn't just order them to storm that building. Having turned his back on the family, he was someone to be protected, not one to give orders. Therefore, to involve those guards, he had to get himself captured.
Having made his decision, he retraced his memories of the past two years. Distinguishing the length of their strides and the silhouettes he'd glimpsed, he quickly made a calculation.
There are probably three guards assigned to me. And maybe fifty people in that building. If they're Sylvester's men, taking on a hundred at once is to be expected, so the odds are good.
He transferred all the medicine from the paper bag he was holding into the inner pocket of his coat and lightly stretched his body.
He strode boldly toward the building and gave a quick once-over to a man who had frozen in surprise. Noticing the man was wearing a sword, Evan kicked him squarely in the solar plexus before he even had time to draw it.
The man collapsed, gasping for air. Evan snatched the sword from him and scanned his surroundings. He had to make as much of a scene as possible. As he gripped the sharply honed sword, perhaps because it had been so long, the feeling was more strange than familiar.
Hearing the fallen man's groans, the men who had been busy moving luggage glared at him with menacing eyes. Evan swung the sword through the air, testing its weight and getting a feel for it, then smiled.
"Why are you just standing there? Shouldn't you either attack me or call for reinforcements?"
"Where did this riffraff come from—"
"Long introductions make you an easy target."
With a blank expression, he swung the sword, instantly slashing the arm of the man who had been pointing at him. Then he stood straight again.
He had to cause a commotion. Evan flicked the blood from his blade with a sharp swing and smiled coldly. The men surrounding him froze, a chill running down their spines at his smile.
"Wh-what are you doing here—"
"I'm here to see the person in charge."
Immediately after, he raised all sorts of hell in front of the building. Then, when he felt the time was right, he suddenly went still as if by magic and obediently allowed himself to be tied up and led to the basement.
It was too long of a story to explain that reinforcements were on their way, which was why Elysia had to use her strange—no, not just strange, but utterly bizarre—skill to make their initial escape from the basement.
In the process, they ran into the guards he had drawn in, and that was how they made it to this mansion.
Yes, there had been some twists due to a communication breakdown, but up to this point, things had unfolded more or less as he had planned. But his brother? For the eldest son of Sylvester, with whom he had cut all ties, to show up... This was unexpected.
"Why are you here?"
"I told you, I was injured."
"You left the battlefield for a mere injury like that? What is this truce agreement you're supposed to be signing? Is it so important that you had to come in person?"
Ian's face soured at Evan's sharp questioning. He wasn't wrong. Ian had come to Alea using his injury as a pretext to advance the truce negotiations.
Still, his younger brother's words stung. He'd lost an eye, and he calls it 'mere'... With a look that said he had much more to say, he assessed the injuries of the woman lying in bed, then shook his head.
Evan watched his brother's uncharacteristically human reaction with a blank face before speaking cautiously.
"You seem to have changed a lot."
The Ian that Evan remembered was not a man who easily showed his emotions. Suddenly, Evan saw a reflection of himself in his brother.
Come to think of it, I've changed a lot since meeting Elysia, too. Evan wondered who his brother might have met.
"Is that so. I'm in a relationship."
"...Pardon?"
Was he joking, or was it true? Evan looked up to gauge his sincerity, but his brother's face had already returned to its usual stoic mask. Ian commanded nonchalantly.
"Report what happened."
"I know almost nothing."
"Then you'll give the first report, and I'll receive the second when that woman wakes up."
"Why—"
Evan, who had been about to ask why he was getting so involved, paused, trying to think of a less aggressive way to phrase it. As if he knew exactly what Evan was thinking, Ian answered.
"I received a report from Rian that drugs were found at the abandoned building where you were. I also heard a man's body was being moved. Naturally, I ordered them to pursue."
"..."
"And I also heard that you and that woman were investigating Caden Hertz, who recently committed suicide in Minerva."
"Have you been receiving reports like this all along?"
"No, today was the first time. The guards, including Rian, were there to ensure your survival, not to be your watchdogs. But since you walked straight into the lion's den yesterday, an explanation is in order."
He understood. They would need to confirm whether the second son, who had abandoned the family business and run away, had gotten himself involved in something illegal.
Still, assigning guards just to keep him alive was a bit strange for the Sylvesters. Evan spoke cautiously.
"There's something I'd like to ask."
"Go ahead."
"Why did you assign guards to me? I may bear the Sylvester name, but I am no longer a member of the family. It shouldn't matter where I die, should it?"
"I wouldn't know. You'd have to ask Father."
The man who gave the plain, honest answer stood up. Evan was stunned by the sudden mention of their father. Standing at the door, Ian turned and gestured to him.
"Let's talk for a moment."
Evan glanced down at Elysia with a lingering look, gently squeezed her fingers, then let go and followed his brother out of the room.
*
"Are you insane?!"
Cain watched Alma's tantrum with a bored expression. The woman's bloodshot eyes were glaring at him. He looked away as if annoyed and said.
"What's the problem? All that was left behind was a small amount of drugs, and we got most of our people out."
"Two of them were captured!"
"Kill them."
Alma froze at the single word he tossed out so casually.
"Just because the House of Sylvester has them doesn't mean they can't be killed. Poison their food, send someone to snap their necks... there are many ways. You know that better than anyone, don't you?"
She had also planned to silence the captured men by killing them, but she was rendered speechless by the sheer audacity of the man who had caused this whole mess.
As a final act of frustration, Alma hurled the inkwell in her hand against the wall, shattering it. A bitter sneer formed on her lips.
"None of this would have happened if you hadn't brought that woman here in the first place! How about you grow a conscience? You crazy bastard, go to hell!"
"How amusing. Are you reprimanding me for bringing her here?"
His arrogant gaze settled on her, as if looking at an impudent creature that had dared to bite him, as insignificant as an ant. Uncrossing his long legs, Cain sat up straight, let out a short laugh, and stroked his sharply defined jaw as he murmured.
"Didn't I help you enough? If I recall, I even graciously advised you to plant items from different time periods if you wanted to throw her off your trail."
"So what? The losses are still huge!!!"
"Without my advice, you would have already been caught by her and handed over to the court."
The man smiled as if imagining a funny scene and continued in a calm voice.
"And that mouth of yours, daring to blame me, would have been torn to shreds."
Cain let out a light laugh as if in disbelief, tapping his fingernails on the tabletop.
"I've told you before. The world is made up of chess players and chess pieces."
"Ha...!"
"You're a simple chess piece. A pawn that dies when told to die and gladly jumps in to create confusion. But I am not."
His eyes, looking down on her with contempt, curved into an artificial smile as if to hide his displeasure. Noticing Alma's expression, full of incomprehension as if asking what on earth he was talking about, he sighed in annoyance.
"And I've taken quite a liking to that woman. So I want to make things fun for her. I plan to show her what she wants to see, to create situations so interesting she can't help but dive in."
He grinned, his red eyes gleaming as he asked.
"So, did she seem to be having fun?"
Fun? Are you kidding me? Alma was about to curse inwardly, but she froze as she recalled the woman's face—how she had smiled with an almost bizarre joy the moment she uncovered the truth behind Caden Hertz's death. She had seemed... excited, saying there was a mountain of things to uncover.
Noticing her stiffen, Cain smiled with satisfaction and muttered.
"I knew it."
It was quite amusing to play with her. Whenever he dropped a single clue, Elysia would chase it as if mesmerized.
The sensation of being pursued for the first time was also interesting. It felt like watching a cat chase a shadow he had cast, which wasn't a bad spectacle.
It was rare to find someone so entertaining to watch. So he had to treat her well.
"And show her some kindness."
Like one looking at a small animal that could do him no harm, the man's gaze was utterly gentle.