Empty Cradle
Empty Cradle
The hallway outside Professor Walder's office.
In the heavy silence, only the sound of Ines's shallow breathing, as she gripped the hem of my school uniform tightly, could be heard.
Then, the heavy oak door of the office, which had been firmly shut, opened.
"I shall pray that the blessing of the light is always with your benevolent steps, Saintess-nim."
Walder, the academy's top powerhouse and head professor, was bowing his waist and spouting sycophantic drivel.
The ones leaving the office were a group from the church, dressed in flashy ceremonial robes.
At the center stood Clarice, the fake saintess with long, flowing red hair.
It was the moment she was walking down the hallway with an arrogant smile.
Clarice's gaze landed on me, standing against the hallway wall—or more accurately, on Ines, who was huddled behind my back.
"......."
Clarice's smile froze coldly in an instant.
She raised a flashy feather fan to cover her nose.
"Tsk. To think such a lowly thing is rolling around in the sacred academy. It smells filthy."
Obvious disgust and mockery.
At that unpleasant look, as if telling me to clear away a bug, the escort priests glared at me menacingly.
I lowered my gaze with an expressionless face.
I wanted to reach out right then and there and tear out the slender throat of that hypocritical wench.
Imagining the blood spurting from her white neck and staining those dirty lips, I bit down until my molars felt like they would shatter.
"What are you doing, not moving aside, commoner!"
At the priest's shout, I silently stepped aside to clear the path.
Wrapping my large hand around Ines's small shoulders, which were trembling behind my back, I silently waited for that disgusting group to exit the hallway.
Only after their footsteps had completely faded did Professor Walder turn his body.
"Come in."
The face of the old professor, who had been smiling benevolently while praising the saintess until just a moment ago, was nowhere to be found.
On his face as he looked at me entering the office, only a fishy, sinister sneer directed at the church remained.
"You saw that low-level priest who was holding the bible to the right of that wench just now, didn't you."
Walder sat behind his desk and rested his chin on his hand.
An old fox who outwardly bows to the church and maintains a friendly relationship, but behind the scenes, tries to dissect their very heart.
"Tonight. Bring him in alive."
Walder's pupils flashed coldly.
"There is an abandoned sawmill on the outskirts of the academy. Drag him there."
I nodded quietly.
He still doesn't fully trust me.
He kept the location of his true base, the 'Magic Tower', thoroughly hidden, and instead offered a secluded meeting place outside.
It didn't matter. A hunting dog just needs to retrieve the ball thrown by its master.
"I will keep that in mind."
I answered shortly and left the office.
Late night.
The East Building, where the academy's VIP accommodations are located.
I had tucked Ines into my dormitory room before leaving.
Since I had firmly made her hold onto a shirt heavily scented with my body odor, the time given to me was at most an hour.
I had to hurry.
Assimilated into the darkness, I silently climbed through the third-floor window of the VIP quarters.
The target, the low-level priest, was fast asleep on the bed.
Without hesitation, I approached and struck the back of the guy's neck with the side of my hand.
Without even a 'ugh' sound, the priest was knocked out perfectly.
I gagged the guy and shoved him into a rough burlap sack I had prepared in advance.
Carrying one adult male on my back was nothing.
'Too easy.'
It was the moment I was about to shoulder the sack and slip out the back door of the quarters.
"Who is it!"
A sharp shout erupted from the darkness.
At the same time, half a dozen torches instantly illuminated the backyard brightly.
"...!"
My footsteps stopped.
The sound of heavy armor clanking.
The ones who appeared in the darkness were the elite holy knight patrol squad of the Papal State that had been escorting Clarice.
My thoughts froze coldly.
A painful mistake. A lack of information.
I hadn't anticipated that the area around the quarters of a mere low-level priest would overlap with the patrol route of the elite holy knights guarding the fake saintess.
"What is in that sack! If you don't stop, we will cut you down!"
Half a dozen holy knights drew their swords and narrowed the encirclement in a semi-circle.
I could feel faint holy power blooming from their bodies, strengthening their physiques.
I gripped the sack on my shoulder tightly and drew the longsword at my waist with my remaining hand.
If it were 1-on-1, or if I didn't have the baggage of a hostage.
I, too, would have opened the holy power in my dantian and turned these half-dozen bastards into meat paste in an instant.
But I couldn't do that now.
My bones and muscles are still just those of a teenager who hasn't fully grown. If I try to fight multiple holy knights while carrying a hostage, openings will inevitably appear.
Above all, if I used holy power here, there was a huge risk that not only the deal with Walder but also Ines's identity would be completely tangled up.
'I'll break through.'
I bit my lip and kicked off the ground.
Clang-! Boom!
The holy knight's greatsword and my longsword collided.
Because I was carrying the burlap sack, my center of gravity was shaken, and my wrist throbbed from being crushed by the knight's power, which was enhanced by holy power.
"It's a heretic! Strike him!"
Blades poured in from all sides.
I gave up on flashy sword dancing. Instead, I rolled on the ground, kicked up dust, and clung desperately only to 'survival' and 'securing an escape route'.
Slash-!
"Ugh!"
Bright red blood burst out from the blade that grazed my left shoulder.
A shallow cut also appeared on my thigh.
But I didn't use the pain as an excuse to stop.
Blood flowing from my shoulder soaked the sword hilt, but I instead dove into the holy knight's blind spot and smashed the guy's jaw with the hilt.
Thud!
"Argh!"
I leaped, stepping on the fallen knight.
Dodging the arrows and sword energy pouring in from behind by a hair's breadth, I vaulted over the academy wall and ran into the forest like a beast.
Wounds didn't matter.
The most terrible fear weighing on my mind wasn't the sword wounds, but the fact that I had delayed for 'too much time' because of this fierce battle.
'I'm late.'
It's time for Ines to wake up.
Realizing the absence of my heartbeat, those slender shoulders that would be having a seizure in panic inside the empty room flashed before my eyes.
My heart was pounding as if it would burst. Anxiety gnawed at my reason.
Even while pouring blood from my thigh, I ran across the forest like a beast.
The abandoned sawmill on the outskirts of the academy.
I threw the blood-stained burlap sack to Walder's assistant who was waiting.
Without even exchanging a reply, I immediately sprinted at maximum speed toward the dormitory.
The wounds on my shoulder and thigh hadn't even stopped bleeding, but roughly tearing my clothes and binding them was all I did.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
I ran roughly through the dark hallways of the academy.
Only my rough breathing was breaking the silence of the quiet night.
Please. Please.
Arriving in front of the dormitory door, I twisted the doorknob and opened it roughly.
Creak-.
"......."
I stopped breathing.
The room was, to a terrible degree, silent.
"Ines."
There was no answer. An empty space.
I hurriedly lit the light.
And at the sight unfolding before my eyes, I heard the reason in my head shattering into pieces.
"Ah, ahhh...."
A torn shirt.
My shirt, which I had left for her to hold, was lying miserably on the floor, torn to shreds.
And centered around that shirt.
On the bed sheets, the floor, and various places on the old wooden walls.
Vivid and terrible bloodstains, as if they had splattered in all directions just a moment ago, were scattered about.
A fishy smell stabbed at the tip of my nose.
It wasn't someone else's blood. The blood that had burst out from that brilliant and fragile body, which I had held to my chest every night.
I passed the time.
Ines, not having heard my heartbeat, must have fallen into extreme panic.
Unable to endure the surging anxiety and fear, she must have bitten and scratched her own flesh like a beast, had a seizure, and eventually ran out of this room.
"......."
My reason was perfectly shattered.
Anger? Sadness? Such shallow emotional language couldn't explain this terrible dantian.
Only the fact that my woman was wandering in the darkness while bleeding burned my brains white.
Drip, drip.
Blood drops dotted on the floor.
They led past the open window, to the secluded vacant lot behind the dormitory.
Without even realizing the blood flowing from my own body, I gripped my dagger and leaped out the window into the darkness like a beast.
In the deep darkness behind the dormitory.
The entrance to the secluded forest where the blood trail led.
"Haa, haa...."
I spat out rough breaths and glared into the darkness.
And the moment pale moonlight seeped through the clouds, I witnessed an unbelievable sight.
"...!"
In the middle of the vacant lot.
Ines, with her whole body tightly wrapped in a heavy, thick blanket, collapsed on the floor, unable to move, bound.
She was struggling inside the blanket, letting out beast-like cries as if she were suffocating.
And.
A huge shadow was standing, blocking the front of the bound Ines.
Silver-crafted heavy armor.
Imperial Knights Vice-Captain, Valian.
His rough beard and hardened expression reflected in the moonlight.
Above all, what completely flipped my two eyes was.
Drip, drip.
Red blood dripping down from his thick hands.
That bright red blood staining Valian's gloves and dirtying the floor.
Why that big-shot knight was behind the dormitory in the middle of the night, how such a situation had happened.
My empty head didn't have enough reason left to grasp the circumstances.
The truth that entered my eyes was only one.
That bastard.
He forcibly bound my possession, laid hands on my lover's body, and made her bleed.
"...I'll kill you."
My pupils instantly flipped to a pitch-black blood color.
I bit my jaw until my molars shattered.
"I'll kill you, you fucking bastard."