Chapter 54
Chapter 54
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 54
Chapter Title: Why Didn't You Die?
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Asherad stared at the corpses with a cold expression. The corpses appeared to have died instantly, their throats slit clean in a single stroke. The knights had perished without a sound. They were all the ones he had ordered to escort Daphne.
“Explain…… what happened here.”
His stiff voice was laced with barely contained fury. Yet reason held him back like a dam, preventing him from erupting. But if that dam broke, his rage would sweep everything away.
The knights exchanged uneasy glances. One of the knights who had been escorting the women under the carriage canopy rushed forward and dropped to his knees.
“It seems our plan has been exposed.”
“Exposed? Ha. You think that woman exposed our plan? Does she have intelligence sources like that?”
Madness flickered across Asherad’s face. Here, “that woman” referred to Calista. Calista neither knew their plan nor had the ability to kill Daphne’s escort knights.
The knight’s face drained of color. This was the emperor’s secret scheme to seize the Empress Dowager’s weakness.
It was a classic bait-and-switch tactic: guarantee Daphne’s safety while using her to lure out and capture the ragtag assassins.
They knew everything about the assassin group Calista had hired.
Even that they were a small band. That was why Asherad was confident his plan wouldn’t fail. No, it couldn’t fail.
Otherwise, Daphne would get hurt.
He knew Calista was trying to kill Daphne. He had already heard about her suspicious movements from Duke Turbul.
But knowing and still ending up like this was idiotic. It clashed with his perfectionist pride.
“So, what about that woman?”
“She seems to have fled in that direction.”
Asherad looked that way. Sure enough, he could see signs of disturbed trees. At his gesture, the hunting dogs and knights all plunged into the forest.
She ran.
He knew it was an impossible situation. Yet hearing that she had fled ignited a hidden fury within him. His eyes blazed red.
First, Asherad approached the knight who had originally been assigned to escort Daphne.
“Why didn’t you join the formation?”
“The path was too narrow, and we risked being spotted while tailing them. So one of us stayed to escort the young ladies.”
Asherad nodded. It was a reasonable explanation. Then he raised his sword and thrust it into the knight’s chest.
Blood bloomed in a perfect circle with a wet *squish*. Asherad looked at the shocked knight and said,
“Or was it because you’re one of them?”
“Aaaagh!”
The knight clutched his chest and rolled on the dirt ground. His eyes bulged red as he convulsed in agony. Asherad watched the wretch indifferently. The knight screamed at Asherad, his voice thick with hatred.
“You filthy bastard……!”
The knight writhed in pain, glaring at Asherad.
His gaze overflowed with murderous intent, sharp enough to pierce him. The other knights moved to approach, but Asherad stopped them. With his breastplate on, it wasn’t a fatal wound anyway.
“Rot in hell…… you demon!”
As the knight bared his teeth to bite down on the poison capsule hidden there, Asherad kicked him and shoved his booted foot into the man’s mouth. Blood-smeared teeth gnashed at the boot. Asherad twisted his foot, forcing it deeper into the knight’s throat.
“Gaaack!”
The knight thrashed as the large boot filled his mouth. He could have pulled away immediately but couldn’t move. Seeing him gag, Asherad spoke gently.
“Where are you from?”
“Guh, ack!”
“If you don’t talk, I’ll rip that mouth apart.”
Terror twisted the knight’s face at Asherad’s cold words. He hadn’t even considered his jaw dislocating and his mouth tearing from the boot.
Asherad withdrew his foot, and the knight ground his teeth. At Asherad’s impatient nod, the knight spoke, blood trickling from his lips.
“To tell the likes of you, with your filthy blood…….”
Asherad kicked him again.
“Children of Symer, huh.”
“What?!”
“Where the hell do the Children of Symer bastards end?”
The only ones who called imperial blood “filthy” were the subversive faction, the Children of Symer.
Asherad’s conclusion was clear. Calista had no intelligence network capable of obtaining such tactics. Moreover, the assassins he had identified weren’t skilled enough to spot Daphne’s escort knights.
The knights’ faces turned ashen. Children of Symer? Why would the anti-imperial group come all the way to a hunt?
This was outside the emperor’s domain, no less. The other knights gagged the knight suspected of being a Children of Symer member.
“Call for reinforcements! Protect His Majesty!”
The knights surrounded Asherad, but he shook his head.
“No reinforcements. Prioritize protecting the women as much as possible and assemble all knights. Count Esta’s group won’t venture deep, so have them provide escort. And Sir Henry, follow me.”
Amid the chaos, the knights admired how he prioritized the women first. Asherad willingly entered the forest where Daphne had gone.
* * *
Daphne trembled. Who were these people? Something was off. These black-clad figures seemed to be a third force.
They had killed all her pursuing assassins, dragged her here, and suddenly tied her to a tree.
“Finally get a look at that face.”
Daphne’s lips quivered. The voice dripped with irrepressible hatred. It wasn’t a child’s voice. A man. Not a young man’s voice.
“Daphne, I’ve wanted to see you. If not for that emperor clinging to you, I’d have seen you sooner.”
The man’s voice burned like swallowed molten iron, lethal and raw. Chills ran down her spine at the killing intent in it.
“I’ve heard a lot about you. Everyone around you dies, right?”
“…….”
Daphne bit her lip hard. Was this taunting before the kill? She stared blankly at the masked man.
“Quite a few people around you have died. Killed for speaking to you, for pestering you, for bullying you, even for being kind to you.”
He lowered his voice and chuckled darkly.
“How does it feel to be loved by the god of death?”
The man raised a dagger and scraped it along Daphne’s throat. No wound appeared. Just a stinging sensation. Daphne grimaced in pain.
“I spared you and brought you here alive because I want to kill you in the most agonizing way possible.”
“…….”
“Killing women isn’t my hobby, but I’ll make you suffer as much as I can.”
Daphne shuddered violently. Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at the man. His bloodshot eyes curved into crescents.
Clearly, this man harbored a grudge against her. Tears filled Daphne’s eyes.
If it had been vulgar rage, he might have left her to die or ignored her. But he had gone to the trouble of entering the emperor’s forest, sparing her, and bringing her here. It would be miserable, whatever he planned. Wild imaginings gnawed at her.
“No, no, not some naive method a pure girl like you could imagine.”
He mocked her. She wanted to beg for her life, but no voice came.
“Why, want me to spare you?”
“…….”
“With your shamelessness, you can’t even beg to be spared, can you?”
He snickered.
“Truly beautiful. Those eyes must take after your mother’s. Is that why your line has bewitched emperors generation after generation? That beauty?”
He spat at her feet with a *ptui*. But she couldn’t even feel humiliated. Of course not. She was about to die in agony soon—what did a bit of spit matter?
“Right, I had one question. Should ask that first.”
“…….”
The cold metal felt sharply against her skin. Daphne looked up at him through tear-streaked eyes, meeting bloodshot blue irises. At last, the man spoke.
“Why didn’t you die?”
The words pierced her brain even amid the threat of death. Daphne’s eyes widened.
“The one who cared for you most died because of you, yet you didn’t follow him in death.”
“…….”
“The man who claimed to love you was dying to save you, and there you were, happily tangled up with that emperor, delighting in his embrace!”
“…….”
“Filthy slut, vile wretch!”
He grabbed her throat. Tears streamed from Daphne’s eyes. She confronted her own sin. She had always known this day would come.
Daphne realized it now.
This man was Fabian’s family.
Fabian’s family had survived and been lying in wait for a chance to kill her.