Still, Revenge Was Had (1)
Still, Revenge Was Had (1)
A dark room. Only moonlight illuminated the interior.
Creak.
The floor where the bed had stood sank down.
In the hollowed-out floor, a staircase led downward, and far below it, a flickering light could be seen drawing closer.
A person emerged from beneath the floor, blocking the approaching light.
His body was covered in dirt, dust, and soot.
Once inside the room, he hurriedly scanned the floor.
And as if he had found what he was looking for, he tapped on a few stones.
Creak.
The floor that had descended rose again.
The rising floor blocked the approaching light, and the heat gradually dissipated.
Clunk.
Once the floor was sealed again, he let out a sigh.
Moonlight fell on him as he sat slumped on the floor.
Though his clothes and face were filthy, he was easy enough to recognize.
It was Martin, the illegitimate son of the Marquis.
He pushed himself to his feet, his face exhausted, and turned his head.
"Why are you here?"
"Because I've been here since yesterday."
I answered his question, stepping out from the corner.
"This should be Adria's room, shouldn't it?"
"They wouldn't leave someone who'd leaked a crucial secret of the Marquisate in her room, would they?"
"You knew everything. Is Adria alright?"
"Didn't you plan to kill everyone anyway? Well, she's in a safe place. Adria is an important link in the alliance between the Gracia Dukedom and the Marquisate, after all. Unlike you, she'll continue to live a healthy life."
"Ha... So in the end, only the illegitimate sons are discarded, is that it?"
I made a slight sarcastic remark, but Martin didn't care.
"The group that seemed to have left this morning has actually come back and stayed here. Did none of the mercenaries manage to escape?"
It was just as he said. The Duke's party, who had officially left the Lord's castle, had secretly returned to the city.
Simon and the knights had gone to the temple, the exit of the secret passage, while I had come to Adria's room to see how things would end.
Since the area around the Marquis's room was guarded by the Marquis's knights, and the temple was guarded by the Duke's knights, I came to Adria's vacant room.
Although the room was empty, I figured that if Martin had survived, he would come here.
His target was close to this room.
"What you were trying to do must have failed. Why did you come here alone instead of waiting for another opportunity?"
At my question, he smirked.
"Are you mocking me? You know full well I can't even run away... Well, I suppose I only just realized that myself."
As expected, Martin had never intended to run away.
"Well, my goal was different from those who came with me, anyway. Their goal was probably to use me to take over the Marquisate, but revenge itself was my goal."
He looked around the room, his face weary. It was a neat, elegant room belonging to a noblewoman.
Perhaps it reminded him of his younger sister; his expression darkened considerably.
"Even when my younger sister was violated by the Marquis's two beast-like sons and became pregnant, and our family was cast out because of it, I was going to just endure it."
It was as expected. If it had been an ordinary pregnancy, they would have had no reason to cast out Martin, who was an asset to the family.
"Although we were struggling financially again, simply living with my family wasn't bad. Thanks to awakening my ability, I was even able to make a living as a mercenary."
He bit his lip as he spoke.
"But a short while later, simply because she hadn't aborted the baby, they killed my sister, and my mother, who witnessed it, committed suicide. Returning home only to find my family's corpses, what else could I do but seek revenge?"
He spoke to me in a tone that sounded as if he were spitting blood.
It was a deeply tragic story, but I neither sympathized with his feelings nor pitied him.
It wasn't what he wanted anyway, and I wasn't in a position to pity him, either.
"Since you're telling me all this, are you asking me to just back down?"
When I said that, he looked at the sword in my hand.
It was a new sword I'd acquired after my previous one broke. Like the last one, it was mass-produced, but since it was brand-new, it should hold up reasonably well.
"If it were any other knight, I would have quickly finished them off and gone on my way, but you and I are in the same position."
I shook my head.
"No way. You're someone who even resolved to kill Adria, so there's no way you'd care about a complete stranger like me just because we're in the same boat."
At my words, he smiled bitterly.
"Is that so... Well, to tell you the truth, it's because it doesn't look like I can get past you easily. I felt it during our sparring match too, but now I can't even gauge your level. How on earth is that possible at your age?"
I raised my sword. Infused with mana, it gave off a faint glow even in the dark room.
Unlike during our sparring match, I was now letting all the mana I possessed show.
The mana surged out from my body. My mana clashed violently with Martin's in the air.
"Surely, this operation's failure—and that dwarf spy... it wasn't all your doing, was it?"
"Who knows."
When I answered nonchalantly, he wore a hollow expression. He stared at me in disbelief before speaking again.
"I suppose that's why the Duke entrusts you with tasks. But no matter how well the Duke treats you, don't trust him. He's a noble, and you're merely a half-blood. To them, we're neither nobles nor children, but simply tools—objects to be discarded and erased once we lose our value."
He tried to persuade me by drawing a parallel to his own situation.
But there was no need to persuade me. The Duke had never treated me well, and he'd even killed me several times.
I didn't trust the Duke, nor did I have any intention of earning his recognition. I simply wanted to strike down those who tried to kill me and keep on living.
When my expression remained unchanged no matter what he said, he raised his sword.
"Do you intend to fight after all? Is that it? If we fight here, even if I defeat you, I won't be able to achieve my goal."
Just as he said, even if I couldn't defeat him, I could easily buy enough time for others to notice and rush over.
But I hadn't waited here with the intention of stopping him.
"No. If you answer a few questions, I'll step aside."
"You'll step aside if I answer?"
Martin, who was about to move, looked bewildered at my words.
"Because I've already achieved all my goals. Whether the Marquis's sons die or you die, it doesn't really matter to me. Either way, it will be equally sorrowful for Adria."
I had no intention of doing anything more for the Marquisate. By saving Adria and Bianca, I had fully repaid the debt from my previous life.
At my words, he nodded.
"You still look young... Was all this for Adria's sake?"
It seemed he had misunderstood something, but instead of correcting his misunderstanding, I asked a question.
"Who is the backing force behind you—or rather, behind the mercenaries who helped you?"
"It was already hard to fathom how skilled you were at your age, and now you're already planning to investigate what lies behind a battle that's practically won? Seriously, what kind of guy are you?"
He stared at me as if I were some bizarre specimen.
But I had already seen that kind of expression from other people multiple times.
"Well, since things have turned out like this, there's no need to keep it a secret. Count La Palma is backing us."
Count La Palma? I shook my head.
"No. Count La Palma is being used too, just like you."
When I said that, Martin nodded.
"Is that so? Come to think of it, Benjamin and Noah did speak of the Count far too casually."
It seemed he had noticed that to some extent, too.
"I'm sorry, but I had no intention of looking into it any further. If it meant I could get my revenge, I was willing to join hands even with the Demon King. Apart from Noah and Benjamin, there probably isn't anyone who knows who instigated this."
Should I have gone to the temple instead? At this rate, I could only hope Simon would handle things well.
"But before coming here, Noah and Benjamin seemed to have stayed in the north, probably in the Empire. The words that slipped out in their conversations, along with their tone of voice, carried the distinct atmosphere of that region."
"The Tsar Empire?"
Of the nations that claimed to be successors to the Old Empire, which fell after the Great War, it was the powerful northern country whose imperial title was recognized by the others.
Though it was a somewhat distant country, with another kingdom sandwiched in between, terrifying rumors often came from there.
An involuntary sigh escaped me at this unexpected information.
Dealing with family matters was already overwhelming enough, and now it wasn't even within the Kingdom—it was a distant empire. This clearly wasn't something I should investigate.
When my expression turned indifferent, he scratched his head.
"I don't know anything more, so do we have to fight after all?"
Although we were speaking casually, our respective manas were clashing violently in midair.
Along with his words, his mana flared up even more sharply.
I drew back the mana I had released into the air.
"No. I'll clear the way."
I drew back my sword and stepped back.
Martin stared at me intently.
"If you just let me go, it will cause problems for you too..."
"There won't be any problems. No one knows I'm here right now. And no one knows you've come either."
At my words, he smirked. He had understood what I meant.
"Indeed. As long as I don't speak, no one will know."
If no one was left alive to speak, the secret would stay hidden.
He also withdrew his mana and walked past me. Before leaving the room, he looked back at me.
"If the Marquis offers you a gift before you leave tomorrow, ask for the sword I used when I was here. It's an incredibly sturdy sword, strong enough to withstand my power."
He waved to me and left the room.
He had probably heard from the female mercenary that my sword had been ruined.
Was this his way of repaying me for letting him go safely?
But I didn't know whether the Marquis would be in the right frame of mind to give me such a gift.
If Martin achieved his goal, far from giving gifts, they would be busy with a funeral.
Should I really go out and stop him even now?
While those thoughts crossed my mind, the sound of swords clashing and shouts echoed from afar.
"Intruder!"
"An assassin! Get the young lords to safety!"
Amidst the shouts, Martin cried out.
"Hahaha! What were you relying on when you didn't even run away? My filthy younger brothers!"
"Block him, everyone!"
"Let's fall to hell together and stay there forever!"
"Don't come near me!"
Though the hoarse screams and shouts continued, I left Adria's room and headed toward the guest room.
After the commotion had gone on for a long while, I heard what had happened from a soldier running down the hallway.
It seemed Martin's revenge had been more than half successful.
The Marquis's eldest son had been killed by Martin's sword, and though the second son's life was also in danger, he managed to survive with a priest's help, albeit at the cost of having one of his arms severed.
Would this mean the surviving second son would become the Marquis's heir?
Well, it didn't matter who it was.
And, as expected, Martin died there.
After killing the Marquis's eldest son and cutting down four of the knights guarding the brothers, he was killed by the other knights just before he could take the Marquis's second son's head.
It was an incredible feat for a half-blood noble who had been cast out of the Marquisate, but after that day, no one spoke of what had happened.
The Marquis himself had silenced them.
A short while later, the Marquis's eldest son was reported to have died of an illness, while his second son's injury was said to have occurred during training.
And Simon and the people from the Duke's estate had no choice but to return without even attending the funeral.
This was because those who had officially departed and then returned for the funeral would have been more than enough to spark strange rumors.
And I received a sword as a gift from the Marquis.
The Marquis had offered me a gift to seal my lips, and I had asked for Martin's sword.
It was an incredibly large sword that didn't fit my body at all.
Simon grumbled, asking why I'd asked for a sword I couldn't even use, but to me, it was a meaningful keepsake.
Before the party set off once again, I paid one last visit to the mercenary street.
There was someone I had to meet before leaving.