A Trap from the Very Beginning
"He's lost his mind. Completely lost it!"
Temus's mouth twisted into a grimace.
"There's no way she'd say something like that unless the pain had driven her insane!"
He shook his head with violent intensity, as if he simply could not accept that a lifetime of accumulated medical skill had been outdone by a pretty face.
"Family Head. Are you truly going to leave things as they are? Anyone can see this journey will kill her! You have to stop her!"
The fury in Temus's voice far outweighed any concern for his patient.
Ha.
Raon let out a quiet snort as he watched him.
He's really pissed about the face comparison.
Composure had always been one of Temus's greatest strengths, and Raon had never seen him this agitated—not even in his previous life. Having his pride crushed in a contest of looks seemed to have flattened him more thoroughly than expected.
This is getting interesting.
The man had piled up far too many layers of identity to expose him outright, but if Raon played this situation well, there was a great deal to be gained.
"Family Head!"
Temus called Michelle's name again, the urgency in his voice bordering on a demand.
"That's…"
Michelle bit her lip, clearly torn. She looked like a woman who could not decide whom to trust—Raon or Temus.
"You wouldn't make a decision based on a face the way your daughter did, would you? You are the one who summoned me here!"
"It isn't just a face. I'm reasonably confident in my swordsmanship and my medicine as well."
Raon offered a radiant smile to the scowling Temus.
"I wasn't talking to you!"
The moment the word face left someone's mouth, Temus's eyes turned even more savage.
"Family Head. I have treated countless people without regard for nation or house. When it comes to patients and their treatment, I can say with pride that I have never once told a lie!"
Woof woof. Complete bullshit.
This man had used his medicine—and that noble image of his—to kill countless people and reduce them to slaves. Watching him lie without so much as a flicker of the eyelid, Raon was reminded all over again that he was Derus's right hand.
"If you move your daughter now, a dangerous moment will certainly come. On top of that, Letran—where the Saint resides—is currently at war. Even if you arrive, there is no guarantee she will receive proper treatment!"
Temus's eyes even grew moist, as if he truly feared for Encia.
"I may still be an inadequate healer, but I have far more experience and have put in far more effort than that boy. If you place your faith in nothing more than a lucky diagnosis, you will certainly come to regret it."
The words were measured, but they amounted to a threat: if she did not listen to him, Encia would die.
"Raon, was it?"
Raon did not even bother answering. He simply nodded. Another vein stood out at Temus's temple.
"A moment ago you said there was a source of heat near the patient's head, did you not?"
"I did."
"And why do you suppose the other healers failed to find it? Because they were less skilled than you? No. The area around the head is so dangerous that even a slight mistake can kill the patient, and so they examined it with the utmost care."
Temus lowered his brows and pressed on.
"You got lucky this time. But if you keep tearing through a patient's mana circuits that clumsily, you will either kill them or leave them a cripple. If you want to claim you've studied medicine, stop fussing over that pretty face of yours and learn just how dangerous the head—"
"One hundred and eight."
"What?"
"There are one hundred and eight places in the head that become fatal if aura so much as touches them."
Raon spoke the words mildly, arms still folded.
"Th-that's—how would you even…"
Temus's mouth fell open, as if the idea were simply impossible.
"Huh?"
"H-he knows that?"
"So he really is the Saint's disciple?"
"Whoa…"
The other swordsmen stared at Raon with their eyes wide, equally stunned by the way he had just rattled Temus.
"It would be stranger not to know."
Raon chuckled, savoring Temus's look of utter shock.
You're the one who taught me, after all.
What profession required as intimate a knowledge of the human body as a physician's?
An assassin's.
To do the job properly, an assassin had to know more precisely than anyone else which points killed a person, and which ones left them a ruin.
And Derus was a perfectionist, which made it even worse.
Derus Robert had often ordered assassinations disguised as natural deaths, or laundered to look as though some other faction had done the killing. Because he made such frequent use of both enemy and ally deaths, he had Temus regularly drill his tools on every human weakness and vital point.
That knowledge had been a considerable help when Raon examined the area around Encia's head this time as well.
"Ah. One more thing."
Raon lifted a finger and pointed at his own face.
"I don't particularly take care of my face. This is just how I was born."
"You… why have you been talking down to me?"
Temus glared at Raon with a piercing stare.
"Because you've been talking down to me the entire time."
"What? I—"
"I treated you with more than enough respect. I kept using formal speech, and when you asked questions I answered honestly and courteously."
Raon smiled, cold, and cocked his chin at a slant.
"But you dropped all formality without even knowing what position I hold in Zieghart, or what I represent. Why should I keep showing respect to a man who ate his manners for breakfast?"
"You little—!"
Temus's cheeks trembled. His face flushed a red that would not have lost to Encia's.
"Wow. He even looks handsome when he's mocking someone."
Encia clasped her hands together and gazed only at Raon, letting out a sigh of pure admiration. Those interjections of hers, bursting out at regular intervals, seemed to infuriate Temus even further.
"You know who Master Temus is, and you still dare take that tone with him?"
The young man standing beside Temus stepped forward, his face twisting.
"This man is a living saint who has traveled the continent doing good for countless people without taking so much as a coin in return! As a physician, he and a brat like you are not even in the same class!"
"And being in a different class means you don't need manners?"
"Th-that's a matter of seniority…"
"Seniority. Seniority, is it…"
Raon smiled, colder still.
"Who did I say I learned from, a moment ago?"
"Y-you said the Saint of Rags and Zieghart's Radiant Sword…"
"If I learned from those two, there isn't much of a seniority gap to speak of, is there?"
"That's…"
The young man who appeared to be Temus's disciple could not answer. His jaw trembled.
"Stand down."
Temus stepped forward, his brow furrowed.
"That was certainly my mistake. In my agitation I forgot that I owed you courtesy as well. I apologize."
He lowered his head, his voice grave and earnest.
"Then I'll apologize as well."
Raon smiled, his own head still bowed.
That landed perfectly.
Temus had not calmed down. His killing intent had spiked so high that he had gone cold instead. Whether over this matter or somewhere else entirely, he would come to kill Raon himself. That much was certain.
"Family Head. Please make a clear decision."
Temus turned his head toward Michelle.
"My opinion has not changed. Taking your daughter to Letran is a dangerous act no different from choosing to die. If you leave her in my care, I will do everything in my power to treat her within a year."
Unlike before, he even named a definite span of time: one year.
"I'll say this one last time as well. If we go to Letran and meet the Saint, she can be treated with certainty. The Heavenly Sword Squad Leader will take the very front. No enemy, whoever they are, will lay a single finger on Lady Encia."
Raon spoke with not a hint of hesitation, certain that the treatment could be done. The Heavenly Sword Squad Leader nodded, as if to say she could be trusted.
"The Heavenly Sword Squad Leader…"
Temus bit his lip, his expression one of a man who had never seen her before and now found himself with nothing to say.
"Haa…"
Michelle let out a long, heavy sigh between the two of them, clearly agonizing over the choice. Raon had heard she was originally a woman of ledgers and accounts, but this was her youngest daughter. Of course she would struggle.
"Mom."
Encia raised her hand.
"My mind hasn't changed. I want to go with Sir Raon."
"You really…"
"Master Temus wouldn't be a bad choice either, but I think Sir Raon will fix me faster."
"And how would you know that?"
"Because he's handsome!"
She wheeled out the all-purpose theory of faces once again.
"Someone this handsome wouldn't lie!"
"Encia…"
"That face is the medicine. It's the treatment. I don't hurt at all just looking at it."
"Aigoo!"
Michelle grabbed her temple and scowled. She clutched her head for a moment, then slowly lifted it. The wavering in her eyes was gone.
"Master Temus, I'm sorry."
She bowed her head to him.
"They say no parent can win against their own child. I'd like to listen to what she wants."
"……"
Temus said nothing. He looked from Michelle to Encia, then to Raon and Sheryl, and nodded.
"I understand. The wishes of the patient and her guardian matter most, of course."
He smiled gently and rolled down the sleeves he had pushed up.
That bastard…
Raon's eyes narrowed.
He's made up his mind.
That expression, that voice—Temus had decided, with certainty, to kill him. And once he had wrung every last drop of use out of Encia's symptoms, he would kill her too. That much was obvious.
"At the very least, the treatment fee we promised…"
"There's no need. I wasn't able to treat her, and I had no intention of taking payment to begin with."
He waved a hand, still smiling.
"I was rude to you as well. I got far too worked up."
"Not at all. I understand."
To cool his agitation in a situation like this and display that kind of composure—he really was no ordinary man.
"I'll take my leave. I will pray for her full recovery, even from afar."
Temus left Encia's room with his disciple, as if he had not a shred of lingering attachment.
"Steward. See Master Temus out."
"A-ah, yes."
The steward, who had been struggling to keep up with the turn of events, hurriedly chased after Temus.
"Haa. This was the right choice, wasn't it?"
Michelle let out a deep breath.
"I will make certain you never regret it."
Right choice did not even begin to cover it. She had taken the hand of salvation. If she had chosen Temus, this entire house would have been swallowed whole by House Robert.
"The way he makes a vow is insanely handsome too."
Encia's eyes shone as she breathed another sigh of wonder.
"Then when do we leave…"
"Nngh!"
Just as Michelle was about to ask about their departure, Encia let out a groan and collapsed onto the bed.
"Encia!"
Raon was at her side in an instant, feeding the frost of Glacia into her mana circuits.
Just scare it. That's all.
If he attacked, the Hell Worm would likely inflict pain on Encia. Rather than moving as quickly as before, he operated the frost with the feel of a threat.
A low hum rolled through her body. He pushed the heat back with Glacia's frost and climbed slowly along Encia's mana circuits, and the Hell Worm's presence faded. The heat spreading through her flesh began to subside.
"Whoa…"
Encia clenched and unclenched her fist, then opened her mouth in astonishment.
"It doesn't hurt, and I feel even more comfortable than before!"
She stared at her arm, where the swelling had receded a little, startled and smiling all at once.
This is how we'll do it.
If he frightened the Hell Worm into hiding whenever Encia's pain grew severe, she would be able to endure the journey to Letran well enough.
"Thank goodness."
Michelle took Encia's hand and nodded.
"Then when will you be departing? Right away, or…"
"No. I intend to leave tomorrow morning."
"Tomorrow?"
"Yes. We'll need time to prepare a few things. Squad Leader, that should be fine?"
"It is."
Sheryl nodded, as if she had no objection.
"Then how many people from our side will be able to go with you?"
"We'll need to move as quickly as possible, so I intend to take only Lady Encia."
"What? But that child can't do anything on her own!"
Michelle waved her hands as if the idea were absurd.
"We have women among our swordsmen as well, so you needn't worry."
"Even so, at least one person…"
"They would only get in the way."
Having said as much, Raon sent Michelle an additional instruction by aura message.
Family Head. Please send every maid currently in this room outside. As naturally as you can.
Michelle flinched for a moment, then understood and nodded so slightly it was almost invisible.
"Th-then we'd better get ready quickly. Girls. Inspect the carriage, and pack food and essentials for Encia and the swordsmen."
"Yes."
"Understood."
The maids in the room nodded and filed out.
The moment the door closed, Raon unfurled an aura barrier, sealing every sound inside the room from escaping.
"What on earth is going on?"
"We need to catch the culprit."
"The c-culprit?"
"The energy in Lady Encia's head is not a natural symptom or an illness. It is an artificial phenomenon."
"Th-that means…"
"It means someone targeted Lady Encia."
"Ah…"
At those words, Encia's and Michelle's jaws trembled.
"Before your fingers started hurting, did you ever go outside and injure yourself?"
"N-no. I haven't. I've only been working in the workshop the entire time…"
"Then it's someone on the inside."
Raon spoke with the firmness of certainty.
"You're sure?"
Sheryl frowned and stepped closer.
"This is the kind of thing you have to approach carefully."
"I'm sure. I don't know who did it, but it is absolutely not a natural phenomenon."
If Temus had never come, Raon might have had his doubts—but the man's reaction made it certain. There was a House Robert plant inside these walls.
"Mm, that can't be…"
"E-everyone I meet when I'm in the workshop is family I can trust!"
Michelle and Encia shook their heads, as if they did not want to believe it.
"If you don't want to find the culprit, I'll step back. It has nothing to do with our mission, and it isn't our house's affair. But if you do want to find them, this is the only chance you'll get."
Raon called it the last opportunity and lowered his eyes, looking as though a refusal would not bother him in the least.
"C-can you really find them?"
Michelle swallowed dryly.
"I've already built the trap. They'll have no choice but to step in it."
"A trap?"
Sheryl took a step closer as well, curious.
"Whoever put Lady Encia in that condition did it for a purpose. There's some benefit they can only obtain if she is in pain."
Raon knew it was House Robert's plan to swallow this family whole, but unfortunately he could not say so out loud.
"I demonstrated that I can ease Lady Encia's symptoms, and I said we would leave tomorrow morning taking only her. The culprit will be in a hurry right now. If the girl who is supposed to be suffering gets treated, whatever plan they have will go up in smoke."
"Th-then before Encia leaves…"
"Yes. They'll try to worsen her condition so she can't leave."
Raon nodded. He had said they would leave tomorrow and would take no one from the Yonan family with them, which meant tonight was the only chance to aggravate Encia's symptoms.
"In other words, the odds that they'll come to Lady Encia tonight are extremely high."
"Ah—so that's why you asked me to send them out naturally…"
Grasping the meaning of Raon's aura message, Michelle's mouth fell open.
"When did you even think of that?"
"From the beginning."
"…He's insane."
Sheryl narrowed her eyes and looked into Raon's.
What kind of monster is this?
Medical knowledge that did not yield an inch to Temus, plus the ability to predict a culprit's existence and immediately design a trap around it—even she could not have done that.
How did this boy even grow up?
Martial power, scheming, knowledge, composure, and even the face. A seventeen-year-old swordsman with not a single gap in him. A hollow laugh escaped her.
"Huh…"
"He thought of all that from the start?"
"Our vice leader is actually terrifying…"
"No kidding."
The Light Wind Squad and the Heavenly Sword Squad stared at Raon with the same look of disbelief.
"Th-then what do we do now? We can't just leave Encia like this."
Michelle bit a fingernail, growing restless.
"Of course we can't leave her."
Raon nodded.
"Which is why there's one thing I need."
"Something you need?"
"Yes. I've heard that Yonan has that artifact…"
A chain of sudden explosions tore through the forest on the outskirts of Dembel City.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuuuuck!"
Temus poured aura out in a relentless stream, crushing everything in sight without the slightest care for whether the forest was pulverized or not.
Trees and undergrowth did not merely break. They melted down into black ash, hissing as they dissolved.
"Raon Zieghart!"
The rage of having been thoroughly stripped down by Raon at the Yonan family had burst loose. His eyes were dyed a vivid, burning red.
"I'll kill him. I'll melt the skin off his face while he's still alive. I will not let him die easy!"
Temus howled and raised his aura with enough force to flatten the forest entirely.
"Ugh…"
Yufen, Temus's disciple, had retreated a long way back and was biting his lip, pale with fear.
"I should get even farther—hm?"
Just as Yufen started to back away, a white-eyed crow rose from his shadow.
It settled on his shoulder, cracked its sharp beak wide, and spat out a single sheet of black paper.
"This is—!"
Yufen's eyes flew open as he read the contents.
"M-Master! We have a problem!"
He ran toward Temus, who was still demolishing the forest, paper in hand.
"They say they're leaving tomorrow morning, and they aren't taking a single maid or servant with them."
"What?"
Focus snapped back into Temus's eyes.
"Why?"
"To move as quickly as possible, they said. And that Zieghart has women among their swordsmen…"
"Those damned bastards, to the bitter end!"
Temus ground his teeth. He had walked out looking unattached precisely because there was a plant inside the Yonan family—and now that had become a problem.
"W-what do we do?"
"Hoo. Tell them to raise the Hell Worm's activity to eighty percent tonight."
"Won't eighty percent be dangerous?"
"The pain will be worse than dying, but she'll be able to endure it. We need to delay the schedule. That much is necessary."
"Delay the schedule?"
Yufen tilted his head. Stopping them from leaving entirely he could understand. Delaying them made no sense.
"If they can't leave at all, I lose my chance to kill that little shit."
"What? But the Heavenly Sword Squad Leader is there…"
"I'll call the Shadows."
"Even the Shadows won't be able to stop the Heavenly Sword Squad Leader."
"I have no intention of killing that woman. The one I'm after is Raon Zieghart, that one brat. We use the Shadows to pin down the Heavenly Sword Squad Leader, then spread Ash Poison through the little bastard. That's all. If he dies, they'll have no choice but to come back."
He clenched his fist tight, as if this was something he would never give up.
"Raon. I'll be the one to kill that arrogant little shit. I won't feel better until I watch every last scrap of his skin melt off."
"Y-yes. I'll make the preparations."
"One more thing!"
Yufen nodded and was about to write the message for the crow when Temus raised a hand.
"Send assassins to that lunatic in Letran as well."
Temus ground his teeth.
"We'll need the Yonan family's power for what's coming. I will not hand them over—not to Zieghart, and not to the Saint."
A dark night, the moon hidden behind black clouds.
The pink door at the innermost room on the ninth floor of the Yonan family opened without a sound, and a black figure slipped inside.
The silhouette crossed the room with familiar steps and made for the bed at the center. Encia was sunk in sleep, cold sweat beading on her skin as if she were in pain.
"Young miss."
"Mmh…"
Even when her name was called, Encia could not wake. She only let out a faint moan. The heat must have been severe; her skin was flushed a deeper red than usual.
The figure drew a small scrap of cloth from its mouth, unwrapped the red needle hidden inside, and drove it toward Encia's brow.
"Huh?"
But the needle could not pierce her skin. The tip bent as if it had struck stone.
"W-what is this—hhk!"
As the figure tried to pull the needle free, Encia opened her eyes.
"So it was you."
They were not the blue of the sea. Eyes the color of death, a searing crimson, flashed with a chilling light.