Chapter 48: His Smile Gradually Turned Wicked
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 48: His Smile Gradually Turned Wicked
"How did the fish taste, Young Master?" An asked suddenly after they had finished.
"Mm, it was delicious."
"That’s wonderful. It makes the effort I went through to catch them for you well worth it."
A moving smile appeared on An’s dignified, pretty face, causing Muen to daze for a moment.
While yanderes were terrifying, he had to admit that when An acted like a normal person, she was indeed an exquisite beauty. Furthermore, the figure hidden beneath her maid uniform was shapely and well-defined, not at all inferior to Celicia’s.
If he could actually date her, it wouldn't be so bad.
Of course, that was provided she could return to being a normal person.
"Speaking of which, An, you seem to be soaked through. Did something happen?"
Due to the dim lighting, Muen hadn't noticed anything unusual at first. It wasn't until An mentioned it that he realized she looked as if she had just finished a four-hundred-meter swim in a river. Her hair, usually maintained with meticulous care, was plastered to her forehead, and her dress was splattered with mud.
For the habitually rigorous An, such an appearance was practically unimaginable.
"It’s nothing, Young Master. I just got caught in a bit of rain," An replied.
"The rain?"
Muen frowned. "If you were out in the rain, why haven't you bathed and changed your clothes?"
"Because I wanted to make sure you had your lunch as soon as possible. Weren't you hungry, Young Master?" An said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Lunch can wait! What if you get sick from the rain?"
Muen’s expression turned stern. "Go back and take a bath immediately. A hot bath—soak for a long time. Change into warm clothes and sit by the fireplace for a while. To be safe, you should probably have the doctor prepare some medicine to prevent a cold!"
"Young Master..."
An looked startled, but her cheeks turned a visible shade of crimson. "You actually care about me this much... I’m so moved. I really want to—"
"Alright, stop being so thirsty and just go!"
"Yes, sir."
Feeling a rare warmth from Muen, An nodded obediently and briskly began clearing away the food scraps.
Even though Muen urged her repeatedly, An remained meticulous, carefully collecting every single fishbone before she prepared to leave.
"Then, Young Master, I shall take my leave."
"Scram!"
"Understood."
Despite being scolded harshly by Muen, the expression of happiness on An’s face only deepened.
She departed with a light, airy step.
Silence returned to the narrow, dim cage.
Muen watched An disappear into the darkness, and his stern expression collapsed instantly.
Then...
His smile gradually turned wicked.
"Heh."
"Hehehe."
"Hehehehe."
"As expected, a woman in love really does lose her IQ."
"The opportunity... hasn't it arrived?"
*
After confirming that An had truly left, Muen stretched his limbs.
Although he couldn't move much due to the shackles, it allowed him to gauge the current limits of his mobility.
"As expected, the first step is to free my hands."
Muen looked to his side.
To completely neutralize his movements, his hands were locked tightly to the wall by shackles, forcing him into a pose like Jesus on the cross. He couldn't do anything in this position, so he had to break free from the wrist restraints.
"It’s fine, it’s fine."
Muen took a deep breath, a long-simmering determination surfacing in his eyes.
"I’ve practiced this many times in the Black Book space. I can do this."
Having made up his mind, Muen pressed his right thumb into his palm and then—pushed hard!
Crack.
Accompanied by the crisp sound of a bone shifting, a surge of intense pain flooded his mind, causing cold sweat to break out on his forehead.
"Sss—damn. Even though I’ve tried this in the Black Book space, this kind of pain is still hard to stomach in reality."
"It is a dislocated thumb, after all."
Fortunately, the pain wasn't endured in vain.
With his thumb dislocated, his hand could now easily slip through the shackle.
TV dramas didn't lie to me!
After successfully extracting his right hand, Muen pressed his palm against the ground, lined it up, and then—slammed it down.
Snap.
The sound of the bone shifting back into place rang out again.
The agonizing pain returned as well.
"Sss—motherfucker. Setting the bone is definitely worse than the dislocation."
Muen tilted his head back, gritting his teeth to endure it.
But he didn't even have time to rest or let the pain subside.
Even though his thumb was back in place, there was bruising around the base of the bone and his hand was trembling uncontrollably, but he couldn't afford to care about that.
He didn't know when An would return; he had to hurry.
Muen raised his hand and, with trembling fingers, slowly pulled something out of his mouth.
It was the object he had hidden under his tongue, something An had nearly discovered...
A fishbone.
It was also his key to freedom.
Lockpicking LV8.
Muen looked at the record in the Black Book, feeling the results of his hard practice, and couldn't help but let out a lucky smile.
Father, Grandfather, and all the ancestors of the Campbell family—I misjudged you.
Those bizarre books you stuffed into the library weren't useless after all!
At the very least, that book 'Even Fishbones Can Pick Locks: A Hundred Ways to Commit Burglary' is extremely useful right now!
"Alright, let’s begin."
Muen took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves and stop his hand from shaking.
Pinching the fishbone in his right hand, he carefully reached toward the keyhole of the left shackle, his heart leaping into his throat.
Success or failure depended on this!
*
The result was even smoother than Muen had imagined.
Under his high-level Lockpicking LV8 skill, not only the shackles binding him but even the formidable-looking lock on the iron bars were easily picked by the fishbone.
An seemingly hadn't even considered this possibility. Although she had been cautious enough to leave Muen without clothes, she never expected him to have mastered a god-tier skill like picking locks with a fishbone.
Father, Grandfather, ancestors of the Campbell family—thank you again!
It’s a good thing you were all a bunch of muscle-brained idiots who hated reading.
"I need to get out of here fast."
Once the door was unlocked, Muen cautiously stepped out of the iron bars.
The light outside the cage was even dimmer, provided only by glowing stones embedded in the ceiling every few meters.
Fortunately, it didn't hinder his vision too much.
"This place... seems to be an underground storage room?"
Looking at the piles of junk around him, Muen vaguely remembered where he was.
In the furthest corner of the Duke's estate, there was an underground storage room used by the maids for various odds and ends.
It had later been abandoned due to renovations on the manor.
He remembered exploring this place as a child and taking a nasty fall because it was too dark.
Muen instinctively touched his temple, where a tiny scar could still be faintly felt.
"I remember back then, it was An—who had just become a personal maid—who comforted the crying little Muen and rescued him from this place."
"It was from that moment on that Muen began to rely on An more and more."
"An was so gentle back then, just like a big sister."
...
So why the hell did she turn into such a dangerous yandere?!