Chapter 830: The Right Remedy
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 830: The Right Remedy
"Hiss... In—intel?"
Ariel, who had just finished sucking in a breath of cold air, nearly choked on her own spit.
She looked at the man in shock. "Where did you get this information?"
"I know you're surprised—surprised that I could know everything about you so thoroughly and clearly. But you can save the 'fishing for info' routine," the man sneered with disdain.
Unlike those brainless cultists, the members of the Salvation Society were long past being deceived by such ridiculous little tricks. They weren't the type to be provoked into spilling everything in a few sentences.
They were rigorous.
Ariel: "..."
The night was deep, and darkness shrouded all things.
An eerie silence seemed to act as a canopy, isolating the entire Duke’s Estate. Ariel understood that for the opponent to launch such an attack against the estate, they must have come prepared.
But for some reason, a strange emotion welled up in her heart.
It was so strange that she couldn't quite understand what she was feeling.
Yes, she had to admit, the fellow in front of her truly valued intelligence.
In the narrative he had just delivered, he had essentially covered every detail of Ariel Bugard’s life that could be gathered, right down to the minutiae. Aside from a few secrets she kept strictly to herself, there were basically no omissions.
She believed the other party must have conducted numerous rigorous investigations, performed a series of systematic analyses, and developed specific countermeasures for her various traits... They hadn't slackened in the slightest just because of her youth.
But the only problem was...
Wasn't this intel a little bit outdated?
A mere few months?
Did they not know that a few months was enough for her to undergo a world-shaking increase in power?
Time was tight and couldn't be wasted. Usually, after she finished causing trouble, a bunch of old monsters would chase her down to kill her. Who had the leisure to level up slowly?
...However, Ariel thought about it carefully and realized she couldn't entirely blame the other party for the delay. Among the opponents she had encountered before, those who could be this rigorous were rare. It was just that she had indeed spent these past few months infiltrating the Abyss alone. In that godforsaken place, she was basically off the grid. It was unlikely anyone else could have easily obtained information on her.
"What? Are you intimidated by us?"
Seeing Ariel dazed, the man assumed she was frightened by his rigor. He took his time adjusting his loose bowtie, a kind smile squeezed onto his gaunt, drained face.
"But please rest assured, Miss Ariel. We bear you no ill will. As long as you are willing to come with me, I absolutely will not harm you."
"Who exactly are you?" Ariel frowned. "And what do you mean by 'come with you'?"
"Who I am isn't important. You can call me by my code name, Bukadi the Dog Lover. As for what we're doing... I simply hope you can catch up with your best friend," Bukadi said.
"Best friend..."
Ariel’s eyes flashed as if she understood something. Her voice turned cold. "You're trying to deal with Liya?"
"Smart!"
Bukadi clapped. "But being smart is useless. In the face of absolute preparation and strength, your clever little head is of no consequence."
"Is that so?"
Ariel glanced sideways, wondering if Muen knew that Liya was under attack...
"Hehe..."
In Bukadi's eyes, however, Ariel’s sudden distraction meant something entirely different.
This genius girl from the reports... was afraid!
Bukadi mocked, "Are you hoping someone will save you? I suggest you give up on that idea."
"Oh?" Ariel raised an eyebrow. "And what do you mean by that?"
"It's simple... Can't your clever brain figure it out? This is the Duke’s Estate. For us to enter, we naturally made full preparations and left no openings. We even have several backup plans."
Bukadi spoke with the air of someone who had already won. "So, why do you think we haven't made preparations for the others?"
"Hiss..."
Ariel sucked in another breath of cold air. Perhaps she was too shocked, as even her voice trembled slightly.
"You don't mean..."
"Exactly!"
Seeing that the opponent could no longer stir up any trouble, and thinking he might as well crush her spirit while he was at it, Bukadi stopped being evasive. He gave a candid, savage grin.
"Not just you. For the other two important figures in this estate—Muen Campbell and that maid, An... we have also sent people. And we sent the people best suited to handle them!"
*
Scrape... scrape... scrape...
The sharp sound of friction echoed through the lonely, empty kitchen.
There were no candles or magic stones. Only a few faint glimmers of light reflected from the hallway outside, shining on that slender, straight back, which instead added a touch of the macabre to the atmosphere.
It was a very grim and terrifying scene. If someone were to capture this image, it would certainly be enough to serve as the cover for a horror story collection. But in reality... this was just An sharpening her knife alone.
At this late hour, the other maids of the Duke’s Estate were naturally asleep. An was merely sharpening her frequently used kitchen knife while cleaning up the dishes from the candlelit dinner.
She had been using too much force when cutting things lately, and the blade had become a bit chipped.
"It seems my control is still lacking," An said with a hint of regret as she ran her finger along the edge of the blade after a thorough sharpening. "Otherwise, I wouldn't need to sharpen it specifically."
As the Young Master’s personal maid, she had to make up for any deficiencies in this area, otherwise...
Thud!
Suddenly, An slammed the freshly sharpened knife down. The sharp edge embedded itself deep into the chopping block, even striking the stone counter beneath it.
The slight emotional ripple from a moment ago was suppressed. An opened her eyes, which were as calm as a stagnant well.
"I didn't expect pests to sneak in at a time like this."
An remained expressionless. "The Duke’s Estate needs a major spring cleaning lately. Pests keep appearing. It's truly annoying."
"Oh?"
In the kitchen where there should have been no one but An, a sudden sound of surprise rang out.
A vague silhouette appeared in the shadows and gradually solidified. A hunched figure paced out from a corner about ten meters away from An, a gold cane thumping rhythmically against the floor.
"Little girl, your senses are quite sharp."
This was an elderly woman. The wrinkles on her face were like terraced fields, circling round and round. Her eyebrows and hair were entirely white; she looked as if she already had one foot in the grave.
However, her eyes were still spirited, filled with a brilliance that was not at all inferior to a young person's.
"It seems Lord Arthur was right. You appear to be just an ordinary maid, but in reality, you are not simple at all."
"Who are you?" An asked coldly. "The Duke’s Estate shouldn't have invited a guest like you."
"Giggle... A guest? Unfortunately, I am just an ordinary old woman, an old woman known as Madam Sewin."
Madam Sewin smiled gently. "Of course I wasn't invited. Those who come uninvited in the middle of the night aren't guests—they're villains."
"Is that so?" An raised an eyebrow. "For a villain, you're quite honest."
Zheng—
The steel hummed.
In that instant, An did not hesitate. A steel blade condensed and pierced through the air, striking directly at the old woman's vitals.
At this distance and speed, if she truly were just an ordinary old woman, there would be absolutely no possibility of survival.
An was not the type of person to hold back against the elderly or children.
But...
"This is..."
An’s eyes narrowed as she looked at her hand.
The kitchen knife she usually used was turning a dark red with rust at a visible rate, then rapidly disintegrating and decaying...
In the blink of an eye, only a wooden handle remained in An’s palm.
"Giggle... It really is the Steel God's Blessing."
Madam Sewin was unharmed, because the steel that had attacked her had also rusted and decayed in an instant, turning into a cloud of scattered iron filings.
"Lord Arthur’s intelligence has truly never been wrong. Who would have thought that a mere little maid in the Duke’s Estate would possess such a powerful divine gift as the Steel God's Blessing? If anyone else had come, they might have actually fallen to this ability of yours..."
Madam Sewin paused. "But unfortunately, you met me."
"Magic?" An did not hide the surprise in her tone.
"Indeed, magic," Madam Sewin said. "There are two types of mages in this world. The first type continuously accumulates knowledge, learns powerful spells, and pursues higher realms. The second type practices a single spell to its absolute limit, training it until it becomes like instinct.
Both have their pros and cons. Generally speaking, most mages in the world are the former. I... am the latter."
Madam Sewin struck her gold cane hard against the floor. With a thud, dark red rust began to spread along the ground.
Everything was rusting, and metal objects were the most affected. Like ice meeting fire, they lost all their properties in an instant, turning into ordinary iron dust.
"Giggle... The Steel God's Blessing is certainly powerful, but unfortunately, a single power is always easy to counter. Perhaps due to so-called 'true love,' you are willing to reside in the Duke’s Estate as a maid, but this also destined that you would be unable to grow in other areas.
Therefore..."
Madam Sewin grinned. Perhaps because she had lost most of her teeth, her smile appeared exceptionally eerie.
"When you, who rely so heavily on your divine blessing, encounter a natural enemy like me... what will you do?"
*
"Whew... As expected of Zagu. Right now, relying on my own strength alone, it's basically impossible to win."
Muen opened his eyes and gazed at the sky, where the stars were no longer twinkling.
Whether it was because the Black Book’s power had grown stronger or because the memory fragments of Zagu collected this time were sufficient, the Zagu reconstructed in the consciousness space felt almost identical to the real one to Muen.
Consequently, he had lost this simulated battle without surprise. After all, even with Ariel, they had only achieved a pyrrhic victory. In a true one-on-one fight, he was still quite inferior.
"But you have to be strong enough to be qualified for a life-and-death struggle, don't you?"
Muen rubbed his temples to soothe his spirit, which was still agitated from the battle. His thoughts shifted from the fight to wondering if Ariel and An were asleep yet.
If they weren't... maybe he could take advantage of the time before dawn to have some fun...
"No, no, if this keeps up, my days and nights will really be flipped."
Muen shook his head vigorously, quickly dismissing the thought. Being this unrestrained made him seem like some lecher who thought with his lower half...
"Hmm?"
Muen suddenly frowned.
"What is this fragrance?"
He sniffed deeply. Amidst the faint floral scent of the courtyard, he detected a completely different aroma.
It was like the scent of a young girl, but richer. Based on Muen’s experience, this definitely didn't belong to Ariel, who never wore perfume, or An, who never liked scents that were too heavy.
Which meant...
"Who is it?" Muen narrowed his eyes. "Come out!"
"Oh my, I've been discovered~"
Not far from Muen, a beautiful silhouette traced itself onto the railing. A sexy woman with alluring wavy long hair and revealing clothes sat sideways there. As the light and shadows shifted, a captivating face was occasionally revealed.
Seductive.
The moment he saw the woman, that word appeared in Muen’s mind.
Unlike the Senior’s controlled charm, what this stranger displayed was a pure, raw seductiveness. It was like a violent tornado that could blow straight into the depths of your mind and seize your soul.
"As expected of the legendary son of the Duke. You truly are extraordinary~"
The woman had a habit of trailing her words, which carried a numbing quality that could soften one's bones.
"I thought I could hide a little longer~"
"Who are you?"
Muen frowned, his brain automatically filtering out the cloying tone. His mind had already entered a state of high alert.
"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous. Let me introduce myself. I am Lucy. Others call me Perfumer Lucy."
The woman covered her mouth and giggled. "I'm not a bad person, and I didn't come to fight with Young Master Muen. On the contrary, I very much want to develop a... remarkable destiny with you~"
"Destiny?"
Muen’s expression turned strange.
He thought to himself: You have an unknown origin, an unknown identity, and you break into someone's home in the middle of the night saying you want to develop some 'destiny'...
Are you out of your mind?
"What? The rumors say Young Master Muen is extremely dissolute, stepping on over a dozen ships... though in reality it's not that many, you are still intimate with several women. Could it be that you're afraid of a weak woman like me?"
Lucy crossed her long legs. Her fingertips occasionally brushed over her high peaks—which, aside from that Saintess, were not inferior to any woman's—in an inviting posture.
Around her, a special fragrance that was impossible to detect had mixed with her ordinary perfume, gradually spreading and enveloping the man nearby.
Muen’s breathing suddenly became heavy.
"Come on~ dear Young Master Muen. I really just want to do some... 'loving' things with you. I think you'd like that too, right?~"
Seeing Muen beginning to succumb, Lucy further extended her arms. Her face was filled with longing and her eyes were misty, like a delicate flower ready to be plucked at any moment.
...But deep within this delicate flower was a certain thorny chill.
Lucy sneered inwardly.
Heh... Under the dual temptation of beauty and special potions, how could a mere man resist?
Even if his reputation has changed and his strength has undergone world-shaking transformations in just two years... in the end, he's still just that lecherous playboy.