Chapter 46, You’ve Come Too Far (5)

Translator: Lizzz

Editor: Hedge

 

The sword fell limply from Eila’s hand.

 

Blood dripped steadily from the deep wound onto the fallen blade.

 

After a moment, Eila spoke with a voice as cracked and dry as salt, parched from the burning sun.

 

“How…?”

 

How did he know her real name, how did he know about the bird shop? How was he already on the path of the sword?

 

The question held numerous doubts, and the same doubts flickered in her eyes, but Kalian had no intention of explaining any of it.

 

Kalian immediately stepped forward to stand before Eila’s eyes. Then he reached out and firmly gripped her chin. Eila let out an involuntary cry.

 

“Ugh!”

 

It was an action meant to check for the poison that assassins always carried in their mouths, but no poison could be found anywhere in Eila’s mouth. She also had not swallowed any poison.

 

Kalian let out a small laugh when he realised she had been going around without carrying poison.

 

“Eila.” When Kalian called again, Eila’s shoulders flinched. Kalian spoke in a low voice.

 

“Tell me. The evidence.”

 

[Should I lie and say there is never any such thing? Or should I say I would hand it over if he lets me go?] Various thoughts flickered through Eila’s mind, appearing and disappearing repeatedly. Knowing that being captured here meant certain death, Eila, who was looking for a way to escape this situation, carefully asked.

 

“Will you let me go if I tell you?”

 

“Why bother asking at this point?” Kalian asked back with an expressionless face.

 

[After unleashing killing intent and attacking without warning, now you are asking to be spared? What chance could I possibly give you now?] Kalian spoke again.

 

“I heard Secritians are tough, but I guess you’re not.”

 

Then he added in a tone that seemed like he was talking to himself.

 

“Though I’m not sure if you’re not, or if you’ve become not.”

 

It was difficult for Eila to understand exactly what he meant by those words. However, looking at Kalian’s face, it seemed he had absolutely no intention of letting her live.

 

Soon Eila stood straight before Kalian. Then she pointed to the scattered fragments of the sword on the ground. Since he said he would not spare her, she was looking for a way to survive.

 

“A Sword Master’s blade shattered with one Aura strike. You carry a sword inferior even to that of a guard who isn’t a Knight. I wonder why?”

 

Somehow Eila had seen Kyrie’s sword and was now mentioning his blade. Kalian stared at Eila without answering. Interpreting this as a sign to continue speaking, Eila opened her mouth again.

 

“Those around you don’t know. You’re hiding your skills, aren’t you?”

 

Subtly launching this suggestion while observing Kalian, Eila took on the look of those who held superior positions. Because she had seen Kalian slightly clench his fist. Eila continued without stopping.

 

“It would be better to let me go. Otherwise, I’ll tell all the Knights outside exactly what I just saw.”

 

Kalian had clearly given her a chance. He would overlook everything if she just left the evidence and went. He had tried to save her somehow, and gave her a chance.

 

A small laugh finally escaped from Kalian’s mouth as he stood there silently.

 

*Whoosh!* Suddenly, Kalian grabbed Eila’s collar and pulled her forward. Then, looking closely at Eila’s face, he spoke fiercely through gritted teeth.

 

“If you wanted to live, if you were going to go this far to beg for your life, you shouldn’t have done something worthy of death in front of me!” Kalian’s killing intent exploded outward, pressing down on Eila. His red eyes flashed as if they would devour her at any moment.

 

Instinctive fear clouded Eila’s face.

 

“Don’t expect any sympathy. You’ve come too far for that.”

 

No one would know how Kalian felt right now. No one would dare empathize with or imagine it. Kalian looked at the ceiling for a moment, then turned his head to look at the falling rain.

 

After a long while, the killing intent gradually dissipated.

 

Returning to his usual face and voice, Kalian looked at Eila and said.

 

“It’s not a secret worth trading your life for. So just tell me the evidence. Then I’ll make sure you don’t have to undergo other interrogations.”

 

An assassination attempt on Royalty. Naturally, it would lead to a beheading. Whether revealed as an assassin or as a spy, there would certainly be torture to make her spill everything she was hiding. He was saying he would help her avoid that.

 

Eila smiled wryly.

 

She had never thought she would be captured and die like this. Therefore, she decided to get some satisfaction in her resentment by absolutely refusing to tell where the evidence was before dying.

 

As if reading that thought, Kalian opened his mouth again.

 

“If there needs to be an interrogation, we won’t do it. I’m thinking of calling someone else.”

 

Eila looked at Kalian again with furrowed brows. Kalian concluded with an expressionless face.

 

“White Hawk. I will have him conduct the interrogation.”

 

Those words were sincere.

 

Having betrayed both Cyries and Secritia, the right to punishment should be shared as well.

 

Only then did deep fear fill Eila’s eyes.

 

It was similar to when she faced Kalian’s killing intent.

 

Even Kalian knew well of White Hawk’s cruelty toward traitors. When Chase saw the corpse of a traitor that White Hawk had tracked down and caught, he could not keep food down for over three days.

 

Eila seemed to know as well that White Hawk was someone who showed the depths of life to those who turned their backs on him.

 

“The building next to the tavern. Third compartment down the basement stairs.”

 

That was why she immediately spoke up.

 

* * *

 

Eila was bound and dragged to the underground prison.

 

Yuran and the Knights began direct surveillance. They were under Kalian’s strict orders to absolutely prevent any escape until the Royal Knight Order arrived to transport her to Cyriesus.

 

Kalian soon ordered all the Knights, except for two who had gone to Hanson Village with Kyrie and six who would watch Eila and Norton, to search the location Eila had mentioned and the tavern.

 

While the castle servants were moving Kalian’s few belongings to another guest room prepared in the castle, Kalian went alone to the underground prison. It was to visit Norton, not Eila whom he no longer wished to face.

 

After briefly dismissing those around him, Kalian handed Norton something small wrapped in paper. Norton, receiving it, asked gruffly.

 

“What’s this?”

 

Kalian answered with a smile.

 

“Eat it tomorrow morning.”

 

Having said that, Kalian got up and left without any further words or explanation. When Norton opened it, he found it was something like a sugar cube, an item he had hid before. Though Norton did not really know what it was, he was now at the point where he felt he could do anything, so he carefully tucked it away in his breast pocket.

 

After returning to his room, Kalian took a blank piece of paper and wrote something down. It was a letter requesting lenient treatment for Malcom Chetish who had provided great help in capturing Cyries’s serious criminal. After sealing it, he handed it to Ian saying.

 

“Send this to Malcom.”

 

Ian answered that he would gladly do so.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, at that time.

 

Hale Latran was pacing around the room with an anxious expression. He was again gnawing at his fingernails that had already been bitten away to nothing.

 

The situation was not at all to his liking. An assassin had entered Kalian’s room. They had fought so fiercely that the whole castle shook and a hole was made in the wall. Yet Kalian neither explained nor questioned him about it.

 

Moreover, Malcom had disappeared.

 

He had not been seen for some time, and though Hale had been planning to say something when he returned, he had not shown up even as night was falling.

 

“What in the world is going on here!”

 

As Hale was anxiously biting his nails again, a servant brought him a small rolled-up letter and left. It was news just delivered by a messenger bird.

 

“Surely it’s not about the Royal Family searching my mansion.”

 

It was possible, but he was not too worried about those matters.

 

Hale had not left any evidence there. Moreover, Hale had already sent a messenger bird that morning to inform Lannen Beurisen of the situation and ask for help. Wasn’t that why he had put so much effort into currying favour? It was precisely for times like this.

 

Thinking he had prepared well in advance, Hale unfolded the letter.

 

And his eyes widened.

 

It was not from his family there.

 

<You’ll need someone to handle your defense in court. So I took the liberty of explaining to Queen Sillike what you were selling that got you into this situation. Rest easy.>

 

The letter dropped from Hale’s hand.

 

He needed to check just how much Kalian knew. Whether the ‘what’ was written in Allan Manasil’s letter really meant Divine Artifacts.

 

Hale hurriedly went out of the room. Then he changed his mind and came back in.

 

“No. That snake-like Mage probably already knows everything before sending such a letter. I’m tired of bowing and scraping to that commoner’s son, calling him Your Highness. Let’s hide things first.”

 

Hale locked the room door. There was something he absolutely had to hide in case the search party sent by the Royal Family discovered this secret space. Something that absolutely must not be known to Sillike or the Marquis Beurisen.

 

Divine Artifacts!

 

He was going to take out the Divine Artifacts he had purchased from Blue Warbler but had not yet passed on to the Beurisen Trader’s Guild.

 

*Click!*

 

When he turned the clock above the bedroom fireplace, the bookshelf placed next to the bedroom made a small sound as it moved.

 

Numerous valuables piled inside came into view. Hale ignored them and hurriedly took out a box placed in the furthest corner.

 

Then, he briefly opened the lid to check what was inside.

 

He could see quite a collection of Divine Artifacts. With this much, he could have made a fortune, but he had kept them separately to try negotiating more with Lannen Beurisen, and now this problem had arisen.

 

Hale clicked his tongue regretfully, quickly closed the box lid and stood up.

 

“Thank you.”

 

And then, he heard a voice.

 

Hale looked up in surprise. Before his eyes, a man’s head was floating in the air. Then, as if drawing a picture in empty space, his head, neck, shoulders, and upper body gradually appeared.

 

Faced with this unexpected situation, Hale inhaled sharply and collapsed where he stood.

 

“Wh-who are you!?”

 

He looked somewhat familiar.

 

The Mage who had sought out Kalian the night before, drenched in rain…

 

Soon fully visible, he introduced himself belatedly to Hale. It was a solemn face without a trace of humor.

 

“Mage. Arsene Hertz.”

 

The reason why no one could open the door, magically locked, while Eila and Kalian were fighting was because the one Mage in the group who could open it was hiding in Hale’s room.

 

Of course, this was to find the irrefutable evidence of Divine Artifacts, whose location even Malcom did not know of.

 

As Kalian had said, the more evidence, the better.

 

While written transaction records were certainly important, something this conspicuous would be even better.

 

That was why Arsene Hertz, who had been hiding in Hale’s room for several hours maintaining a Fourth-Circle Invisibility Spell, spoke in a very polite tone.

 

“I will make good use of what you’ve so laboriously found for us.”

 

Arsene snatched the box from Hale’s stunned hands. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he said.

 

“And… I will make sure to tell that snake-like Mage and the commoner’s son Prince that you handed it over without any resistance. Please don’t hold back to thank me for my gracious service.”

 

Hale’s face turned deathly pale.

 

A barely audible breath escaped through his lips.