Chapter 58

“Ah…”

Why is he laughing as if he’s having so much fun talking about someone trying to kill me?

But while shaking off his blood-filled hands, Cardan wouldn’t let me go.

“It is a felony to attempt to kill a nobleman, so it should be punished.”

Cardan, who spun the fountain pen between his fingers, threw it somewhere without hesitation.

“Keuk!”

The fountain pen he threw disappeared through the open window of the warehouse building across. At the same time there was a terrible scream.

Cardan, who sat me on the dirt floor and strode to the warehouse, burst open the door.

I thought I shouldn’t just stay like this, so I followed Cardan into the warehouse.

“Faus.”

When Cardan spoke, Faus, who had been stuck in a pile of bags in the warehouse, flapped like a stuffed butterfly.

Holding on to his shoulder pierced by the fountain pen, he could not even run away, trapped between the bags.

Faus’s brow was twisted with pain, but his mouth was twisted with a fishy smile

“Are you going to kill me?”

Cardan smiled as if he was filled with energy in his eyes.

“If you stand in court and tell me everything, I’ll spare your life.”

“Ha……. What should I say? A bastard touched the illegal slave market to try it out?”

Faus’ eyes flared as he trembled intermittently in pain.

“We all know that it is the Empress who is holding out behind you.”

Cardan gently stepped on Faus’ leg, which was rebelling.

“If you confess everything, I’ll give you a lot of reward money so that you can get out of your burgeoning life without touching illegal activities.”

“Ugh.”

Faus did not lose his strange smile while twisting his face.

“You won’t find out anything from me.”

“…….”

“As soon as the knights came in, I burned down the office.”

Burn the office? Without evidence, everything is futile.

It was a headache. My headache got worse and I sat down again.

When Faus saw my figure, he laughed hard and spat at me.

“Oh, my! I can’t believe she was the duke. It would have been perfect if I had killed her.”

Cardan rubbed his chin with a calm face.

“I’m sorry, but the fire was put out immediately

“H, how……!”

“There was a person who reported it to me after seeing it.”

Cardan glanced at the sky again.

“The evidence is overflowing, and the Duke of Baloa is unfortunately a very difficult person to kill, so why don’t you give up and cooperate?”

Cardan put more strength into his feet.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Faus shook his head as he struggled.

“Never, I won’t tell you.”

Faus suddenly chewed his tongue hard as he stared at us with glaring eyes.

“Damn it.”

Cardan grabbed Faus’ chin and forced him to open his mouth, but it was already after he bit his tongue.

Blood showed around Faus’ mouth and his body drooped.

“Tsk. Thorough.”

Cardan shook off his hand, putting his broken body aside.

“It will be difficult to catch the empress again this time. Still, we can root out the nobles who participated in the slave market.”

I stared blankly at the blood seeping into the dust.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Cardan waved in front of my face. Blood was still flowing from the scratch on his palm.

“Oh… yes.”

“Why are you so dazed?”

“Haha, just, someone who tried to kill me died today…… I just wanted to.”

I rubbed the back of my neck.

Cardan smirked.

“That’s why the Duke of Baloa is unique.”

When he blinked in ignorance, Cardan secretly turned his eyes and muttered.

“You won’t die at all. Even if you’re not a swordmaster.”

“Ha ha.”

I smiled awkwardly and raised my hand in the air and pretended to wield a knife.

“I am not a swordmaster, but I’m pretty good at cutting. Even though I touched the sword for the first time today, I killed as many as two soldiers.”

“Today is not the first time.”

With that assertion, Cardan raised me up.

“Because I taught you myself.”

“What?”

“When we were young, I was the one who taught you how to handle the sword. You don’t seem to remember.”

Cardan’s forehead is wrinkled.

“You were talentless.”

“Ah…”

It seemed that my body remembered what it had learned that the sword felt familiar. And according to Cardan, there’s something wrong with my swing, because I’m just not talented…….

“If I had a talent, I might have become a swordmaster with my unique tenacity.”

After talking, Cardan reached out to me.

“Drink it.”

“What?”

“My blood. You’ve been touching your head for a while. Isn’t it because of the poison?”

How did he know that?

As soon as I recognized the fact, my head began to throb.

I held out because I thought I would get better later on, but there was no sign of improvement.

I grabbed Cardan’s hand without realizing it because I thought I could be really poisoned at this rate.

“T, Then, please excuse me.”

When I held his hand, I couldn’t figure out what to do, so I put my lips on the palm of his hand as soon as Cardan blinked.

For a moment, Cardan’s hand seemed to move, but soon it spread out more easily for me to lick.

The bitter taste of blood spread through my mouth, but it was strangely not  disgusting.

I was even refreshed when the pressure that was weighing on my head disappeared.

It would be much more convenient to stick next to Cardan, and sometimes get his blood, than to struggle with the detoxification method to make me resistant to poison, right?

The Duke of Baloa would never have done it because it would hurt his pride, but I was not the Duke of Baloa.

Survival is all that matters to me, so I didn’t have as much pride as I had in my toenails.

While I was licking blood harder than mosquitoes with such wild thoughts, I heard a low voice nearby.

“Master…”

As I raised my head suddenly, Knoxus was looking at us with a lost face at the entrance of the warehouse.

“Arf!”

The search dog tried to run to Faus’ body, but Knoxus, who grabbed his leash, was stuck in place and motionless.

“Oh, Knoxus!”

I wiped my lips in a hurry.

It was certainly a shocking sight.

I’m not a vampire, but I’m sucking someone else’s blood, so he’ll be suspicious.

“I, it’s for detoxification. I overdosed a little bit of poison, but His Majesty thankfully provided me with blood.”

“Oh… I see.”

Only then did Knoxus, who seemed to have come to his senses, moved with a big step.

The blank expression he had just now disappeared and was replaced with a quiet smile as usual, but his eyes were still shaking.

“Here.”

Closer, Knoxus reached out to my lips.

Like this.

However, just before he touched me, Cardan grabbed Knoxus’s arm.

I looked up at Cardan in amazement.

Knoxus also stared at Cardan with indifferent eyes.

“Is there a problem, Your Majesty?”

“Ah…”

Cardan, who seemed as surprised as we were after holding him first, looked at the Knoxus and his hands alternately as if embarrassed.

But instead of letting go of Knoxus’ arm, he shamelessly raised his chin.

“If I give away my precious blood, she shouldn’t waste a drop.”

“Oh, yes……. My thoughts were short.”

This narcissist is terminally ill.

How much blood is on my mouth?

I grumbled inside and licked my mouth hard.

“Are you done?”

Cardan, who was staring at me, suddenly crumpled his face, even though he fluttered hard like an anteater.

“I’m done.”

And he stormed off.

Bang. He was in such a hurry that he kicked the door when his foot got caught on the board as he left.

“Huh…”

I muttered, looking at the wooden board lying on the floor.

“Knoxus, what have I done so wrong?”

Knoxus shook his head with a serious face.

“I think you’d better avoid His Majesty for the time being, Master.”

“I agree.”

Knoxus slowly opened his mouth, staring at the spot where Cardan had left.

“I’m telling you now, when I was in the Guards, His Majesty was not cool even if you put him in a hell fire pit and took him out and threw him with crow rice.”

“Well, that’s quite specific. Is it a personal fantasy?”

While smiling, Knoxus looked at me with serious eyes. At first glance, even weak anxiety was read.

“So I think you’d better keep your distance from His Majesty.”

I patted Knoxus on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry. I’m thinking of doing the same thing.”

What distance was it going to be? I was going to jump to another country.

I even dealt with Faus and now wiped out the slave market.

I also kept my promise with Count Gesban, and the state coffers will no longer run out and no more riot from the illegal slaves.

In other words, it is time to begin my full-scale escape preparations.

I hesitated and finally opened my mouth.

“Knoxus. Have you ever been abroad?”

“No, I was born and raised here before I became a knight, why?”

“Then do you have any thoughts of going?”

It was a question that I asked after a lot of thought.

I know I’m going to die soon, and the empire is going to fall, but if I say this to someone else, they’ll think I’m crazy.

It’s hard to settle in the East, but it’ll be harder to escape with the whole family.

However, as I met the servants of the Duke and spent a long time with Knoxus, my heart gradually tilted.

Even if I’m not the real Duke of Baloa, I’ll still have to take care of my people.

Knoxus looked at me with a dry face.

“Why? Are you planning to go abroad?”

Before I could answer, he declared with a big smile.

“I will follow you wherever you go.”

I stopped laughing at his voice full of conviction.

“I’d appreciate it if you did.”

♡ advanced chapters available here ♡