Chapter 5

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A man who never dies.

“Tell me, who sent you here?”

Atalante slowly turned her head towards the voice pressing her for answers. 

As soon as she turned around, Lionel Blanc stood there wiping the blood off his mouth with the knife in his hand aimed at her. 

“Speak.”

He seemed to be used to such situations, as he began interrogating her with a languid face. 

Atalante’s pupils shook constantly. As she peered towards the bed slightly, only red traces remained, but the man that was supposed to be lying there was gone.

“What’s this…”

“You seem to have made your preparations to kill me diligently, but it turned out to be a shame.”

A hint of laughter could even be detected in his voice. 

Based on the traces of his bed and his ruined attire, she had definitely stabbed Lionel in the heart. 

He had definitely stopped breathing. 

“If you’re not going to answer, I’ll just kill you.”

As Lionel notified her of her imminent death with a mellow tone, Atalante took out the dagger she used to stab him. 

She struck his long sword with all her might, but it was her dagger that broke instead. 

The dagger that Devon had made with painstaking effort could not have broken so easily.

“You’re quite strong, aren’t you?”

Lionel’s face brightened as he found something amusing. 

As Atalante identified the madness in his eyes, she pulled out the pistol fixed by her thigh instead of shaking in her spot. 

“Don’t come over.”

As he has yet to discover her true identity, all she had to do was to get out of there at all costs. Fleeing was something that’s very familiar to Atalante. 

“But even if I run away… Can she survive? What about her members?”

She could feel the hand holding the gun shaking slightly.

From the looks of things, Lionel didn’t seem to be afraid of bullets, as he pushed the barrel of the gun away with the blue edge of his sword. 

“Why me?”

He approached Atalante with a deep smile that matched well his gorgeous face. He slowly walked step by step, as if he found it fun to watch her eyes slowly be consumed with despair. 

A gun could instil within enemies fear that amounts to more than ten soldiers with knives.

However, this crazy Grand Duke didn’t seem to be afraid of bullets that might pierce his heart at all.

Atalante, who loaded the gun properly, snarled out a warning.

“I’m really going to shoot!”

A loud noise would be created the moment she shoots, and his servants and knights will flock over. She couldn’t even guess how many people were in this large castle.

‘When others come, my chances of getting out of here would become pretty slim…’

She had thought of her escape route after killing him, but no matter what, it didn’t seem like she could get out of here safely. This was because the Grand Duke that she thought she had killed was alive.

“How on earth… are you still alive?”

Although it was asked in a subdued voice, she didn’t get an answer from the Grand Duke.

Although she wanted to return alive, it seems that the cruel god had planned to hold Atalante responsible for her sins here today.

Perhaps he noticed that the assassin before him was afraid, the cruel smile by the corner of the Grand Duke’s mouth slowly grew deeper.

As Lionel suddenly appeared before her, he lifted her chin with the tip of his knife. A fine sounding voice soon came out through his bright red lips. 

“Why’re you shaking when you’re the one that crawled in here to kill me? You’re not just arrogant, but shameless as well.”

“I may be arrogant and shameless, but I’m not nervous.”

“You’re good at lying, too.”

The Grand Duke praised her for her perfect qualities as an assassin.

No matter how she thought about it, using the gun here was too risky. She scanned through the Grand Duke’s room, but she couldn’t spot anything suitable as a weapon.

At that moment, the gun separated without a sound.

To be more precise, it broke in Lionel’s hand.

“I don’t want to wake others up so late in the night.”

“H—how…!”

“I don’t like guns. They’re too loud.”

How relaxed the Grand Duke was that he talked about his taste in weapons without being prompted.

But she didn’t have the presence of mind to respond to that.

After losing her weapon in an instant, she stared at him in a daze. She tried to take out the other hidden dagger, but was stopped by the Grand Duke’s hand. 

The emotion that rose onto the face of the Grand Duke, who had broken to pieces or thrown away the weapon that she took out, was delight, surprisingly. 

“Haha. Weapons keep emerging.”

As a last resort, she swung her foot to avoid his sword, but the poor foot was caught by a large hand.

Lionel threw Atalante onto the bed with the ankle he was holding. The bed was clearly of the finest quality, as it cushioned her without making a single sound. 

It was quite an unpleasant experience, lying in a blood-soaked bed. 

Lionel removed the mask from her head, and discovered a colour similar to the blood that dyed the bedsheets red spilling out. 

As the moonlight revealed the assassin’s mysterious eyes, the Grand Duke moved his soft lips and threw a joke. 

“I’d never imagined that the first woman to lie in this bed would be an assassin.”

Who said he was a tyrant, he’s a complete madman. 

Even as she glared at the clear blue eyes, this time, the Grand Duke didn’t seem to be intimidated either. 

“It was pretty interesting this time. I’m curious about your name, but you’ll die anyway.”

Hearing her name would be meaningless.

The Grand Duke reached out a hand with prominent joints from his crouched position and held Atalante’s neck.

‘Was he not going to cut using a knife?’

Unlike her, who tried to give him a quick death, Lionel didn’t seem to have any intention of giving the assassin that broke into his room a nice death. 

‘I have to kill this man no matter what. That way, the other members…!’

In a situation where her life was at stake, the only thought in Atalante’s mind was carrying out the request. 

A small territory on the outskirts, family members who live without getting their hands dirty. A dream-like future was just around the corner, she couldn’t let it end in vain like this.

As she looked about urgently, an item that she had forgotten about came to Atalante’s mind.

“The name of this medicine is ‘Rest’. It’s a medicine that will make one stop breathing as if they’re falling asleep.”

The blond noblewoman that handed over the cruel yet romantic poison with trembling hands came to mind.

She wore it around her neck, planning to use it in a situation where she had to take her own life. 

She wasn’t in a position to be picky.

As the hand of the Grand Duke holding her neck began to use strength, Atalante pulled on the string hanging from her neck and poured all of the poison into her mouth. 

Perhaps he was surprised by her unexpected behaviour, the force pressing on her neck loosened slightly.

Without missing that momentary opening, Atalante climbed above the Grand Duke instantly. 

“What are you planning to do again…”

Lionel couldn’t finish his sentence, as the assassins had pressed on his lips immediately.

Before he could feel surprised by the fact that their lips were touching, hot liquid flooded into his mouth. 

Under the thoughtful influence of her tongue, Lionel drank all the poison that Atalante gave him.

“Spit.”

Atalante spit all the poison in her mouth out as soon as she removed her lips, worried that the medicine might fall down her throat. 

“What did you feed me…”

The way he threatened her with a dangerous aura disappeared, as the eyes of the Grand Duke closed unknowingly while muttering in a small voice. 

That Young Lady’s words were the truth. He really stopped breathing, as if he was really asleep.

As she looked at the eyelashes that were denser than her’s, Atalante chose to catch her breath. 

The throat that was grabbed by him felt hot and numb, and she somehow injured her leg as blood trickled downwards.

It should be considered quite good if she had only suffered this amount of injuries while trying to assassinate the Grand Duke of Blanc. 

As Atalante approached the secret passageway while limping, she seemed to have remembered something, and stopped in her tracks.

‘I’ve left too many of my traces behind…’

It wasn’t just the scent of her body. Due to the scuffle with the Grand Duke, there were many remnants of her hair and bodily fluids. The broken shards of her weapon were also enough for her to be caught red handed.

The edges of her eyes reddened.

‘D*mn it, what should I do now?’ 

Even if the Emperor helped her, the officials of the Grand Duchy definitely wouldn’t let her go. 

As she stared at the man that’s as white as an angel with eyes filled with desperation, the deep voice of the Emperor rang by Atalante’s ear. 

“Even if you die, I will guarantee the future of all of your members, as long as you dispose of the Grand Duke perfectly.”

“How am I supposed to believe that?”

“I swear, in the name of Thessalia.”

Gaia Thessalia, the founder of the Imperial Family of Thessalia, was a competent wizard. After becoming the new ruler of the Empire, he created the ‘Oath of Thessalia’ in order to gain trust as the new Emperor. 

If the members of the Imperial Family made an oath under Thessalia’s name, they had to keep their word no matter what. It was impossible to lie, as the magic of the covenant would be activated the moment such words leave their mouth. 

“If I die…The Emperor will take care of everything on my behalf. He had made an oath guaranteeing the lives of my family, under the name of Thessalia.’

As long as that oath was kept, Atalante would willingly give up her life. 

Atalante picked up Lionel’s sword that fell onto the floor and looked at it with the moonlight.

Perhaps because it was a great sword, under the moonlight, the long sword reflected a blue light as bright as Lionel’s eyes.

As she was a low-born, she lived a life on the edge of humanity while being unable to protect anything precious. However, she was confident that she could live several lives over if she could live like those men that didn’t know their life’s worth. 

As Atalante aimed the sword at herself, she turned her head slowly to look at Lionel. He was like her, living after taking away countless lives.

Perhaps it was because she could oddly relate with him, she felt sorry for the Grand Duke, as he lay under the solitary moonlight. 

“Did you have fun living like that?”

Naturally, no answer came from the dead. How was she able to breathe before? Not only that, the Grand Duke had even overpowered her.

But this time he had died perfectly.

“Let’s meet in hell, Grand Duke Blanc.”

No matter what, our sins would not be washed away even with our deaths.

With a refreshed expression, Atalante was about to stab herself through the chest. 

Just as the sharp edge of the sword was about to cut her flesh, a firm hand emanating an unfamiliar warmth grabbed Atalante’s wrist hurriedly.

“What, what are you doing!”

It was none other than Lionel who stopped that moment from being her last.

At this rate, she felt more annoyed than surprised. Does this man have many lives? Or was it that he had many hidden twin brothers?

“How are you alive again…”

Even before the dejected reprimand squeezed out of her mouth, he hurriedly took the sword from her and threw it onto the floor with an expression of surprise.

“You, why do you have such an expression?”

She couldn’t help but open her lips and ask.

It was because the Grand Duke of Blanc who had revived again, had a completely different expression from when he was making fun of Atalante viciously a few moments prior. 

From the lively blue pupils to the delicately flushed cheeks. Atalante was seized with panic at the villain’s unfamiliar face.

It’s ridiculous, but his face was… like someone that had fallen in love.

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