CH 199

Chapter 199 – Who helped you?

Igor snapped back to the present and clenched his teeth. He didn’t want to remember what had happened later. Just thinking of that made his heart hurt.

“You’ve always been nasty and dishonest. You’ve had a different life this time, but I’m astonished you’ve still changed so little. Had I known you’ve have done something like this, I’d have killed you when I had the chance six years ago.”

“Your Majesty, what…?”

Igor freed himself from her grip, making Leticia fall to the ground. He raised from his seat and approached her. She was shivering from fear on the ground, and Igor simply kept looking at her like a pathetic insect. Only then did she realize he’d had no interest in her all along. No, worse than that. He loathed her.

This was their first meeting, she was sure of that. Then, how could he feel such deep hatred against her?

Igor ducked in front of her. That simple movement froze her to her bones.

“Who saved your life? Who helped you into the palace?” he asked, whispering.

“…”

“If you don’t want to talk, I don’t mind cutting off your fingers one by one.”

Igor looked at Leticia’s body up and down, slowly. That gesture made Leticia realize the hidden real nature of this man. Was he that cruel to Rihannan in private, as well?

His face, which gave off a gentle, kind impression, was nothing but a façade. What hid behind that mask was nothing more than a cruel beast lurking in the shadows. His cold purple eyes filled with ill-will bore into hers.

How could she not see this before?

His face seemed ready to jump on her with sharp fangs and claws, wishing to tear her apart. Leticia was frozen, unable to say anything. Her lips were trembling.

Igor grabbed the knife he had hanging on his hip and fixed his gaze on her. “If you don’t want to talk after I’ve cut off your fingers, I’ll rip your eyes out and pull off your limps, one by one. That useless tongue of yours will be the last to go.”

With a quick movement, he took hold of Leticia’s hand and pinned her to the ground. Before he could stab her finger with his knife, Leticia yelled, horrified.

“Someone working with Count Clovis helped me.”

“Count Clovis?”

Leticia hurriedly nodded her head.

“After saving me from the carriage, he took me elsewhere”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. Someplace completely surrounded with huge trees…”

Holding back her sobs, Leticia kept talking.

“He took me there, and then he told me he’d help me get revenge on the Queen. He’d already had everything prepared for me to stalk into the Palace. So, please, don’t do this to me and go talk with Count Clovis instead. I’m sure he knows everything.”

In truth, Leticia didn’t know anything about that man. Not his name, not even his face.

“I honestly don’t know anything else. I’m saying the truth…”

Leticia sobbed and cried. She was trembling in fear thinking her answer wouldn’t be considered enough and therefore he’d actually cut off her finger this time. Fortunately for her, once Igor let go of her hand, she immediately got away from him by sprinting to the corner of her cell and curling up into a ball.

“…you’d better be telling the truth. If we find out you are lying, I’ll make you experiment exactly what I’ve just said.”

Leticia nodded pitifully with her head. After Igor left her prison, she crumbled to the ground. She realized only then that she’d had been containing her breath all this time.

She realized too late that she should have never laid her hands on him.

***

When Igor left prison, Basil hurried to his side.

“You Majesty, how was your tal-…”

When Basil saw Igor’s expression, his mouth froze. Igor had a visage he’d never seen before in his life. A face void of emotions, with eyes so shadowed they were almost completely dark. Basil felt as though he was seeing someone else’s face.

Basil suddenly realized he had actually seen the same expression in someone else’s face in the past; specifically speaking, the people who’d come back alive from horrible warzones. People who had to cut down others till they didn’t think of them as human beings anymore, but simple pieces of meat, finally losing all vestige of their humanity.

Igor had that expression on his face now. He felt a cold shiver running down his spine.

“Your Majesty?”

Hearing Basil’s voice, Igor blinked very slowly. Little by little, light came back to his eyes.

“Your Majesty… did something happen in there…?”

“No. There’s no need to worry”

His face went back to his old self, so Basil sighed, relieved.

“She said someone working with Count Clovis helped her.”

“Someone working for Count Clovis? So she’s trying to say Count Clovis requested that? But Leticia’s order of arrest was given when the Count was in prison, he didn’t have time to do anything.”

“We have to find that out from now on.”

“Actually, I’d gathered all of Count Clovis’ servants and inquired about the past. They said someone who looked like a mercenary  recently visited Count Clovis’ mansion, so maybe it was him who helped Leticia.”

“A mercenary, uh…”

“If he’s really a mercenary, then he’d have already left long ago. That’s how they would usually operate. We’ll continue investigating, but there won’t be any more immediate threats to the Queen, so you don’t have to worry.”

People only hire mercenaries for two reasons. Either as bodyguards, to protect someone’s life, or to hurt someone else. As soon as they finished their part of the agreement, mercenaries would hide while avoiding being linked to the incident. People who worked only for money would usually behave that way.

“Actually, there’s one more thing I should tell you.”

Basil took something out of his pocket and showed it to Igor. In the palm of his hand, there was a small stone that shone with a white light.

“…this is an Arc Stone”

“This stone was hidden in the wall cracks around the Queen’s quarters.”

Igor’s expression turned stone cold. He knew many things about Arc Stones, so he understood what would happen if they were planted in such places.

“They wanted to plant explosives in the Queen’s Palace? They were aiming at Rihannan?”