Chapter 51: Battle Of Wits

Chapter 51: Battle Of Wits

Are you out of your mind right now?

Damian asked with a raised eyebrow.

Im perfectly sane, thank you for asking.

He huffed incredulously, not denying my claim that he was handsome.

Milady. Do you think Im going to believe you after all you have done?

Why dont we stop the obvious tricks here? Theyre difficult to listen to.

Is that what you really think? If I was going to do so, why would I have come all this way?

To my objection, Damian quietly leaned forward toward me. His angled, sharp eyes, and the emerald-colored irises inside of those eyes seem to be glittering especially brightly in the evening sunset.

The knuckles that supported his chin seemed a lot thinner than I remembered. His bones seemed thicker than in my previous life.

They seemed more like the hands of a pianist than those of someone who wielded a sword. Just how many people did he deceive and lead to their deaths with those hands?

When Damians eyes met my intent stare, he spoke with a small sneer,

Well, then. Milady. Lets hear the important reason why you came all the way here.

The way he crossed his legs as he spoke, and his bored tone were all so incredibly arrogant. So in order to shake off that attitude, I decided to lie.

I came to apologize.

Damians face crumpled at my response, as if he had just heard the despicable.

Are you joking with me right now?

As I expected, what returned was a cold response. An expression of clear disbelief.

A joke? Its nothing of the sort.

I rubbed my arm, making a slightly bitter smile. Damian watched all of my actions with an indifferent face.

Looking at the handsome face that I once loved, I smiled faintly, thinking back to the days when I had truly loved him.

It was an act combined with both truth and lies.

Would you not fall for the act even when it was able to trick my own self?

There has been a time when I was awake all night thinking of Your Grace after all.

There had been a time like that. Those foolish times when I, who fell for you at first sight, followed you around.

But, when Your Grace insulted my younger brother, I became so angry that the words just blurted out of me. I shouldnt have done that, no matter how angry I was.

If its you whom I know, then you should know that what I did was planned. Because youre too smart for your own good.

A late apology.

Damian leaned back as he muttered to himself. Just then, servants pushed carts with platters of food into the room.

Please wait a moment for the table to be set up.

Various sorts of dishes were placed on the table, from steak that still had its juices retained in the tender meat to a salad comprised of fresh vegetables mixed with a fragrant sauce.

When the servants bowed and left the room after finishing their job, Damian extended an arm and encouraged me to eat.

Here, eat as much as you wish.

As soon as I raised my knife and fork after a long moment of hesitation, Damians lips curled up.

Seeing his expression, I put the utensils back on the table. Then, his smile sank back down into a frown.

Why arent you eating? Is the food perhaps not to your taste?The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

No, its nothing like that.

If that isnt so, why not eat? Ive only treated you like you have asked me to.

Then he glared at me with a dissatisfied expression. Taking a glance at the face of the man staring at me with his arms crossed, I asked him,

Wont you be eating with me, Your Grace?

Im not feeling that hungry.

With a calm voice, I raised my head high and answered,

The reason why I didnt eat the food? Your Grace, do you ask that because you really dont know?

Damian flicked up his chin, telling me to continue.

Your Grace has done something to the food.

Oh. Are you accusing me, even after I have treated you to all of this?

As if revealing his confidence, he crookedly curled up his lip.

I was going to cure Your Graces heart disease as a means for our reconciliation, but how could you?

To my small muttering, Damians eyes, which had been consistently indifferent, suddenly shot open.

What did you just say?

Barely managing to hold in the laughter threatening to leak out of my mouth, I asked him like I didnt understand what he was saying.

That Your Grace has poisoned the food?

Not that.

Then what are you

Now leaning completely towards me, Damian grabbed my chin and asked me.

What you have said about curing my heart disease.

Meanwhile, Cassadin was currently conversing in an abandoned building with Kindel.

Well, it was questionable whether it could be called conversing.

Kindels uniform, which had always been neatly ironed, had several missing buttons and seemed nothing more than rags, and there were bright red marks on his wrists where a thick rope constricted them.

Wearing a black robe, Cassadin grabbed the collar of the man kneeling in front of him and murmured ominously,

It will be after the Founding Day when I send you back to your master.

Do you understand?

There was a gag in the old butlers mouth, preventing him from speaking, though he didnt have the strength to speak either. On his way out to uncover Arens weakness under his masters orders, he was struck by something on the back of the head and passed out on the spot.

When he woke up, he was here. For the past two days, Kindel has gotten neither a bit of food nor water.

He had taken the lives of others countless times. There were many times that those who held a grudge attempted to kill him.

But the one who died was always not Kindel, but the opponent who tried to kill him. After all, Damians swordsmanship teacher in his youth was Kindel.

Having innate talent with swordsmanship, his master had surpassed him, his teacher, in the year he had barely turned ten.

So, he didnt hesitate to use this old body for his master. It was the old butlers dream that his master would ascend to the highest throne.

But the man in front of him was as strongno, perhaps even stronger than his master.

The woman called Aren, who managed to take in this monster as her younger brother, was also no ordinary woman.

Kindels uneasy feeling had become a reality. He deeply regretted that he had not stopped his master, even if it meant he would die.

Cassadin untied the gag in Kindels mouth. Glaring up at Cassadin with bloodshot eyes, Kindel spoke.

Do you think that I will speak if you untie my gag? You will learn nothing from me.

I admire your loyalty.

Cassadin smiled faintly. In the evening light, Cassadins small smile seemed to resemble both an angel and a demon. The man with the face of an angel and the actions of the exact opposite.

He rummaged through his black robe, then took out something and dropped it on the ground.

Clack.

Squinting without his glasses, Kindel checked the object that Cassadin had dropped.

It was the small vial of the commoners blood he carried around for his master and his cracked monocle.

At the same time, a cold shiver ran through Kindels spine. A voice that seemed to emanate from the depths of a ravine rang out,

Would your master have also thought that after seeing this?