Chapter 93: [Chapter 093] I don't want to be friends
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The reason I stayed behind in the Duke's residence, even without Noah or Vivian, was simple. It was because I deliberately followed Epero and Victor to the welcome ceremony and needlessly provoked Doris by mentioning that I had become the Crown Prince's advisor. I hadn't found Doris's person yet. The butler, Gaspard, is the Crown Prince's man. The maid, Annie, is a minion of Duke Castagna. Doris's person? I had to provoke Doris to reveal their identity. Though I was surprised by the sudden attack, it was as if I had finally met the head of the devils in the Duke's residence.
"...Laughing?"
Her already wrinkled face crumpled in disbelief. As Sophie straightened up from her stooped posture, Yona let out a low scream. When Sophie checked my face, she no longer looked like a weak old woman on the verge of death. She was still short, but when she straightened her hunched back, she became almost as tall as Magi.
"Oh my goodness!"
Magi took a step back in shock. Her hair was a strange mix of blond and brown, and her black eyes shone. Her wrinkled face remained the same, but she no longer looked sickly. The woman smiled amusedly and gestured to one of the men. A man with a few missing teeth, whose appearance was even more terrifying, immediately cut the rope that had been tied around my ankles and dress like a sack. My legs, which had been numb from lack of blood, throbbed as if screaming. As the sinister gazes lingered on my ankles, Yona quickly covered them with her skirt.
"Blier, please... I'll untie the ropes."
As the laughter grew louder at the sight of my pained expression, Yona whispered quickly. How was she going to untie them? With so many people around, what was she going to do...? Instead of adding more words, Yona stepped back behind me, her expression filled with fear, and hid her body. At the same time, Sophie smiled softly and threw off the robe she was wearing. She was wearing a leather belt with several daggers tucked into it, and in her hand was a sword similar to the ones the surrounding men were carrying.
"You little fox, daring to upset such a noble person, you should pay with your life."
It wasn't the wheezing voice I knew. It was a witch-like voice, deep and eerie, as if coming from deep within a mountain, or even deeper, a cave. One of the men nearby roughly untied the knot of the gag behind my head. I pushed my parched lips together and staggered to my feet. As I stood up, I felt a strange sensation as if the ropes tied around my wrists behind my back had been loosened. Yona stood right behind me, acting as if nothing had happened.
"It's laughable to hear you say that when there's no one here higher than me."
"You impudent girl."
My throat felt so dry, it felt like it would tear. As soon as I spoke, an insult came flying back.
"Did Doris Castagna order you to kill me?"
Sophie's eyes widened. For some reason, I felt a sense of disappointment at her expression. I had stationed Magi, Yona, and Mary, the three maids, in the Duke's residence to keep an eye on the servants. Those who didn't know the situation would think that I was alone in the Duke's residence, wreaking havoc and replacing the servants one by one. But that wasn't the case. I had simply sent away those who were least likely to be Doris's people. No one paid any attention to the nominal head maid who always stayed locked in her room. I was the same way.
"How dare a lowly creature like you use the noble lady's name so casually..."
"It seems Doris was in a hurry."
Doris had moved faster than I thought. I heard from Noura that today was the day of her wedding to Bardenaldo, and I thought she would be too busy preparing for the Emperor's birthday celebration.
"As you said, a lowly creature like me has risen to this position, so I've always been on guard."
"What?"
It was a blatant lie. The only thing I could believe was that Neil, arriving late at the count's residence and finding I was gone, would follow the tracks of the broken carriage here, or go to the Duke's residence and, upon noticing my absence, search the surroundings.
"I mean that knowing Doris would come here, I've taken measures to ensure that if I were to die or disappear, Doris would be suspected. She's probably searching for me right now."
"Nonsense! Don't lie!"
"Impudence!"
The shrill scream didn't come from me. Surprisingly, it was Magi who blocked Sophie's path as she approached with a gleaming blade.
"...Magi?"
Magi stood firmly in front of me, trembling.
"Even if you couldn't become the Duchess! You're someone I've served and might continue to serve! How could you do this? What has Madam ever done to you? Even though His Grace banished you to the frontier for wasting food in the Duke's residence, he didn't expel you, he respected you! How dare you... how dare you..."
Ah, Magi! Everyone else was mocking Magi's every word, but I wasn't.
"Don't do anything you'll regret, and get out of here! Don't touch a hair on Madam's head!"
Her warning, shouted in fear, was both pitiful and incredibly moving. The pale-faced middle-aged maid stood there, her eyes bloodshot, barehanded against the armed woman.
I had never seen Magi look so big. It was especially poignant because she was one of the maids who had initially treated me like a crazy person. The thought that I might lose the precious people I had gained in this body just because of a foolish provocation quickly dissipated from my mind. I didn't want to lose them. My heart pounded rapidly. I had always been surprised by Blier's good health since entering this body, but this was the first time I had felt such a strange excitement that my hands were trembling. My eyes kept being drawn to the daggers hanging from Sophie's waist.
"Easy now, Blier..."
Yona's voice, as light as the wind, pulled my confidence back up and made my blood boil. It was strange.
"Get out of the way, you lowly creature."
Sophie spat out the words coldly and pushed Magi aside, quickly approaching me. It was clear that the aged woman had once been an active assassin. Her eyes, filled with killing intent, were difficult for a normal person to look at. The sharp, honed blade rushed towards me. And then a miracle happened. As I heard the screeching sound of metal on metal, I felt a thrill rather than a shiver.
"This..."
Was it because the old woman wasn't strong enough, or was it because Blier's extraordinary health was unusually strong today? I quickly dodged to the side and, miraculously, my hand reached out and grabbed a dagger from Sophie's waist, facing the gleaming sword. And more than that, as if my body remembered, my hand holding the dagger stabbed into the old woman's hand without hesitation, and then aimed for her neck. Everything happened in an instant, just like instinctively dodging a rushing carriage. It was a completely natural and reflexive action. The old woman's eyes widened in pain. At the same time, the hand that wasn't holding the dagger grabbed Sophie by the collar, and the dagger was pressed against her throat. The situation had reversed in an instant.
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"You're the one who's going to die."
I said coldly, looking into the old woman's eyes, but my heart was pounding. It was strange.
'Blier, what are you doing?'
The other men, who had not drawn their swords, also immediately assumed a battle stance. Strangely, instead of being scared, I felt a strange confidence that I could easily defeat a few of them, if only Magi and Yona weren't here. That's when it happened. A slight vibration could be felt in the warehouse where only a small amount of light was filtering in. The sound, in this tense situation, made everyone's nerves raw.
"Someone's coming. We don't have time to waste. Kill the woman, and the head maid too."
"What, what?!"
Just as Sophie's startled voice rang out, a loud crash echoed and a cold winter wind swept through the warehouse. The men who had been approaching me with cruel expressions, as well as my own, turned pale. Someone had stood with their back to the moonlight and kicked down the heavy wooden door with a single kick.
"Adrien!"
It was Roardnes.
****
Roardnes let out a silent scream as he looked at the shattered carriage wheels and the knights, barely alive, writhing on the ground.
"I'm your friend too, you know. You don't even use your perfectly good friends, and you keep making new ones. It makes me angry."
His restless hand roughly wiped across his completely bloodless face.
"You crazy bastard."
"Friend, fine. Knowing the truth is fine too. It's good that we're friends, damn it, no matter what happens to us. But... today is a bit hard."
"You can't be satisfied with just one..."
The unease that boiled up in his dantian erupted like a volcano as he poured the emotion of regret into it. He wanted to throw all the words he had uttered just a few hours ago into the trash.
"I shouldn't have said those things..."
The image of her face, lost for what to do to comfort him, made his head spin. A terrible self-loathing consumed his entire body. When he finally found the search party and discovered countless hoofprints, his heart was on the verge of stopping.
"Your Highness, Your Highness! We don't know how many of them there are, so please don't go ahead so recklessly!!"
He remembered the people who had left similar traces when they investigated the disappearance of Baroness Kuroseda. Wasn't Baroness Kuroseda considered dead?
"Am I really your friend?"
Recalling the last conversation he had with Adrien, he could no longer control himself.
****
In the warehouse filled with a murderous aura, Roardnes's gaze was fixed on me. Initially, his eyes revealed a relief bordering on ecstasy, followed by a clear anger. For someone who had just found the person they were looking for, his eyes held an eerie chill. His gaze slowly moved from my mouth, which clearly showed signs of having been gagged, to my white wrists, marked with the traces of bindings. Naturally, even before his knights arrived in a noisy procession, he trampled the man closest to me and crushed his face with his bare hands. He didn't even draw his sword. Both I and the men immediately recognized the identity of the man with the gleaming eyes in the darkness. There was no way they could face someone who had survived dozens of monsters alone. Seeing those who had lost their will to fight being crushed with bare hands before even drawing their swords, the others panicked and fled out of the warehouse. Even they would be suppressed by the knights who were chasing after them.
Having dealt with the few who had failed to escape, Roardnes lifted Sophie, whose head he had been holding, with one hand and tossed her aside like trash. My hand, which had been trembling but still gripping the dagger tightly, was immediately enveloped by his rough hand. With a clang, the dagger fell to the ground, and my tense body collapsed. With my back to the light, I couldn't see his face clearly. However, I was pulled into his arms so tightly that I couldn't breathe.
"Adrien, Adrien..."
As I smelled the mixture of alcohol, sweat, and the lavender scent that always clung to him, I was finally able to relax my body.
"I messed up everything."
A rough, low voice, as if it had been completely worn out, sighed.
"I shouldn't have said those things to you... I should have brought you back to the mansion..."
Roardnes, who had pulled my collapsed body into his lap, was trembling much more than I, who had just suffered such a terrible ordeal.
"Because of me..."
It's not your fault. I knew Doris would move at some point. This was a trap I set. I just didn't expect her people to reveal their identities in such a violent way. It's just that the timing was a bit earlier.
"Roa..."
My throat felt so tight that I had to pause for a moment.
"So I can't stand it anymore."
Was it because I was being held so tightly that I couldn't breathe? No matter how hard I tried to push him away, his firm and trembling chest wouldn't budge. He was like a swamp that pulled me in deeper the more I tried to escape.
"I won't be your friend."
I stopped struggling in his arms. His sudden declaration shocked me. It sounded good, but when I thought about Roardnes, who had been angry at me just a few hours ago, it didn't feel right. My heart ached, and even though I was in his warm embrace, I felt a sudden chill. A growl, similar to that of a wounded beast, seeped into my ears.
"I won't be your friend anymore. I don't want to be."
I froze. When I met his bloodshot eyes, it seemed that his declaration wasn't meant to express disappointment but something else.
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