Chapter 441: Chapter-441
She leaned in, her eyes gleaming with absolute certainty. "Let me use your tunnel tonight. In exchange, I won’t just tell you exactly where your missing boys are being kept—I will use the entire military might of the Marquisate to bring them home and ensure no one ever touches them again."
Jiyoung’s posture shattered as he burst into a sudden, loud laugh, the sound echoing hollowly against the silk drapes. "Oh my God... My Lady, do you really think I am such a pathetic fool?"
But as the laughter left his lips, a raw, suffocating wave of pain slashed violently through his amber eyes. His mask completely fell away, leaving his voice trembling with a dark, heavy grief. "All of my boys... they are already dead. Do you really think I don’t know that? Do you think I haven’t tracked their fates?"
Heena looked down at him, her expression entirely unmoving. "Are you sure?"
It wasn’t a question. The tone of her voice, the steady, calculating look in her eyes—it was a direct, mocking challenge to his absolute certainty.
Jiyoung paused. The raw grief in his chest caught in his throat as he stared up at her, his mind suddenly stumbling over her absolute confidence. "What... what do you mean by that?"
"Just as the question suggests," Heena said, her voice dropping into a cool, precise deadpan. "I am asking if you are ’actually’ sure that your boys are dead, or if you are simply speculating because a few mangled bodies were dropped back at your doorstep?"
’BANG!’
Jiyoung abruptly stood up, his palm slamming onto the wooden tea table with enough force to rattle the porcelain cups. "Of course I know my boys are dead!" he hissed, his composure entirely unravelling. "I have seen their bodies with my own eyes!"
"Sit down," Heena countered smoothly, her gaze cutting through his outburst. "And answer me accurately. Did you see their ’bodies’, Gu Jiyoung... or did you see their ’faces’?"
Jiyoung opened his mouth to fire back a furious retort, but the words instantly died on his tongue. He froze, his mind violently racing backward to the dark, damp alleyways and hidden morgues where those corpses had been delivered.
He remembered the horrific sight. He remembered the stomach-turning reality that every single body returned to him had its face deeply, systematically scarred—slashed and mutilated beyond all physical recognition. He hadn’t been able to identify a single feature. But... there had been specific tattoos, hidden branding symbols, and scars on the torsos and wrists that belonged ’only’ to the boys raised in his brothel. He had known it was them because of those marks.
Gritting his teeth, Jiyoung glared at her, trying to force the trembling out of his hands. "I don’t care what kind of sick, psychological nonsense you are trying to spin right now, My Lady. My boys are dead. The marks on their skin proved it. That is the absolute truth."
Heena let out a long, slow sigh, brushing her leather gloves off as she stood up from her chair.
"Well, it’s your grief and your perspective. I can’t force you to see what’s right in front of you," she said, her voice entirely casual as she turned toward the door. "But I will leave you with just one final thought before I walk out of here."
She paused, looking back over her shoulder, her eyes flashing with a terrifying, absolute certainty.
"Your boys are still breathing, Jiyoung. The high-ranking nobles buying them are twisted, yes, but they are using them for a much larger, darker operational network. So ask yourself one last time before you keep mourning... are you truly, one hundred percent sure that the flesh you buried actually belonged to your boys, or did you just bury a collection of stolen skin and carefully replicated tattoos?"
With that, Heena walked toward the heavy wooden door, her steps steady and entirely devoid of worry.
In her mind, the System was practically short-circuiting. ’[Host! What are we doing? Why are we just leaving?! If your words didn’t make him cooperative, how are we supposed to reach the convoy in time? You know that if we lose track of the Regressor this time, we might never catch him again! Why did you waste so much time here if we’re just going to lose the target?!]’
Heena didn’t even blink, replying coldly in her mind, ’System, how many times have I told you never to judge a book by its cover? Do you truly think this negotiation is over? Just wait and watch.’
’[What do you mean wait and watch?]’ the System fretted. ’[He isn’t saying anything! He’s just letting you walk out!]’
Heena mentally chuckled. She reached out, her fingers wrapping around the brass doorknob. She twisted it, pulling the door open just an inch.
"Wait."
The low, strained voice cut through the silence of the room.
Heena paused, a victorious smirk flashing across her face. ’Gotcha,’ she thought to the System.
Brushing all smugness from her expression, she turned back around with perfect, calm composure. "What? Do you have something else to say, boss?"
Jiyoung stared at her, his hands still tightly clenched, his eyes burning with a desperate, agonizing hope. "Are you... are you one hundred percent sure that you can bring my boys back safely?"
Heena looked at him, completely unbothered, and nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders. "Definitely not."
Inside her head, the System absolutely lost its mind. ’[HOST?! Are you crazy?! Why on earth would you say no?! Can’t you just say yes?! Why the heck did you reject him?!]’
Jiyoung’s face dropped, a sudden rush of frustration making him take a step forward. "What do you mean ’definitely not’?! You just said a moment ago that you could save them!"
"Sir, first correct your own phrasing," Heena corrected smoothly, raising a finger. "I said I ’can’ save them, but I am not one hundred percent sure that I will succeed. No businessman guarantees an absolute certainty in a rescue mission. However... what I ’can’ give you a one hundred percent guarantee on, is that your boys are currently alive right now."
Jiyoung stared at her for a long, heavy beat. Then, he let out a sudden, breathless sigh that quickly gave way to a loud, genuine laugh. "You... you are a truly terrifying, interesting person, My Lady."
"Flattery will get you everywhere," Heena countered sharply, checking her nails. "But right now, can I finally use the hidden tunnel? As you can see, I am in an extreme rush."
Jiyoung nodded, his posture finally relaxing as he accepted the terms of their unspoken contract. "Fine. You may use it." He then gestured vaguely toward the closed door. "Oh, and by the way... you might want to call off that guard of yours outside. He is radiating a literal aura of pure, suffocating bloodlust. My clients are terrified."
Heena sighed, waving her hand dismissively. "Ah, just let him be. You know how it is... sometimes men have issues processing their emotions while on the clock."
Jiyoung stared at her, a dry, amused smile touching his lips. "You are truly cold-blooded, aren’t you?"
"Are ’you’ really the one saying that to me?" Heena shot back with a raised eyebrow.
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