Chapter 442: Chapter-442
Jiyoung laughed out loud, conceding the point. "Well, whatever. Follow me."
With that, he walked over to a seemingly solid section of the wall near his vanity. He pressed a concealed mechanism, and with a low, heavy rumble, a hidden door slid open, revealing a dark, stone staircase descending straight into the earth.
As he held the passage open for her, he looked at her one last time, his voice dead serious. "Just walk straight ahead. There is a small underground fort down there with a transport horse. With that, you can drive directly toward your destination."
Heena looked back at him, her lips curving into a smooth, effortless smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. "For your help, Master. Consider our transaction officially initiated."
But just as she shifted her weight, about to place her leather-booted foot onto the first damp stone of the descending staircase, Jiyoung’s quiet, smooth voice cut through the shadows, halting her one last time. "Aren’t you even a little worried, My Lady, that I am simply trapping you down there? A hidden tunnel is, after all, the most convenient place in the world to make an annoying noblewoman vanish forever."
Heena didn’t freeze. Instead, she burst into a sudden, loud laugh, looking over her shoulder at him with a gaze full of genuine, unadulterated amusement.
"Well, you certainly could try, boss, but I wouldn’t really lose much, you see," she said, her voice dripping with a casual, dark irony. "My own mother has already tried to orchestrate my demise so many times I’ve honestly lost count. Do you honestly think a little subterranean trap is going to break my stride? Besides, with the political target on my back, do you really think I would survive much longer in this chaotic capital anyway, even if you didn’t take a shot at me tonight?"
She leaned slightly against the stone archway of the precipice, her eyes gleaming with a reckless, sharp wit that made her look entirely at home in the underground king’s domain.
"And secondly... let’s talk logistics. If you decide to murder me down here, that fiercely loyal, terrifyingly unhinged shadow guard of mine waiting right outside your door will completely lose his mind. He will tear this entire establishment apart brick by brick with his bare hands before my grandfather can even mobilize the full, crushing force of the Marquisate’s military. So, look at it this way—if I die today, I am taking twenty to thirty of your absolute most beautiful male courtesans to the grave with me as a funeral escort. Personally, I think that is a spectacular bargain. After all, a woman could do far worse than being buried alongside a collection of the capital’s finest, most handsome men."
Jiyoung stared at her, utterly stunned, the calculated composure of a master information broker completely failing him for a moment. Then, a brilliant, defeated smile broke across his face, his amber eyes shaking with a mix of awe and dark amusement.
"You are a truly hilarious, beautifully psychotic person, My Lady," he murmured, giving her a respectful, shallow bow. "Rest assured... the path is entirely safe. I prefer my brothel standing."
Heena gave him a sharp, parting nod, turned on her heel, and stepped firmly into the pitch-black abyss of the underground highway. The moment her silhouette vanished past the threshold, the heavy stone door slid shut behind her with a definitive, mechanical ’thud’, sealing out the light and locking her into the cool, silent darkness of the tunnel.
The heavy silence of the sealed passage was broken not by a trap, but by a sudden, sharp ’click’ beneath Heena’s boot.
Instantly, a sequence of sparks hissed along the stone walls. One by one, a line of iron torches burst into a bright, flickering orange glow, casting dancing shadows down the deep staircase.
The System, caught entirely off guard, practically flipped upside down in the air. ’[WHOA! Who’s there?! A ghost?! Host, is this place haunted?!]’
’Smack!’
Heena slapped the floating blue screen of the System right where its forehead would be. "You are an idiot. It’s a mechanism."
’[A mechanism?]’ the System rubbed its metaphorical head, whimpering.
"Look closely," Heena said, her voice echoing softly as she began walking down the illuminated steps. "The moment the main door closes, a counterweight shifts. When I took my first step onto this specific stair, it triggered a minor pressure plate. Two flint-coated iron rods strike each other right above a small trough of oil. The friction creates a spark, a small flame takes off, and the vapors ignite the kerosene lines connecting the lamps. It’s a profound, ancient piece of engineering that very few people know how to build anymore. That’s why I always say—humans are fascinating. Their ingenuity is awesome."
The System flickered, processing the data in sheer shock. ’[I... I didn’t know a place like this—a den for underground criminals and lower-class people—could have that kind of advanced engineering. I didn’t think this type of people were capable of it.]’
Heena paused mid-step.
The casual, dark amusement completely vanished from her face. She turned her gaze toward the System, her eyes dropping into a terrifyingly cold, heavy stare. The System froze; it had never heard her tone sound so utterly frigid, radiating an icy pressure that made its code run cold.
"What the hell do you mean by ’’this type of people’’?" Heena asked, her voice dangerously quiet.
’[I... I just meant...]’ the System stammered, floating backward a few inches. ’[They are just smugglers, thieves, and prostitutes...]’
"Listen to me carefully," Heena interrupted, her gaze cutting through the system like a blade. "I don’t care what your idiotic, programmed mind or the fake morals of high society say. The people I respect the most in this world are the sub-people. The ones existing at the absolute bottom."
The System went entirely silent, watching her.
"They are forced to survive in a world that gives them nothing," Heena continued, turning to walk down the steps again, her leather boots clicking rhythmically against the stone. "Even after all the darkness of this world is thrown at them without stopping, even when life treats them like absolute garbage, they still hold onto a raw will to live. Their principles aren’t empty words written in a holy book. They do what they must to survive, but they don’t hide behind hypocrisy."
She glanced back at the screen, her eyes flashing with a deep, searing disdain for the upper class. "It is not the courtesans who are disgusting for selling their bodies. The ones who are truly disgusting are the filthy, high-born nobles who buy them and abuse them. Do you think Gu Jiyoung’s boys are working here because they ’want’ to? Because it’s a fun choice?"
She let out a harsh, bitter breath. "In this cruel era, where orphanages don’t even exist, do you think these boys just walked into a brothel on their own? No. Most of them were sold by their own starving parents just to buy a handful of grain so the rest of the family wouldn’t starve. This work might be viewed as the most degrading thing in the empire, but it gives these abandoned kids a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs, and food to eat when society completely discarded them."
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