Chapter 5
Deyan’s eyes trembled slightly.
"Perhaps the culprit is someone from Adorif."
He parted his frozen lips, seemingly searching for words, before eventually bowing his head low.
It was a strange sensation, looking down at the crown of a tall man’s head from above.
Standing like this, I felt as if I had become a conqueror who had brought this man to his knees before me.
'That will happen soon enough.'
I let out a soft chuckle.
"For the record, I’m telling you this because I have no intention of letting you go anyway."
"What do you intend to do with me?"
"If anyone heard you, they’d think I was a scoundrel trampling on your pure heart."
It was a line ill-suited for an Immortal, and I couldn't help but giggle.
"Still, out of respect for your status, I won't lock you in the dungeon."
Deyan Vojislav Nemanjić would be processed as missing after a failed mission.
The evidence proving his death would be the massive amount of blood scattered in the forest. Everyone would implicitly accept his death and stop searching.
If I needed a corpse, I could fake one easily enough.
"Because you are the sacrifice for my great undertaking."
The moment the Immortal stepped onto the soil of the Grand Duchy of Plene, he was already dead.
"So, you might as well give up early."
"You don't know the true terror of a demon at all, Grand Duchess."
He, who had been quiet the whole time, spoke in a low voice.
He clenched his hands—fingers missing their nails—tightly and spat out the words slowly.
"And you do?"
"I have been cursed by a demon."
I placed my hand over his clenched fist and asked with a smiling face.
"So, you’re saying you know how to summon a demon?"
"……."
"I won't press you. You don't look like you’d tell me right now anyway."
I pried Deyan’s fist open and placed a glass bottle on his palm.
"You will regret this."
"If you happen to change your mind, use this. Now, get some rest."
Ignoring Deyan’s warning, I turned away.
Isn't there a saying that the more urgent things are, the more you should take your time? Now was the time to catch my breath.
If only to ensure I could claim Deyan Vojislav Nemanjić more securely.
* * *
Deyan sat alone on the edge of the bed, ruminating on Idir.
'She’s no ordinary woman.'
She wore a smile plastered all over her face while her eyes shone with a chilling light.
Watching her composure and extraordinary deductive power, as if she were peering straight into someone’s mind, sent shivers down his spine.
'If I had let my guard down, I would have been dead already.'
Deyan rubbed the back of his neck and swallowed a sigh.
The threat disguised as an offer she had left behind echoed in his head repeatedly.
She had given up and left for today, but this was the heart of enemy territory anyway. If Idir set her mind to it, she could harm Deyan at any time, as much as she wanted.
Regardless of the aftermath that would follow.
'She’s probably already devising a plan for when I go berserk.'
Deyan suddenly realized he had become accustomed to being treated like a dangerous beast.
'It’s not like she’s wrong.'
With a self-deprecating laugh, he stood up.
Whatever the situation, his top priority was to return to his own territory.
'Reporting me to the temple must have been a simple bluff.'
If it became known that Idir had attempted to summon a demon, she would be in trouble as well.
Then, how much of what Idir said could he actually believe?
Deyan chewed over their conversation.
"I will pray for the power to take revenge."
He could believe this. No, he had no choice but to believe it.
Because the cold fury flickering beneath her calm, green eyes—which hadn't wavered once—was pouring out the truth.
'Perhaps it’s related.'
He needed to look into the case of the Grand Duchess’s murder.
Deyan watched the guards patrolling outside. They were moving in pairs, circling the building at a steady pace.
When he opened the window slightly, it swung wide open without resistance.
He waited for a moment when the guards were out of sight and pulled his upper body out.
'This is enough.'
The structure was such that as soon as it got dark, he could easily climb the wall and reach the roof.
Having roughly grasped his surroundings, Deyan waited for nightfall to attempt his escape.
He jammed his fingers firmly into the crevices of the building’s exterior wall and began to scale it rapidly.
*Thud.* It took less than ten minutes for him to hook his hands onto the roof.
His movements were so stealthy that no one had spotted him.
Except for one person.
"Just as the Grand Duchess expected."
The female knight was standing there with a haughty posture, her sword pointed at the tip of his nose, as if she had known Deyan would come.
Deyan let out a dry laugh.
"Ha. I fell for a shallow trick."
"Cease your resistance, Sir Deyan Vojislav Nemanjić."
Giselle spat out coldly.
"We have your adjutant held hostage."
"……."
No wonder he had escaped so easily.
'I overlooked the fact that he’s a man who invites disaster with his mouth.'
He must have blabbered and revealed their location himself.
"If you do not believe me, you may proceed with your escape."
"……."
"But in return, Sir Glay Holdin’s fingers will be delivered to your residence."
"It would have been faster to torture him for information than to torture me. Why didn't you do that?"
"It was the Grand Duchess’s instruction."
"……?"
"The Grand Duchess dislikes wasting time on unnecessary things."
'So she intends to focus exclusively on breaking me.'
Deyan cursed inwardly and slowly raised both hands to the sides of his head.
Just as Giselle’s sword tip began to loosen at his gesture of surrender, he struck both sides of the blade with his palms.
With a sharp, metallic *ping* that pulled at the air, the silver blade snapped and spun through the air.
He had expected her to be flustered, but Giselle didn't show a single change in expression. She lowered her stance, drew another sword from her waist, and swung.
"Ugh!"
Deyan was nearly caught off guard by Giselle’s calm and swift response.
A small scratch appeared where the blade had narrowly grazed him.
The wound healed the moment a drop of blood formed, but his body was boiling over regardless.
Giselle didn't miss his opening. With a fluid motion, she rotated her upper body and struck precisely at Deyan’s vitals.
'This isn't a move to subdue me...!'
It seemed Idir had given her permission to kill him.
"Didn't you need my blood?"
"I don't need your life."
"If you kill me..."
"We have already prepared countermeasures."
"……!"
What on earth was Idir thinking? One moment she acted as if she would keep him locked up forever, and now she was trying to kill him.
At this point, he even doubted Holdin’s survival.
"Where is my adjutant?"
"……."
Giselle did not answer.
She simply unleashed a fierce attack toward Deyan.
Deyan hurriedly ducked his upper body.
*Scritch-scratch.* His feet slipped, and the building materials covering the roof rang out like an old instrument.
"Giselle! What’s the situation?"
It was then. Idir’s singing voice drifted up from below the building.
"As you instructed."
"Mmph!"
Another familiar voice was faintly mixed in with the noise.
Deyan hurriedly leaned his head over the edge of the roof. Sure enough, Idir was holding Holdin by his hair.
When their eyes met, she smiled brightly and waved her hand languidly.
"Good evening, Sir Nemanjić."
"……Grand Duchess."
Deyan muttered like a groan.
In the meantime, Giselle, who had easily taken his back, pressed her blade tightly against Deyan’s neck.
It was a distance so precarious that even the slightest movement would slice his skin.
"Did I mention I had a hostage?"
Idir asked innocently.
Her expression and voice were so naive that a stranger might have thought she was asking him to come play.
"I’m thinking of putting the hostage to good use starting now. What do you think?"
"Mmmph! Mmmph!"
"Haa."
Holdin, gagged, struggled. But Idir only gripped his hair more tightly.
Holdin looked up at him with eyes filled with terror.
'It’s not just a bluff.'
To Idir, Holdin was nothing more or less than the value of a hostage.
"……I will come down now."
In the end, Deyan surrendered to her. And he was reduced to the fate of being locked in the dungeon alongside Holdin.
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