Chapter 4.
— — —
With a sense of tension that awakened every nerve in my body, I gripped my dagger tightly.
I rose from the bed without a sound and walked toward the door.
I even suppressed the sound of my own breathing.
*Creak, creak.*
The footsteps were heading precisely toward my door, drawing closer with every second.
*Thump, thump.*
Someone knocked on the door with their fist.
"Rookie."
It was Jake’s voice.
"……Yes, sir."
But I couldn't let my guard down.
I pressed my body even closer against the wall near the door.
"Orders to assemble. Change your clothes and come out immediately."
Jake spoke briefly in a hurried tone before moving on to knock on the door of the next room.
Before long, footsteps began to echo sporadically from all around, as if everyone on the floor was waking from their sleep.
"Whew."
I guess it’s real.
I activated the artifact, changed into my clothes as Runelk Ains, and headed to the assembly point.
"What’s going on?"
"I don't know. They said there’s an emergency meeting in the main building and told us to stand guard in the hallways."
"An emergency meeting?"
The 13th Task Force, including myself, arrived at the third floor of the main building, where the grand conference room and the Duke’s office were located.
The meeting must have already begun, as other task force members who had arrived earlier were already standing guard in the dim, chilly hallway outside the conference room.
"You, here."
Jake, his voice lowered to a whisper, positioned me right in front of the conference room door.
Why here of all places?
I frowned to protest, but Jake silenced me with a sharp look.
It was obvious he was dumping the post on me because he was scared to stand there himself.
How cheap, how truly cheap.
I had no choice but to guard the side of the door while observing the complexions of those who had arrived before us.
Whatever had happened, they were terrified.
It was a bad omen.
An emergency meeting in the middle of the night and the panicked faces of the organization members.
'What on earth is happening in there?'
But the heavy, tightly shut doors of the conference room were far too soundproof.
Some time passed, and just as my tension began to wane, the conference room door opened without a sound.
However, what stimulated my senses even before the fact that the door had opened was the pungent, metallic smell that pierced my nostrils.
'The smell of blood.'
It was a scent of blood all too familiar to me, yet just as repulsive, wafting through the gap in the open door.
Then, a man appeared.
With his tall stature, wavy brown hair tied back high, sharp eyes hiding dark green pupils behind glasses, and a cold, tightly pressed mouth.
'Dupon Clansher, the right hand of Duke Killian Nox.'
I had seen him many times on paper while in the Wickers intelligence unit, but this was my first time facing him in person.
Without realizing it, I looked up directly at Dupon Clansher.
That was my mistake.
"You."
Dupon Clansher, having locked eyes with me, flicked his finger.
"M-me?"
As I stupidly asked back, one of his handsome eyebrows arched upward.
"Follow me."
Ah, I have a bad feeling about this.
I had no choice but to lower my head slightly and follow behind Dupon Clansher.
The moment I fully entered the conference room.
"Hah."
I reflexively held my breath.
The room was packed with people wearing the Nox uniform.
Organization members stood against the walls of the massive conference room, while high-ranking officials sat along a long table.
And even the executives were seated in armchairs arranged in a circular formation at the very front.
For an ordinary person, the overwhelming pressure filling the room would have been enough to make their legs give out and collapse the moment they stepped inside.
But that wasn't why I had gasped in shock.
'It’s not just one person's worth.'
I should have noticed sooner.
The smell of blood filling the room was incredibly thick.
It was a concentration that could not have been produced by the blood of a single person.
I pretended to cover my mouth while quickly scanning the interior of the room.
There were about 300 organization members inside the grand conference room.
That was only a small fraction compared to the total scale of Nox.
If so, these must surely be the elites of Nox.
What reason could there be for all of them to be gathered at this late hour?
The pale, white faces of the people by the walls and tables were all looking in one direction.
'Is it over there?'
I followed their gaze to examine the executives.
There were seven people known as the 'executives' of Nox.
Although it was my first time seeing them in person, I had been consistently gathering information on them while at Wickers, so they felt as familiar as neighbors I had known for a long time.
The executives, sitting in various postures in their armchairs, all hailed from vassal families that had pledged loyalty to Nox for generations.
And right now, three of those seats were empty.
'One seat is for Dupon Clansher, who came out to call for someone, and another must be for that child.'
I had already heard that 'that child,' the captain of the personal guard, had been away from the capital for several months.
'The remaining seat is…… Grayer Nox, I believe.'
As the surname Nox suggests, unlike the other executives, Grayer Nox was from the ducal family, not a vassal house.
He was even a cousin of Killian Nox and had been in charge of the intelligence department since the previous Duke’s time.
I was wondering why the face of that stupid old man, who had clashed with me the most, was missing, when it happened.
In the darkness, a figure in a Nox uniform slowly stood up.
No.
It wasn't of his own volition; someone had grabbed him by the throat and was lifting him into the air.
He struggled, his feet unable to touch the ground, but it seemed insufficient to escape the grip of the one holding him.
"P-please, spare…… Gack!"
*Snap!*
Before he could even finish his desperate plea, the sound of flesh and bone being crushed echoed through the room.
His neck snapped like a clay doll, and he met his end, but the ordeal did not stop there.
*Splat!*
The severed head rolled across the floor, and a red rain fell within the conference room.
Beyond the body that had collapsed like a sack of luggage with a thud, I saw another person kneeling in the center where the executives were gathered.
'……Grayer Nox.'
He was the owner of the last empty executive seat.
"I, I am sorry, Your Excellency. I have no excuse, please, I beg for mercy……."
And the one looking down at Grayer Nox, who was trembling and begging for mercy after having torn a man’s throat out with one hand, was.
"Hey."
Suddenly, my vision was blocked by darkness.
No, Dupon Clansher had stepped in front of me.
Because of the height difference, I had momentarily mistaken the darkness for my vision going black.
"Go and prepare a bath."
"A bath…… water?"
What is he talking about so suddenly?
"Are you a rookie?"
Dupon Clansher, frowning with a displeased look, pointed to a door attached to one of the walls of the conference room.
"There is a bathroom connected to the Duke’s office. Draw a bath."
But there are hundreds of employees working in this mansion!
Calling someone out in the middle of the night!
It was dirty and cheap, but Dupon Clansher was the second-in-command of Nox.
He was a man who could cast out a low-level member like me with a single flick of his finger.
And I was not in a position to be kicked out of Nox.
Damn it.
Why are my bad premonitions never wrong?
I had just lifted my foot to head where Dupon Clansher had pointed when.
"The intelligence department’s blunder……."
"According to the spy, it was going to be anyway……."
The fragmented conversations of those whispering against the wall flew into my ears.
"Ah."
Intelligence department. Spy.
There were only two words worth catching, but that was enough.
*Grind.*
I gritted my teeth and rushed into Killian Nox’s office.
Without even a moment to look around the space, I found the bathroom and turned on the hot water, letting it gush out.
"This should do it, right?"
I could see my hand trembling as I gripped the edge of the bathtub.
That man who had his throat torn out while wearing his uniform.
"A spy……. It was a spy."
It was no wonder Grayer Nox was trembling so much, begging Killian Nox for mercy.
It was the job of the intelligence department to ensure no spies infiltrated Nox.
But it must have been that Killian had personally rooted out the spy that Grayer Nox had missed.
Grayer Nox was the person I knew best among the seven executives.
He was the intelligence officer of Nox who had waged a spy war against me when I was at Wickers.
He was a rival who wasn't too difficult to deal with, being moderately incompetent and moderately lazy.
It wasn't surprising that he missed a spy with that level of skill.
No, that wasn't it.
My mind, tangled like a mess of yarn, was filled only with the horrific sight of the spy being torn in two just moments ago.
"If you get caught, that’s what happens."
Killian Nox’s chilling, infamous reputation was certainly no lie.
Perhaps Wickers had been much more humane compared to Nox.
"I must never cross paths with him."
I might be able to deceive the eyes of the intelligence department overseen by Grayer Nox, but I might not be able to deceive Killian Nox.
But unfortunately, I had to finish the task Dupon Clansher had given me before I could run.
'Oh, to hell with it.'
*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!*
To get out of here as quickly as possible, I turned on the cold water as well.
Why did the bathtub have to be so unnecessarily large!
"Done!"
After waiting while my toes shivered, I shut off both faucets as soon as the water had filled enough.
I can leave now, right?
I swallowed a sigh of relief and was just about to take a step.
*Bang!*
The heavy bathroom door opened as easily as a sheet of paper, and a man stepped inside.
*Thud, thud.*
I watched his feet, which left red bloodstains with every step, and then, feeling a sharp murderous intent, I looked up involuntarily.
And I locked eyes with a pair of golden pupils.
'It’s Killian Nox.'
Ah, so that’s why they said he was a descendant of a dragon.
More than human eyes, his pupils, which were vertically slit like a dragon’s, and his bright golden irises seemed to pierce right through me.
'They say if you look into Killian Nox’s eyes, you turn to stone.'
It was something I had heard once, like a joke.
I needed to move.
I needed to lower my head, quickly.
But my body wouldn't listen to me.
I couldn't even turn my gaze away, as if it had been taken prisoner.
Shining silver hair like a blade honed with painstaking care, and straight eyebrows.
Beneath them, I saw deep-set eyes and a sharp, prominent nose.
The blood splattered across his well-shaped lips and skin, white and smooth as porcelain, looked strangely obscene.
And his slightly disheveled hair and collar exuded an arrogant, decadent beauty.
When I was working at Wickers and gathering information on Killian Nox, the word that appeared most often was "insane."
I had thought that meant Killian Nox was truly a madman.
But perhaps it actually meant his beauty was insane.
Such an absurd thought bloomed in my dazed mind.
Thud, thud.
"……Hah."
As Killian Nox moved past me, resuming the steps he had briefly paused, my constricted throat finally opened.
Once I was able to gasp, however ungracefully, my mind cleared again.
'I have to get out of here right now.'
Driven by that single thought, I walked with my presence suppressed as much as possible.
With every step, my heart felt like it would burst from the tension.
Just as I was about to cross the threshold of the bathroom.
I felt a chill run down the back of my neck, exposed by my short hair.
Then, a low voice, languid yet laced with a metallic rasp, called out to me.
"You there."
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