Chapter 13 : Chapter 13

Chapter 13

“Grrgh…! Wh-Where is this…? Ugh…! What… what have you done…! You… You! Cain?!”

Owen barely regained consciousness with a pained groan. His eyes trembled with fear.

“M-My body… Why… Why can I not move? Wh-What is this…?”

He was horrified when he realized the state of his paralyzed body.

Owen, still confused, soon discovered me standing before him like a ghost, and his expression grew even more astonished.

Yes, it must have been surprising.

After all, I, whom he had surely believed to be dead, was standing perfectly alive before him.

“What brings you all the way here?”

I hid my emotions as much as possible and asked in a voice as cold as ice.

As if he still had not grasped the situation, Owen snapped back in a voice still full of arrogance and anger.

“What in the world happened? How could you have survived in that Dungeon?”

It seemed he still had no idea what kind of position he was in.

Well, that made sense. He was the kind of man who had lived his entire life looking down on everyone, without ever knowing fear.

That was why he could keep up that insolent attitude even now.

“Is how I survived truly so important right now?”

I let out a sneer and spoke slowly, like a predator standing before its prey.

“What matters is the fact that I am standing here in front of you, perfectly alive. And you, unfortunately for you, have been caught in my grasp. Is that not right? Now then, what do you think I am going to do to you? Hm?”

I asked, filling my voice with a cold Killing Intent.

Only then did Owen seem to realize his situation, and his eyes began to shake anxiously like those of a terrified rat.

“D-Do not tell me…! You are not planning to throw me into a Dungeon, are you? N-No, you cannot. If you do something like that, not only you, but your entire house will pay a terrible price for it. Do you not know who my father is?! Ahem, but if you obediently release Robert and me right now… I will specially pretend that everything that happened here never occurred. So hurry up and release me! Right now!”

He desperately tried to bluff and threaten me.

“Pfft. Do you think I am insane enough to let go of a fish I have already caught? And if I let that guard beside you go, do you think he will simply stay quiet? Your loyal Escort Knight, Robert Stephan. I have already heard the rumors that his skills surpass any knight in our count’s house. And you want me to release a ticking time bomb like that?”

Although this was my first time meeting him in person, I had heard plenty of rumors about Owen’s Escort Knight, Robert.

Robert Stephan.

From childhood, he had displayed an innate talent for swordsmanship, and under the full support of Viscount Bradley Hennes, who had recognized that talent, he had reached the realm of Mid-Level Sword Expert Knight at the young age of twenty.

That had already been ten years ago, so the common assessment was that he must have reached the realm of High-level Sword Expert by now.

Naturally, I could not let such a dangerous existence leave alive.

“If… If Robert is the problem, then release only me. Robert can… simply be left here.”

Owen said, without the slightest hesitation, that he would abandon his loyal guard.

He truly was a disgusting man.

A human scumbag who, if it meant preserving his own life, could discard even the subordinate who had protected him for so many years like an old shoe.

Perhaps this reaction was only natural for him.

Even so, I wondered how Robert felt, hearing those words right beside him.

Should he not at least think a little before speaking?

“You said your name was Robert, correct?”

I turned my gaze to Robert and asked.

“What do you think? As Owen says, are you willing to sacrifice yourself to save that pathetic excuse for a master of yours?”

Robert remained silent for a moment. Then, as though he had resigned himself to everything, he quietly closed his eyes and spoke in a dry voice.

“Kill me, and please spare only Young Master Owen. That will be the final loyalty I can offer as a knight. I will gladly… give my life.”

His voice was calm, but it could not hide the deep sadness, despair, and faint emptiness contained within it.

“Ohh! Robert. As expected, you truly are my loyal knight. A splendid judgment. That is how my knight should be!”

Owen shouted, apparently satisfied with Robert’s answer.

“You are a lonely man without a single blood relative anyway, are you not? I will consider this your proper repayment for the grace our house showed you by taking you in, raising you, and allowing you to learn swordsmanship all these years. So do not feel too wronged. Your death will not be in vain.”

He truly was disgusting to the very end.

Perhaps Robert had already known full well that his master was originally such a person, for he no longer answered at all and merely kept his eyes closed in silence.

Only deep resignation lay over his face like a shadow.

But was this situation not truly absurd?

‘I merely asked because I was curious, yet those fools are putting on an entire performance all by themselves. What a farce.’

A hollow laugh escaped me.

Idiots.

I had not had the slightest intention of sparing them from the very beginning.

“Seirei.”

I called her name in a low voice.

“Yes. Did you call me, My Lord?”

Seirei answered swiftly, as if she had been waiting.

“Kill Robert cleanly and bury him. As for Owen… can you make him lose his mind completely? Like a living corpse.”

I gave the order in a voice as cold as ice.

“Are you saying you want me to turn him into a madman?”

Seirei asked back, her eyes glinting slightly.

For some reason, she seemed to be enjoying this.

“Yes. Is it impossible with your abilities? If you cannot do it, I will hand him over to Sharon beside you.”

I spoke while glancing at Sharon.

Sharon was a Witch well-versed in Cursecraft and Alchemy.

Surely she had at least one terrible and vicious method capable of easily driving a person mad.

When I mentioned Sharon’s name, Seirei suddenly changed her expression and cried out in a panic, like a child in danger of having a cherished toy taken away.

“Ah, no. I can do it more than well enough…….”

Seirei began giving a long speech about how she would destroy Owen’s mind with her abilities.

Every single method was grotesque and terrifying torture.

“Very well. I will leave it to you. Take care of it cleanly and return. Ah, and after playing with Owen for an appropriate amount of time, you can throw him somewhere outside the border of our territory.”

“Yes, understood. I will handle it very cleanly according to your command. My Lord, please do not worry about anything and rest comfortably in the mansion.”

Seirei answered in a voice filled with enthusiasm.

“Good. Sharon, let us go back now.”

Without looking back any further, I left all the cleanup to Seirei and turned my steps toward the mansion.

Behind me, Sharon silently followed without saying a word.

And as soon as we turned and left, Seirei’s cruel torture(?) seemed to begin behind us at once.

But surely that torture was not physical torture. Could it be mental torture through words?

Considering how I could hear Seirei’s distinctive, ceaseless chatter constantly reaching my ears from far behind us, it seemed my ominous premonition might not be wrong.

It might be better to die quickly instead.

* * *

Owen’s sudden disappearance.

For the first few days, Viscount Bradley Hennes was not greatly worried.

After all, his son often went off somewhere to amuse himself without saying a word and failed to return home for days at a time.

However, when an entire week passed after Owen left home and there was still no news from him, anxiety slowly began to sprout in his heart.

This time, he had a strong, ominous feeling that something was strange.

“Is there truly not a single one of you who knows where Owen went? You useless fools!”

In the end, unable to endure it any longer, Viscount Bradley shouted in anger.

At his rage, the retainers held their breath.

However, Owen had never been the type to inform those around him of his destination.

That was due to his extremely selfish and arrogant personality.

Thus, there was no way the retainers of the mansion would know his whereabouts.

Frustrated, Bradley urgently summoned the Escort Knights who had been closest to Owen.

Aside from Robert, who had gone out with Owen, there were two remaining Escort Knights who had stayed behind at the mansion.

However, they, too, knew nothing about Owen’s exact whereabouts.

“Um, Lord Viscount. Perhaps… Young Master Owen may have gone toward the Count’s House of Lake.”

One of the Escort Knights hesitated before cautiously speaking.

At his words, Viscount Bradley’s brow twitched.

“The Count’s House of Lake? Why do you think so? Tell me your reason.”

“The truth is…….”

The Escort Knight hesitated for a moment, but soon told the viscount everything about the events of that day, when Owen and Robert had kidnapped Cain and abandoned him in a Dungeon.

Then he carefully added his own conjecture.

After hearing the entire story, Viscount Bradley’s expression hardened as coldly as ice.

“So what you are saying is that my son Owen tried to kill that good-for-nothing Cain by throwing him into a Dungeon, but for some unknown reason, Cain returned perfectly alive. And Owen, finding that fact strange, may have gone to the Count’s House of Lake to confirm it himself. Is that what you mean?”

“Yes, Lord Viscount. In my humble opinion, that seems the most likely possibility.”

The Escort Knight answered in a trembling voice.

Would he have gone simply to meet him?

Obviously, he would have gone to clean things up—in other words, to silence him.

Viscount Bradley knew better than anyone the cruel and twisted nature his son possessed.

It was certainly a highly plausible guess.

“Understood. You two shall immediately take several hunters skilled in tracking and search every road leading toward the Count’s House of Lake thoroughly. And no matter what means you must use, you will confirm Owen’s life or death without fail. If… If anything has happened to Owen….”

Viscount Bradley finally made his decision.

His voice contained resolute determination.

And from his two eyes, a thick, dark Killing Intent was pouring out ominously.