After seeing Tina’s handwriting, my rationality crumbled without a trace.
What filled my mind were countless questions, along with the chaos that had invaded my heart.
Why did Tina do such a thing to me?
Could it be revenge for the attempted assault the other day?
I thought I had been forgiven, but did she harbor resentment from that day until now?
I simply couldn’t comprehend it. Everything seemed entangled in mystery.
I had no choice but to confirm it myself.
Mardian raised her head with a chillingly bright gaze.
As if the weather had synced with my feelings, the sky was draped in gray while rain violently poured down.
Mardian pulled her hood and cloak deeper over her head and moved forward.
Before her stood a shabby tavern.
All the lights were extinguished after operating hours, and it lay shrouded in darkness.
However, it was no ordinary tavern.
It was the Camilia Gambling Den, secretly run by the Count Abreldine family. One of the underworld places where those addicted to gambling and drugs gathered.
With trembling hands, I opened the door to the gambling den.
Inside, nearly invisible due to the darkness, the only thing that shone was her white hair.
“Ah, you’ve come, Mardian.”
She faced Mardian with a smile that was chillingly bright.
Once her blue eyes had looked so lovely, but now they felt colorless, devoid of any emotion.
“Tina, explain yourself. Before my patience runs out.”
Mardian clenched her fists and glared at her intensely.
Tina, languidly seated on a tavern chair and twisting her hair around her fingers, raised one eyebrow and stared at Mardian, seemingly intrigued.
“Are you trying to threaten me even in this situation?”
“You… did you really send that letter to my father?”
“Yes.”
Her answer was unfalteringly firm, and the suppressed anger in Mardian began to simmer.
I wanted to rush at her and unleash my fury by slapping her cheek, but I restrained myself by biting my lip.
“Why?”
“Well, isn’t it obvious?”
Tina lightly stepped down from her chair and began walking toward Mardian.
She could easily twist that slender neck if she desired, yet here she was, boldly stepping into my space without a hint of fear.
“You would’ve summoned me the very next day, wouldn’t you? Since I promised to give you everything.”
“…But.”
“And surely the dubious Mardian must have indulged in all kinds of perverse desires with my body.”
“That promise was made by you, Tina.”
“You fool.”
Now right in front of me, Tina showed a smile laced with mockery.
Even in this situation, her smile seemed delightful, a sign that perhaps I was losing my mind.
“I would never offer my body to a perverted bastard like you!”
A cold voice I had never heard before. In an instant, I felt dazed by her lifeless tone.
“Why don’t you just torment Lilian as per your assigned role instead of constantly paying attention to me?”
“W-what?”
“Or are you perhaps more into a frail and small body like mine than a beauty like Lilian? Maybe you’re into that sort of perversion?”
Tina lowered her gaze with disdain and lightly poked Mardian’s chest with her finger.
Mardian could only stare blankly at her, lost for words in bewilderment.
‘Has Tina always had this personality…?’
I suspected there was another side to her, but I never dreamed she would possess such a strange demeanor.
Beloved by everyone, the cheerful pet young lady. Yet the person before me was completely different from that image.
Tightly—
I bit my lip, barely managing to hold onto my crumbling sanity. The taste of copper tinged my tongue, and only then did my foggy mind begin to clear.
“So, are you threatening me because you’re afraid of what I might do to you?”
“Well, I’m also looking to eliminate future troubles and erase evidence, right?”
Tina looked up at me with a shallow smile.
“You’re better at erasing evidence than I am, aren’t you, Mardian?”
“You….”
A surge of anger rushed to my head. I reached out to grab her neck, but Tina stepped back before I could.
“Mardian, you’re not in a position to act like this.”
“Position?”
“If something happens to me, that evidence will spread across the empire. If that happens, the Count Abreldine family will become a historical shame for having killed the savior of the empire.”
“…. ”
“If that happens, Count Abreldine won’t let you off easily.”
It was infuriating, but her words were undeniably true.
If I returned without Tina’s cooperation, I could not escape my father’s wrath.
In that case, my life as a noble, not to mention my very life, would be on the line.
“Let me ask you one thing, Tina.”
“Go ahead.”
“How did you take those photos?”
Photos that bore her unmistakable traces. Given the angles and composition, they were certainly not the results of ordinary stalking.
Tina chuckled, shrugged her shoulders, and lightly replied.
“It’s not just you, Mardian, who commissioned the Black Moon.”
“You…! How do you know about the Black Moon…!”
The Black Moon.
A deeply rooted underworld organization active for centuries, primarily responsible for information gathering and assassinations.
As such, it was nearly impossible to find the location of the Black Moon, as it hid itself thoroughly in the shadows.
Moreover, as a group bound by strict codes and secrets, approaching them recklessly would risk one’s life.
Even the Count Abreldine family, influential in the underworld, had only recently managed to learn about its existence after much time.
Tina, the daughter of a declining Baron family, shouldn’t have known about the Black Moon at all.
“It’s a privilege of the reincarnated.”
“What do you mean?”
Her answer was difficult to comprehend.
With a nonchalant smile, Tina got back into her chair.
“That black mage’s blood you got at the auction? That’s my blood.”
She rolled up her sleeves to reveal her pale forearm.
The blue bruises etched on her emaciated arm were signs of needle marks.
“Your blood…? You were a dark mage?”
“Well, I’m not a dark mage, actually.”
Tina rolled her blue eyes slightly, sighed, and rested her chin on her hand.
“Let’s stop the nonsense here. I’m here to give you an opportunity.”
“Opportunity?”
“Here, take it.”
She threw something in front of me. Wrapped in a transparent plastic bag, it contained fine white powder.
“It’s drugs. Inject it here, and I’ll ensure you spend your remaining life peacefully in a quiet village on the outskirts of the continent.”
“What…?”
“You don’t need to worry about withdrawal symptoms. I’ll continue supplying drugs, so you can indulge as much as you’d like at any time.”
Her outrageously rude suggestion was so absurd it almost made me laugh.
Is she suggesting that I live a life addicted to drugs? A life where I freely straddle both the light and the dark while holding onto power?
“If you’d like, I can send a few homosexuals to satisfy your tastes. Well, I doubt many perverts like that exist.”
“Cough… Cough.”
The situation was so ridiculous that I ultimately let out a laugh.
“Haha, ahahaha!”
As I laughed uncontrollably while covering my mouth, Tina’s gaze slowly grew colder.
After I laughed out all my breaths, I wiped the tears from my eyes and looked directly at Tina.
“Tina, you never cease to surprise me. Who knew such a cute charm was hiding behind that mask?”
“…This isn’t a time to laugh.”
This time, Mardian stepped a bit closer to Tina.
As if she hadn’t expected this reaction at all, a momentary look of bewilderment flashed across Tina’s face.
“If you kneel down and beg me now for forgiveness, and serve me affectionately, I’ll let it go with a proper punishment.”
“…Serve?”
Mardian lifted her skirt.
Showing Tina her black underwear placed between her thighs, she grinned a smile that resembled a sneer.
“Lick it. Until I’m satisfied.”
“…”
“If you don’t want that, then here’s my second proposal.”
With a faint smile, she clapped her hands twice.
With the sound of the sharp clap, the tavern door swung open, and men with fierce expressions and weapons entered.
“I’ll chop off your limbs here and make your remaining life my sexual tool.”
“…I told you to come alone.”
“Who would be foolish enough to come alone at your command?”
The people here were mercenaries seasoned in the underworld, lacking glamourous reputations but exceedingly skilled.
Hiring them wasn’t difficult, as they were willing to stake their life for money.
As they brandished their thick weapons before me, Tina’s blue eyes darkened even more.
“My patience has already run thin, so it’s best you decide quickly.”
“…I guess I’ll have to go with the second proposal.”
“Second?”
Are you saying you’d choose the proposal to have all your limbs chopped off?
“I didn’t know you had such a gory taste, Tina.”
“Don’t say disgusting things. I’m talking about my second proposal.”
With a sullen expression, Tina stood up.
Even surrounded by mercenaries wielding knives, she showed little sign of fear on her face.
“I was planning to drug you anyway, and you shouldn’t expect anything from women or a prosperous village.”
“…It seems we can’t communicate.”
What a pity.
I had resolved to ensure that Tina would live a life as a happy sex slave, free of worries, but how regrettable it was that things had turned out this way.
“Just cut off the limbs. I need to keep my life, so stop the bleeding right away.”
At my command, the mercenaries wore troubled expressions.
“If you cut it all off, she could die from shock.”
“Then just the legs. She can’t be allowed to escape.”
“Okay, we’ll do that.”
The mercenaries approached Tina slowly with twisted smiles.
Now that I think about it, that lovely face contorted in pain while screaming would make a quite interesting spectacle.
“I’m sorry, kid. It was your mistake to touch someone you shouldn’t have.”
The mercenary gripped his sword firmly, almost regrettably.
“It might not be possible to make it painless, but I’ll do my best to finish quickly.”
Just as the mercenary raised the blade high, Tina stared with a sullen look into the dim corner of the tavern where nothing could be seen.
“…I’m getting scared. When are you coming out?”
“What?”
At Tina’s unexpected words, the mercenaries wore bewildered expressions.
Following her gaze, they all looked toward the back of the tavern, where a thick darkness lay.
In that place, a pair of violet sapphires began to shimmer.
And at that moment.
Swish—
The hand of the mercenary, who had just been gripping the sword, severed from his arm and flew through the air.
“AAARGH!!”
A scream of agony echoed as the mercenary collapsed to the ground.
While everyone was flustered by the unexpected turn of events, the sound of solid high heels clicking against the floor echoed steadily from the dense darkness.
Clack, clack.
It was just the sound of footsteps, yet cold sweat trickled down my back.
Soon, a silhouette emerged, shock distorting the faces of all the mercenaries, including mine.
“H-how did you…!”
Amidst the flowing black hair that rippled like the night sky, her gem-like sparkling eyes glimmered softly.
The war hero, Viviana Merdellia.
She slowly unveiled herself from the shadows, inducing a chill in the air as death approached step by step.
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