TSSAH 04

Chapter 04

With the tension awakening every sense in my body, I firmly grasped the dagger.

I silently rose from the bed and walked toward the entrance.

Even my breathing was suppressed.

*Creak, creak.*

The footsteps were getting closer, unmistakably heading toward my door.

*Thud, thud.*

Someone knocked on the door with their fist.

“Rookie.”

It was Senior Jake’s voice.

“…Yes, Senior.”

But I couldn’t let my guard down.

I pressed my body even tighter against the wall near the door.

“Assembly order. Get changed and come out immediately.”

Senior Jake spoke briefly in an urgent voice and then knocked on the door of the next room.

Before long, it seemed everyone on the floor had woken up, and footsteps began to sound sporadically from here and there.

“Hoo.”

So it’s real.

I activated the artifact, dressed as Runelc Eins, and headed to the assembly point.

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. They say there’s an emergency meeting at the main building, and they want us to stand guard in the hallway.”

The place where our action squad, Team 13 including myself, arrived was the third floor of the main building, where the grand conference room and the Duke’s office were located.

The meeting had apparently already begun; other action squad members who had arrived earlier were standing guard in the dim, chilly hallway in front of the conference room.

“You stand here.”

Senior 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 Senior Jake silenced me with a look.

He was clearly pushing the scary spot onto me because he was too afraid to stand there himself.

How cheap, so cheap.

Unable to do anything else, I stood guard by the door and surveyed the expressions of those who had arrived before us.

Whatever had happened, they were all visibly frightened.

It was a bad omen.

An emergency meeting in the middle of the night, and the fearful faces of the members.

‘What’s going on in there?’

But the tightly closed, large conference room doors were excessively soundproofed.

Some time passed like that, and just as I was beginning to relax a little.

Without a sound, the conference room door opened.

But what struck me before the fact that the door had opened was the pungent, fishy smell that assaulted my nose.

‘The smell of blood.’

A scent all too familiar to me, yet equally nauseating, flowed out through the gap of the open conference room door.

And then a man appeared.

A tall stature, curly brown hair tied up high, sharp eyes hiding deep green irises behind glasses, and tightly pressed, cold lips.

‘Killian Nox’s right-hand man, Dupont Clansher.’

I had seen him many times in documents during my time in Wickers’s intelligence unit, but this was my first time face-to-face.

Before I knew it, I was looking directly at Dupont Clansher.

That was my mistake.

“You.”

Dupont Clansher, whose eyes met mine, crooked his finger.

“M-me?”

When I stupidly asked back, one of his handsome eyebrows arched up.

“Follow me.”

Ah, this doesn’t feel good.

I had no choice but to bow my head slightly and follow behind Dupont Clansher.

And the moment I fully entered the conference room.

“Hmph.”

I reflexively held my breath.

The conference room was filled with people wearing Nox uniforms.

Organization members standing against the walls of the vast conference room, and high-ranking officials seated along the long table.

And at the very front, the executives seated in armchairs arranged in a circular formation.

For ordinary people, the moment they set foot in here, the overwhelming pressure would be enough to make their legs give out and collapse.

But that wasn’t the reason I had gasped in surprise.

‘It’s not just one person’s worth.’

I should have noticed earlier.

The smell of blood filling the conference room was deeply saturated.

It wasn’t a concentration that could have come from a single body.

I pretended to cover my mouth and quickly surveyed the inside of the conference room.

There were roughly 300 members present.

A mere fraction of Nox’s total size.

That meant these were likely the ones considered Nox’s elite.

What reason could they have to all be gathered here at this late hour?

The pale, frightened faces of the people by the walls and tables were all looking at one spot.

‘Over there?’

Following their gaze, I observed the executives.

There were a total of seven people called ‘executives’ in Nox.

Although this was my first time seeing their faces in person, I had continuously gathered information about them during my time in Wickers, so they felt as familiar as old neighbors.

The executives, seated in armchairs in various postures, all came from vassal families that had sworn loyalty to Nox for generations.

And now, three of those seats were empty.

‘One seat belongs to Dupont Clansher, who had gone out to call someone, and another belongs to that kid.’

I already knew that ‘that kid’, the captain of the Royal Guard, had left the capital a few months ago.

‘The last one… seems to be Grayer Nox.’

As could be inferred from the surname Nox, Grayer Nox was different from the other executives—he was from the ducal family itself, not a vassal house.

He was even Killian Nox’s paternal uncle and the head of the intelligence department since the previous Duke’s time.

Naturally, I was wondering why I didn’t see the face of that stupid old man, the one I had clashed with most often, when—

From within the darkness, a figure in a Nox uniform slowly rose.

No.

It wasn’t voluntary. He was being lifted by the neck by someone, his body rising upward.

Though his legs, no longer touching the ground, flailed about, it seemed futile to escape the grip of the one holding him.

“P-please, spare… Gahk!”

*Crack!*—

Before he could even finish his desperate plea, the sound of bone crushing echoed.

His neck snapped like a clay doll, ending his life, but the ordeal wasn’t over.

*Splat!*

The severed head rolled on the floor, and a red rain fell within the conference room.

With a thud, beyond the body that collapsed like a sack of goods, I saw another person kneeling in the center of the circle of executives.

‘…Grayer Nox.’

He was the owner of the last empty executive seat.

“I-I’m sorry, Your Grace. I have no excuse, please, I beg your forgiveness…”

And the one looking down at Grayer Nox, who was trembling and begging for mercy after having a man’s neck torn out with one hand—

“Hey.”

Suddenly, my vision went black.

No, Dupont Clansher had abruptly stepped in front of me.

Our height difference was so great that I momentarily mistook it for my vision blacking out.

“Go prepare bathwater.”

“Bath… water?”

What are you talking about all of a sudden?

“A rookie, are you.”

Frowning again with a displeased look, Dupont Clansher pointed to a door attached to one wall of the conference room.

“There’s a bathroom connected to His Grace the Duke’s office. Prepare the bathwater.”

No, there are hundreds of employees working in this mansion!

At this hour of the night, you wake someone up to do this!

It was dirty and petty, but Dupont Clansher is Nox’s second-in-command.

He’s someone who could have me, a lowly grunt, kicked out with just a flick of his finger.

And I’m someone who absolutely cannot be kicked out of Nox.

Damn it.

Why is it that my bad feelings are never wrong?

Just as I was about to take a step towards the place Dupont Clansher had pointed out—

“A failure of the intelligence department…”

“According to the spy, in the end…”

Fragmentary conversations from those murmuring by the wall flew into my ears.

“Ah.”

Intelligence department. Spy.

Only two words were worth salvaging, but that was enough.

*Grit.*

I ground my teeth and rushed into Killian Nox’s office.

Without even a moment to look around the space, I found the bathroom and roughly turned on the hot water, letting it gush out.

“This should be fine, right?”

I saw my hand, gripping the bathtub, trembling slightly.

That person in the uniform with his neck torn out…

“A spy… He was a spy.”

No wonder Grayer Nox was trembling and begging Killian Nox for mercy.

Preventing spies from infiltrating Nox is the job of the intelligence department.

But Killian had personally rooted out the spy that Grayer Nox had missed.

Grayer Nox was the one among the seven executives I knew best.

He had been Nox’s intelligence chief, the one I had faced in a spy war while I was at Wickers.

He was a conveniently incompetent and conveniently lazy opponent, not particularly difficult to deal with.

With that level of skill, it wasn’t surprising he’d miss a spy.

But no, that wasn’t it.

My tangled, messy mind was filled only with the gruesome sight of the spy being torn apart moments ago.

“If I get caught, that’s what happens to me.”

Killian Nox’s notoriously brutal reputation was indeed no exaggeration.

Perhaps Wickers was far more humane compared to Nox.

‘I must never run into him.’

Even if I could fool the eyes of the intelligence department under Grayer Nox, I might not be able to fool Killian Nox.

But unfortunately, I had to finish the task Dupont Clansher gave me and get out of there.

‘Ah, screw it.’

*Splash!*

To get out of here as fast as possible, I recklessly turned on the cold water too.

Why did they have to use such an unnecessarily large bathtub!

“Done!”

I waited, tapping my foot impatiently, and as soon as the water reached a certain level, I shut off both taps.

Now I can go!

Just as I swallowed a sigh of relief and was about to take a step—

*Bang!*

The heavy bathroom door swung open as lightly as a piece of paper, and a man entered.

*Thud, thud.*

I stared at his feet, leaving red footprints with every step, and then, drawn by a sharp killing intent, I involuntarily raised my head.

And I met a pair of golden eyes directly.

‘It’s Killian Nox.’

Ah, so this is why they call him a descendant of dragons.

The pupils, slit vertically like a dragon’s rather than a human’s, and those bright golden eyes, felt as if they were piercing right through me.

‘They say if you look into Killian Nox’s eyes, you turn to stone on the spot.’

A remark I’d once heard as a joke.

I need to move.

I need to lower my head quickly.

But my body wouldn’t obey me.

I couldn’t even tear my gaze away, as if my eyes themselves had been taken prisoner.

Silver hair gleaming like a finely honed blade, and straight eyebrows.

Beneath them, deep-set eyes and a prominent nose bridge.

Perfectly shaped lips and blood splattered on porcelain-white, smooth skin seemed somehow obscene.

And his slightly disheveled hair and collar exuded an arrogant, decadent charm.

When I worked at Wickers and gathered information on Killian Nox, the most frequent word that appeared was ‘crazy’.

I thought it meant Killian Nox was literally insane.

But maybe it meant his beauty was crazy.

Such an absurd thought bloomed in my dazed mind.

*Thud, thud.*

“…Haah.”

As Killian Nox resumed his momentarily halted steps and brushed past me, my blocked breath finally released.

As I was able to gasp, albeit shamefully, my mind cleared again.

‘I need to get out of here immediately.’

With that single thought, I walked, suppressing my presence as much as possible.

With every step, my heart felt like it would burst from tension.

Just as I was about to finally cross the threshold of the bathroom—

A chilling sensation ran down the back of my neck, exposed by my short hair.

Then, a languid yet metallic, low voice called out to me.

“Hey, you there.”