TSSAH 17

Chapter 17

Trickle.

Bright red blood flowed down Mother’s pale forehead.

Just like that final day.

—

“Mother, Mother, does it hurt?”

—

Mother did not answer.

—

“Father! Help, Father! Mother is, Mother is…!”

—

I called out for Father at the top of my lungs, but he did not appear either.

—

“No, this can’t be, this can’t be happening…”

—

As I sobbed and reached out my hand to wipe away Mother’s blood.

The world turned upside down.

I was no longer lying on a comfortable bed.

I was back in the secret space beneath the floorboards.

In that cramped, dark place.

Through the gaps in the shabby wooden floor, I could see my family.

And beside them, Benedict Wickus, standing with a sword in hand.

—

“Mother! Father! Lucas!”

—

Clutching the necklace Father had given me tightly in both hands as I wept, Mother cried out until the very end.

—

“…Run away, my baby! The crow knows everything!”

—

***

“Haah!”

I woke up drenched in cold sweat at my desk in the dormitory.

I must have been exhausted from poking around Knox Castle all day, and had only meant to rest my eyes for a moment.

Checking the time, it was already time for the night shift.

I went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face, watching the droplets run down my short blonde hair.

I had fallen asleep without even taking off my necklace.

Fortunately, the necklace still had enough mana left.

“Hah, damn.”

Seeing the necklace around my neck brought back the nightmare from just moments ago.

One I had managed to forget for a while.

I let out a hollow laugh as I looked at my still trembling fingertips.

“Getting like this just from a nightmare. Guess I’ve been living too comfortably.”

Back in Wickus, I used to have these dreams every other day.

“Though today’s was a bit different.”

I couldn’t understand Mother’s final words in the dream.

The crow is watching.

Where did that crow come from out of nowhere?

I roughly wiped the remaining moisture from my hands onto my clothes, shaking off the uneasy feeling.

“It’s all because of that bastard Killian Knox.”

I tried not to think about it, but my mind wouldn’t obey.

There were only three days left until the deadline Killian Knox had set.

If things continued like this, my remaining lifespan would be three days as well.

After leaving Deacon’s office, I had snooped around here and there all morning, but found nothing substantial.

Neither the head laundress, who had supposedly worked at Knox the longest, nor the coachman who had tended the stables for generations, had been any different.

They only repeated the same stories I’d heard from the senior enforcers at the guard post.

Moreover, wherever I went, unpleasant gazes followed me.

“So that’s why I had some ridiculous dream about crows.”

I didn’t know who it was, but my observer was quite skilled at concealment.

It’s just that I was better.

Since I hadn’t let on that I’d noticed, they would probably follow me again today.

“Well, that could be a problem.”

—

***

“Ugh, senior…”

“What’s wrong, Rookie? Are you sick?!”

When I didn’t show up for the night shift, Senior Jake came to my room to check on me. He took one look at my face and recoiled in horror.

“I’m so sorry. My stomach is just really upset… Bleurgh!”

As I retched and covered my mouth, Senior Jake, whose weak stomach was second only to the rest of the enforcers, turned green as well.

“What did you eat to end up like that?!”

“I don’t know. I heard stomach bugs are going around lately… I must have caught it somewhere, ugh.”

“Whoa! Don’t come near me! Get back inside! Go in and talk!”

Waving his hands frantically, Senior Jake pushed me back inside the doorway and let out a heavy sigh.

“Can’t be helped. I’ll put you down as sick leave, so stay put and rest today.”

“Are you sure that’s okay…”

“If you force yourself to work and end up getting everyone else sick, that’s really going to be a problem! If you’re still not better tomorrow morning, just go to the infirmary and check yourself in. Don’t let it get worse!”

“Yes, sir. Thank you.”

“Don’t take my words lightly! And don’t you dare leave this room!”

I weakly said goodbye to Senior Jake, who was still laying down the law, and closed the door.

Thud, thud, thud.

After confirming Senior Jake’s footsteps fading away, I immediately changed my clothes.

“It’s been a while.”

Except for my exposed blue eyes, my entire body was covered in black. It felt somewhat unfamiliar.

This suit, specially made for infiltration on dark nights, had once felt as familiar as a second skin.

I tucked the necklace deep into my clothes and quietly opened the window to check outside.

The sky was overcast, and the moon was completely hidden behind the clouds.

“Alright then, time to move.”

—

***

Whoosh.

I landed silently on a thick tree branch and frowned quietly.

‘Should I be happy about this or not?’

The observer who had annoyingly followed me everywhere all day probably hadn’t expected me to feign illness and escape through the window.

I had changed routes several times on the way here to confirm, but there were no signs of pursuit.

On the bright side, I was now free of annoying surveillance. But looking at it cynically, it meant the observer had underestimated me that much.

I had even left marks only I could recognize on the door and window in case the observer peeked into my room.

At this rate, I probably didn’t even need to bother checking.

Cursing whoever hadn’t watched me more closely, I hid my body among the branches and bided my time.

Dong— Dong—

The bell from Knox’s main gate tolled low, signaling midnight.

I opened my eyes, which I had kept closed for a while.

Midnight.

The hour when all of Knox was in its deepest slumber.

Unlike the enforcers guarding the outer gates, the main building’s security detail, working in three shifts, would be busy with their handover.

Whoosh.

I leaped without hesitation, stepping off a tree branch and onto a building’s windowsill, making no sound audible even to my own keen ears.

‘It’s only been a year. My skills haven’t rusted that much.’

I smiled with satisfaction as I arrived at my destination: none other than Deacon Gold’s office.

‘Planting a tree with this many branches and leaves right by the window like this.’

This was practically landscaping designed for intruders.

Especially considering this was the office of Deacon Gold, who managed the finances of both the Merchant Guild and all of Knox. Such a structure was highly problematic.

‘I should leave a thank-you note when I escape later.’

It wasn’t that Knox was unaware and hadn’t fortified security.

It was simply because daring to rob Knox—and an executive’s office at that—was pure insanity.

If caught, it would be straight to hell, or rather, straight to the underground dungeons.

Doing something this dangerous just to stay alive—how pitiful my situation was…

‘Ah, that adjutant bastard is definitely getting fired, isn’t he?’

One of my eyebrows crooked upward as I stood before the closed window.

There wasn’t a single falsehood in Deacon Gold’s assessment of him as a useless leech.

Look at this—the lock on the farthest window, half-hidden by the bookshelf, was clearly unlocked.

Basic security was the adjutant’s most fundamental duty.

He deserved to be cursed a hundred times over.

I had been so sure it would be locked that I’d already pulled out the tool I’d used since my Wickus days. Now my own hands felt embarrassed.

‘I should add a note about making sure to fire the current adjutant.’

The tea he served wasn’t even good enough to justify compromising security like this.

I succeeded in infiltrating silently, with no rustling of clothes, and drew the curtains first.

The room plunged into total darkness.

But thick darkness had never hindered me.

‘Vision is fine, too.’

Though more limited than in bright light, being able to see well in the dark was a Morton family trait.

This ability, passed down from my father, Dr. Franz Morton, was ironically the driving force behind my reputation as an assassin in Wickus.

‘Let’s see.’

The first place I reached for was the cabinet I had scouted while having tea during the day.

From the moment I heard about the late Duke and Duchess’s secrets, I had thought Deacon Gold’s office would be the first place to hit.

Where money flows, answers are bound to be found.

The Duchy of Knox had several powerful vassal houses, but Deacon Gold was the only one among the current seven executives who had inherited his position through generations.

He was also known to have a good relationship with his predecessor, his mother Agnes Gold, and had inherited her office as well.

‘Though it’s possible the old ledgers were moved somewhere else.’

Still, the ducal household’s complicated family matters were kept secret enough.

I would have bet all six remaining cookies that the documents related to it were still kept close by Deacon Gold himself.

But unfortunately, the first cabinet I opened was a miss.

‘If I were Deacon Gold…’

His desk?

No.

Too obvious.

After scanning the darkened office, I strode forward.

The place where Deacon Gold, weakened by the mana blocking agent, had been lying.

The place he had instinctively tried to protect even in his weakened state.

Click.

‘Of course.’

There was a hidden compartment beneath the couch he had been lying on, drenched in cold sweat.

Applying a little force, a heavy drawer slid out smoothly.

It was packed with documents that clearly looked important.

I pulled out the papers from the very front one by one and read them, then let out a quiet scoff.

‘Well, well, look at this?’

The documents Deacon Gold had carefully hidden were Knox’s secret fund ledgers.

And the entity that had been allocated the largest budget over the past eight years was recorded as:

[Dupont Clanshire]

Written in Deacon Gold’s elegant handwriting was the name of Killian Knox’s closest confidant.