ESL Chapter 58

He’s insane.. Lea felt a chill run down her spine at Zakar’s words, and she quickly abandoned the robe he had grabbed, stepping back several paces. What kind of person in the world would offer their own shoulder just to see someone’s face?

Having spent over a year hunting down wanted criminals and having seen every kind of person imaginable, from the lowest of the low to all manner of human beings, the one type she most dreaded was madmen. The lowest of criminals would at least listen after being beaten half to death, but a madman was a lost cause. Especially the strangely mad ones — they were the most troublesome of all.

‘Special Class. Top grade.’

Watching Zakar smile leisurely without any thought of staunching the blood flowing from his shoulder, Lea completed her assessment. When facing someone whose combat ability exceeded the norm and who was mad at the upper tier or above, the best course of action was to flee.

“Miss!”

Just then, Guster, who had subdued Kun, came running toward her, and Lea looked between him and Berchel, quickly calling out:

“Guster! Berchel! Both of you, grab Ian!”

Grab Ian? Guster turned his gaze toward Ian, who was collapsed on the ground. Why grab someone who was already down? But Berchel was different. Knowing that she had a spatial transfer ring on her finger, he caught onto her thinking and moved swiftly.

“It seems you still don’t know that every word Miss says is gospel. Miss, we’re ready!”

Cradling the unconscious Ian in one arm and reaching out with his free arm to pull Guster toward him, Berchel shouted — and Lea, keeping a wary eye on Zakar, slowly began backing away.

“Are you trying to run?”

Unable to make sense of her actions, Zakar curled the corner of his mouth in amusement and stepped forward. Like a hunter pursuing prey cornered into a trap, each time Lea stepped back, he stepped forward.

With the difference in stride between a man and a woman, by the time Lea had retreated to stand just in front of the fallen Ian, Zakar had closed the distance to within arm’s reach. Seeing him raise his hand to grab her, Lea quickly turned to Guster.

“Guster! Grab me!”

At Miss’s cry, Guster, without understanding why, hastily reached out and seized the hem of her clothing.

“I’m sorry, but it’s my principle not to associate with madmen —”

Having confirmed that Guster had hold of her clothes, Lea flashed an impish smile at Zakar. And before his hand could reach her, she turned the ring on her finger. In the same instant, a silver magic circle appeared beneath them, and the four people who had been holding onto one another vanished as though absorbed into the ground.

“….A madman, she said.”

Left with nothing to grasp, Zakar slowly lowered his arm — still suspended in the air — and began to laugh, a low chuckle rising from his throat. A girl who used an extra-dimensional space, spatial transfer, and on top of that wielded a sword with skill…. The unexpected encounter made warm blood flow slowly through his heart, which had hardened with boredom. She probably didn’t know. That his eyes — and his heart — had recognized her as prey to be hunted, a plaything to be chased.

“Next time we meet, I’ll show you why a madman is a madman.”

I’ll only let you go this once… With a dangerous smile on his lips, Zakar turned his steps toward the fallen Kun.

****

“Young lord. A message has arrived from the royal palace.”

Luciel, who had been leaning against the window, turned at Razen’s words and looked at him.

“It came sooner than I expected.”

“I pulled a few strings. I’m a salaried man, after all — I have to stay in good standing with my superiors.”

Razen offered his usual inscrutable smile as he held out the letter bearing the imperial family’s seal.

“………”

Luciel tore open the letter sealed with the crest and read through its contents, then spoke with a cold smile.

“It seems my uncle has grown quite impatient, if he’s going so far as to search the royal palace.”

“The royal palace… you say?”

A look of surprise crossed Razen’s eyes. Even for a ducal house, searching the royal palace was something unheard of — not just in the Yurasen Empire, but in any kingdom. Yet Luciel answered with complete composure, his expression unchanged.

“If he went as acting Duke Mihael, not even the Crown Prince could have stopped him. Still, to search the royal palace he would have had to pay a price… Knowing the Crown Prince’s personality, he probably demanded around two years’ worth of diamond mine extraction rights.”

Well, not because he actually wants them — more to put a dent in my uncle’s pride… Watching Luciel speak as though he knew the Crown Prince well, Razen asked with a hint of surprise:

“Rumor has it the two of you are on bad terms, but it seems you’re actually quite close.”

“Close… I wonder. It would be more accurate to say I’m on the receiving end of one-sided courtship.”

Razen fell silent as he noticed the slight twist at the corner of Luciel’s mouth, and asked nothing further. Seeing that, Luciel opened his mouth again.

“I’ll be entering the royal palace late tonight.”

“That means you expect him to come search here as well.”

Quick as ever. Luciel inwardly marveled at Razen’s ability to grasp a situation from a single sentence. If he weren’t Lea’s right hand, Luciel would have wanted to entrust him with the intelligence division of Duke Mihael’s household.

“After searching the royal palace, he’ll only grow more anxious — so even if it causes a diplomatic incident, he’ll come to turn this place upside down as well.”

“Understood. I’ll notify headquarters to be ready to send a formal letter of protest and make it into a diplomatic issue the moment that happens. But will you be all right at the royal palace? He may attempt to search it again.”

“That fellow would not have let a second search happen. But more than that… Lea is late.”

Gazing out the window as the sunset began to descend, Luciel furrowed his brows slightly. A strange unease he’d been feeling for some time now was tightening around his heart — the kind of feeling that something was about to go wrong.

“It is strange, now that I think about it. She should have returned by now…”

Razen pulled out his pocket watch and calculated how long it had been since Miss had left. Confirming that more time had passed than he’d realized, his expression hardened.

“Perhaps we should send people out to —!”

Before he could finish saying they should send people out, a silver magic circle blazed across the floor, and both Luciel’s and Razen’s eyes snapped toward it simultaneously. As the magic circle that had transported four people — Lea among them — faded away, the state of the group became starkly clear to both men. Ian lay motionless, drenched in blood, cradled in Berchel’s arms, while Guster, seemingly unable to process the situation, stood blinking with Lea’s hem still clutched in his hand.

“Lea!”

“Miss!”

Luciel and Razen cried out at the same time, and she looked back at them with eyes full of relief. Her robe was gone, and there were scratches across her face and body — it was clear something had happened.

“Razen. Ian is badly hurt. Please call a doctor quickly.”

At Lea’s urgent request, Razen first swept his eyes over her own condition. Only after confirming there were no serious wounds beyond the scratches did he leave to summon a physician.

“You two, please carry Ian to a bed quickly.”

Following Lea’s instruction, Berchel and Guster carried Ian to the bed and laid him down carefully. Thanks to the potion she had given him, the bleeding had stopped, but his condition was plainly not good.

“I need to look at the wound.”

To gauge how deep it was, she tore open Ian’s upper garment, and her brow creased at the wound exposed on his chest. It was a deep cut — deep enough that had it gone even a little further, he would have died on the spot.

Lea hastily opened her extra-dimensional space, retrieved a potion, and poured it generously over his wound without reservation. When the potion touched the injury, new flesh visibly welled up between the parted skin, and the wound slowly closed over, knitting itself shut.

Noting that a little potion remained, she was about to pour the rest when Luciel’s hand closed around her wrist. She looked back at him.

“That’s enough. Look — it’s already fully healed.”

“….So it is…”

Now that she had confirmed Ian’s wound was fully healed, the tension drained from her body all at once, and Lea found herself sinking to the floor without meaning to. The realization that she might have lost someone close to her set her hands trembling.

Luciel looked down at her, then took the potion from her shaking hands, lowered himself onto one knee, and brought himself to her eye level.

“What happened?”

At Luciel’s question, Lea answered with a weary smile.

“Ah… we ran into an unexpected madman… Ian nearly died…”

Her beautiful crimson eyes were clouded, trembling faintly. And Luciel knew what that trembling meant. Most likely, she had never before experienced someone close to her being hurt like this. Even Lark, who had raised her, was stronger than her if anything — not weaker. He felt a pang of sympathy for her, and yet, at the same time, something closer to satisfaction — the fact that he was the first person to witness this vulnerable side of her… He skillfully concealed the duality of his feelings and asked gently:

“This is the first time someone close to you has been hurt this badly, isn’t it?”

“….Yes.”

“I thought so.”

Luciel tilted the potion bottle he was holding, letting a small amount pour over his fingertips. Then he brought those potion-dampened fingers to her face. From her forehead to her cheek… from her cheek to her neck… and then to her shoulder… the soft movement of fingers brushing over the scratches on her body felt as though it were comforting her, and Lea closed her eyes and drew in a long, deep breath. When she had resolved to stand against that organization, she had steeled herself for the possibility that those around her might be hurt. Running into that madman and experiencing it sooner than expected was one thing — but there was a clear difference between imagining it and actually seeing it.

‘It’s all right… you already knew… so calm down….’

As she soothed herself and breathed deeply, the trembling in her body gradually began to still. And when she opened her eyes again, not even a trace of trembling remained.

“Thank you, Luciel.”

Having offered her thanks, Lea smiled as she saw Razen enter with a physician in tow, and rose to her feet. And at the sight of her doing so, Luciel swallowed a small pang of regret.

‘She could have stayed shaken just a little longer…’

As though reluctant to let the soft sensation of her skin leave his fingertips, Luciel closed his hand into a fist.