I took a few steps back with my mother.
My mother moved as if she were a doll, without any will of her own, just following my lead.
The Duke wouldn’t just leave my mother in this state.
He must have attempted some form of manipulation, but seeing that she remained unchanged, it seemed like it all ended in failure.
I would need a thorough examination to know for sure.
‘For now, getting her out is the priority.’
The Duke’s momentum surged, threatening to engulf me and my mother.
“Alright, this changes things. I’ll have to revise the plan.”
In a matter of seconds, the Duke took out a suspicious vial from his pocket and forced it into his mouth.
Before Julion could swing his sword to block it, he had already swallowed the potions.
“What are you doing……!”
The air around the Duke erupted violently; his already muscular body swelled even more as his veins bulged.
“I think you should die here, Julion Roa Sertizan.”
With a chilling voice, the empty vial clattered to the ground.
As the fragile glass shattered, the duke raised the remaining half of the sword and lunged it towards us.
Clang!
An unpleasant metallic sound reverberated throughout the garden.
It wasn’t a one-sided force pushing one party back, like earlier.
The eerie sound of metal scraping against metal made me cover my ears.
After a brief clash, the dust settled, revealing the two figures.
Thud. Unidentifiable blood stained the floor.
Frantically assessing the situation, I found Julion now standing in front of me.
And then came a brief moment of respite.
*Cough…!*
The Duke halted his attack, bleeding profusely.
“Rohiriel, are you hurt?”
I turned to Julion, who looked me over with concern.
“I’m fine. More importantly, Your Highness, there’s a secret chamber beneath the collapsed clock tower. There are likely many people trapped there.”
“What… and who is behind you?”
“The Duke openly aimed his sword at you, Your Highness. Now Cassian is completely finished. I can leave without worry.”
“Just a moment, Rohiriel. Please explain in detail…”
“Goodbye then. Thank you for helping me until the end, Your Highness.”
Julion bit his lip and looked at me nervously.
I bowed my head and turned to leave the garden with my mother.
Julion seemed to want to say something more, but he couldn’t find his voice.
Because the Duke launched another attack.
“You think you can escape!”
The fierce glare in the Duke’s eyes as he swung his sword was unsettling.
His normally silver eyes now had a hint of red.
Looking back at where he stood, I noticed another empty vial, different from the broken one earlier.
“It seems he consumed something else! It’s dangerous…”
As I watched the Duke being thrown with a loud noise, I closed my mouth.
Though the Duke got up without showing any signs of pain, Julion’s demeanor was much more ominous.
“Rohiriel. It will be over soon, so wait there and don’t move.”
Uh, um…
I searched my memory seriously.
Did the medicine I had delivered to Julion through Zenid contain an awakening agent?
‘No, it was just an antidote.’
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Julion fight properly before.
I had seen him fight Roxis, but the Duke now seemed much more threatening than he had been before.
Moreover, the duke’s power was inherently stronger than Roxis’s.
As I watched the thick dust storm rise, I murmured softly.
“……I’m sorry, Julion.”
I wasn’t sure if Julion heard my last words or not, but I turned away immediately.
‘Surely there’s a secret passage in the office.’
If I left the mansion now, it would be difficult to avoid the watchful eyes of the heavily guarded imperial knights.
So instead of heading outside, I went further inside.
I had a perfect memory of the building’s layout.
The fact that there was a secret passage in the study was something I had discovered after a long investigation.
“Teveroka, can you run a little faster?”
I called out to her, resisting the urge to call her mother.
It seemed like she only responded to the name Teveroka.
She was breathing roughly, as if she had rarely moved so intensely before.
My mother blinked and tilted her head with a vacant look, seemingly not understanding my question correctly.
‘Obey or disobey. Is she only obeying these two commands?’
Or perhaps the Duke had never asked her any questions about her wishes.
Despite my efforts to suppress the anger that kept bubbling up due to the desperate situation, emotions surged as I tried to converse with my mother.
How could someone be treated like this…!
“Faster, run…?”
Seemingly grasping my words in her own way, my mother hesitantly questioned.
Suppressing my anger, I tightened my grip on her wrist.
“No; running like this is enough. Let’s go.”
It seemed that pushing her to run faster would only exhaust her further.
I urged her to take her steps again and head towards the office.
Fortunately, we arrived without any hindrance.
It was all thanks to the fact that all the servants in the mansion had collapsed.
‘Almost there.’
To signal Zenid, I sprayed the prepared potion out of the window.
As the liquid met the air, it quickly vaporized into red smoke, rising spirally into the sky.
It was the signal for Zenid to take the last potion.
Outside, a series of explosions erupted, one after another.
It seemed like the Duke was persistently attacking Julion, or perhaps the opposite: Julion was blocking the Duke, who was coming after me.
I had to hurry, no matter what side it was.
Once he completely subdued the Duke, Julion would come looking for me.
“I need to get out of here before then.”
First, the third compartment is located to the left of the first bookshelf.
After removing all the books, a hidden device became visible.
I pressed it firmly, and I found another hidden device in the fourth compartment of the next shelf.
And the next, and the next.
When I activated a total of five mechanisms,
*click*
The wall moved entirely, revealing a dark passage.
A chilly draft wafted from inside.
I quickly lit a candle on the desk and held it in one hand, while holding my mother’s hand with the other.
“Let’s go, Teveroka.”
As I stepped inside, the door moved with an eerie sound, as if recognizing my presence.
In the darkness, nothing could be heard from outside, not even the sounds of the fierce battle.
Relying on just one candle, I took hesitant steps forward, still holding onto my mother’s hand.
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
“What on earth is this…?”
Ares looked around with a dazed expression, alternating between the collapsed clock tower and the cacophony coming from inside the mansion.
In front of her, Zenid explained with a calm face.
“……For that reason, you shouldn’t go inside.”
“Are you saying we should just wait here, then?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You’re telling us not to go in?”
As Ares began to object, the knights behind him also rallied in agreement.
“That’s what I said!”
“How can we wait comfortably here when both the Duke and the Crown Princess are inside?”
“Yes, we must find a way…”
After allowing them to pour out their complaints for a moment, Zenid responded calmly.
“I’ll say it again; I didn’t tell you to wait. His Highness said…”
Once she was sure she had their undivided attention, Zenid spoke, emphasizing each word.
“The duke’s knights are lurking in the back of the mansion, so capture them all.”
“……!”
“Perhaps they’ll strike first, but in any case, don’t miss a single one.”
Zenid let out a long breath as she finished speaking.
The grumbling knights exchanged glances with each other, looking as serious as ever.
Zenid spoke again.
“Now that I’ve relayed the message, I’ll go fulfill other duties.”
“What… just like that? What about the Crown Princess…”
“I’m sure she’s with the crown prince inside, and if you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do as well, so please fulfill your orders.”
Ares hesitated to hold Zenid further, but upon hearing that Rohiriel would be with Julion, he relented. Moreover, there were other tasks he had been assigned that he couldn’t ignore.
With that, Zenid slipped out of the knight’s sight and headed toward the ruined clock tower.
‘Now it’s time to take the last dose of the medicine.’
She glanced at the smoke that had risen a moment ago.
Zenid swallowed the last of the potion Rohiriel had given her, and entered the lower part of the collapsed clock tower.
Although the smoke was thick and dark, Zenid could see clearly.
‘She said the duration is short. I have to hurry.’
Zenid scrambled to find a passage.
It was the second secret passage of the mansion that led to the agreed-upon meeting place with Rohiriel.
Once she escaped through this path…
Then they would be able to meet.
“Lady Shahadna…….”
May you be safe.
