EPISODE 16
They were on their way home.
As Kalad climbed into the carriage, he recalled Ines’s words one by one.
Return home as soon as you leave work.
Don’t ate meals served by your employer.
Act normal.
All in preparation for the assassin.
In the past, he would have dismissed it as nonsense, but now kalad had faith in Ines’ abilities.
So surely the assassin would come today.
Kalad turned his head and stared at the window.
He saw his reflection in the glass.
His face, always tired and sensitive, looked unusually flushed.
Kalad leaned his head against the window.
He remembered a few days ago.
His first date with Ines.
It had been eventful, but in the end, uneventful.
No one had gotten hurt or lost much.
I even got to eat the apple pie I’d been craving.
Objectively and subjectively, it was a pretty good day.
‘I’ve never felt so peaceful in my life.
In the last few days, I had been spared a major misfortune thanks to Ines.
it was saved him a lot of nerves.
it was only been a few days, but they had been the most peaceful days of Kalad’s life.
He wishes they could stay that way.
Kalad glanced down at his blade.
[Why?]
Magum asked, and Kalad looked away again.
Kalad did not have much time.
He would be dragged to the temple, just like all the masters before him.
“Anything more was greed.
Kalad quickly dismissed the thought.
He had lived his life as if his days were numbered.
He didn’t think he would be able to escape misery for even a single day.
calad fiddled with the ring on his left hand out of habit.
What he had expected to be the worst of contracted love had been better than expected.
At first, he thought Ines would use it as an excuse to be annoying or demanding.
But Ines didn’t ask for much from kalad.
He bought her a ring and asked her out on a date, that was all.
It was kalad who had the upper hand.
Dihas, who had been putting himself out of his misery, had quieted down.
“…….”
kalad thought of her hair, clear as a diamond in a ring.
Silver hair that sparkled in the sunlight.
Blue eyes that always looked straight at him.
kalad frowned to himself.
I’d been calad weird enough, but Ines was no slouch either.
While everyone else was busy avoiding me, she came to me directly.
She didn’t ran away, even though she had already witnessed several unfortunate incidents.
Eventually, kalad warned Ines bluntly.
-Maybe I was the reason for the fire.
-Did you still want to had me as your lover?
But the answer was not what he expected.
-You’ll get a few thunderbolts in your life.
-Maybe it was me, I’ve been a bit unlucky lately.
This was the first time anyone didn’t blame kalad.
Even my family blamed him for everything bad that happened to them.
Perhaps that was why Ines’ words still stuck in his head.
Kalad shook his head.
“Maybe there was something else I can use.
He had been through too much to trust someone in the heat of the moment.
A memory he’d long since forgotten came flooding back.
calad shook the thought away.
Upon his return to the Marquis of Asdeon, Calad went straight to his bedroom in the annex.
At dinnertime, a hired hand brought him a meal.
-Didn’t ate what the manor serves.
As Ines had advised, calad did not touch the food.
Instead, he scooped it up as if he had eaten it and threw it out the window.
He put the empty bowl out in the hallway, and soon heard it being cleaned up.
kalad finished his evening routine as usual.
By the time he washed and dressed, it was already night.
He turned off the bedroom light and sat down on his bed.
He kept his magic sword beside him, just in case.
[Excited].
[Finally, my time to shine!]
kalad lifted the covers and threw them over the sword.
[Oof.]
A little time passed, and the night fell silent.
Moonlight stretched through the window behind his back.
It reached the door across from my bed.
Then, without a sound, the bedroom door opened, shattering the moonlight in half.
The assassin had finally arrived.
“……What, you were awake?”
The assassins stirred as they locked eyes with kalad.
“I thought you gave us sleeping pills…… there was a mistake?”
“Don’t panic. There was only one master of the magic sword.”
The assassins drew their swords in unison.
“Die!”
Kalad was about to draw his sword as well.
Boom!
The window opposite shattered, and a group of men burst into the bedroom.
The assassins froze in place, staring at the new intruders.
Like the assassins, they were dressed head to toe in black.
A bizarre confrontation ensued.
The first three vigilantes.
Then the four newcomers.
They alone filled the small bedroom.
With a total of seven to deal with, the odds were stacked against kalad.
“……were you also here to kill the master of the magic sword?”
One of the first assassins asked, scanning the intruders.
When no answer came, he shouted.
“We were first. You were late, so watch and wait!”
Then one of the intruders spoke up.
“It doesn’t matter. You were our target.”
The intruders lunged at the assassins.
Panicked, the assassins immediately raised their swords.
Chaing.
The sound of clashing blades was sharp.
A short battle ensued in the narrow bedroom.
[What the hell, what the hell!]
[Why were you two fighting amongst yourselves?]
Magum shouted excitedly.
But Kalad didn’t know what was going on, so he couldn’t answer.
“I thought they were on the same side.
Kalad gripped his sword and watched the fight.
“Crack!”
In a flash, the fight was over.
The invaders had gained the upper hand.
When the last of the assassins fell, there was a lying silence.
A subtle tension hung in the air.
[“Use me, master!]
[My instincts tell me they were bad, too].
The magic sword clanged.
Kalad raised his sword, and the men lowered theirs.
“We’ll clean up the mess, you can rest easy.”
Kalad paused.
[were not they bad guys……?]
[What were they, my lord?]
[Were they assassins?]
Kalad asked on behalf of the curious Magum.
“Who sent you?”
“Lord Eldin.”
Kalad’s eyes widened.
The intruders had cleaned the floor and quietly left the bedroom.
The tidy bedroom looked as if nothing had happened.
Alone in the bedroom, kalad stared at his hands.
Suddenly, he remembered what Ines had said.
-I won’t let you get a drop of blood on your hands.
Ines had been true to her word.
***]
“Well, I’ll see you next time.”
After exchanging pleasantries with the client’s president, Ines turned around.
The deal was going well.
It was all thanks to his ability to see misfortune.
“I was going to have to dust you off.
Ines remembered the misery she’d seen in the president of her client.
He hadn’t lost any money yet, so he could get in and out quickly.
“You seem a bit more powerful than before.
Maybe it was because I’ve been using my abilities a lot lately.
The range of misfortune seemed to have increased.
Of course, the ability would still fade if I lost contact with Kalad.
It had increased the duration of the ability, but it wasn’t enough.
I searched for a way to fully regain my powers without Kalad but came up empty-handed.
No wonder.
I’ve never heard of anyone else having the ability to see misfortune.
There was still time, he decided, so he took it easy.
“And I saved the gold.
Ines changed kalad’s fate.
She hired another assassin to take care of the one who tried to kill him.
Luckily, Kalad was a good listener and didn’t take the poison or sleeping potion.
“What was next?”
Ines asked, and Shamor answered.
“I have a luncheon with the Duchess of Helios.”
“We had quite a bit of time. We can rest in the carriage for a bit before we went.”
Nodding, Shamore spoke again.
“Will you be attending the banquet?”
Ines remembered receiving an invitation to the palace banquet not long ago.
It was the Emperor’s birthday.
Every year, a grand banquet was held at the palace to celebrate the emperor’s new life.
“Maybe I’ll go this year.”
Shamore’s eyes narrowed.
Ines had never been to a palace banquet because she despised them.
“I can’t be bothered to explain.”
Even now that she had a ring on her finger, people still asked her about the rumors.
There was no better place to draw attention than the Imperial Palace Banquet…….
I thought I would officially declare my love there.
And at the banquet, I could see people I wouldn’t normally see.
Especially Ranier, who would be there.
-I told you I had to wear that dress!!!
Ines said, remembering Ranier’s misery at the tea party.
“Was the dress from the Rubisenon costume room ready?”
“They said it will be ready soon.”
Ines pulled up the corners of her mouth.
The smile made Shamore cringe.
It was the kind of smile she wore when she had something up her sleeve.
“I was ready,” Ines said with a smile.
“You had to reward people for hard work, right?”
