Chapter 3

While the drunk vagrants followed Maddie to the bar, the young noble quickly distanced himself from them.

He muttered while nervously running his hands through his hair.

“This damn slum, I can’t get used to it no matter how many times I come.”

The young noble climbed onto an old carriage waiting at the entrance of the slum.

“To the Grand Duke’s residence.”

“Yes, where… pardon?”

“Are you deaf? I said to the Rondenes Grand Duke’s residence.”

“Y-yes, yes!”

The coachman, startled, quickly started the carriage.

This was a precious guest.

None other than Grand Duke ‘Yulikian Kun Rondenes,’ His Imperial Majesty’s only nephew.

After a long ride, the carriage finally arrived at the Grand Duke’s residence.

The coachman clicked his tongue watching the Grand Duke stumble out, then turned the carriage around.

‘…How heartbroken would the late Lord Hailden have been if he saw this. He wouldn’t have imagined his son would become such a wreck. Tsk tsk.’

The sound of the coachman clicking his tongue reached Yulikian’s ears as he walked, pretending to stagger drunk. It was obvious what he was thinking. Surely lamenting how pathetic this was, mentioning his deceased parents.

Yulikian walked across the wide garden with a bitter smile.

They speak like that because they don’t know anything.

It’s not like he wanted to live like this.

How miserable the end was for his great and honest father and mother.

How powerlessly they crumbled before power.

Still, horribly vivid.

[Yulikian, you must live. No matter what happens, you must survive.]

He recalled his mother’s voice as she held his hand tightly with her pale face. Even after years, he couldn’t forget that coughing sound. Whether from the poison she had been taking, her breath rattled as if it would stop any moment – cough, and cough again. His mother’s coughing still tormented Yulikian.

“Your Grace! Have you had too much to drink? Oh my, you should have called us. Did you go to the slums again?”

Yulikian shook off the butler’s arm trying to support him. Behind Yulikian climbing the mansion stairs, he could hear the servants muttering.

“Oh dear, it’s drinks every day with him.”

“He’ll ruin his health, what should we do? He wasn’t like this before.”

Yulikian entered his room, carelessly threw off his shoes, and collapsed face-down on the bed.

He must survive.

…Then what? What would he do after surviving?

Though complicated thoughts troubled his mind, one thing was clear.

He couldn’t die like his father and mother.

The current Emperor, his uncle Rapadite Paragon Rondenes, had killed his father to claim the throne. Though it was just circumstantial evidence, his father, who was Crown Prince at the time, had no reason to commit suicide.

‘Because we were happy.’

Everything had been perfect, they were a harmonious family. Until his father went missing and floated up in the lake three months later.

Even now when he closed his eyes, he could vividly see that bloated mass, unrecognizable in the water.

His mother’s death was just as suspicious as his father’s. She wasted away from an unknown illness before suddenly passing away one day as if falling asleep. His mother’s poisoned corpse turned as bluish as his father’s. Yulikian, young at the time, couldn’t catch the culprit. Though he had his theories, he was in no position to even dare mention the perpetrator. He was the next Emperor, and it was clear Yulikian would be next.

So from then on, he pretended to be crazy.

He acted like a fool with no interest in politics, like a good-for-nothing wastrel. He would drink at the slightest provocation and squandered money recklessly.

And so the throne went to Rapadite Paragon Rondenes.

[Congratulations, Your Imperial Majesty.]

[Ah, Yulikian… Though it pains my heart that your father and mother passed in such a way, shouldn’t you at least pull yourself together?]

The Emperor patted Yulikian’s shoulder while detestably furrowing his brow. Recalling the day of Rapadite’s coronation, Yulikian couldn’t hold back and giggled.

“…When you’d kill me if I got my act together. When you’d remove any obstacle without leaving a trace… …When you’re the one who killed them all.”

Dear uncle makes such good jokes.

Yulikian closed his eyes while snickering. He had no idea when this insufferable fake life would end. He needed one powerful move that would make the Emperor completely lose interest in him.

* * *

Today’s drinking companion seemed to be quite nosy.

“Such a handsome fellow! Not married yet?”

“No.”

“No plans to?”

“No.”

Yulikian gave short answers while downing his clear orange whiskey. Yulikian Kun Rondenes had no intention of passing down the middle name ‘Kun,’ which was only given to the imperial family’s firstborn sons.

What’s the point of marriage? It would only mean one more person to die with him. What would be their crime?

The House of Rondenes would disappear with Yulikian.

Just then, the bar got noisy.

“I told you I’m here on business!”

“Pay your tab before coming back!”

“Hey Maddie, you still haven’t paid your tab?”

It was that woman again. He’d deliberately come to a different bar from last time, and yet…

She seemed to frequent every corner of the slums. She looked practically homeless in a shawl that seemed about to tear apart, picked up from who knows where. Yet the brooch fastening the middle of the shawl looked quite expensive. It looked like real sapphire… wait.

…Somehow familiar.

Maddie, with a bright smile, removed the brooch and held it out to the owner.

“Ta-da! The magic brooch that’ll keep our dear owner from kicking me out! It was pinned to some noble young master’s chest when I met him the other day! Whew, you can tell at a glance how expensive it is~”

Yulikian’s eyes widened as he felt his left chest.

Of course, it wasn’t there now.

His memory of that day was hazy. But he did seem to remember wearing a brooch of that shape. The bar owner raised his voice in disgust.

“What?! So you stole it! Ugh, hey! I don’t want it!”

“I didn’t steal it, he dropped it! He never came looking for it?! So I’m using it to help a poor unfortunate neighbor like myself.”

“…You take responsibility if anything happens.”

“Of course! Sister! Leave it to me!”

Maddie confidently answered and ordered a drink, moving toward the back of the bar.

That’s when their eyes met.

He expected her to be flustered. After all, she’d just met eyes with the real owner of the brooch she’d stolen, or at least failed to return.

But Maddie approached, cheerfully waving.

“We meet again?”

“Are you really crazy?”

The honest thought escaped his lips before he could stop it.

“I’m only a little crazy.”

“You’ve got nerve to talk after paying your tab with someone else’s brooch.”

“If we’d played poker a little longer that night, I would’ve stripped you bare from head to toe. One brooch is getting off cheap.”

“…You really are out of your mind.”

“Well, yeah. The brooch was too shameless, wasn’t it? I’ll try my best to pay back the change. Let’s see each other often from now on. I like you. You’re handsome.”

“I don’t need that pittance, so stop talking to me. Get lost.”

Just exchanging a few words with this woman was exhausting. Yulikian ignored Maddie and started drinking. Maddie, perhaps possessing at least minimal conscience, stopped trying to talk to him.

After drinking for a while, Yulikian paid and went outside.

He seemed to have drunk more than usual, trying to drown out the noise of Maddie’s rowdy drinking at a nearby table. She was irritating every time he saw her. Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine.

‘…Could she be sent by the Emperor?’

Meeting her by chance every time he came drinking in the slums was suspicious enough, and it was strange that she carried firearms despite clearly being from the lower class. Yulikian started walking quickly to catch a carriage.

Another set of footsteps overlapped from behind.

When he walked faster, the person behind sped up; when he slowed down, they slowed too.

He still had quite a way to walk before reaching the carriages.

The cold night air brushed against Yulikian’s cheeks. He instinctively placed his hand on the sword at his waist.

His fingertips started trembling at the thought that he might be kidnapped like his father and his body might surface in some unknown place.

But the following footsteps simply kept pace for several minutes, showing no other movement.

Finally, unable to bear it anymore, Yulikian turned around irritably.

Maddie, who had been walking quite far behind, jumped in surprise and turned around too.

They were the only two people on the empty street.

Yulikian barely suppressed his rising anger as he watched the back of Maddie’s head as she turned.

“Hey. Why are you following me? Planning another pickpocket?”

“Am I allowed to talk to you now?”

“What?!”

“Earlier you said not to talk to you. Is it okay now?”

“No.”

“From your appearance and that distinctive hair, you must be His Grace the Grand Duke, right?”

Why even ask if you’re not going to listen to the answer?

Yulikian glared at her while cursing internally.

“Stop following me. Before I throw you in prison for insulting royalty. I don’t want to waste words on the likes of you.”

Yulikian turned around without feeling any guilt for his harsh words.

He walked quickly, taking shortcuts to prevent Maddie from following.

The moment he entered a dark alley without a single lamp, someone threw a black cloth over his face.

“Ugh!”

Just as he habitually tried to draw his sword to slash at his attacker, something hard struck the back of his head.

There seemed to be more than one enemy.

A thin rope started choking his neck. It became increasingly hard to breathe.

“Kuhak!”

A coughing sound identical to his mother’s escaped his throat.

Just as he thought he was going to die like this.

The assailant choking him seemed to be struck by something, falling with a thud.

Yulikian, thrown to the ground with the attacker, coughed repeatedly while desperately breathing in the sweet oxygen finally reaching his lungs.

He threw off the mask with trembling hands.

Though it was hard to make out figures in the alley without a single light, one thing was certain.

Someone was moving with ghostlike speed, taking care of the attackers.

As his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, he could make it out.

It was Maddie.

She had her shawl wrapped around a large man’s neck from behind, strangling him as if about to perform a throw. Maddie quickly stepped up the wall one foot at a time and used her body weight to kick off with all her might. The large man being strangled smashed his head into the opposite wall.

The man’s forehead split open with a thud.

“Ugh!”

As the attacker staggered from the impact, the moment there was a gap in the shawl choking his neck, he reached back to grab Maddie’s collar and spin her in front of him.

Maddie, unfazed, gripped the man’s wrists firmly with both hands while immediately driving her knee up into his chin. Then she struck his forehead with her elbow, right in the center where it had just been split from hitting the wall.

“ARGH!”

She hooked her foot behind the heel of the large man as he was about to fall, toppling him toward another man rushing in with a sword. The man who had been wrestling with Maddie got stabbed in the chest by the other man’s sword.

The moment the two fell to the ground in a heap, Maddie quickly pulled out a dagger from her clothes and swiftly stabbed each assassin’s neck once before withdrawing the blade.

Her movements were clean and efficient, without any wasted motion.

“…H-hey.”

“Shh. Just a moment.”

Maddie raised her index finger to silence Yulikian, who sat there dumbfounded, as she searched the men’s possessions.

“…Surely you’re not trying to steal wallets from assassins too? Even for you…”

Though she had helped him, the situation was so sudden that his mind wasn’t working properly, and harsh words escaped his mouth.

But Maddie just smiled breezily and pulled something from the men’s possessions, holding it out to Yulikian.

“Here, your change for the brooch.”

“What, what…?”

Yulikian accepted the items she held out as if in a trance.

As their eyes met in the darkness, he noticed for the first time that her eyes were green.

She flashed a bright smile and quickly disappeared toward the opposite end of the alley.

Yulikian escaped to the lit street and quickly checked what was in his hands.

A small portrait with his likeness and a substantial amount of gold coins.

These men weren’t simple robbers – they were clearly assassins targeting Yulikian.

That crazy Maddie had just saved his life.

In that moment, a brilliant – or perhaps bizarre – plan flashed through Yulikian’s mind.