By Zephyria 
I dodged the sword that came at me quickly. I swiftly moved to the fallen man and snatched his sword.
In the blink of an eye, the man approached from behind and swung his sword again. I put strength into the hand holding the sword, deflected the blow, and aimed the tip at his vital point, but hesitated.
‘No matter what, you must never kill someone carelessly.’
In that fleeting moment, Mahir’s earnest voice echoed in my mind, and my body moved on its own, causing the sword to stray from its course.
No, but that guy is a thief!
‘If someone commits a crime, they should be tried according to the law and receive a punishment befitting their crime. If you kill someone just because they are a criminal, that’s just murder.’
“Ugh, damn it.”
The words I had heard from Mahir, as if he were lecturing right next to me, came to mind without a single word missing. Isn’t this almost brainwashing? I cursed, lowered my sword, and kicked the man in the abdomen.
With a groan, the man lost his balance, stumbled backward, and fell. I approached the fallen man, pointed my sword at him, and said,
“If you stay still, I’ll spare your life……”
“……”
“……?”
“……”
I was saying that I would spare his life if he stayed still, but the eyes that had been glaring at me from the darkness rolled back. It happened in an instant.
While I was puzzled, the man’s body lost its balance and fell to the side. I frowned, stared blankly at the fallen man, and then cut off the mask covering his face with the tip of my sword.
“……”
Red froth bubbled out of the black lips of the man with his eyes rolled back.
I moved and approached the man who had been hit by the stone earlier. When I cut off his mask as well, I saw the same frothy blood coming from his blackened lips.
“No……”
I stared at the already self-destructed thieves with a dumbfounded expression and then frowned.
Judging by the black lips, they must have ingested poison. This was definitely not something ordinary thieves would do.
This was not something I could handle alone; I needed to call the guards. As I was about to turn around, I suddenly realized that the face of the man whose mask had been removed was particularly pale.
I approached the dead man, squatted down, and carefully examined his face. It was hard to see clearly because it was covered in blood, but judging by his features, he was a foreigner.
What was even more surprising was that I felt like I had seen this face somewhere before.
“Why does he look so familiar?”
I don’t know any foreigners separately? Is it just because he has a common face? Where on earth……
Then, an idea flashed through my mind, and I stood up abruptly and went to the secret passage. I cleared away the ivy that had grown around the old pavilion next to the small fountain, and a device appeared that could open the entrance to the secret passage.
And I found bloodstains smeared around the handle of the device.
I had a feeling that it would be too late if I called the guards. Overcome by an ominous premonition, I grabbed the handle and pulled it down hard, and the pavilion moved, revealing the entrance to a passage leading downwards.
There were more than one or two suspicious points, but that was not the problem now. That man was definitely one of the Servants Aegis had brought with him when he came to Actan.
I jumped down without hesitation.
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The dark passage, without a single light, was humid, narrow, and long. Judging by the bloodstains scattered here and there on the floor, which had not yet hardened, I could catch up soon.
As I walked, the thought belatedly occurred to me whether this was the right thing to do. But I couldn’t turn back now, and if Aegis was involved, it was better to find out what was going on, even if it meant taking risks.
I needed to determine whether Aegis had come here with other intentions, or whether her Servant…… or, to be precise, whether the Calderia Kingdom had other intentions.
Of course, there was a high probability that they had the same intentions, but first, I needed solid evidence and a reason.
After walking for a long time through the long, dark path, I saw a faint light in the distance. I paid attention to silence my footsteps and approached a little closer, and I heard voices.
“Why isn’t he here yet?”
“I think we should just abandon him.”
“No. If the Servant dies, there will be no one to testify.”
“We can just forge it. From the beginning, bringing him alive was……”
I was listening quietly to them rattling on about important things when suddenly the back of my neck prickled. I put strength into the hand holding the sword and swung my arm, and there was a clang as metal collided.
A man in a black mask was glaring at me, having arrived unnoticed. The guys who had been talking had also approached and surrounded me.
“Damn it, that’s Prince Kyle!”
“How did he find out about this place?”
“Is he alone?”
I frowned because my ears were ringing from the sporadic shouts. They exchanged glances and then rushed at me as if they had planned it. I could easily tell that they were not just trying to injure me, but really trying to kill me.
Mahir had told me not to kill people carelessly. He had always emphasized that even people who had committed great crimes should be fairly tried and receive a punishment befitting their crimes.
There was an exception.
‘If someone is after your life, show no mercy to whoever it is.’
Judging by the murderous intent on the tip of their swords, they were definitely trying to kill me, so I didn’t need to hesitate any longer. I dodged the sword aimed precisely at my neck and swung my arm.
I plunged my sword into the shoulder of the man closest to me and cut off his arm, and blood spurted out like a fountain. I deflected another incoming sword and deeply slashed the side of another man. I saw his leg buckle.
I quickly turned my gaze to find the remaining man. He had already run away, his back to me, moving away. I moved my legs and checked on the man whose arm had been cut off a moment ago, and I saw his eyes rolled back. And the man whose side had been slashed also seemed to have chewed poison, as only the whites of his eyes were visible.
Outside the narrow passage was a small cave with groundwater. The man was picking up something wrapped tightly in rope and lying on the floor, and he hesitated for a moment. Then, the moment he met my eyes, he threw it into the water.
At the same time as the splash, I quickly rushed at the man. He didn’t even seem to think about drawing his sword, as if he was going to commit suicide right away, so I reached out and grabbed his lower jaw, which was covered by a black mask, roughly.
Then, I struck his jaw hard with the hilt of my sword to break his bones and prevent him from chewing poison, and I cut the tendons of his limbs. With the sudden turn of events, his large body slumped.
“Ughhhhh!”
The man, collapsed on the floor with his jaw broken, made strange noises and writhed like a worm. I threw away the sword I was holding, removed his mask, and shoved my fingers into the man’s mouth. I felt something strange that wasn’t a tooth when I groped around his molars.
Is this the poison? I was going to pull out his molars in case something happened, but he kept struggling, making it difficult. If the poison exploded, it would be a disaster, so I had no choice but to hit him on the head to knock him out.
If I killed them all, I wouldn’t be able to find out the whole story, so it was better to keep one alive.
The moment the man, who had been making strange noises and writhing, became quiet, I quickly moved back to the groundwater. Even though quite a bit of time had passed, it wasn’t floating up, so it seemed like something heavy was attached to its body.
I roughly took off only my outer clothes and jumped in. Unlike what I had seen from above, the water was quite deep and wide. I was worried that it might have drifted away, but fortunately, a white cloth was caught on a rock, fluttering in the current.
I couldn’t see even a finger properly, let alone a face, because it was wrapped so tightly in cloth. The tangled clothes wouldn’t come loose, so I ended up tearing them apart with force and barely managed to get out.
“Puhah!”
As soon as I came out of the water, I laid the person, whoever it was, on the stone floor and wiped away the tangled cloth and hair to check their face.
“……”
I hoped it wasn’t, but it was really Aegis.
I stared at her pale face for a moment, then raised my hand and lightly slapped her cheek.
“Aegis.”
I shook her shoulders, but there was no response, so I lowered my head and put my ear close to her face. After staying still for a moment, I raised my head and this time put my ear to her chest.
“What?”
I was flustered and wiped the dripping face with the back of my hand, then once again put my hand under Aegis’s nose.
“She’s really not breathing……”
Aegis had died. It seemed I was too late.
“……”
Looking at the pale, limp Aegis, I calmly assessed the situation. Why on earth had this happened, why were the Servants from Calderia trying to kill Aegis, and was there any way to save Aegis somehow?
But there was no way to revive someone who was already dead……
By ingesting blood…… but inefficient…… depending on the opinion, limbs bound with livestock…… Aegis lost, merely a supply…… various tortures and long…… death……
Then, the contents of the parchment I had seen in the tower suddenly came to mind. It was too old and worn to read the letters properly, but it was definitely written like that.
‘By ingesting blood.’
That was all, and the rest of the content was lost, but……
“……”
Wouldn’t it be worth a try? No, of course…… there was no content about what would happen by ingesting blood, but…… wasn’t my ancestor not human? Then, by ingesting blood, maybe some kind of effect could occur?
No, now was not the time to be thinking about this. I quickly looked around and found the man who had been knocked out by my head a moment ago.
“……”
There was a lot of blood there, but it felt uncomfortable to feed Aegis the blood of the man who had tried to kill her. But I couldn’t get any other blood here……
I had no choice but to take the sword and cut the tip of my finger. Then, I gently pressed her pale lips to open her mouth and put the bloodied finger inside.
But when I thought about it, there was no way Aegis, who wasn’t breathing, could swallow the blood. But I couldn’t just shove the bleeding finger all the way down her throat……
“Ugh, damn it, really.”
I took out the finger I had put in Aegis’s mouth and again took the sword and cut my palm a little deeper and longer this time. Then, I brought the dripping red blood to my mouth and sucked it as much as possible.
I felt sick when I tasted the fishy taste in my mouth, but there was no time to complain. I sucked out as much blood as possible, held it in my mouth, and pulled Aegis’s neck to raise her upper body.
I put my lips to her parted lips and sealed them so there was no gap. As I passed the blood in my mouth, I belatedly felt a sense of futility about what I was really doing, but it was better than doing nothing.
After confirming that the blood was passing into Aegis’s throat, I took my lips off. I wiped the blood around my mouth with my sleeve and brought my ear to her face.
“……”
1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds…….
And after a while, a small, faint breath came out as if by a lie. I looked up at Aegis with a dumbfounded expression.
“It really works?”
No, the sound about blood or something was right? I did it thinking it was worth a try? Or is it just a coincidence?
But anyway, the most important thing was that Aegis was breathing again. Relieved, I cut the rope with the iron lumps wrapped around Aegis’s body and took off her wet, sticky clothes.