By Zephyria 
I no longer had the strength to laugh. I woke up Benjamin, who was sleeping with a ‘dororong dororong’ sound. As soon as I placed my hand on his shoulder, his snoring stopped. A slight shake, and Benjamin immediately opened his eyes.
With a bewildered look, Benjamin looked at me, then around, and as soon as he saw Marianne, he shot up and sat. The way he wiped his face with his dry hands was like a kitten washing its face in the morning.
As he still seemed half-asleep, I was about to massage Benjamin’s shoulder when Rubel suddenly groaned, drawing my attention. Following Rubel’s lead, I grasped the child’s shoulder. Did he have a fever? It had become quite warm.
“⋯Are you feeling unwell?”
“Yes. Here⋯.”
Was it from sleeping poorly, or was his Qi and blood still not fully recovered?
Worried, I pressed down on the line from Rubel’s nape to his trapezius. Benjamin, paying no mind, immediately turned his gaze to Hugh Benson.
“⋯Where is this place?”
“Roughly, Sierren Intelligence Agency’s secret base. What do you remember up to?”
“My last memory is of the dormitory. There was a battle⋯.”
Benjamin was never one for many words. If you asked him something, he would think for a long time and it would often take an hour or two to get an answer. Hugh Benson, knowing him well, asked specific questions to elicit a simpler response.
“Raul brought three Sword Masters. Four attackers in total. Correct?”
“Um⋯. There was one more Mercenary. Five in total. Raul and the Mercenary who came later just watched, though.”
“How long did you hold out?”
“I held out until Rubel senior collapsed. About⋯ 23 minutes?”
“Against two Sword Masters?”
“I gave up attacking and only defended.”
Amazing and commendable. Benjamin spoke in a calm tone throughout, but it was something that couldn’t be achieved with ordinary willpower. Of course, even among the highest-ranked Sword Experts, there were clear distinctions in skill, and even if Benjamin’s skill was among the top tier, it wasn’t something to be spoken of so lightly.
Hugh Benson asked again.
“Do you remember the intruders’ names or anything else?”
“No. Well⋯. The Sword Masters wore masks and didn’t say a word. Judging by their builds, there seemed to be two women and one man⋯. I just thought it was time for me to go⋯.”
Seeing the grim expressions of the others, Benjamin fell silent. He must have thought it was an inappropriate joke. He adjusted his posture and continued speaking with a more polite tone than before.
“I saw Raul giving something to Your Highness to eat. He was checking his breathing, so it didn’t seem like he intended to kill Your Highness immediately. I thought it would be better to be captured together than to die here, so I gave up resisting. I had also lost a lot of blood, so I didn’t have the strength to hold on any longer⋯.”
“⋯.”
“As soon as I surrendered, they told me to open my mouth. So I took the same medicine. It wasn’t a pill or a potion, but a powder to inhale, so I couldn’t spit it out secretly.”
“And then?”
“Before I could even count to three, my consciousness faded. And now, here I am.”
“⋯You took⋯ medicine?”
Rubel was greatly flustered, as if hearing this for the first time.
It was fortunate that we at least learned the form of the drug that poisoned the children. I could deploy my Aura Barrier, so if I timed it right, I could repel powdered poisonous substances.
Rubel pulled my wrist, drawing my gaze back to the child. He still looked bewildered and asked cautiously.
“By any chance. ⋯How many days has it been since that day?”
“Six days. No, since midnight has passed, it’s been a week today.”
“⋯A week?”
Rubel, startled, was about to say something more when a loud clap of hands interrupted him. Hugh Benson, who had been watching, did it to gather everyone’s attention. As always, he spoke with a clear voice and gave a direct order.
“We’ll ask about that later. For now, let’s discuss what we need to ask the hostage immediately.”
Rubel, who had been hesitating, quickly replied.
“We should first ask if he knows the identity of the mastermind and how many people are involved in this. If there are three Sword Masters⋯.”
“Four. We saw four Sword Masters, and there could be more. The enemies’ level and scale. And?”
Then Marianne quickly raised her right hand.
“Raul was the one who first brought up the Diamant family, wasn’t he? Diamant isn’t their base, is it?”
“⋯It could be.”
“We need to know where they originally intended to take Benjamin, Young Master, after kidnapping him.”
Then Tedros, after hesitating, also raised his right hand.
‘Why are they copying this?’ I thought, chuckling. Hugh Benson nodded, and Tedros quickly recounted the details of their earlier conversation before the two woke up.
“We found mercenaries in similar conditions in eight out of about four hundred Semora-Gula mansions in Bardiol. Each mansion housed anywhere from four to eighteen individuals, and knights or mercenaries of the highest-ranked Sword Expert level or above were guarding them.”
“How many? How many Sword Masters are there?”
“That⋯.”
“We couldn’t identify them.”
“Yes. Because the number of individuals not from Owen was significant. However, among the mercenaries from Owen, it seemed like they had gathered all the Sword Masters.”
After a moment of thought, he asked again.
“Are there any who gathered the captured individuals in empty mansions, like the ones we caught this time?”
“No. We checked the empty mansions immediately after that incident, but there were none. This time⋯. For some reason, they hesitated instead of heading straight to their destination⋯.”
Tedros, unable to answer immediately and hesitating, met Rubel’s gaze. Rubel then let out a shallow sigh and nodded.
“It must have been because of me.”
“Yes? Why because of Your Highness?”
“Just now, Young Lady Marianne said we need to know where they intended to take Young Master Benjamin. If their original target was Young Master Benjamin and they rushed into an empty mansion for some reason⋯.”
“⋯Hmm.”
“It’s natural to assume they evacuated, fearing they might cause trouble if recognized. My face is well-known even in foreign countries.”
Ah. I seemed to recall hearing something like that. I agreed and added my thoughts.
“That’s right. After Senior Benson left⋯. I saw the people there scolding Raul for not identifying his opponent properly. They even yelled at him, asking if he didn’t know who the client was.”
“⋯.”
“Raul, didn’t he know you were from the Academy, Senior?”
“He did.”
“Did he really not know you were Your Highness?”
Hugh Benson couldn’t answer immediately.
Groaning, he ran his hands through his hair. When he lifted his head, two small horns protruded from the sides of his black hair. Despite looking ridiculous, Benson spoke with a firm and serious expression.
“Your Highness wore such a thick veil, how could he have known? Moreover, there are no people in Owen who would recognize your faces. The time Raul and we encountered each other was very brief⋯. If he thought deeply about it, he would have just assumed they were my juniors.”
“⋯Then why, specifically, us who know Senior?”
“Because they were in a hurry, or.”
A grinding sound was heard.
“Because they wanted to mess with me. One of the two.”
“⋯I’m sorry. I didn’t know there was such a deep animosity⋯.”
“No, it’s not that deep. Although that bastard has a bit of a sticky-fingered habit⋯. I fought him about⋯ four times? Five, no, damn it. Even if he messed with me, it was just like having a stomachache for a day. Unless the bastard was crazy⋯.”
Hugh Benson’s brow furrowed deeper as he spoke.
It was hard to decide whether to be glad that the veil Rubel wore had successfully hidden his identity, or to blame him for getting entangled in such a dangerous situation.
Rubel leaned his cheek against my forearm, breathing shallowly. I looked down at him with pity.
“I heard there was one⋯ captured. How many bodies disappeared?”
“Three.”
“⋯What?”
Rubel asked me, but it was Hugh Benson who answered. Rubel looked at Hugh Benson with wide, surprised eyes. The moment I noticed the tips of his fingers trembling as he tightly gripped my hand, something sank in my chest.
Hugh replied nonchalantly.
“Yes. I killed them.”
“⋯.”
“I did it because I thought we would die otherwise, so stop staring.”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
No.
Hugh Benson never killed anyone. It was I who had unhesitatingly drawn my killing sword.
It was Elvin’s sword that took the life of the third man, but if he hadn’t, I would have. I had full killing intent from the very beginning. Even after that, I felt no guilt for taking human lives, only the joy of victory.
How many more would they have captured, poisoned, and sent to their deaths? Those who counted the number of people to kidnap and worried about their meals were, in my eyes, clear villains, deserving of death a thousand times over.
However, seeing Rubel flinch and grip my sleeve, and Hugh Benson so nonchalantly take the blame for my sins, I felt strongly that something was wrong. I immediately opened my mouth.
“No. I killed them.”
“⋯What?”
Hugh Benson, leaning against the wall, clicked his tongue and scratched the back of his head.
I looked down at Rubel, who was still sitting on the bed, holding my hand. I felt a strange fear looking into the child’s clear eyes. I slowly savored the bewilderment, trembling, fear, and slight disappointment in Rubel’s gaze. Then I spoke again in a clear voice.
“It wasn’t because Senior ordered me to, it was entirely my own will.”
“⋯That was to save me⋯.”
“It’s not Rubel’s fault. It’s just that I⋯.”
Could I lose Rubel’s heart over this?
My clasped hands grew damp. I couldn’t tell if it was my cold sweat or the heat from his hand. I knew the laws of the Central Plains and Sierren were different. I thought I had learned and fully mastered them. But when my emotions ran high, I forgot everything. I⋯.
Hugh Benson cut off my attempt to say more.
“Yes. It’s not Your Highness’s fault. But it’s not your fault either.”
I blinked slowly. Hugh Benson beckoned with a nod.
“Mikael, let’s talk for a moment.”
“⋯Yes.”
Rubel didn’t want to let go of my hand. It was always I who let go of our clasped hands first. Today was no different. Had there ever been a day when it was this difficult to look directly into the child’s clean eyes?
“I’ll be back soon,” the habitual phrase, was it for Rubel, or for myself? Leaving behind the words of comfort on my bitter tongue, I followed Hugh Benson out of the room.