Chapter 146

Chapter 146: Points in Common

Ferda left the forest and headed toward the village.
Hestia Village.
There, he looked for a house and knocked on its door.
No sound came from within.
Just in case, he slipped a shadow in to unlatch the lock and opened the door.
He wasn’t in the room.
Where had he gone then?
A place the stable keeper could enter to protect the princess.
«He might be there».
The place Ferda headed toward was the Village of Inns.
It was an area created to accommodate numerous adventurers; now it was used by the occasional peddler, while the adventurers had departed in droves like flowing water.
Ferda was able to locate the spot without difficulty.
Because, although deep night had settled, only one place had its lantern lit.
When Ferda opened the door, a bell chimed ‘ding-dong’.
— We’re closed today.
Ignoring the innkeeper’s greeting, Ferda scanned the interior.
As expected, there was a man.
It was William.
He had ordered a drink and was seated at a corner table.
Their gazes met.
A myriad of emotions crossed.
— Hello.
The innkeeper kept persistently trying to start a conversation.
Ferda planned to snap his wrist if he so much as touched him.
— Innkeeper. Do not do anything rude.
William stopped the innkeeper who was about to turn rough.
A gesture saying he would handle this.
Only then did the innkeeper step back, and Ferda approached William.
William stood up from his seat and greeted him.
— Greetings, Regent-nim. What brings you here in the middle of the night…?
— I came for a drink. And you?
— I came for a drink as well. I couldn’t sleep.
— You said at the castle you wouldn’t drink because of a hangover.
— True. I should have had a few glasses of fine wine inside.
Silence settled.
Amidst tension akin to walking on thin ice, Ferda opened his mouth.
— So, how many glasses have you had?
Ferda glared at him.
— Just two for now.
William looked away.
— You don’t look drunk for someone who has had two.
— I’m the type whose face doesn’t show it.
— I see. Would you mind if I bought you another?
William answered politely.
— No need. I’ve had enough…
— Are you rejecting a drink from the lord of this Hestia Village right now?
Ferda spoke calmly, but his gaze was anything but ordinary.
— I apologize. Excessive indulgence is not a knightly virtue. I would ask you to postpone that drink until tomorrow—.
— Then you will accept the penalty.
Ferda drew the penalty object.
It was a dagger.
— If you won’t drink, shouldn’t you pay the price?
…..
William kept his mouth shut.
Ferda’s eyes questioned him.
Did you take the princess?
William neither affirmed nor denied.
As the saying goes, silence is consent; without a doubt, it was an affirmation.
«Please».
Ferda felt killing intent boil within him.
He wanted to snap this bastard’s neck.
Ferda pressed his lips tight and, leaving the silent man behind, called out to the innkeeper.
— Innkeeper.
— Y-Yes!
Even his rough attitude shifted once he realized he was the Regent.
— How many guests are staying in this inn?
— Well, that is…
— Don’t rack your brain. I don’t have the leisure to be gentle right now.
— O-One person.
— A woman?
— Y-Yes, she is.
— Understood.
Ferda tossed something to the innkeeper.
It was a single gold coin.
— Go pee outside. For about 2 hours.
— Y-Yes? You’re telling me to leave…
— I don’t care if you watch what happens here. But what’s above your neck will end up on the floor. Do you want that?
— I-I’m sorry! I’ll go pee far away and come back!
The innkeeper grabbed the gold coin and bolted out of the inn.
Sensing his presence fade, Ferda began to speak again.
— Now stop remaining silent and answer me. If the knight still remains in your chest, that is.
— …Understood.
William nodded as if he had no choice.
— What were you thinking by pulling this maneuver?
— That person… was weeping as if she had suffered a terrible wrong. Saying she didn’t want to be in a place like this, begging to be taken far away.
— So you laid a hand on her?
— Laid a hand on her…?
Crunch!
Ferda’s dagger pierced through the back of William’s hand.
Bright red blood welled up.
— Ugh…!
He let out a short groan of pain, and Ferda spoke in a chilling voice.
— Questions get answers.
— …I didn’t touch a single hair on her head. How could a mere security captain, not even a knight, dare covet the princess’s chastity?
The worst-case scenario was avoided.
The urge to wring his neck softened as well.
— Speak.
Ferda questioned him.
— What dream were you dreaming? Did you think running away like this would make the princess open her heart to you?
— I… watched the princess closely as her aide.
William spoke.
— I was prejudiced because she was a princess, but she was an exemplary leader and a role model.
— As a soldier, couldn’t I simply watch her suffer such injustice?
Ferda stared directly into his face.
If that vaunted chivalry was merely a scheme to justify his actions, he intended to slit his throat without hesitation.
— The princess… was trying to make the worst decision.
— Which is?
— She tried to commit suicide. With a dagger…
She had finally broken down under the injustice heaped upon her.
— I barely managed to snatch the dagger away when she was attempting suicide.
— And? What does that have to do with what you did now?
— She begged me. She said there was nothing in the world left to trust, to please take her somewhere far away, even if only for a short time… So we came here together.
It was absurd.
Ferda asked him in anger.
— Can you not tell right from wrong? You are not a knight; you are a security captain. You disrupt the peace and think I will forgive you?
— …Of course not.
William didn’t believe his actions were right either.
— But if I turn a blind eye to the injustice against a comrade with whom I shared life and death, isn’t that the same as robbing her of her achievements?
He said he followed his convictions through and through.
If anyone else had spoken those words, he would have dismissed them as a cowardly, pathetic excuse, but William was different.
He could have dodged, blocked, or counterattacked the dagger flying at the back of his hand, yet he did not.
Even with his hand impaled, there was no venom in his eyes.
He simply accepted it with humility, as though he had known this outcome all along.
It is noble if called noble, but poison if called poison.
— Why didn’t you report to me?
It was impossible at this moment. So he intended to report the progress tomorrow morning.
— What progress?
— The princess’s condition is not good right now.
— That’s not something you should be worrying about, is it?
— Th… that is correct…
Ferda thought to himself.
“What should I do with this bastard?”
Right now, he couldn’t be certain.
Ferda released the dagger.
— Stop the bleeding yourself. And wait.
— …Yes.
Leaving William behind, Ferda climbed the stairs.
A place where candlelight flickered faintly in pitch darkness.
Ferda opened the door without knocking.
The door wasn’t locked either.
As if someone knew they were coming.
Inside was the princess the stable boy had abducted.
The moment Ferda saw her, he was startled.
It was a state that made William’s words about checking her condition understandable.
— Olivia Arken… are you really the princess?
Blonde hair, blue eyes.
He didn’t know where she had gotten it, but her waist was loose while her chest was tight.
The smudged makeup and disheveled hair of the princess created a strangely erotic atmosphere.
It was bizarre.
At the same time, he understood how she had escaped and come along with him.
Looking like that, she was entirely different from the Olivia Ferda knew.
Only the makeup and atmosphere had changed, yet she felt like a complete stranger.
Olivia glanced sideways at Ferda.
— What are you doing? Don’t come in.
Ferda stepped inside.
Olivia brought the mouth of the liquor bottle she was holding to her lips.
She gulped it down heavily.
Poof!
She wiped her mouth messily with her hand.
Thinking of her as a princess, her actions were vulgar to a bizarre degree.
— You’re here.
— Yes, I am here. Did you find me surprisingly well?
— The Empire has been turned upside down.
— I know. Someone stole a jewel, it would be strange if it weren’t upside down.
Olivia scoffed as if they had it coming.
She had called herself a jewel before, but this was the first time there was genuine emotion behind it.
She rolled her eyes and looked sideways at Ferda.
Eyes that had lost their light and an empty, drunken expression reflexively sent a danger signal.
— What did you do to Aide William?
Ferda replied.
— I will punish him. He kidnapped the princess.
— Don’t do that. The problem is me, who knows all too well how to use a man like that. A rigid guy like him easily yields if you threaten him with a knife.
Her eyes turned toward Ferda again.
— Unlike someone who has zero interest.
She brought the mouth of the bottle to her lips again.
— Stop drinking.
Ferda restrained her verbally.
— Why? Is it unpleasant because a woman is chugging from a bottle?
— Anyone who does that is unpleasant.
— Right? Yeah, sure… I hate it too. Pathetically relying on alcohol.
Pathetic…
She flinched upon hearing herself curse openly.
With a tottering motion despite being seated, she raised the bottle again.
— I truly hated it too. People who get drunk and lose their minds… I truly despised them.
…..
— If you have time to be sad, you should try harder, live tenaciously, right? Yet pathetically escaping reality instead.
…..
— But… I understand the feelings of those people I despised. I tried and tried, but effort simply bears no fruit. Do you know why?
…..
She pointed to the ceiling.
— Because the dog bastards in those high positions block the way.
Hehehe.
She laughed and tilted the bottle again.
Thwack!
She slammed it down with enough force to shatter the table.
She swept back the hair that had fallen over her face with the bottle.
In her hand was a single dagger.
Ferda looked at the dagger and then asked Olivia.
— What will you do from now on?
— The future…
Olivia leaned back against the headboard and let the words spill out.
— What future is there? Just like other young ladies, merely tossing out empty laughter and saying things I don’t feel, hee-hee ha-ha, that will be all. Do you know what that looks like?
— I don’t know.
— A prostitute.
Olivia rested her chin on her hand and stared fixedly at Ferda.
— Regent-nim, have you ever been with a prostitute?
Now that she’s drunk, she’s spouting all sorts of nonsense.
— Never.
— Then that works. I’ll play that role for you. Come here.
— Don’t do something you’ll regret.
— Why? There are types of prostitutes too. Cheap ones pulling cheap tricks. High-class ones with the knowledge to act with elegance. They say mages entertain themselves with those high-class prostitutes.
— Is that so?
— Are you thinking that right now? Why a human called a princess knows so much about high-class prostitutes?
…..
— You just learn naturally. Do you know what the difference between the two is?
— …I don’t know.
— Try to guess. Come on, don’t keep your mouth shut. I’m annoyed. Don’t annoy me.
Emotions were escalating.
The dagger in her hand gleamed fiercely.
She probably wouldn’t use it to attack Ferda.
She likely intended to use it to harm herself.
That was the worst-case scenario for Ferda.
— Status, probably.
— Status! What is status? Lineage? That noble, boasted golden blood?
— Probably.
— Probably my ass. Is that status thing useless?
…..
— Men might be different, but if you’re born a woman, you’re just an ornament. Whether the husband is pathetic or great, your job is to please him. What’s the difference from a prostitute?
Hearing her lament felt as though his mind were being contaminated.
Ferda shouldn’t care what happened to her, yet even thinking that bothered him.
— Because that’s how they treat you, even if you commanded a battlefield, the young master bastards moving through that chain of command say they are superior. Hehe, dog bastards.
— Your mouth is foul, Princess.
— Why? Did you think I’m a flower garden bitch who can’t even utter such vulgar curses?
He shouldn’t have said that.
From that moment on, Olivia’s tongue unleashed a torrent.
— These damned bastards, all staring at my chest. Trying to fuck me, trying to touch me, slickly moving their hands. Do you think I didn’t know? Dog bastards. If you’re so great, shouldn’t you at least acknowledge what I did?
Olivia spitting out curses.
Then she looked at Ferda with eyes full of resentment.
— Are you the same, Ferda-ssi?
— …What do you mean?
— Tell me honestly. You’re a man around my age, right? Your desires must be running wild.
Ferda knew she was pretty, beautiful.
Even this ruined appearance could be beautiful to a point that makes you feel humans aren’t human.
But Ferda had never felt lust toward Olivia.
Neither then, nor now.
No fluttering in the heart, no flutter of emotion for her.
Since Ferda said nothing, Olivia let out a hollow laugh.
— Since it has come to this, should I just change completely? Not a noble flower, just an easy woman rolling around here and there—.
— Olivia.
Ferda uttered her name.
The words pouring out like vomit halted at those three syllables.
— Don’t say anything more that you will regret.