Chapter 197: Time To Finish Playing House (2)
After Kuhn parted from Mirabelle, it was not difficult for him to gather some information and find out that Elena had been injured by a poison arrow.
Despite his long absence, his sources still existed in the palace. Carlisle and Elena had been ambushed when they were out, although no other information was available aside from Elena’s injury.
‘Why is there nothing about the number of enemies or how the General escaped safely?’
Someone must have stemmed the flow of information, and if Kuhn, a subordinate of Carlisle, could not find it, then it must have been blocked by Carlisle himself.
‘…But why?’
Kuhn couldn’t help but wonder, so he sought out a source nearest to Carlisle besides himself.
‘I suppose there’s only one person that can explain this in detail.’
It would be Zenard.
Ttog ttog—
Kuhn knocked on a door, and a low voice answered from inside the room.
“Come in. “
As Kuhn entered the room, he caught sight of the silver-haired man rummaging through a desk full of papers. The man looked up to see Kuhn’s entrance, and his face hardened.
“You…what are you doing here?”
“I heard that the Crown Princess was injured. What happened?”
They didn’t make direct eye contact with each other and only spoke words that were absolutely necessary.
Zenard loathed Kuhn for a simple reason: his lowly origins. Zenard couldn’t tolerate the fact that two people of vastly different social standings could have an equal conversation. For the knights that came from aristocracy, Kuhn was an object to be rejected and despised, with Zenard being the most forward about it.
Zenard frowned as if he disliked Kuhn’s presence in his office, but for the time being he set aside his personal feelings. Issues related to Carlisle were far more important.
“A short time ago, the Crown Princess was struck by a poisoned arrow. The Crown Prince witnessed it. Because of that…he became uncontrollably powerful.”
Zenard explained it in vague terms, despite the fact that there were only two of them in the room.
That did not mean Kuhn didn’t understand, however. Despite Carlisle’s best attempts to conceal his power, some of his subordinates knew of it, including Kuhn and Zenard. On the battlefield, they saw Carlisle’s right arm transform and unleash a terrible destructive power.
However, that was already known to Kuhn, so he didn’t understand why Zenard was speaking with such ambiguity.
“Is that it?”
Zenard’s expression darkened. He recalled the night Carlisle caught and murdered dozens upon dozens of assassins. Many panicked and tried to flee because of Carlisle’s terrifying strength, but he did not let slip single one. He slaughtered every person there, as if he loved to kill.
At that moment, Carlisle was not human. It was the most fearsome Zenard had ever seen him.
If Carlisle hadn’t heard Elena’s moan confirming that she was actually alive…Zenard had no idea how he would stop Carlisle at the time.
“It was different from usual. He was in shock when the princess fell, and the black scales…”
Zenard spoke again slowly, his fingers pointing to his chin.
“It came all the way up to here. There were some on his face too.”
Up until now, Carlisle’s mutation had been limited to his right arm. Kuhn was surprised, as he had never heard of that many scales sprouting before.
But Zenard’s words did not end there.
“I realized then that the more he is transformed, the greater his power. Most of the assassins were torn to pieces by his own hand. I killed the rest myself, to stop any witnesses from spreading rumors.”
Kuhn nodded in understanding, but the frown on Zenard’s face only deepened.
“I wasn’t going to say this, but how long are you going to be fooling around in Blaise mansion? My dislike for you is no secret, but you need to come back quickly.”
“…I understand.”
“I don’t know what will happen if another situation like this arises.”
“…?”
“Prince Carlisle lost all his reason and almost attacked our troops.”
“From our side?”
“Yes. I’ve made sure that Carlisle’s power is kept secret, but I’m afraid that if it goes out of control, he will end up attacking our allies.”
They couldn’t leave themselves defenseless if Carlisle attacked both enemies and allies with indiscriminate force. Zenard couldn’t handle him alone, so it was necessary for Kuhn to return as soon as possible. Regardless of personal grudges, Kuhn was the most skilled among Carlisle’s men.
“Very well. I’ll end my vacation.”
At that moment, an image of Mirabelle floated to Kuhn’s mind. Her expression was deeply sincere as she made her confession.
—I said I love you. I don’t know when it started, but I’ve come to love you.
Whether Kuhn wanted to or not, it was time to finish playing house with Mirabelle.