Kerry kicked the man, causing him to groan, while Rafal splashed cold water on his face to wake him up.
Finn woke up with a scream, and the view of two tall and robust knights welcomed his sight, causing him to scamper away. Terror filled eyes when he looked at the blue-eyed man harboring a scarily kind smile on his handsome face.
He crawled towards Arlan. "Y-Your Highness, please forgive me—"
The knights hit him at the back of his shoulders with the handle of their swords, causing him to stagger and lay flat on the ground.
Finn raised his head to look at Arlan who was just a few steps away from him, tears rolling down his eyes. "I am just a merchant. They pay, I give them items. I-I swear, I won’t do it again..."
Arlan smirked, that kind smile making him look like a devil. "Again? You do not think you will be able to do anything ’again’ after this night passes, do you?"
"N-No, please forgive me! I mean, I will be good. I will be a good man! I will be loyal to you my entire life. I will donate my riches to the poor. I will do anything you ask of me."
"Anything I ask of you?" Arlan repeated, and with his hands folded behind him, he leisurely paced around. "There is indeed something I want to ask of you."
"Tell me, Your Highness. I will give you anything."
"I want to feed you to my starving pets."
Hearing the word ’pets’, Finn’s eyes left wide open. The Crown Prince had pets?
All he could think about was being fed alive to some crazy wild beast that this madman secretly reared in his palace. A tiger? A wolf?
"Y-Your Highness, please don’t feed me to wolves. Please spare my life."
"You got me wrong, Finn. Even wolves would not dare go near your rotten flesh and bones."
Finn let out a sigh of relief. He had been so frightened earlier, he was unable to think. He realized he was too important a character to be killed. There were important figures backing him. The Crown Prince would probably only torture him, but as long as he held his tongue about certain important information, Finn believed he would be able to preserve his life.
A knight with a cold face approached.
"Your Highness, they are here," Imbert informed. A cart was being brought towards them, carrying tall jars with tight lids.
"My pets are here," Arlan said as he looked at Finn.
The Duke’s men began to unload the jars and remove the lids. Arlan nodded, as if satisfied by whatever was inside those containers. "These are my pets and I am sure they are not interested in your rotten flesh and bones."
As Finn was sprawled on the ground, he could not see what was in those jars. However, the merchant felt like his soul was ready to leave his body. "Y-Your Highness, you cannot—"
"I heard you drink blood from young girls to keep yourself healthy."
"Your Highness—"
"It makes me wonder if your blood might help keep my pets healthy as well."
The man could only cry. "Your Highness, please show some mercy!"
His cries went on deaf ears as the knights dragged him and tied him to one tree after they stripped him naked. His mouth was stuffed shut with the same rags covered in mud he was wearing earlier.
The knights poured the jars over his body.
Horrifying, slimy masses of black fleshy worms.
Leeches!
Hundreds of leeches!
Some of the Duke’s men with weaker stomachs gagged at the sight, others looking away in aversion. The fat merchant writhed in fear and disgust as the leeches crawled all over him, biting, latching to his body to feast on his blood.
Arlan watched it for some time and turned around to ride his horse. Before leaving, he ordered the Duke’s men.
"His body should be left here for the wild animals to feed on."
The pale-faced men nodded and Arlan left with his knights to return to the Selve Estate.
----
When morning came, Oriana decided to head to the harbor and check which ship she could catch to return to Selve.
’Should I change my look?’
Cautious as always, she decided to modify her appearance, even though she was sure only that thin porter from the previous night had seen her.
A masked person with a headwrap, wearing black baggy clothes—this was the appearance he saw.
Initially, Oriana thought of moving about bare-faced, but she hesitated in the end. In a remote island like Azures, wearing a mask would attract people’s suspicion, but not wearing one would also gather unnecessary attention.
She remembered her experience when she disguised herself as a servant to eavesdrop on Ron, and she shivered in disgust.
’Ah, it was only a short time, but that was so scary. As a lone traveler surrounded by hot-blooded sailors all day, it might bring me trouble in the days to come. I better keep my mask on the ship.’
She kept her long hair tied into a bun as well as the headwrap that also covered the lower half of her face, but removed the loose jacket off her body, leaving her with only the tight-fitting shirt underneath. Thanks to her chestwrap, her slender body looked like that of a thin young man. She also knotted the hems of her loose-fitting pants, rolling them up before tucking them inside her boots.
As for her coin pouch, she adjusted the satchel to tie it around her hips, then wrapped the jacket on her waist. She also took out the black nightshade, carefully wrapped the stalks in clean cloth, before placing it cleverly hidden inside her top. She was not sure if there were outbound ships this morning, so she decided to leave the rest of her things in her room for now.
Oriana soon reached the crowded harbor and made an inquiry to the port master’s attendant.