I Was Hired by the Black-Minded Prince for My Life's Ransom - Chapter 6

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 6. Please, just collapse…
Was that red mark on his wrist wine from earlier, or Desmond’s blood?
‘God… I don’t know. I’m terrified….’
In the middle of the quiet garden.
The smell of blood hung thicker than the fragrance of flowers.
Beneath the moonlight, the Third Prince’s shadow stretched long and lean.
The reality of witnessing something I should never have seen struck me hard.
‘Who chose this place as the rendezvous point…!’
And why, of all things, was the Third Prince disposing of someone here?
I resented everything in the world.
But most of all, I resented—
the person approaching now, so quietly,
beckoning me with such an utterly gentle smile.
“Vanillin? Come here, won’t you?”
His soft voice made it worse—far worse.
— Come here and hurry up and die in my arms.
That’s what it felt like he was murmuring.
“Your Highness, wouldn’t you prefer to… leave?”
“But Vanillin isn’t leaving, are they?”
……
If I went, I would die.
Any fool could see that.
My tear ducts had already stopped working.
‘God, why must You burden me with this trial?’
But I couldn’t run either.
If I ran, what would happen behind my back?
Right. I didn’t even want to imagine it.
“Hm….”
In the end, I swallowed hard and took a step forward.
One step.
Two steps….
And the Third Prince’s face drew closer.
Even now, it was beautiful—terrifyingly beautiful.
His eyes, luminous and bright beneath the moonlight,
the gentle curve of his smile,
a beauty so fierce it was almost brutal.
I swallowed.
I took another step.
At this point, there was only one way out….
Eyes wet with tears, I studied the Third Prince’s vulnerable points.
The space between his brows, his eyes, his throat, his solar plexus….
Places where a single blow could knock him unconscious.
‘Dai told me not to hit people.’
He said I could kill someone if I wasn’t careful.
That I was thoughtless and brutally strong, so I should never raise my fist without restraint.
But….
‘Dai isn’t here anymore.’
And I’m about to die—what do I do?!
I still want to live.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
And.
“Forgive me, Your Highness…!”
I surrendered entirely to instinct.
Crack!
My fist drove straight into the Third Prince’s solar plexus.
I poured every last ounce of strength I had into it.
Hard enough to feel my entire skeleton shudder.
……!
The Third Prince’s eyes widened—as if he hadn’t anticipated this.
Slowly, very slowly, his upper body tilted backward.
And then.
“…look at this?”
His laughter vanished.
What remained was an expression utterly devoid of emotion.
That gaze was terrifyingly cold.
As if his true nature had finally been revealed.
“……!”
A blood-stained hand reached toward me slowly, deliberately—and fast.
If I got caught, I’d die. Certainly.
I swallowed hard.
I thought this much strength would be enough….
‘Dai, you said I was strong….’
Liar…!
I should have hit harder!
Regret surged up suddenly, but it was too late—the moment had already arrived.
There was nothing I could do.
Crying, I threw another punch.
A shrill cry!
Thud!
Another hit landing deep.
The Third Prince gasped, his body convulsing.
“Ugh…!”
Splatter.
Blood dripping onto the grass below.
He was coughing blood.
“You… Vanillin….”
The Prince’s eyes grew dim.
It seemed he was clinging to consciousness by sheer force of will.
One step,
then another.
The murderous intent bearing down on me pricked at my skin horribly.
I felt his resolve to kill me at any cost.
And yet.
“P-please just collapse….”
I needed it just as badly…!
Trembling, trembling.
I clenched my small fists and spoke through shaking sobs.
And then, pouring all my desperation into it,
Crack!
I struck the same spot again.
And at last—
“Ugh…!”
Thud.
The Third Prince crumpled.
He’d lost consciousness.
“Haa… haa…. I’m alive.”
I collapsed onto the grass.
The garden lay silent—no birdsong, no wind.
“Wahhh.”
Sitting there, I wept tears of relief.
* * *
“Well, now that you’ve cried enough, let’s get to work….”
Come on.
I called out weakly, doing my best to rally myself.
The Fifth Separate Palace Garden.
Hugging my knees, I sat among the three unconscious men, my thoughts turning over slowly.
‘So… there really are no gods in this world.’
Who could have known?
That meek Saint had turned out to be a monster.
I’d suspected it, but still….
It was undoubtedly intentional that Desmond had his cloak hem trodden upon before the Heavenly Person’s Porcelain.
‘How did he know to come here? Did he follow Dai?’
Then was the wine staining his sleeve also part of the plan?
To slip naturally from the Banquet Hall and murder those two?
“Ah… never mind. That’s not what matters right now.”
I muttered bleakly to myself.
My gaze fell upon Dai’s corpse sprawled in the distance.
“How fitting. Used a young girl and got what you deserved.”
Speaking it aloud like that made it real somehow.
Dai was gone now. Truly gone.
And I, too, was freed from the bonds of slavery.
“A funeral won’t be necessary, will it, Fixer?”
If I had been the one to die, he would surely have said exactly that.
Thud. Drag, drag…
I grabbed one of Dai’s legs and pulled him along the ground.
Soon his body disappeared among the overgrown brush.
It was surprisingly easy. Natural, even.
After all, he’d insulted a prince and paid the price—practically natural causes.
And next was Desmond.
Remarkably, he was still breathing, albeit faintly—
So I did the same.
Seized his leg, dragged him beyond the shrubs and abandoned him.
He was heavier, more work than the other.
“And last… the Second Prince.”
I stared down at his face for a moment.
He lay motionless, and despite knowing what lay beneath, he looked like an angel.
“You really are quite beautiful, aren’t you?”
Those honey-colored curls, those long, melancholy eyes.
‘Stop it.’
I shook my head sharply.
This was no time to admire faces idly.
The unconsciousness was only temporary.
‘Is this what they mean by a blessing in disguise?’
At least I had something useful.
I sighed and withdrew the Sacred Contract from my pocket, where I’d stuffed it earlier.
The contract I’d kept in fear that the Fixer Dai would strike me for discarding it.
‘A Soul-Binding Contract…’
……
The deliberation was long, but the resolve was brief.
I scavenged the Abandoned Building and found a pen lying about haphazardly.
Then I began to write, quickly adding clause after clause.
* * *
“…Ugh.”
Yurian’s eyes opened as his brow furrowed.
His head throbbed as though it might split from the unconsciousness.
He pressed his hand to his forehead and groped for memory.
‘I was dealing with Desmond Gordon…’
The Second Prince’s dog, drunk and unable to distinguish sense from nonsense, had finally managed to touch a nerve.
Remembering those words, Yurian twisted his lips upward.
— I know people like Your Highness well. Kind on the surface, schemes upon schemes hidden behind closed doors—vile creatures!
Not bad intuition, actually.
— I shall expose everything, for the Empire!
Though he was foolish enough to beg for his life in the same breath.
‘Expose everything?’
How could anyone remain idle upon hearing such words?
Everything had been perfect up until he’d disposed of that fool…
Yurian’s brow creased sharply.
“Vanillin.”
Yes, now he remembered.
The pink-haired maid who’d held the porcelain.
It was that woman who had sabotaged him this time.
‘How should I dispose of her?’
Yurian clicked his tongue in irritation.
If he was honest with himself, this was a crisis.
Vanillin had seen his weakness.
‘I cannot possibly let her live.’
His ugly nature was a secret even the Emperor did not know.
He played the Saint, pretended his hands had never touched blood, but it was all performance—nothing more.
A foolish Emperor,
and siblings even more foolish still.
The fact that only idiots crowned his head was unbearably repugnant to him.
So Yurian had become a Saint.
Indifferent to the Imperial Throne,
merely a good and virtuous man.
It made rivals easy to dispose of, and it made even the suspicious Second Prince regard Yurian as an exception.
Hide beneath the surface, then overturn everything at once.
He had endured all this time for that purpose.
‘…So it cannot be. Not with everything exposed now.’
After building a tower brick by brick, one deserves to see it complete.
Yurian slowly stretched his body.
His upper abdomen still throbbed.
He found himself laughing at the absurdity of it all.
“That little thing….”
She had been hiding such tremendous strength all along.
He had been completely fooled by her pitiful appearance, the way she trembled as if so frail and delicate.
It was his mistake.
‘For now… I move.’
How much time had passed?
An hour? Two?
It would be problematic if he returned to the Banquet Hall too late.
The Duke’s death had to seem unrelated to him.
He could not afford even the slightest suspicion.
Yet he still needed to rush over and dispose of that small, pretty maid as well….
“…This is irritating.”
Everything had fallen into disorder.
Just as Yurian’s eyes were beginning to cool and harden,
“Did you call for me…?”
a voice came from a few steps away.
A clear voice, incongruous with this dingy courtyard.
…….
Yurian turned his head slowly.
There, unexpectedly, stood Vanillin.
“I have done wrong….”
Vanillin knelt as if accepting punishment, her hands raised before her.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————