I Was Hired by the Black-Minded Prince for My Life's Ransom - Chapter 7

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 7. Shall we make a deal…?
“…….”
Yulian’s eyebrows twitched.
‘She didn’t run.’
I’d expected her to flee with her tail between her legs.
And what was with that stance—like a five-year-old child?
Faced with a situation that defied his understanding, Yulian let out a hollow laugh.
“What are you doing?”
“Wouldn’t it be better if we resolved this through conversation…?”
Watching Vanillin’s awkward smile, Yulian exhaled slowly.
Talk it out, she says.
“That’s good. I like that.”
Good, his foot.
If she were truly that soft-hearted, she would never have killed Desmond.
Yulian’s eyes narrowed to slits.
‘How irritating.’
His secret was exposed.
To an opponent he’d never anticipated.
The truth behind the Saint—hidden even from the Emperor—could only be answered with death.
“I’ll make sure to try talking next time.”
Yulian, still wearing his genial smile, drew the Short Dagger he’d kept hidden at his thigh.
His target: to pierce that slender neck in one swift stroke.
Whoosh!
The brilliant blue blade rushed toward her defenseless throat.
But in that very instant, just as the blade was about to pierce her skin—
“P-please, I said let’s talk…”
An incomprehensible force pressed down on him.
* * *
I hadn’t stopped him.
As if seized by some unknown power that froze his movements, he simply halted.
“…….”
Yulian’s pupils turned glacial.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m not doing anything…”
I brushed my trembling chest and spoke in a voice barely above a whisper.
‘I knew it would come to this… but it’s still terrifying!’
My heart hammered against my ribs. His speed was the reason for it.
Before I could blink, the blade was already at my throat.
‘He looks so delicate he wouldn’t crush a single flower…’
I’d known since he took multiple blows to vital points and walked away unscathed—he possessed a Beyond-Human Class body.
I just hadn’t noticed it, hidden as it was beneath that soft, smooth facade.
“Vanillin.”
A frigid voice fell upon my fluffy pink hair.
I lifted my head.
The man’s face had already shed its warmth.
“Don’t play word games. Speak plainly.”
“…Yes.”
“What did you do to me?”
The unmasked face I’d seen before.
Yulian without his smile was chillingly cold.
The air pressed down like a stranglehold.
I shrank back slightly and held out a single piece of paper.
“…This.”
Yulian took the paper without a word.
Unlike ordinary paper, its surface was unusually smooth and stiff.
His mouth twisted upward.
“Ha— the Holy Contract?”
“Yes… that’s right.”
I forced my trembling lips to curve upward.
A cursed piece of trash that binds the soul of the signer to the closest member of the imperial family the moment it’s written.
But as death drew near, a different memory surfaced.
— Why did she call it a contract, though?
— Do you only use everything according to its original purpose?
When I’d asked about the Holy Contract, the head maid had said exactly that.
Which meant the original purpose was indeed a contract.
So then… couldn’t I add clauses to it?
It had been a gamble with my life on the line—
‘Looking back now… it seems to have worked?’
Thank heavens.
I swallowed my tears and looked up at Yulian.
He was reading the contract in a voice so cold it seemed spat out.
“Ozwald Yulian, as a contracting party, shall inflict no harm whatsoever upon Vanillin… thus.”
That voice was utterly frigid.
It was enough to make me think it was the dead of winter.
“No murder for hire, no poisoning, no forms of torture permitted… It seems you’ve meticulously written down every method of killing you could think of.”
“Ha ha….”
“How entertaining.”
Though your eyes say nothing of the sort.
I deliberately ignored the murderous intent pouring down on me and averted my gaze.
A man speaking with a gentle voice while dripping with malice.
“You should have just written that if Vanillin dies, you die too.”
“There is another page. Shall we do that?”
…….
Yulian closed his mouth as though dumbfounded.
I faltered, realizing my mistake.
“Ah…. Were you being sarcastic…?”
…….
The look in his eyes grew even more menacing.
I quickly knelt again, meekly.
“Your Highness, might you spare my life?”
“I cannot kill Vanillin anyway.”
“It seems you intend to kill me regardless….”
Yulian didn’t deny it; he merely raised an eyebrow.
So he really was thinking of doing just that… terrifying.
I swallowed both a sigh and tears, laughing awkwardly.
“Instead of killing me, would you perhaps… consider making a deal?”
“A deal?”
“Yes, that is to say, well….”
“Vanillin is more cunning than I thought.”
The man cut me off before I could explain what sort of deal.
His expression grew melancholy as he lowered his gaze.
…If not for those clothes and the blood smeared on his hands, he might have looked truly innocent and pitiable.
“I cannot move a finger against Vanillin, and yet you speak of striking a bargain?”
I pressed my lips together.
“Yes. That’s right.”
I could not afford to lose ground here.
“Because I am someone who knows my place.”
“I see.”
“If you spare my life, I shall become useful to His Highness the Crown Prince in every way.”
Yulian tilted his head slowly to one side.
“Useful, you say.”
“I am quite capable!”
I explained, clenching my fists firmly.
“Should Your Highness find someone displeasing, I could dispose of them quietly and thoroughly… I could eliminate all those tiresome nuisances as well.”
Well, probably.
“So, might there be a place for me among Your Highness’s people?”
All earnestness.
I appealed with the most harmless expression I could muster.
The words I spoke were about becoming useful to him, but of course it was entirely for my own survival.
‘That temperament… I’m certain of it. He’ll never let a potential threat like me live.’
After spending so much time with Dai, I’d learned to read those personality-fracture types like an open book.
A man as relentless as that would find every loophole in the contract and kill me with it if he could.
So I had to become his ally before then.
I needed him to think I was worth keeping alive.
The man studied me in silence for a moment, then nodded slowly.
“What did you do with the other two?”
The question came out of nowhere.
He meant Marquis Desmond and Dai.
I answered half a beat too late.
“I hid them… in the grassland.”
“Why?”
“The younger one—Young Desmond—was already dead, so I needed to conceal it. As for the Marquis, I wasn’t sure whether you meant to kill him or not.”
I answered and swallowed hard.
The feeling hit me.
This was an interview.
‘I have to answer well.’
Was Vanillin worth making an ally?
I had to prove it.
“The bleeding was heavy, but not severe enough to be instantly fatal. And while I don’t know your intentions, there might be a reason to keep the Marquis alive—so I thought it best not to do anything else.”
I spoke carefully, laying it all out.
“And because word couldn’t get out that Marquis Desmond had been wounded, I hid him. I stopped the bleeding but didn’t treat him—I was just waiting for Your Highness to wake up.”
“Hmm. I see.”
Yulian nodded with an impassive face.
As if that settled it.
But I didn’t stop.
“And—”
My voice trembled awkwardly, yet tumbled out in crisp, measured syllables.
“I left word at the Banquet Hall. I said that after a hard day attending to the servants, you needed time to dress yourself properly.”
“Ho.”
Yulian’s eyebrows rose slightly.
As though he hadn’t expected me to think that far ahead.
“So if you return in an hour or two, no one will think it strange.”
I finished and clamped my mouth shut.
My eyelashes quivered with tension.
Did I pass?
What if I didn’t?
‘Do I need to hit a vital point again…?’
While that thought churned in my head, the man rose to his feet and brushed off his clothes.
“A reasonable response.”
“…! Then…?”
“Let’s see about that.”
He gestured for me to stand—I was still kneeling before him.
Then he turned and walked away.
Without even looking back to see if I was following.
‘I… I’m alive….’
At least for now.
I scrambled to my feet and led the Third Prince to the hiding place.
“I hid them here.”
“Well concealed, I’ll admit.”
Yulian brushed back the grass as he spoke.
On top of Dai’s corpse.
Marquis Desmond lay motionless, exactly as I’d left him.
Barely clinging to life—breathing, barely.
“Ah.”
Yulian swung his Short Sword down with an almost pitying expression.
“Still hanging on, aren’t we? Stubborn thing.”
“Gag—ugh…!”
The Marquis, who’d been trembling faintly, went completely still.
Yulian kicked the cooling body carelessly and shoved it aside.
It ended up tucked so far back that no one would find it unless they were actively searching.
I watched him carefully and asked in a low voice.
“Was killing her the answer…?”
“No. Leaving her be was the right choice. Vanillin couldn’t know what decision I would make.”
“But what if she’d tried to escape…?”
“If she survived in that state, then that too would be God’s will.”
The man spoke as though it were nothing.
Surprised by his tone, I looked up at him and asked.
“Do you… believe in God?”
“What do you think?”
You don’t seem like you believe in Him at all.
As I swallowed my words, Yulian offered a smile that seemed almost drawn with perfection.
“Come with me. We’re going to the palace.”
“Then… what happens now…?”
“Let’s discuss the details of our deal.”

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