The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 122

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

“Wh-what.”

The man who had been looking back and forth between the table and me brought his hand to the cigarette as if to confirm.

I twisted my body and shouted.

“You can’t do that!”

“Huh?”

“D-don’t even think about touching that, it’s not worth much! It’s nothing, just a cigarette!”

The man who had been watching me ramble narrowed his eyes.

He poked at the cigarette with a stick, and when there was no reaction, he smiled wickedly as if he had realized something.

“Why. What is this, some kind of protective magical tool of yours?”

“Ugh…!”

“You were planning to say you needed time to think and ask to smoke a cigarette, weren’t you? Does a poison needle come out if you bite this?”

“Th-that’s not it!”

“What do you mean it’s not. Then I guess it wouldn’t matter if I smoked this?”

“Gasp!”

The man looked at me with disdain as I inhaled sharply, then turned the cigarette pack upside down.

He stared at the cigarettes rolling and falling, then muttered.

“You acted so arrogantly relying on just this? How pathetic. So that you’ll have nothing left to rely on…”

The man’s lips curved up cruelly.

“I’ll burn it right before your eyes.”

“No!”

Thud.

The man who had thrown a lighter at the cigarette crossed his arms.

As if he wanted to watch my expression of despair.

“What do you mean no.”

The cigarette caught fire. Smoke began to rise.

It was when the mint-scented smoke filled the entire enclosed warehouse.

What the man saw as he waved his hand to dispel the smoke was.

“What… why are you smiling…?”

My smiling face.

The man’s hand waving away the smoke gradually slowed.

I stared at the man’s increasingly dazed expression and said.

“Well. Why do you think?”

Making the man inhale the smoke was exactly my plan!

‘That man had smelled of cigarettes.’

If he were a non-smoker, he would have just broken the cigarette or put it away since he’d dislike the smoke.

But since that man was a smoker, I planned this thinking he wouldn’t have much resistance to burning cigarettes.

Fortunately, my prediction was right on target.

“If you smell this cigarette smoke, you can only tell the truth?”

I recalled what Luca had said.

Of course, if I inhaled this cigarette smoke, I would also only be able to tell the truth.

But it was worth the risk.

The one with many secrets to spill wasn’t me, but that man.

‘As soon as that man gets my signature, he’ll knock me unconscious again or confine me and then run away. I need to find out this guy’s identity as much as possible before then!’

Whether it was from holding my breath or being extremely tense, I didn’t feel as dazed as the man did.

Come to think of it, even when Alter used this magical tool, I didn’t seem to feel anything particularly strange.

But that wasn’t important right now.

I took the shortest breaths possible and asked the man.

“How many people are in your group in total?”

“Including me… four…”

“Where did the other three go?”

“To the canal port… they went to load cargo onto the ship… because we need to escape quickly…”

The canal wasn’t far from the pawnshop.

It seemed the place I was currently in was one of the warehouses used for shipping offices near the port.

‘I’ve figured out the location. So what do I need to find out now?’

“Who ordered this?”

“…There’s no one who ordered us to kidnap you… But why am I… telling you this?”

The man slowly blinked his eyes.

His tone was like someone talking in their sleep.

Instead of answering, I quickly asked.

“If no one ordered it, why are you doing this? And what did you mean about suffering losses?”

“We, well… worked together, with Countess Rosaline…”

Rosaline!

The moment her name came up, I bit my lips.

‘They said Rosaline was in a state of confusion so they couldn’t interrogate her. So there were remaining accomplices they couldn’t catch!’

Based on Hugo’s testimony, most of the people involved had been arrested.

But it seemed there were those Hugo didn’t know about who remained.

“We were smuggling treasures or selling replica paintings abroad… but because you interfered and the countess was imprisoned…”

“You couldn’t get paid?”

“Right, we don’t know when we might get caught too, so we have to lay low… so we thought we’d take your money and flee to a foreign country…”

As I listened to the rambling man’s words, there was something that bothered me.

“You said you had to lay low, but how did you think to kidnap me just one day after Rosaline was caught?”

Normally, if you’re scared of getting caught, wouldn’t you quietly run away?

No matter how urgently they needed money, this was too reckless. It would have been better to sell the smuggled treasures to raise money.

Moreover, could people who were just smugglers come up with such a plan in such a short time?

‘They would have been busy forging identities and securing passage to escape, wouldn’t they?’

I asked because I couldn’t understand, and the man blinked his hazy eyes.

“Someone… told us.”

“But you said no one ordered it?”

“No one ordered it, but… when we went to urgently dispose of the stolen goods… someone gave us the idea. Asking if we weren’t wronged, if we didn’t want revenge…”

“Who was that?”

“That person… also lent us the flash magical tool…”

‘If it’s a place they went to dispose of stolen goods, it would be the fences usually found at ports.’

But how did that fence know about these people’s circumstances and talk about revenge?

I asked again.

“So who was that person?”

The man’s lips parted slackly.

“Don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Can’t remember. The other guys don’t know either. What that person looked like. But after talking with that man, I felt really good, like I was dreaming…”

Had the smoke’s effect worn off?

The man who had been grinning foolishly started coughing.

‘At least I know that mysterious person is a man.’

It seemed there was no more information to get from this guy.

I had to escape quickly before the other accomplices came.

I asked urgently.

“Where’s the exit here?”

“From that door over there, just go straight out… but the gate is locked…”

“What about the keys?”

“I have them… and one of the guys who went to move the stuff also has one…”

“I see, then please untie me.”

“That won’t do, haha…”

It seemed I could only make him tell the truth, but I couldn’t control the doctor’s actions.

With the giggling man in front of me, I desperately tried to cut the rope with the glass shard.

‘Hurry, hurry…!’

But then.

A sound came from outside the door.

“We’ve almost finished moving everything… What? Where did boss go?”

It seemed the three men who had gone to move the cargo had returned.

Biting my lips tightly, I moved the glass shard more vigorously.

“He said he’d guard the door earlier? Boss, boss!”

“I’m here… with the girl!”

The man shouted back in response.

“Ah, did you get the signature? Huh, but why does your voice sound like that?”

“I didn’t get it…”

“Boss?”

“Something’s strange, I keep answering whatever this girl asks…!”

“What did you say?!”

‘Damn it!’

The man who could only tell the truth made no exception for his subordinates either.

Startled by the man’s words, the subordinates pushed against the door.

Bang—

The door opened, and seeing the thick smoke filling the warehouse, the horrified subordinates shouted.

“What did you do to boss!”

“Everyone cover your mouths!”

The subordinates, each holding a tool, rushed toward me.

Their movements seemed very slow.

‘Is this what they call life flashing before your eyes?’

The sight of a man gripping a hammer raising his hand.

The sight of a man with a crowbar reaching out toward me.

The sight of a man with a wooden beam making a threatening expression as he tried to swing it—I took in all of these scenes.

‘…This wasn’t the kind of scenery I wanted to see at the end.’

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Then.

Crash—

Along with the sound of breaking glass, I felt someone smashing through the window and flying inside.

“What, what is it! Ugh…!”

Among the panicked men’s voices, the sounds of impact, and groans, what I heard was.

“You held on well.”

A voice I knew well.

Or rather, an extremely low voice I believed I knew well.

“…Alter?”

“So just hold on a little longer, Elisha.”

The person standing in front of me was none other than Alter.

“It won’t take long.”

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