The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 166

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

It was when I was blankly looking up at Tesagh.

“Then… wait.”

Tesagh quickly turned his head.

He looked around with sharp eyes and gestured toward one spot.

“I just heard the sound of a door opening.”

Coincidentally, it was in the direction where the light was leading.

Coming to my senses, I asked while inwardly admiring Tesagh’s almost animal-like senses.

“Who could be coming?”

“No, it’s not this kind of wooden door. It sounds like an old iron door opening. …I can hear it again now.”

“There must be a secret passage leading outside. If it’s someone who would use such a secret passage?”

“Must be a key person.”

Tesagh and I, making eye contact, said simultaneously.

“Let’s go.”

“Let’s go.”

The corner of Tesagh’s mouth lifted slightly.

Following the light and sound, we arrived at a place where…

“Wh-what? …Why are you here…”

There was Edwina, pale as a sheet.

*

“This way for now.”

I don’t know where the strength comes from in that thin body.

Edwina, who had been recalling how she had tried to push during the Founding Festival only to fall herself, found herself being dragged by Elisha into an empty room.

Edwina, who had been sitting blankly while holding a damp handkerchief, suddenly came to her senses.

“What is this. Why are you here? You, don’t tell me you’re holding a grudge from that incident and trying to kidnap me…!”

It was when she was about to throw away the handkerchief.

The man who had been leaning against the wall muttering something low to himself looked up sharply.

“Lower your voice.”

Hiccup.

He was a man so fierce-looking that she hiccupped the moment their eyes met.

His already rough appearance was made even more chilling by his cold voice.

“More than that, about that incident, a grudge? Did you do something worth holding a grudge over?”

It was when she flinched, feeling like she wanted to apologize just from looking at his eyes.

“No, it’s fine.”

“Are you saying you didn’t do anything, or that you did something but it wasn’t worth holding a grudge over.”

“I’ll handle this, go do your work.”

“Since you’re not answering, it must be the latter.”

“It’s more that there was no need to worry about it. Anyway, go do your work.”

Seeing Elisha brush off such menacing words with a smile somehow left her feeling deflated.

Then.

“Wait.”

The man approached with large steps.

Edwina, who had flinched and pulled back, saw the man remove Elisha’s pin.

“The magical device seems damaged, so take it off. Since you’ve encountered this woman, your disguise is meaningless now.”

In an instant, Elisha’s eyes, which had silver mixed in, became completely violet.

While cold winds had been blowing before, there was quite a bit of warmth when speaking to Elisha.

Thinking she had seen the man muttering as he returned to his spot somewhere before, Edwina asked.

“Why did you come here?”

Elisha, who had been quietly observing Edwina, answered briefly.

“Are you really curious about that?”

Edwina bit her lips and gripped her dress tightly.

Right. That wasn’t what she was curious about.

Edwina changed her question.

“…You know what this place is for, don’t you?”

This was what she was really curious about, what she had wanted to ask.

Elisha, after exchanging glances with the man, nodded.

“I know.”

“…I, well. I didn’t know. Nothing at all.”

“That doesn’t seem like something to say to someone who knows. If you didn’t know, you should have been curious. You should have asked more questions. But starting with saying you didn’t know means.”

Elisha said quietly.

“Princess Hestian, you didn’t want to know, did you?”

Thump.

Her heart sank.

Her hand gripping her dress tightened.

Elisha had always been annoying. Resentful. …Because everything she said was right.

So, seeing that she resented her even now.

Elisha was saying the right thing.

‘I really didn’t want to know, I guess.’

Otherwise, how could she be asking such stupid questions after directly hearing her father muttering?

She was ashamed of herself. Her eyes grew hot.

“Bad things are happening here, aren’t they? My father is involved in that, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

With trembling hands, Edwina clutched the damp handkerchief.

“…But why did you give me this?”

Strangely, after breathing through this handkerchief, she felt like the unpleasant scent had become fainter.

Elisha had helped her.

‘Even though I tormented her. Even though she must hate and dislike me.’

Edwina, who had been biting her lips, looked up at the response.

“Still, you asked.”

“…”

“Even though you didn’t want to know. Even though you wanted to live turning away, you eventually came here to find out. That’s why.”

Elisha continued calmly.

“There are many people in the world who don’t even do that much. That’s all.”

Elisha neither pitied her nor made mocking accusations.

She simply pointed out the facts plainly.

“Then now it’s my turn to listen. You have something you want to tell me, don’t you?”

Edwina met Elisha’s eyes.

“I don’t have anything I want to tell you. I… really don’t know much. But.”

Edwina, who had been pursing her lips, opened the hand that had been tightly gripping the blueprint.

“There is something I want to give you. …I don’t know what this is. Even looking at it, I couldn’t understand it well.”

The fluttering blueprint landed on Elisha’s hand.

“But, you would be able to understand it.”

Elisha’s eyes sparkled as she received the blueprint.

She ran to the man’s side and explained while pointing to various parts of the blueprint.

The man occasionally frowned. There seemed to be differences of opinion.

“Shouldn’t securing the tablets be the priority? Why do we need to wake up the gamblers first? Do you feel sorry for those guys?”

“It’s a matter of efficiency. The gamblers who don’t understand the situation might block the knights, and the knights could also be affected by that scent.”

“So you think neutralizing the scent should be the priority.”

“Yes. There might be hypnotic scents prepared in addition to the pleasure-amplifying scent. So we need to make the dispersal facilities completely useless.”

“How?”

“Looking at this blueprint reminded me of something.”

However, in the end, he agreed with Elisha’s opinion.

“Right. You’re correct. That would be possible.”

Edwina watched this scene with a somewhat dazed feeling.

“They say they’ll charge in as soon as we give the signal. The personnel deployment for the secret passage side is also complete.”

“Yes. Then shall we wake people up and go secure the Ruby Tablet?”

At Elisha’s words, a spring-like smile spread across the man’s winter-like face.

“Let’s do that.”

The man and Elisha left the room.

No, she thought they had left.

“You did well, Edwina.”

Elisha, who peeked her head through the door crack, smiled slightly.

She called her by name. Not Princess Hestian, but Edwina.

Soon, listening to the footsteps fading away with a patter, Edwina murmured very quietly.

“…Right.”

She had done well.

*

The Knight pulled down the slot machine handle.

The intensely colored number panels spun wildly and then stopped.

All the numbers were different. The Knight had lost money.

But he pulled the lever down, and pulled it down again.

‘Just one more time.’

He wanted to feel once more that thrilling sensation of victory that had swept through his entire body, which he had tasted for the first time.

It was a life lived with restraint as a virtue.

He had never touched even common alcohol or cigarettes, devoting himself solely to training.

That’s why he couldn’t understand addicts. He seemed to have looked down on them inwardly.

Why do they get involved in such things and cause trouble? Can’t they overcome it with willpower?

Why should we rescue and help people who voluntarily fell into the abyss?

But…

‘Just one more time.’

His hand wouldn’t pull away.

‘Just one more time…’

The fact that his thoughts were clear made it even more horrifying.

He was a proud Knight of the Empire. He had a mission to fulfill.

Yet he kept rationalizing.

Since he mustn’t blow his cover, let’s play just a little more before getting up.

Since the person next to him seems to be looking at him suspiciously, let’s play just a little more before getting up.

‘Please.’

But what would happen if this place disappeared?

Of course it was a place that should vanish, but then would he no longer be able to play this game?

‘Please, someone help.’

Come to think of it, wasn’t the machine that produced these number panels not really bad?

Wasn’t it the fault of people who placed meaning on such machines and bet their lives on them?

So wouldn’t it be fine to just enjoy it moderately as entertainment…

‘Someone please help me…!’

The gap between thought and action was vast.

It was when the Knight, who had been mechanically spinning the slot machine, squeezed his eyes shut.

Drip.

Something cold touched the back of his hand.

“What’s this?”

For the first time since sitting in front of the slot machine, the Knight raised his head to look at the ceiling.

Water drops were falling sporadically.

The Knight started to wipe away the water drop that had fallen on his hand, then paused.

‘I let go of the lever.’

Then.

Whoosh—

Water began pouring from the ceiling.

What the sprinklers were showering on everyone was.

“Holy water…!”

Just as one Knight muttered this, a shout loud enough to fill the gambling den rang out.

“Everyone to positions!”

It was the moment he realized it was the voice of the Captain of the Royal Knights leading the charge.

The Knights, who came to their senses while being doused with holy water, all began running without exception.

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