Chapter 64
Jaeus easily blocked the surprise attack that leapt out from beside him.
He looked at the one who had pointed a sword at him with his eyes low and calm.
Unfortunately, the face was hidden behind a black mask, so he couldn’t make out who it was.
“Cowardly.”
“This is my style.”
After a few more clashes of blades, the masked man stepped back. Jaeus did not follow him.
Because the place was now swarming with masked men after the successive explosions and fires had driven most people away.
A hint of poison curled at the corner of Jaeus’s mouth.
It wasn’t hard to guess who would send an assassin with malice toward him in the Baekryong territory where he had no ties.
‘Rikt Peronis.’
From the brief clash of swords, Jaeus had already realized that the masked men were no match for him.
However, this was not a battlefield where swords and pheromones ran free. It was the crowded center of a plaza.
If he could use his pheromones he’d have subdued them quickly — but he couldn’t. He could do it with his sword, but still…
‘What a hassle.’
Normally, Jaeus would’ve had no real trouble using pheromones even with imperial citizens around. The reason he was hesitating now was… he was currently undergoing adult maturation. In other words, he couldn’t control it perfectly yet.
He hadn’t expected the step toward adulthood to slow him down like this.
Still, he had to deal with them quickly. He had to do it before Senika returned here.
He knew they were targeting him, but Rikt hated Senika as well. If she showed up something uncontrollable could happen.
“What do you want?”
“If we had something like that, we’d have said so.”
He knew talking wouldn’t work. People like these usually moved for money, and unless they were offered extra pay, they’d act like this.
There were twelve masked men around him. He felt no other strange aura.
At this number, it was a bit annoying but he thought he could manage without using pheromones.
“Why does a half-decent-looking guy go around making enemies like this?”
The masked men, unaware of what the near future held, sneered and ridiculed Jaeus.
Their words didn’t faze him at all. Jaeus scanned their appearances.
He didn’t know what Rikt might have told them, but the slack, cocky posture of the masked men was enough to rile Jaeus. Their behavior felt like an insult to him, as if they were disrespecting the next head of the Heukryong family.
‘They probably hidden my identity.’
Even those who only worked for money wouldn’t, unless mad, raise a blade against the heir to the next head of a house.
“Alright, lads, let’s show them what we can do!”
After a long — or short, depending on how you look at it — one-sided “discussion,” the masked men drew their swords properly.
The murderous intent coming from all directions would be enough to intimidate a normal person, but Jaeus didn’t care. He simply raised his sword and glared back fiercely.
At that moment, a soft puff of pheromones appeared from behind and knocked away all the masked men’s blades.
“Hey!”
A familiar voice sounded and a soap-like scent reached her nose.
“What are these things?”
The sudden explosion had turned the plaza into a chaotic mess. Everyone, thinking it was a terror attack, hurriedly evacuated, and in that process I was separated from Jaeus.
Luckily, Ludias stuck close by my side so I wasn’t alone.
Following the crowd, Ludias and I moved a little away from the center of the plaza and waited for Jaeus. Then—
Drip, drip—
“I’ll go buy an umbrella.”
“Okay. Hurry back.”
Dark clouds had been hanging over the sky since morning and finally it began to rain.
Would the fires caused by the repeated explosions be put out because of the rain? Maybe that was the only good thing about it.
“But why isn’t he coming out already?”
He should’ve come out by now; it was strange he hadn’t. It felt as if something was happening inside.
…Wait. A bad feeling crept over me. Could he have been caught in an explosion while coming out?
At that instant, an unpleasant pheromone struck me from the center. I hadn’t noticed it earlier because I’d been worrying about having fun.
“So that’s why you said it was dangerous.”
Only then did Jaeus’s earlier strange behavior make sense.
I moved toward the center of the plaza. I should have gone with Ludias, but I didn’t want to waste any time waiting.
The thick smoke made it difficult to see the center, but that didn’t matter. Sometimes what you feel with your body is more accurate than your eyes, and that was exactly useful right now.
I trusted only my sense of pheromones and plunged into the smoke.
Cough, cough!
The acrid smoke burned my throat, but I kept moving.
Soon I detected Jaeus’s pheromone not far away. And indeed, something was wrong—several masked figures had surrounded him.
Curious, I drew closer, and through the murky haze a flash of light caught my eye.
‘Huh? That is—’
If I wasn’t mistaken, those were sharpened blades. Not just one, but several pointed at Jaeus.
‘Who would do something like this in the middle of the territory?’
I struck at those blades with pheromones and shouted.
“Hey!”
I shoved aside the one standing right in front of me and got closer to Jaeus.
Their gazes were full of bewilderment.
I ignored those looks and stood in front of Jaeus.
“What are these things?”
Their faces were obscured by black masks so I couldn’t identify any of them.
No—more importantly, what kind of lunatics would dare attack the heir of another house on the first day of the Baeksul Festival?
If Jaeus were hurt here it could turn into a major conflict between houses.
‘Thank goodness I arrived before he got hurt.’
I glared at the masked men surrounding us in a circle.
“Who are you?”
“…….”
“Not going to answer? I asked who you are.”
“…….”
They didn’t seem intent on answering. Rather, they looked flustered by my sudden appearance.
Aha, so they planned to take Jaeus out when I wasn’t looking. Jaeus wasn’t someone to go down easily, but they had chosen the absolutely wrong target.
Just as I was about to open my mouth, Jaeus grabbed my shoulder and turned me around.
“Why are you here… huh?”
“I came because I was worried about you.”
“……Where’s your escort?”
“They went to buy an umbrella.”
Hearing my answer, Jaeus sighed.
Even though I came alone, how could he be cold toward someone who came to save him? We could argue about this later — for now, dealing with the masked men came first.
“Alright, stand still.”
“Senika, your current state—”
“Tsk!”
I shut Jaeus’s mouth shut successfully and turned my gaze forward.
Then I lowered my voice with all the seriousness I could muster.
“Who’s your leader?”
“…….”
“Step forward right now.”
The masked men who had been throwing murderous intent at Jaeus hid all that and went meek as puppies.
What’s with them? Where did the swagger go?
“You’d better come out while I’m saying this nicely.”
When I threatened them again, they whispered among themselves and one of the masked men in the middle stepped forward.
They were behaving obediently, which was fine, but compared to yesterday it felt like they actually knew who I was. Given that my face wasn’t that well-known yet, not knowing would have been normal.
‘Could it be…’
Are you knights from our house? Did you come to take revenge for the trouble I caused you yesterday when I stopped your antics?
Of course, that might not be it. Maybe I was being hasty.
But that didn’t change the fact that they were bad people.
I’d hardly had a chance to use my pheromones properly since I gained the ability, so I’d been wondering where to try them out. Well, perfect — suitable targets had shown up.
‘Now’s a good time to give it a try!’
“Twelve in total, right?”
Ludias nodded after counting the masked men he had dragged to a corner of the plaza.
It was a little disappointing I hadn’t gotten to test my own strength more, because they fell so easily, but opportunities like this weren’t limited to just now.
I’d also taken care to make sure the color of my pheromones didn’t reveal they were different from the family’s—so that had worked.
With an umbrella in one hand and my arms folded with the other, I looked at the men kneeling in a line. Still wearing their black masks in the rain, I annoyedly ripped them off with a rough hand.
“Hmm….”
Even seeing their faces didn’t help. Light brown hair, green eyes. They didn’t look like members of any particular house.
That confirmed they weren’t from our family, but why had they attacked Jaeus?
“Jaeus, do you know any of these guys?”
“I’ve never seen them before.”
Jaeus hadn’t seen them, and neither had I. So there was only one answer.
I furrowed my brows to look scary and asked in a threatening tone.
“Who ordered you to do this?”
“…….”
“Oh? You’re not talking?”
“I know who you are.”
I was about to scare them until they said a name, but Jaeus’s voice unexpectedly popped out with the answer I wanted.
“How do you know that?”
“……Just.”
“Is that so?”
The answer didn’t please me much. Still, it was better than them pretending not to know.
Alright, fine — they know. Now what? I’d captured them, but I didn’t know what to do next.
“So what are we going to do with them?”
“I will take these people into the manor.”
Hmm… so I’d have to go back to the manor as well.
They hadn’t targeted me specifically in their ambush, but undoubtedly my father would tell me to go straight home, saying it was dangerous.
I understood that feeling, but I wanted to enjoy the festival a little longer. Thinking about the schedule starting tomorrow made my head ache.
“You can take them all by yourself?”
“Yes. Is there any difficulty in that?”
The answer didn’t sound like a lie. It genuinely didn’t seem hard.
Ludias led the twelve masked men away and disappeared.
Watching their modest procession retreat, rather than a flashy exit, was both funny and a little sad — knowing well what they’d likely experience at the manor. Not that I felt any sympathy for them.
Once they vanished from view, I spun around to look at Jaeus.
“You heard that?”
“Yes.”
“Now that Ludias is gone, we can enjoy ourselves more comfortably.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted.”
…When you say it like that, why do I feel like I’ve lost?
I almost contradicted him, but then Jaeus stepped under my umbrella and I burst out laughing as I walked along.
