Chapter 09
Kite tried to catch one of the incoming bullets with his bare hand as they rained down in rapid succession. The moment his fingers brushed against it, the magic took hold. Because it was a specialized sleep-inducing round, it left no physical wound upon his flesh.
‘Grandfather!’ Yebelin thought in sheer awe. What kind of bullet can put even a Sword Master to sleep? She had known the sleep rounds were rare, but she hadn’t anticipated they would be this terrifyingly potent.
Exhaling a long, shaky breath, Yebelin slipped down from the rooftop and approached him. Fallen and unconscious, Kite looked as pristine and ethereal as a delicate flower—but she knew better than to let her guard down. He was a man far closer to a wild beast than any blossom.
After securely binding Kite with the restraints she had prepared in advance, Yebelin quickly pulled a teleportation scroll from her coat. Those who wielded firearms were usually capable of handling scrolls as well; after all, both mechanisms ran on mana.
With a swift, decisive motion, Yebelin tore the scroll open.
That was the entirety of the story up until now.
She had been remarkably cold-blooded while pulling the trigger, but reality finally caught up with her the moment she returned to the mansion and locked Kite away. Stricken with sudden anxiety, Yebelin began to pray, leaving a fiercely teeth-gritting Kite to his own devices. Yet, no matter how much she prayed, her racing heart refused to settle.
‘Still… I can’t exactly let my savior starve.’
Dragging her feet, Yebelin headed down to the kitchen. With a hollow sense of motivation, she threw together a hearty tomato stew packed with meat and vegetables, pairing it with a side of round, soft white bread.
“No, this won’t do.”
Her captive was none other than a Grand Duke of the Empire. There was no way a man of his stature would be satisfied with such humble fare.
Yebelin immediately set to work simmering a proper broth, intending to braise beef in wine. It was a time-consuming recipe, but it served as the perfect escape from reality.
Thud!
Had that sudden noise not echoed from the basement, she would have stubbornly seen the tender braised beef through to completion.
“He… he must be hungry.”
Hurriedly reheating the completed stew, Yebelin grabbed the bread and a drink, rushing down to the basement. She stopped just outside the room at the end of the hallway, from which the rhythmic thudding originated.
“Whew.”
She took a deep, centering breath, but the tension in her chest wouldn’t dissipate. After exhaling several more times, Yebelin steeled her gaze and flung the door open. Inside, Kite, who had been about to strike the wall again, spun around to face her.
‘W-Why is he smiling?’
Anyone else would be furious after being abducted, yet Kite was grinning as brilliantly as a flower in full bloom. The sheer cognitive dissonance of the sight made Yebelin instinctively take a cautious step backward.
“Stop right there.” Kite beckoned her forward with a lazy flick of his finger. “Are you the kidnapper?”
At the low, rumbling timbre of his voice, Yebelin found herself shaking her head before she could even think. “No!”
Her original plan had been to appease Kite’s ruined mood with a delicious meal and then confess the whole truth. Her grandfather had always warned her never to carelessly display her abilities, but she hadn’t been able to think of any other way. That really had been her intention.
Yet, the moment she was put on the spot, a lie slipped right out of her mouth. It’s fine, she reassured herself. Grandfather said it’s acceptable to lie in emergencies.
“Yebelin, you take after your father; you are far too honest. You mustn’t be like that, or you’ll only end up at a disadvantage. A well-timed lie is necessary to survive in this world. It is much better than souring someone’s mood by needlessly blurting out the truth.”
To some, it might have sounded like mere sophistry, but Yebelin trusted her grandfather implicitly. He had raised her with nothing but warmth and devotion after she lost her parents, guiding her all the way into adulthood. If it weren’t for him, the Yebelin standing here today wouldn’t exist.
“I am not the kidnapper.”
“Then what are you?”
“I-I am a maid.”
Kite’s gaze swept over Yebelin, scrutinizing her. Seemingly satisfied with the explanation, he gave a light nod. “Then where is your master?”
“Out.”
“When will they return?”
“I don’t know. Sometimes they return quickly, and sometimes they don’t.”
“What is the maximum amount of time they usually stay out?”
“……Ten days.”
Ten days would mean the Emperor’s birthday would have already passed. The festival celebrating the Emperor’s birth was set to begin in three days and would last for a full week. If she could just hold out for ten days, the threat to Kite’s life would vanish entirely.
“Crazy bastard,” Kite muttered, letting out a dark, mocking chuckle. “So, you can’t let me go?”
“I… I cannot.”
Usually, she was perfectly well-spoken, but Kite’s erratic behavior kept making her stutter. No matter how she looked at him, he seemed entirely unhinged. So this is the state he’s in when he goes around cleanly snapping other people’s limbs, Yebelin thought, a fine tremor passing through her body.
“Fine. Great. Then I guess I’ll just have to break out myself.”
Kite raised his fist once more. Even though his movements were severely restricted by the shackles, the wall he struck already bore the violent, splintered marks of his previous blows.
“Your meal!” Yebelin raised her voice, desperate to distract him. “Please eat first.”
“Do I look like I’m in the mood to eat right now?” Kite sneered.
Yebelin held her ground stubbornly. “You need to eat to maintain your strength.”
Though he clearly seemed to have plenty of strength to spare, she desperately needed a temporary distraction to keep him at bay.
Kite appeared to contemplate this for a moment before turning back to sit on the edge of the bed. “Bring it here.”
It worked. Yebelin was about to sigh in relief when a sudden realization dawned on her. She had brought the food down on a tray. To deliver it to a shackled Kite, she would have to step much closer to him.
‘Go near that man?’
One wrong move, and he could easily snap her neck.
“P-Please wait a moment!”
Yebelin beat a hasty retreat, placing the tray onto a nearby rolling cart she had spotted earlier. Giving it a firm shove, she rolled it across the room toward him.
“Ha?” Kite stared at Yebelin as if utterly dumbfounded by her audacity, but she deliberately ignored his gaze.
“Enjoy your meal!” she blurted out, promptly slamming the heavy door shut behind her.
However, it wasn’t long before the thudding against the wall resumed. Startled, she cracked the door open slightly, only to find Kite gesturing toward his hands with a tilt of his chin.
“You expect me to eat like this?”
“……I believe you are perfectly capable of it?”
Though his wrists were chained, he still had vertical range of motion. It didn’t look like it would impede his ability to feed himself at all.
“Perhaps you’re too low-born to know,” Kite said arrogantly, “but a nobleman never dines alone without a servant or a maid to tend to him.”
I’m a noble too, you know, Yebelin swallowed the retort before it could escape.
Come to think of it, she was merely a noble from a small, insignificant estate on the fringes of the empire, whereas Kite was a Grand Duke residing in the capital. His mansion, while not overly extravagant, was sprawling and staffed with countless servants. Naturally, he would have people dedicated solely to waiting on him during meals.
‘I didn’t even think about that!’
How could aristocrats be such incredibly tedious creatures?
“So, come over here and serve me,” Kite commanded imperiously. “Otherwise, I won’t eat a single bite.”
Ordinarily, such a threat would hold zero leverage over a captor, but Yebelin was a unique case. She had kidnapped him entirely to keep her savior alive; it would be a disaster if he starved himself to death.
‘Then again, a human can survive for over two weeks on just water.’
She only needed to keep him locked up for about ten days anyway, so was it truly worth risking her safety just to force food down his throat? Yebelin’s hand fidgeted against the doorframe.
Kite was a Sword Master—a man who had reached the absolute pinnacle of swordsmanship. That meant his physical conditioning was vastly superior to that of ordinary men. Surely, his body could endure a much longer period without food than the average person.
It was a somewhat cold-blooded calculation, but Yebelin ultimately preferred to stay alive.
She’s not coming in, is she?
Kite watched the internal struggle play out across the face of the woman claiming to be a maid. Initially, a wave of hesitation had washed over her features, but it didn’t last long. Soon enough, her body, which had been angled slightly toward the interior of the cell, began to shift surreptitiously toward the exit.
She was making it abundantly clear that she understood exactly how dangerous he was, and had no intention of stepping within arm’s reach.
‘Ah, the pitfalls of being famous.’
There wasn’t a soul in the capital who didn’t know he acted like a madman. Since she was the maid of someone capable of pulling off a kidnapping, she was likely privy to all the rumors. If she weren’t competent, her master wouldn’t have kept her around. Threats were clearly useless against a girl like this.
Kite analyzed the situation coldly. Time for a different tactic, then.
Letting the harsh tension bleed from his face, he lowered his eyelids halfway. Allowing a profound, sorrowful melancholy to settle over his features, he let out a slow, heavy sigh. He was acutely aware of the devastating power of his own good looks, and he knew exactly how to weaponize them.
