IBDSID Chapter 138

138. A Cornered Rat?

The men known as the Shadow Blades ruthlessly took down the thugs, leaving them barely clinging to life.

Unlike the brute-force resistance of Valken’s gang, the masked Shadow Blades struck with speed and precision, targeting vital points with their uniquely light and agile movements.

With minimal effort, they inflicted extreme pain, and Valken’s followers collapsed helplessly before them.

Amid the chaos, Eva quickly picked herself up and returned to Roselia’s side.

“My lady, what is all this…?”

Roselia was just as stunned.

At that moment, someone approached and scooped her into their arms.

About to scream, Roselia froze in wide-eyed surprise when she recognized the person holding her.

Eva, who had raised her dagger thinking it was an attempted abduction, also stiffened in shock.

“Your Grace?”

Facing Roselia’s startled expression, Klaus gave her a gentle smile and said,

“Seems I’m a bit late.”

“How did you…?”

“We can talk about it later.”

With that, Klaus carried Roselia away from the brutal scene without waiting for further questions.

Watching them leave, Marquis Valken, still held at swordpoint, shouted at Hyun in desperation.

“H-Hey! This isn’t what we agreed on!”

Hyun replied in a flat tone, devoid of emotion.

“I lured the daughter of the House of Euciliod here, as you asked.”

“T-Then what about these black-clad men?! And why is a sword at my throat?!”

Valken trembled, red-faced and unable to resist. Hyun tilted his head slightly, feigning confusion.

“I never said I’d help you. I only said I’d lure her out.”

No sooner had Hyun spoken than Valken’s henchmen, beaten to a pulp, were forced to kneel before him.

The Shadow Blades—Hyun’s subordinates—had dragged them into submission and made them kneel.

Only then, as if the cleanup was done, did the black-hooded warriors lower their masks and catch their breath, revealing their faces.

Roselia’s eyes widened in recognition.

They were the same men who had caused a scene at the Valtazar Hotel when she first saw Hyun.

She had thought they were fugitives. When she learned Hyun was the envoy of Zelos, she assumed they were just diplomatic attendants—but to think they were part of such a combat unit…

“We’ve captured every last one of them.”

The man who had argued with the hotel clerk now reported in a firm, disciplined voice—completely different from back then.

Hyun looked down at the kneeling thugs without a hint of emotion on his face.

Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from the far end of the pier.

“Roselia!!”

It was Johannes, who had brought the Marquess’s private soldiers with him.

He must have read the note Roselia left and, when she hadn’t returned even late into the night, set out with the guards to find her.

Klaus, who had entrusted Roselia to Eva, stood up calmly and greeted Johannes.

Johannes took in the scene—the bruised and broken thugs, and Marquis Valken held at swordpoint by Hyun—with wide eyes.

“You’ve arrived at just the right moment. These are the traitors who attacked Roselia and oppose Crown Prince Aaron.”

At Klaus’s blunt words, Johannes stared around in stunned silence.

His gaze quickly landed on Roselia, who was nestled safely in Eva’s arms.

Only after confirming she was unharmed did Johannes begin to assess the situation more calmly.

The thugs were kneeling, thoroughly beaten and trembling. Beside them, Valken bit his lip nervously, still restrained by Hyun.

“Marquis Valken?”

Valken flinched at the sound of Johannes’s voice and tried to avoid meeting his eyes.

Hyun pressed his blade closer to Valken’s neck and pushed down on his shoulder, signaling him to speak properly.

“M-My Lord of Euciliod… this is a misunderstanding.”

Johannes tilted his head with a smirk.

“And what exactly is the misunderstanding?”

“I-I just happened to be passing through the area! Then suddenly… yes! Those dark-dressed Zelos men kidnapped me!”

Hearing such an absurd lie, Roselia couldn’t hold back anymore and spoke up firmly.

“Marquis Valken led those men. They attacked me and Eva. Zelos stopped them.”

Strictly speaking, Hyun had pretended to help them, only to turn on the attackers—but there was no need to explain that much.

“P-Please, just listen, Lord Euciliod…”

“Arrest the traitors at once.”

At Johannes’s firm command, the soldiers swiftly subdued Valken and his gang.

Only then did Hyun lower his sword and step back. Valken immediately began screaming.

“Let go of me! Do you even know who I am?! Marquess of Euciliod! You’ll regret this!”

“You seem to have a lot to say—save it for the imperial court.”

At Johannes’s cold words, Valken finally fell silent, biting his lip and lowering his head.

As Valken and his men were dragged away, Johannes turned a curious gaze toward Klaus and Hyun.

“But how did the two of you know to come here?”

Klaus cleared his throat and glanced briefly at Hyun before replying.

“That man from Zelos gave me a heads-up. Told me to come to the pier this evening.”

At his words, Roselia looked at Hyun with wide eyes.

So he hadn’t meant to deceive her or the Marquess’s house… but had been trying to deceive the concubine faction?

Why?

Hyun met Roselia’s gaze and, as if reading her thoughts, responded in his usual calm tone.

“I told you before. I did it to gain your trust.”

That… didn’t sound quite like how he’d put it before.

Back then, he said it was to gain the trust of the Marquess’s house. The nuance had subtly shifted—and Klaus’s brow furrowed slightly.

Roselia, too, felt another question rise in her mind: why was Hyun so focused on gaining her trust?

But she pushed the thought away and changed the subject.

“With Marquis Valken, one of the concubine faction’s core nobles, now in custody, Prince Alphonse won’t be able to escape accountability.”

At her remark, Hyun added calmly,

“Grand Duke Rubelio won’t get away cleanly this time, either.”

The way he said it—as if he knew all about her history with the Grand Duke—made Roselia glance at him again, puzzled.

But Hyun’s expression remained unreadable as ever.

Now that she thought about it, Valken had implied earlier that he had contacted Hyun through Grand Duke Rubelio.

Maybe—just maybe—now that they’d captured this “tail,” they could use it to bring down both Alphonse and the Grand Duke in one move.

The thought made Roselia’s hands curl tightly into fists, her chest brimming with an unplaceable surge of anticipation.

* * *

“My goodness, that really happened?”

Claucet, who had just reached delicately for a cookie beside her teacup, dropped it onto her plate in surprise, her eyes wide like a startled rabbit.

Watching this, Eva—sitting calmly beside her—let out a sigh tinged with exasperation.

“I’m telling you, it did. Honestly, what would we have done if that envoy from Zelos hadn’t helped us? It was fortunate the Duke of Valtazar showed up just in time, too. And then the Marquess arrived with his guards, and the situation was brought under control… Come to think of it, it all lined up so perfectly—like a pre-arranged chessboard. The envoy from Zelos, the Duke, and even the Marquess…”

As Eva’s voice trailed off in confusion, her expression clouded with curiosity, Claucet diverted the topic and gave Roselia a side glance filled with disapproval.

“Even if the timing of all that help was convenient, you still ran straight to that place knowing something could happen? What if that man Hyun had bad intentions?”

At Claucet’s motherly scolding, Roselia gave a sheepish smile.

“I’m sorry.”

Claucet sighed deeply and took a sip of her tea.

“Roselia, you act as if there’s no tomorrow. That’s your problem.”

At her words, Roselia drifted into a quiet daze, lost in thought.

She had believed she was desperately struggling to stay alive and avoid getting swept into the original plot—but to others, maybe it looked like she was rushing headlong into danger without a care for her life.

Maybe, deep down, she still thought of this world as a fictional one—just words on pages of a book.

And maybe that’s why she found herself taking bold and reckless actions she would never dare in real life.

The thought was ironic.

What if her desperate struggle to survive was actually more dangerous than staying still?

As her thoughts spiraled further, she began to question whether her attempts to deviate from the original storyline were the right choice at all.

Shaking her head to clear the confusion, Roselia reminded herself:

She couldn’t allow things to proceed according to the original plot. If they did, both she and the Duke of Valtazar were doomed.

And for Claucet, who longed so deeply for a family bond, she couldn’t let that happen either.

To make that future possible, Grand Duke Rubelio—the hidden villain behind everything—had to be brought down.

With her thoughts settled, Roselia looked quietly at Claucet, who was nibbling on a cookie.

Please, let everything go smoothly in the upcoming trial…

* * *

The investigation progressed swiftly.

When Prince Alphonse attempted to dodge responsibility by cutting ties, Marquis Valken, sensing he had been abandoned, confessed everything in a desperate attempt to drag others down with him.

In the courtroom, seated in the defendant’s area, were a haggard Marquis Valken, the gang he had hired, and Prince Alphonse—glaring at Valken as if he might kill him on the spot.

Watching from the audience bench, Empress Consort Gwenhella’s face was twisted with fury, as if she might leap to her feet at any moment.

Before them, the Emperor sat with a stern expression, gazing down at Prince Alphonse with scorn.

“Marquis Valken’s confession has already revealed that everything happened according to your plan.”

At the Emperor’s thunderous voice, Alphonse clenched his teeth and lowered his head.

“The investigation conducted by the Marquess of Euciliod and the imperial knights suggests that you were involved in the death of the criminal Nora.”

At the Emperor’s chilling voice, Alphonse flinched and looked up, despair flooding his face.

As if pleading for rescue, he glanced toward his mother, Empress Consort Gwenhella—but no matter her status, there was no undoing what had already been thoroughly exposed.

The Empress Consort bit her lip so hard it drew blood.

Seeing her expression, Alphonse realized there was no way out. A look of utter hopelessness settled over him as he bowed his head again.

“There’s no way you planned all of this alone. From the very beginning, it’s suspicious that you even discovered Nora—someone I myself did not know existed. And the boldness it would take to bring down the House of Euciliod, a marquessate with 800 years of prestige… It’s difficult to believe this was all your doing.”

Johannes must have tipped the Emperor off.

There were simply too many inconsistencies to accept that Prince Alphonse had orchestrated this alone.

“Who was it? The one who encouraged you, the accomplice who pushed this into motion?”

Roselia’s gaze shifted toward Grand Duke Rubelio in the observation seats.

Rubelio looked completely calm, almost amused, as though watching a scene that had nothing to do with him.

To remain that composed even in this situation—it was no longer infuriating; it was simply astounding.

Given Alphonse’s nature, he wouldn’t go down alone.

He’d drag Rubelio with him out of sheer spite.

After all, Rubelio had to be the one who instigated this entire plot.

That’s what Roselia believed—until that moment.

Summoned by the Emperor, Alphonse remained silent for a long time, head bowed, before speaking in a voice hoarse and cracked.

“I acted alone, Your Majesty.”

At those unexpected words, not only Roselia but even Johannes looked up at him, visibly startled.

Alphonse, his expression set with resolve, looked straight at the Emperor.

“There was no accomplice. I acted entirely on my own.”