Contract Marriage Rewritten
Chapter 45
The villa district on the outskirts of the capital.
Shrouded in pitch-black darkness without a single point of light stood a lone villa.
Though there was no sign of presence, the weed-free garden, immaculate window frames, and crisp white curtains signaled that the estate was well cared for by its owner.
Behind those thick curtains, Hyperion peered outside.
With summer still some time away, no sounds of other nobles coming and going echoed through the villa district.
Heavy footsteps thudded from below as someone climbed the stairs. Hyperion let out a sigh and spoke to the person who opened the door without knocking.
“Keep it down, Signo.”
“I tried my best. Do you have any idea how hard it is to climb up in pitch darkness? Besides, you said yourself there’s no one else around.”
“Which is the only reason I haven’t done anything to you yet.”
His voice was chilling enough to suggest he would have broken Signo’s legs had anyone else been nearby.
Seeing Hyperion display the familiar coldness from his days at the border for the first time in a while, Signo shut his mouth.
Hyperion gazed outside a little longer before turning his eyes to the sky. Darkness had settled in unnoticed, and the early evening stars were beginning to glitter.
“Damn it.”
Gauging the time, he clicked his tongue softly and muttered under his breath.
If things had gone according to schedule, he would be at the Main Palace right now with Laniakea.
‘I knew this day would come, but they moved faster than expected.’
Hyperion had ascended the throne before the nobles had time to do anything.
Coming to their senses late, they had scrambled to protect the privileges they had enjoyed for so long, but it was all in vain.
Because things had not settled, Hyperion had been able to take an even harder stance against them.
The nobles all knew the new Emperor would pick someone to make an example of.
Not wanting to be that unfortunate sacrifice, they kept their heads down.
There was also the fear of his Knight Order, who had endured battle alongside Hyperion at the border.
Yet there was no way the nobility would stay quiet forever.
A few days ago, informants planted across the capital had sent word through Signo.
The most skilled mercenaries in the capital—the ones who would do anything for gold—had recently vanished from sight.
The scheme was so transparent it bordered on laughable. An ambush, no doubt.
But they wouldn’t move so easily.
Even if those nobles had sat comfortably on their asses in the capital, none would be bold enough to recklessly ambush knights seasoned by daily combat at the border.
So Hyperion had deliberately laid a trap.
He scheduled an official tour to an estate situated quite a distance from the Imperial Palace.
With the plausible excuse of inspecting the grounds ahead of the early summer hunt, the schedule raised no suspicion.
Yet, contrary to expectations, the attack occurred today.
Even though they were hardly prepared and the location was close to the capital—making the chances of failure exceedingly high.
And the moment the ambush struck, Hyperion knew.
‘How clumsy.’
They might have painstakingly assembled these mercenaries, but to Hyperion, the assault was pathetic enough to draw a sigh.
Even the arrows of the barbarians were sharper than this.
Dodging the first arrow, Hyperion’s mind worked swiftly.
Kill them? Naturally.
Then how should he kill them?
Once he caught the masterminds, how should he execute them?
He hadn’t wanted to resort to beheadings right after his coronation, but was killing at least one person the right answer after all?
Hyperion soon found his answer. Wiping them out in one go and returning to the Imperial Palace would be child’s play.
But he decided to turn this ambush to his advantage.
If they were this dim-witted, they would sing like canaries about who hired them once captured. Tracking down their traces would be easy, too.
Dodging another incoming arrow, Hyperion let out a low whistle. At the sharp, staccato tone, one of his guards suddenly screamed.
“Guh!”
With that, the guard spurred his horse and broke away from the formation.
Soon after, another knight broke rank, shouting hysterically, “Save me!”
Naturally, these were cries no knight of Hyperion’s would ever genuinely make.
One of the knights galloping away in apparent panic turned back and gave Hyperion a wink.
Hardly the expression of a man fleeing for his life.
Watching his knights scatter like an undisciplined rabble, Hyperion broke away from the group as well.
Signo and two other knights beside him rode in pursuit of Hyperion.
Realizing someone was tailing him, Hyperion deliberately took the long way around.
“Signo, there was a safe house near here, wasn’t there?”
“Yes. Pant, pant. In the… villa district…”
“Good.”
Sure enough, after riding for only a short while, a well-paved road appeared. A road used by the nobility.
Since it was not yet the main cluster of villas, the path was deserted.
The moment he rounded a bend in the road, Hyperion wheeled his horse around and drew his sword.
The pursuer, expecting him to keep running, was caught completely off guard as Hyperion lunged out from the corner, unable to even let out a scream.
There wasn’t even a need for the blade; a single punch sent the man sprawling.
The accompanying knights hoisted the attacker like a piece of trash, tightly binding his mouth, hands, and feet.
“Drag him off and find out who’s behind this. As for you, return quietly to the capital and establish contact with those who remained.”
“Yes!”
That was how Hyperion ended up dragging the captive into this villa.
After throwing the captive into the basement, Hyperion left Signo behind and headed back out with the other knight.
The whistle he had blown to the other knights was a code of the Border Guard.
Feign injury, scatter from the group, defeat them individually, and await orders.
Sure enough, when he returned, each of the knights had captured an assailant. One even shrugged boastfully, claiming he had bagged two.
“Naturally, the Imperial Knight Order couldn’t do a single thing right. They haven’t even found us yet.”
“I expected as much.”
Unsurprised, Hyperion gave fresh orders to his knights.
Some were to smear blood on themselves, return to the Imperial Knight Order, and report that they had lost the Emperor.
The rest were to move out and surveil the individuals Hyperion had previously marked.
‘There’s no need to wait until the hunt.’
Now that things had turned out like this, it was better to deal with it all at once.
‘And if they hear I’m in trouble, they’ll all reveal their true colors.’
In a crisis, there would always be those who exposed the true nature they had kept suppressed. They, too, were targets for Hyperion to purge.
He would clean up that troublesome mess in one fell swoop.
The plan was solid, and the progress was satisfactory. Except for one thing.
‘Laniakea must be terribly worried.’
She wouldn’t be just startled. Who could remain calm at the sudden disappearance of the Emperor?
Above all, she had no faction to lean on inside that Imperial Palace other than Hyperion.
Lucy was loyal, but she could not be a political force. The maids were also not yet in a position to be of real strength to her.
With no homeland and no backing family, he was the only person she could trust. How anxious must she be after his sudden disappearance?
‘The Imperial Palace must be in an uproar as well.’
Still, no one would dare try to seize control of the palace just yet.
Moving while his whereabouts remained uncertain could easily be branded as high treason.
‘I need to finish this quickly and get back.’
Just then, the sound of galloping hooves echoed from the distance. Through the window, Hyperion soon spotted his knights returning.
Judging by their hand signals from atop their horses, everything he had ordered had been carried out smoothly. Hyperion and Signo hurried downstairs.
“How did it go?”
“Just as Your Majesty predicted. We confirmed the movements of those you suspected and gathered all the evidence. Ah, and of course, we captured every last one of them. You may now return to the palace.”
Having said that much, the knight caught his breath before continuing.
“However, it seems the Imperial Palace reacted somewhat differently from what Your Majesty expected.”
“What?”
“I haven’t received a full report yet either, but while we expected chaos, they appear to be handling things remarkably calmly.”
At those words, Hyperion immediately brought his horse over and mounted.
His face hardened as he galloped toward the Imperial Palace. Everything had gone according to his expectations. Yet the atmosphere inside the palace was different?
‘What on earth is going on?’
A few hours later.
“Did you return safely, Your Majesty?”
Seeing Laniakea greet him as if nothing had happened left Hyperion even more bewildered.
Contrary to his expectation of utter chaos, though tension hung in the air, the Imperial Palace was orderly and calm. As if someone were maintaining absolute control over everything.