Ch#85
In the enveloping darkness, only sporadic torchlights floated ethereally in the air.
The crowd guarding the prison had dispersed. Most had been mobilized to search for the fugitive Tenebrey, leaving few personnel behind in the prison. Ante Norr counted the remaining heads and suddenly spoke up.
“I'll go down and check the underground. With all the commotion outside, the prisoners must be in disarray.”
Of course, it was merely an excuse to visit Evangeline. One of his fellow knights snorted upon hearing this and sneered.
“This isn't the time for you to be on guard duty. Commoner stock really is different, huh? Even in this situation, all you can think about is wagging your tail at the prisoners to get bribes?”
He was right. Even in this chaos, Ante Norr's first thought was to prostrate himself before Evangeline Rohanson. But after witnessing her overwhelming majesty firsthand, who wouldn't submit? Moreover, she was dangling a carrot right in front of him, promising to grant his desires.
“I'll go with him.”
“Polus!”
As they bickered over not letting Ante Norr go alone, Polus stepped forward.
“I'll take good care of Ante, so what's there to worry about?”
Polus patted Ante Norr's shoulder with heavy thuds and pulled him along. The knight watching the scene oddly smirked, realizing that Polus's idea of “taking care” involved violence. Better to beat him to a pulp out of sight underground. This was all self-inflicted on Ante Norr's part.
“Fine. With you there, I feel at ease. Ante Norr's leg is bothering him, so take good care of him.”
No one pointed out that Polus was the one who had made Ante Norr limp. Polus led Ante Norr underground. The knights on underground duty looked puzzled to see the two return after their shift had already ended.
“Polus, why are you back?”
Ante Norr answered in his stead.
“Tenebrey Leverdi, the assassin of His Highness the Crown Prince, has fled. His Majesty has ordered her capture, so everyone's joining the search.”
“What?”
“Why don't you go up and join them? Catching Lady Tenebrey will surely bring a huge reward—it's not an opportunity that comes often.”
“You'll stand in for us?”
They hesitated briefly before agreeing readily.
“Sure. With Polus here, it'll be fine.”
As soon as the knights left and the area fell silent, Polus's body collapsed. Ante Norr flipped the corpse over with his foot. It moved limply with even his weak, limping kick, as if it had never been alive moments ago.
“Why? Impressed?”
A whisper right by his ear sent chills down his spine. Startled, Ante Norr whipped around to see Jelly giggling as if at an unexpected sight.
“Can't blame you. No one else can manipulate a corpse this precisely.”
Jelly twitched his finger, and Polus's body rose again. Unlike before, only the corpse floated in the air, like a puppet in a marionette show without strings.
“Plauros snapped the neck, making it a bit tricky to move. If he'd just cleanly decapitated it like me, how much easier?”
“You are…?”
Ante Norr asked warily of the stranger. Had a prisoner escaped amid the chaos? But he didn't recall any prisoner like this in the underground cells.
“Me? I'm Jelly.”
Andras revealed his name, delighting in the other's fear.
“Are you perhaps in Lady Rohanson's service?”
“Something like that.”
The man flashed a broad, toothy grin. Indeed, who else but Evangeline Rohanson could command such a monster? Jelly tossed Polus's corpse back to the floor and dragged Ante Norr toward Evangeline's cell.
“Something fun must have happened, right? That's why you're here to relay it to the mistress.”
“
