Chapter 102
It was just as I was about to break the ropes by sheer force. Elliot suddenly nodded, his pipe still clenched between his teeth, as if he’d had a revelation.
“Right. What could you have possibly done on your own? Now that the Sinclair halo is gone, there’s no one left to pamper you.”
“……?”
He was asking the questions and coming up with the conclusions all by himself.
I had been leaning forward in the chair, preparing to snap the ropes, so his sudden deduction caught me off guard.
Because I was hunched over, the back of the chair was tilted up. It was a remarkably strange and conspicuous sight.
Elliot looked at me—looking for all the world like someone caught in the middle of a suspicious act—and asked, “What are you doing?”
“I was looking at my shoelaces.”
“…….”
“Look at this, it’s a butterfly knot. Isn’t it pretty?”
I gestured toward the laces of my combat boots with a tilt of my head. Elliot followed my lead and shifted his gaze to my boots.
“Where’s the butterfly?”
“If this isn’t a butterfly, then what is it? There must be something wrong with your eyes.”
“Princess, your shoelaces are what’s wrong.”
“No, look closely. They’re pretty. Should I tie yours like this too?”
“Stop playing tricks and sit back.”
“Okay.”
Elliot let out a hollow laugh, clearly finding my behavior absurd. Looking at his expression, he didn’t seem to feel any particular suspicion or sense of danger.
Watching his laughing face, I tentatively broached the subject.
“There’s something I want to ask.”
“I have no intention of telling you anything,” Elliot said with a bright, irritating smile.
“I heard you sent people to Brunel. Why did you send them there? When I left, Brunel was crawling with monsters.”
I asked the question pointedly, testing him. But Elliot didn’t give my words the time of day and changed the subject.
“Tell me instead—where are the holes in our security? If you give me a good answer, I’ll kill you painlessly.”
Elliot’s tone was calmer now, but what he was saying was even more psychotic.
I remembered the face Elliot made when he’d plunged a sword into the thigh of Baron Wifend’s son, wearing that bone-chilling smile. A guy like him really would try to kill me.
‘Dammit, he should have just answered my question while I was being nice.’
It seemed this fox-like man had no intention of giving me the information I wanted through polite conversation.
For now, I used my head and answered his question.
“This is the Sinclair Hotel. It’s only natural that you’d know less about the building’s layout than I do.”
“So? How did you get in?”
Elliot repeated the question, completely ignoring my previous point. Bastard.
I thought back to the standard architectural design of the Sinclair Hotels. Conveniently, there was something I could use as an excuse.
“When the Sinclair Hotels are built, emergency ladders are mandatory for every guest room.”
“Emergency ladders? Listen, Sinclair. There’s no such thing here. I checked everything myself,” Elliot said patronizingly. He was relaxed, leisurely, and didn’t show a hint of agitation.
When the Sinclair Hotels were being built, my father had invested a great deal of effort into creating emergency escape routes.
At that time, high-rise construction was booming in the Graeden Kingdom, but because proper evacuation plans for fires weren’t in place, casualties were common.
Because of this, Sinclair Hotels were equipped with various safeguards for emergencies, in addition to the ladders.
“They’re installed on the railings of every room balcony. If you don’t believe me, go check right now. There happens to be a balcony right here.”
Elliot jerked his chin toward the men waiting by the door. One of the two men standing by with rifles slowly approached the balcony.
The man knelt before the balcony railing and poked around for a bit before tapping the bottom section of the railing.
Rrrr-clack—
Thud—
The sound of something dropping down echoed.
“Huh? Master El. The woman was right. A ladder…”
Graaaargh!
Hearing the noise of the ladder falling, it seemed the monsters gathered below had begun to cling to it. The ladder started to rattle and shake violently.
The man, struggling to hold onto the swaying ladder, spat out a curse.
“Shit, dammit! Hey, Philip! Help me!”
He called out to the man named Philip standing by the door. Eventually, the two men put their strength together, grunting as they tried to pull the ladder back up from the balcony railing.
“Tch.”
Watching them, Elliot clicked his tongue.
After struggling with the ladder for a while, the man named Philip raised his rifle and began firing down past the railing. It seemed the monsters were indeed clinging to the ladder.
Bang! Bang!
‘……Are they idiots?’
If you drop a ladder all the way down while making a racket when there are monsters outside, of course there’s going to be a problem. Do I really have to spell these things out?
Moreover, because the men who should have been keeping an eye on me were now preoccupied with the balcony railing, their guard had completely dropped. I had only mentioned the ladder to get them to look elsewhere, but this had become far too easy.
I looked back at the firmly closed door. Even with all this commotion, no one came to check. We seemed to be on the top floor, and it appeared Elliot used this floor all to himself.
‘Which means, I really can do whatever I want, right?’
I figured if people did come rushing in, I could just use Elliot as bait.
This was a camp built by a guy who wanted to play king. That meant if I caught the King, the absolute power, it would be checkmate.
Elliot was leisurely smoking his pipe, watching the balcony.
‘Can’t let my guard down.’
This time, I put real strength into my body and snapped the tightly bound ropes.
Snap—
As Elliot turned his head toward the sound, I swiftly snatched the axe from the floor and leveled it at his throat.
The pipe fell from Elliot’s mouth and rolled across the floor. He stared at me, his mouth hanging open.
“What the……. How on earth…….”
I gave him a bright smile.
“Shall we have a proper conversation now?”
Just then, the two men who had finished hauling up the ladder turned around and locked eyes with me. They froze upon seeing me holding an axe to Elliot’s throat.
“You there. Come here and tie him up.”
I gestured toward the man who had been called Philip.
The two men stood awkwardly with their rifles, looking at Elliot, unsure of what to do. Elliot rebuked Philip in a sharp voice.
“Philip. I’ll deal with you later. Who tied Sinclair up so loosely?”
Even after seeing it with his own eyes, Elliot was still underestimating my strength.
Well, I suppose it was hard to believe. No ordinary adult man could ever break free if they were tied that tightly with rope of that thickness.
“Has our noble Sinclair Princess ever even killed a single monster with that axe? A lady shouldn’t be holding something so dangerous.”
Elliot spoke as if he were soothing a child. When the men by the balcony continued to hesitate, he smiled and said to them, “Do as she wishes. This is entertaining.”
Reassured by Elliot’s relaxed attitude, the men finally laughed and spoke.
“The little lady’s got some spirit.”
“Feisty for such a small thing.”
They chuckled among themselves, talking about me as if I weren’t there.
I kept the axe leveled at the seated Elliot, then kicked one of the two men who had come within range.
Thwack!
“Guh!”
The man I kicked flew backward and slammed into the balcony railing before collapsing. Judging by the way he wasn’t moving, he seemed to be unconscious.
Philip and Elliot were so shocked they couldn’t even think to move, staring blankly at the fallen man.
“Like you said, how do you think a small girl like me made it all the way here through a den of monsters all by herself?”
Only then did the two men look back at me. I gestured toward Philip again.
“Tie him up. Unless you want to end up like that too.”
But Philip didn’t budge. Sigh. Why won’t anyone listen?
Setting the blade of the axe against Elliot’s neck, I whispered to him.
“It seems your subordinates don’t understand words. Or maybe he thinks he can take the throne for himself once you’re dead?”
Elliot’s face contorted. As Philip began to panic and fumble, Elliot barked at him.
“What are you doing?! Kill her!”
The moment Elliot’s shout ended, Philip raised his rifle. Simultaneously, I grabbed Elliot by the scruff of his neck and yanked him in front of me.
Bang!
“Agh!”
Elliot, who had been flailing in my grip, took a bullet to the side. To be precise, the bullet seemed to have grazed his flank.
It wasn’t a fatal wound. However, if I hadn’t pulled Elliot in front of me, I would have been the one hit.
‘If I leave people like this alone, they’ll just do the same thing again. They’re people who commit murder without a second thought. Should I just finish them all off here?’
I have no desire to hurt anyone, so why does everyone have to be so cruel? My head burned with heat. My hand, gripping the back of Elliot’s neck, tightened with a creak.
But at that moment…
“It is better not to listen to what trash says, Miss Cherry. It only soils the soul.”
Eden’s words suddenly flickered through my mind. Immediately, the boiling heat in my head cooled down to a chill.
Whenever I felt like swinging my overflowing strength around recklessly, the things Eden said would come back to me. Surprisingly, those words were effective at calming me down.
Once I had composed myself, Philip’s shocked face came into view. He looked back and forth between his smoking muzzle and the blood-spitting Elliot, shouting in a panic.
“Damn it! M-Master El! Are you alright?”
Elliot coughed and spat blood-tinged saliva onto the floor. Then, he let out a low curse toward Philip, the man who had shot him.
“Philip, you son of a……. If I die……. I won’t leave you alone…….”
As I said, it wasn’t a fatal wound, but he was suddenly leaving his will. Good grief, he really was doing the most. He seemed to be the type to exaggerate his pain.
When I loosened my grip on the back of his neck, he slumped powerlessly to the floor, groaning and unable to get up.
“Just how… such strength…”
I watched Elliot muttering like someone possessed, then looked up to see Philip pointing a gun right at my face.
I reached out and grabbed the long barrel of the rifle held before me. The barrel was trembling. It wasn’t me shaking; it was Philip’s hand.
“Y-You. Are you… an infected…?”
He seemed to believe that I was exhibiting superhuman strength just before turning into a monster. I wore a look of pure ridicule as I spoke.
“If I were infected, would I still be this sane? Idiot, if you’re going to shoot this, you shouldn’t have come within my reach.”
I snapped the barrel I was holding in half and bent it upward. Philip’s eyes widened. He stared at me and the mangled gun barrel in disbelief.
“F-Fuck!! What the hell are you?!”
“I’ve heard that question so often now that I’m thinking of preparing a catchphrase like Team Rocket.”
To protect the world from devastation! To denounce the evils of truth and love!
“What are you talking about?!”
“Never mind.”
I mercilessly struck Philip on the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.
