Chapter 10
Intuition
When a pitch-black, enormous pit appeared before his eyes, Shed realized it was a dream.
A familiar nightmare he had too often.
He hadn't dreamt it in a while, but it seemed she had stirred up old memories in his head.
Shed stared silently at the black pit.
In that instant, corpses soaked in blood rose from the inky darkness, screaming.
"Save me, Shed!"
The humans reaching out from the pit had faces so mangled they were unrecognizable.
Some stretched out their arms with severed wrists, others screamed with necks twisted grotesquely.
'Damn it.'
Even though it was a nightmare he had countless times and had grown numb to, his heart pounded as if it would burst in the dream.
He was sick of his heart, throbbing loudly with anxiety and fear.
'If you're dead, just leave me alone now.'
He wanted to tear out his damned heart.
Wasn't it time to stop now?
It had been eight years, yet every time he dreamt, his throat felt blocked as if he would vomit.
Even though he was already dried up and felt no particular emotion, tears dripped from his eyes, which were shaking chaotically.
It was pathetic, like he was filming a melodrama.
He wanted to cut out his Tear Gland, which was shedding tears like a broken machine.
As always, he lowered his head.
He saw a broken Guardian Statue at his feet.
The small statue he had gifted to Hyung.
"Shed, I told you to be careful!"
At that moment, a man who jumped out of the pit strangled his neck.
His face was mangled and unrecognizable, but Shed knew who he was.
The man strangling his neck was his Hyung.
Pamen Lupus, the only one he had trusted and followed.
He screamed at the cowardly survivor with a hateful voice.
This wasn't a dream, but a memory.
The corpses of the Lupus piled up in the black pit. His brothers, friends, and comrades, who he thought were missing, were mangled beyond recognition.
He found the bodies of the missing Lupus in the Ideana County's back mountain, in a huge pit.
The knights of the Count buried the dead Lupus in the pit like livestock.
Eight years ago that day, Shed Lupus lost everything.
The tears that fell like droplets still didn't stop, and his heart throbbed as if stabbed with a knife.
But now, it was boring.
Like a storybook read thousands of times, it was uninteresting.
'It's time to wake up now.'
Shed thought, filled with ennui, as he was strangled by his dead Hyung.
The nightmare always ended around this time.
When he woke up, he would spend another night in a foul mood.
But.
"You're just a Lupus, what did you think you were?"
Before he knew it, the surroundings darkened, and she was before his eyes.
Shining with dazzling blonde hair and clear, transparent light green eyes.
Shed froze in place at her sudden appearance.
'Why are you…….'
It was a dream he had never had before.
Luise Ideana stared blankly at him, her face clear and bewildered.
Shed couldn't take his eyes off her.
As if she would disappear like smoke the moment he looked away.
Instead, he moved his lips and let out a voice from his parched throat.
"Did you…… know too?"
That Hyung, that my comrades were being massacred by the Ideana?
That so many deaths, tell me you don't know anything about it.
To his question, Luise Ideana replied with the smile he had once loved.
"They're just Lupus, aren't they?"
Her small head tilted slightly as she answered innocently.
Her voice was gentle, as if reciting poetry, and therefore more cruel.
To the Ideana, the Lupus were slaves, mere expendable goods.
"Luise!"
He rushed at her in anger.
But his outstretched hand didn't reach, and she disappeared like a mirage in an instant, as if mocking him.
No, if you disappear like this, what about the anger left in me, this despair……!
"Huk……!"
Shed shot up.
The surroundings were still dark, and he couldn't tell if he was still in a dream or awake.
Breathing heavily, he clenched his fist after checking the white blanket covering him.
"Damn it……!"
Veins bulged on the back of his hand.
It was a dirty dream.
Dirtier than his usual nightmares.
His heart was pounding as if he had run a full sprint.
He looked up at the window.
It was too early for the sun to rise. It was the deepest part of dawn.
Soon he would have to start the long journey back to Ideana.
Today would be the last day he could close his eyes in a comfortable bed.
But he couldn't fall asleep again because of the nightmare.
He got out of bed and poured water into an empty glass.
His Adam's apple bobbed a few times as he swallowed the water.
But the lukewarm water couldn't relieve the stuffiness deep in his chest.
He ran his hand through his disheveled hair and frowned.
Even after taking a few breaths, his anxiety didn't subside.
He felt like he had missed something important.
Shed got up, put on his gown, and approached the window.
It was the hour when those who had been packing late into the night had gone to sleep for the long journey ahead. The world was submerged in a suffocating silence. As if nothing had happened.
Nevertheless, one word shook his desolate dawn.
'Ideana.'
The damned word was stuck in his head like an arrowhead and wouldn't come out.
He recalled the woman with the anxious, green eyes.
The woman who had disappeared like smoke in his dream.
The woman who kept driving his anxiety.
"My Lord can sometimes be really beast-like."
Hedrick, who was fearless, had once said this to him.
"How did you know the enemy soldiers were hiding there?"
It was the day he had identified the location of the enemy soldiers with only his intuition, without any information.
The knights looked at him as if he were a magician after he found and defeated the enemy soldiers without any intelligence.
Of course, it wasn't magic. It was just that his instinctive sense was excellent.
Eclaus called it 'the result of rapidly calculated reasoning based on long experience.'
From his days as a slave, when he was forcibly mobilized for Demon Beast hunting and combat, the days when he had to desperately survive each time he went back and forth between life and death, the moments when he had to find a way out of terrible disasters. It was probably a skill that came about from using his head to survive in those situations.
It didn't matter what name you called that ability. Whether it was intuition, a magical superpower, or reasoning and calculation ability.
What mattered was that the sense had saved his life several times.
It was the same now.
Shed couldn't ignore the cool current flowing in the air.
He put on his gown and went out into the hallway.
No one was outside the bedrooms, as if everyone was asleep. The CEO Werner and the other knights were probably conserving their energy for the long journey ahead when the sun rose.
Shed didn't bother to call and wake anyone else up.
Because it was a simple problem if he just checked one thing.
Besides, he felt like he could only be relieved if he saw it with his own eyes.
Liana Serpens.
The new maid was said to stay a little apart from the other maids.
Because she was a sudden addition to the workforce, they had temporarily placed a cot in the storage room.
Shed moved his steps towards the storage room.
The path leading to Liana's room was pitch black.
Because all the lights were turned off, he was just following the path with eyes accustomed to the darkness.
In the darkness where the moonlight covered by clouds barely seeped in, Shed recalled his ill-fated relationship with the Ideana.
'Liana Serpens…….'
In the meantime, he repeated her name several times.
No matter how much he thought about it, it was a name that didn't stick to his tongue.
Luise Ideana. As expected, that name was familiar and suited her well.
But if he called her by that name, he wouldn't be able to tie her down. Because she was the only daughter of the traitor, Count Felix Ideana, who researched Black Magic.
Luise Ideana was a clear criminal and deserved to die.
'I can't let her die that easily.'
If Luise Ideana's survival was known, she would be dragged away immediately, and his long-awaited revenge would be taken away by someone else's hands again.
He headed to the storage room behind the mansion, where the laundry was collected. It was a room with a soapy smell, where freshly washed and folded sheets were stacked.
Shed paused in front of the storage room door.
"Ha……."
He let out a short breath at the sight of himself, walking in with great momentum and then stopping in front of the door.
It was as if he had become a slave, cautiously waiting for permission before entering the young lady's room.
Old habits he had learned long ago popped out unconsciously, and his chest tensed up tightly.
It had been eight years. Now this place was all his, and she was also under him.
Shed bit his teeth at the damned habit and roughly threw open the doorknob.
He intended not to care whether the maid Liana Serpens woke up or was surprised.
Bang, a cold dawn wind blew in through the wide-open doorway.
The wind swirled greatly in the space Shed faced. A dark, narrow, and empty space.
The wind that blew around and out became a great emptiness and covered him.
What he saw was a small cot, just enough for one person to curl up on.
On top of it was a white blanket, folded neatly to the point of being hateful.
As if proving his chilling intuition.
That intuition soon turned into anger.
A cracking sound was heard from the doorknob clutched in his large hand.
He left the door of the empty storage room wide open and headed to the mansion.
"Carlisle!"
His booming voice echoed through the large hall of dawn.
He went up to his room with hasty steps, put on his jacket, and picked up the sword he always kept by his bedside. Unlike usual, a loud and rough sound was attached to the end of his actions.
In the meantime, the knight Carlisle came up to the room with his shirt buttons not properly fastened.
"My Lord, what's wrong?"
Other knights besides Carlisle, and the CEO Werner, had also come.
They were worried that there might have been an assassination threat against Shed. But Shed's bedroom looked clean without a single drop of blood.
"Wake up the horses and prepare."
Carlisle lowered his head before his Lord's bloodshot eyes.
