“Ugh… Uhh…” Ellyad groaned in pain, clutching his abdomen with one hand.
He couldn’t bear to keep his eyes closed any longer, but the absolute darkness made it feel like he wasn’t even opening them. The pain in his stomach and on his body was worse than before he slept. He had thought resting would restore his strength, but in reality, Ellyad was now expending life force just to rest.
The gnawing sensation of hunger made him restless. He couldn’t determine how long it had been since he last ate or drank. His mouth was so dry that he couldn’t even produce saliva, and he felt the air in the cramped room becoming thinner, almost suffocating him.
Death.
The word was looming closer than ever. Ellyad knew he was teetering on the edge of life and death, yet he couldn’t act recklessly. If he tried to escape without restoring his strength, he would be discovered halfway through, and he would surely be toyed with to death by Lofisso. But even staying here couldn’t guarantee that Ellyad would last until Lofisso mentioned using him to rescue Thrett.
Once again deeply feeling his own helplessness, in this chamber that felt like the mouth of a beast, Ellyad endured hellish torment, but in the end, he couldn’t hold on any longer.
‘I don’t want to die…’ Ellyad despondently rested his head against the iron bars, unable to even stretch his wrists through the gaps.
Knowing well that pleading to anyone was futile, Ellyad never uttered any pleading words. But now, he couldn’t suppress this sense of helpless despair any longer and murmured in a plea, “I don’t want to die.”
He had to escape from here to save Thrett, and the sooner, the better. It should have been like that, but Ellyad truly couldn’t do it.
‘I want to see Thrett again. I want to save him…’ With these thoughts in mind, his longing flooded over him like a torrent. Ellyad, unwillingly, shook the iron bars with his last bit of strength, but the cage remained unmoved, not even a sound emanating from it.
“I want to see Thrett.”
As the words left Ellyad’s lips, once again, tiny white dots of light scattered from his body. The dark chamber was illuminated by these specks of light, a scene Ellyad had witnessed before, during the chaos of being branded by Taylen. At that time, he hadn’t had a chance to ponder what they were, only realizing it upon seeing them for the second time.
He reached out to touch the nearest light spot but felt no physical form.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Cr atf rcbk-ktlaf iluta rqba wjvf mbcajma klat Siisjv’r olcufgalq, revvfcis, batfg rmjaafgfv ilutar lc atf jlg yfujc ab mbcnfguf jgbecv tlw. Fcilxf atf ijra alwf, atfgf kjr cb ktlgiklcv; lcrafjv, atfs ufcais rfaaifv bc Siisjv’r ybvs, fnfcaejiis delfais wfgulcu lcab tlw.
Ktf revvfc mtjcuf ifoa Siisjv qfgqifzfv, yea ja atja wbwfca, tf cbalmfv atja atf qjlc lc tlr ybvs tjv mbwqifafis vlrjqqfjgfv. Lf lwwfvljafis gfjmtfv yjmx ab offi tlr tfjv, olcvlcu cb agjmf bo atf qgfnlberis mbcolgwfv kbecv. Xfcais qgfrrlcu atf rqba bc tlr jyvbwfc atja tjv yffc atf wbra qjlcoei pera wbwfcar jub, tf cbk ofia cb vlrmbwobga ja jii. Siisjv mbeivc’a yfilfnf atja atbrf iluta vbar tjv tfjifv jii tlr lcpeglfr lc atf yilcx bo jc fsf.
He tried moving his body and realized that even the sensations of hunger and dizziness had vanished!
“What in the world is this?” Ellyad exclaimed, unable to fathom the origin of those light dots and why they were inside of him. However, since his body had completely recovered, he couldn’t afford to waste time on temporarily insoluble questions. With a single wave of his hand—
—
With a sharp sound, the lock of the iron cage and the iron bars were cleaved in one stroke. Ellyad cautiously pushed open the iron door and crawled out, trying his best to make no noise.
Stretching his stiff muscles, Ellyad knew he was in excellent condition now. Just as he had thought, as long as his strength recovered, there would be nothing to hinder him.
With a single stroke, Ellyad easily escaped from the secret chamber.
He made his way through the darkness, rushing out of the underground chamber, passing through the space filled with cages of nameless ones. Despite hearing Ellyad’s footsteps, the nameless ones remained unmoved, seemingly reacting only to sources of light such as torches. Ellyad couldn’t afford to be distracted by them; he had clear objectives of whom he needed to rescue and what he needed to reclaim. Indulging in momentary compassion would only lead him into trouble again, so he had to leave alone, abandoning the thought of rescuing the nameless ones.
“Sorry.” Without looking back, he escaped from the underground chamber where the nameless ones were imprisoned and arrived at the lawn of the garden he had seen at the beginning.
Currently, the sky was dim, and from here, he could see the starry sky and the fragments of moonlight penetrating from the bottom, a scene vastly different from what he saw at the lowest level. However, Ellyad couldn’t confirm the exact time now. He glanced around at the buildings of the Gururu estate; dim lights flickered by the windows, indicating that it was bedtime.
Ellyad roughly remembered the route taken when he was brought into the Gururu mansion. The most prominent and tallest domed tower-like structure in the entire garden was the main building of the Gururu mansion. On both sides, there were two shorter buildings, the left and right pavilions. When Lofisso got the scarf, she said it was a very valuable rarity. Therefore, Ellyad speculated that Lofisso would not use the scarf herself but would temporarily store it somewhere. On the other hand, the contract might be carried around, so retrieving the scarf might be easier than getting the contract. Ellyad decided to target the scarf first. Although the punishment of the contract would bring intense pain, in his current healthy state, he was confident he could endure it.
Ellyad lurked behind the garden bonsai, the night providing him with better cover for movement, but even the slightest sound could attract attention.
Suddenly, he saw an elderly man dressed conservatively carrying a candle, calmly walking through the garden, apparently preparing to enter the mansion. The best entrance to the Gururu mansion was the convenient door used by the servants. In large households like this, with many servants, numerous entrances and exits were set up for their convenience, usually tucked away in hidden corners to maintain the integrity and beauty of the building. The elderly man was probably the steward working in the mansion, conducting the final inspection and tidying up for the day. Ellyad saw the opportunity and immediately followed him silently.
As expected, the elderly steward used a key to open a hidden door in the corner. Just as he was about to enter the room, Ellyad rushed forward, covering his mouth with one hand and pressing the Hero Sword against his neck with the other. Then he quickly turned his back against the door to prevent it from making any noise when it closed.
“Don’t even think about resisting, just answer my questions,” Ellyad whispered menacingly, the moonlight gliding over the blood-red blade of his sword. The elderly steward nodded frantically, too frightened to offer any resistance.
Ellyad thought to himself that while Lena might not approve of him using the Hero Sword in this manner, the current situation left him with no choice. Besides, he had a vague feeling that Lena wouldn’t be able to intervene in the near future. The last time she intervened to stop Ellyad, it had depleted her own strength. It would likely take some time for her to accumulate enough power to manifest herself again.
“Have you seen the eldest daughter of the Gururu family today? The one carrying a Fanuto velvet scarf?” If he remembered correctly, Ellyad had indeed heard Lofisso refer to the scarf she was carrying as ‘Fanuto velvet’.
The elderly steward immediately nodded several times as Ellyad slightly eased the pressure on his mouth and asked, “Do you know where it is?” The steward nodded again, and only then did Ellyad release him, saying, “Then, please take me there now.”
The steward frantically shook his head, but with the blood-red sword pointed at him, there was a hint of threat in Ellyad’s words: “I’m giving you an order, and I won’t say it a second time. Now, you walk there as usual, and I’ll follow behind.” He added, “If you dare make any sudden moves, you’d better make sure you’re faster than me.”
Upon hearing the last sentence, the steward immediately nodded, his trembling hand holding the candle flame also reflecting his fear. The steward retreated from the mansion and headed towards another building on the right side. Ellyad followed him from the shadows, taking out a key from the keychain and opening a secret door on the right side of the mansion. Ellyad quickly approached the steward’s side. Afraid that Ellyad might misunderstand and think he was trying to mislead him, the steward whispered to explain, “The place where the treasure is stored is not in the mansion.”
Ellyad nodded in response and urged the steward with his eyes. Although it was a branch where treasures or valuables were stored, the security was quite lax, with no guards on duty. It could be because all the manpower was allocated to the main mansion, or perhaps the Gururu family was so arrogant that they believed no thief would dare to target them.
The steward led Ellyad to the second floor of the branch and stood in front of a pair of open doors, unable to turn to face Ellyad as he spoke, muttering to himself, “Behind this door is the treasure vault. If it’s the Fanuto velvet scarf, it must be kept here, but I don’t have the keys.”
“It’s okay, this will do,” Ellyad’s voice came close behind the steward. Then with a thud, the steward was knocked unconscious, and Ellyad gently propped him up against the wall.
He raised his sword to break the door lock, then entered the treasure vault carrying the steward’s candle. Using the light to search, he saw a dazzling array of jewels, but Ellyad was only interested in finding that scarf. Finally, tucked away in an inconspicuous corner, he found the gray scarf displayed under a glass cover, labeled ‘Fanuto-velvet scarf.’
He smashed a hole in the glass, causing a significant noise, but it wasn’t loud enough to wake up the people relaxing and sleeping in the main mansion.
Ellyad retrieved the scarf and wrapped it around his neck, feeling a sense of relief wash over him. Although he now had a chance to sneak into the main mansion and steal the contract, the risk was considerable. Therefore, Ellyad decided not to retrieve the contract. He didn’t want to gamble with his last hope, and even if he were discovered by Lofisso now, Ellyad, fully recovered and in his best condition, was confident he could endure the pain of breach of contract until rescuing Thrett.
‘Hurry, let’s get out of here,’ Ellyad urged himself. He closed the door and whispered an apology to the unconscious steward against the wall before silently fleeing the branch.
To escape from the Gururu mansion, he couldn’t leave through the same door he entered in the morning. The guards there would never have a chance to rest, so Ellyad decided to climb the perimeter wall and jump out directly.
He chose a spot with dense foliage to hide, but as he was about to climb up, he suddenly heard someone shout, “Who are you? What are you doing there? Come down at once!”
“Shit.” He hadn’t expected to be discovered so quickly. Ellyad accelerated his climb up the wall. Luckily, the Hero’s Sword didn’t need to be strapped to his body at all times. He could summon it whenever needed, allowing him to climb with both hands free.
Seeing Ellyad hastily escaping, the person immediately changed their tone and shouted, “Thief! Thief invading the Gururu mansion! Help, there’s a thief here!”
Hearing the footsteps of a gathering crowd, Ellyad didn’t calculate his landing point properly. He leaped down without estimating the distance correctly, landing on another bridge two floors below.
Ellyad nearly collided with the ground, but in that moment, he landed in a crouched position, slowly easing down to the ground. His ankles stung for a while, but fortunately, there were no serious injuries. He quickly got up and fled, not daring to linger in one place for too long.
Finally escaping, he now had to hurry and rescue Thrett. Ellyad felt that as long as he could see Thrett again, everything would turn for the better. When there was no one else to turn to, Ellyad preferred to place his hope in Thrett. Even if Thrett couldn’t solve everything, just being able to see him again would be the greatest salvation for Ellyad.
When did he start liking Thrett so much? Ellyad sometimes pondered this question, but he could never find an answer.
