My Slain Dragon Bride

Chapter 255. Gáe Bolg

The slums of the Arken Empire.

A dark, gloomy part of the city that stood in stark contrast to the splendid commercial buildings lining the main streets.

An abandoned place untouched by the light of Alte.

"The air around here is always filthy."

A man grumbled.

His leather armor was stained with grime, and his cloth clothes clearly had not been washed properly.

To anyone looking at him, he was dressed exactly like a member of a slum gang.

His disguise was so perfect that no one could have guessed he was actually a knight of the Empire.

Wet Clowfield.

An elite knight from a noble family who had followed an exemplary path and earned the trust of his superiors, with a promising future laid out before him.

For someone like him to be pretending to be a vagrant in a place like this was utterly absurd.

The order given to the knight was simple.

—Isolate and protect the target. This is a mission only you can carry out.

It was a top-secret mission, so classified that even among the Empire’s highest-ranking military officials, very few knew about it.

Given the importance of the assignment, Wet displayed his knightly spirit.

Though calling it knightly spirit was a bit much. When your superior tells you to do something, you simply had to do it.

Wet quietly entered the sewer with a paper bag in hand.

It had been cleaned to some extent, so it was not as horrible as it used to be, but a sewer was still a sewer.

Wet walked through the winding underground passageways and eventually arrived at a place that would be impossible to find unless someone deliberately searched for it.

He knocked on a stone wall.

A hollow sound echoed, as though he had struck a drum.

The people inside thoroughly verified his identity before letting him in.

Two guards stationed along the short corridor saluted him.

"You’re here, Captain?"

"How’s the isolation target?"

"Same as always."

"She’s a fucking nightmare."

The two guards looked thoroughly fed up.

Wet couldn’t say he didn’t understand their feelings.

He passed the guards, opened the second door, and entered.

Inside was a technician working on something.

But this place was on an entirely different level from the workshops filled with advanced tools commonly associated with technicians.

It was practically a garbage dump.

Even the desk was made from trash, and everything she had collected was trash as well.

She had her nose buried in the garbage, muttering something to herself.

If one did not listen carefully, it would be easy to think she was practicing Black Magic.

"I brought you something to eat."

The muttering voice stopped for a moment.

"Throw it over here."

The knight tossed the bag beside her.

Perhaps she had been hungry, because the woman immediately inspected its contents.

Just as he was about to leave after delivering the food—

"Wait."

The woman grabbed what the knight had brought and casually tossed it back toward his feet.

"This isn’t right."

"Salt bread with mayonnaise. I brought exactly what you asked for. What the hell are you complaining about?"

"It’s too fresh."

Her reasoning was completely different from that of ordinary humans.

"I specifically told you to buy mayonnaise that was about to spoil and salt bread that had gone completely hard."

"......"

"But the salt bread you brought is warm and soft. And the mayonnaise isn’t merely fresh. It’s incredibly mild and clean-tasting."

"...."

"Are you incapable of doing even one thing you’re told?"

The man tried to ignore her.

"I suppose that’s why you’re stuck in a cesspool like this."

That finally made Wet’s emotions explode.

He locked the door he had been about to leave through.

He strode over and grabbed the woman’s head as she fiddled with the bomb.

"Looks like you need another lesson."

Wet began beating her.

Being an elite knight from a prestigious background, then being stuck in a sewer like this to isolate and monitor a madwoman, had been an extremely stressful assignment.

And when that woman kept deliberately getting on his nerves, he needed someone to vent his anger on.

He attacked only the parts that would cause the most pain without breaking any bones, and the woman could do nothing but endure it.

Savage sounds echoed throughout the isolation room.

The guards knocked on the door several times to ask what was happening, but eventually fell silent again.

There were no screams of agony or pleas for mercy.

Only the sound of bodies being thrown around echoed again and again.

Blood poured endlessly from her nose like a broken faucet.

When the knight decided he had beaten her enough, he grabbed the woman and hauled her up.

She was surprisingly light, just as her appearance suggested.

"Have you come to your senses now?"

After being taught a lesson like this, surely that pointless stubbornness would disappear.

Wet wanted to see Gáe Bolg trembling and bowing her head in submission.

But the light had not died from Gáe Bolg’s eyes.

Her green eyes were shining.

"Doing all that... is supposed to kill me?"

She was actually smiling.

"If you’re going to kill me, wouldn’t it be better to do it now?"

Blood was still streaming from her nose, yet her face wore a chilling smile.

This was different from the mere bravado of men pretending to be tough.

This woman genuinely enjoyed the situation.

It was as though she found the fear of death amusing.

Wet didn’t like it.

Her behavior constantly provoked him, as though she knew perfectly well that he could not kill her.

And in reality, he couldn’t.

He was an elite knight who faithfully carried out his superior’s orders.

"You fucking lunatic..."

The knight released the woman.

"Coward."

The woman giggled and mocked him.

She snorted the blood from her nose and went back to working on the Mana Stone.

She muttered to herself and immersed herself in her work as though the beating moments ago had never happened.

’I can’t understand why they keep a lunatic like her alive.’

The elite knight had already investigated her background before coming here.

The charges against her were astonishing.

’Attempted murder of a noble.’

Attempted murder of a noble was a crime punished even more severely than killing one’s own family.

Even within noble society, there was no way someone could survive such a crime.

For commoners, it was even more unthinkable.

And yet she had survived.

That was how much her actions had shocked the entire nobility.

The noble she had attacked was Marquess Phellus.

As a noble of the financial world, he was physically weaker than other nobles.

However, his enormous financial power meant he had more than enough money to hire people to protect himself.

Using his characteristic eloquence and wealth, he had succeeded in making the most renowned escort mercenary group his personal guards.

The name of that escort mercenary group was Aegis.

As their name suggested, they proudly proclaimed themselves an impenetrable shield and declared that no one would ever be able to lay a hand on Phellus.

The public naturally believed them.

After all, no one had any intention of attacking him in the first place, much less breaking through his defenses.

Who would ever think of laying a hand on a noble?

And the idea that a skinny girl who looked as though she were made of nothing but bones could break through burly men and elite soldiers was like throwing an egg at a rock.

’But she did it.’

She had broken through the guards all by herself.

’With nothing but a few firecrackers and some dye...’

She toyed with the elite soldiers, disrupted the guards, and broke through them in an instant.

When she finally reached Marquess Phellus, the only thing she did was leave a red handprint.

Nothing else.

At the time, the woman had said:

—Broke through.

The woman did not run.

The confused elite soldiers eventually caught her, and the woman laughed hysterically as she shouted:

—If you call yourselves Aegis, then I’ll call myself Gáe Bolg! From now on, call me Gáe Bolg!!

Gáe Bolg.

The spear that pierces the heart.

It was said to be a cursed spear that brought about tragedy, even forcing its wielder to kill their own family.

The woman should originally have been sentenced to death, but she survived.

Although Aegis had failed, their reputation was clearly not exaggerated or inflated. It had undoubtedly been built on genuine trust.

Gáe Bolg’s attack revealed potential that could not be underestimated.

That made it too wasteful to execute her according to the law, so they conducted several tests on her.

As expected, she possessed superhuman abilities.

She had extraordinarily dexterous hands.

Using nothing but instinct, she created mechanical devices that normally would have required craftsmen to study and struggle over for years.

They looked crude on the outside, but they were tools designed to screw someone over at precisely the perfect moment.

Regardless of what the person commissioning them intended, everything always worked according to her own intentions.

They thought she might be useful someday.

And that day had finally come.

They had secretly managed to bring in several Magitech Rifles and dozens of magazines.

She immediately began preparing to create something based on those materials faster than anyone else could have.

One of those creations was the round object sitting over there.

She had modified an entire cylinder. At first glance, it looked like a magazine, but its color was different.

The woman called it a grenade.

The knight had once read records concerning Magitech grenades.

’According to the records, they were supposed to release Mana, weren’t they?’

The shockwave produced by the explosion was lethal enough on its own, but the pure Mana released over a wide area could paralyze the nervous systems of Monsters, creating an opening for Spearmen at close range to make use of.

However, what he saw now was not blue.

It was a purple object, densely condensed and glowing faintly.

What was the difference?

Without thinking, the knight reached toward it.

"I’d recommend not touching that."

Gáe Bolg spoke without even looking back.

It was as though she had eyes in the back of her head.

"If someone as mannerless as you carelessly touches it, the entire area could be blown away."

"Something this small?"

"It’s not quite the level of explosion I want, but it’s more than enough for that. If you want..."

She turned her head.

There was a mocking glint in her eyes.

"Want to test it?"

At those words, the knight’s impulse stirred violently.

He had felt it even while beating her.

There was something about the woman that could make people lose their reason.

Wet was a man who never backed down from a challenge.

But he did not touch the object.

The orders from his superiors were clear: he could lay a hand on the woman if necessary, but he was not to touch the objects.

’When the day comes to dispose of you, I’ll make sure you die in the most painful way possible.’

With that promise to the future, Wet focused on monitoring her.

That was when it happened.

The woman’s muttering stopped.

She suddenly raised her head stiffly, like a dog that had heard something.

"Hmm~."

She stared toward the door with an interested expression and grinned.

Just as Wet was about to question her instincts, he realized why she had reacted that way.

’I can’t sense their presence.’

There were two guards outside.

The fact that their presence had vanished without a trace meant they had been dealt with.

Wet stepped away from the door and drew his sword.

He assumed they would smash through the iron door and force their way inside.

But contrary to his expectations, everything proceeded quietly.

Something black climbed up along the iron door.

It transformed into the shape of a hand and simply pushed the latch aside.

With only a mechanical lock securing it, the door opened with surprising ease.

The door slowly swung open.

The man remained tense, prepared for an attack to suddenly come flying through.

But there was no ambush, even after the door had completely opened.

Instead, what entered his sight was unmistakable.

Two guards lying helplessly on the ground.

And four suspicious people who had subdued them with ease.

For people who had just launched an attack, they had arrived with astonishing confidence, openly revealing their identities.

Wet immediately recognized one of them.

It was a face rarely seen in the Empire, yet he was so famous that there was not a single noble who did not know him.

Tall, with gray hair.

And eyes so deep that anyone who met his gaze would feel as though they had been plunged into a deep lake, struggling even to swallow.

He walked in with the dignified bearing of a noble.

Wet asked him:

"You are the Regent of the Duchy of Valdrova, aren’t you?"

"That’s right. And you?"

"I’m merely one of the nameless gang members from this slum. What brings the consort of the great Dragon to a place like this?"

"Well, you know the answer too, don’t you?"

There was no reason for them to travel all the way here just to rob some slum gang.

Wet let out a hollow laugh.

"Even many people within the Empire don’t know. You truly are a Regent shrouded in mystery."

"There are no eternal secrets in this world."

"I won’t be broken easily."

"That’s what you think."

Ferda casually gestured with his hand.

A handsome young man with brown hair stepped forward.

He was wearing similar leather armor, but instead of a shortsword, he carried a dagger even shorter than one.

He stepped in front of Wet.

"Let’s see just how well a slum gang can fight."

"With that annoying face, you must be Sir Swallow."

"Nice to meet you, nameless piece of trash."

"I read the report. Apparently, you served as Regent Ferda’s escort, but you failed."

He smiled thinly and poked at a painful spot.

"You failed despite holding a knight’s title, yet somehow your head is still attached to your body."

"Using seduction isn’t something that only works on women."

Zed replied with a relaxed expression.

"Besides, hearing that from a guy who was abandoned by his comrades and demoted after beating cadets half to death doesn’t exactly hurt."

"What?"

"What kind of elite knight do you think gets assigned to watch a lunatic in a cesspool like this? You’re more innocent than I thought."

Wet’s face stiffened.

"In dirty talk, Zed wins by decision!! He’s one score ahead!"

Penelope, standing behind them, munched on a snack and scratched along in agreement.

"Try failing to protect your master twice!"

In the end, Wet could no longer hold himself back and charged at Zed first.

Zed’s dagger blocked his sword.

The vibration that rang out from their first exchange was unmistakable.

This was not some simple duel.

It was a battle for life and death.

"You bastard! Your reputation for beating up your juniors wasn’t undeserved!"

Wet had the advantage in strength.

But Zed possessed the skill to overcome it.

He slightly twisted his blade to deflect the attack, then drew another dagger with his empty left hand and aimed it at the man’s abdomen.

"Cheap tricks!"

It was a battle between a conventional knight and a more unorthodox one relying on tricks and techniques.

Wet had the advantage in reach and strength, yet strangely, he was the one at a disadvantage.

And that was in a pure one-on-one fight.

His pride began to crumple like a sheet of paper.

’I, who built my reputation by following the elite path!’

He could not believe he was being pushed back by some nobody from the streets whose origins were unknown.

But it did not take long for him to understand the reason for his disadvantage.

He had been distracted by that incessantly chattering mouth and had failed to properly look into his opponent’s eyes.

Those eyes were nothing like those of a frivolous man.

They were the eyes of a predator.

Serious and razor-sharp, they were driving him into a corner.

The confidence Wet had felt in his victory began to collapse.

’I’m going to lose!’

Until the very last moment of the battle, he had never once imagined that he could lose.

Yet now that was exactly what he was thinking.

His mind raced desperately, searching for a way out of this predicament.

"Duck!"

Gáe Bolg shouted.

Wet thought it was a cry of salvation.

Perhaps she was finally going to use her tricks at this crucial moment.

Wet lowered his head as instructed.

But nothing happened.

Gáe Bolg was sitting on the desk in his field of vision, merely grinning.

There had never been anyone on his side to begin with.

"You fucking—"

Bam!

Zed’s hook landed squarely on Wet’s jaw.

Wet’s jaw twisted violently to the side.

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