No Entry Except for the Master - Chapter 5
It was no different than someone splashing muddy water all over a carefully completed sketch.
When Teia showed no particular reaction to the engagement, the Imperial Crown Prince, thoroughly irritated, attached even more flies around him.
Thanks to that, Teia had to go through some troublesome effort to carry out his schedule as planned. But muddy water could simply be painted over, and flies could be swatted dead, couldn’t they?
Evading the watchful eyes of the Imperial Crown Prince, who had been monitoring him, Teia finally carried out the illegal guild extermination he had been planning for months.
“Your Highness. The soldiers we had on standby should be arriving soon.”
“Ah, is it already that time? I didn’t even notice it passed.”
Teia brushed back his blood-soaked hood, which felt heavy, and shook his hair loose. Blood that had splashed between the hood seams scattered in all directions.
The feeling of pulling a blade from a body was still vividly alive in his hands. His eyes gleamed, charged with the brutal thrill, and a subtle heat weighed down his lower body.
Cesar, who had been standing by his side, casually took out a clean handkerchief and wiped the blood from his face. He couldn’t erase all the traces, but at least his appearance now could pass as someone who had merely “assisted nearby in the fight.”
“Was this the last one?”
“Yes. The ones who fled outside will have no way out, so the soldiers arriving from that direction will handle them.”
Cesar frowned slightly as he returned to Teia the sword, now caked in dried and fresh blood, mixed together in a mess.
It had returned to the knight known as the “Blood Demon.” Teia, on the other hand, was handed back his own clean sword.
“Judging by his face, this one was the leader.”
Too caught up in the thrill of killing, he hadn’t even checked his face properly. Teia kicked the face of the man sprawled on the ground to get a better look.
The head of the illegal intelligence guild he and Cesar had attacked was turning cold, unable to even close his eyes.
He took off his blood-soaked robe and threw it into the fireplace in one corner of the office. Cesar lit the fire, and the blood-drenched garment began to burn.
By the time the soldiers arrived, every trace of Teia’s hellish assault on the guild would be reduced to ash.
“He kept these ledgers very meticulously.”
Teia, now occupying the desk in the study that had lost its owner, used a key taken from the guild master to open a locked drawer and found the ledgers.
As befitting an illegal guild, it was packed with confidential information that would displease many if exposed, along with records of black market dealings.
“Rudy’s far too trusting of people.”
Despite his disapproving click of the tongue, Teia’s expression was one of amusement.
Ludvio, the Imperial Crown Prince, had tried to hide his dealings, but when it came to this side of things, the guild master had clearly been one step ahead. Afraid of being discarded once he was no longer useful, the guild master had gone to great lengths to gather evidence of his transactions with the prince.
Clatter. Creak.
“…?”
Cesar, who had been watching the robe burn near the fireplace, quickly drew his sword and scanned the surroundings. Teia, flipping through the ledger, also sharply turned his attention to the sound.
It wasn’t the presence of a person. A very small noise was persistently scratching at something hard. Teia gestured with his fingers for silence and began searching for the source of the sound.
It was coming from inside the bookcase connected to the office desk. Feeling around with his hand, he found a suspicious compartment hidden behind fake books.
There wasn’t enough time to figure out the mechanisms one by one before the soldiers arrived.
Teia’s slender fingers lightly brushed over the cover concealing the compartment. A shimmer of white mana gathered at his fingertip, drawing a clear magic circle in the air.
Clunk.
The magic circle flared brightly and disappeared, and the tightly locked cover fell open with a click.
Peering inside, Teia’s eyes met another pair of eyes.
“It’s alive?”
Cesar, who had come closer, reached in on his behalf. His hand grasped something firm and netted—he pulled, and out came a solid iron cage. The faint clattering had been caused by a small rabbit trapped inside.
“…It does seem to be just a rabbit.”
Turning the cage this way and that, Cesar looked at Teia with a puzzled expression. Compared to how secretly it had been hidden away, its contents were startlingly ordinary.
The rabbit, possibly injured somewhere, was trembling oddly, yet continued to scratch the cage door with its tiny front paws, no larger than a finger. Its energy was fading fast, and its movements were growing slower.
“What shall we do? If left alone, it looks like it’ll die anyway.”
The scratching soon stopped. The limp rabbit’s belly was rising and falling shallowly. Teia ripped off the cage door and grabbed the rabbit roughly with one hand.
“Your Highness, if you hold it like that…”
Cesar had been about to stop her, but then hesitated. This was someone who killed people without blinking—why would she treat a rabbit any differently? The rabbit didn’t even struggle in her grasp; perhaps it lacked the strength.
“Didn’t expect to see you again here.”
