~Chapter 72~
“Richard!”
Bastian called urgently, but it was already too late.
Richard’s cloak swept behind him as he stormed straight across the gambling hall.
He wanted to grab Wudian by the throat, but reason barely held him back. Instead, he gripped Wudian’s shoulder so hard it felt like it might shatter.
“Ugh! Damn it, who the hell—!”
Wudian flinched when he saw the cold blue eyes beneath Richard’s hood. Those beast-like eyes glared at him with violent intensity.
“P-Prince…”
Recognizing him at once, Wudian fell silent.
Richard didn’t speak a word. He simply yanked him up and dragged him out of the hall.
Bastian followed and sighed as Richard shoved Wudian roughly onto the ground outside.
“Hopeless. Stopping him is impossible,” Bastian muttered, clearing bystanders out of the alley.
Richard broke the silence, his voice low and tight with suppressed fury:
“So you fawn over Amelie in front of her… and behind her back, this is what you do?”
Wudian brushed the dust from his sleeves, wearing a calm face.
“I just come here sometimes to relieve stress. It’s legal, so why are you so sensitive?”
Richard gave a sharp, humorless laugh.
“And that woman you were clinging to? What will you say about her?”
“She was just at the same table. I’d never met her before. She looked dizzy, so I asked if she was alright. That’s all.”
The shameless excuse, delivered as if rehearsed, only made Richard’s jaw tighten.
“I’m not dumb enough to fall for your lies. Keep playing your filthy games—but don’t show your face near Amelie.”
Wudian’s smile faltered, but he retorted with a frown:
“Your Highness may be close with Lady Amelie, but don’t you think this is too much? Even friends have no right to meddle in someone else’s private life.”
Richard’s patience snapped. He seized Wudian by the collar.
“The only thing I want is to get rid of trash like you who has no right to hover around her.”
Just then—
“Kyahhh!”
A piercing scream rang out nearby. Ordinary people wouldn’t have heard it, but Richard’s trained ears caught it clearly.
“Richard.”
Bastian appeared at his side, signaling they needed to check it out.
Richard shot Wudian one last look.
“Stay away from Amelie. Crawl in the gutter where you belong, and don’t stain her with your filth.”
Richard gripped his shoulder once more—hard enough to leave the warning etched into his bones—then released him and turned away.
“Lux.”
At his call, Lux appeared at once.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Where did the scream come from?”
They were already heading in the direction of the sound, but Lux scanned quickly, then pointed.
“Turn right past the inn with the red sign. It’s the first alley.”
The three hurried over.
There, a woman was collapsed on the ground, trembling.
“P-please… s-save me…!”
Seeing Richard and Bastian cloaked in robes, she screamed in terror.
Richard stopped a safe distance away and pulled a Peacekeeper badge from his coat to show her.
“Calm down. We’re Peacekeepers. What happened here?”
“P-Peacekeepers… The man I was with… he was stabbed…”
Her words were broken, her voice shaking with sobs.
“You mean the man with you was stabbed?”
“Y-Yes…”
“Tell me his name and what he looked like.”
“I didn’t know his name… He said he was twenty-three. He wore… a black musketeer’s shirt…”
Richard glanced at Lux.
“Find him.”
“Understood.”
Lux nodded and vanished into the alleys.
Meanwhile, Bastian draped his coat over the frightened woman.
“You’re safe now. Take your time and tell us what happened.”
“I-I was leaning against the wall… I’d had too much to drink… Then he… he was stabbed…!”
“Was anyone else around?”
“No. But when I turned at the scream, s-someone was already dragging his body away!”
Richard’s eyes lowered.
A trail of fresh blood led from the ground where she sat, dragged in a smear down the alley.
“Did you see the attacker’s face?”
“No… He wore… some kind of strange mask… I can’t remember clearly…”
A strange mask.
This was the first real eyewitness account in all the disappearances and murders around Delis. Until now, no witness had survived. She was the first living witness.
Then—
Shhhk!
The sound of something slicing through the air.
“Ahh—!”
The projectile struck before anyone could react, piercing the woman’s heart.
“Damn it!”
Bastian cried out as he caught her collapsing body, but the arrow had already ended her life.
Cursing, Richard snapped his gaze upward. Something gleamed in the moonlight on the rooftop.
“Stay here and guard the place! The culprit is close!”
He shouted to Bastian, then leapt up to the roof.
But there was nothing—no figure, no trace.
“It was a crossbow,” Richard muttered.
The glint he saw had been the arrow loaded into it.
And the target had never been Richard or Bastian.
It had been her—the first true witness.
Richard looked down over the bustling, noisy street below. A chill of foreboding filled his eyes.
