CHAPTER 90………………………..
“Anna, where’s the sound coming from?”
“This way!”
I followed Anna.
“It sounds like it’s coming from inside here.”
Anna pointed at the wall.
There was a faint crack running through it.
Linaria tapped it with the back of her hand and said,
“Kaas, strike here.”
Kaas drew his sword.
He swung at the wall, black energy trailing from his blade.
But—
“Could I have misheard?”
Anna muttered in embarrassment.
The wall hadn’t so much as a scratch.
“No. That’s what’s strange.”
“Strange how?”
“Kaas struck it, but it’s perfectly fine. You didn’t hold back, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.”
Kaas sounded indignant.
Knowing just how strong he was, Linaria thought for a moment, then said,
“In that case, we’ll have to change methods. Try striking it with Leviathan’s power, not Ovel’s.”
Kaas obeyed immediately.
Blue energy wrapped around his blade, and he swung once more at the wall.
Boom!
A loud crash rang out, scattering dust.
Anna, who had instinctively shielded Linaria, looked stunned.
Not because of the sheer force of the blow—
But because Kaas’s contracted beast was officially only Darkness.
Leviathan?
“Anna, you know today’s events are a secret, right?”
“Of course! Even if a blade were at my throat, I wouldn’t breathe a word.”
The only known dual contractor alive was Crown Prince Maximilian. That meant Kaas was probably…
Guessing at Kaas’s identity, Anna quickly pushed the thought aside. Someone like her had no business prying.
“It looks like we’ve found where the treasure is hidden.”
The Leviathan’s treasure, thought to exist only in fairy tales, was real.
Linaria had known of its existence—though not that it was hidden here.
As the dust settled, a small lake was revealed beyond the broken wall.
Drip, drip—
Now Linaria, too, could hear the sound of water falling.
“But, milady… how did you know something was hidden here? I might’ve just been hearing things.”
“I trust you, Anna.”
Linaria smiled.
“You’re in perfect health—there’s no reason you’d suddenly hear phantom sounds. Which means it was a sound only you could hear, here and now.”
“…”
“Anna, what’s different between you, me, and Kaas?”
“It’s not our gender, so… ah! Whether we’re contractors or not!”
“Exactly.”
Only those without a contracted beast could hear the sound.
“So they designed it so that only commoners without contracts could notice it.”
“And yet, to open the door requires a contractor—specifically one with Leviathan’s power. That way, only someone who knew of the treasure could ever access it.”
The mine was quiet now, but in the past, it would’ve been filled with noise.
Even if some miners had reported hearing dripping water, no one would’ve believed them.
‘Especially since there isn’t even a stream, let alone a lake, anywhere near here.’
“But milady, this mine belongs to Duke Ovel. From what you’re saying, it sounds like Leviathan’s side hid the treasure here.”
“Right. My father bought this glowstone mine in bulk about twenty years ago, so it must’ve been hidden before then.”
The one who set the trap probably never expected that the mine would one day belong to Duke Ovel.
“Buying glowstone mines is madness—or else something only a man with money to burn would do.”
That man was her father.
Suspecting what treasure Leviathan had hidden, Linaria didn’t hesitate to reach into the lake.
“Careful!”
Anna cried out in alarm.
But Linaria pulled out something solid. It glowed red.
Leviathan’s treasure—the Star of the Sea.
Everyone thought it was just a fairy tale.
But the gem infused with Leviathan’s power was real.
Voom—
As Linaria gripped the jewel, the water of the lake shot upward.
A massive water column obscured their vision, and in the spray of droplets, the silhouette of a giant whale appeared.
Their eyes met.
Linaria blinked.
“The lake is gone!”
In the blink of an eye, both whale and lake vanished—
As if they had never existed at all.
Linaria spoke, still in awe as though she had seen a mirage.
“It must have been the Star of the Sea that created the lake.”
“The Star of the Sea? That’s real? And it’s not even aquamarine… it’s coral?”
The coral gemstone in Linaria’s hand shone brilliantly.
It had been crafted from sea coral.
The redder the coral, the more valuable it became—and this one was blood-red.
And soon, its price would skyrocket beyond imagination.
‘Thanks to this, I can move up the schedule.’
“Thanks to you, Anna, we’ve finished surveying the mine much earlier than planned. Let’s return.”
She had thought she might never learn why Duke Leviathan had purchased this abandoned mine.
But instead, she had seized Leviathan’s treasure almost too easily.
‘With this, even the Emperor himself will have no choice but to kneel.’
Though Ricardo remained an unpredictable factor, she could control him if she kept him close.
‘I’ll head straight back to Ovel Castle and announce we’re leaving for the capital.’
Elated, they prepared to leave the mine.
“Milady, step back.”
Anna pushed Linaria behind her.
Kaas, too, was staring ahead with wary eyes.
“What is it?”
“Assassins.”
‘The Duke’s daughter of Ovel and the head of the Luna Merchant Guild… which of us are they targeting?’
Linaria was here in her capacity as Guildmaster.
She had taken care to shake off any pursuit when leaving the villa.
‘If they’d followed us from the villa, Kaas would’ve noticed.’
That meant the assassins had likely been waiting here at the mine all along.
She remembered how Kaas had sensed someone’s presence before they entered.
‘So their target is…’
The Guildmaster.
Linaria already knew rumors had spread quietly that the Luna Guildmaster was inspecting glowstone mines.
It hadn’t specified which mine, so she hadn’t bothered to stop it.
It made her seem more directly engaged in business.
But this was the result.
“Fifteen.”
“Lambda.”
Kaas unsheathed his sword, and Anna spoke as though she knew them well.
Lambda was an assassin group known only for having its base in Leviathan territory.
And they had sent fifteen assassins?
Far too many for just one Guildmaster.
“Protect Liri.”
“You don’t even need to ask.”
Anna drew a dagger hidden beneath her skirt.
Shing—shing—
The lantern’s light was dim, but Kaas moved swiftly, cutting them down one by one with precision.
Even so, he couldn’t protect against those who targeted Linaria from behind.
“You won’t lay a finger on her!”
Just as a dagger was about to stab into Linaria’s back, Anna blocked it.
She struck the assassin down with skill.
Even though they were surrounded by over ten assassins, Anna fought them off with ease.
It seemed they might even defeat them all without injury.
But then—
Boom!
The ground shook violently.
Far louder than when Kaas had smashed the wall earlier.
Rocks tumbled from overhead.
“They’re trying to bring down the mine!”
The rumble continued, the mine collapsing.
In the chaos, an assassin slashed at Linaria.
The blade grazed her neck, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow.
“Milady!”
Anna grabbed the assassin’s wrist and twisted, preventing the kill, though Linaria’s neck was cut.
Anna quickly dispatched the assassin and checked the wound.
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
But the cut burned hot.
It felt… off. Not just a simple wound.
Almost as if reading her thoughts, Anna touched the blood and tasted it on her tongue.
“Poison. If we get you to a doctor immediately, your life won’t be in danger.”
But the mine was collapsing, and assassins still surrounded them.
They wouldn’t let her escape so easily.
After a brief moment of thought, Anna shouted:
“Leave this place to me—go now!”
