Chapter 57
Of course, from Rubiana’s point of view — since she knew the original — the two of them were in a rival relationship: the protagonist vs. the hidden mastermind.
But Elion, who wasn’t poisoned by the mana stabilizer, was not the mastermind yet; and Chad, who had lost his chance to shine because the mastermind didn’t appear, was not the male lead yet.
“Then why are they already growling at each other?”
Rubiana’s worry led to a single inference.
It was something she had felt for a long time.
“No matter how twisted the original is, the basic framework probably doesn’t change.”
Her thought had to stop there.
The head butler’s booming voice came from the other side.
“We will now have a celebratory performance to mark the joyous start of the excursion. Guests, please gather closer to the stage.”
Following the butler’s announcement, people began moving toward the stage.
Rubiana linked arms with Stephanie and headed for the stage.
Elion, whose arm had been taken by Stephanie, followed them with a somewhat stiff expression.
Soon, beautiful dancers in exotic, glittering costumes took the stage.
Their outfits were two-piece, leaving narrow waists exposed, which captured everyone’s attention.
As the lively music began, the dancers started moving.
Their gently moving arms and legs formed graceful lines.
Gasps rose here and there at the dancers’ elegant movements.
But Rubiana couldn’t enjoy the performance the way others did.
As the mysterious music played on exotic instruments, her chest tightened with an uneasy pressure.
A foreboding feeling crept over her.
“I remember a similar scene… in the original.”
A scene from the original naturally unfolded in Rubiana’s mind.
It had been a palace banquet.
There had been a dancers’ performance, and as it reached its climax, assassins who had been hiding among the performers lunged at Elion.
Back then, Elion had already been poisoned by the mana stabilizer; his magic was dangerously unstable, and it wasn’t an easy thing to face several assassins without weapons.
Elion eventually succeeded in killing the assassins, but the problem came afterward.
His mana ran rampant and created a giant vortex of magic around him.
The overwhelming whirl tore and destroyed everything in its path.
At first the tables and food were sucked into the vortex, and later even bricks and people were helplessly pulled in.
The banquet hall, turned into a scene of carnage, collapsed, leaving many injured and dead — the crown prince among them.
When the severely injured crown prince died a few days later, Elion became the criminal who killed the crown prince.
Abandoned by the imperial family and the people, that event became the starting point for him to walk the path of the mastermind.
“No way… it can’t be, right? No. It won’t be. Right. That can’t happen.”
This place wasn’t the imperial palace, and there was no crown prince here.
Besides, Elion was not in a state poisoned by the mana stabilizer.
So there was no reason this situation should unfold the same way as that scene from the original.
Rubiana tried to calm herself with those arguments, but her unease didn’t disappear.
“In the original, the empress planned that incident. She wanted to get rid of the thorn-in-her-side, Elion.”
Even if the original had been altered, the empress’s desire to eliminate Elion remained the same.
So she couldn’t relax.
“Maybe some of those beautiful dancers are assassins in disguise.”
Rubiana first looked carefully toward where Elion stood.
He was about five steps away from where she was standing.
Elion sensed Rubiana’s gaze and was looking at her at the same time.
One of the dancers — fluttering her arms like a butterfly near Elion — reached something from her waist and then charged at him.
Terrified, Rubiana shouted loudly.
“No! It’s dangerous, Elion! Get away!”
Rubiana reflexively threw herself toward Elion.
She had to shield him.
She had to protect him from an assassin’s blade.
But Rubiana’s expectations were completely wrong.
The dancer approaching Elion was not an assassin.
What flashed in her hand was not a weapon but merely an ornament.
The real assassins, disguised as dancers, were actually heading for Rubiana.
Their target was Rubiana, not Elion.
By coincidence, at the exact moment one assassin came up beside Rubiana, Rubiana had leapt toward Elion.
At that moment, Elion caught sight of the assassin aiming at Rubiana.
He drew his sword and swiftly dealt with the attacker.
Two other assassins made separate rushes moments later, but they were subdued by Stephanie and Chad.
“Eeeek!”
“Aaaaaah!”
The sudden bloodletting had people screaming.
The party instantly turned into chaos.
Only after seeing the fallen assassins did Rubiana realize she had nearly been killed.
Her shoulders tightened with fear.
“If this attack was planned by the empress like in the original… does that mean the empress tried to kill me? Why would she want me dead?”
Rubiana’s head spun at the similarities and differences between the original and the present situation.
“Rubiana, are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Elion asked as he examined her up and down; dazed, Rubiana shook her head.
“I’m not hurt. How about you? Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. You were pretty shocked, weren’t you?”
“Ah… yes. A little.”
Elion wrapped his trembling arms around her shoulders.
There was no time to care about other people’s glances.
Pat-pat. Elion slowly stroked her back.
Thanks to that, Rubiana gradually drove out her fear and found calm.
The excursion wound up — in a messy atmosphere — and the dancers and the three assassins were dragged off to the baron’s manor prison.
Elion personally interrogated them.
The three assassins were each placed in solitary cells.
Kriiik — the rusty iron bars were opened as Elion entered a solitary cell.
“Who hired you? MacKinnon? The imperial household?”
The assassin, wrists and ankles bound to chains fixed to the wall, glared at Elion with his mouth tightly shut.
Elion sat down in a chair, took a small hourglass and a vial from his pocket, and set them on the table with a clack.
“I’ll give you one minute. Decide whether you’ll bite your tongue and die in that time, or spit out everything you know. If you choose to die, remember there are two others left, so do as you please.”
“…….”
“If you still can’t decide after one minute, I intend to pour this truth serum over your head.”
Elion shook the vial; the pink liquid inside sloshed.
“I hear the newly developed truth serums don’t have many side effects. But in this rural territory, not the capital, there aren’t the latest serums. Only the early-developed kind is available. Ah, you must have heard of the early truth serums?”
The assassin glared at Elion, who wore an amused smile and spoke calmly.
“If used once, they say the brain is completely ruined and becomes like that of a three-year-old child — pure, I suppose?”
“Ugh…”
“That’s why they’re now banned, but since this is an attempted regicide of a royal, the punishment for you is entirely at my discretion. Now, one minute starts… now.”
Having finished speaking, Elion flipped the hourglass on the table.
The sand in the hourglass began to trickle down.
The assassin’s face flushed and reddened; he trembled as he looked between Elion, the hourglass, and the vial.
He lacked both the courage to bite his tongue and die, and the will to live on with a three-year-old’s intellect. He clenched his molars and finally opened his mouth.
“We only took MacKinnon’s commission. That’s all I know.”
Elion said nothing; he stared at the assassin with a cold gaze.
It was the look that said he wanted to hear more, that if the assassin had anything else to say, he should keep talking.
The assassin swallowed dryly and then stammered on.
“G-G-Grand Duke Klitzman — the commission was to inflict a mortal wound on the woman beside you. That’s it. I swear!”
