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Chapter – 03
How a Mercenary Protects Their Charge (3)
He seemed to have chosen to remain a thorough spectator.
If Valentin hadn’t been her client, Regina might have shaken him down for money. Somehow, instead of performing an escort mission, she felt more like a dancing monkey putting on a show.
Catching her ragged breath, Regina glared threateningly at the masked assassins.
She had already taken down two. Only four remained. The problem was that she couldn’t keep all four pairs of eyes focused solely on herself.
In the end, while she was occupied fighting another assassin, one of them dashed toward Valentin.
“Damn.”
Fortunately, Regina noticed in time and intercepted him. Though the mistake cost her her shoulder.
“For a woman mercenary, you’re damn troublesome.”
“Thanks for the compliment, you bastard sons of—”
As Regina yanked the dagger from her shoulder, curses naturally spilled from her mouth. She swore with practiced ease.
Behind her, Valentin unconsciously let out a laugh at her rough mercenary speech. So she really had been forcing herself to speak politely before.
“There’s poison on the dagger. You’ll lose consciousness soon.”
“Then I’ll finish this before that happens.”
At the mention of poison, Regina picked up her sword again without hesitation. She looked like a beast that knew no fear—one that wouldn’t rest until it tore apart all its prey.
Valentin watched her cut down the leg of an assassin even while being kicked away himself, and quietly admired her. He had never seen such fighting spirit before.
As he blocked an incoming attack, Regina rolled toward him, and he whispered seductively:
“If it gets too hard, leave me behind. Honestly, who treasures the life of a mad prince and duke that much?”
He meant it sincerely. After all, she had fought until she looked utterly battered. Even if she abandoned him now, Valentin didn’t think he would resent her.
Regina planted her sword into the ground and forced herself back up.
“Right now, you matter to me. Because you’re my client.”
“You’d go this far for a mission? You could take plenty of other jobs.”
Why was this man reacting like this when his own life was on the line?
But busy keeping her eyes on the enemies, Regina failed to notice the faint smile on the prince’s face.
“Ptui. If I irresponsibly abandon a mission here, then all mercenaries will only ever be treated as irresponsible dogs. I hate that. More than death itself.”
Spitting out the blood in her mouth, Regina growled the words.
Born as the daughter of mercenaries, she had naturally entered the mercenary life herself. She despised the way nobles treated them as insignificant.
So she wanted to prove herself—to raise the status of mercenaries.
Even if it was a path impossible for a woman’s body to endure.
“That damn stubborn bitch!”
Regina raised her sword once more.
Valentin admitted it then. This stubborn commoner woman possessed more pride and dignity than all the loudmouths in the imperial palace. Her resolve alone trampled over bloodlines and nobility.
‘Impressive.’
As Valentin casually rotated his wrist, Regina finally killed another assassin and even severed the arm of the one beside him.
But the poisoned dagger was beginning to cloud her mind. Her shoulders trembled faintly, and soon she could no longer avoid the assassin’s punches.
‘My vision…!’
At last, she collapsed.
“Huff… Huff… Damn persistent bitch, finally down. I’m not killing you now. I’ll drag you back alive. The price for killing my comrades and taking my arm will be your humiliation.”
No… Don’t close your eyes…
Regina desperately tried to hold onto her fading consciousness, but her vision had already begun to blur. Even the coldness rising from the ground beneath her felt distant.
Damn it.
With one final curse filled with rage, she lost consciousness.
“That stubborn bitch finally fell. How many men did we lose to her?”
“Let’s finish the target quickly. We’ve already taken too many losses.”
“Wait… Isn’t this woman Regina Ropeman? If we handle her like this, Persona will come after us. Gellan Ropeman too.”
“Gellan Ropeman’s a toothless tiger now. Are you scared of that?”
“…Enough. Quiet. First, kill the target before he goes mad and starts thrashing around.”
The remaining three assassins turned their eyes toward Valentin.
Though their bodies were a mess after being battered and cut by Regina, dealing with a crippled mad prince should have been easy enough.
“Is the mercenary guild Persona really that impressive?”
“So he really is insane. Asking questions like that in this situation…”
The assassins approached him.
But strangely enough, Valentin closed the distance just as quickly.
Soon, only a single step separated them. The assassins sneered at the mad prince—until they belatedly realized something chilling.
“Why is he walking perfectly fin— Ghk!”
The man whose throat had been seized and lifted into the air stared down at Valentin in confusion.
The other assassins hastily retreated.
“I thought he couldn’t use one leg! They said his mind was unstable too!”
“He definitely is crazy.”
Whenever Valentin closed his eyes, he could still hear his starving mother’s desperate breathing. He could still hear her telling him to lick the dew off the wooden walls to survive.
To survive there, he had pretended to be insane.
Now, he pretended to be insane in order to kill.
So yes—he truly was mad.
But Valentin wasn’t sociable enough to spill his tragic past to assassins who would soon be dead.
Throwing the assassin he held in one hand violently aside, Valentin picked up the sword Regina still clutched tightly.
It happened in an instant.
The time it took Valentin to deal with the assassins was no longer than the moment a leaf fell from a tree to the ground.
Looking down at the thug still barely breathing, he asked:
“The antidote?”
“W-Why hide this kind of strength…?”
“At first, because I wanted to survive. Now, because I want to kill. More importantly, tell me about the antidote.”
“AAARGH!”
Valentin stomped down on the assassin’s shoulder. The already wounded flesh was crushed beneath his foot, and the man screamed in agony.
“I-If I tell you… will you spare me?”
“No. But I’ll make it painless.”
The assassin let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
For a moment he considered begging for his life, but there wasn’t a trace of mercy in those amethyst eyes filled with cold madness.
Death itself wasn’t frightening.
But dying like a mangled dog under torture—that he wanted to avoid.
“She has to drink clean blood. In my inner pocket… there’s a blue potion…”
As if rewarding him for a job well done, Valentin ended the man’s suffering as cleanly as possible.
Then he searched the still-warm corpse and found the potion in the inner pocket.
He pried open the unconscious Regina’s mouth and paused for a moment.
Should he save her?
Or not?
His violet eyes slowly traveled over Regina before settling on her blood-soaked shoulder.
Opening the potion, he poured it between her full lips and covered her mouth shut.
“Swallow.”
With her mouth blocked while full of liquid, Regina instinctively swallowed.
Then Valentin opened her lips again and sliced open his own arm with the sword.
Drip. Drip.
Dark crimson blood fell into her mouth.
Valentin stared blankly as she drank his blood.
Then, just as before, he covered her mouth and forced her to swallow.
‘Does my blood taste bad?’
Seeing Regina frown despite being unconscious, Valentin chuckled softly.
He wiped the blood from her lips with his fingers and tasted it himself.
A pointless curiosity that only ruined his appetite.
The bitter taste instantly made him frown.
“Your Grace!”
Hearing the screams, Thomas finally arrived and hurriedly dismounted his horse with sword in hand.
Mocking the man for arriving so late and acting flustered, Valentin returned Regina’s sword to her hand. One finger at a time, he curled them around the hilt.
The inside of her palms was rough with calluses, but thanks to her long elegant fingers, they were still rather beautiful hands.
They would have suited jewels just as well as swords.
“…Did Your Grace do this? Did you really handle them all?”
“Yes. So let’s say these assassins were dealt with by Sir Thomas, not by a crippled prince.”
Valentin then lay down on the ground facing Regina.
Seeing her face up close, he finally noticed her thick eyelashes. Her nose was sharp, her lips surprisingly full.
And her eyes… had they been the clear blue of a tranquil lake?
“May I ask what exactly you’re doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m pretending to be a man who fainted from terror after being attacked by assassins.”
Which part of this situation was supposed to make that obvious?
Thomas pressed a hand to his forehead.
Even if he tried to stop Valentin, the man wouldn’t listen. And trying to understand him was beyond Thomas entirely.
“Is that woman dead?”
“No. Just unconscious.”
Valentin closed his eyes, feeling the vibrations through the earth.
Allied riders were approaching.
Behind him, he could hear Thomas sighing deeply, but he ignored it lightly.
Then he murmured softly:
“Regina Ropeman.”
She was definitely a woman who would prove useful someday.
