“Joachim”
Lou swallowed her tears and opened her eyes wide.
"Even if you kill me, the sin you committed that day won't disappear. Do you think I chased after you for half my life just to beg for my life?"
Staring straight at him, Lou twisted the corners of her mouth upward.
"You will never sit on the throne of Barmia."
“Ha. What?”
"If I die here, the people of Barmia will all know about all the shameful things you have accumulated."
Joachim's expression seemed to stiffen for a moment, then he snorted.
"How stupid. What do you think will change just because fools babble a few words?"
"Well. First off, once people find out that the massive funds you, the Governor, raised a private army for and smuggled in with Valdina came from the deceased Crown Prince's inheritance... wouldn't public interest get quite heated?"
"...You-!"
Joachim snapped. How could that girl have known about that secret source of funds?
Lou did not stop and uncovered his most elaborate secret.
"Wouldn't everyone find it interesting if it were revealed that the poison you used on the Crown Prince back then... is also present in the Grandson's quarters now?"
Joachim scowled intensely and grabbed Lou by the collar.
Of all things, if corruption regarding the succession is revealed, abdication becomes a distant prospect.
Most of the support base that has sustained Joachim Lanz until now is based on the Crown Prince's faction.
"If you babble one more word, I'll pull out that little tongue of yours."
"Why, that the respected Governor-General is a murderer who poisoned his brother and is now targeting the life of his only remaining nephew. Are you so afraid of your ugly mask being stripped away to the whole world—"
Bam-!
Lou rolled on the floor, unable to finish her sentence.
This is because Joachim snarled like a beast and threw her away.
Lou, having slammed violently against the floor, got up and wiped the fresh blood flowing from the corner of her mouth.
"If you hadn't framed my father, do you think you would have even made it this far?"
"..."
Joachim glared at her as if to kill her. Anger burned fiercely in his eyes, struck at his raw nerve.
So he didn't notice.
Just moments ago, at the moment Lou was thrown and rolling on the floor, small lumps of clay that slipped out of her sleeve were thrown into the fireplace.
They were lumps made by condensing damp ice-iron clones in the basement.
"This lowly girl is trying to sit on top of me to the very end."
Joachim's ominous voice spread.
The light of desire that had been gleaming toward Lou just moments ago had long since vanished.
After all, the most important thing to him was himself.
Variables can simply be eliminated.
"If that is how you wish to die, I shall grant your wish. But considering our past friendship, I will not go to the trouble of severing your throat with my own hands."
Joachim coldly gestured to his subordinates.
Crash.
The knight drew his sword from its scabbard. Then, he took a step forward in front of Lou.
'Is it not yet?'
Lou gauged the time.
It took a little more time until the flames inside the fireplace dried up all the moisture from the chunks of ice iron.
It would have been nice if she had taken him along right in front of her eyes when it exploded.
Lou gave a wry smile and raised the corners of her mouth.
"Joachim, don't make me wait too long at the threshold of hell. Soon you will be following me."
It was the moment the words ended when the tip of the knight's sword was aimed at Lou's neck.
Kwachang!
With a sharp snapping sound, the glass panes shattered into dust and scattered. A huge shadow entered the lord's chamber.
Before Joachim and the knights could even grasp the situation, a gray aura struck the knight's sword like a whip.
"Your Excellency!"
The force was so powerful that the blade aimed at Lou's neck broke helplessly.
The broken blade flew like lightning and embedded itself deeply in the opposite wall.
When they regained their senses after being left dumbfounded by the overwhelming skill that lacked nothing in terms of power and speed.
The man in the silver mask stood on the windowsill, firmly gripping Lou's waist.
"Who is it! No, stop!"
Joachim shouted as he wiped away the hot drops of blood flowing down his cheek.
It was the trace of a broken blade that had narrowly grazed past just moments ago.
However, instead of answering, the man threw himself into the empty air outside the window without hesitation.
“No way!”
Joachim's tearing scream burst out.
He ran to the window, forgetting even the pain.
He would rather die by his own hands than let her slip away like an eel again!
Because that girl was the first disgrace and the last flaw he had to erase.
"Kill! Kill them! What are you doing! Shoot! Shoot right now!"
Enraged, Joachim snatched the bow stick lying on the floor.
Shoo!
The arrow he shot flew furiously.
However, the place where the arrowhead penetrated was not Lou.
Puuk.
With the arrow deeply embedded in the back of the assailant surrounding Lou, the figures of the two disappeared below the surface of the water.
As Joachim raged, the soldiers also aimed at the area below the moat in unison.
Sharp arrows rained down onto the moat like a downpour.
"Shoot more! Shoot the most! Keep shooting~!"
When they drew the bowstring one more time, Boom!
The lump of ice and iron, having belatedly dried up its moisture, finally unleashed its true madness.
The fireplace exploded with a thunderous roar that shook the earth.
The massive explosion blew the wall of the Lord's chambers away as if it had been completely destroyed, and the recoil sent Joachim and his subordinates crashing into the wall like paper.
“Boom!”
They came to personally experience the power of the ice-iron dust explosion that had been planned and prepared. Completely against their will.
Beyond the vision of Joachim, who was spitting blood in agony, debris shattered by the explosion fell into the moat.
Among the wreckage was also a St. Augustine music box.
Pungdeng.
The music box with its broken end was swallowed by the waves of the water while still open.
***
Lou, standing on the windowsill after being snatched into the arms of an assailant, raised her head.
All that was visible while held in his arms was the silver mask.
However, the moment she met the blue eyes flickering through the gap in the mask, her heart sank.
“Les...?”
Before she could even part her lips, her body was already slicing through the air and plunging into the moat.
In a split second, he suddenly twisted his body.
Quack!
With the chilling friction sound of flesh being pierced, Les stiffened.
Lou opened her eyes wide.
They saw the arrow shaft stuck in Les's back, followed by a rain of arrows pouring down on them.
Plop~!
The deep moat swallowed them before they could even scream.
“Hold your breath.”
A short warning lingered in her ears just before hitting the surface.
Lou took a deep breath, as if her lungs would burst, and threw herself deep into the water.
Dozens of arrows slashed the surface of the water overhead, stirring up white spray, but they never reached the bottom of the sea where they had dived.
“Pua~!”
A moment later, as soon as it poked its head above the water, *Pow pow pow!*
A massive explosion struck the eardrums.
It was a narrow miss.
With the intention of taking each other to the grave, the scene of seismic ice and iron dust engulfing the Lord's Chamber was seen.
Before she could even celebrate surviving the explosion, Lou turned her head.
A sluice gate that was half-submerged was visible at the bottom of the fortress wall.
Whether it was the aftermath of the explosion or not, the current surged violently, pushing them forward as if to engulf them.
In the current where it was difficult to even gauge the direction, a firm hand snatched Lou's arm.
And he roughly shoved her into the gap in the sluice gate.
“Les!”
The relief of having succeeded in escaping was fleeting. Les, who was supposed to follow, was nowhere to be seen.
Lou felt a heart-sinking terror. She buried her head back into the water.
In the darkness, she saw Les's new form slowly sinking while unconscious.
The blood seeping from the arrow embedded in his back was staining the water red like a ball of yarn.
He had used up his last remaining strength pushing Lou out of the sluice gate.
'Ah, no.'
Lou dived desperately against the current.
If he had led her until now, it was now her turn to pull him up.
Lou desperately hugged the sinking Les.
She fought a desperate battle to strip off the armor, which had become heavy as lead from the wetness, and the cumbersome mask.
Trying her best not to touch the back where the arrow was embedded, she wrapped his arm around her neck and kicked with all her might.
She couldn't tell if the water was cold or if the body in her arms was gradually growing cold. Under the unbearable weight, her body kept sagging downward.
The gap in the sluice gate was too narrow for even the huge Les to pass through.
Bang bang!
Lou desperately lowered the floodgates, but only water droplets scattered in vain.
"Please, help me. Please let me get out of here. Please let this person live. I..."
She was suffocating. Nevertheless, Lou never let go of Les's arm.
At that very moment, St. Augustine's music box, which had fallen from Joachim's room, appeared hanging in the gap of the floodgate bars.
The clockwork sticking out through the gap in the broken box got stuck in the joint of the bars as if biting into it.
Kiyi-
The metal compressed by the water pressure screamed and made a muffled sound.
Lou instinctively kicked with all his might toward that gap.
Once, twice, crunch!
Finally, the old joint broke, and the bars snapped.
As soon as a gap opened just wide enough for the two to squeeze through, Lou hugged Les and surrendered to the current as if being sucked in.
The ice-cold water pierced her lungs, but she did not stop and moved her legs.
As the two people who had passed through the sluice gate moved away beneath the dark surface of the moat.
The music box, having fulfilled its role, sank alone into the deep abyss.
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