“Oh… Who is this?”

The man known as the Rat King laughed roughly, making clicking sounds. Despite his unkempt appearance, his teeth revealed through his slightly raised lips were surprisingly neat.

‘I wonder if the rumors brought by Ivan are true. Rumor has it that the Rat King was once a noble.’

Rather than that, the Rat King still seemed to manage himself, perhaps due to habits ingrained from long-term grooming. Upon closer inspection, the man looked quite tidy, except for his worn-out clothes, resembling a hardworking farmer who had just finished a strenuous task rather than a prisoner.

“Aren’t you the great Windsor?”

The Rat King raised his bowed head and sneered. It was clear that he knew exactly where he was confined.

‘I’ve definitely blocked all information.’

The squeaking sounds of rats, commonly found in prisons, caught Yurisien’s ears. A brief thought crossed her mind that the name Rat King wasn’t just casually given.

“That’s a wrong statement. The great Windsor refers to the head of the Windsor family.”

“So, I was not wrong. The great Windsor.”

The man’s distant, dungeon-like black eyes glowed with a sinister expression through his unkempt hair. His gaze was unsettling, making even Yurisien shudder. His eyes seemed to be looking at a very distant place and, at the same time, squarely facing the harsh reality right in front of him.

“So, it wasn’t that I called you the great Windsor; you should have warned me not to undervalue you.”

Seeing that he didn’t understand the priority of things, it seemed like a sarcastic remark that he understood that the praises he heard from the public were all illusions. However, Yurisien, without blinking, instead took a step toward the rusty bars.

“No, it can’t be helped. I am a noblewoman, and the one I face is the ‘king’ of rats.”

In other words, Yurisien was saying that she had business with the Rat King, not just as an ordinary prisoner. At the same time, if the Rat King continued to address himself as the great Windsor, it also meant she wouldn’t refuse any longer.

“Ho.”

In response to her arrogant attitude, the man’s black pupils flickered with arrogance.

“It’s interesting.”

The Rat King, who chuckled softly, suddenly stood up. Then, ignoring Benjamin, who was guarding Yurisien, he walked straight toward him.

The man, slightly shorter in stature than Benjamin, had a peculiar appearance that did not match the title Rat King. He stared at Benjamin, twisting one corner of his mouth.

“I thought you came to vent your anger on me, but that wasn’t the case.”

When Benjamin briefly wondered why he would release his anger on him, Yurisien recalled how Benjamin had obtained control of the faction called the temple.

‘He said he exterminated the rats.’

The rats that had long been a headache for the temple were thoroughly cleaned by Benjamin’s clever tactics. Recognizing his contribution, the rats accepted Benjamin as their faceless master, becoming Benjamin’s reliable core force until their destruction.

‘But during that time, the rats occasionally hindered us.’

The most representative example was when Kendal, with Greta’s orders and assistance, hired rats. At that time, Ivan even thought that they might have to wage a war against the rats.

That statement meant that during the time when Benjamin cleaned the rats, the head of the rats slipped out of his grasp. Yurisien, recalling this, swallowed her dry saliva with tension, but Benjamin’s expression remained unchanged.

“I didn’t think I couldn’t catch you alone all this time.”

In a voice that contained a subtle sense of humor, he answered the Rat King. As if protecting Yurisien, he pulled her toward him and continued speaking.

“Is it because the end of the legendary outlaw is a beheading?”
The man began to be called that quite a long time ago. He used to have a plausible name, but now he’s only known as the Rat King, perhaps because his name was overshadowed. However, the Rat King was more than willing for this.

Philip, James, having names like that would be hard to erase, according to his opinion. The Rat King believed he had to disappear, and he said so.

Those who followed him, as well as those who helped him, all said he was harsh, but secretly empathized. That’s what an outlaw is.

The fact that outlaws don’t operate is evidence that the country is just and peaceful. Therefore, the Rat King could be described as a man who received everyone’s love while simultaneously carrying the curse that everyone begged for his death.

“Didn’t I send a message when I spared your right arm before? Your defeat underestimates me. You haven’t changed at all since then.”

“Ha, so what? You didn’t miss me; you let me go, right?”

The Rat King, who laughed coldly, shot a glance at Benjamin. Benjamin, without blinking, looked at him with his unique, resolute yet sly eyes.