“Ugh, ugh……”

The groans that sent chills down one’s spine filled his ears, but there was no discernible emotion on Sinclair’s face.

In his hand, as he looked at Melvin who was soaked in blood, was a sharply honed dagger.

……How many times had he cut Melvin’s flesh with that dagger?

Schuler, who had seen many sights while rolling through numerous battlefields, found the situation before his eyes to be too cruel and brutal to behold.

But there was no way in the world to stop Sinclair now. Schuler understood that much at least. So with a slightly disgusted face, he just kept silent and looked at Melvin.

“Heh, hehe……”

Despite his rather miserable state, Melvin continued to make strange noises like a madman.

It was a spine-chilling sound, and it was unclear whether he was crying from the uncontrollably growing pain or laughing because he was enjoying the situation.

“Sinclair, no matter how much you torture me like this…… Heh, you will never find out…… where Lord Hister…… has gone……”

“……”

“I, I…… no matter what happens…… heh, I won’t tell you any information……”

Sinclair now didn’t even give any answer to Melvin’s words. He just slightly shook the dagger he was holding in his hand with an expressionless, hardened face.

“Uh, Lord Sinclair……”

The first one to open his mouth was Schuler. Hesitating, Schuler carefully approached Sinclair, and then began to whisper in a small voice in his ear.

“It seems he has no intention of speaking at all.”

“……”

“Please leave Melvin’s interrogation to me or Rex. You need to rest for a while first.”

It had been exactly two days.

During those two days, Sinclair did not eat any food and did not sleep a wink.

He immediately announced that Hister was the one who assassinated the emperor, divided the soldiers and his men to chase after Hister, and issued a warrant.

He interrogated Hister’s soldiers who were caught alive, not just Melvin, and looked at the map of Edenbell while receiving reports that poured in without a break.

……But no one knew when Elaina would be found.

In such a situation, it was nearly impossible to just endure without taking even a little rest like now.

“Melvin.”

But Sinclair seemed to have no intention of listening to Schuler’s words at all.

Without giving any answer to Schuler, he slowly got up from his seat with his face still coldly hardened and approached Melvin closely.

“Ugh……”

As Sinclair approached, Melvin made a small sound while flinching. Then he glared at Sinclair with red eyes full of burst blood vessels.

“While this is going on……”

And he muttered in a metallic voice.

“My daughter…… might be dying. In the end, Sinclair, without finding out anything……. Heh……”

“……”

“You stupid bastard……”

“Shut that mouth!”

Schuler, who couldn’t stand it anymore, shouted loudly as if he was about to rush at Melvin at any moment, but Sinclair stopped him by slightly raising his hand.

And then surprisingly, he began to slowly speak in a monotonous voice.

“Yes.”

“……”

“I think my thoughts were short-sighted.”

It was Schuler, not Melvin, who was greatly surprised by Sinclair’s unexpected words.

……Is he going to beg?

To get Elaina back?

The moment Schuler, who had Elaina snatched away before his eyes, was about to close his eyes tightly, unable to overcome his crumbling heart.

“It’s not that you won’t tell, but that you can’t tell.”

Sinclair, who suddenly reached out his hand, grabbed Melvin’s blood-stained hair and spoke in a low voice as if to hammer it in.

“I was wasting time like this on a guy who was used as a shield at best and then discarded.”

“Wha……”

Melvin’s face, which had been letting out a sneer, immediately stiffened.

“Your petty loyalty comes from ignorance.”

“……”

“From the beginning, to Hister, you were just something to be used once and discarded at any time, like a consumable item.”

“What…… are you talking about……!”

Even when he was about to die, Melvin’s eyes filled with Sinclair showed clear anger.

He looked like a priest who had just been blasphemed.

“Lord Hister?”

Sinclair let out a sneer.

“Your beloved and respected Lord Hister never trusted you as a subordinate in the first place, nor did he even think about you.”

Sinclair’s words were a lie. It was just nonsensical words to scratch his own insides.

Didn’t he clearly tell him several times? How much he trusted Melvin Aswald. And how much he relied on him……

“No, no……!”

Melvin shouted as if screaming in a hoarse voice.

“He always told me! How important my existence was to the cause we were trying to achieve……!”

“Well.”

Sinclair laughed.

“Then he wouldn’t have abandoned you and left, knowing full well that you would die like this.”

“Wha……”

“Moreover, Hister didn’t even leak a bit of information to you. It means that’s as far as it goes. A hunting dog that can die at any time.”

“Sinclair!”

“Then, unfortunately, your usefulness to me ends here as well.”

“Lord Sinclair, wait a moment……”

Schuler reached out his hand with a slightly bewildered expression, but there was no time to stop him.

Sinclair had already thrust the dagger he was holding in his hand into Melvin’s neck.

“Ugh, ugh……”

Sinclair looked at Melvin, who was vomiting dark red blood, with a face that showed no emotion.

Melvin tried to reach out to Sinclair somehow, but his crude movements soon ceased. It was only natural.

In the first place, he was in a seriously injured state, and there was no one in the world who could survive after being stabbed in a vital spot like that.

Leaving behind Melvin, who had become a corpse in a ridiculously simple manner, Sinclair threw the blood-soaked dagger he was holding in his hand on the filthy floor.

“Si, Sinclair…… If you get rid of Melvin like this……”

It wasn’t as if Schuler had any good feelings towards Melvin either. He also wanted to kill him right away.

But in a situation where they hadn’t found out anything about Elaina’s whereabouts, was it really okay to kill Melvin like this?

“Schuler.”

“……Yes.”

“I won’t do any more stupid things from now on.”

And as if he had read Schuler’s thoughts in advance, Sinclair spoke in a low voice.

“If I had killed Melvin that day when I went to the Aswald family with Elaina, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“……”

“That kind of mistake ends there.”

In the end, it meant that he would not show any mercy in the future.

Seeing him like that, as if he had returned to the time before meeting Elaina. When he was cold and sharp to the point of no comparison, Schuler felt a chill down his spine for no reason.

“……I’ve cut off all the roads leading to the port, so Hister should still be inside Edenbell.”

Schuler hesitated slightly.

“The south has the Hayworth duchy, so he can’t go that way. Likewise, there are military garrisons in the north, so he wouldn’t have dared to go there unless he was crazy.”

“Then…… east or west……”

“It’s the west.”

Sinclair said in a decisive voice.

“The eastern region of Edenbell has soft ground and low terrain, making it perfect for isolation. Hister may not have known this, but Lundberg and Rockford are different.”

“Then……”

“We’re leaving for the western region right now.”

That was Sinclair’s last words. As if Melvin no longer had any value, he kicked the chair Melvin was tied to with all his might, as if venting his anger.

Soon, Melvin was rolling on the floor like garbage, and Sinclair stepped on his blood-soaked corpse and began to leave the place.

* * *

Sitting on the damp floor as if collapsing, Elaina slowly opened her eyes.

As she carefully turned her head, she saw Chaz, who had fallen into a light sleep with his head on her shoulder and a slightly swollen face.

……How many hours had they been trapped?

In the damn underground prison, there was no way to find out whether it had been half a day since they were dragged in, a day had passed, or even more time had passed.

Elaina looked around quickly, trying her best to endure the throbbing headache.

And it was at that very moment.

One of the soldiers who was standing guard with a very tired face flinched and got up from his seat.

‘Someone is coming.’

Elaina, whose thoughts reached that point, began to whisper in Chaz’s ear in a very small voice.

“Prince Chaz, pull yourself together.”

“……”

“Hurry.”

Chaz immediately opened his eyes, and as he had done the whole time he was awake, he began to look around with a terrified face.

“You remember well what I told you earlier, right? You must never forget.”

Chaz nodded his head in response, with eyes full of fear.

“If my prediction is correct, we will be moving soon. Hister should have arrived by now.”

“……”

“Look.”

As soon as Elaina’s words ended, a jingling sound began to fill the underground prison.

It was the noise of a key.

Elaina looked at Chaz with a tense face, and Chaz looked back at her while slightly trembling.

‘Somehow get Prince Chaz to escape, and after that……’

It was at that moment when Elaina was trying her best not to lose hope.

“Hello?”

A voice that was not expected at all settled in Elaina and Chaz’s ears.

Elaina, who reflexively turned her head, made a perplexed expression without realizing it.