Ch. 139

I reached toward the tall building Ash’s sword tip was indicating in the distance.

When I focused, I could faintly sense someone on the roof, and I extended a water hand toward them, seizing the figure trying to escape and squeezing hard.

“Did you get them?”

“Yeah.”

They were probably dead.

Ash shifted his sword from his right hand to his left, scanning the surroundings warily.

That was when I finally took an interest in his sword—it wasn’t anything special, just the kind of iron blade you could buy off the street.

He flexed and unflexed his injured right hand a few times before meeting my eyes.

“Does your hand hurt?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“Liar.”

“…It just aches a little when it rains.”

A man who couldn’t lie wasn’t so bad. But for a swordsman, a tingling sword hand was a serious issue.

“Why? I thought you would’ve gotten proper treatment.”

“I did. But…”

“But?”

He looked at me as if deciding whether to continue, then, perhaps uneasy, scanned the area again and spoke with barely moving lips.

“The dagger that went through my hand was enchanted. A curse, the kind that stops bleeding from clotting.”

“Ah.”

“By the time I saw a priest, more than a day had passed—the curse had already set in.”

That’s right. When the delegation members rescued Ash with me, no one had imagined the boy could be a prince. It was unthinkable.

“I got the best treatment available, but it didn’t heal completely.”

“I see…”

“At least I became ambidextrous, so it’s not all bad.”

Always the optimist. Honestly, I didn’t dislike that.

“Ash.”

“Yes.”

“You can speak casually to me. I’m younger.”

“…I never told you my age.”

“But I know it.”

While I was certain, Ash still seemed to have doubts.

We’d both been guessing at each other’s identity, but neither had confirmed anything.

“Since Lox isn’t here, I’ll just say it—”

I stepped in close to him. There was no one else around anyway, so close that I could have counted the number of lashes on his eyes.

“I know your real name isn’t Ash. That was just what you were called as a kid, wasn’t it? A childhood name… or a nickname.”

I whispered quietly, watching those plain brown eyes go wide.

[Master! Master!]

“Ador?”

“My lady! I’ve found something!”

[He says he found something!]

The man who was clearly part of the slave traders came running toward us in a flurry, and Ash instinctively raised his sword.

I gestured for him to lower it and walked toward the man, noting how Ash stuck a little too close to my side.

Meanwhile, Ador darted ahead impatiently, then thought better of it and returned to hover over the man’s head.

“What did you find?”

“The girl you were looking for! I know where she is.”

“Oh? You’re more useful than I thought.”

“If you go to the boss’s office, there’s a big safe. They put her inside it!”

“…Insane. She’ll suffocate in there!”

I suppose that’s how slave traders treated people—like objects.

“I also know where it is. And I learned the boss’s plan!”

“Plan?”

“They’re setting a trap. They want to lure you to an open space and kill you. There’s probably an archer squad already waiting on the rooftops.”

“Crafty. Not that I can talk.”

So that’s why they’d been keeping out of sight.

Unable to approach me directly, they’d decided to overwhelm me with numbers. Annoying, but arrows were no more than toothpicks.

I glanced around to make sure no one was watching us. Fortunately, the rooftop archer I’d just taken down was the last.

[Ador, is he telling the truth?]

[Yeah! Someone told them to bring arrows to the open area.]

[Let’s believe him for now.]

Even if it was a trap, it didn’t matter. To be a threat to me, they’d need ten times that number—at least.

What mattered now was finding Grak, who was hiding in the shadows instead of showing his face, and killing him.

[Ugh, sneaky bastard. Kidnapping Annie just to lure me here, and then hiding behind his men.]

[Seems he’s scared of Master.]

[Maybe he’s developed a snake phobia. I’m looking forward to seeing how happy he’ll be when he meets you.]

I wasn’t afraid of traps.

If it was a trap, I’d smash the whole thing. You don’t catch a tiger with a cat trap.

Rai chimed in confidently.

[Mwahaha! All that’s left is to take his head!]

[No, there’s one more thing.]

[What?]

[Between his legs—]

[Master, please don’t make me do that.]

[You’re a spirit.]

[Spirit or not, I’ve never done something that cruel in my entire existence.]

But wouldn’t that be the most painful? Might as well while he’s still alive…

[Uh… I can hear everything you’re thinking.]

[Nothing is more painful than that.]

[How about we give him a merciful death? You are supposed to be a saint, aren’t you…?]

[I don’t know anyone like that.]

While I idly cleaned my ear, Ash, who’d been hesitating for a while, finally asked,

“Geenie… who exactly is this person?”

“Him? A member of the slave trading group.”

“…So a slave trader.”

“Exactly. A traitor to them, anyway. Don’t know his name.”

Ash looked genuinely unsettled.

“How can you trust someone like that? Why would he help us?”

“He’s got plenty of reason—because I’m holding his life hostage. Turns out he’s pretty attached to it.”

“Even so—”

“If you don’t trust him, you go with him and rescue Annie. If she stays in that safe too long, she’ll probably pass out.”

Being locked in a safe was traumatic enough for anyone—especially a child.

Annie already had enough trauma. I didn’t know if she was unlucky, or if the people around me were doomed to suffer.

“You want me to go with him? What about you?”

“I’m going to check out the trap. Killing Grak will end this faster.”

“No! If you go alone—”

“Ash.”

For some reason, he always tensed when I said his name.

“That stuff you said about me being amazing—was it a lie?”

“…”

“You said I was impressive.”

“It’s true, but—”

“If only this guy goes, Annie will be scared. She needs someone to reassure her. She needs you more than me.”

Right?

When I asked with my eyes, Ash’s lips pressed into a hard line and his brow furrowed—unable to refuse.

“I’ll… bring her back quickly.”

“Good. There will be guards, so be careful.”

“I should be the one saying that.”

“Nothing’s more pointless than worrying about me. Just focus on rescuing Annie. I’ll handle the revenge.”

After all, revenge suited me better than a rescue mission. (T/N: Ever the bad ass lady you are Geenie. Never change.)

Mine, Annie’s, and plenty of others’ revenge.

It might just be an excuse for me to vent—but to think they could make trouble for me and live? They must have a death wish.

“Uh… sorry to interrupt your touching moment, but…”

“What.”

“There’s a problem.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t know where Grak’s office is.”

If you’ve become useless, you’re a dead man.

Apparently my eyes could communicate that clearly.

“No, no! I know exactly where it is. It’s the safe—that’s the problem. It needs a key… three of them, actually. It’s triple-locked, and rumor says you need all three keys to open it.”

“Unbelievable.”

Ash looked grim, but I just scratched under my chin and yawned. I hadn’t gotten enough sleep today.

“All the boss’s treasure is in there too. I once heard him brag at a drinking party—said he had a dwarf make it, and not even a meteor could open it without the special keys.”

“And that’s the problem?”

“What? That’s a huge problem! A triple-locked dwarf-made safe!”

I’d have to lend them my master key.

I reached into the shadow of my hood. Rai slithered from my shoulder onto my hand, coiling around my wrist before poking his head out into view.

His body was almost white, gleaming golden in the sunlight, with small round red eyes and a tongue as red as blood flicking out.

“Meet my pet snake, Rai.”

“Gah—”

“Take him with you. He’ll help open the safe.”

The turncoat slave trader flinched back in terror, remembering what it felt like to be choked by him.

Even Ash, who’d never been on the receiving end, recoiled.

“Why is a snake coming out of your clothes?!”

“Never seen a pet snake before?”

Why were they killing my snake’s confidence? I patted Rai’s head.

“That’s not the point—how is a snake supposed to open a safe?!”

“Don’t worry about the details. Life’s easier that way.”

“No, it has to make sense—”

“Just take him. If I say he can open it, he can open it.”

Ash still had a lot to learn—like the fact that if I said I could do it, then it would be done.

For Geenie Crowell, there was no such thing as impossible. Only inconvenience.