# Chapter 30
2.
The underground prison filled with humid air.
Typically, people instinctively avoid such places due to the blood stench and various filthy smells that permeate the dampness. Nobles especially would cover their noses with two or three layered handkerchiefs, and even then, many couldn’t endure it long, rushing out only to collapse disgracefully on the dirt ground and vomit. There was even a joke that the reason prison guards received particularly high wages was because they also shouldered the important duty of cleaning up the nobles’ vomit.
Very few nobles could enter and exit such underground prisons with composure.
And among those very few, even fewer would personally participate in “torture.”
Unfortunately, the man hanging with his limbs bound in the torture chamber of the underground prison today was scheduled to be tortured by one of those rare nobles.
‘Go ahead and do your worst. I won’t confess anything anyway.’
Of the ten men sent to assassinate the Emperor of the Delos Empire, nine had already met their end at the hands of the imperial knights without even getting to throw a dagger at him. This man too had been in mortal danger, but they had merely knocked him unconscious, perhaps to extract a confession, and then hung him in the torture chamber like this.
The male assassin, blindfolded with a filthy cloth and gagged with a rough wooden bit, was quite smug.
To get a confession, they would have to remove his gag. When that happened, he planned to immediately bite into the tiny lethal poison hidden inside his tooth and commit suicide.
He had trained as an assassin for over 30 years. Until now, he had never been outdone by anyone in skill and had always succeeded, so he never had to use the lethal poison, but indeed, the world was vast and filled with skilled individuals.
Still, he had no regrets.
If he chose suicide without confessing anything to protect his master’s secret, that would be the path worthy of praise as a first-class assassin and a magnificent end to his career.
Creeeeak—
The heavy iron door made a chilling, bizarre sound. Knowing they deliberately used rusty hinges and ill-fitting doors to instill fear in the tortured, the man felt not even a trace of fear from such a tactic.
“Will you be alright by yourself?”
The guard with a gravelly voice respectfully asked someone who had entered. Judging by the guard’s deferential response, the other person must be quite a high-ranking noble.
“I’ll be fine, so you may leave.”
The voice that answered was that of a young man. Having thoroughly reviewed information about the nobles of the Delos Empire beforehand, the assassin carefully sifted through possible identities in his mind.
Meanwhile, there was a thud— as the door closed. This made the man’s mental list of potential noble identities come to an abrupt halt.
He sensed someone approaching with purposeful steps. The man resolved to bite the lethal poison immediately once his gag was removed and waited for the other’s actions.
Foolishly, the first thing the other did was to remove his gag.
‘Now’s my chance!’
As soon as his mouth was free, he bit down hard without mercy. Something excessively cold burst from inside his right molar, releasing fluid. Without any thought of spitting it out, he swallowed it, and his entire body went limp. Along with this, he felt as if a ball of intense heat was surging up from deep in his throat.
Cough—!
The man spat out whatever had erupted from his throat and out of his mouth. He had probably coughed up blood, but it felt as if his heart had been completely torn out. With such excruciating pain as if his insides were burning up, his consciousness grew faint.
Soon, the man’s consciousness severed, and his breathing stopped completely. His rapidly beating heart also slowed dramatically before coming to a halt like that of a corpse.
The noble man, who hadn’t cared whether the assassin committed suicide or not, only moved after the other’s breathing had completely ceased. He removed the pure white glove from his left hand and stretched it toward the scarred man’s left chest.
His fingertips touched the dead man’s chest. The noble’s smooth palm, from which his fingers extended, had a strange golden pattern engraved on it, and light gradually seeped out from there.
As the light seemed to seep into the man’s chest, a single strong pulse transmitted through the fingertips where the heartbeat had stopped.
“Huh—!”
The man whose life had clearly ended suddenly took a deep breath. His collapsed lungs expanded, and his heart, which had seemed to have stopped, beat rapidly as if excited. The man, opening his eyes beneath the blindfold, instinctively opened his mouth wide to inhale. Gasping breaths came in unhindered, making him snap back to consciousness. The sensation of deadly poison swirling hotly from deep in his throat had vanished without a trace.
‘What, what is this?’
Coming to his senses, the man breathed heavily, unable to hide his confusion.
‘I definitely swallowed the poison…’
Wondering if he had imagined it, he probed around his molar with the tip of his tongue, but nothing was there except the solid tooth, proving that what had just happened was real.
At that moment, the noble who had his hand on the man’s chest removed his blindfold. Having just died and come back to life, the man squinted intensely at the sudden torchlight. Soon adjusting to the light, he quickly realized who was standing before him.
“Why, why…?!”
The assassin stared wide-eyed at the nobleman in splendid attire who had no reason to be here. The other curled his lips attractively as his eyes curved.
“Why? Should I not be here?”
“Ugh…”
Of all people, how could this person be here.
It was disastrous.
The man before his eyes was Grand Duke Verdit, revered as the “Holy One” within the Delos Empire.
He is the only blood relative of the former Empress Claudia, who was once revered as the “Holy Woman,” and the one and only nephew of the current Emperor Tis Benarion Delos. He was a figure who had made significant contributions to placing the current emperor on the throne by directly participating in the brutal succession battle known as the “Blood Coup.” This happened when he was 18 years old.
Ten years had passed since then. Now he stood as the only surviving member of the imperial family apart from the Emperor and as his close aide in the position of the Grand Duke of Verdit.
The assassin gazed at Grand Duke Verdit’s left hand with a pale face. He could see the golden pattern engraved on the pure white palm.
Grand Duke Verdit had clearly intended for him to use the poison to eliminate his trump card. His left hand could instantly cure even deadly poisons and perfectly revive a corpse that hadn’t been dead for more than 5 minutes.
‘Just like now.’
A chill ran down his spine. The Grand Duke’s unpleasant smile, having used his ability only after confirming the man had died from the poison, momentarily filled him with terror.
The Duke stared at the assassin man before smiling even more deeply. The tip of his left hand traced the man’s abdomen as if tickling it.
“What do you think would happen if I turned your organs inside out and then restored them?”
The assassin man swallowed dryly, feeling the hair all over his body stand on end.
“What would happen if I split open your stomach, stuffed it with thorny bushes, and then neatly closed the skin?”
Grand Duke Verdit’s beautiful golden eyes captured the man’s pale face.
“It wouldn’t be bad to replace your intact limbs with those of a dog or cat either.”
Such cruel words, impossible to ignore, sucked the soul right out of the man.
Grand Duke Verdit, smiling brightly, pulled over a rusty tray provided in the torture chamber. Various cruel blades were displayed on it.
“Let me tell you in advance, if you have something to say, you’d better say it quickly.”
Grand Duke Verdit, who seemed to be quite carefully choosing which blade to use first, remarked casually.
“Because I won’t let you die until you talk.”
The Grand Duke, having selected a sharply honed short dagger, approached the man. The man, despite knowing what would happen to him, glared boldly due to his pride and self-esteem as an assassin.
“Do as you please. You won’t be able to hear anything from me anyway.”
“Yes, I thought you’d say that. It’s not like I haven’t seen one or two before.”
Lightly dismissing the man’s words, Grand Duke Verdit placed his left hand on the man’s abdomen. Golden light flowed once more from his palm. The man, who had been extremely tense, was puzzled when nothing happened to his body even after the Duke’s left hand was removed.
At that moment, the Duke lightly struck the man’s abdomen with the back of his hand.
“Gah! Kugh!”
It was merely a light touch in reality, but the man felt immense pain as if a huge man had struck his abdomen with all his might.
“I’ve turned your pain sensitivity up to its limit. Let’s not waste each other’s time, as I need to get a confession quickly and go rest.”
The young Duke readjusted his grip on the dagger with a bright smile. The two eyes of the assassin looking at him were already in panic.
