Chapter 171

Chapter 171

* * *

“Stay right where you are!”

Nix was almost immediately pursued by several Blue knights upon making his escape. They had likely noticed since he had failed to remove the bars on his cell window in total silence before jumping down. Despite his less-than-graceful landing, the puppet did his best to run quickly.

By the time he realized that his bet would have been to head toward Noel, he was already a good distance away from the tower’s base. But as long as he escaped, he could always rendezvous with his master and Dante outside of Yggdrasil at a later time.

Of course, there was another reason why he wasn’t desperately trying to reunite with the Gold Master. He had an inexplicable repulsion to the very idea of returning to the carrot top or Vertium. It was partially due to Roxana’s cunning mind games. She had whispered so many poisonous words to him back at the Blue fortress that combined with the dreams he had been haunted by ever since entering the neutral territory, even the image of Noel in his mind was tainted.

However, the puppet finally managed to subdue his chaotic thoughts before reaching an area dense with trees in hopes he might succeed in shaking off his pursuers.

“My word! What’s going on?!”

“Where the hell did he come from?!”

Unfortunately, he seemed to have taken a wrong turn and ended up in an open space that was already occupied by over 20 other individuals. They had been enjoying their tea when the intruder made his abrupt entrance.

Bang!

Clang!

Crash!

“Aaah!”

“Agh! That burns!”

Unable to steer clear of the group, Nix had no choice but to run over the tables, but his movements caused more than a few of the teacups and plates to crash onto the floor or onto those who had stood up in time. Within seconds, the small garden was in an uproar.

“Wait... Is that?!”

A few of the Agrece half-siblings finally seemed to recognize Nix. However, before they could say for sure if the puppet did indeed resemble their late half-brother, another individual who clearly knew his identity appeared.

“Nix!”

Sylvia Pedelian called out his name upon seeing his destruction of the countless tabletops. It had been quite some time since she had attended one of the outdoor gatherings, or any for that matter. However, the one person who she knew shouldn’t have been there was running amok for everyone to see.

Even in the midst of that chaos, he managed to hear her voice shout his name. As he turned his blue eye in her direction, his vision trembled the moment the Blue Princess came into view.

“Stop right there, Vertium puppet!”

The Blue knights had arrived mere seconds after he did and left him little time to dally. Nix seemed to instinctively move in a manner that was most advantageous to his given situation. The Pedelian forces who had been standing guard at the garden entrance had also begun to rush toward him.

However, the puppet was the first to reach his target. He snatched Sylvia up from her seat, then held her to him by her waist. At that moment, every last one of the knights stood frozen in their tracks. As he had expected, no one would dare make a move when he had their princess in his clutches. Their faces were riddled with uneasiness due to the fear that the puppet might harm her.

As he was in a defensive state of mind, he subconsciously tightened his grip around her neck. She stood completely still as if she had realized that she had unwittingly become his hostage. However, despite his dire straits, he remained far more concerned for her well-being.

Hmm... Isn’t this sort of like I’m repaying the kindness she showed me with malice? Of course, the doll had never once experienced so much as an ounce of morality since being reanimated, yet he still felt uncomfortable at implicating the younger Pedelian sibling and needlessly dragged even more aggressively to compensate for his guilt. Even so, the words he whispered into her ear were contradictory to his actions.

“Just keep still until we get out of here. There’s no need for you to get hur—”

Fwoosh!

Pow!

“Argh!”

In a flash, Nix was nearly brought to his knees and had to keel over due to the unexpected force of three blows directed at his vital points in rapid succession. It wasn’t that they had been powerful enough to knock him unconscious, but they had managed to find the precise critical areas to free his captive from his clutches. Once his grip around Sylvia had loosened due to the sudden attack...

Bam!

She drove her elbow into his nose for good measure. The blow caused him to falter and step back, thus freeing her completely.

“Ugh... Why y—!”

Blood began to drip onto the grass as he lowered his head. The accuracy of the blow had been spot-on as she hadn’t hesitated once in her movements. He among others hadn’t expected his impromptu plan to take such a dramatic turn.

“Now! Grab him!”

The Pedelian knights who had been guarding the garden lunged toward the puppet as soon as he had dropped his guard. They made sure to immediately move their princess to safety before closing in on him. Those who had chased him from the tower joined in as well so escaping from between both groups was technically impossible. Nevertheless, he was still more agile than anyone there could have imagined.

The blond dodged their attacks with immense fluidity while quickly plotting his counterattack. To their own surprise, the Agreces also began to stir upon seeing his moves.

Without warning, a table was sent flying into the puppet’s side. The others honed in as he instinctively raised his arms to block the assault. Although he tried his best to shake off his attackers, a swift kick came from his blind spot to strike his chin and cause him to lose his balance.

Then another individual with a powerful grip grabbed the back of his neck before smashing him into the ground. As he whimpered in pain, a cold voice washed over him.

“I’m surprised you still have this much strength left in you.”

The doll immediately stiffened after he heard the chilling voice in his ear.

“I guess I really was too easy on you last time.”

The moment he registered that it was Cassis Pedelian’s voice, the pain the Blue Heir had inflicted upon him mere days prior surged through every fiber of his being once again. He began to convulse like a rat trapped in the corner of a crowded tiger’s den.

“Were you hurt, Sylvia?”

“No, I’m fine.”

After checking her condition more thoroughly, Cassis frowned as the onlookers in the garden began to voice their confusion.

“Who the hell was that?!”

“Good heavens! Was he trying to kidnap Miss Pedelian?!”

“I’ve never seen him before. Is he an outsider who broke into the castle?”

Well, this definitely wasn’t how we planned to reveal him to everyone. Cassis’ thought was a severe understatement of just how chaotic the puppet had made his existence known to the other clans.

“What’s all this commotion about?”

More members from the various clans began to arrive at the garden after hearing the clatter and crashing of the tables but this only served to add to the cacophony. Among them were Roussel Pedelian along with Hiakin and Orka Fipellion. As the two masters assessed the situation they frowned in unison.

“Aha... So this is the infamous puppet, huh?”

As the White Heir had been the only clan representative not to see Nix already, he was the only one to express a child-like interest in the blond. However, his tactless reaction caused the White Master to furrow his brow at his nephew. Of course, the blue-haired, young man simply continued his intrigued observation of the doll with the same look of naïve curiosity. As the murmurs continued to grow louder, a new face appeared amidst the throng of onlookers.

“What’s going on? I was told this was going to be a simple tea party. Why is everyone standing around?”

Every person in the garden turned their attention toward the silvery tone in unison. None other than Roxana Agrece could have such an effect on a crowd that only moments prior had been reeling from the calamity.

Her unfading beauty captivated the gazes of all those around her until a cloud of silence hung over the scene. Cassis also looked toward her, but his golden eyes aimed slightly lower and held a different meaning than everyone else’s.

“The Vertium puppet attempted to escape, but we caught him.”

The Agrece gasped as if she had only just noticed him pinning the doll under his weight. “Oh my... Did anyone get hurt?”

“No one so far.” He chose to keep his responses curt as he moved to lift the puppet to his feet.

All the while, Orka had been taking in the entire scene with keen interest, but finally decided to interject from off to the side. “Oh, but someone was almost taken hostage before we arrived.”

Those who had witnessed the event firsthand turned their attention back to Sylvia.

“We should all feel relieved that this ordeal only ended as a mere attempt. Don’t you agree, Lady Sylvia?” The White Heir turned to smile brightly at her as he spoke, while also ignoring her brother’s cold gaze on the back of his blue head. Sylvia panicked as their collective focus fell on her. However, once she met Roxana’s gaze, she shook her head vehemently to contest the very notion that any harm had come to her.

“Right. I wasn’t hurt, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

But despite her reassurance, the concern in those scarlet eyes refused to subside. Contrary to her appearance, the beautiful Agrece was deeply troubled by the events that had unfolded.

Of course, the reasons for that were entirely due to the connection between Deon and Nix. She had already been on edge ever since Cassis’ encounter with her older half-brother, which had only been made worse by her failure to listen to the entirety of their conversation since the older Agrece had killed her butterfly. Even so, what she had heard before its demise was more than enough to stir her nerves.

Between that and the fact that the doll had mustered the audacity to dare venture out of his cell, and even go as far as to try to take her honorary sister-in-law hostage... It was all too much. In truth, she had witnessed his escape through her butterfly, and couldn’t help wondering if it had just been a mere coincidence that the methods he used to remove his cuffs and the iron bars from the cell window both looked awfully similar to those taught to every Agrece.

Simply recalling watching him at work made her heart begin to metaphorically sink down into a cold pit in her stomach.