May Every Wound Be Fatal - Chapter 34.2
The thick iron doors closed heavily.
Someone in the darkness slid the bolt into place.
Click. From outside came the faint sound of the latch falling. It was so soft that only a careful ear could hear it.
Elizer told himself he must have been mistaken. He must have misheard.
No, for a moment, it all felt distant, as if he were dreaming.
Then it happened.
“Listen here, Elizer.”
Elizer flinched and turned his head.
Leonard had been watching him for some time. His eyes were the same clear green as Reyna’s. That fact felt oddly strange, and Elizer froze for a moment as Leonard whispered.
“There is poison in your cup.”
Elizer did not understand what Leonard meant.
“…Excuse me?”
Leonard continued in a calm, almost casual whisper.
“Do not worry. It is only a paralytic poison that dulls the senses, mixed with a small hallucinogen. It is true that my daughter desires you.”
“What on earth…?”
“Your head will hurt quite a lot, though.”
Elizer tried to stand, but a sudden dizziness overpowered him. His head bowed automatically toward the floor.
As Elizer held his head with both hands, Leonard calmly turned his gaze to watch the servant place the silver tray in front of Cassian.
“From this moment, you will be elevated to the highest seat. You need only sit there.”
“Stop it. What are you saying…?”
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime fortune for you.”
Elizer barely lifted his head and rolled his bloodshot eyes.
The servant removed the dark cloth covering the silver tray.
On Cassian’s face appeared an expression mixed with contempt and shock.
The gift Leonard had prepared was the head of a black calf. Among seafaring people, it was considered an ominous sign, predicting imminent death.
“Leonard.”
As Cassian turned toward the duke, the servant suddenly raised a dagger that had been hidden on the tray.
No.
Elizer reached out with trembling hands, but he could not touch Cassian.
Elizer’s body collapsed to the floor, and almost simultaneously, Noel Briere jumped to his feet.
“Your Highness―”
As if waiting for this moment, the servant quickly approached Noel and stabbed him repeatedly in the neck and side with the sharp dagger.
Where the dagger had withdrawn, hot blood spurted. Noel fell forward immediately. It happened in an instant.
The musicians continued playing, and those seated further back had not yet noticed the chaos, still clinking their glasses.
“Noel.”
When the young Briere suddenly collapsed, Count Briere rose abruptly from his seat. A dagger sank into his neck. His sons, attempting to intervene, were pierced in the neck and chest one after another.
“Ah!”
Only then did screams erupt throughout the hall.
The guests, drunk and barely able to move, could not mount proper resistance. They fell one by one, stabbed through and helpless.
“Help me!”
Those still alive instinctively ran toward the door.
From the railing, crossbow bolts were fired in unison. The steel points tore through the air, and crimson blood spattered everywhere in an instant.
Guests who finally reached the door could not open it and were struck by arrows. Even Thomas Percy, who tried to block a dagger with his hands, was pierced in the back and legs.
“Ugh!”
Gritting his teeth, Thomas endured the shock. He pushed away his attacker and seized the dagger, taking the assailant’s life.
Barely surviving, he hid frantically under a table, dodging the continuous rain of arrows.
Breathing heavily, he glanced around. The people who had been drinking with him just moments ago now lay scattered in pools of blood.
No matter how he moved his eyes, he could see no one alive.
Leonard had betrayed them. No, he had intended this from the start.
Count Briere, to whom he had sworn loyalty, lay dead before his eyes. The fate of Prince Cassian remained unknown.
And Elizer.
Elizer, whom he had raised like a son, was nowhere to be seen. The indiscriminate slaughter continued.
Thomas, crawling from beneath the table, desperately searched for Elizer, craning his head.
“Elizer!”
At that moment, a steel bolt flew through the air and struck him in the neck and chest. His massive body finally collapsed lifelessly.
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