The Villain’s Aide Has Run Away - Chapter 137.1
Cassian looked up at Kailos with desperate eyes and clutched at his robe.
“Even if I can’t be of much help, I still want to try.”
His voice carried such earnest desperation that Kailos, instead of pushing him away, placed a firm hand on Cassian’s shoulder.
“What you need to do right now is wait here until Kan wakes up. Can you do that?”
Cassian glanced at Kan, who lay motionless with bandages wrapped around his wounds.
“I understand.”
“Good. When he wakes, ask him what happened and tell me. As you know, there are very few who can hear the voice of a spirit beast.”
The imperial family and their bonded partners were all people who shared a connection with spirit beasts to some extent. It was both a privilege—to receive the beasts’ protection—and a duty, to safeguard the Empire’s peace alongside them.
Kailos entrusted that responsibility to Cassian, emphasizing its importance.
Cassian turned to Leslun and spoke softly.
“Please find Blue. And Lia too…”
He wished that nothing had happened to the little bird, but if it had, he wanted Leslun to look for it as well. Leslun nodded.
Leslun also replayed Kailos’s words in his mind over and over.
After sending Cassian away, Leslun carefully called out to Kailos and voiced his thoughts.
“There is still another piece we can use.”
***
Kailos and Leslun descended into the prison without exchanging a word.
Unlike Kailos’s expressionless face, Leslun kept glancing around, his ears catching faint cries mixed in with the sound of wind seeping through the dark stone walls.
The sound was not unfamiliar. A strange sensation tingled at Leslun’s ears again and again.
‘Count Camilo…’
It was Count Camilo’s voice.
He knew the man was still imprisoned, but with everything that had happened, he had forgotten for a time. Now, however, it seemed the man’s usefulness had not yet ended.
“Do you want to save him?”
“No. It’s just that…”
Leslun trailed off, lost in thought. Memories of the past rippled through his mind like waves. He recalled clearly what the count’s strengths and weapons had been when he served under him.
The torchlight flickered in Leslun’s eyes, casting them in an odd glow. Kailos, noticing it, tilted his head slightly and stared at him.
“What kind of look is that?”
“There was a time when I carried out many of the count’s orders.”
It sounded natural enough, as that was the work of an aide. But Leslun’s words implied something deeper.
“He gave orders that should never have been given.”
Kidnapping, blackmail, secret dealings. They had lived balancing on the thin line between legality and crime, patching one wrong with another.
Even so, he could not stop the last order—the one that led to Lady Miroi’s abduction. The memory darkened Leslun’s expression.
Kailos gave a short laugh.
“And the orders I’ve given you so far—were they proper ones?”
Leslun held his silence for a moment. Kailos, unable to bear it, teased again.
“When you go quiet like that, it makes me uneasy.”
Only then did Leslun smile faintly.
“There were none.”
There had never been an order from the Crown Prince that forced him to fight his conscience. There was, however, a calculated precision born of ambition and intent.
Leslun bowed slightly, acknowledging it.
“Would you allow me to speak with him alone?”
With a bitter smile, Leslun requested a private meeting with the count.
Kailos looked reluctant but eventually moved ahead.
“Follow me.”
Leslun followed quietly, watching the broad, reassuring back in front of him.
Before long, the howls grew louder, and the prison door creaked open. A guard mentioned that the prisoner had been tied up just in case.
Kailos entered first, with Leslun behind him.
“Ugh, please, let me out already…”
Count Camilo’s appearance was a mess, enough to show how harsh his imprisonment had been.
Kailos looked down at him, brought a chair, and placed it before him. He did not sit, however; instead, he rested his hand on the backrest.
“I didn’t want the two of you to meet again, but since I was asked, I’ll allow it. Enjoy your reunion with your former aide.”
With that, Kailos stepped aside, letting Leslun in.
When Count Camilo saw Leslun, his dull eyes lit faintly, like a candle flickering just before it went out. The obsession to survive still burned weakly within him.
Leslun sat across from him. They had once faced each other like this before. But Leslun had changed, and he accepted that change fully.
He no longer wavered before the man.
“It’s been a while…”
There was no need to ask if he had suffered. Count Camilo’s once-imposing presence was gone, and his skin had lost its color and vitality.
Only his gaze, fixed on Leslun, burned with the last traces of hope. Without it, he would have looked dead already.
“Get me out of here.”
This time, Count Camilo did not try to coax or threaten him as he once had.
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