Chapter 486: The Hunter and the Prey
"What kind of elder do you think you are!"
The masked woman let out a cold laugh. "Don't think that just because I usually call you 'Uncle,' you can pull rank on me. Status and position are things you're born with. You think that just because my father helped you climb into that head of the Kendya family seat, you're suddenly my equal? That's hilarious... Ah!"
"SMACK—"
A crisp slap rang out, accompanied by the masked woman's sharp cry. Arnell's keen eyes caught the mask that had been on the masked woman's face flying off with Batiatus's strike, clattering to the floor. Unfortunately, the masked woman had her back to Arnell's position, so Arnell couldn't get a look at her face right away.
Turn around. Turn around.
Arnell chanted silently in her mind. If she could just see the woman's face, she could memorize it and sketch it later. Searching the Soth Empire with a drawing would be far better than having no leads at all.
But to Arnell's disappointment, just as the masked woman was about to turn her head, Thaddeus appeared out of nowhere in Arnell's line of sight. The moment that hard, cold face came into view, Arnell recognized him on pure instinct—this was the man from that night.
During her last visit to the Kendya Manor, she'd been too tense, and Arnell hadn't dared stick her head out carelessly for fear Thaddeus would spot her. She'd only remembered him as a tall, imposing, cold man. Now, seeing his face, she immediately connected him with the name Thaddeus.
Thaddeus—one of the six elite knights, and one of the people Arnell most needed to watch out for during her nighttime infiltration of the Kendya Manor.
Thaddeus hadn't noticed Arnell watching from above. He was simply following his master's orders, keeping a constant eye on the masked woman's mask to ensure it wasn't lost, especially in a place like this with so many people around.
He bent down, picked up the mask from the floor, and handed it to the masked woman. The entire motion held not a shred of respect, yet the masked woman didn't cry out about his rudeness—she just put the mask back on with what looked like panic.
Seeing the masked woman's reaction, Arnell's curiosity suddenly spiked.
If the masked woman were just an ordinary noble girl, she wouldn't be this nervous about her mask falling off. And as a guard, Thaddeus's first priority should have been protecting the masked woman. Yet when Batiatus slapped her just now, Thaddeus had clearly been nearby but made absolutely no move to intervene—not until the mask fell from the masked woman's face.
From this, Arnell could deduce that the masked woman herself was a noble girl who frequently appeared before outsiders, or that her status was so high and enough people knew her that her true face couldn't be revealed to anyone, or else her identity would be exposed.
What happened next only confirmed Arnell's suspicions.
Because the instant the masked woman put her mask back on, Thaddeus drew the blade at his waist. The flash of steel was like a bone-chilling wind sweeping through the Kendya Manor's main hall. In moments, the heads of the servants who'd been standing in front of the masked woman fell like fruit severed from vines, spreading pools of vivid red blood across the floor.
The servants on either side seemed frozen in terror, but they bit down hard on their lips, swallowing back their screams of fear. After all, no one knew whether this killer might decide to harvest their lives too if he heard a piercing shriek.
Batiatus seemed long accustomed to such scenes, or perhaps he simply didn't care much about these servants' lives. He just looked coldly at the masked woman. "I'm not your family's servant. I have no need to humor you or indulge you. At the end of the day, I'm your father's ally, not yours. So if you keep trying to provoke me, I won't treat you the way I treat your father. Understand?"
"Everything I've done has been discussed with your father. When it comes to matters between me, Tadvi, and your father, you have neither the ability nor the right to interfere. If you keep making trouble like this, why don't you just go back to—"
"Wait!"
Arnell had just perked up her ears, ready to hear where the masked woman should go back to, when she heard Batiatus's voice ruthlessly cut off by Thaddeus. The man's sharp gaze swept directly toward Arnell's position. "Seems like a little bug that shouldn't be here has crawled in."
"Hmm?"
Arnell froze, then immediately realized that just now, in her curiosity about where exactly the masked woman came from, she'd lost control of her breathing for one brief instant, revealing an unusual presence. She hadn't expected even that to be noticed by Thaddeus.
What a terrifying man. What keen perception!
Cold sweat slid down Arnell's forehead, but she had no time to wipe it away. Because Arnell realized almost instantly that she had to leave here immediately—had to escape from the Kendya Manor right now.
Immediately! Right now!
Otherwise, once Thaddeus caught up with her, the consequences would be unthinkable.
She knew this feeling of prey accidentally stepping into a trap all too well. As a child, when she'd played hide-and-seek with her father and brothers, Arnell had loved hiding in wardrobes, letting layers upon layers of clothes wrap around her, using the sweet perfume scent above to mask her own smell. But then footsteps would suddenly sound outside the wardrobe, and through the crack in the cabinet doors, she'd see the shadow of whoever was 'it' that round—her father or one of her brothers. Those shadows would cast distorted shapes on the glass, locking Arnell in that cramped space, unable to snap out of it.
But this was different now.
Back then, being found had only earned her a warm hug from her father or brothers. They'd tell Arnell it was just a game, that her life was never in danger.
This time was different.
That gaze, colder than ice itself, pointed straight at Arnell's position. She began trembling uncontrollably, as if her fragile neck had already been marked as territory by a predator about to claim her life.
Run!
Run now!
Arnell leaped down from the main hall's balcony, then bent low to slip past flight after flight of stairs. She heard Batiatus's commanding voice echo from the main hall: "Illegal intruder! All patrol knights, intensify the search!"
She also heard the crisp clatter of armor colliding. Every sound was tightening around her like a net, and she was the bird in the cage about to be captured.
Thaddeus was the confident hunter. He knew exactly how to catch this cornered intruder with nowhere to escape.
Arnell clenched her jaw, her feet never stopping as her mind spun almost frantically, trying to carve out an escape route for herself.
The way she'd come in? No. There were patrol knights in that direction. If she charged through there, she'd end up with patrol knights ahead and Thaddeus behind.