𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟕𝟖

𝐚ẇ̇ᴇ𝚋ṡ̇ṫ̇ᴏ𝕣𝘪𝙚𝔰.𝙘𝕠𝕞

Meanwhile, Yoo Ha-on and Baek Eun-seo, who were kidnapped by an opponent disguised as the princess, felt their nerves tighten as they observed the students from various academies who were in the same situation.

“. . . Three enemies. They’re all stronger than us.”

“Ugh. Those damn bastards. We’ll know once we engage them. Close combat might be tough, but the difference in spell power is huge.”

As expected of students who were among the top of their class in their first year, they didn’t let themselves be taken easily and attempted to resist.

However, they couldn’t land a single effective hit against even one enemy, and they were soon overpowered and captured when reinforcements arrived.

However, Yoo Ha-on, who had checked the backs of the gathered enemies, quickly glanced around to look at where Princess Laura was.

「𝙎𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙.」

Even though they were in danger themselves, they were more worried about the princess at the moment.

Her face was devoid of all hope, as if she had lost everything.

That Laura quietly opened her mouth to speak to the enemies.

“Diego, how could you. . . . . .”

“Can it be that you’re still curious about that? You are, after all, an inferior product that can’t be helped.”

Diego, or rather, the man whose real name was Harvey Martinez, slowly approached Laura, grabbed her chin, and spoke again.

“The Diego you served is already dead. By my own hand, no less. You must have felt it, the strange sense of discomfort.”

“T-That’s Die. . . . . .”

“I’m not Diego. I’m Harvey Martinez. If you call me by that name one more time, I’ll make sure you can’t use that tongue anymore.”

Swish!

Thud.

Laura, who was violently thrown away, squinted one eye and spoke to Harvey again.

“. . . Y-You’ll regret this. The royal family isn’t as easy to deal with as you think. They must be approaching this place by now.”

However, Harvey sneered and began to laugh at Laura’s words.

“Do you really think so?”

“. . . . . .”

“Can you be sure that the royal family will save you? Or rather, let me ask you this. If the crown prince or the first princess had been the target instead of you, do you think they would have allowed you to be kidnapped so easily?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Don’t you know? You’re a replaceable inferior product. To them, you don’t matter in the slightest.”

At those words, Laura hung her head. However, Harvey didn’t stop and continued to press her.

“Shall I tell you something? The royal family will never be able to find this place. And if you were the only one we brought here, they would never accept our demands, even if we held you hostage.”

“T-That’s not true.”

“A special-grade dangerous individual, Damian of the Red Blood, and an inferior princess. Even a simple comparison shows the clear difference in your worth. If I were the king, I would never take such a risk.”

“. . . . . .”

“Of course, if there were this many more sacrificial lambs involved in the relationship between countries, as is the case now, that would be a different story.”

In the end, Harvey’s goal was clear. To use the lives of the hostages as leverage to bring back the one he served. Laura was nothing more than a sacrifice.

“If only you had noticed my plan from the beginning, this situation wouldn’t have happened. Their misfortune is something you brought upon them. Oh, by the way, there’s not much time left until the first execution.”

“. . . You can’t do that. Stop it right now.”

“Give up. Nothing will change here just because you say so.”

And so, the time limit finally ran out.

“Jose. It’s time.”

“. . . Hey, you. Get up.”

One of the students, who was being held by the man called Jose, tried to get up from his seat, struggling in fear.

“Ugh, n-no! Stop it!”

“You’re annoying.”

Bam!

“Cough! Ack!”

Jose dragged the boy, whose body had gone limp, by one arm and stretched his neck out in front of Harvey.

Seeing this, Laura shouted anxiously.

“S-Stop it! I’ll somehow convince the higher-ups to meet your demands. . . . . .”

“Didn’t I tell you that it’s meaningless?”

However, Harvey soon approached Laura again with a meaningful smile.

“Then, would you like to enter a master-servant contract with me of your own free will? If you do, I’ll give you an extra 10 minutes.”

“A master-servant contract. . . . . .”

“It means becoming my property, literally. If you do, you won’t be able to escape from me, even if reinforcements arrive. It would be a good example for the royal family who dared to imprison him.”

Laura, who had been agonizing over his words, eventually nodded weakly.

And Yoo Ha-on, who had been watching the scene, forgot about her promise with Baek Eun-seo to wait for an opportunity and suddenly got up from her seat, having already released the restraints that she had weakened in advance.

Whoosh.

“I won’t let that happen.”

“Hey! Ha-on! I told you not to do anything now!”