Chapter 80

A taut tension hung in the air.

The guild members were already in formation.

At the very front stood Camilla.

As the party’s tanker, she gripped her axe and shield tightly, braced for an ambush that could come at any moment.

One second. Two. Three.

Several minutes passed—so long they felt like an eternity.

And then—

The uninvited guests finally revealed themselves.

There were roughly fifty of them.

All armed. All clad in armor that looked expensive.

One person in particular stood out—a woman draped in a deep wine-colored cloak.

‘That silhouette… feels familiar.’

She wore a half-mask, so I couldn’t see her full face. But her jawline, the lower half of her face… something about her tugged at my memory.

Just as I was trying to place her, the woman in the wine-colored cloak stepped slightly aside.

And the next moment, someone who had been hidden behind her walked forward.

“…!”

That face—I recognized instantly.

How could I ever forget it?

It had shown up in my nightmares just days ago.

‘Kabil Tierney!’

Hair the color of dark purple, nearly black. Green eyes.

The eldest son and heir of the Duke of Tierney.

With that perpetually unpleasant face, Kabil tilted his lips into a crooked smile as he looked at me.

---

On the way here, Kabil had been brimming with confidence.

The task his father had given him was laughably simple.

Capture Muriel—whether she was hiding in the Veratis Guild branch in Vintzheim or somewhere in the contaminated zone—and bring her back.

‘Piece of cake.’

Muriel had grown up under his fists.

By the time she was twelve, she would tremble at the mere sight of him, flattening herself against the ground and crawling like a dog.

Bark when told to bark. Cry when told to cry. Do whatever she was ordered.

‘Disgusting wench.’

Just looking at that lowborn thing groveling without a shred of pride made bile rise in his throat.

Filthy blood with no roots.

A mongrel pup dropped by some wandering mercenary whose origins no one even knew.

Even slaves had family registries. Muriel had nothing—no lineage, no foundation. A wretched stray beneath even that.

‘The fact that other nobles think that thing is our full-blooded sister—it’s revolting.’

‘I agree, Juliet. Dear sister.’

‘We need to educate her properly so she never dares to crawl up to our level! She mustn’t stain the Tierney name!’

Who knew what kind of trouble a girl with dirty blood might cause?

It was Juliet’s and his right—no, their duty—to “educate” Muriel.

So this time as well, Kabil was certain that duty had fallen to him.

‘That mongrel is a Purifier? The world’s truly gone to ruin.’

But the more he thought about it, the more he realized—surely the gods had a plan.

Yes.

Muriel, incapable of making a single decision on her own, was nothing more than a tool blessed with purification power!

His task was to tame that tool and use it properly.

‘In other words, the gods bestowed a Purifier for the sake of the Tierney family.’

With a satisfied smile, Kabil stared at Muriel.

In the past, that alone had been enough to make her shrink and crawl.

…But had she eaten something strange?

She simply stood there, face twisted in a deep scowl—without moving an inch.

‘…Has she lost her mind? What’s wrong with her?’

Kabil scrutinized her viciously.

Her expression wasn’t fear.

It was brazen. Insolent.

‘What’s with that look in her eyes?’

As if she were staring at some loathsome insect.

Heat flared through him in an instant.

How dare she—

Rage boiled in his chest. He jabbed a finger at her and barked.

“Lowborn trash! Get over here right now!”

But instead of shrinking back, Muriel’s face turned glacial.

It was a reaction Kabil had never once anticipated.

‘Has she really gone insane…? What the hell is wrong with her?!’

In Kabil’s mind, Muriel had always been a mongrel bitch.

A mindless, obedient dog who followed any command.

But the woman standing before him now, meeting his gaze with cold, steady eyes—

‘…Is that really the Muriel I knew?’

For a fleeting second, Kabil wondered if he had mistaken her for someone else.

Muriel could never look at him like that.

She used to tremble, unable even to meet his eyes—

“…Lowborn?”

That was when a voice, cold as ice, slipped into Kabil’s ear.

There was something in its resonance—an inexplicable pressure—that made him flinch before he realized it.

He turned toward the source.

Transparent golden eyes, clear as glass, were staring straight through him.

His heart plummeted.

‘Wh… what is that?’

It felt as if all the blood drained from his body at once.

A chill brushed the nape of his neck. Goosebumps prickled across his skin.

It was instinctive fear.

The kind every living creature had acquired through evolution in the wild.

The warning signal of survival, triggered when facing something stronger. A predator.

Kabil swallowed hard without meaning to.

Cold sweat trickled down his back. Beads of sweat gathered on his brow.

He wasn’t the only one reacting strangely.

The “mage” he had brought along to make this easier—

He looked as tense as if he had come face-to-face with a dragon.

And the other forty-nine subordinates were no different.

“…….”

The mage, the only one barely clinging to his composure, cast a glance at Kabil—frozen stiff like a statue—before sweeping his gaze around.

Knights standing rigid, eyes wide. Others pale, drenched in cold sweat.

Kabil might be a useless wastrel who couldn’t even properly swing a sword—but these men weren’t.

They were seasoned veterans. Elite knights with countless battles under their belts.

And yet, every single one of them was gripped by instinctive fear?

…He couldn’t be one hundred percent certain.

But the mage was fairly sure.

An aura that could freeze opponents simply by exuding fear.

From the moment that voice had sounded, a tremendous wave of mana had begun to seep outward—

‘…That is no human.’

The mage’s left hand clenched tight.

They might have just encountered an opponent beyond their ability to handle.

---

‘Whoa, what is this—this is terrifying.’

I stared at Lycian with wide eyes.

I’d completely forgotten how annoyed I’d been because of Kabil.

The killing intent pouring off Lycian was enough to make my skin sting.

And that wasn’t all. My heart had been pounding like it was malfunctioning, and goosebumps rippled over my arms.

There was no way an ordinary person could subdue others with sheer presence alone.

‘Definitely not human!’

At this point, I almost wanted to tell him to just take off the mask and reveal what he really was.

“Your Highness, rein it in. We’re getting hit by it too. Miss Muriel is practically shaking like a kitten abandoned in the middle of winter.”

Huh?

Only then did I realize something I hadn’t even noticed.

Wait—I’m shaking?

‘Whoa, I actually am. My body’s trembling on its own. I feel like a power drill.’

I stared down at my vibrating hands in fascination when I felt someone flinch beside me.

I turned my head.

As if Dante’s words had snapped him back to himself, Lycian was staring at me with wide eyes.

His lips parted, his expression stricken. Then, sounding genuinely at a loss, he rushed out,

“I’m sorry, Muriel. Are you alright? I didn’t mean to frighten you too. I just—I was so angry for a moment… I didn’t realize….”

He looked like a fox caught red-handed, whining in guilt.

His brows drooped into little upside-down V’s.

Cute.

Before I knew it, I’d curled my lips into a grin.

“It’s fine. I don’t know if I’m scared exactly, but my body keeps shaking on its own. Look.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“I said it’s fine.”

With my still slightly trembling hand, I cupped Lycian’s cheek and patted his shoulder.

He gazed at me with round, earnest eyes, then suddenly wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace.

Immediately, complaints rose from all around us.

“Hey! That’s enough of that!”

“Ahem….”

“So when’s the wedding, sis and bro?”

“Mr. Lycian? Don’t you have something to say to us? Like an apology. Or, say, an apology. Maybe even an apology.”

Whether Daphne shot him looks or not, Lycian ignored it lightly. Still holding me close, he turned his fierce gaze back toward Kabil.

Kabil and his knights wore expressions that clearly said, What the hell is wrong with these lunatics…?

Especially Kabil—his pupils were shaking like they’d just experienced an earthquake, darting between me and Lycian.

He half-raised a trembling hand to point at us, then shrank back, stammering like a broken radio.

“M-Muriel! You vulgar mongrel bitch! I was wondering what gave you the nerve to act so insolent—you’ve already seduced some man and spread your legs for him! This is why rootless, lowborn trash like you—”

Lycian moved to step forward, but I grabbed his hand tightly.

Then I met his eyes and shook my head.

It’s fine.

Words like that are too low to wound me.

I looked straight at Kabil and spoke in a cold, low voice.

“Shut up, Kabil.”

“What?”

“I said shut up. You’re rotting my ears. It’s disgusting—I feel like my mind’s getting contaminated just listening to you.”

“Wh… what did you just say? You— How dare you! Do you even know who I am?! Are you that desperate to die?!”

Now that Lycian wasn’t actively threatening him, Kabil puffed back up in arrogance. The idiot had zero capacity to learn.

“Our family fed you, clothed you, raised you—and that mongrel doesn’t even know gratitude! What are you all standing around for? Attack! Drag Muriel back here by the hair if you have to!!”

Kabil shouted, his voice boiling over with fury directed at me.

The knights—less foolish than he was—hesitated, but perhaps unable to outright refuse the son of their lord, they raised their weapons and charged.

“Uaaaah!”

Camilla beamed sweetly as she swung her axe in broad arcs toward the knight screaming as he rushed in.

“Looks like a lot of wrists are coming off today….”