"Finish the maid in your hands imdiately. Dispose of the corpses. Then, follow to my mother’s place."
Silas jolted back to herself the mont she heard Ellis speak.
But before she could even answer, he was already walking away... no, running.
He didn’t bother calling for a carriage, despite how the royal grounds were far too vast, practically a city of their own. Instead, he simply ran.
He moved swiftly, changing direction every now and then, careful not to cross the routes patrolled by the knights, relying on his Detection skill.
And so, with the purpose of reaching his mother’s place, he ran.
Even if he had never been there before, Ellis had long since morized the layout of the royal grounds, after all. Especially the way to her place.
He didn’t need signs or directions. Even if he had never visited her... she had always occupied a corner of his mind, after all.
His body may have been small, his legs short, but thanks to his strength, it didn’t take him long to arrive near the palace.
And the mont he did. He noticed the difference.
Compared to his own palace, this one was much livelier.
Too lively, actually.
Maids. Servants. Knights.
There were simply too many.
Would sothing really happen to his mother with this many people around?
He wondered at first. But then, then, he suddenly felt sothing and stopped.
He felt a faint presence... of soone on the verge of death.
Earlier, he had been wondering how he should enter. Should he walk in loudly, announcing himself with confidence?
Or sneak in quietly, just in case?
At first glance, he had thought there was no need for secrecy.
It was his mother’s place, after all.
He had every right.
But now...
Now he knew sothing wasn’t right.
The presence ca from a small structure beside the palace. A storage room.
He had one just like it near his own palace, too neglected and unused. But more importantly, he knew there shouldn’t be anyone inside.
And if there was, it would only be for a mont, to bring sothing out. Not to lie inside... barely breathing.
This situation made him take a more careful approach, and so, he circled around the guards and quietly made his way toward the storage room.
When he arrived near the door, he saw soone else. A guard. Standing right in front of it.
Ellis had already sensed the presence of soone else, but a guard? That made things even more suspicious.
So, he moved closer. Then, with a single precise movent, he leapt forward and struck the guard sharply in the neck with the edge of his hand.
The guard collapsed, and Ellis caught his body mid-fall, gently lowering him to the ground, making sure the armor didn’t clank or thud against the floor.
Then he turned toward the wooden door... and exhaled.
’Let’s see who’s inside.’
With that thought, Ellis reached for the handle and prepared to open it.
But then, he found that there was actually a lock.
He wasn’t troubled by its presence, and just took care not to make any loud noise in the process of breaking.
Tak.
After easily breaking the lock, Ellis slowly pushed the door open. And what ca into view... was anything but pleasant.
It was a room without windows, seemingly left untouched and forgotten for a long ti. Dust blanketed the floor and shelves. Cobwebs clung to the corners. The air felt damp.
But all of that was just the surface.
The real assault ca the mont the door cracked open.
The stench.
The sll of rotting food was strong enough, but it was sothing else that forced Ellis to instinctively wrinkle his nose.
A heavy, sour stench of urine... and shit.
While he frowned, Ellis still stepped inside. His eyes, not bothered by the dim light, landed on a figure slumped against the far wall.
A woman. A maid he didn’t recognize.
And judging by her hollowed face and barely responsive posture, she had long since passed the point of exhaustion.
There was no bedding, no water, no toilet. Nothing but a few trays of long-spoiled food abandoned on the floor near her.
She hadn’t even been given a place to relieve herself.
Ellis narrowed his eyes.
His Detection skill still showed that she was alive... but was that truly the case?
In a place like this, what did "alive" even an?
This setting...
This was the perfect arrangent to kill soone slowly, and cruelly, after all.
’Should I at least be relieved that it’s not mother, who was here?’
With that thought, Ellis shook his head and stepped forward, enduring the suffocating sll as he made his way toward her.
... And just as he neared, her eyes, clouded and unfocused, suddenly opened.
She looked at him.
Ellis didn’t have a weak heart, but even he faltered for a second.
Those dilated pupils, having not seen light in so long, looked straight at him.
Still, he continued forward, and without breaking eye contact, he knelt beside her and carefully examined her condition.
And imdiately, he understood. She was beyond saving.
No. The fact that she was still alive at all, in this state... was a miracle.
That’s how bad her condition was.
Amidst the silence, Ellis gazed at her, and for a mont, even he struggled to form the words to ask what had happened here.
But in the end, he didn’t need to.
Because the maid, had already recognized him.
Her dried, trembling lips parted with visible effort, and in a hoarse voice barely more than a whisper, she tried to speak.
"Y-your... H-Highness... it–"
Cough.
She couldn’t finish.
A violent cough wracked her body, and blood suddenly spilled from her mouth, splattering onto Ellis’s clean clothes.
But he didn’t flinch, nor did he move away. Instead, he stayed right there, and patted her back.
From her tone... her relieved, trembling tone as she recognized him, Ellis could feel it.
She was probably a friend. Not an enemy.
And no matter what, she was beyond saving.
So, the only thing he could do for her now... was be there.
To stay by her side in her final monts.
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