novelraw Chapter 143 : Chapter 143
Chapter 143 : Chapter 143
Volume 2
Chapter 67 : Intruder
"Not bad."
Following the attendant into the room, Muen casually looked around.
A slightly cloying fragrance drifted through the air.
Even in the Lower City, this hotel still counted as luxurious.
The bedding and sheets on the bed were obviously made of high-grade silk.
From the canopy above, pink gauze cascaded all the way down the sides of the bed like a maiden's wedding dress, carrying a hazy sort of beauty.
Even the floor was covered in a soft wool carpet, clearly meant to make things easier for couples staying here to expand the battlefield.
Only, the red candles, the whip, and the ball gag arranged along one wall were rather hard on the eyes.
Muen's eyelid twitched.
After dismissing the attendant, who for some reason looked rather nervous, he made a full circuit of the room and then entered the bathroom.
Inside, the bathtub, which was noticeably larger than normal, and the huge full-length mirror positioned directly opposite it made the corner of his eye twitch again.
As expected of a luxury hotel's couple's suite.
The more money people had, the wilder they played.
Still, Muen did not pay it much mind.
Even if it was a couple's suite, for a man who was currently single, it merely meant the bed was a little bigger and the bathtub a little wider.
Was that not even better?
When he slept at night, he could roll around however he pleased.
Thinking that, Muen stripped off his clothes and happily slipped into the hot water filling the tub.
"Ah, that feels good."
Muen could not help letting out a pleased groan.
After a whole day's worth of accumulated fatigue, what could possibly be more soothing to both body and mind than a hot bath?
Especially when he was soaking in a bathtub this large, one meant for two people.
Cradling the back of his head, Muen lay in the tub, enjoying the slow easing of his exhaustion while thinking about what he needed to do tomorrow.
In truth, what he needed to do tomorrow was simple enough.
He just had to prepare that so-called ancient dragon heart's blood Teacher Mera had mentioned.
It was only because he had been in such a hurry to make his appointment earlier that he had not thought much about it.
Now that he looked back on it, this ancient dragon heart's blood seemed to be an absolutely extraordinary thing.
"If I remember correctly, this stuff is contraband, is it not?"
Ever since the dragons as a whole had migrated to Dragon Isle hidden in the depths of the sea, anything related to dragons had become increasingly rare on this continent.
Even a true scrap of scale or claw could be sold for an astronomical price.
As a result, practically anything connected to dragons had long since been banned from sale on the open market.
Take the evil dragon blood that had appeared before, for example.
Just a single drop added to a potion was enough to sell for more than a hundred thousand.
And those so-called evil dragons were, in truth, mostly just drakes.
Because their bloodlines were impure and tainted by various attributes, they were called evil dragons.
They were nowhere near the level of a true ancient dragon.
And since what Teacher Mera wanted was ancient dragon heart's blood, then it surely had to come from a real ancient dragon.
At once, Muen felt a headache coming on.
Through the Duke's household's channels, obtaining contraband like this was not actually that difficult.
But it would definitely take time.
And Teacher Mera seemed to be in quite a hurry.
"So the only option is to try my luck at the black market?"
Come to think of it, by this point, the black market should have reopened already.
And speaking of the black market...
"It seems there is quite an important debt I still have not settled."
...
...
As his body relaxed, a wave of drowsiness gradually crept over him.
And the soundproofing in this couple's suite seemed to be excellent as well, so Muen was unable to hear any possibly irritating sounds from the neighboring room.
Only, in the haze of approaching sleep, his senses, which had grown much sharper after the tempering of the Mercury Well, seemed to catch the faint sound of a door opening.
...Room service?
Wait, room service? What room service?
He had not called for any, and this was a couple's suite.
If someone interrupted the guests in a couple's suite halfway through, were they not afraid of being beaten to death?
Muen gave a violent start and snapped awake.
Holding his breath, he listened carefully to the sounds beyond the bathroom.
It was very quiet.
Yet it was precisely that quiet that made his expression gradually turn grim.
He was certain what he had heard just now had not been his imagination.
Which meant that if the other party had been able to completely evade his senses, then their strength was absolutely not weak.
Who was it?
Followers of an evil god, or those thugs he had offended during the day?
Muen was more inclined to believe it was the former.
After all, those things had not only started coveting him today.
There was nothing surprising about them taking advantage of the night to launch a sneak attack.
Muen reached out and extinguished the light emitted by the magical device in the bathroom, preventing the person outside from determining his location through his shadow.
Then he quietly rose, hastily got dressed, and put on his spatial storage device.
But Muen did not immediately draw the two short blades, because their pure white edges traced with golden patterns would have been far too conspicuous in the dark.
Fortunately, his eyes were gradually adapting to the darkness by now as well.
He crept over to the bathroom door and quietly opened a crack.
With only a single glance, he understood that there was already a second person in the room besides himself.
Because the pink gauze around the bed, which had originally been tied up, had now been completely let down, drifting gently in the wind from outside the window like the flaunting skirts of a young girl.
Muen's gaze darkened.
He knew the other person was there, yet he could not determine their exact position.
That only made him more certain of his judgment.
Petty hoodlums who only knew extortion and threats would never have this sort of skill.
Those damned cultists really were impossible to shake off.
How had they found out his whereabouts?
Could it be that they had people waiting outside the academy all this time?
But Muen had no time to think too deeply about it.
He slowly opened the bathroom door and stepped into the room.
At that moment, as the faintly cold wind brushed over his back, he felt as though he were prey standing in a hunting ground.
And that hunter was hiding in the shadows, baring its fangs at him in a savage grin.
"You want to treat me like some little lamb? You are not afraid of breaking your teeth?"
Muen crept forward along the wall.
There were not many places in the room where someone could hide.
Keeping close to the wall to avoid being ambushed, he shifted position inch by inch while sweeping his gaze across those dark corners.
The sofa. The curtains. Even behind the vase...
Nothing.
It was as though the person had vanished into thin air.
In the entire room, Muen could hear nothing except his own breathing.
In the end... only that bed remained, the most conspicuous object in the room, with its pink gauze swaying and hiding whatever lay within.
Was this... a provocation?
Muen almost laughed.
He was no longer the same person he had been a month ago.
Whatever this cultist wanted, if they looked down on him...
He would grind them into the floor.
Muen suppressed his presence and slowly drew near.
At the same time, one hand had already reached behind him and drawn half a hilt from his spatial storage device.
He bent low, like a leopard about to pounce on its prey, poised to strike.
With his free hand, he slowly lifted the gauze curtain.
As the sheer fabric fluttered, he vaguely saw a shadow on the bed twist once and then lunge at him at high speed.
A chill surged up his spine. Without the slightest hesitation, Muen drew his blade.
The pure white edge trembled once, as though it had blocked some kind of influence.
Then the sharp blade-light turned into a brilliant crescent in the night and slashed down fiercely.
"Hm?"
A startled voice sounded in the silent room.
The shadow seemed to have encountered something it could not understand.
But it did not stop moving.
Instead, it charged straight into the descending blade-light, like a moth flying into a flame.
As though it were about to be burned away completely.
Yet in the instant the brilliant arc illuminated the shadow's face, it abruptly veered aside.
It was like a race car flying at two hundred miles an hour, forced into a violent swerve to avoid an old grandmother crossing the street.
Muen lost his balance at once.
And at that exact moment, the shadow's fair, slender hand seized the half-fastened collar of his clothes.
Their positions flipped.
The world spun.
In a single instant, the shadow pressed Muen down onto the bed, then sat on top of him.
The movement was so practiced it felt as though it had been rehearsed countless times.
That familiar floral fragrance came rushing straight at him.
The shadow lowered her head, and in the faint light, revealed that dignified pretty face, now dyed crimson with excitement.
"It has been a long time, young master~"