Chapter 51

It was time for breakfast.

On the third floor of the building used by the Haggle Kingdom's Special Task Force, Mary's meal was brought to a bleak and cramped room. The young man who delivered it carried the tray.

(I haven't seen Lancome recently.)

"Mary, breakfast is here."

"What happened to Lancome?"

"..."

"Hey, where's Lancome?"

"..."

"What? Am I going to be punished for talking to you?"

"Lancome is busy."

"Why is he busy?"

The man hesitated for a moment but seemed to decide that this woman wouldn't be leaving the room anyway.

"Lancome is no longer the room leader. He's helping at the training facility."

The man loudly placed the tray on the table and slammed the door shut as he left.

Mary decided to eat. She couldn't afford to lose strength. As she stood up and walked to the table, the chains clanked heavily.

She looked down at the chains she had grown accustomed to. An iron ring was fastened around her ankle, from which a long chain extended. The length of the chain allowed her to move around the room but not to leave it. The iron bars on the window reminded her of her situation.

It had been almost two months since her life changed. No one from the Randel Kingdom, who were supposed to rescue her, had come.

(I've been abandoned. No, maybe I was never accepted in the first place. If this continues, I'll be killed.)

She wasn't going to be killed yet, she thought, because they still found her useful. Lancome had married her and ordered her to analyze documents. She had been analyzing mountains of documents, and all her errands, like shopping, were done by an old man. Whenever she tried to go out, another old man would take care of the errands. She was confined to the house and forced to analyze documents continuously.

One day, she secretly slipped out to meet someone. When she returned, she was chained up.

"Finally, I've got you. Did you think you could get away without being watched?"

Lancome said coldly and left the room where Mary was locked up.

Mary became a double agent at the age of twenty.

She was frustrated because she only got small jobs. Sometimes, her juniors were given bigger tasks.

It was then that someone from the Randel Kingdom approached her.

"Tell me what you see and hear. If the special task force finds out, you can run to Randel. Our country desperately needs excellent agents like you."

The Randel agent was a handsome man. He approached her in the capital of Haggle, they had a drink together, and he proposed the deal.

"If you provide us with information from the special task force, you can eventually work as an agent for Randel."

His words were incredibly tempting. In Haggle, she would only get boring jobs. Chloe was always favored, and the workplace was unfair and unpleasant.

"But what if the organization finds out and catches me?"

"We'll mobilize all our resources to rescue you. We won't waste valuable talent."

How foolish she had been to believe his words.

When her true identity was discovered by an agent from another country and her own organization realized she was a double agent, no one came to rescue her, even after two months of no contact.

When she managed to get close to and marry Lancome, the Randel man was overjoyed.

"Of course, I wasn't wrong about you. I look forward to your future contributions."

She had been used by both the Randel Kingdom and the Haggle Kingdom. She doubted that she and Lancome had gone through the formal marriage process. It was probably a ruse to keep an eye on her.

Mary focused on planning her escape until the next meal was delivered.

If Lancome had lost his power, time was running out. If the new room leader decided she was "unnecessary" and ordered her execution, she could be killed at any moment.

"Hey! Hey! What's wrong!"

The man who brought her dinner rushed to Mary, who was lying on the floor, blood coming from her mouth, her eyes closed.

"Hey! Mary!"

As the man shook Mary's shoulder and tried to call for help, she opened her eyes, grabbed his ankle, and pulled hard. Though she managed to avoid hitting her head, the man fell, and Mary quickly wrapped the chain around his neck, panicking him.

After confirming that the man had lost consciousness, Mary quickly stood up, tied his hands and feet with a rope made from a torn sheet, and gagged him. She then stood up, ran her tongue over her mouth, and winced at the deep scratches from her nails, tasting the metallic flavor of blood. She calmly searched the man's clothes for keys but only found the key to her room.

Reluctantly, she used a silver toothpick from the man's pocket to pick the lock on the iron ring around her ankle. When the man regained consciousness, she kicked him in the stomach to keep him quiet and continued working on the lock. Eventually, the lock clicked open. With blood around her mouth, Mary stood up and looked down at the man.

"You were going to kill me eventually, right?"

She kicked the man's head, laughing.

"I won't kill you. You're not worth it."

She kicked the man in the stomach again, wiped the blood from her mouth with the wet remains of the sheet, and locked the door with the key she had taken from the man. She held a knife and a belt as a weapon, which she had taken from the man.

She had nowhere to go, but staying meant certain death.

(I'll run and keep running. I won't trust anyone anymore.)

Mary went down the stairs to the second floor, avoiding people, and jumped out of a second-floor window to the ground. She ran to a dark spot, avoiding guards, and quickly climbed over a high wall.

Edward Asher was reading a letter sent by a fast horse from the Duke's territory of Hams. Eight months had passed since he had instructed his brother to inform him immediately if he came into contact with a woman and her child.

"I see. She's been found. I want to hear her story, but first, I need to ensure her safety."

The Emperor and the First Prince probably wanted to assign Jeffrey as Sedric's assistant, but as the head of the management department and an older brother, he didn't want to place Victoria and Jeffrey near Hayden just yet. He wanted to eliminate any possibility of something going wrong.

"Of course, it's there."

With that, Edward left the room and headed to the medical team in the west tower.

"Ah, Director of Management. What brings you here?"

The man who greeted him was a small, dark-eyed, black-haired man. He was born to a trader from a distant country and an Ashbury woman.

He grew up in his father's country but came to this country in his late twenties, bringing his medical knowledge, which allowed Ashbury to purchase valuable medicines that other countries couldn't obtain.

"I have a favor to ask."

"Sure. What's the favor?"

"Don't be so crass. We're friends, aren't we? But, how about this: I'll negotiate with the Prime Minister to let you use the anesthetic you wanted. How does that sound?"

The small man's eyes widened, and he smiled.

"An anesthetic for surgery? But it's incredibly expensive!"

"Don't worry about it. In return, I want you to let my brother and his future wife live in your country for about five years. Oh, and they have a child. Of course, I'll cover all the expenses."

(The doctor thought it was that simple.)

"My family has a large house with a separate building. Three people won't be a problem. We have plenty of servants."

"Great. It's settled. Could you write a letter to your father? The ship from your home country will dock next month and leave immediately. I want my brother and his family to board that ship."

"Please keep your promise?"

"Have I ever broken a promise? If you want any other medicines, list them, and I'll negotiate to get as many as possible."

Indeed, the Director of Management had never broken a promise. For some reason, both the Emperor and the Prime Minister usually accepted his requests without much fuss. The medical team member quickly wrote a letter to his father and listed the medicines he wanted.

Edward Asher put the letter for the foreign ship captain in his pocket and returned to his dimly lit workplace.