SLDS 64

“It is definitely Cecil’s. Where is the marquis?”

“Well… he has not been seen for a while now.”

While everyone was engrossed in searching the mansion, the marquis had vanished without a trace.

Alexis barely managed to suppress his boiling anger. His tightly clenched teeth parted, and a calm voice flowed out.

“Summon the people inside the mansion at once.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

The knights moved swiftly, going around the large mansion and dragging out every single person from the marquis’s household who was hiding inside.

There were about twenty people gathered in the central hall. All of them were servants who worked here.

Alexis’s blue eyes scanned the frightened faces.

“Did Cecil Adrian come to the mansion?”

“……”

Only the sound of trembling breaths filled the quiet mansion. The majority of them were seeing the crown prince in person for the first time, so they were frozen and unable to respond.

The knights bellowed at them to answer the question, but it only served to heighten the servants’ fear.

Alexis raised a hand to stop the knights, then singled out the maid who appeared to be the oldest.

“You answer. Have you seen Cecil?”

“Yeees, yes, Your Highness.”

The head maid’s chin trembled as she answered in detail with everything she knew.

From Cecil arriving at the mansion late at night in the marquis’s carriage, to preparing his bathwater under the marquis’s orders, to serving him dinner, everything.

“I do not know what happened after that. The master ordered us not to wander the mansion under any circumstances, as an important guest had arrived. He told us to stay cooped up in our respective rooms.”

“You mean to say that none of you knows of Cecil’s whereabouts!”

The head maid did not seem to be lying. It was when Alexis was biting his lip. In the meantime, a knight approached, gripping an old man by the scruff of his neck.

“Your Highness, we have caught him trying to flee. He seems to be the marquis’s head butler.”

The head butler, who was thrown at Alexis’s feet, prostrated himself flat on the floor as if to become one with it.

“Your Highness! P-Please, s-spare me! I just, ugh, followed the marquis’s orders!”

Alexis squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them. For a moment, his vision flashed white with anger, but he had to maintain his composure until he found Cecil.

“What did you do?”

“W-Well, that is…”

“Where is Cecil?”

“I will tell you. I know where he is! Please, just spare my life.”

“Lead the way. Now.”

The knights grabbed the head butler’s arms and forcibly pulled his limp body up. The head butler, who barely managed to get up on his trembling knees, inadvertently raised his head and met the crown prince’s eyes.

The crown prince, whom he had only heard of in rumors, had hair as bright as an angel’s, and his face was also noble and beautiful.

But within his vivid blue eyes, a chill that could freeze bone and flesh was seeping. It was unmistakably bloodlust.

‘I’m definitely going to die!’

The head butler swallowed hard, gulp. He had never had such a certain premonition before, and his limbs trembled.

When the door to the basement was opened, the head butler took a single candlestick and cautiously stepped down the stairs.

The deeper they went, the thicker the damp, musty smell became. In addition, bizarrely shaped adult toys were hung as if on display. The knights who saw this were disgusted and ended up frowning.

The marquis was hiding in the basement like a rat. In the innermost, deepest part, there was a single large bed, and the back of the marquis could be seen, straddling a person lying limply on it.

He was busily tidying Cecil’s clothes. It was a desperate attempt to hide the perverted act he had committed.

The knights who saw this tried to stop the marquis, but Alexis rushed forward before they could.

The marquis was so engrossed that he was late in noticing their presence. Before he could even turn around, a kick flew at him, and his large body collapsed with a grunt, urk.

While the knights dragged the fallen marquis away to handle him, Alexis first checked on Cecil’s condition.

“Cecil! Open your eyes!”

Cecil, held in his arms, only hung limply. There was no response to Alexis’s call.

When he tapped his pale cheek to wake him, he barely opened his eyes, but his pupils were completely unfocused, and he couldn’t recognize Alexis.

“What on earth… why are you in this state.”

Alexis’s gaze gradually lowered.

Cecil’s clothes, which had not been properly tidied, were in complete disarray, and reddish marks were visible on the exposed parts of his neckline and wrists.

At the undeniable sexual traces, Alexis’s molars ground together, grind, grind.

“Marquis, you must have decided you wanted to die!”

At the roar that seemed to tear through his eardrums, the marquis swallowed dryly, gulp. To escape the immediate crisis, lies that he could not even hope to manage poured out.

“Y-Your Highness! Please listen to me! In fact, Mr. Cecil and I were lovers. Mr. Cecil came to find me first, and he said he needed some amusement. And the drug… the drug! He did quite a lot of it. He said it would cause an uproar if the imperial palace found out and asked me to keep it a complete secret!”

“Lovers?”

Before the marquis’s plea was even finished, Alexis laughed as if he found it absurd. Then, in an instant, he wiped the smile from his face and glared at the marquis.

“Shut up. Do you still have the nerve to wag your tongue so shamelessly? How dare you lie in front of me.”

“It’s the truth! Please believe me!”

“Cecil was interested in an old pig bastard like you? And you’re telling me to believe that now?”

“Th-That is.”

The marquis’s eyelids fluttered as if he were having a seizure. Lies were added to lies.

“We were not in a relationship deep enough to be called lovers… but it is true that we were companions who shared the same hobbies! Your Highness is also aware that Mr. Cecil likes men, are you not? He said he was curious, so I just lent him my catamites! I swear, I didn’t lay a single finger on him! It was all the catamites’ doing!”

Alexis no longer even bothered to reply. He gently laid Cecil, whom he held in his arms, down and stroked his head once before getting up.

Then he immediately walked over to a knight standing nearby and drew the sword from his waist. The sight of him approaching with the longsword was so intimidating that the marquis could only scoot backward on his butt.

But even that was stopped as he was seized by the knights and forced to his knees again. Alexis, facing the marquis, aimed the tip of the sword at the marquis’s thick neck.

“You will tell the truth. I am not a very patient man.”

“Heeik, eek! S-Spare me!”

“Did you touch Cecil?”

The marquis, sweating profusely, swallowed with difficulty. His bobbing Adam’s apple came precariously close to the sharp tip of the sword. Thinking he might really die like this, he had to squeeze out a voice that wouldn’t come out.

“Yeees… I touch—”

Swish. Alexis swung the sword lightly, and the marquis’s right wrist was sliced clean off.

“Kraaack! Aaaahhhhh!”

A scream that was close to a shriek filled the basement.

The marquis saw the blood gushing like a fountain from the neatly severed surface of his wrist and lost his mind. He writhed in pain, but the knights held his collar firmly, keeping him in a kneeling position.

“From now on, if you answer my questions honestly, I will at least spare your life.”

What Alexis said sounded merciful at first glance, but his gaze was as sharp as the sword he was aiming. The marquis, trembling to stay alive, nodded his head.

“Did you see Cecil’s bare skin?”

“…Yes.”

“Did you kiss him?”

“Hnngh, yeees.”

“Did you lust after him and try to violate him?”

“Khup, yes, tha, t’s right.”

The marquis shed streams of tears and admitted to everything. The marquis also knew well how great the price was for touching a member of the imperial family. He was only admitting to it meekly because he had been told his life would be spared.

The marquis raised his head in anticipation of forgiveness. But what he met were cold blue eyes devoid of any emotion.

“Y-Your Highness. Didn’t you promise! Please spare m—!”

In an instant, the sword cut through the air several times, and the marquis’s lips, both eyes, and his one remaining wrist were also cut off.

Thud, thud. Lumps of flesh fell to the floor, and dark red blood poured out. A horrific scream followed.

“How dare you!”

Finally, the sword grazed the marquis’s groin. When the base of his member was half-severed, the marquis made a choking sound, kuh, and passed out.

Bloody foam bubbled from his mouth, and fresh blood flowed from all the severed parts.

As his large body collapsed, red blood began to pool beneath him like a puddle. Alexis’s gaze as he looked down at the twitching, convulsing marquis was still just as indifferent. He flicked the blood off his sword and said coldly.

“You must keep him alive. If he dies, you will be held responsible.”

“Yes!”

The knights hurriedly swarmed the marquis. Fortunately, Alexis had skillfully avoided the vital spots, so it seemed he would live if they just stopped the bleeding properly.

But the marquis’s appearance, with half of his facial features gone, could hardly be considered human anymore. The knights inwardly clicked their tongues at the crown prince’s cruelty but maintained stoic expressions and worked quickly.

In the meantime, Alexis went back to the bed and tended to Cecil.

He took off the raincoat he was wearing, wrapped it around Cecil’s body, and lifted him up in a flash. Unlike before, when he had carried him like a sack of potatoes, he held him carefully in his arms, yet Cecil convulsed and writhed in his embrace.

“Ugh…! Don’t, touch me. I’ll, kill you.”

Cecil’s eyes were still unfocused, but it seemed he was aware that someone was holding him. Feeling him push away with all his might using what little strength he had, Alexis squeezed his eyes shut.

“It’s okay, I’m here… you can rest easy now.”