Your Majesty, I’m Not that Man - Chapter 7: The First Outing (4)

“Let’s cut through this!”

After examining the tunnel exit by touch, Lavinia slid the letter opener into the area near the hinges. She infused magic into the knife handle, causing the blade to glow red-hot. Slowly but surely, the heat began to slice through the metal hinges.

“Ugh!”

The weight of whatever was above caused one of the remaining hinges to creak, as though it was about to snap. Lavinia quickly stepped back, and as the hinges broke entirely, the exit gave way, and the items stacked above it tumbled down into the tunnel.

“This smell… is it flour?”

Fortunately, it wasn’t enough to block her exit. The tunnel was wide enough to allow a large man to crawl through, so Lavinia pulled the sacks into the tunnel and pushed them aside, creating a path to climb out.

“Haah…”

She crawled out of the narrow exit into a pitch-black space. Judging by the fallen flour sacks, it appeared to be an underground storage room. Lavinia quickly removed her dress, now covered in dirt, and stuffed it into the tunnel opening.

“Where’s the exit?”

Moving cautiously along the walls, Lavinia soon found the storage room door. It wasn’t locked, likely because the room was frequently used. After ensuring there were no sounds coming from outside, she opened the door, revealing a narrow, steep staircase.

At the top of the stairs…

“It’s the back of the building… near the kitchen area, it seems.”

Although the building housed an opium den in its basement, the upper floors posed as a social club. Small parties were held here, with guests mingling over cocktails and playing card games. Naturally, food and drinks were required for such events.

Here is the accurate translation of the text:

Lavinia pressed herself against the stairwell wall, waiting for the right moment, then climbed the stairs. Fortunately, it wasn’t a busy time, and there were hardly any people around.

Her attire, resembling that of a servant’s, allowed her to walk out through the back door of the building without attracting attention.

Thump, thump, thump…

Emerging into an alley filled with trash bins and stacks of empty liquor crates, Lavinia exhaled deeply. The dark alley was empty, with no one in sight.

“I’ve made it this far… It’s a success so far! Now…”

Only the second half of her plan remained. Calming her racing heart, Lavinia retrieved a robe from her bracelet and draped it over herself. Pulling up the hood to conceal her hair, she began running toward the inn she had previously arranged as a meeting point.

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Practically tumbling out of the carriage, Robert managed to keep his balance as he rushed into the estate. A servant, who had been about to assist him, stared in confusion. That morning, the usually composed butler had left in high spirits, but now he had returned pale and frantic.

“Master Maxim! Master Maxim!!!”

Hearing Robert’s desperate shouting, Maxim, who had been struggling with paperwork, frowned deeply.

“What’s the matter, Robert?”

Robert had taken a rare day off, something he hardly ever did. While it was unusual for the butler to cause such a commotion, Maxim was too preoccupied with his current calculations to give the outburst much thought—his head was already on the verge of exploding.

“Master Maxim! It’s a disaster! L-Lady Lavinia…!”

“What about Lavinia?”

Even though he had written her a letter, forgiving her and asking to meet, she hadn’t sent any reply. He was still bitter about it. Of course, the letter’s opening paragraphs were filled with long-winded rebukes, but given the trouble she had caused him, Maxim felt those were justified.

“Lady Lavinia… she’s planning to run away!”

“What do you mean, run away?”

Maxim’s annoyed expression froze in place. His secretary, who had been explaining various details of the documents, was equally stunned and dropped the papers he had been holding.

“D-Did she run off with a lover or something?!”

“I don’t believe she has a lover… but it seems life with His Majesty has become too difficult for her, and she’s planning to flee…”

Maxim shot to his feet and strode toward Robert.

“And how do you know this? Did you see her with someone?!”

“N-No, sir… She summoned me earlier today. She said she planned to leave the empire and warned me not to stay with the Wendell family. She told me to find a way to survive because His Majesty wouldn’t spare the family once he found out…”

Robert’s explanation left Maxim in stunned silence. She hadn’t even told her father—she had told Robert of all people? That she was going to abandon everything and flee?

“Are you telling me Lavinia herself said she was running away? Do you even hear how absurd that sounds?!”

“As unbelievable as it may seem, it’s true! I don’t know what her plan is, but it seems she intends to act on it today. Master Maxim, you must stop her!”

Maxim blinked in shock, staring at Robert as if in a daze. There was no time to worry about piles of estate documents now. If the emperor discovered that Lavinia, whom he cherished so much, had run away… it was certain he would destroy the entire Wendell family.

“Where is she?! Where did she say she was going?!”

Coming to his senses, Maxim grabbed Robert’s shoulders and shook him. The elderly butler, flustered, was powerless against Maxim’s strength.

“S-She didn’t tell me anything specific about her destination…”

“You should’ve found that out!!”

Maxim yelled, shoving Robert aside in frustration. Storming out of his office, he called for the captain of the estate’s knights in a booming voice.

“Gather every available soldier! This is a matter of life and death for the Wendell family!”

＊ ＊ ＊

“…Doesn’t it seem like the lady is taking too long?”

The dressing room had been silent for what felt like hours. While they hid it in her presence, the emperor’s jealousy concerning Lavinia was infamous. If Lavinia so much as mentioned that some of her escort knights loitered too close to the dressing room while she was changing, they would undoubtedly face severe consequences.

The knights cautiously approached the dressing room.

“Milady,” one of them called, gently knocking on the door.

“Milady, is something the matter? If you’re all right, please respond,” the knight continued, his voice polite yet concerned.

Knock, knock, knock…

They pressed their ears to the door, but no sound or movement came from inside the dressing room.

“Could she have fainted?”

“Open the door.”

They had heard rumors of noblewomen fainting after tightening their corsets too much. Could Lavinia have suffered a similar fate?

“Hey, where’s the key for this door?” one knight asked William, the shopkeeper, who seemed alarmed and was darting his eyes nervously. William couldn’t shake the suspicion that Lavinia had used the tunnel to sneak into the opium den.

“Ah, um, the door doesn’t use a key… it locks with a small latch from the inside,” William stammered, clearly flustered.

He knew he needed to stall for time, but the oppressive presence of the knights was overwhelming. Under their intimidating gazes, his voice faltered.

“How am I supposed to stall them in this situation?!”

The knights exchanged brief glances at William’s explanation.

“Break the door down!”

“W-What?! Wouldn’t it be better to wait for the maid? The lady might be inside, undressed and unconscious…” William tried to object in a panic, but the knights hesitated for only a moment.

There was no response from inside the dressing room, and they couldn’t risk further delays. If something had happened to Lavinia, their lives would be forfeit.

With a sharp shoulder strike, one of the knights shattered the door in an instant. The dressing room door broke into two pieces, revealing an empty space with only clothes left behind.

“Milady!”

“She’s gone!”

The knights, now panicking, began checking the adjacent dressing rooms, creating a commotion.

Just then, armed intruders burst through the shop’s front door!

“Ugh!”

William let out a scream and ran toward the racks of clothes, attempting to hide beneath a long gown hanging on one of them.

The imperial knights, caught completely off guard, hadn’t even drawn their swords before two of them fell to the assassins’ blades.

A mix of assassins and hired thugs swarmed the remaining knights, aiming to finish them off.

“Where’s the lady?!”

Not seeing her among the chaos, the intruders assumed she might be hiding in another dressing room. They had anticipated bloodshed, knowing that all eight knights would have to be eliminated to avoid exposing their true intentions.

Meanwhile, the knights suspected the intruders had kidnapped Lavinia. The timing was too perfect—just as they realized Lavinia was missing, the attack began. They assumed the assailants intended to take Lavinia out of the capital and were stalling for time.

“Where have you hidden the lady?!” one of the knights shouted.

The question unsettled the assassins, but they kept their composure.

“Did she escape?”

Regardless of the situation, the assassins had already revealed their skills. If even one knight managed to survive, it would be impossible to cover this up as a mere robbery.

“Ugh!”
“Aaargh!”

The imperial knights’ skills were far worse than the assassins had anticipated. Was this truly the level of competence displayed by the bodyguards of a concubine supposedly favored by the emperor?

As the so-called “experts” among the assassins fought with the men presumed to be imperial knights, the thugs playing the part of robbers dragged William out.

“The jewels—where are they?!”

“Wh-What? J-Jewels?”

Cowering and clutching his head, William stammered in terror. One of the thugs growled impatiently at him.

“The gemstones for the dresses! We know you’ve been commissioned by Lady Miriam!”

Miriam—she was the daughter of a marquis who owned several mines. It wasn’t unusual for noblewomen to hand over precious gemstones to be incorporated into their custom dresses.

William shook his head frantically.

“I-I don’t know anything about that! Lady Miriam has never even stepped foot in this shop!”

William’s desperate denial caused the thugs to glance nervously at the assassins. Meanwhile, five of the imperial knights, including the two who were killed at the start of the attack, had been taken down. Of the three remaining knights, two were severely wounded.

“Y-You dare attack imperial knights?! You will not escape death! Do you think His Majesty will allow any of you to live?!”

At the mention of “imperial knights,” the thugs hesitated, a flicker of fear crossing their faces. The assassins surrounding the remaining knights hid their sneers behind their masks.

In that brief moment, one of the knights pulled something from his coat and hurled it toward the shop window. With a sharp sound, the object shattered the glass and clattered onto the street before shooting into the sky. A plume of blue smoke rose high into the air against the bright blue sky.

A signal flare!

This was a standard tool issued to imperial knights when escorting someone important. It served to call for reinforcements.

“Reinforcements will arrive soon!”

The assassins exchanged quick glances. At a subtle hand gesture from one of them, the thugs released William and began slinking out of the shop, eager to flee.

The remaining knights, sensing a reprieve, started to relax—but the assassins wasted no time. Swift, precise strikes cut through the knights’ necks and vital points.

“Why…?”

The last knight to fall glared at the assassins with a look of despair as his life ebbed away.

The assassins, having ensured no witnesses remained, began to exit the shop. The last assassin to leave pulled a scroll from his coat.

Moments later, a deafening explosion and a shockwave tore through the dress shop, obliterating the entire building.

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