Chapter 95 - I Suggest You Stop What You’re Doing

I took a nice leisurely stroll through the palace of Duke Charles, I walked past his patrolling guards, and servants without a bother in the world.

I had to give it to the man, he had good taste in decorations, unfortunately the luxury he lived in came at the cost of his poor citizens, so every beautiful piece of furniture, or painting, or sculpture, only pissed me off more.

After walking for what felt like hours without having any idea which direction I should actually go, I finally decided to do what I probably should have done from the start, and just follow a couple of servers.

One thing I had immediately noticed the moment I stepped into that palace was that each and every server in there had been a woman.

And by the way most of them looked, and how it seemed like they were scurrying around, hoping that they wouldn’t catch the attention of anyone, I could guess why that was.

Which made me clench my fists even tighter, my knuckles cracking like thunder under the pressure. Luckily my little sound bubble kept all of the sound from the ears of the people scurrying around the palace.

The two servants I was following at that time were carrying large trays of food, so I had a pretty strong guess that they were going exactly where I wanted to go. At first their walk started off pretty brisk, they moved through the giant hallways at a pretty good pace, chatting away at a whisper, and even giggling at the jokes they made.

But the further along we went, the quieter they became, and the slower they started to move. Each step they took seemed to become more and more reluctant.

I felt bad for them, but at least that was the strongest sign I could get that we were definitely heading in the right direction.

Finally, after following their silent and reluctant steps for a while longer, we came to a stop in front of a set of massive luxurious looking doors.

The maids just stood there for a few moments, clearly trying to compose themselves.

Each of them used their free hands to try and make them look less attractive, they twisted their hair into ruffled buns, making sure to leave some stray strands sticking at odd angles, angles that would do anything but compliment their actual beauty.

Each and every thing that I had witnessed in that palace for the short time I had been there just made me despise that man all the more.

The way he had instilled fear into all the women around there, the way he had caused them to hide their beauty out of fear of what he might do to them if he noticed them, all of it made me want to kill him more and more.

I had to do my best to control that urge, but every moment I spent there made it harder, I had to remind myself that death would be far too kind of a punishment for a scumbag like him.

Finally after a few more moments, one of the maids knocked on the door.

"Enter!" A voice called from beyond the door after a moment of silence.

With a final deep breath, the maid pushed open the massive door.

I stuck as close to them as I could so the moment they stepped through the doors, I slipped in behind them.

The view on the other side of those doors made my blood boil with rage, a rage I hadn’t felt in years, a rage even stronger than the night Julia told me about her and Cat’s suffering.

Strewn all across the bedroom were the broken and beaten bodies of women. All of them in various forms of dress, and undress, I could smell some sort of medicinal fragrance in the air, and from the faces of some of the women that were at least somewhat recognizable, and conscious, I could clearly tell that these women had been drugged.

On the massive four posted bed at the center of the room lay a man so fat that he completely overwhelmed the bed.

I mean I don’t even know how he had been able to ruin the lives of so many women if he clearly couldn’t even see his own... ahem... you get the idea.

The moment the maids stepped into the room, the man’s eyes snapped to the door with a predatory gaze.

He rolled over to the side of the bed, not even bothering to try and gently climb over one of the broken girls laying next to him, with a grunt he stood next to the bed looking the two maids up and down.

The asshole didn’t even bother to cover himself, although it wasn’t like anyone could see anything under all of those rolls of fat.

For a moment the two maids just stood silently, awaiting the judgement of the fat man standing before them, I could see their small free hands trembling behind their backs as they awaited their fate.

"Put the food down on the table," the man finally said, shuffling toward the table in the corner of the room.

The two maids standing in front of me each gave a small, almost unnoticeable sigh of relief, before scurrying over to the table where the fat duke had taken a seat already.

They neatly placed the trays of food in front of the man, stepped back as quickly as they could, gave him a curtsy, and turned to leave.

"Wait!" The man stopped them before they had taken two steps. "Who said you could leave?"

The two girls froze like little bunnies in a sudden light, their eyes immediately widening in fear, and yet they immediately turned back to the man, and gave him a deep curtsy.

"Apologies, my lord," they both said together.

"Come closer," the man beckoned them with the large piece of meat he had just picked up from a tray.

The two girls reluctantly shuffled their feet forward, as slowly as they possibly could.

"Faster!" The man yelled, ripping a piece of meat off with his dirty and crooked teeth.

The two girls jumped with fright, shuffling forward a bit faster.

It had been at that moment that I had had enough. I moved around the table, drawing the short knife I carried on the opposite side from my sword.

I moved behind the duke, the smell that came from him making me even more nauseous than his actions had.

Just as I came to a stop behind him and rested the edge of my knife on his throat, I dropped my sound bubble, but kept my concealment active.

"I suggest you stop what you’re doing," I whispered into his ear, making sure to speak softly enough so the girls wouldn’t hear me. "And don’t even try to call for your guards, before you could even say the first word your head would already be rolling."

I could see the man start to shake the moment I started to speak. His eyes were darting around, trying to find a way, any way, to call for help.

But the moment his eyes found the mirror on the opposite wall from us, and he saw nothing behind him, even though he could still feel the blade to his throat his eyes widened even more.

"Now," I whispered again. "Why don’t you send these lovely girls on their way so we can have a little... chat."

"Don’t worry," I continued with a smile, pressing the blade a bit harder to his throat. "I won’t kill you."