“What, what!”

He thought it would be easy to catch Lakshan, but his colleague was surprised when the mercenary collapsed.

“Are, are you a fighter?”

“Well, I do this and that.”

When Lakshan answered leisurely, Camila shouted.

“What are you doing?! Use poison!”

The skinny man then took something out from his pocket and threw it at Lakshan.

Swoosh!

Lakshan grabbed the object that was flying towards him. It was a small ball with thorns on it. The skinny man chuckled when he saw him grab it.

“Dumb boy! Do you know what that is? It’s…”

“The spikes are poisoned.”

The man who threw the ball flinched when Lakshan answered in a nonchalant voice.

“Right. You’ll only be carefree now. Soon, you’ll struggle and collapse.”

“Really? When?”

“Right now…”

The mercenary who threw the poison looked at Lakshan in bewilderment. The poison itself didn’t kill people. However, it was used as a threat or for torture since it had a quick effect and it brought tremendous pain.

So far, all those who got affected by it had fallen to the ground in less than 30 seconds. But…

“You, why don’t you…!”

The two mercenaries who remained intact knew he was an extraordinary man.

“I’m already used to this poison.”

Lakshan then moved. In the eyes of the mercenaries, he seemed to disappear in an instant.

‘Where’d he go?’

The surprised mercenaries looked around.

Bam! Bam!

Only two dull sounds rang in the alley. A moment later, the two remaining mercenaries fell to the ground of the alley with a plop.

“How…”

Camila’s face, which had been in a state of high spirits just a moment ago, was now pale. She thought Elrose bought a man with money and that he was just a poor hunch with a good-looking face. But the three mercenaries whom she hired from the guild were being paid a very high price.

Camila then knew that Lakshan was overwhelmingly strong after seeing him against the mercenaries. She stared at him for a moment and then opened her mouth.

“How much do you want?”

“What?”

“How much do you want? You’re only doing this for money anyways. You wouldn’t have married Elrose for any other reason.”

“…”

She wasn’t wrong. He became her husband because of the 50 gold.

“Tell me how much you want. No, I’ll hire you. You’re much better than those idiots… and you’re in good shape, so it’s okay to take her along.”

“…”

“Think carefully. If you help me testify that your marriage to Elrose was for money and there was a problem with the inheritance process, the property donation will be stopped. So if I can get it, I’ll give you a big part of it too…”

“Really? How much will you pay me?”

When Lakshan asked back, Camila’s face brightened.

“I’ll give you 5,000. No, 50,000 gold! If you keep working with me, you’ll be able to get more than that!”

“That’s a lot you’ll give.”

“Right? So come on…”

“But I can’t because I’ll feel burdened with so much money. Plus, the negotiation broke down. Besides…”

Lakshan glared at Camila’s hand which was holding Elrose’s arm.

“The Northerners are people who choose to die rather than betray their faith.”

At the end of his talk, Lakshan threw the poisonous ball in his hand at Camila. The ball stuck on the back of her hand which was holding Elrose.

“Agh!”

Camila, who was startled from the stinging sensation, hurriedly moved her hand. Her body then collapsed forward as if it were falling apart. Just before Elrose’s body hit the ground, Lakshan approached and caught her.

“Darn it!”

Camila hurriedly turned away at the sight. Like Lakshan said, negotiations broke. It would be safer to go out toward the main road where the security forces are than to be here…

“Ack!”

Camila’s body collapsed again before she could get out of the alley.

“Ugh!”

She was trembling from the intense pain and her entire body felt like it was being beaten. Only then did Camila see the back of her hand again. It was pricked with red marks.

‘Poison!’

She then remembered the mercenary who dealt with poison and didn’t expect it to work so soon.

“Save, save me! It hurts…!”

She was suffocating with pain where she could barely think. However, Lakshan just looked at her coldly while holding Elrose in his arms.

A few moments later, Camila fainted with foam coming out from her mouth. Originally, the poison wouldn’t cause fainting, but it was too strong for a countess who lived a comfortable and good life.

Lakshan then turned around while holding Elrose and said toward the entrance of the alley where he had come from.

“You can come out.”

There, a man showed up. It was the same man who waited for Lakshan at the inn. He noticed that he was looking inside the entrance of the alley a little while ago, but he didn’t know he would come in handy.

“I’d like for you to clean up here. And…”

Lakshan ran his hand through Elrose’s hair that was messed up. The bright blonde shined even in the dark alley. On the day they wrote on the marriage certificate, he thought it would shine even brighter when it was cleaned.

‘More than I thought…’

He then pulled her closer with the touch of her hair prickling his hands.

“Where’s the nearest hospital here?”

~*~

“Ugh…”

Elrose woke up with a serious headache. After blinking slowly for a couple of times, she leaped to her feet and shouted.

“Camila!”

Apparently, Camila and the mercenaries whom she hired had taken her in an alley. She thought she was going to die…

“Where am I?”

It seemed a little odd, but it was a clean room. Elrose was lying on a bed in the corner of the room. She wondered if Camila had left her in a place like this, but then her hands and feet would be covered, if she even kept her alive.

Then where is this place and who brought her here?

Just then, the door opened and Lakshan came in.

“Lakshan?”

“Oh? You’re up?”

He came in with freshly made soup and cold water which he set on the table and then sat down on the chair next to the bed.

“Are you feeling better?”

“I’m a little dizzy, but…”

“There’s nothing you can do about it. The doctor says you’ll be dizzy until the poison is completely detoxified.”

Speaking of detox, Elrose then began to ask questions.

“Where am I? Why are you here? What about Camila? And the mercenaries?”

Lakshan raised his hands as if he understood the questions that were pouring out from her.

“This is the inn where I’m staying at. I’m here because I saw you being dragged into an alley near the government office, so… I called the police. Fortunately, the police came and rescued you, so Camila and the mercenaries were taken.”

“How did they get caught?”

“Uh… It all happened really fast. They must’ve fought and fell to see if there was a problem. Camila, that woman was also poisoned and she collapsed.”

Lakshan glossed over the situation at the time with a moderate lie.

“I see. Thank you.”

“Thank you? I have to do this for my wife.”

Elrose grinned as Lakshan shrugged his shoulders with an exaggerated gesture. She knew it was a fake marriage that was only a few days old anyways.

“Other than that, eat this. The antidote is quite strong, so you shouldn’t take it with an empty stomach.”

Elrose took the soup that Lakshan handed her. Back in the mansion, the hostility she felt all over the place made her extremely nervous when she drank water and especially when eating the food. Because of that, she couldn’t eat properly then. But Lakshan, who was looking at her now, was only worried.

Gulp.

Elrose scooped up the creamy soup full of solid ingredients with a spoon. It was the first meal she’s really had since she came to the capital.

When she finished eating, Lakshan turned the chair around, put his arm on the backrest, and asked with a slightly serious look on his face.

“What are you going to do from now on?”

“What will I do?”

“Camila went straight to prison, but your relatives seemed quite noisy. Are you going to deal with them?”

“…”

At Lakshan’s words, Elrose bit her lips. What he said was right. Her relatives, whose faces she didn’t even remember, were shouting by the front door when she snuck out of the mansion. They were relatives who said they had a stake in the inheritance and that they needed to somehow prevent it from being donated.

“Let me see Elrose just once!”

There was even a sense of madness in their voices, which were shouting frantically. They, like Camila, would somehow try to find Elrose and cancel the donation.

‘They must be more blind than Camila.’

Everyone dreamt of sweet dreams because Camila blew them off saying they will be the next Count.

“I’m going to go far away from the capital for now. Too many of my relatives are living here and it wouldn’t be good to run into them.”

Lakshan nodded at Elrose’s words. It was the right choice.

“But do you have the money to leave?”

At his question, Elrose stared at Lakshan. If someone else asked that question, she would be wary of them immediately because it sounded like ‘how much money do you have’. But, Lakshan’s face which was looking at her now showed no greed for money.

Far from that, he looked worried as if he had put a child on the edge near water.

‘Well, I would’ve said it already if I was going to get the money.’