Gunmage
Chapter 308: Bitter tea and blood

Chapter 308: Chapter 308: Bitter tea and blood

In the backrooms, the children gathered from the slums cowered in fear at the sounds coming from outside.

Although it wasn’t right to call them children. They were all fifteen, yes, but life in this sort of environment often stimulated premature maturity.

They had seen things most adults dared not imagine. They weren’t children. And yet here they were—trembling in fear at the blood-curdling screams and the dull thudding of feet... or bodies. Perhaps both.

"What the hell is happening out there?"

One of them whispered.

The rest didn’t respond.

Fortunately, the conflict didn’t last long. After a few pained groans, the voices outside gradually began to die down. It didn’t take long for those groans to vanish completely.

The night became still. Silent.

Faced with such an ominous calm, the teenagers didn’t know what to do. They were caught in a silence more terrifying than the noise.

Then—

The handle to the room they were crammed into dipped down. The door creaked open.

A portly man stepped inside.

Those who had been awake before the commotion began recognised him instantly. He was the man who had visited earlier.

Except now, his hair was a little dishevelled, and his clothes bore several small stains—streaks of red that looked suspiciously close to blood.

The man held a candle in his hand.

He stared at them coldly and issued a command.

"Get up. All of you. Single line. We’re moving now."

His voice held a quiet authority, and they found themselves following the order before they’d even processed it.

As they prepared to file out of the room, Victor snuffed the candle, plunging them into pitch darkness.

Under his deliberate guidance, they all began moving forward. Occasionally, someone would bump into warm flesh—or for those without footwear—step into something thick and viscous.

They didn’t need to ask what it was.

Even without those grim signs, the overwhelming stench of blood that clung to the air made it painfully clear what had happened.

Some gagged. Some wretched. But their hollow stomachs couldn’t produce anything.

The events that followed moved quickly.

Victor unhitched the horses that once pulled his carriage and fastened them to the wagon his former captors had spoken about.

He shoved the kids into the back without ceremony. Considering how lean and skeletal they were, there was no issue with space or weight.

With himself as helmsman, Victor stirred the beasts of burden into motion.

Minutes later, the wagon’s tires rolled across smooth cobblestone.

They had made it out of the slums.

—

Lugh was already half-asleep by the time the Von Heim family’s carriages arrived.

How many hours had passed?

He wasn’t sure. But truth be told, their speed was impressive.

Knowing that a proper trip would have taken far longer, Isolde’s shadows had instead gone on foot. Blitzing their way through the city with top-class movement arts, they had first arrived at the location where Lugh and the others were waiting.

Then, after paying a premium, they temporarily rented carriages from locals in the vicinity.

Since Lugh was the only one among the three whose mind remained relatively intact, he waited patiently as Sela and Mirelle were loaded into their respective carriages before boarding his own.

It hadn’t been a smooth process.

Delirious, Sela naturally caused more problems than her sister—whose stillness made her resemble an inanimate object.

Lugh had noticed something peculiar.

Even while passed out, Mirelle’s body remained posed in the most graceful manner possible.

Whether through muscle memory or something else entirely, Lugh couldn’t help but admire that kind of dedication.

Sela, meanwhile...

"Hey, are you going to tell on mum?"

"Tell on mum?"

They pondered the question for a moment before realising she had jumbled her words. If she meant whether they would report what had happened, then the answer was clear.

The leader of the shadows replied without hesitation.

"Naturally."

Sela burst into laughter.

"Of course! I knew you’d be smart enough not to."

Thrown off by the contradictory tone, they dismissed her words as the nonsense of a fevered mind.

Until she continued speaking.

"I mean, what would you even tell her? That you were fooled by a bunch of spoiled brats? That you let us wander the city with no protection? That all of this could have been prevented if you’d just observed the situation properly—and that it only happened because you were negligent?"

After that, both she and the shadows fell completely silent.

Lugh clicked his tongue.

Even with her mind fogged and operating at half capacity, she was still scheming.

These girls... they were truly impressive.

All three of them had been split up. Decoys were even used. It reminded Lugh of that saying—

"Don’t put all your eggs in one basket."

Two female attendants were waiting patiently by the carriage.

Once he was inside, they wrapped him in a large fur coat and even handed him a mug of hot tea.

’Where on earth did they get this from?’

Lugh wondered as a sheet of frost crept from his hands to the surface of the cup, cooling the beverage to a comfortable warmth.

It was no longer piping hot. Just warm.

One of the attendants looked at him curiously.

"Is it not to your liking?"

Lugh answered,

"No, it’s not that. I just... don’t really like hot things."

She nodded in understanding.

Lugh took a sip. He grimaced, then set the cup down.

They looked at him again.

"What’s the matter this time?"

Lugh returned their stares.

"It’s bitter,"

He said flatly.

They blinked.

"Bitter?"

"Yeah."

He nodded.

"I’d have preferred some milk and sugar. Or at the very least... sugar."

One of them chuckled softly.

"You’re a lot more childish than I expected."

Then, as if remembering something important, she paled slightly and bowed her head.

"...Young master."

Lugh waved her off, clearly unaccustomed to the title.

He leaned back in his seat, exhaling.

"I’m really tired and would like to sleep. It’s safe, right? You won’t try to murder me while I’m unconscious, will you?"

"What?!"

"Of course not! Young master, why would you even think such a thing?!"

Lugh narrowed his eyes and studied them carefully.