Chapter 169: Entering the Palace (4) (1/2)

Scarlet Viper.

She was the great-granddaughter of Elijah Viper, the 5th and last Rogue Master at that time.

As she was on her way to becoming the 6th Rogue Master after several decades, she stumbled upon something that made her seriously question someone.

‘What? Who is he? What is he doing?’

Jude Bayer.

He was the second son of Count Bayer and known to be madly in love with Cordelia Chase, the daughter of Count Chase. Together, they were known by the entire Sälen Kingdom as the couple of the century.

‘And Black Cloak.’

He was the sidekick as well as the assistant to Pink Bomb, the 6th generation Rogue Master who was actually Cordelia Chase.

He was 17 years old. His birthday wasn’t that far, so he would be eighteen soon.

He was 180 centimeters tall and weighed about 70 kilograms.

He had black hair and green eyes.

He had a seriously good-looking face. To put it simply, he was a handsome young man.

From what she had seen so far, he had a very calculative personality. A black-hearted man who was really cunning and sly.

He liked Pink Bomb. His weak points were his destructive naming sense and Pink Bomb. But it was difficult to regard it as a main weakness because she did not know how he’d react if someone touched Pink Bomb.

His strength was very powerful for someone his age.

She estimated it to be around a minimum B- to a maximum of B+.

He claimed to be a swordsman, but in reality, he fought with his fists in actual combat.

His family was also very strong.

He mainly used martial arts that utilized his Qi/energy instead of the ‘Chivalry’ used by knights and swordsmen.

Scarlet momentarily recalled the information she had gathered about Jude, and she even questioned it more.

Because she couldn’t understand him.

‘Is he a hidden child of Duke Spencer?’

Like an illegitimate child.

Or a child who was born from his close relatives and had to be hidden.

If Count Bayer had heard of her thoughts, he would have drawn his sword in rage, but the reason she began questioning it was simple.

Because the amount of information Jude had was too much.

“Wait here for a second. One, two, three. Okay, let’s go quickly while the guard turns to the corner.”

First of all, his understanding of the guards’ movement was perfect.

Of course, there was nothing particularly strange about it because the movement of the outside guards was basic information that small-scale thieves figure out first before entering.

But the problem was after that.

“If you lightly press the wall here…”

“Oooh, it’s a secret passage.”

“It leads to the inside. Let’s hurry.”

“Yes!”

Pink Bomb broadly smiled and listened to Jude as if this was something natural, but Scarlet felt differently.

Because she couldn’t understand.

‘Why do you know this?’

No, how do you know?

It was common for the secret passages of a mansion to be only known by the owner and their successors.

Those were emergency routes used in certain situations.

But Jude knew of all the secret passages in Duke Spencer’s Red Rose Castle as if it was his own house.

How the hell does he know?

That was information that even someone like the Rogue Master wouldn’t be able to find.

‘Come to think of it, it seems that Pink Bomb already knew about the Palace of Mirrors…’

Could it be that the two had done a preliminary investigation before?

‘That makes sense, but…’

But it was very strange that he knew all the secret passages.

‘It was the same with the previous case… is his intelligence source that great?’

But it seems like he had met the Blue Moon for the first time back then.

It also seems like he has no connections with the intelligence groups in the royal capital.

‘Is it possible that he has his own intelligence network?’

That’s possible.

He is the child of someone from the 12 northern families.

‘No, that would be a bit…’

That would have been the situation if they were in the north.

Moreover, the families of Jude and Cordelia were not particularly famous for their intelligence or wealth, though their individual strength was strong.

‘What is it then? What in the world is it?’

The secret of Black Cloak.

His source of information.

Scarlet thought hard before she suddenly looked next to her. Because she instantly became interested in Lucas Hræsvelgr, the fourth person in their group.

‘What’s his reaction?’

Anyone could tell that it was strange for Jude to know all the secret passages and also the movement of Duke Spencer’s guards.

So what does Lucas think of the current situation?

‘But if he accepts it as if it was natural…’

Maybe Lucas knows something too?

Something that I myself do not know.

Right after Scarlet changed her target and began to glance at Lucas, Cordelia snickered when she saw it.

‘Jude, Jude. Look at that. Scarlet must be interested in Lucas. Hehe, our Lucas is kind and handsome. He’s also pure.’

When Cordelia said with her eyes a lot of good things about Lucas, Jude somehow narrowed his eyes before he sent her a glance with a very short message.

‘Handsome?’

‘He’s handsome. Our Lucas is clearly handsome… ah, my Jude, are you feeling upset now? Just because I said that Lucas is handsome?’

Jude didn’t give an answer, so Cordelia laughed again and sent him a look.

‘No, well… my Jude is more handsome. But rather than being pure, your insides are more of pure black in color… Wait, if it’s pure black, does that mean you’re pure too?’

‘Ahem…’

But Jude looked satisfied, perhaps because he heard from her that he was more handsome, and Cordelia shook her head at him, finding it to be absurd.

‘Sometimes, you’re really childish.’

‘I don’t want to hear that from Pink Bomb.’

‘Hey, you’re the one who gave me that name, right?’

While Jude and Cordelia exchanged glances and were having an almost telepathic conversation, Lucas and Scarlet also glanced at each other, and their eyes met.

Scarlet’s red eyes and Lucas’ blue eyes.

Scarlet flinched while Lucas slightly blushed and averted his gaze, acting like a pure boy just as Cordelia had said.

And him acting like that was certainly quite effective.

‘Cute.’

Scarlet unknowingly smiled and looked at Lucas again, while Lucas opened his mouth at that moment as if he was trying to shake off his embarrassment.

“Umm… Mr. Jude.”

“Yes, Lord Lucas.”

Jude answered in a low voice, and Lucas asked again in a hushed voice.

“Your information about the Red Rose Castle… did you hear it from your master too?”

Master.

At Lucas’ question, Scarlet perked up her ears while Jude nodded his head.

“Yes, I heard it from Master.”

“Ah, I see…”

Landius had also become famous for exploring ruins around the world after the fall of the Paragon Kingdom.

The Red Rose Castle was originally a renovation and expansion of an ancient ruin, so Landius could have known about its secret passages – that was what Lucas thought, and his answer was true to some extent.

But Scarlet was thinking something different again.

‘What? Who? Who is Black Cloak’s master? Who’s that person?’

Unfortunately, not many people knew that Jude was Landius’ disciple.

Because neither Count Bayer nor Count Chase talked about it.

‘If you think about it, it should be Count Bayer, right?’

Because Count Bayer was a swordsman, and not just any other swordsman.

So it was strange that someone who was one of the Ten Great Swordmasters would hire a separate master for Jude.

‘But… that’s also possible.’

Jude’s specialty was fist fighting and not swordsmanship.