Ludwig Börne said, "the most dangerous man is the one who is afraid." Whether fear of loss or failure, all types of fear have something in common; they all cause a sense of premeditated loss along with palpable insecurity.
That is what makes a coward the worst enemy of the Brave, since the Coward will not think about looking good, he will only think about winning using any method to keep fear away.
That was the trait that drove a humble child to become the worst nightmare of the ancient world. Both the Titans protecting the territories of each of the intelligent races and the powerful 9 Lords of the abyss feared him.
This earned him the title of the tenth lord of the abyss and the youngest among them, but also caused him to be considered the weakest of the ten at the time, for that reason he along with his race were hunted to be enslaved, but with the fall of the strongest of the Lords of the abyss, things changed.
Leubiathan, who was considered the most powerful of the ten lords of the abyss, found his end at the hands of the Spectre King, a creature in charge of a race that until that time was considered a weak race, a race doomed to be at the service of the nine great races. However, contrary to initial expectations. The breed colloquially known as Hearvester's, changed from a valuable asset in the slave market to a goal of eradication.
Thus began the seventh Great War, the Angels sought revenge for the death of the protector of their race and the other species were simply afraid of being displaced by the new one.
In a bloody all-against-one war, the Spectre King was killed and sealed, using as a catalyst one of the rarest substances in the whole world: hero blood. That was the kind of entity that looked with contempt at the girl lying in front of him.
Priscilla had lost consciousness and had no way of defending herself against the potential aggressor. Fortunately for her, the curiosity of the potential aggressor was much greater than her bloodlust, so her life was not in immediate danger at the time.
In a blink the hooded man had been surrounded by the Lombardi family Guards, a total of thirty well-equipped soldiers surrounded the potential perpetrator of the attack on his lady.
- "Identify yourself!" Demanded Cristobal, the person who had under his charge the guard of the Lombardi family.
Christóbal watched with suspicion the hooded suspect who had not bothered to try to escape. It was evident that the hooded man had some ace up his sleeve, since despite being surrounded he did not look anxious or worried at all.
He was just standing there watching his lady's body and that was something Cristobal couldn't allow. The problem was that it was impossible to know what kind of expression the hooded man had at that time, so the soldiers could only imagine the worst case scenario.
- "I said identify yourself!" He repeated.
The hooded man watched the soldiers wearing silver armor, on the inside of the metal plates could be seen white clothes with blue decorations, and a silver tap decorated his chest.
- "I see, judging by the heavy armor must be knights... even if I surrender they will not kill me, as they will want to know what happened on this site and the person for whom I work. This temporary body can't feel pain so torture doesn't worry me. "The hooded man silently evaluated his options.
- "N-I am but a humble Wanderer, my Lord. I beg you not to hurt me. "The hooded man's voice sounded fearful and taking a supplicant and submissive stance begged for his life.
In those circumstances, even if Priscilla awoke, it was difficult to prove the veracity of her words. This meant that whatever statement she made was her word against that of the Tramp.
For that reason, he had chosen to act submissively, as that would diminish the young woman's credibility when she awoke and greatly increase the chances that he could speak alone with her at some point.
- "What should we do, sir?" Seeing that the target did not seem dangerous, one of Cristobal's companions asked his superior how to proceed with the stranger.
- "Arrest him, we'll interrogate him later. Our priority right now is Miss Priscilla's safety."
— "Misunderstood." Having received his orders, the soldier approached the hooded man and checked them. After a thorough review he did not find weapons, which made him relax. "Come with me." With the help of three more soldiers, they arrested the Tramp and took him to the Lombardi mansion along with the fainted body of his lady.
Priscilla awoke in the safety of her room and the second her eyelids parted she was assaulted by her worried father, who had remained by her side at all times.
- "I'm glad you're okay, daughter!"Duke Lombardi was not able to prevent tears of concern from leaving his eyes.
- "What happened?"Priscilla was still confused and her father's dismay didn't help much to clear her confusion.
- "What were you doing in a place like that!?"In the second that the Duke confirmed the well-being of his daughter, his concern was replaced by deep anger.
- "I... " Priscilla tried to find an explanation for her father's anger, when memories of what happened flooded her mind.
She remembered everything, the problem was that she could not freely say that there was a possibility that one of her brothers had sent assassins to eliminate her and she did not want to believe it either.
- "I'll explain later, Dad. Now I'd like to ask that tramp something."
- "Absolutely not. I will not allow you to come near that evil born." There was no way that the Duke would allow his daughter to approach him, less after what happened. However, the words that Priscilla said below surprised him even more.
- "I want to talk to him alone."
- "Have you lost your mind? I will not allow…"
- "I beg you, dad." Priscilla got down on her knees in front of her father and literally begged for such an opportunity.
The Duke was in a difficult position, this was the first time that his daughter asked him for something like that and if he thought more carefully the situation there was no problem as long as his daughter was escorted by the guard and remained inside the Lombardi mansion.
- "I promise to tell you everything when I confirm my suspicions. Until then, I want to confirm if my assumption is really true." Priscilla made an additional attempt to convince her father.
- "If that's what you want, I'll allow it, but I want you to explain everything to me when you've done it."
The Duke knew the nature of his daughter very well and was surely trying to protect one of his brothers. After all, it was not stupid and there were only two possible options for an attack like that.
The first was that one of Priscilla's brothers wanted her out of the way and the other that the feudal lord of the neighboring territory made some kind of tentative attack in the hope of weakening the Lombardi family.
- "So it will be Dad, thank you for trusting me." Priscilla embraced her father with genuine gratitude, considering that he had shown him that he trusted her and his judgment.
- "The guard will accompany you, but first, you must eat something." After saying that the Duke gestured for one of the maids to approach. "Dacy, serve her food to Priscilla"
The maid made a submissive gesture before carefully approaching, only to find that Priscilla jumped out of bed in a hurry and headed for her bedroom door without hesitation.
- "Follow me Dacy."
The maid was petrified by what happened, she could simply observe Priscilla and her father in search of an answer to a strange situation. The Duke simply sighed heavily and gestured to the maid indicating that she should follow her daughter.
Having confirmed a proper course of action, Dacy followed Priscilla carrying the tray of food with her.
Priscilla was going down to the dungeon that was located under the Lombardi mansion, she did not even bother to take a second look at the torch-ridden walls, she simply advanced at high speed towards the person who could answer her questions.
- "Wait, miss!" Her guard screamed into the distance as he pursued her.
After arriving at the entrance of one of the cells, she stopped in front of the two guards who were guarding her.
- "Miss, I'm afraid we have orders not to let you pass to this place."
Cristóbal, one of the guards who accompanied Priscilla gestured to the jailer and he understood the situation almost instantly. After pondering for a few seconds, she simply opened the door, allowing Priscilla to enter the dungeons.
The place in question was completely empty except for one of the cells, in which a hooded stranger was resting sitting next to one of the walls. Priscilla had no way of knowing, but a slight glint appeared in the hooded man's eyes when he saw her and a ghoulish smile spread across his face.
- "Give me a second alone." She requested casually.
- "I'm afraid we can't allow it, miss, it's dangerous for you to enter alone."
- "In that case, Dacy accompanies me. She also has combat training and I would prefer this talk to be as private as possible. "
What Priscilla said was correct, the maids of the Lombardi house were more than just maids, to the point that an experienced soldier would have a hard time against her. Added to that, the soldier couldn't just ignore Priscilla's requests.
- "I understand, but we will be close to guaranteeing your safety."
The formalities had concluded and Priscilla finally entered the cell accompanied by Dacy who was still holding the tray with Priscilla's food. Of course, there was a thick metal fence separating them from the prisoner or else the soldiers would not have allowed her to enter so easily.
- "What brings you to this dusty place, my lady?" The hooded man asked with a somewhat mocking tone.
- "Do not pretend ignorance, you know well the reason for my visit." Observing the seriousness on the girl's face, the hooded man stood up and approached the bars of his cell.
- "You mentioned it at that time, if I'm not wrong it was something about who sent me, am I wrong?" Priscilla nodded in response. "Well, no one sent me, it was just a coincidence that I was on that site at the time. That said, I can tell you an approximate identity of the perpetrator of the attack. "
- "What do you mean? Do you think I will trust your words so easily? " Of course Priscilla wouldn't trust a complete stranger so easily.
- "You have a point. Now, have you suffered from headaches lately? "
- "…" The sudden question left Priscilla speechless. How could complete strangers know something like that if they hadn't told anyone? She was the type of person who didn't complain too much and less about little things like a headache. "H-how do you know that?"
- "Ask the maid there to get away a little and I'll tell you." The request was dangerous, but it was also true that it had stimulated her curiosity enough to accept.
- "Dacy, stay alert and stay a couple of meters away."
The maid followed orders to the letter and made sure she was at a distance where she could intervene immediately.
- "Answer my question?"
- "Well, in that tray ... Specifically in that cup of tea I can perceive the essence of a plant called Higaria, the leaves of that plant work as a slow-acting poison that causes a slight headache in the first weeks, then It will develop into a high fever, followed by cramps and the collapse of the internal organs. The fact that this poison is on the tray of who is presumably your personal servant, indicates that whoever is trying to kill you is a member of your family or someone very close to you. " The hooded man paused to look at the look of surprise on Priscilla's face. "Are you interested in what I have to say now?"