Midnight in the Northern Territory usually left nothing but the howling wind battering the stone walls of Vayne Castle.
However, as the black carriage passed through the wide-open main gates, Azura’s sixth sense—an instinct honed through two decades of leading a cartel in her past world—screamed a warning.
Something was wrong.
The night air wasn’t just cold; it carried a familiar scent of copper.
Blood.
”Arthur, stop,” Azura commanded, her voice low yet radiating authority.
Arthur, sitting on the driver’s seat, immediately pulled the reins.
The young soldier’s eyes narrowed, his hand instinctively reaching for the hilt of the sword at his hip.
“Your Grace…
the rear gate is unguarded.
The light codes on the watchtower are also dark.”
”Ten soldiers in the back, secure the servant’s wing and ensure the twins and Aurelia remain in their rooms.
Let no one in or out,” Azura stepped out of the carriage with a dangerous, graceful movement.
She shed her heavy velvet cloak, revealing a tight black gown that allowed for easy movement.
[Krrrkk…
Glitch…]
[System: Boss, welcome home!
But it seems uninvited guests are having a feast inside.
Heat detection: 15 targets in the east wing, 5 targets in the backyard.
Oh, and a ‘weak heartbeat’ detected in the training hall.
It looks like your young lion is in big trouble.]
Caspian.
”Arthur, you handle the east wing.
I’m going to the training hall,” Azura said.
”But Your Grace, alone—”
”That’s an order, Arthur.
Secure the children,” Azura cut him off coldly.
Her sea-blue eyes glinted under the moonlight, signaling that she was in no mood for an argument.
Azura moved.
She didn’t run like a knight in noisy armor; she moved like a shadow—silent, low, and undetectable.
As she moved, her fingers brushed her inner thigh.
Beneath the silk layers of her gown, a pair of double-edged short daggers were tucked away.
They were not ornamental; they were extensions of her hands.
In the dark training hall, Caspian’s breath came in heavy, ragged gasps.
His left shoulder was drenched in blood, and his vision was starting to blur.
Before him stood a gaunt man whose face was partially wrapped in dingy bandages.
”The Vayne family truly has fallen,” the man’s voice was raspy, like sandpaper on wood.
“The eldest son of the Marquis, cornered by a simple poison on the tip of my blade.
Pitiful.”
He was Vane of the Pale Hand.
A high-level assassin known for his sadism.
Around him, four subordinates surrounded Caspian with bared short swords.
”Who…
sent you?” Caspian hissed, struggling to stand upright even as his legs grew weak under the influence of Nightshade poison.
”Your uncle sends his regards, boy,” Vane smirked, revealing yellowed teeth.
“He said you were far too noisy for an orphan.”
Vane raised his sword, preparing for a final thrust into Caspian’s heart.
“Farewell, Little Lion.”
Swoosh!
A flash of silver cut through the darkness.
Vane instinctively jerked his head back, but the dagger still managed to tear the bandages from his face, leaving a thin red line across his cheek.
The blade thudded deep into the wooden pillar behind him.
”Who’s there?!” Vane shouted, turning warily.
She no longer looked like a fragile noble widow.
Her face was expressionless, her pair of blue eyes staring at the assassins as if they were nothing more than heaps of meat waiting to be carved.
In her right hand, another dagger spun expertly between her fingers.
[System: Function Activated: Anatomical Weakness Scanner.]
[Target 1: Left carotid artery exposed.
Target 2: Weak point under the right armpit.
Target 3 (Vane): Spinal nerve unprotected.
Boss, should I calculate their time of death, or do you want to improvise?]
Don’t let them die too quickly, System, Azura thought.
”Mama…?” Caspian muttered in shock, his blurred vision trying to catch the figure before him.
”Shut up and watch, Caspian,” Azura said without looking back.
“This is your first lesson on how to be a predator in your own home.”
Vane burst into laughter at the sight of Azura.
“The Marchioness?
You’ve come to save a stepson who hates you?
Quite the touching drama.
Kill her!”
Two assassins lunged at Azura.
They moved fast, but to Azura, who was used to gunfights in the narrow alleys of the mafia underworld, their movements felt sluggish.
Azura ducked low as the first sword swung through the air above her head.
With one fluid motion, she plunged her dagger into the first assassin’s femoral artery.
As the man groaned, Azura used his shoulder as a springboard to leap, her foot kicking the second assassin’s face, while her other hand pulled the dagger from the pillar and drove it straight into her opponent’s neck.
Two down in seconds.
No sound.
No hesitation.
”What?!” Vane’s eyes bulged.
He had just witnessed a killing technique never taught in any knight’s academy.
It was a butcher’s technique—efficient, lethal, and devoid of honor.
The remaining two assassins hesitated, but Vane pushed them forward.
Azura didn’t wait.
She shot forward like an arrow.
This time, she used dirty fighting.
She kicked sand from the floor into an opponent’s eyes, and as they were distracted, she garroted another’s neck with a thin steel wire pulled from the hilt of her dagger.
Crack.
The sound of a snapping neck echoed in the silent hall.
Azura released the corpse and stared at Vane, the only one left.
”Now, it’s just you,” Azura’s voice was as cold as polar ice.
“You mentioned their uncle earlier?
Tell me more while I peel your skin off, layer by layer.”
Vane, realizing he was facing a monster more terrifying than himself, tried to flee toward the window.
But Azura was faster.
She threw her dagger, striking Vane’s calf until he tumbled forward.
Azura approached, each footstep sounding like a death knell to Vane.
She stepped on the wound in his leg, making him scream in agony.
”Who gave you the passcode for the rear gate?” Azura asked.
”I…
I don’t know!
We only received instructions via letter!” Vane wailed.
Azura knelt, stabbing her dagger precisely between Vane’s fingers, barely grazing his skin.
“My instincts tell me you’re lying.
System, give him a little push.”
[System: Triggering nerve stimulation on target’s wound…
Process starting.
2…
1…]
Vane shrieked hysterically as unnatural pain surged through his entire body.
“Mercy!
Mercy!
It was…
it was one of the senior servants!
He gave us the map and the codes!”
Azura withdrew her blade.
“His name.”
”Leopold…
The Head Butler, Leopold…”
Caspian, still sitting weak in the corner, stared wide-eyed.
“Leopold?
Impossible…
he has served my father for decades!”
Azura stood, wiping the blood from her dagger with the hem of her now red-stained gown.
She turned toward Caspian, who was still in shock—not only from Leopold’s betrayal but also from the brutality of the woman standing before him.
”The world doesn’t care how long someone has served you, Caspian,” Azura said, approaching the youth.
She crouched before him, observing the wound on his shoulder with a look that softened slightly, though her voice remained firm.
“Loyalty is an expensive commodity, and someone as naive as you is too poor to buy it.”
Azura tore the bottom of her gown and began to bind Caspian’s wound tightly.
“You have potential, Little Lion.
You have the courage to fight to the death.
But you don’t have the instinct to kill before being killed.”
Caspian looked into Azura’s eyes.
For the first time, he didn’t see hatred there.
He saw a mirror of a harsh world he had never touched.
“Why…
did you save me?
You could have let me die and taken over this territory entirely.”
Azura paused for a moment, looking at the scarred face of the teenager.
“Because ruling a territory full of corpses is boring.
And because I need a guard dog who can bite, not just bark.”
She stood up and pulled Caspian’s hand, helping him to his feet.
“Stand tall.
Show everyone in this castle that you are still alive.
And after this, you will watch how I handle a traitor.”
Outside, Arthur’s voice could be heard shouting commands.
The remnants of the assassins had been cleared.
But for Azura, the night was just beginning.
Leopold’s betrayal was a massive hole in her defenses, and she would not let it stay open for a moment longer.
[System: Boss, Caspian’s trust level increased by 45%.
But Leopold’s stress level…
it seems he’s trying to escape through the wine cellar.
Should I lock the door, or do you want to play a game of tag?]
”Lock the door, System.
I want him to feel cornered before I end his career.”
Azura stepped out of the training hall, leaving Caspian staring at her back in a trance.
The young lion realized that starting tonight, he was no longer following his father’s shadow.
He was following the shadow of a woman more lethal than any demon.