Keira who was patiently waiting inside her cell for news to arrive, finally heard a couple of footsteps making their way toward her cell. Keira had expected that Adage was the one who would personally come and pick her up but to her surprise, what greeted her was a person who looked to have a high position with a bunch of knights around him.

‘I was hoping that Adage wouldn’t come all this way to the dungeon, but still, now knowing that they had all blackened, it’s quite surprising to see a blackened male lead not acting its usual self. Is he perhaps different from the others—or am I simply overthinking this? I still couldn’t be sure for I have yet to meet Adage after all.’

Either way, this was great news for Keira as her plan would proceed even more smoothly now. It is always risky to have the overpowered male lead watching even if he had his guard down.

The cell was opened and the conspicuous person entered and greeted Keira with an amicable smile.

“Hello miss, I am His Majesty’s attendant and was tasked to escort you out of here and bring you to the palace.”

“I—cough” Keira was about to reply when her throat ached so much that cost her to let out a cough instead.

“My apologies. Please bring her some water and release the binds on her hands.” Noticing that Keira's throat hurt, the attendant then just realized and immediately commanded the knights behind him.

The knights acted and carefully removed the chains suspended in the ceiling. With no strength left in her legs, Keira instantly fell down but was instantly caught by one of the knights. She was offered water through a waterskin and Keira immediately gobbled the water inside the pouch.

Some of the water was dripping in the corner of her mouth as Keira was impatiently slurping the water. This scene was particularly alluring, which made everyone in the cell focus their attention on her. Keira only noticed this when she finished the entire water from the waterskin.

‘Tsk tsk, I know I’m this ravishing but if you guys stare too much I might feel I will be eaten alive inside the cell. Definitely don’t have that kind of taste.’

Her legs were still shaking and had to keep being supported. Keira looked at the attendant and asked.

“Why is Ad—I mean His Majesty not here?”

The attendant raised an eyebrow and look at her like she was being ludicrous.

“Why would he be here in the first place?”

That—Keira had no rebuttal. Somehow she felt disappointed by the response.

Keira, “Then did he ask you to do anything more besides escorting me to the palace?”

The attendant thought to itself, ‘Although I shouldn’t just casually discuss the emperor’s order to an outsider, much less an assassin that once tried to take the life of His Majesty. However, His Majesty did ask me to treat her with the utmost respect, and revealing this much wouldn’t hurt, but I most certainly won’t tell her how His Majesty asked me to keep a close eye on her on the way to the palace!’

The attendant replied, “He only ordered to bring you back to the palace while treating you with respect.”

The attendant looked at Keira’s sorry figure and stated, “Do you need my man to carry you to the palace?”

Keira looked at the knights beside her. Despite the fine aesthetic of the knights here who wore extremely durable animal skin as the protective layer with an eastern style mixed with it, being carried would only hinder her escape plan. Besides, Keira was tired of being carried around, especially in the last world and it's not like her current legs were disabled or anything.

Keira looked at the buff man in armors around her again and shook her head.

‘Oh.’

When Keira shook her head, she felt something on her hair that made her inwardly smile to herself, more like—to the original owner of this body.

‘Assassins are scary.’

Keira was attentively escorted out of the deepest part of the dungeon. When Keira arrived at the entrance of the dungeon she saw the person who she should be the most thankful for. Keira revealed an extremely bright dazzling smile and looked at that person.

The guard who had just gotten out from his break and was carrying a sandwich with him looked at Keira who was being politely escorted by high-ranking knights in pure disbelief. Keira wanted to laugh at the guard's stupid expression.

‘Pffft! It’s like his eyes are about to pop out.’

The guard pointed his hand in Keira’s direction and was bemused, “Y—you! Why are you out here?!”

Keira stopped, and the knights surrounding her also stopped. She approached the befuddled guard who was holding a delicious-looking sandwich. Her smile didn’t leave her face even a second after locking her gaze with this guard.

Keira brushed away the outstretched arm of the guard that was pointing at her and leaned into the guard’s ear.

She softly whispered in his ear, “See, I told you His Majesty would let me out of my cell, and even asked his attendant to treat me with respect.”

Before the guard could even respond back, Keira had already recoiled back but snatched something along the way. Keira smiled again in the guard’s direction before leaving with a victorious smirk on her face as she took a bite of the guard’s sandwich.

Keira looked at the attendant who was watching her closely and thought that the attendant was also surprised by her actions so she made an effort to explain.

“I was hungry.” Keira said while taking another mouthful bite from the sandwich.

“Haaa… Let us hurry, His Majesty is waiting.” The attendant let out a long sigh before leading the way again back to Adage’s chambers.

While walking, Keira was still sticking close to a knight, acting like she was still weak despite her having her stomach and throat already satisfied. Her body was still aching but it wasn’t too bad.

More importantly, ‘I have to commend the original body’s owner, for actually managing to hide some small needles in her hair. Didn’t include this in the plan, but not using your resources properly would be a shame.’

Getting close to the main residence of the royal palace, Keira looked at the visible garden. Seeing the palace still retained its old structure, she had already planned her route of escape. She had her eyes on the huge building next to the main garden of the royal palace—the concubine palace.

She already memorized this part of the palace. I mean, how could Keira a path that she regularly took in order to sneak in and meet with Adage before?

When they almost meet at the end of the outdoor hallway, Keira ‘stumbled’ and clashed with the knight beside her. The knight caught her with his two arms. The other knights also showed a concerned look and the attendant also looked back to peer in her direction.

Keira let out a sly grin before executing her plan.

Keira quickly used her nimble body to stab the small needle that was already hidden in between her fingers beforehand into the knight who grasp her. Simultaneously, she grabbed the sword that situation in the scabbard of the knight.

In the short span of time that the event quickly unfolded, the knight who was caught off guard had no time to react as both his hands were preoccupied. The knight was easily stabbed by the small needle in the neck.

The knight did not just let it all happen and went to grab her. Keira quickly slashed his hand with his very own sword. The highly trained guard didn’t groan and despite his arm already being injured, the knight still tried to seize Keira but noticed his body quickly weakened, and before he knew it, he was already coughing up blood and his body slumped to the ground.

The attendant shouted, “Stop!”

The other knights didn’t just watch on the sidelines, they also tried to attack Keira while still being careful to not really hurt her but just beat her enough for her to be incapable of moving and escaping again, which is really hard on their part.

The emperor had warned them to not let a single scratch on her, but seeing the fierce look in the assassin’s eyes made them resolute that it was an impossible task.

Witnessing the reluctance of the strong knights in hurting her made her laugh internally. This just makes things so much easier for her to escape. Keira let out her thanks to Adage for still being kindhearted enough to give her an opportunity to make her escape.

Keira’s eyes glinted and she lunged forward. Her small and light body swiftly danced around the knights trying to capture her. Her movement looked beautiful despite the chaos around her. But that did not prevent Keira from receiving a hit or two.

Her body was quickly losing strength. Keira didn’t attack the knights one by one for it would be disadvantageous for her, she just fought hard enough to actually make leeway for escape. Keira slashed and dodged her way out. During the fight, she was able to paralyze two more guards out of the 5 guards that went along with her.

She had to quickly escape before reinforcements comes which she had already heard by the sound of hurried footsteps making towards the scene.

Keira hit one more guard with her sword and finally found an opening.

Making a run for it, Keira agilely ran past the tall support beams to the large garden and went deeper into the palace garden where a forest lay that separated the concubine palace from the main royal palace.

The attendant looked at Keira’s disappearing figure and exclaimed, “Capture her at all cost!”

The newly arrived reinforcement and remaining knights saluted and ran in Keira’s direction.

The palace attendant who was left there could only reside to his fate. Now he had to inform the emperor that he managed to let the person escape even after being told to take special attention. The attendant hadn't expected that a badly already beaten-up person would be able to escape the skilled knights he personally chose.

‘It seems like His Majesty was right. She would try everything in her power to escape.’

Her body had bad internal wounds. Moving that much would cost so much pain and discomfort yet she still decided to do it, making the attendant question the relationship between this assassin and His majesty.

The attendant let out a big sigh resigning to his faith before making his way back to the emperor’s chamber to report back.