Chapter 288 - Failure and Persistence

When Quinn stepped out of the tent, Armano immediately eyed Gildart and the man nodded before walking out of the tent to trail after the butler.

When Quinn arrived on the scene, the soldiers around were pointing their weapons at the raging Sleipnir, and he could see that Sleipnir himself was poised for battle and noticed that an arrow was sticking out of his butt.

"Sleipnir! Stop!"

Quinn immediately rushed past the soldiers and arrived in front of the angry Sleipnir. The soldiers around were still wary, but when they saw that the beast had calmed down under Quinn's coaxing, they all lowered their weapons.

Quinn immediately asked around about what had happened, but all the soldiers said was that Sleipnir had suddenly gone berserk for no reason at all. Quinn only furrowed his brows. He took a look at the arrow in his hand and crushed it.

He nonchalantly glanced at an empty spot near the wagon and let loose a small amount of his killing intent. Gildart, who was eyeing the man murderously, immediately disappeared from his spot as he flashed away.

When he saw Quinn glaring at him, Gildart broke out in cold sweat when the killing intent locked onto him and he immediately knew that his position had been compromised. He decisively chose to retreat because he felt that if he stayed there and forced the issue, he'd be the one who would meet the maker.

He now felt a strong sense of danger radiating from the once inconspicuous butler. Gildart thought that he was only a pretty face and your typical ordinary butler, but having felt that deadly and chilling killing intent, which even pressured him, a veteran assassin, into retreating. Gildart couldn't help but think that he had misjudged this person.

Quinn only eyed the man hiding in the dark before decisively heading back to Lucia and Serilla after he made sure that Sleipnir had completely calmed down.

When he arrived back at the banquet, Serilla immediately asked him what happened to Sleipnir. The horse was her responsibility so Serilla was naturally worried that something bad might have happened to him.

"What happened, Quinn?"

Quinn looked around and leaned in to whisper into Serilla's ear.

"Lady Serilla, I believe that this may be one of the Second Prince's schemes."

"Why do you say that?"

"Sleipnir was enraged because he had been struck by an arrow. Earlier, I was also trailing the prince as per your request and overheard some...unsavory things."

Serilla prompted him to continue so Quinn immediately reported, "The Second Prince was talking with the First Prince about drugging both you and Lady Lucia before later taking you both into their chambers..."

The air around Serilla immediately dropped in temperatures for a brief moment when she heard her butler's words. She didn't let her fury show on her face and quickly readjusted her mind.

"Is that all?"

"Yes, Madam," Quinn nodded before he backed away respectfully. He already knew that Serilla, who was normally always smiling, was furious right now.

Serilla turned to look at Lucia who seemed to be a little out of it and knew that something was up. She immediately began circulating her Ki and with every circulation, she felt her anger rising. Serilla stood up and asked the First Prince to be excused from the banquet.

The First Prince eyed his little brother discreetly. Once he saw the slight nod Armano gave him, he allowed the two girls to leave. This discreet exchange didn't go unnoticed by Serilla and the look she gave Albert had turned frigid, though she was able to cleverly mask it away from the man.

"Lulu, we should head back now."

"Hueh? Okay~"

"Quinn," Serilla gestured towards Lucia as she called out to the butler.

"Yes, Madam," Quinn walked up to Lucia and immediately helped her up.

They bade farewell to Rowan and Fatima, who looked a little tipsy and red. Serilla gave Fatima a subtle warning, but it was a good thing her sister-in-law was able to pick up on it. Quinn had also slipped a small note into Fatima's hand and when she read it, Fatima immediately cast Armano a rage-filled glare. It was only for a brief moment so no one noticed it, but she immediately decided to head back to her quarters with Rowan.

There were no mishaps on the way back. Lucia and Serilla were able to safely arrive at their wagon and they both took a quick bath and quickly went to bed.

Quinn could already tell that there was something wrong with his two Madams and the air around him immediately turned frigid once the two women closed the door to their bedroom.

The wagon's protective arrays were rendered useless right now due to the M-Jammer, but Quinn made sure to check the locks on the door and place some traps before heading into his room. However, with the dangerous air, he was exuding, it was obvious that Quinn didn't plan on sleeping tonight.

*****

A while later inside Lucia and Serilla's bedroom, Lucia was feeling a little hot and uncomfortable. Her body was burning and it felt unpleasant. She was tossing and turning in her sleep, but next to her, Serilla also wasn't having a good time.

She already knew what was up. Their food had been laced with an aphrodisiac and that's why they were burning up.

Serilla had it easy, her Ki had reinforced her body and she was slowly pushing out the aphrodisiac out of her system, but it was inevitable that her concentration was wandering around due to the heat she was feeling from her crotch.

"Damn... if only darling was here... haahhh ahhhh...when was the last time...we had s.e.x...urk..." Serilla tried to regain her focus by biting down on her finger, but it only made her hornier.

"Uhhh...darling would sometimes let me bite his hand...I want my darling..."

Serilla couldn't forgive herself. She had somehow blundered and fallen into someone's scheme. She didn't even know when they had ingested the drug, but judging by how everyone in the banquet seemed to be a little out of sorts, she deduced that everyone's food was laced with the drug and not just theirs.

She couldn't help but commend and curse at the Second Prince for his idiotic scheme. The fool had laced the food of all the high ranking army commanders with a drug just so that he could get into her and her sister's pants.

"Why can't that asshole think with his brain and not with his crotch? What if the enemy attacks us tonight?! We'll be like sitting ducks out here because of him! I'll make sure to let darling know about this! Unlike me, darling isn't afraid of offending any of the human powers!" Serilla cursed under her breath as she tried to endure the effects of the drug. Next to her...

"Seri~ I feel...so...so hot...help..." Lucia wasn't having such a swell time. She didn't have a physique like Cecil or Serilla, so naturally the drug was working wonders on her.

"Lulu, we have to endure this. Use your Ki to slowly push the drug out of your system, hurry!"

"U-urk...w-where's Cel...I want my Cel...hic," Lucia began tearing up a little.

"Come on Lulu, think of this as training! We can get through this! Once we finish this training, darling will naturally reward both of us later!"

"Cel? Reward?" Lucia replied in a daze.

"Yes! He'll reward us later!"

"O-okay~ ehehehe, reward~" Lucia closed her eyes in the next moment and began to concentrate and circulate her Ki inside her body.

Once Lucia was focused on the task, Serilla released a relieved sigh and began focusing on her Ki. Quinn was still in the wagon and she hadn't seen him take a single bite out of the food so she deduced that he must be okay.

"Yeah, Quinn is still okay, he'll protect us from the Second Prince throughout the entire night, but what about Fatima?"

******

Inside Fatima's tent, the grunts of a man and the m.o.a.ns of a woman were currently ringing out in the air.

Fatima didn't have the mental fortitude and body constitution that accompanied a Ki cultivator, so she had succ.u.mbed to the aphrodisiac's effects. The only upside to this was that the man she was currently riding was her fiancé.

When they got back and Fatima informed Rowan about the drug that had most likely been slipped into the food they were eating and Rowan immediately grew appalled. He didn't want to take advantage of Fatima, but just as he was about to exit her tent, he was suddenly pushed back down onto the bed.

It wasn't like they hadn't done it before, but Rowan knew that doing things in this situation was wrong. He didn't want to take advantage of his fiancée when she was currently not in her right mind, but Fatima didn't particularly mind. She had been stressed for the past couple of days and her head nearly exploded when she heard that Armano had drugged Serilla and Lucia.

She didn't have to worry about those two because the wagon they were living in had a very sophisticated defense system and also, the butler that was always moving in the background near Lucia and Serilla was there as well.

Fatima saw the respect that the butler had for his two madams, so she didn't worry that the butler might have other thoughts and take advantage of those two. Fatima felt that this butler had some secrets and he was a very powerful individual himself. She didn't have to worry about the two girls' safety with him there.

That's why she was currently releasing her pent up frustrations on the poor man under her.

"H-Honey? N-Not so—"

"Do you want me to stop~?"

"N-No..."

The Prince's retainers were guarding the perimeter tightly and they couldn't help but sigh in relief when they heard the questionable sounds coming from the tent. They were worried that Rowan had a one-sided love for Fatima because of how cold the woman treated their prince.

Also, there were no rumors or sightings of Fatima and Rowan ever sleeping together in the same chamber so now that things had developed in this way, the retainers were happy for their Prince. It wasn't like they had never slept together, but they did it so secretively that Rowan's retainers never once saw them being intimate together.

When anyone tried to approach the tent, the soldiers would immediately stop them, they didn't want their Prince and Princess' romantic time together to be interrupted so because of this, none of Armano's men were able to come and secretly kidnap Fatima from her quarters.

******

On Lucia and Serilla's side, Quinn was currently outside of the wagon wiping down the bloodied dagger in his hand.

While Lucia and Serilla were dealing with their problems on their own, Quinn had taken the liberty to kill all the people that were eyeing their wagon since a while ago. Once he cleaned the dagger, Quinn opened up a vial and poured its contents onto the corpse near his feet.

The contents of the bottle started to disintegrate the corpse and soon, nothing was left. Quinn checked the surrounding area for any more foolhardy people that were looking for death. Once he made sure that was the last of the people, he walked into the wagon and closed the door behind him.

******

"Useless...utterly useless!!! All of you!!!" Armano roared in anger at Gildart and the other men present in his tent.

"Are you saying that all the men we sent died?!"

"Yes, that is indeed the case," Gildart reported. He then proceeded to report to the prince how exactly his men had died and this caused the prince to rethink his actions, but in the end, he still wouldn't give up on those two girls.

Gildart could see this and inwardly, he shook his head. He had seen for himself the butler-like man personally dispatching all the men Armano had sent to take Serilla and Lucia. Gildart was also in horror when he saw the quick and clean way the man had taken out all the people. Even Gildart himself didn't know or see what had happened before Armano's men began dropping to the floor like flies.

Quinn could have remained hidden and let the corpses rot for all he cared, but he had purposefully revealed himself in the end and perfectly cleaned up the scene of his massacre. Quinn only eyed Gildart as if to say 'go report to your master'.

Gildart knew for sure that Quinn had purposefully let him escape so that he would report back to Armano and let him know, that this time was only a warning. The next time, he'd massacre everyone.

His Madams couldn't openly attack Armano, but he was letting the prince know that he could do so at any time AND he wouldn't ever be found out.

Seeing the corpse dissolve under the odd liquid that Quinn had poured onto the corpse earlier caused Gildart to involuntarily shiver in fear. Without a body, no one will know whether or not the Second Prince had been killed, kidnapped, or simply if he had left like he normally did every once in a while.

Armano also got the hidden message that Quinn implied behind his actions, but even so. He still wanted to take Lucia and Serilla for himself. He didn't want to give up and was envious of the luck of those two's husband.

"Gildart... looks like we'll have to get rid of that butler..."

"...My liege..."

"Quiet...I don't care how it's done. I want that man dead," Armano said in a frigid tone.

"...Yes, my lord," Gildart was reluctant. How was he supposed to get rid of that man? It was more likely that the butler will get rid of him and this imbecile instead.

The prince got the message, but how was this imbecile still not willing to turn back before it was too late? He wanted to decline, but having been bound by that contract...he wasn't in any position to disobey his contractor.

'If I die, then I die...I should have been killed all those years ago anyway...' Gildart thought gloomily to himself.

He turned around and quickly walked out of the tent and left the prince to continue raging and cursing by himself.