Chapter 97: ⁹⁷Two Predators On The Same Path

​Duke Alaric’s cold laughter shattered the deathly silence at the northern gates of the Rosenberg Fortress.

​The laughter didn’t boom. It was merely a low rumble in his throat—the sound of an absolute ruler who had just been treated to an expensive joke by a rat. The freezing aura radiating from the Duke’s body locked the air in place. Snowflakes seemed to freeze, refusing to fall to the earth.

​"Fine."

​That single word dropped like a steel sledgehammer striking an anvil. Absolute.

​The gate guards, who had been holding their breath, tensed in unison. Their eyes darted to one another, their faces turning pale. The offended Duke would normally decapitate an uninvited guest right then and there. Yet this time, he actually agreed to an insane proposal.

​Alaric pivoted his massive frame. He looked up, staring at the fortress walls that towered dozens of meters high. His pale blue eyes narrowed sharply, piercing through the blizzard.

​"Valera!"

​Alaric’s baritone boomed, echoing loudly against the ancient stone walls.

​Atop the defensive walls, Valera Voss straightened her back. The female knight’s face was as cold as ice, tightly locking away all her emotions. The north wind whipped roughly at her brown bangs. Her golden eyes stared straight down, concealing the storm currently raging in her chest.

​"Come down. You will escort this brat," Alaric commanded with absolute authority.

​It was a flat order, yet laden with the prestige of power. Alaric wasn’t handing Valera over to Ethan like spoils of war. The Northern Bear was merely lending out his favorite fang as a form of surveillance.

​Valera didn’t reply with words.

​She stepped to the edge of the stone parapet. She adopted a light stance, then let gravity pull her down from the ten-meter height.

​Thud!

​Her knees bent slightly. She landed perfectly on the thick blanket of snow, almost soundlessly. Her black armor clinked softly, showcasing the physical agility of a high-tier knight ready to kill at a moment’s notice.

​"Your orders, My Lord?" Valera asked professionally. She bowed her head, paying her respects.

​Alaric pointed at Ethan with his chin. "This brat is too arrogant, offering you as a prize of victory. Let him first prove his worth to promise me anything. Meanwhile... follow him. Escort his hunt."

​Alaric narrowed his eyes. "And most importantly, don’t let him stab you in the back."

​Valera glanced up briefly, then returned to staring straight ahead. "Understood."

​Merely two steps away, Ethan Valen stood tall. His hands were casually hidden beneath his dark cloak. He watched the theatrical display of power with an almost invisible smirk.

​Not surprised. Not offended. Everything was going exactly according to his calculations.

​Alaric cast one last glance at Ethan. His gaze was condescending, as if evaluating a frozen corpse. After a rough snort, the Duke turned and marched inside.

​The giant iron-wood gates were pushed open by the guards.

​"Bring your sword, Valera," Alaric said without looking back. "And if he breaches the agreement... just chop his head off."

​All the soldiers at the gates stared at Valera with a mixture of awe and horror. Valera merely placed her right fist over her left chest. A knight’s salute. Brief and lethal.

​Creeaak... BOOM!

​The giant gates slammed shut tightly once again. The screech of its iron hinges separated the warmth of the fortress from the wildness of the outside world.

​Valera was given a brief moment to prepare.

​She walked with confident strides down the damp military barracks corridor. As she walked, she pulled off her leather gloves. Along the hallway, other soldiers stared at her from afar. None dared to approach, but their mouths could not be silenced.

​"Tch, I can’t believe Lady Valera has to go out with that Valen dog..." a young soldier whispered.

​"Shh! Watch your mouth!" his older comrade elbowed him. "The Lord Duke surely has a plan. Don’t meddle in it."

​Valera heard it. Clearly. Yet she didn’t turn her head in the slightest. Her hand pushed the door to her room and she stepped inside.

​The room was stuffy and lifeless. There was only a wooden bed, a small table, and a weapon rack.

​She moved efficiently. She grabbed two short daggers, then slipped them neatly behind her belt. Several extra layers of protective armor were equipped deftly. Her movements only halted when she faced a giant Zweihander leaning against the wall.

​Her bare fingers brushed against the hilt of the greatsword. The coldness of the steel flowed into her palm.

​Time seemed to stand still.

​The torturous nights in Granderer flashed rapidly through her mind. The blood of traitors. Alaric’s cold commands. Kurt’s increasingly shattered mental state. The silence of this fortress was slowly eating away at her sanity. She was sick of it. So sick of it that she felt like tearing down these stone walls with her own bare hands.

​However, behind that emptiness... there was something else.

​A dark promise pulsing softly on the left side of her neck. The rose-shaped Lust Brand reminding her of the absolute dominance of her true Master.

​Valera let out a long sigh. Her own reflection bounced off the blade of the sword.

​"He really came..." she whispered almost soundlessly.

​A faint smile—extremely faint—dawned on her lips. She grabbed the Zweihander, strapped it to her back, and stepped back out into the blizzard.

​The outer gates creaked open once more.

​Ethan was already waiting at the end of the stone bridge. As soon as Valera stepped out in full armor with her giant sword, the young man pivoted.

​There was no greeting. Valera automatically assumed a position beside Ethan. An absolute guard formation.

​They walked side by side, tracing the rocky path buried under the snow. From atop the watchtowers, dozens of pairs of eyes kept spying on their backs until the mist swallowed everything.

​There was only the howl of the north wind and the crunch of snow shattering beneath their boots.

​When the silhouette of the Granderer Fortress completely vanished, swallowed by the dense frozen pines, Valera finally broke the silence.

​"Hah... you’re completely insane," Valera said, her breath billowing in the freezing air.

​Ethan glanced over from the corner of his dark brown eyes. "Tch. Are you just realizing that now, Valera?"

​Valera snorted roughly. "I’m serious, My Lord. Showing up alone. Insulting Duke Alaric in front of his army. Then demanding me like some spoils of war? This isn’t reckless. It’s suicide."

​"I didn’t ask for you as an object." Ethan’s voice was calm, yet the pressure of Sin Mana behind it made the hairs on her neck stand up. "I asked for you... as mine."

​Valera’s steps faltered.

​The rhythm of her gait wavered for a split second. The word mine struck her ears with a strange resonance. Not out of feeling degraded. But because no man had ever dared to claim her with such absolute possessiveness without causing her wolf instincts to rebel.

​Valera swallowed hard, forcing herself to turn her head and challenge Ethan’s gaze.

​"Then what if Alaric figures out your true intentions? What if he realizes you’re not here purely to hunt Serpent Tongue, but it’s just a cover to take me?"

​"He won’t figure it out," Ethan cut her off coldly. "And even if he realizes it in the end, he still won’t be able to stop me."

​Valera frowned. She looked for a crack of doubt in the young man’s eyes, but found nothing but a bottomless abyss.

​"So, you think I no longer obey him? You think I’m no longer his?" Valera challenged.

​Ethan’s steps came to a sudden halt.

​The young man pivoted, fully facing Valera. His brown eyes sharpened, piercing right through the knight’s golden irises. The distance between them was drastically cut. An aura of dominance exploded from Ethan’s cloak, pressing down on the oxygen supply around them.

​"Drill this into your head," Ethan hissed lethally, emphasizing every syllable heavily. "You were never his, Valera."

​Valera was silenced. Her jaw clamped shut tightly.

​She hastily averted her gaze toward the rows of pines. Amidst the extreme sub-zero temperature, somehow her cheeks felt hot.

​The two of them resumed their walk, penetrating the heart of the border forest. Frozen pines towered like giant pillars supporting the gray sky. The smell of dead moss and wet earth dominated the air.

​An hour passed. The landscape opened up to a small clearing.

​In the center perched the ruins of an ancient stone building, half-buried in snow. The remnants of a guard outpost from hundreds of years ago. Its roof had collapsed, but its walls were still sturdy enough to withstand the battering wind.

​"We’ll stop here," Ethan decided, stepping into the ruins.

​Valera stopped at the ruined threshold. Her golden eyes scanned the surroundings with tactical instincts. "Why here? We’re still too close to the fortress patrols."

​"Because I want to talk privately."

​Ethan turned his head. His hands loosened the clasp of his thick cloak, letting the fabric slide down onto a block of marble stone. The young man’s eyes darkened. "And you know exactly what I mean by talk."

​Valera swallowed hard. Her heart pounded brutally against her ribs.

​She knew. She knew very well the meaning of that predatory gaze.

​Slowly, a lopsided smile bloomed on Valera’s lips. She stepped inside. Her leather gloves were pulled off and tossed into the snow. Her Zweihander sword was leaned against the stone wall. Clang!

​"You never change," Valera whispered hoarsely. She stepped forward, eliminating the distance between them. "Still a selfish demon who loves to make demands."

​Ethan’s hands shot out, grabbing the waist of Valera’s armor. With one rough pull, the knight’s body was thrown against his broad chest.

​"And you love it," Ethan replied.

​There was no more chatter. No more small talk.

​Ethan captured Valera’s lips in an incredibly demanding and ferocious kiss. Valera didn’t struggle; she returned it with equal brutality. This wasn’t an interaction between master and bodyguard. These were two starving wolves finally pouncing on each other after being caged for far too long.

​Ethan stripped off several pieces of Valera’s armor with forceful precision. The woman’s warm skin was immediately stung by the freezing air, but in the next second, it burned from the flow of Sin Mana seeping from Ethan’s fingertips.

​"M-My Lord... ahh!"

​Valera’s groan broke out. She grabbed Ethan’s black shirt, clutching it desperately.

​"Don’t hold back," Ethan whispered hoarsely right into her ear. His dominance grew increasingly merciless.

​"D-damn it... shut up!" Valera hissed with rapid, chaotic breaths. Her eyes were squeezed shut tightly. "The patrols outside might hear us... ahhn! W-wait, slow down a bit...!"

​Instead of complying, Ethan injected a far denser stream of Sin Mana. His focal point was aimed at the left side of Valera’s neck.

​The rose-shaped Lust Brand there reacted instantly. It glowed a blackish red, piercing through her skin.

​A pain mixed with absolute pleasure exploded, completely electrifying Valera’s neural circuits. Her head jerked up stiffly. Her golden eyes nearly rolled to the back of her head as she was battered by a wave of ecstasy that pulverized her ego.

​Left with no choice, Valera hugged Ethan’s neck tightly. She buried her face, biting down on the young man’s shoulder with all her might just to muffle her own screams.

​Ethan didn’t flinch. His wolf knight’s bite didn’t stop him in the slightest. That wild sensation actually triggered the Demon King’s conquering instincts, forcing him to demand that every fragment of the woman’s soul bow and crawl beneath his feet.

​When the storm subsided, the ancient ruins fell silent once more. Filled only with the sound of rapid, heavy panting.

​Valera sat leaning limply against Ethan’s chest. The young man’s body heat served as a shield from the snowy wind. Sweat drenched her forehead and pale neck.

​"You damn bastard demon..." she cursed in a hoarse voice, almost a whisper.

​Ethan stroked Valera’s brown hair. A low chuckle vibrated in his chest. "You asked for it."

​Valera closed her eyes, hiding her fiercely flushed face. "Jerk."

​The transition from wild passion back to combat professionalism happened incredibly fast. After adjusting her clothes and armor, Valera reverted to being a cold-blooded assassin knight. She sat on a clean stone block, resting her Zweihander on her lap. Despite her stern face, there was a new sense of relief lingering in her golden eyes—she was no longer fighting alone.

​Ethan leaned against a remaining pillar, crossing his arms.

​"So, where are those rats nesting?" Ethan fired straight to the point.

​Valera stared straight toward the forest that was beginning to be gnawed away by twilight. "The Serpent Tongue organization is very slippery. They broke their formation after Alaric tightened the patrols. Now, they’re scattered around the western valley."

​Valera snapped a small twig, then scratched a rough map on the snow.

​"From my covert surveillance last month... there are three blind spots," Valera pointed at her scratches. "Two of them are abandoned mineral mines. But the most crucial one is the third spot. Located at the edge of the valley, an underground worship temple ruins. It’s heavily concealed."

​Ethan’s dark brown eyes scanned the ice map. Route calculations and a slaughter scheme began to form neatly in his head.

​"Are you sure their higher-ups are hiding there?"

​"A hundred percent," Valera looked up. "That’s their poison distribution hub. Destroy that temple, behead their commander, and the rest of them in the north will be completely paralyzed. But their defenses must be insane. Are you ready for a bloodbath?"

​Ethan turned his face away, staring at the expanse of pines to the west.

​"We’re not going to attack blindly," Ethan replied casually, adorned with an exceptionally cold, lethal smile. "We’ll kill them one by one. Break their branches, slit their throats, and rip out their roots completely clean."

​Hearing that promise of efficient slaughter, a feral smirk formed on Valera’s lips. Her combat instincts, forced to slumber while at the fortress, now screamed to be unleashed.

​"You and me. Two wolves in a snake pit," Valera chuckled. Her thumb gently stroked the hilt of her greatsword. "This is going to be a very fun hunt."

​"Indeed." Ethan leaned down slightly, locking onto Valera’s gaze. "But remember my rule... don’t you dare die on my watch, Valera."

​Valera met that intimidation with the arrogant smile typical of a veteran knight. She stood up, slinging her sword back over her shoulder with one fluid swing.

​"Don’t worry, My Lord. This wolf of yours knows exactly how to rip out her prey’s throat."

​The late afternoon sun finally set on the northern horizon. The shadows of the pines elongated like claws across the expanse of snow.

​Amidst the dead ruins, the two deadliest predators had locked onto their targets. Without another word, Ethan and Valera stepped side by side through the storm.

​The bloody hunt to tear down Serpent Tongue upon the frozen lands had finally begun.