Damn! Damn! Chapter 42

It was during the tight identification check at the heavily guarded main entrance when it happened. Right after Achim stepped inside, one of the guards standing at the gate suddenly started muttering to himself.

Looking closer, he was speaking into an in-ear monitor attached to his ear. The look on his face seemed incredibly serious, so Achim consciously pricked up his ears to catch the guard’s words.

“…Yes, we will proceed to shut down both the main and rear gates immediately.”

A shutdown? As soon as he overheard the words, the guard hurriedly stepped away, and Achim’s eyes followed his movements.

The guard appeared to be relaying the message to the others guarding the entrance, and soon after, everyone began moving busily.

Sensing that something interesting was going on, Achim intentionally slowed his pace. That was when another guard ran up to him and spoke.

“Please get inside quickly.”

“Pardon?”

When Achim feigned ignorance, the guard firmly pressed down on his in-ear monitor with his middle finger and said,

“There is an intruder inside the mansion. It’s dangerous, so please hurry into the building. I’ll escort you.”

At that, Achim involuntarily scanned the guard from head to toe. If they were to be ambushed by the intruder on the way, he would have to defend and attack at the same time, and he felt like the guy in front of him would only get in the way.

He figured being alone would actually be much safer, but he couldn’t exactly say that out loud. When Achim finally nodded with feigned reluctance, the guard took a step forward to lead the way.

The distance from the main gate to the servants’ quarters was quite far, requiring a lengthy walk.

Walking along without a thought, Achim suddenly had a realization. Actually, aren’t I an intruder too? Then what on earth did this guy break into the mansion for? Could he have come to steal Michael’s semen too?

While Achim was making useless guesses, the guard walking ahead suddenly faltered for a moment, then quickly dashed off somewhere.

Because he had been deep in thought, Achim only looked ahead a moment too late. A few meters away, the silhouette of the guard kneeling on one knee on the ground came into view, along with someone he was holding up for support.

…A casualty?

Wondering if the intruder had harmed a servant, Achim narrowed his eyes. As he closed the distance between them, Achim’s eyes widened in surprise as he recognized the silhouette illuminated by the garden footlights.

“Nils?”

As soon as he confirmed the face, Achim quickly walked over to him.

Kneeling down next to the guard who had accompanied him, Achim examined Nils, his eyes quickly landing on his abdomen.

As if wounded, Nils was pressing down hard on his right abdomen with his hand. Looking closer, dark blood leaking out from the gap in the wound was staining his suit black.

That wasn’t all. Blood was also spreading across his right forearm. In fact, the laceration there looked even more severe than the one on his abdomen, causing a faint crack of tension to ripple across Achim’s face as he watched.

Wounds like this were something he had seen so often in the past that they wouldn’t normally surprise him, but judging by the amount of blood, the injury looked deeper than expected.

Deciding that stopping the bleeding was the priority, Achim pulled his crossbody bag over his head and began rummaging through it.

“Damn it.”

However, failing to find anything useful, Achim let out a brief curse. As he irritably rubbed the back of his neck, the sensation under his fingertips made something flash through his mind.

Achim unwrapped the scarf he had put on before entering the mansion and wrapped it a few times around Nils’s right forearm.

“Ugh.”

As he tied the knot tightly, Nils let out a groan of pain.

For a moment, Achim stared intently at Nils’s wounds as if analyzing them.

Right abdomen and right forearm. …Is he left-handed? Seeing that he was injured in two places but only on the same side, it was highly likely.

“Nils.”

When he called his name in a low voice, Nils barely managed to open his tightly furrowed eyes.

“…Yvonne?”

Achim nodded lightly and asked in a calm tone,

“Which way did he go?”

“…”

Nils remained silent at Achim’s question. Thinking Nils might be confused about who he meant, Achim kindly clarified.

“The guy who put those knife marks on your body. I’m asking which way he bolted.”

At his somewhat rough tone, the accompanying guard and Nils just blinked simultaneously, as if doubting their own ears. Nils thought of the Yvonne he knew alongside the Yvonne in front of him, wondering if this might be a dream.

Staring down at Nils, who was hesitating to answer, Achim eventually let out a deep sigh. He glanced toward the main building and asked,

“Did he happen to go toward the main building?”

“…Yvonne.”

When Achim met his eyes again at the call, Nils struggled to squeeze out his words, stammering.

“Don’t tell me… you’re, ugh… planning to pursue… him?”

Nils looked at him with startled eyes as he just stared back without a word. He had asked just in case, but for Yvonne to pursue the guy—what could be more dangerous and pointless than that?

Stunned by the silent affirmation, Nils eventually forced his body up from the ground.

“No… ugh, you can’t, Yvonne.”

“…”

“Personnel have been deployed, so it’s fine… And…”

“…”

“I was told to protect you… the moment you were found…”

At Nils’s words, Achim opened his lips to ask who said that, but closed them. It was because he felt he knew without even hearing it.

Did some strange trust build up in the meantime? Because that guy constantly showed such concern for Yvonne, it seemed like even Achim was now taking it for granted.

“Nils.”

Besides, who was protecting whom? No matter how well that guy knew how to stifle his footsteps and how brutally strong he was, his ability to keep his own body safe could never surpass Achim’s. This meant the worry he offered out of consideration was, in truth, completely useless.

“Left, right, or center. Which way did he go?”

Therefore, it was Achim who had to step up and protect him right now. If that guy accidentally lost his life, everything would fall apart. Even if he had to face a crisis like last time, protection came first.

As Achim just stared intently at him to press for an answer, Nils reluctantly squeezed his eyes shut, opened them, and said it was the left.

Achim lightly patted his uninjured thigh twice as if to reassure him.

Just as Achim was about to stand up, he suddenly let out an “Ah” sound and knelt back down, drawing the eyes of both Nils and the guard toward him at the same time.

“You said personnel are on the way, right?”

The guard nodded in a daze. He seemed startled by a reaction that was clearly far from ordinary.

However, having no time to care about anyone’s thoughts right now, Achim offered a faint smile toward the guard supporting Nils and said,

“Take Nils to the hospital immediately.”

“…”

“I’ll borrow this.”

It was just when the guard looked down at the hard-to-understand words. When he confirmed that his own handgun—which he didn’t even realize had been taken—was sitting in Achim’s hand, the guard’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“W-When did…”

Leaving the startled guard’s reaction behind, Achim stood up while holding the handgun.

“Press down hard. Unless you want to die of excessive bleeding.”

As he gave the advice, looking at Nils whose grip on his wound had grown loose, the man snapped out of it and called, “Yvonne!”

But Achim had already turned his back.

Achim immediately dashed toward the left side of the main building, just as Nils had said.

Whatever the reason for breaking into the mansion, the target would definitely be the master of the estate, Michael Bernhard. Is having too good of a public image a problem too? Seriously, he should have moderated his acting. I’m realizing this time around that appearing too soft is a problem in itself.

Following Martina, the guy was facing another threshold where his life hung in the balance. Achim couldn’t help but think that the guy’s life wasn’t exactly smooth sailing either.

Achim opened the door to the left side of the main building and slipped inside. Because the sun had set, darkness had settled into every nook and cranny of the building.

After scanning the surroundings with a practiced, lowered stance, Achim quickly hid himself in a pitch-black spot.

It was a mystery how anyone had sneaked into a place with such heavy security. Moreover, to easily breach even a reasonably trained guard—whoever it was, they were definitely no ordinary expert. Or perhaps they were from a mercenary background like him.

Achim leaned his back against the wall, listening intently for any sign of presence.

Whether the guards who were inside the main building had been lured out, or whether it was quiet because they had already all been taken care of, was impossible to know right at this moment.