I Tamed the Slave Male Lead Chapter 13

***

 

 

“…Are you seriously making such a fuss over getting your neck grabbed for just a moment?”

When the woman’s face turned pale and she looked genuinely as though she was about to stop breathing, Yusiliph eventually did as she asked. He brought her a warm, damp cloth and placed it over her neck, looking utterly dumbfounded.

With bluish veins standing out at her temples, she lay on the bed and finally managed to breathe steadily before speaking primly.

“Be more careful from now on. Cough, as you can see, I’m rather fragile.”

She even rolled up her sleeve to show him the bruise on her elbow.

“Look at this. I got hurt because you threw me out earlier.”

Her pure-white arm, with blue veins showing beneath the skin, looked as fragile as a winter tree branch. Seeing the large bruise on it, Yusiliph clicked his tongue.

“How sheltered were you raised to be this physically weak?”

“Sheltered? Didn’t you hear me yesterday? I may look like this, but I survived being poisoned. Though, of course, there was a chance I would have died if it weren’t for you.”

At Arabella’s self-deprecating joke, Yusiliph merely shrugged.

A little while later, after confirming that Arabella’s breathing had stabilized, he asked again.

“You seem fine now, so tell me. How can I save Alin?”

“Hoo.”

Arabella removed the cloth from her neck and sat up. Her coughing had stopped, but the bruise on her exposed arm remained.

For some reason, Yusiliph found himself looking toward it, so he quickly averted his gaze and tried to concentrate on what she was saying.

“To save Alin, we have to enter the Magic Tower. But as you know, the Tower Master is not someone we can take lightly. On top of that, he’s obsessed with collecting other races. There’s no way he’ll willingly hand over Alin, a quarter-elf he went to such lengths to acquire. No matter how much money we offer him.”

“So?”

“Therefore, we have to offer him something he truly needs as payment.”

“Something he truly needs.”

“Yes.”

“And you already know what that is.”

“That’s right.”

“……”

Yusiliph stared intently at her, silently telling her to continue.

“And to obtain it, you absolutely have to become stronger than you are now. Your current abilities aren’t nearly enough. Becoming a Swordmaster would be ideal.”

At her words, he let out a faint laugh.

“A Swordmaster. Are you serious?”

“Did you forget? That was one of my promises, too. I promised to save Alin, free you from slavery, and make you a Swordmaster.”

“……”

Yusiliph looked at Arabella as though she were a con artist.

A Swordmaster?

No matter how naturally gifted a warrior Yusiliph was, becoming a Swordmaster was an entirely different matter. It was a realm that one could barely reach even after combining heaven-given talent, extraordinary opportunities, and more than a decade of training.

That was precisely why Crown Prince Sota, who had become a Swordmaster in his twenties, was so revered.

Yet despite his unimpressed expression, she continued speaking without wavering.

“I can’t explain how, but I really do know a way for you to become a Swordmaster.”

There it was again. ‘I can’t explain.’

Just as another sarcastic retort was about to leave Yusiliph’s mouth, she beat him to it, as though cutting him off.

“To be precise, I can’t make you into a Swordmaster myself. But…”

Yusiliph’s brow furrowed again.

“I can bring you the means to become one.”

Arabella flashed him a grin, as though she were hiding some grand scheme.

 

***

 

The corridor was so dark that it was difficult to make out even what lay directly ahead.

Rustle. Thump.

“Ouch.”

I stepped on the hem of my skirt and stumbled, bumping into Yusiliph’s back as he walked ahead of me. He whispered as though I were hopeless.

“Didn’t you repeatedly tell me never to make a sound because we mustn’t get caught?”

“…Sorry. I can’t see anything.”

I apologized for now and rubbed my aching nose.

Yusiliph’s bones and muscles had to be made of something completely different from mine. Judging by how numb my nose felt, it was like I had crashed into concrete.

But this was a serious problem.

Even if there wasn’t a single light on in the corridor, was it really possible for me to be unable to see this badly?

Apparently, Arabella wasn’t simply physically weak. Even her sensory organs, such as her eyesight and hearing, seemed to be deficient.

I nearly stumbled again and let out a helpless little sigh when Yusiliph grumbled coldly.

“You’re practically blind. At this rate, we’ll be caught before we even reach the study, so grab onto my clothes.”

With that, he stopped walking for a moment and waited silently.

After hesitating, I reached out and grabbed his shirt. Only then did he resume walking.

Walking while holding onto his warm shirt, still carrying the heat of his body, made me feel strangely uncomfortable.

‘He was trying to break my neck just a little while ago, and now I’m relying on him for my safety.’

In a way, my life really was in his hands.

As long as obtaining the elixir kept by the Imperial Family remained out of reach, his blood was the only treatment capable of stabilizing my condition.

‘Sorry, Yusiliph. I think I’ve just gained even more reasons to stick as close to you as possible.’

Clinging tightly to his clothes as though they were the only rope keeping me from falling, I walked while staring at his back.

Then my foot caught on a section of floor without carpeting, and I nearly buried my nose in his back again.

Zing.

His eyes turned toward me, so murderous that I instinctively hunched my shoulders.

Seeing me like that, he let out a deep sigh as though the entire earth had sunk beneath him, then began walking a little more slowly than before.

That made it much easier for me to keep up with his pace.

‘He may seem completely unreasonable, but he’s surprisingly considerate sometimes.’

As I walked while thinking that, we soon reached our destination.

“Here?”

He whispered as he stood before a massive oak door.

This was none other than the head of the family’s study.

It had once belonged to Arabella’s father, Roderick, but Greham was currently occupying the room instead.

“Yes. It should definitely be here.”

When I nodded, Yusiliph grabbed the handle without hesitation and pushed the door.

Click.

But the door didn’t budge.

“It’s locked.”

Yusiliph tilted his head and began applying enough force to rip the handle off, but I barely managed to stop him.

I gestured for him to wait, then carefully turned over the picture frame hanging beside the study door.

After struggling for quite some time to remove the fastening frame behind it, I finally found a key carefully hidden inside.

When I held up the key with a broad smile, he raised an eyebrow as if to say, Not bad.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“Luckily, it’s still here.”

Back when Arabella was only seven years old and still lived in this mansion with her parents, she frequently came and spent time beside Roderick in this study.

Whenever she sat beside him while he worked, scribbling crooked letters or drawing pictures to show him, he would always praise her as his “clever and beautiful daughter” and lift her up into his arms.

It had happened a very long time ago, yet those memories were engraved in Arabella’s mind more vividly than her recent memories.

That was also why she remembered the place where Roderick had taught her to keep a spare key.

Seeing the key, Yusiliph shrugged.

“So, what happens after we get inside the study?”

“We have to steal the head of the family’s seal from my uncle and get out.”

“Do you know where it is?”

“Well, I have a pretty good idea, but we’ll have to get inside first.”

I put on a brave front and unlocked the door with the key.

Creeeak.

But once we actually entered the study, my mind became even more muddled.

Arabella’s recent memories were quite hazy, while her memories of this study were, strangely enough, much clearer from the distant past.

Trying not to panic, I crossed the dark study and headed straight for the desk.

I opened the drawer where Roderick used to keep his seal, but instead of the seal, it was filled with envelopes.

Disappointed, I was about to close the drawer when the moonlight coming through the window suddenly fell across the envelopes, making the name written on one of them visible.

<Recipient—Arabella Maiona>

‘What is this?’

I absentmindedly picked up the envelope, when Yusiliph suddenly approached me and whispered,

“Someone’s coming.”

“What?”

Before I had time to respond, Yusiliph grabbed me and pulled me down, hiding us behind the desk.

I instinctively crumpled the envelope against my chest and held my breath.

His breathing, with him practically holding me in his arms, tickled my ear.