The Seventh Prince Runs Away from Awkward Situations Chapter 80

Dito tilted his head at the unsightly entrance and watched me jump down from the window.

Dito read the shallow gladness that briefly appeared on the Duke's face.

Although I was still stuttering because of my uneven breathing, my eyes were clearly staring at Dito.

I wasn't an unfamiliar face.

A stupid 7th Prince with no ability and strong pride.

I, who looked at other brothers soaked in inferiority, was Dito's next experiment subject.

I was a half-wit who always lowered my head and glanced around carefully.

However, the guy in front of his eyes didn't show the characteristic servility of those who are at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Is this guy really the 7th Prince?

For a moment, the shock and pleasure as if the gap that had been widening in Dito's head was being filled hit him hard.

Rasia, whose condition was briefly improving, the Duke who suddenly stepped forward at the hunting festival, and the three gathered at the exact timing like a lie.

“Haha……!”

Dito laughed as if he found it absurd.

His target instantly changed to me.

My neck was ruthlessly grabbed by Dito's hand in an instant.

“It was you. Things were creaking because of you, right?”

Perhaps because his grip was tightening around my neck more and more, I frowned, but I didn't avoid Dito's eyes.

“To think it would be trash like you. To not notice this, I am stupid too. There is no way you could have avoided things like a rat alone…… Ah, did you perhaps join hands with older sister?”

“Ugh…….”

I slowly shook my head even while desperately opening my mouth to breathe through the narrow hole.

“Since when has it been like this? From the beginning? Have you been deceiving everyone all along? Did you also come to defeat me like those guys? Do you have more hidden power?”

Despite the ceaseless questions and the grip pressing on my neck, I didn't lose my composure.

“I don't have the power to defeat you.”

I continued my words as if spitting them out sporadically.

Power? Then a sneer hung on Dito's face as if asking if there was something else.

“If you are trying to use petty tricks that won't work, stop it.”

Strength was gradually put into Dito's hand.

He was tightening with the momentum to break my neck.

I, who instinctively grabbed Dito's hand, urgently opened my mouth.

“I will teach you, cough! Where the Red Book is.”

The strength loosened from Dito's hand.

The Duke stared blankly at the sight of color returning to my face which had turned blue.

Red Book? What is that?

Although he couldn't know what it was, it seemed certain that it was something important.

Because the smile completely disappeared from Dito's expression.

“How do you know that?”

“Is that important? The important thing is that I know where it is.”

Dito roughly put me down on the floor.

I sat down while coughing roughly.

“You haven't learned how to make a deal properly. You, who have no power, cannot propose a deal even if you hold a card.”

It was unfortunate, but they were correct words.

Duke Piteos looked at me without being able to hide his anxious look.

Since I revealed myself in this place, it was no different from me having no cards anymore.

In this situation where I fell into the 2nd Prince's hands, Dito would make me spit out what he wanted by using any method.

However, it didn't seem like that young Prince wouldn't know that.

Maybe he came here to buy time and is dealing with Dito.

No, even if that wasn't it, he couldn't lie down like this leaving everything to him.

Duke Piteos carefully moved his right leg to check and didn't take his eyes off me and Dito.

Amidst everyone in the room watching me, I opened my mouth.

“That is not my card. And this isn't a deal either. I can teach you where the Red Book is right now.”

Spitting out a few dry coughs, I said stutteringly.

Dito narrowed his brow as if he didn't understand my vague words.

“What does that…….”

“The Red Book is inside Prince Rasia's coffin.”

Dito didn't rashly get angry at me for daring to cut off his words.

No, he seemed to have forgotten to get angry.

Because he was busy turning his gaze urgently to the Imperial Castle visible outside the window.

Watching that appearance, the corners of my mouth went up crookedly.

“The Emperor ordered to burn Rasia's corpse as soon as possible and hold the funeral. You would know the reason for that best.”

Dito's red bloodshot eyes turned towards me.

“I don't know how you bastard knew about the Red Book, but if you are trying to buy time with lies,”

“You have to believe.”

Dito had no choice but to stop talking this time too.

It was because of a piece of paper I took out from my bosom.

That thing with something densely written on it was ordinary paper with a torn mark on one corner, as if it had been torn from where it was originally attached.

Just a part of a book with no particular characteristics.

The specialness of the page was revealed as I slowly brought it to the moonlight coming in through the window.

Faint letters emerged between the shadows of the paper created by the moonlight.

“Because one page is here.”

Dito looked at me with an expression of disbelief.

It didn't last long.

Because in the very next moment, due to an action I took, his emotion changed to shock beyond surprise.

“What are you doing!”

I threw the single piece of paper into the burning flames without hesitation.

The paper burned up in an instant, turned to ash, and disappeared.

It was a disaster that happened before he could do anything about it.

Even though Dito urgently put out the fire, the paper had already disappeared without a trace.

“You…….”

Dito glared at me as if he would burn me like burnt paper, but I was just calm.

I looked at the Imperial Castle out the window.

“The same things are inside Rasia's coffin too. Since they were putting the coffin on top of the firewood when I came out, there must be about 20 minutes left now. If you don't return within that time, the Red Book will disappear from the world forever. Will you delay further?”

He wasn't the one who couldn't respond to the deal.

There was no deal in the first place.

Dito, trapped inside the maze I created, was merely being guided by the clues I gave.

Flames rose in Dito's eyes.

***

Am I really going to die like this?

At the feeling of my life being in danger, which I hadn't felt in a long time, I made eye contact with Dito without even being able to swallow my saliva.

It was the first time facing a villain this close.

His brutally cruel eyes were flashing as if he would tear me apart.

“Instead of killing you, there is also a method of dragging you like this and giving you pain worse than death. Until you spit out everything you know.”

Right.

That would be the most comfortable method for Dito.

If he takes me, who might know the contents of the Red Book, he would at least break even.

Although it was the worst option for me.

Dito must have read the answer in my eyes.

“Foolish. If you had rather run far away, you would have lived a little longer.”

The reason Dito's sneer didn't feel that unpleasant must be because I entirely agreed with his words.

Really foolish.

If I had bought a little more time to think, no, if I had at least accepted Mentil's proposal, I wouldn't have needed to reveal myself in front of the world's greatest villain.

A smile hung on his face.

It seemed he tried to smile playfully like he used to when he was by Rasia's side, but what hung on his face was a distorted, bizarre smile.

“We can just go together. Since I just lost a brother.”

It seemed the word brother was becoming something like a new toy to him.

I looked at the hand Dito extended for a moment, then met his gaze with eyes full of cruelty.

Perhaps because it hadn't been long since he absorbed Rasia's power, he seemed unable to conceal his excitement.

If I get caught like this, I won't die, but it was obvious I wouldn't avoid painful situations.

It's useless to imagine the pain to come.

The best method is to empty my mind and focus on my senses.

I steadied my breathing.

Once a choice is made, it cannot be reversed.

The rest is just bearing it.

I waited obediently for him to snatch me to not provoke the excited Dito.

Thud.

I would have done so if two swords suddenly appearing from behind hadn't blocked Dito.

“I don't know what happened to everyone's heads…….”

Dito sneered at the owner of the sword aiming at the tip of his nose.

“You could die comfortably if you just lay down, so I don't know why you are making a stupid choice.”

I turned my head and looked at the fool blocking his stomach with difficulty with his left hand and the fool clutching his twisted leg.

Especially Ratel, who boasted monster-like resilience.

Didn't he come to his senses too quickly considering his stomach was pierced?

Fortunately, it seemed recovery happened faster than I thought.

Relief wrapped around my whole body along with the illusion that strength was draining from my body.

Ratel will survive.

Although not as per the original work's content, at least he won't die at Dito's hands.

“Just leave this and get lost.”

No, maybe he might die.

One of Dito's eyebrows went up at Ratel's kind suggestion, and my heart dropped just slightly.

Could I have imagined that his merit of not succumbing to an opponent stronger than himself immediately after a fight where victory and defeat were already decided would threaten my life like this?

“Do you have time to delay further?”

Ratel, who wouldn't care whether my heart shriveled or not, said to Dito.

“Or have you lost your reason to the point you can't even hear this sound?”

The identity of the sound Ratel mentioned was revealed before long.

The sound of horse hooves.

People were crowding in.

“The Prince wouldn't wish to be seen by other Imperial Family members either.”

Duke Piteos also informed Dito that he didn't have much time left.

I felt the strength slowly loosening from Dito's grasp.

“Will you delay more time?”

Breathing in the eased breath, I urged him.

***

“Will you delay more time?”

I asked.

It was an urge taking the form of a question.

Eventually, Dito admitted defeat.

“Right, I have no choice but to admit it. I can't stay here any longer.”

Dito approached the window as if accepting the fact that he couldn't delay time any longer.

He stepped on the window frame and looked at the people remaining in the room.

Dito's gleam in his eyes scanning them, the losers and winners, was bloody.

“Even if you escape the situation here, it's useless. Because becoming a fugitive is no different from turning the world into an enemy. Everything in the world will become Abalan's eyes and ears and chase you.”

The Duke knew that these were not words simply meant to scare.

Even at this moment, the Duke's heart was heavy with guilt for going against the god's will.

Everyone in the world would treat him as a sinner more than he did himself.

So even if he escaped death now, a future more painful than dying might be waiting.

Maybe facing death at the god's hand like this might be a better choice.

“Still……, still we will run away, Your Highness.”

Words of apology stuck in his throat, but the Duke held back from spitting them out.

Dito looked at him with strange eyes and threw his body out the window.

Duke Piteos, who couldn't take his eyes off that sight, lost strength in his legs and slumped down.

He couldn't believe it.

He really survived.

Only then did the surrounding situation begin to be visible.

The top of the tower on the verge of collapsing from fire, corpses rolling on the floor, and them who survived.

Along with the sense of reality, the sense of crisis that they had to run away revived together.

“Y, Your Highness.”

Duke Piteos called me with a trembling voice.

There were many things he wanted to say and ask.

More than anything else, this time he wanted to save me.

He limped and approached me, who was slumped by the window.

Thinking he should support his life savior.

But in the next moment,

“Jing, get back!”

Ratel shouted and reached out his arm toward Duke Piteos.

The Duke was thinking absurdly that it was the first time he saw Ratel raise his voice like that.

Simultaneously with his shout, he saw me raising my messy body and running toward him.

The reason could be known before long.

A long arrow of fire flew in from outside the window.

Duke Piteos stared blankly at the sharp tip piercing my back.

He felt the hot energy passing through me and warming his chest area.

The fire that pierced both of us extended behind Duke Piteos's back and slowly died down.

Very slowly, no, perhaps very quickly, the Duke and I fell.

Duke Piteos could only stare blankly at me slowly falling amidst the flames.

“Even if it's a good card, if I can't hold it in my hand, there is no need for it to exist in this world.”

Outside, Dito's voice mixed with laughter was fading away.

***

Ratel, left alone, staggered toward the two of us who had fallen while clutching his stomach where pain still remained.

Surrounded by the smell of burning flesh and white smoke, the two bodies were sprawled like inorganic matter.

Ratel calmly looked at my wound.

Although stabbed from behind, it was exactly where the heart was located.

If it pierced through, I wouldn't have survived.

If it really pierced through.

“Now get up since it's over.”

At Ratel's voice, I opened my eyes sparklingly.

“Oh shit, cough! I really thought I was dying.”

I, who raised my body while spitting out dry coughs, curled my body for a moment as if the wound on my back was stinging.

Although I was pale and a bit worn out, I was alive perfectly fine to the point of absurdity.

Whether the pain subsided, I turned my head, and my black eyes turned towards Ratel.

I was smiling.

Drawing a smile that couldn't be distinguished whether I was happy or despondent, I opened my mouth.

“Nice to meet you, Ratel.”

It was to the extent that one's pulse would relax at that carefree greeting.

The fatigue of the body that he had been suppressing with obstinacy and mental strength covered Ratel all at once.

He slowly slumped down on the spot and tried to open his heavy eyelids somehow, but it was useless.

Because he scraped up and exhausted even the stamina remaining at the bottom to bluff in front of the 2nd Prince.

Amidst his vision going black, my troubled voice brushed past his ears.

“Two people is a bit beyond my power…….”