The Cat Who Weeps in the Dark - Chapter 86

Helion cast his gaze upon the remaining knights, tilting his head at an angle.

“Hmm.”

At his agonizing murmur, the knights’ faces turned ashen. What he was contemplating was obvious. He was figuring out how to devour them.

“It’s better this way, actually. With this incident, I can purge all of Damian’s little leeches from the palace.”

It was a horrifying conclusion. The knights, categorized as Damian’s leeches, fell to their knees, their faces stark white.

“No, Your Highness! We are your men!”

“Whose permission did you get?”

Helion asked, as if genuinely curious. The knights glanced nervously at the unconscious Knight Commander. They were in this palace because the Knight Commander had ordered their deployment here.

Thinking about it, it was truly so. Only a very few individuals had been stationed here by Helion’s own choice. Katie was one of them.

‘I must have been out of my f*****g mind! Why the hell did I do something like this?’

Only then did the knights regret their idiotic actions. Swept up in the atmosphere of everyone cursing Katie, they had gone too far, way too far.

Katie was Helion’s woman. Unlike them, who were merely deployed, she was someone he had personally recruited and placed as his guard.

Having dared to touch such a person, they might genuinely be f*****g expelled if they weren’t careful.

Expulsion wasn’t something only Katie feared. A knight cast out of the palace had nowhere to stand.

A knight had to be honorable. But one expelled from the palace was treated as a disgraced wretch. An expelled knight would not only be rejected by other noble houses but also be seen as a shame by their own family, utterly ignored.

In a word, expulsion was no different from a social death sentence.

“Get out of my palace immediately. Oh, and on your way, be sure to take your friends with you. Otherwise, tell them they’ll end up like the Knight Commander.”

Helion took Katie’s hand and turned his back. Katie, bewildered, took a step, led by him. Perhaps because he was a long-legged man, his strides were so wide that it was hard to keep up.

“Your Highness. Just a moment.”

Despite Katie’s plea, the man’s steps were relentless. He entered the palace, herding Katie into an empty room.

Bang!

The door slammed shut savagely. The moment they were cut off from the outside, the temperature around Helion shifted.

Before the knights, he had been endlessly composed, but now, alone with Katie, he felt scorching hot, as if he could burn her.

Helion pushed Katie against the closed door.

“Why do you always just endure it? Are you so afraid of being expelled?”

“This time, I didn’t just endure it. I knocked down a lot of them. Some knights just weren’t on site because they were taken to the infirmary.”

“You’re not calling that an excuse, are you?”

His voice was choked with suppressed rage. Katie found it hard to keep up with his emotions.

A moment ago, he seemed angry at the Knight Commander, but now he was furious with her.

It was baffling whom he considered the aggressor and whom the victim.

“It seems your mood is quite displeased.”

“Of course it is.”

“Why? Is it because I… harmed Your Highness’s knights?”

“I distinctly told you they are not my knights. I’m angry because you got hurt.”

It was a clear answer. But instead of feeling relieved, Katie felt even more suffocated.

Why was he talking like this? If he spoke this way, she would misunderstand. It was as if he was worried about her.

“I don’t quite understand your intentions.”

“…You are my business partner. This body is my merchandise. I do not wish for my merchandise to be damaged.”

Ah, of course. There was no reason for him to worry about her. Katie let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

If someone else had said this, she might have been offended. But with Helion, it was actually more comfortable this way.

Helion and Katie were never meant to be close. They shouldn’t be close. So, it was better for them to remain merely business partners. This distance was just right.

Suddenly, a cold hand touched her lips. His calloused thumb gently brushed over the wound.

It was a movement devoid of force, yet the touch on the freshly split skin stung. Katie winced, squinting one eye.

“It hurts.”

“Knowing that, did you just take the hit? With your skill, you could have easily dodged.”

“Because the Commander came… I just meekly obeyed the order to stop.”

“Damn it. I should have just burst that bastard’s t*******s entirely.”

The words were cruel, but they didn’t feel bad to hear. No, thinking of the Knight Commander wailing, clutching his useless balls, it actually felt a little exhilarating. Katie unconsciously let out a faint smile.

It was that very moment. Helion’s mouth hardened. His hand, which had been still, seemed to fall away, and then something soft and fleshy briefly, very briefly, touched her lips before pulling away.

Katie’s eyes widened.