NOVEL WEB Chapter 288: The Queen's Rage (I)
As the man raised his sword high, ready to drive its sharp blade into her neck, Primrose opened her eyes wide and spoke in a cold, unwavering voice. "Die."
Primrose wasn't entirely sure her mind-control ability would work properly because there was still so much she didn't understand about it.
However, to her surprise, the moment the words left her lips, the man before her froze, as if he were trying to process the words he had just heard.
Even stranger, his inner thoughts suddenly went completely silent, as though he was no longer a human with a functioning mind.
"… Yes, my Queen," the man finally murmured, his tone flat and empty, like all emotion had been drained from him.
Before Primrose could even blink, he shifted his grip on the sword. The blade that had been aimed at her neck turned toward his own, the tip pressing into his skin.
Then, without a single pause, he dragged the blade across his throat in one brutal swift.
The cut was so deep that a torrent of blood gushed out instantly. His head tilted to the side in a horrifying way, held on only by a thin strip of flesh.
Primrose turned her head aside, trying to avoid the hot spray of blood from hitting her eyes. The metallic stench filled her nose as the man's collapsing body slammed into her.
"AAAA! Go away!" she screamed at the top of her lungs when his half-severed head dangled just inches from her face, his lifeless eyes staring straight at her.
In a panic, she kicked his body as hard as she could, sending it sprawling backward. Primrose quickly crawled away from the spreading pool of blood, shouting, "SIR CALLEN! SIR CALLEN, COME HERE!"
Since the man was already dead, she thought the magic trapping the room would've faded by now. But even after waiting a few moments, Callen still didn't open the library door. She couldn't even hear any movement outside.
She had screamed so loudly that it was impossible he hadn't heard her. Unless … the room was still sealed with magic.
Primrose turned her head once more toward the man whose head was hanging by mere threads of flesh and grimaced in disgust. "He's definitely dead."
If it wasn't him, then who?
In the midst of her confusion, Primrose suddenly heard the sound of clapping echoing throughout the library. It started slow, almost lazy, before gradually growing faster and louder until it filled the whole room.
Her eyes snapped toward the source of the noise and froze immediately.
The librarian, whom she had assumed had been asleep this whole time, was now wide awake. He stood behind the counter, clapping his hands with a wide, almost unnervingly cheerful smile plastered across his face as he looked straight at her.
Was the librarian a traitor?
But that didn't make sense. The man who had just died had said the librarian was already asleep when he arrived, which meant there was a chance they didn't even know each other.
No … maybe the librarian had just been hiding his real identity from the man in black.
Primrose's heartbeat quickened. If that were the case, then this smiling, overly calm librarian might be far more dangerous than the assassin who had just tried to kill her.
She had barely ever spoken to him, let alone interacted for more than a few seconds. Was he trying to kill her because she never put the books back in their proper place?!
"Your Majesty," the librarian said. "I must say, your performance has surpassed my expectations."
Primrose frowned, her forehead creasing as confusion swirled in her mind. "Expectation? What kind of expectation? Who are you really?"
Now that she thought about it, she realized she didn't even know the librarian's name.
[Should I say the librarian's name … or maybe something else?]
She raised an eyebrow, not sure what he meant by those words. Was he not the real librarian who had always been here?
[Who the hell is the librarian's name anyway? I've worked in this palace for years, but I've never known his name. Then again, I hardly ever come here, so it's not my fault.]
The more he spoke in his mind, the more Primrose felt his inner voice sounded familiar.
[So … should I just use a random name? I don't think she even knows the librarian's name—but, fucking hell, why is there so much blood on her? Edmund will definitely kill me if I don't seal this room from magic.]
Oh, this bastard.
"Leofric?" Primrose narrowed her eyes, staring at him with a cold, unblinking gaze. "It's you, isn't it?"
The fake librarian's smile froze in place. He didn't move, but his pupils shifted to the side like he was trying to avoid her stare.
"It's really you!" Primrose shot up from the floor. All the fear and worry in her heart vanished in an instant, replaced by pure rage, the kind of rage that only surfaced when she truly wanted to kill the person in front of her.
She grabbed the dagger from Sevrin's hand and strode quickly toward Leofric, forgetting completely that the man in front of her could kill her in seconds if she attacked him.
However, she didn't care in the slightest.
"How dare you betray my husband?!" Her voice boomed across the room. "I don't care if you want to kill me, but betray Edmund? Are you out of your mind?!"
Her husband didn't have many friends, perhaps none at all besides Leofric. That was why, if his one and only friend betrayed him, wouldn't he be devastated?
Even if Edmund acted like he despised Leofric every time they met, Primrose knew he secretly valued their friendship.
"No, you need to listen to me!" Leofric stepped back quickly, trying to avoid her rage. "I didn't betray him!"
"Then what the fuck was that?!" Primrose barked, not even attempting to filter her words. "Why did that dead man say someone helped him get into the library and even assisted him in planning my death?!"