Bloodhound’s Regression Instinct

Chapter 194

“Release him here.”

The knights untethered Yan amidst a swarm of nobles gathered like clouds before a certain restroom.

Their stern eyes warned him against any foolishness as they looked on.

Yan faced forward.

It was an ordinary restroom, yet blood was scattered about, and atop the mess lay Viscount Morris, his abdomen brutally punctured, lifeless.

Kasa, who had followed, muttered under his breath.

“How ghastly.”

Yan agreed with Kasa’s sentiment.

How could the sight of a body, gutted and dead, not be horrific?

The problem, however, was that Yan himself was being pointed to as the perpetrator of this gruesome scene.

Shaking his head to clear the intrusive thoughts, Yan clenched his jaw and stepped into the restroom.

The coroners outside began to shout something.

But then.

“Just watch. I’m curious to see how he’ll navigate this predicament,” said the Sun Duke.

At his words, the coroners fell silent.

They knew well enough that their clamor was futile in the face of the estate owner’s consent.

With the coroners quieted, Yan was free to examine the scene.

His gaze shifted to the chest of Viscount Morris.

Kasa, witnessing the same, shuddered and turned away.

He looked at Yan and said,

“…This, this wound is similar to the swordsmanship you use.”

Kasa’s words were like a spark, igniting murmurs among the knights, Merriott, and the nobles who had since arrived.

“It must be the culprit indeed.”

“Truly, Sir Merriott is commendable! To apprehend the true criminal in just a day!”

“And to think His Highness the Crown Prince trusted such a wretch. I too thought it was a false accusation until just moments ago.”

The nobles’ uproar wrinkled the brow of the Sun Duke.

“Quiet down, everyone.”

As if on cue, the nobles sealed their lips.

With the surroundings hushed, the Sun Duke watched Yan with tranquil eyes.

* * *

Yan’s brow furrowed as he examined the wound etched into Viscount Morris’s chest—a telltale sign of the Shadowblade’s mark.

In this vast continent, only two were versed in the art of the Shadowblade.

Its creator, Damian, and himself.

With Damian away, tending to his father in the Armenian territories, that left only one suspect.

Yan.

A sharp pain shot through his head, causing Yan to grit his teeth in frustration.

His usually nimble mind struggled to function amidst the pain.

He squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them again.

‘No matter how you look at it, all evidence and circumstances point to me.’

If only he had the memories of the previous day, perhaps he could conjure up a way to prove his innocence.

Yan bit his lip.

‘…Could it be, am I truly the culprit?’

Another jolt of pain made Yan’s eyes quiver.

That’s when it struck him.

‘Wait.’

The pain had obscured his memory.

His expression hardened.

This brain-searing agony, he had felt it once before.

Not in this life, but in a past one.

It was the same sensation he experienced when the Emperor’s brainwashing was undone.

* * *

Upon facing the truth, Yan began to notice something amiss.

Firstly, the corpse’s wound.

After staring at the body for a long time, Yan’s eyes narrowed.

A sense of dissonance that had not been felt at first slowly began to surface in his mind.

Yet, it was too vague to ascertain with certainty.

It was then that the conversation between Kasa and Merriott reached his ears.

“Bring in the witnesses, please.”

“They might tamper with evidence, so let’s save the witnesses for the trial.”

Despite the ongoing loud exchanges…

Yan ignored them, focusing instead on unraveling the subtle sense of alienation.

Suddenly, his eyes gleamed.

With a swift motion, Yan drew a sword from Kasa’s waist and swung it towards Viscount Morris’s corpse.

It all happened in less than a second, leaving no time for anyone to react.

The Viscount’s head was severed in an instant.

Yan’s abrupt action caused an outcry among the onlookers.

To anyone, it seemed like an act of destroying evidence.

Four knights, including Merriott, pointed their swords at Yan’s neck.

“What in the world are you doing? We allowed you to examine the scene to prove your innocence, and you pull this stunt?”

Merriott’s hair fluttered with a rising energy, and the temperature in the room soared.

The one to defuse the situation was none other than the Sun Duke.

The Duke, who had been observing from a distance, pointed at the body and said,

“Enough. Let’s take another look at the body.”

The knights, unable to defy him, turned their gaze back to the corpse.

It seemed pointless, considering Yan’s near-confession.

“No!”

“What is that!”

The knights and nobles’ eyes widened in shock.

The bisected corpse was undergoing a grotesque transformation.

The severed body turned to dust and scattered into the air.

While they were still trying to grasp the situation, Yan turned around.

“It seems everyone here has been enchanted by an illusion.”

Merriott frowned upon hearing this.

“Illusion? You’re not suggesting I was under one too, are you?”

Illusion—a technique that deceives the eye, creating a reality out of fantasy.

But such sorcery was generally considered inferior to magic, and someone like Merriott was almost immune to it.

“Yes, even you, Sir Merriott, were under its spell. It seems you still are.”

Merriott was about to erupt in anger.

He couldn’t stand Yan’s insolence.

But he couldn’t draw his sword.

“Ha ha ha ha!”

The Sun Duke burst into laughter from behind.

Merriott’s eyes went round.

He had never seen the always stoic Duke laugh so heartily.

As the Duke stepped forward, Merriott quickly bowed his head and stepped back.

The Duke approached Yan, smiling slyly.

“So, you know who the real culprit is, then? Proving your innocence depends on that as well, I presume.”

Yan nodded.

“Of course, Your Grace.”

He turned his head to look at Kasa.

Suddenly, under the gaze of the Sun Duke, Yan, and the entire assembly, Kasa’s eyes widened.

“Why are you looking at me?”

Kasa asked with a trembling voice, but Yan just smiled faintly and bowed his head.

“Did you enjoy the spectacle?”

“What are you talking about? Spectacle… Ah, it seems I’m caught.”

In the midst of speaking, Kasa laughed with a voice unlike his usual one.

A sticky, seductive voice.

Yan knew the owner of this voice.

“It’s been a while since our last court meeting. Greetings, Lady Vivian.”

* * *

The assembly plunged into shock at Yan’s words.

Could it be that the capricious Illusionist was among them?

The very same who had spent a lifetime growling at the Sun Duke?

Kasa—or rather, the Illusionist disguised as Kasa—let out a seductive laugh and asked,

“How did you discern the corpse was a fake? It was indistinguishable from the real thing, wasn’t it?”

As she readily admitted the truth, Merriott was taken aback.

He had been watching closely and hadn’t noticed a thing.

Indeed, the body was perfect.

Its aura and temperament were so convincingly that of Viscount Morris.

Even the coroners had been completely fooled by its authenticity.

But Yan was different.

“There are two reasons,” he declared.

The Illusionist gasped.

“Two?”

“Yes, the first is that Sir Merriott was holding my sword. That was odd.”

Merriott glanced at the Ascalon he held, puzzled.

The Illusionist, too, couldn’t easily grasp Yan’s point.

“Why is it strange to hold a sword? Didn’t you think your memory might be flawed?”

Yan shook his head.

“That’s not it.”

“Huh?”

“My sword cannot be wielded by anyone less than a Duke.”

The nobles murmured among themselves.

“Is that possible?”

“Even if Sir Merriott is a superhuman, the idea that he can’t lift a mere sword…”

They recalled the incident from the day before.

The scene where the Sun Duke’s sword could not be lifted.

‘Now that I think about it…’

‘It’s not entirely impossible.’

Yan smiled slyly at the nobles’ doubtful expressions.

“Even Hans, the steward of the northern Beowulf family, could only push it with his foot. Does that answer your question?”

The nobles nodded dumbly, realizing that even the strongest knight of the Duke’s household had found it impossible.

The Illusionist chuckled dryly.

She hadn’t imagined that such a fact would be overlooked, giving Yan an opening.

“I must have cast a spell to cloud your judgment.”

“But that doesn’t turn one into a complete fool. Still, I was startled when the sword disappeared at first.”

She clicked her tongue, seemingly displeased, and tilted her head.

“You said there was another reason? What might that be?”

“The wound.”

“The wound?”

The Illusionist furrowed her brow, then asked,

“That wound was crafted from the memories of a fellow named Kasa. There should be nothing amiss.”

“You must not have looked closely enough at the memory.”

“What?”

“If I had inflicted the wound with the Shadowblade, there should be a presence of dark energy, shouldn’t there? But here, there was no aura, only the wound remained.”

The Illusionist smirked at Yan’s words.

She knew he was right. She had tried to bewilder those around Yan so he wouldn’t think of that, but it seemed to have failed.

‘He wasn’t fooled, it seems.’

The Illusionist nodded.

“Indeed, worthy of the Crown Prince and Beowulf’s favor. But one last question.”

She asked, genuinely curious.

“How did you know I was the Illusionist?”

Even if he had figured out the situation was an illusion, discerning her true identity was peculiar.

There was no clue in Yan’s previous words that could have hinted at her identity.

Yan scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

“Do I really have to say?”

“Of course.”

Yan pointed at the Illusionist, still in Kasa’s form.

“Because you disguised yourself as Kasa.”

“Huh? What do you mean? I replicated his speech and temperament perfectly.”

Yan shook his head.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what?”

“If it were the real Kasa, he would have cut ties with me immediately rather than take my side. It would have been a path diverging from his goals.”

Yan spoke with a hint of embarrassment.

The Illusionist’s face contorted in anger.

Then, she spun around on the spot.

With a twirl!

In a rustle of movement.

The appearance that had been unmistakably Kasa’s transformed into the familiar figure of the Illusionist.

Purple hair, alluring eyes, and several tails attached near her waist.

And finally, an overwhelming aura that made one’s body shrink.

The Illusionist, revealing her presence without restraint, asked,

“Why haven’t you visited my domain?”

Yan’s face hardened.

To tell the truth, ‘I was more tempted by what the Sun Duke had to offer than by you,’ could lead to an unpredictable outcome.

As he frantically searched for an excuse,

“Stop tormenting the poor lad.”

The Sun Duke’s voice came with a warm energy that dissipated the Illusionist’s presence.

The nobles and knights gasped for air.

They had been unable to breathe due to her overwhelming presence.

The Illusionist glared at the Sun Duke petulantly.

“What? What did I do?”

“We have matters to discuss, don’t we? Let’s go upstairs and talk like adults.”

The Illusionist, about to retort, simply shook her head at the Duke’s words.

“Lead the way.”

As the two ascended to the office,

The scene they left behind was in disarray.

That’s when it happened.

“Aaaah! Someone save me!”

A familiar voice echoed from a restroom stall.

It was Kasa.