Starting Today I'll Work As A City Lord

The palace was very quiet at night. Apart from the patrolling knights, there were no signs of anyone else moving around. The maids and servants had already gone to rest, as they had many tasks to do tomorrow.

Bang bang bang…

The Crown Prince Lucia slammed things around the room. His once elegant, gentlemanly face was now dark and grim, almost twisted with anger.

"Damn it, that bitch, how dare she not take action." Lucia growled in a deep voice. His plan to use someone else to kill had been in the works for half a month, but it had unexpectedly failed.

Half a month ago, he had started thinking of ways to eliminate the Second Prince Greena. As long as the Second Prince was alive, his own position was always under threat. He had planned to take advantage of Greena's volatile temper. The idea was to use some fake bandits to lure Greena into a bandit-hunting mission to boost his reputation, then ambush and kill him on the way.

But at this moment, Lucia heard that Lucy planned to release a new book, and on that day, one of his servants was killed by Lucy's maid, the leopard-woman. In order to take revenge, he planned to use someone else's hand to kill her.

After all, it was Lucy's maid who committed the crime. If his father blamed her, he would only kill the leopard-woman and imprison Lucy, while he could ascend to the throne.

For all of this, he had tried many methods, such as sending people to deliberately provoke Princess Lucy. Without exception, as long as there was any excess, the leopard-woman named Jones would kill them.

However, the news that arrived today was hard for Lucia to believe. Greena had actually escaped from Lucy's courtyard alive. How could that be possible?

Hadn't the leopard-woman caught up with him? At first, Lucia thought so too, but the knights who were sent to divert the leopard-woman never returned. Later, the news came that Greena had escaped with his bleeding neck covered, but he was not in life-threatening danger.

"Dammit, dammit..." Lucia grew angrier the more he thought about it, slamming ceramic items and wooden figurines in the room. His father's health was deteriorating, and the throne was almost within reach. No wonder he was so anxious.

Standing nearby were four or five knights, his trusted subordinates, or rather, the ones who had offered strategies and advice. The idea of using someone else's hand to kill, for example, was one of their suggestions that they had refined.

Now, they anxiously watched Prince Lucia, afraid that they might get caught in the fallout. If they were implicated now, it would be terribly unlucky. They had only worked so hard to help Lucia become king because they hoped to be granted noble titles in return, and that's why they had been so devoted in offering their ideas and strategies.

"Whoosh~~"

Suddenly, a shadow flashed across the room, and the candle flames flickered violently, making everyone in the room tense up.

"Who?" Lucia shouted sharply, his eyes frantically scanning the surroundings. He feared it was an assassin sent by Greena.

"Whoosh~"

The sound of something cutting through the air echoed, and all the candles in the room went out. Immediately after, a blood-curdling scream rang out.

"Ah!"

"Help~!"

The screams were short, followed by the sound of objects crashing to the ground, leaving Lucia frozen in terror. His body trembled as he anxiously scanned the room, his eyes wide with fear.

"You... speak!" Lucia shouted in a quivering voice, his tone breaking.

For a long time, there was no sound in response, and Lucia's heart sank to his stomach. In terror, he shouted, "Assassin, I'll pay double the coins, please spare me!"

"Clang..."

A metallic sound rang out, and Lucia's body stiffened. He forced his head to tilt back, feeling a chilling sensation on his neck that made his skin crawl.

Jones was standing behind Lucia, her blood-dripping finger blade pressed against his throat. The metallic sound had come from the clash of her blades.

Jones had been there for a while, and after hearing Lucia's frantic shouting, she could no longer tolerate it. She had killed the plotters and had come to warn Lucia.

Killing Lucia was out of the question. Unless she escaped with Princess Lucy, the King of Siacan would never let them go. Plus, Princess Lucy would never allow her to kill Lucia.

She understood what Princess Lucy was thinking, after all, they were siblings. Lucia could act like an animal, using someone else's hand to kill the second prince, but Princess Lucy could never bring herself to commit such a barbaric act. This was one of the reasons why she spared Greena earlier that day.

"If there's a next time, I'll kill you." Jones said coldly, her finger blade slowly trailing across Lucia's neck, leaving four shallow blood marks, yet avoiding any major blood vessels.

Jones's slow movements frightened Lucia so much that his legs went weak, and he ended up wetting himself. He had recognized the person behind him — Princess Lucy's maid, Jones, the cold-hearted leopard-woman. It was precisely because he knew who she was that he felt such terror.

"Hmph!" Jones sniffed the scent of urine, and her red eyes flashed with contempt. With a flick of her arm, she swung the finger blade away and, with a few agile steps, gracefully left the room.

Jones's sharp eyes scanned the surroundings as she moved with astonishing speed, her legs working at a rapid pace but her steps soundless. At times, she used the walls for leverage, easily leaping to the roof, landing with barely a sound.

She needed to hurry back. If Princess Lucy woke up, it would be troublesome. Although she wouldn't be punished, the tail-pulling would be unbearable for her.

Soon, Jones returned to Princess Lucy's courtyard. After taking care of the blood on her finger blade outside, she carefully pushed open the door.

Creak~~

She stepped in silently, intending to go to bed, but to her surprise, she found Princess Lucy sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at her.

Creak~~

"..." Jones froze for a moment, then acted nonchalantly as she closed the door behind her.

"Did you kill someone again?" Lucy's soft voice asked, her eyes scanning Jones's body. When she didn't see any wounds, she let out a relieved sigh.

"Yes." Jones nodded. This kind of conversation felt too familiar—whenever she had killed someone, Lucy would always ask her the same question and then help her clean up the mess.

It was the same as with Greena today. If the person hadn't been Lucy's brother, perhaps Lucy wouldn't have stopped her from killing him. Of course, if it had been a good person, Lucy would never have agreed.

"Go, before Father finds out," Lucy said, pressing her lips together in sadness as she pulled a cloth bag from under the blanket. "It contains all my novel manuscripts and some gold coins. Take it and run."

From the moment Jones had left the room that evening, Lucy had known. She understood the temperament of a leopard-woman—being manipulated was something she wouldn't tolerate. Lucy hadn't had time to stop it, so she could only silently pack things up and prepare to help Jones escape.

"..." Jones froze for a moment, quickly realizing what Lucy had misunderstood. The corner of her mouth curled slightly before she returned to her cold demeanor, replying indifferently, "I didn't kill him."

"Ah?" Lucy was stunned for a second, pouting, then silently shoved the cloth bag back under the blanket and pulled it over her head. She had made a huge mistake—she had misunderstood.

She had thought Jones had gone to kill the two princes. She was ready to confess and go see her father, face imprisonment, and live with the shame of committing regicide for the rest of her life.

"..." Jones's expression was strange. She could tell what Lucy had decided—was she trying to protect her?

Was Lucy, in her heart, really seeing her as nothing more than a mindless leopard-beast?

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