World's Best Protagonist [BL]

I left the interrogation to Claude, with a head shake, and immediately tended to Etienne. I dropped to my knees beside him. He was pale. His lip was split, and his breathing was shallow. I wish nothing for those responsible for this to blow up into bloody pieces.

"Etienne. Hey." I cupped the back of his head, fingers trembling. "Open your eyes. You’re alright."

His lashes fluttered. "Jade...?"

"Yeah, yeah. It’s me." My gaze roamed around his body, and I instantly fumed after seeing his wrists bruised. "What the hell? Why are you walking around with injuries? You could have—"

Before I finished my sentence, Etienne’s hands shot up and covered my mouth. He shook his head lightly. I understood what he meant from the fear in his eyes.

With a loud sigh, I helped him sit upright and whispered, "Where is Noir?"

"The Duke took him somewhere."

"The Duke?"

Etienne nodded. He opened his mouth to continue, but then a scream bellowed in the alley, gaining our attention.

Claude was scaring the living soul out of the other man. The knight’s left arm was twisted like a pretzel, and his right arm will be next if he doesn’t answer.

"Talk," the captain hissed.

The knight’s lips remained mum. It would only part and create noise whenever he groans or screams from the pain mercilessly inflicted by Claude. Etienne winced every time Claude broke one of the knight’s bones, while I watched without emotion.

After a few cracks and blood spits on the ground, Claude finally stopped. I looked at him. "What now?"

Claude’s gaze turned to me, then it moved to Etienne, and then back at me. "I just suddenly realized we can just ask Etienne."

A waggish laugh echoed in the street. I couldn’t help it. Half of the bones of the knight were broken, and he just realized that?

Or maybe he was just pretending like I was. I also wanted to partake in the beating and call it an interrogation, but Etienne would probably have had the courage to stop us if I did.

Just as Claude softens up to him, Etienne can’t defy him.

I don’t get Etienne in that part, I swear. If I were him, I’d use that to my advantage. Sadly, when it comes to me, Claude had this cranky attitude...before.

Now, we are a bit closer, so maybe I can do that later.

"Are you going to kill him?" I asked. Etienne’s head perked up, but he didn’t say anything. I sighed. "The bounties on our head will be doubled if you do..."

Claude gave me that look. My eyes shut tightly after my head throbbed. Right. He has already killed someone.

"Did someone see you?"

He didn’t answer, which means he was uncertain. I groaned inwardly. Then, I gathered Etienne up and pointed at Claude with my index finger.

"You stash that trash somewhere or whatever. Let’s run away from here immediately." I squeezed Etienne’s shoulders. "Heal yourself. We’re here now, we won’t let anyone take you again."

Etienne’s body felt warm, and a minute later, he could carry himself already. I patted his back and let him walk on his own, then I looked back to check on Claude, but he was nowhere to be found.

He disappeared with the dying knight. I didn’t worry about losing him, since he—not sure how he does it—always finds me. I know he’ll come around once he gets rid of the garbage.

"Etienne, let’s get moving. Take us to Duke Lewellyn."

"How did you know?"

"We followed your traces. From the Red House to here—wait, have you perhaps healed Noir’s mother already?"

We continued walking with quick steps. Once we left the shadows of the dark alley, our steps slowed down a bit, so as not to catch suspicious glances.

Etienne shook his head. "No. We were brought to the Duke’s mansion. Noir and I rarely met after that. Then, this morning, a maid told me that Noir and the Duke went somewhere. I escaped and tried to follow, but then..."

"This happened?"

Etienne nodded.

"Why are you trying to escape in the first place? Do you think the duke plans to do something to Noir?"

"I’m not sure. The duke clearly didn’t like me when we met, but he’s kind to Noir. Still, it doesn’t put me at ease." Etienne looked at me apologetically. "I’m sorry. Because of my foolishness—"

"Because of those knights’ vileness and greediness, Etienne, that this happened."

Why does he always blame himself if something goes wrong? That ’always saying sorry’ attitude would award him the most pushover of the year, if he weren’t part of Claude’s team.

Come to think of it, among the four outworlders in the team, Etienne is the only one I know nothing about. Terrius used to teach in his world, and Claude is an heir, a prince just like Noir.

However, Etienne...who is he in his world, and what kind of person is he back there?

"Where are we heading?"

I almost punched the face that suddenly appeared next to me, out of surprise. Claude looked down at my fist halfway to his face. I pretended I was playing close-open and looked away as I answered, "Duke Lewellyn’s Mansion."

"We can’t head right to the gates," Claude replied.

"Why not?"

"The guards know me. Also, Noir’s there," Etienne chimed in.

Claude briefly glanced at him. Relief lit his eyes after noticing that Etienne’s cuts were already healed. "Yeah. But they don’t know us. If you suddenly bring two strangers to his mansion and convince them to let us in, the guards will only get suspicious of you instead of letting you in."

"Then, he can enter through the gate, while we sneak in."

Etienne nodded at me. "I will distract the guards."

Claude pondered for a moment. He gave Etienne a look, asking if he could pull it off. Etienne returned that gaze with a determined and confident one.

"Then, let’s do that."

Soon, we reached the duke’s mansion without encountering any problems on the way, thankfully. We stopped meters away from the main gate and gave Etienne a tap on the back. He took a deep breath before walking ahead.

From afar, we watched Etienne converse with the two guards stationed inside the tall, white, iron gates. Claude and I exchanged glances. Our cloaks were a complete contrast to the gates, so we doubted our plan a bit.

However, seeing Etienne using his charms, I tugged on Claude’s cloak. "It’s less conspicuous if we take them off. Or should we wait until it’s dark?"

"No more wasting time," Claude answered with finality.

"But Etienne said that Noir and the Duke went somewhere this morning. What if they haven’t returned yet?"

Claude acted like he did not hear me. He took off his cloak, threw it at me, who carried the bag, and then he sized up the tall, white, wrought iron fence in front of us. I had no choice but to stash his cloak and mine, then throw the whole bag at him. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

He caught it just in time, even though his back was turned to me. I applauded his sharp sense before I began climbing the fence. It was quite hard but doable.

The bag was thrown over me, and I watched it land on the ground inside, but at the same time, an alarm blared in the air, startling me. My hand slipped from the bars.

I waited for my back to hit the cobbled ground, but Claude’s firm hands wrapped around me instead.

"Great. Now, they found us."

"You’re the one who threw the bag!" I exclaimed, aggrieved.

"If I hadn’t done that, and you went over, you would have been turned into meat cubes!" He snarled.

My eyes darted to the bag, and it was true. It was sliced into several pieces. I looked at the wrought iron gates with horror. Then, to Claude’s face, who was leaning a bit downward toward me.

He was mad. I saw anger and fear in his eyes, mixing. My mouth moved on its own, and I apologized. The anger slowly subsided, yet the fear remained. I was about to reach out and touch his face when Etienne’s voice interrupted me.

"Guys, run!"

Before we could act on his advice, though, we were already surrounded by knights. Were we so occupied by each other that we didn’t notice these bastards? I smacked my forehead after I realized I was still in Claude’s arms, carried like a damsel in distress.

However, instead of asking him to put me down, I stayed up, relaxed. I noticed how his eyes shook for a bit, but I simply turned to the knights, showing them my pitiful look.

Teary eyes, gaunt face, hollowed cheeks, and pale skin—and I’m ready to go lift the curtain.

"Is Your Grace the Duke of Lewellyn inside? Please, good sirs, this companion of mine merely wants to help his sick lover over the fence, to seek help from the great lord of the northern plains."

Claude’s grip on my waist tightened I almost yelped. I glared at him, but I choked on my saliva after noticing the tip of his neck and the tip of his ears were red.