Chapter 104: The Sick Wolf (3)
Her face turned pale.
Jenny looked at Lucard. "Will it hurt her?"
Lucard replied to her, "Only if I want."
She said, "That is not comforting."
"It is not for you."
Lysa nodded quickly. "I will not run. I just want my father saved."
Lucard studied her face.
She was still dangerous in the way emotional people were dangerous. She could make stupid decisions quickly. But for now, her fear for her father was stronger than her hatred for Lucard. That made her controllable.
He looked at Peter. "Find old traveling clothes. A plain cloak. Something a low doctor would wear. Also ink, a small bag, clean cloth, and any bitter herbs from the kitchen."
Peter asked, "Bitter herbs?"
"A doctor with a bag that smells unpleasant looks more believable."
Peter stared at him. "You have thought about this too quickly."
Lucard said, "I heard the window before she entered. I have been thinking about all kinds of things since then."
Lysa looked at him with fresh unease.
Jenny also looked at him. "Since before we entered?"
"Yes."
"You were already planning to use the attacker to find the main master mind?"
Lucard looked at her calmly. "An attacker who enters alive is information. Information should be opened."
Peter quietly said, "I am glad you are on our side."
Lucard glanced at him. "Stay useful."
Peter nodded. "That is less comforting than you think."
Jenny looked at Jake. "You are going back to bed."
Jake immediately shook his head. "No."
"Yes."
Jake said, "I told you the family secret."
Jenny replied, "And now you will sleep like the next head of the family."
Jake thought about that. "Do heads of family sleep?"
Jenny said, " Yes, they do. When their sisters tell them to."
Lucard looked at Jake. "Remember everything she said. Tomorrow, write it down."
Jake blinked. "Write it?"
"Yes. Ash Wolf’s old favor. Father’s words. Any other secret he told you."
Jake hesitated. "Some things our father said I should only tell the next family head."
Lucard looked at him. "You are not head yet."
Jake straightened a little. "Then who is?"
The room became quiet.
Jenny looked at Lucard.
Peter looked at the floor.
House Vardros had no clear strength left, but bloodline law still existed. Jake was the legal heir. Jenny was older, but many old documents might name the youngest son as successor. Lucard was illegitimate, but he was the one moving everything now. The question should have been simple. It was not.
Lucard answered without hesitation.
"You are the future head. Until you are ready, Jenny holds the house in name, and I hold the knives."
Jake listened carefully. "So I can tell you?"
"You will tell Jenny and me. Peter too if it concerns defense."
Jake nodded. "Okay."
Jenny’s eyes lowered slightly. Lucard had not taken the family headship for himself. He could have. With his power, he could have spoken and no one in the room could truly stop him. But he had placed Jake in the future, Jenny in dignity, and himself in danger.
She understood more than his words said.
Peter understood too.
Lysa did not understand any of it, but she watched them with confused eyes. This was not how Merrick described them. He had described a broken family led by a monster. But the child spoke of old debts. The sister protected the attacker after threatening her. The knight looked loyal enough to die standing. And Lucard, the so-called mudblood murderer, spoke like someone placing pieces on a board no one else could see.
Her old certainty was dying slowly.
Lucard turned to her again.
"You will sleep in this room until we leave."
Lysa stiffened. "With you?"
Jenny’s eyes immediately moved to Lucard.
Lucard gave Jenny a flat look. "No."
Peter covered his mouth with his fist.
Lucard continued, "Peter will sit outside the door. Jenny will lock the window. I will use another room."
Lysa looked relieved and embarrassed at the same time.
Jenny picked up the poisoned knife and placed it on the desk far away from Lysa.
"I will send a servant to bring cloth for your arm."
Lysa looked at the small cut Jenny had made. "It is not deep."
"I know."
Lysa swallowed. "You were really angry."
Jenny looked at her. "You came to kill my brother for a man who tried to ruin me. Yes. I was angry."
Lysa lowered her head.
"I still do not know what to believe."
Jenny’s voice became softer, but not weak. "Then watch. People show the truth when they think they are safe."
Lucard looked at Jenny. That was not a bad sentence.
She had learned something already.
By the time the house settled again, dawn was not far away. Peter found a plain brown cloak, rough clothes from the servant storage, an old medicine bag, and enough bitter herbs to make any real doctor feel insulted.
Lucard changed his posture before changing his clothes. His shoulders lowered slightly. His steps became smaller. His back bent just enough to make him look like a man who had walked too many roads with a medicine bag on his side. His eyes lost some of their sharpness and became the tired eyes of a poor traveling doctor who had seen too many sick men and had been paid too little for it.
Then he raised two fingers and touched the side of his face.
A thin layer of blood mana moved under his skin. It did not glow brightly. It only passed like a quiet red shadow beneath his flesh. His cheekbones became higher. His jaw became thinner. Small lines appeared around his eyes and mouth. His skin lost some of its young smoothness and became rougher, like the skin of a man who had spent many years under sun, dust, and sickness.
After that, the spell moved into his hair.
The black color faded from the roots first. It spread outward slowly, strand by strand, until his hair became completely white. Then the same white hair grew along his chin and jaw. A short beard formed, uneven but natural, as if he had trimmed it poorly with a cheap knife. His eyebrows also became lighter, and the shadow under his eyes deepened.
Lucard looked at the mirror. "Good."
Peter frowned slightly. "Is that an illusion?"
"No," Lucard said. "A small blood-shape spell. It changes the surface. It will hold as long as I keep a little blood mana moving under the skin."
Jenny watched the change with surprise.
He did not look harmless.
Lucard could not look truly harmless. But he looked less like Lucard Vardros.
He tied his white hair lower, rubbed a little ash under his eyes, and wrapped his chest with old cloth to change the shape of his body under the cloak. Then he opened the herb bag and let the bitter smell cover him.
Jenny looked worried. "Does it hurt?"
Lucard touched his new white beard and said, "Less than listening to fools."
Jake, who had refused to sleep properly and had appeared again with a blanket around his shoulders, stared at him.
"You look old and poor."
Lucard said, "Good. I wanted to look exactly like that."
Jake said, "But brother, you still look mean."
Lucard replied, "That is believable for a doctor."
Peter nodded slowly. "Many doctors do look mean."
Jenny gave him a tired look. "Do not help him."
Lysa stood near the door with her hands tied loosely in front of her. Lucard had removed enough of the seal for her to walk normally, but not enough for her to use her Rank One power. Her eyes were red from crying and lack of sleep.
She looked at Lucard’s disguise.
"Merrick may still suspect."
Lucard said, "Then he is smarter than I expected."
Lysa asked, "What if he checks you?"
Lucard replied, "Then I will be checked."
She asked again, "What if he tries to hurt you?"
Lucard looked at her.
Lysa became quiet.
Jenny stepped close to Lucard before he left.
"Do not kill everyone without knowing who is guilty."
Lucard looked at her. "Define guilty."
Jenny’s face tightened. "Lucard."
He studied her for a moment, then said, "I will separate useful truth from useless blood."
She said, "That is not a promise."
Lucard replied, "It is the kind I keep."
She did not like the answer, but she accepted it because she knew he would not give her a cleaner lie.
Jake walked forward and held out a small folded paper.
Lucard looked at it. "What is that?"
"I wrote the Ash Wolf secret before you told me tomorrow."
Lucard took the paper.
Jake said, "If Father was right, maybe some of them are still good. If Father was wrong, then be careful."
Lucard placed the paper inside his cloak. "Good."
Jake smiled a little. "I am learning to be useful."
"Yes."
Jenny placed a hand over Jake’s shoulder.
Peter escorted Lucard and Lysa to the back exit. Outside, the sky was turning pale. The guards at Silver Ash House had been told only that a doctor and the captured girl were leaving under secret order. They did not ask questions because Peter’s face told them questions were unhealthy. Lucard might get angry at them.
Lysa stepped into the rear alley first.
Lucard followed, carrying the old medicine bag.
To anyone watching from far away, they looked like a worried mercenary girl and a tired city doctor leaving before morning traffic began.
To Jenny, watching from the back window, they looked like trouble walking toward more trouble.
Lucard did not look back.
Lysa led the way through the waking city, and the disguised Blood God followed her toward the Ash Wolf camp.