The Villainess Wants To Retire-Chapter 448: Unguarded

Soren left his private study with the weight of centuries pressing against his temples. The research... the charts of his own impossible mana, the cryptic notes on Aenithra’s disappearance... had provided no answers, only a hunger for them. He moved through the palace with a predatory focus, his boots striking the stone in a rhythm that brooked no interruption.

He followed the same path Bianca had taken only moments before, descending into the bowels of the mountain. With every flight of stairs, the air grew more stagnant, the temperature dipping as his own subconscious magic responded to his agitation. He needed to look into the eyes of the woman who had spent a lifetime studying him.

Halfway down the final spiral of the servant’s stairs, Soren stopped. He didn’t just feel the cold; he felt a ripple in the ambient mana of the corridor. The air felt thin, disturbed, as if someone had recently woven a spell and failed to properly tuck the loose ends of the energy away.

He tilted his head, his ice-blue eyes scanning the dark. It was Vetra’s wing of the prison.

Something always feels off around her, he reminded himself.

Her very presence was a blight, a warping influence that had poisoned the palace for decades. This "wrongness" was her natural state. He didn’t panic, but he didn’t dismiss it either. He noted the disturbance, his power coiling like a serpent beneath his skin, and proceeded with controlled caution.

He reached the dungeon level, the flickering torches casting long, skeletal shadows across the stone. He rounded the final corner, expecting to see the silhouettes of the guards stationed at the heavy iron gate leading to Vetra’s special cell.

The corridor was empty.

Soren froze. The temperature around him didn’t just drop; it plummeted. Frost began to spiderweb across the floor, white and jagged. His eyes narrowed, glowing with a fierce, internal luminescence. The gate was unguarded. In a palace under his command, this was not just a lapse... it was a betrayal.

As Soren reached for the iron handle, his fingers ghosting over the metal, the sound of hurried footsteps and hushed whispering echoed from the far end of the hall. Two guards rounded the corner, their faces pale in the torchlight. They stopped mid-step, their bodies locking into place as if they had hit a wall.

The tableau was one of pure terror. Soren stood at the door, his hand poised, his hair fluttering in a wind that shouldn’t exist underground. He looked at them, and the silence that followed was heavier than the stone ceiling above.

Visible anger radiated from the Emperor. The air became so cold it burned to breathe, and the frost on the walls grew thick, crystalline teeth. His face remained a mask of calm, but his eyes were twin beacons of ice-blue fire.

The guards were paralyzed. The junior guard, a boy whose armor looked two sizes too large for his trembling frame, began to nudge the senior guard’s elbow. It was a desperate, pathetic gesture that said everything: You tell him. You’re the one who said it was fine.

The senior guard swallowed hard, his throat clicking in the silence. He forced himself to bow, though his knees shook so violently he nearly toppled. "Y-Your Majesty," he stammered. "We... " His voice failed him, his vocal cords seemingly frozen by the sheer pressure of Soren’s gaze.

Soren remained silent. He didn’t prompt them. He didn’t shout. He simply waited, the magic pressing down on the guards’ shoulders like a physical weight, forcing them to hunch under the strain.

"We heard... a sound," the senior guard finally choked out, his eyes darting to the floor. "A strange sound, Your Majesty. Down the corridor. Like something breaking. Or falling." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

He began to speak faster now, the words tumbling out in a desperate rush. "We went to investigate. We were only gone a few minutes... barely a moment..."

"Where are the others?" Soren’s voice was a jagged shard of ice. He didn’t care about the sound. He cared about the breach.

"They’re on break, Your Majesty," the guard rushed to say. "They’ll be back soon to relieve us. Any moment now. We were just... waiting for their return before checking the noise properly." It was a weak, pathetic excuse, and they both knew it.

"So," Soren said, each word precise and lethal. "Neither of you thought to stay?" He paused, his gaze boring into them. "One investigates. One guards. Is that not obvious?"

The silence returned, more damning than before. There was no answer to give. They had been derelict, and the guilt hung in the air like smoke.

"I told him to go!" the senior guard suddenly blurted out, pointing a finger at the junior. "I ordered him, but he was scared... he wouldn’t go alone..."

The junior guard began to stammer, his face turning a blotchy red. "I-I didn’t... the sound... it was so loud, Your Majesty... it sounded like... " He trailed off, his body shaking with a tremor he couldn’t control. He looked as if he might cry, his forehead slick with sweat despite the sub-zero temperature.

Soren took a long, slow breath. His exhale was a thick plume of mist. He closed his eyes for a heartbeat, visibly wrestling his temper into submission. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet, but it had the sharpness of a razor.

"And what did you find?"

The two guards swallowed hard. "Nothing Y-your Majesty."

Soren drew in another breath.

"You abandoned your post," he stated. "The most important prisoner in this entire palace, and you left her door unguarded for a ’noise’. If you hear something suspicious, you send for reinforcements. You do not both leave. One stays. Always. One sends for help. This is basic duty. This is the foundation of your service."

He stepped closer, his shadow falling over them like a shroud. "What if she had escaped? What if someone had come for her? What if... " He stopped, the sheer scale of the potential disaster making his jaw tighten until the bone threatened to snap.

"This will be reported to your captain," Soren said after a long, agonizing pause. "There will be disciplinary action. You are fortunate that nothing happened this time. If I find this door unguarded again, you will not be facing a captain. You will be facing me."

The junior guard began to babble. "Please, Your Majesty... we didn’t mean... it won’t happen again..."

Soren raised a hand. Silence fell instantly. "It won’t."

"From now on, four guards minimum at all times," Soren commanded. "Rotating shifts. No breaks without replacements present. Eyes on this door every second of every hour. No visitors. No exceptions. No matter who requests entry, they do not pass without my explicit, written permission. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," the senior guard whispered, bowing low. They were relieved to be alive, though the weight of their failure would haunt them for the rest of their short-lived careers in the guard.