Read Novel Full Chapter 473: Red Passage
Chapter 473: Chapter 473: Red Passage
Chapter 473 – Red Passage
"There is no way." Dancer muttered in hidden shock, looking at Loup in a completely different manner from before.
The young wolf himself was not growling, howling, or spitting for once. His head was ducked down, hands clasped tightly together on his lap, as if trying to hold himself back.
"It’s actually true." White said nonchalantly, lying across the withered, squalid couch.
"Our friend here is the grandson of the old woman slaughtered days ago. Unjustly, I might add. After all, don’t tell me you believe that nonsense, Dancer?"
White slowly turned his head, looking intently at the impossibly handsome face of Dancer. He smiled softly.
"How could a Wasted enter the King’s chamber and steal the Ring of Ragnarok? Does that make any sense to you?"
"It... doesn’t." Dancer said carefully, his eyes unable to leave Loup’s face. And only now did he actually notice the resemblance between the two.
He let out a shaky breath, trying to keep his composure, and spoke again. "Does that mean your goal is to kill the King?"
"We are not that suicidal." White laughed. "We don’t want the one who gave the orders. We just want the head of the one who delivered them."
"The First Prince’s head, then."
"Aye."
"Not only." Loup cut in, his eyes dripping with hatred and wrath. "Not only his head. I will have everything from that bastard. I will do worse to him than he did to my grandmother."
He gritted his teeth, locking his eyes onto Dancer’s without flinching. And for the first time, Dancer saw something other than a reckless young wolf in Loup.
In that instant, he was looking at a young man — not even thirteen — who had watched the headless body of his only family be eaten by starved, crippled wolves.
A young man scarred by life’s cruelty, wanting nothing but to deliver his own vengeance, knowing full well no one would ever do it for him.
’This is life, isn’t it?’ Dancer mused, closing his eyes briefly, his mind drifting back to the past. ’No one cares about you if you have no value. And if you have value but no strength to protect it, you are enslaved and twisted to their desire. And oh...you would think that having strength would save you.’
Dancer couldn’t help but chuckle hollowly, prompting both Loup and White to look at him.
They noticed the beautiful man curling into himself, as if seeking escape from something.
But how could he escape something that lived inside his own mind — screaming, churning, dragging him back to everything he had endured in that cursed Church?
Everything he had gone through at the hands of the Disciple of Sorrow.
’Nothing in this life will save you. Not even power. For power draws the eyes of the hungry, the greedy, the more powerful. And once again, you are used.’
Again. And again. And again.
A never-ending circle. A circle of inevitability, where one remained powerless against the events of the world.
’And the only thing left inside us after all of it are scars. Scars that create voids. Voids that demand to be filled. And fill them we do, with whatever we happen to get our hands on.’
Sexual pleasure. Hatred. Self-loathing. Or the most classic of all...
"Vengeance." Dancer finally spoke again, his voice hoarse with unheard pain, looking at Loup and White. "That’s what you want, little dog?"
"Yes." Loup growled back.
Dancer turned his head to White, who was still smiling despite the heavy atmosphere. "You, pale bastard, what do you want? What’s your role in all of this?"
"I am but a helper." White drawled. "A helper of vengeance. Not because I wish it, but because I was ordered to."
"Your god’s command, I wager?"
"Aye." White nodded. "So you can rest easy, handsome. I care nothing about your goals, but I will see them through. That is my god’s will. And who am I but a faithful slave of my Lord?"
Dancer nodded, then swung his attention back to Loup.
"You want the First Prince’s head. Then I’ll tell you what I want." He said, lacing his fingers together and resting his chin on them. "It’s simple. I seek a door. A door called the Red Passage, that exists somewhere inside the Royal Palace."
He swept his eyes between his two new companions, reading their expressions.
"And I have already begun searching for it."
"How?" White interjected.
Dancer hesitated briefly, wondering if it was wise. But he didn’t ponder long. He had no other choice; if he wanted their full cooperation, they needed to know how he operated.
So he sighed, opened his mouth, and admitted it plainly. "I seduce the women of the Palace."
The room immediately filled with silence, broken swiftly by White’s laughter and Loup’s growl of disgust.
"I knew you were a man-whore." Loup scowled, though anyone paying attention could hear the hidden jealousy underneath.
White would never let that slide.
"See, Dancer? You’re making our poor virgin jealous again." He chuckled. "Why don’t you show him how it’s done?"
Loup’s face flushed red with embarrassment and anger.
"Alas, I’m afraid that won’t be possible." Dancer grinned arrogantly. "You need a certain level of beauty to achieve even a fraction of what I do."
He looked — no, appraised — Loup from head to toe and back again, then shook his head in mock disappointment. "You are severely lacking in that area, little dog."
"I am not ugly!" Loup bellowed, launching himself at Dancer like an angry dog. White caught him just in time, pinning him to the couch and sitting on his back.
It happened in seconds.
The young wolf began to struggle, yell, and curse at both of them.
"The character is also lacking." Dancer continued mercilessly, his pink eyes glowing with mischief. "Girls hate loud and dumb."
"Hahaha! But who knows?" White replied, plastering his hand over Loup’s mouth. "There must be some girl out there who’d take pity on him."
"Unlikely. But let’s not kill his hope."
"So, handsome, how many do you have in your grasp?" White continued, his voice a touch more serious. Loup slowly stopped struggling, realising the futility.
White was far too strong.
"Many." Dancer replied.
"High ranking?"
The handsome man grinned. "Oh, but of course. I am not bragging, but I have two of the Queens in hand. Not counting palace servants, knights, and various high-ranking nobles. And now that I think about it, it’s time we change location. I’ll get us a proper place to operate from."
Even White’s face went aghast at that, staring at Dancer as if he couldn’t quite believe it.
Loup’s eyes were literally bulging.
The Queens of the Kingdom. The wives of King Fenrir. Two of them were already in his hand?
That knowledge made both of them realise just how badly they had underestimated Dancer.
And if he managed to secure the last remaining Queen...
A significant portion of the Kingdom’s authority would be in his grasp. Just like that. Just because of his beauty.
White’s eyes lit up. "Dancer, handsome, do you know I love you?"
"I prefer women."
"I already—!"
"No. I don’t want you shapeshifting into a woman for me." He cut in, grimacing. "I have far more important women to focus on. The last Queen, for instance. She is the most difficult to reach. But she is essential to our plan."
"Why?" Loup asked, having been released by White. He shot the pale boy a dark glance. White only winked back.
"Because she is the most recent, the favorite, and therefore the closest to the King." Dancer said. "Imagine the information we could pull through her alone. I might find the Red Passage I’ve been looking for. And help you in the same breath."
"Do you have a plan?" White asked, tilting his head.
At that, Dancer smiled.
"Of course." He said. "First, some good news for you both."
He raised one finger.
"The First Queen told me something important days ago." He drawled, Loup’s attention snapping to him immediately. "The First Prince is recruiting new members into his Faction. As for why, I don’t know. I didn’t have time to press further, and the First Queen wouldn’t say more. But I have heard of a great deal of deaths inside the First Prince’s Faction lately."
Loup’s body stiffened.
"So this is an opportunity." Dancer resumed. "An opportunity to get closer to your target. Be careful, though. Something is deeply wrong about all of this."
"Interesting. The second piece of information?" White prompted.
Dancer raised a second finger. "This one concerns how we get under the skirt of the last Queen."
He looked at White and grinned.
"And you, Shapeshifter, are going to be the finest wingman this operation has ever seen. An operation I am gloriously naming: How To Bed The Last Queen Of The Wolves Kingdom."
White cackled. Loup sighed in embarrassment, though he was slowly getting used to this.
"That sounds like a story people would actually read!" White said between laughs. "And I am in! I need more tales to tell Crimson and the others anyway."
"I’d like to meet—!"
"Never in my life."
"Let me fin—!"
"I said no."
"Tsk."
And so the boys continued their plan.
—End of Chapter 473—