Calming the raging despair that was close to erupting in his mind, Lysander let the veil drop and once again cover the window, trying to regain control of his mental state.
'I can't escape this castle, at least not before I somehow manage to stop whatever this ritual is,' he thought. 'The Butler told what seemed to be a maid to prepare clothes for their master tonight. The sun is setting, so I don't have a lot more time before another attempt is made, and probably the last before the explosion.'
Lysander walked away from the end of the corridor and silently approached the room where he had last heard the footsteps enter.
Putting his ear against the door, Lys managed to catch the grumbling and inaudible whispers of a man's voice. The Butler.
'I need to understand what is happening in this castle, and the Butler is probably close enough to the master of this place to know a thing or two about the ritual.'
Emptying his mind of useless thoughts, Lysander reaffirmed his resolve and began to formulate another plan.
———-
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The sound of grumbling and whispers stopped, and the man inside the room spoke, his voice dripping with palpable anger and exasperation.
"I explicitly told you all not to disturb me unless it was the master who requested me."
In front of the door, Lysander answered with a steady voice, devoid of his earlier dread.
"I am sorry, Butler Qeius, but there has been a problem in the dungeon. A prisoner escaped."
A deep sigh from inside the room could be heard even through the door.
"Useless. A bunch of useless, incompetent, and stupid trash. How low has House Pendragon fallen?"
A chair was pushed back. Footsteps approached Lysander, until the door finally opened, revealing a man in his forties with a receding hairline, a sharp face, and cold blue eyes. He looked down at the young man.
In front of the Butler stood Lysander, wearing the clothes of the guard he had killed earlier in the dungeon. His long hair hid parts of his face.
"I am sorry, Butler. We only found out that a cell had been opened and the prisoner inside was gone."
The Butler eyed Lysander from head to toe, shaking his head in disappointment.
"You had one task during the recent days. It was to watch the prisoners. They are half-dead. How could one of them have escaped?"
Lys avoided the Butler's gaze, raising a hand that held something in his grip toward the man in front of him.
"We found that inside the cell."
Just as Qeius was reaching for the item, the young man's hand faltered, and the object fell to the ground, forcing the Butler to look down.
A rock.
Just as his gaze settled on the diversion planned by Lysander, the latter drove his other hand, holding the sharp bone, toward Qeius's neck, intending to stab the man and end his life.
Sadly for Lysander, his ruse would not work this time.
A firm hand grabbed the young man's wrist, causing pain from the unhealed wound and forcing him to drop the bone from his grasp.
Coldly looking at Lysander, Qeius brought his other hand to Lysander's neck, lifting him into the air.
"A clever plan, I must admit, but crude. If you put all your odds on surprise, you need to make sure the other has no prior clue," the Butler calmly said, bringing Lysander inside the room.
Struggling to breathe for the second time in just the past few hours, Lysander managed to utter a few words.
"H-ho-how did y-you know?!"
"Your disguise had a few flaws," the Butler answered, despite the young man being only a mere sacrificial soul for his master and not worth the explanation. "First, you are quite tall for your age, but you lack a few centimeters to be a guard of this House. Secondly, even if you hid the bloodstains on your clothes well enough, you couldn't mask the scent of blood as easily. Lastly, and this is the biggest flaw, a guard would not come see me if there was a dungeon breakout, for the one in charge of the castle's security is Knight Abel."
Lysander was starting to experience a lack of oxygen, his vision blurring.
'Fuck! FUCK!'
The Butler continued.
"I respect your resolve, but it's time to go back to your cell, young man."
Lysander spoke through his teeth.
"I-in y-your dreams, f-fucker."
Raising his legs close to his chest, Lysander forcefully kicked Qeius in the chest, forcing the man to let go of his neck.
Dropping to the ground, the young man gasped for air.
Stumbling a few steps back, the Butler changed from calm to angry.
"I intended to do it the nice way, but now, I am going to beat you to death."
Lysander only had time to raise his head and barely registered a fist filling his vision before he was sent crashing against a wall.
'Urgh!'
Blood spilled onto the ground from the gash on the young man's mouth. Pain was flooding his mind.
Qeius walked toward Lysander, taking off his jacket to have a better range of movement.
"You mere sacrifice, how dare you try to resist the will of my Master?!"
Lysander didn't even have time to answer before another strike came at him, forcing him to roll across the carpet to narrowly dodge the attack.
Looking toward his opponent, Lys thought of his chances of winning against a man like that.
'He is not like anyone I have beaten up in the slums… and I lost my greatest weapon, the sharp bone.'
Continuing to dodge or take as few hits as he could, Lysander looked around the room for a way to win this fight.
Settling on a rope used to open and close the window's veil, in front of a desk, the young man rushed to the side of the room facing the vast expanse of land.
Qeius followed him, his face brimming with anger.
"Stop wasting my time, you brat!!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Lysander shouted back.
At the same time, he willed the Unseen Hand close to the Butler's face. The latter, overcome by rage, couldn't register the ethereal hand hovering in front of his eyes before it was too late.
"Arghhhh!!"
Screams resounded through the room as blood flowed from the Butler's now-pierced eyes. While Qeius was blinded by the sudden strike and stopped focusing on Lysander, the latter jumped onto the desk and wrapped the rope around the blind man's neck, starting to strangle him while clinging to his back.
The Butler, now unable to see and being strangled, walked backward while putting his hands behind his back, trying to tear the little pest clinging to him away, or bashing his back against the wall to make Lys let go.
Despite being punched and beaten, his body screaming at him to stop, Lysander held the rope and put more strength into his grip, adrenaline granting him strength beyond what his physical state allowed, making Qeius's face turn blue as the seconds passed.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to both fighters, a victor was decided.
The Butler's limp body fell to the ground, his last breath forever trapped in his lifeless corpse.
Lysander rested beside the body, his hands red with blood from the friction of the rope and his body covered with wounds, but he had triumphed over this foe.
The sound of the Nightmare Spell rang in his ears.
[You have slain an Awakened human, Qeius the Butler.]
———-
I hope you liked the fight scene and the chapterd in general. Also, I dont remember if a dorman sleeper is capable of beating an Awakened, but I assumed that Qeius was a more lazy Awakened that had not the habitude to fight, as he counted on the Knight and his Master, and also, Lysander beated him by chance and a cause of death, suffocation, that would make sense even for an Awakened. Tell me what you think, I will maybe change it to dormant if its too strange.