The Villainess Wants To Retire-Chapter 278: Desperate Measures

The palace slept, or at least pretended to. In the deepest hours of night, when even the most diligent servants had retired and the corridors lay draped in shadow, three figures moved through Isolde’s quarters with the silent efficiency of those who knew they were running out of time.

"Are we certain about this?" Damon asked, his voice barely above a whisper. He stood by the window, watching the empty courtyard below with the wariness of a man who’d learned to trust his instincts.

"We have no choice." Isolde’s response came sharp and cold. She was pacing, her usual composure fraying at the edges like old silk. "That woman knows. Or suspects. Either way, we can’t keep the maid here another day."

Kael, sprawled in a chair with deceptive laziness, twirled a dagger between his fingers.

"The merchant?" Damon turned from the window.

"Already arranged," Isolde said. "He’ll meet us at the old mill outside the city walls. Dawn, no later. We deliver the girl, collect our gold, and she disappears into whatever hole he keeps his cargo." She paused, her jaw tightening. "No one will ever find her. No one will ever know."

Kael grinned, all teeth and no warmth. "Efficient. I like it."

"Then let’s not waste time talking about it." Isolde moved toward the door, then stopped, turning back to face her brothers. "And remember... if anyone asks questions, if anyone sees us, we’re moving supplies for the wedding preparations. Understood?"

They nodded. The plan was set. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Back in the cell, Mira lay crumpled against the far wall, barely recognizable as the bright-eyed maid who’d once served Lady Eris with such devotion. The bruises painting her skin told their own ugly story. She didn’t even lift her head when they entered.

"Gods, she looks half-dead already," Damon muttered.

"Good," Isolde said coldly. "Less likely to cause trouble." She gestured sharply. "Get her in the sack. Quickly."

Kael hauled Mira up with one arm... she weighed almost nothing... and dumped her unceremoniously into the large canvas sack they’d brought. She made a small sound, something between a whimper and a sob, but didn’t struggle. Couldn’t, most likely.

They loaded the sack onto a covered barrow, the kind used for transporting laundry or supplies through the palace. To anyone glancing casually, it would look like servants doing late-night work. Nothing suspicious. Nothing worth investigating.

Isolde took point, leading them through the quieter corridors, the ones she knew from years of navigating Vetra’s web of secrets. Damon and Kael followed, pushing the barrow between them, their footsteps deliberately soft.

For the first few minutes, everything went according to plan.

Then they turned a corner and found three guards blocking their path.

"Hold." The command came firm and flat. The guard who’d spoken... older, scarred, entirely unimpressed... stepped forward, one hand resting casually on his sword hilt. "Bit late for laundry, isn’t it?"

Isolde’s heart kicked against her ribs, but she kept her face smooth, imperious. "We’re transporting supplies for the wedding preparations. The Empress Regent requires... "

"I don’t care what the Regent requires." The guard’s eyes flicked to the covered barrow, then back to Isolde. "I care what you’re transporting at this hour, through corridors that are supposed to be empty."

Something cold slithered down Isolde’s spine. These weren’t the usual guards. She recognized none of them. Their uniforms bore the Emperor’s seal, not Vetra’s colors.

Eris.

The realization hit like ice water. Eris had replaced them. Gods knew when, gods knew how, but she’d replaced the guards and Isolde had walked straight into...

"What’s in the sack?" Another guard moved closer, his sword half-drawn.

"That’s none of your concern... "

"Open it." The first guard’s voice dropped to something dangerous. "Now."

Kael and Damon exchanged a look. Isolde saw the decision crystallize between them in the space of a heartbeat... the slight shift in stance, the tension coiling through their shoulders.

They weren’t going to talk their way out of this.

"Do it," Isolde hissed.

Kael moved first, his dagger flashing as he lunged at the nearest guard. The man barely had time to shout before steel found flesh, and then everything dissolved into violence.

It was brutal. Efficient. Kael and Damon had been trained by some of the best swordsmen in Nevareth, and they fought like men who knew hesitation meant death. Guards went down bleeding, crying out, the sound echoing through the stone corridors like accusations.

One guard stumbled back, hand pressed to a gushing wound. Another dropped his sword, gasping. The third managed to land a solid blow across Damon’s shoulder, but it wasn’t enough.

Within minutes, it was over. Three guards lay groaning on the marble floor, blood pooling beneath them in the torchlight.

"Move!" Isolde snapped, her voice shaking despite herself. "Before more come!"

They ran. Damon and Kael seized the barrow and ran, Isolde leading them through service passages and forgotten doors, her mind screaming panic even as her body moved on instinct. Behind them, somewhere in the palace’s depths, someone was shouting. Raising the alarm.

The trap had already sprung. They just had to outrun it.

By the time Commander Ryse reached the corridor, his expression was granite.

The guards were being tended to by palace healers... wounded, some badly, but mercifully all alive. Blood stained the marble in dark, accusing smears, and the abandoned barrow lay overturned nearby, its contents spilled and empty.

"Report," Ryse said quietly.

"The Ravencrests, sir." The guard who’d spoken before... the older one... pressed a hand to the gash across his ribs, his face pale but steady. "Lady Isolde and her brothers. They were transporting something. Someone. In that sack. When we tried to stop them, they attacked."

"And they escaped?"

"Yes, sir. Heading east, toward the servants’ gate."

Ryse nodded once, already moving. "Get these men to the healers. Full care, highest priority." He turned to his lieutenant. "Assemble search parties. I want every road east covered. They’re carrying something heavy... they can’t move fast. Find them before dawn."

"Sir." The lieutenant saluted and vanished.

Ryse paused only long enough to send a runner to Lady Eris’s chambers with the news, then strode toward the stables, his jaw set.

The hunt was on.