Chapter: 6
“Please rein it in a bit. I can’t breathe.”
Evan Barents, Derbel’s milk-brother and aide, slipped neatly between him and the captain of the guard.
Perhaps he really had been deliberately letting his presence flare—Derbel’s oppressive aura softened at once.
Evan let out a quiet sigh of relief.
“No matter what we do, there’s no one who looks on us favorably anyway. How much worse could it possibly get?”
There were plenty of people who criticized Derbel for being an imperial duke who took money like a mercenary and personally went out to subjugate monsters.
Of course, he didn’t care in the slightest.
“Wouldn’t it be better to find Her Highness quickly and proceed with the banquet?”
“A banquet? In a situation like this?”
“Yes.”
At Evan’s words, everyone in the office stiffened. Even Olof—normally a man with barely any change in expression—twitched his eyebrows.
Perhaps because he was both the duke’s milk-brother and his aide, Evan sometimes spoke with startling bluntness. Blunt enough to chill the blood of anyone else who heard him.
“These people have suffered for two full years. You should treat them accordingly. You can’t cancel a gathering meant to honor their hard work because of a lovers’ quarrel between the two of you.”
Derbel’s eyebrow twitched at the words lovers’ quarrel. But that was all—he offered no rebuttal.
“Let the two of you settle your own affairs, and let those who want to enjoy themselves do so.”
At Evan’s fearless words, Derbel let out a short laugh, as though he had expected nothing less from his aide.
“Fine. Proceed with the banquet as planned. And as for the princess…”
What should be done?
As he paused to gather his thoughts, a gray mouse suddenly hopped into his field of vision.
‘A mouse?’
Strangely, it looked familiar.
“Oh, that’s Gregorian.”
Thanks to Evan buying time, Müller, the head butler, spoke up quickly.
“He’s Princess Lynette’s pet.”
“A mouse… as a pet?”
How fittingly eccentric.
Derbel snorted quietly to himself—and then—
The gray mouse, Gregorian, bowed deeply to Derbel. Placing a paw politely against his chest, he opened his mouth.
“Squeak!”
With a solemn expression, Gregorian squeaked insistently at Derbel.
After squeaking away for some time, the mouse looked up at him with shining black eyes, his expression proud—
As though asking for praise.
Derbel, who had been watching silently, slowly rose from his seat.
“Your Grace? Where are you going?”
Startled by the sudden movement, Evan widened his eyes.
“That mouse is telling me to follow him.”
“What? You don’t mean to say you understand a mouse?”
“Of course not.”
“Then…?”
“If it’s the princess’s pet, it would know where she is. Would it show up somewhere it might die without knowing that?”
Derbel grabbed Gregorian by the scruff and casually tossed him onto his shoulder.
“Lead the way.”
Before anyone could stop him, Derbel began moving in the direction the mouse indicated.
There wasn’t a shred of hesitation in his steps.
The hour when even the magestone lamps had been extinguished.
With only oil lamps lighting the way, the corridor felt far more sinister than usual.
“Do you think it’s safe now?”
Lynette sat in the shadows beneath the stairs, catching her breath as she looked down at what she held in her arms.
A baby pig, wrapped tightly in checkered quilted cloth, squirmed faintly.
“Shh. Not yet. It’s still dangerous.”
As if it understood her words, the piglet stopped moving.
“That’s right. Good girl.”
Lynette gently patted the piglet.
“Where did Gregorian go?”
She’d thought he was clinging to her back while she fled, but now that she had a moment to breathe, he was nowhere to be seen.
“He didn’t get caught by a cat… did he?”
She knew it was unlikely, but she couldn’t help worrying—especially remembering how desperately he had tried to stop her.
“Haa… how did things get this out of hand?”
Lynette murmured as she leaned back against the wall, letting her body go slack. She never imagined her day would end like this.
That voice was the problem. No—before that, the animals’ strange behavior, too.
‘It was the first time they just stared without making a sound.’
It had been chilling. Those glossy black eyes, simply watching her.
And then—
—That child will help you.
What had that voice been?
It sounded like the voice of an ancient old man who had lived for countless years.
Among the few animals Lynette could communicate with, none had ever possessed a voice like that.
‘I’ll have to look into this, too.’
But more importantly—what excuse could she possibly use to step into places she’d never been before?
There was no place in Aster, the territory of the Christian Ducal House, that she hadn’t visited.
In her search for the Star of Fortune, she had rummaged through every corner while overseeing flood-control projects and road construction.
She had even discovered secret passages.
That wasn’t all. Under the guise of crop development, she had even won over the court mages.
Thanks to all that, the ducal estate was practically in the palm of her hand.
“Which leaves only…”
The duke’s private library, the office she had only skimmed through, and his bedroom.
Those were the only three places she had yet to inspect.
What excuse could she possibly use to get into them?
Should she just ask a mage to make a bomb she could throw into the library?
As she was seriously considering it—
“Oink…”
The piglet squirmed in her arms.
Lynette gently patted it, rocking it like a baby as she murmured,
“Just what are you, really? Why did the animals—and that voice—tell me to save you?”
This adorable little thing couldn’t possibly be… a monster, could it?
Lynette looked down at her arms. Through a slight gap in the cloth, glossy black eyes peered up at her.
“…No, probably not.”
If it were, the voice and the animals wouldn’t have told me to protect you.
“First, I should give you a name.”
By principle, any animal you took responsibility for had to have a name.
After a moment of thought, Lynette’s face lit up.
“Ah—yes. Let’s go with that.”
“Oink?”
The piglet tilted its head, looking at her. Seeing it react as though it understood, Lynette’s smile deepened.
“Françoise.”
She said the name gently.
“That’s your name. Françoise.”
Smiling as softly as she could so the piglet wouldn’t be afraid, Lynette continued,
“Just hang on a little longer, Françoise. I’ll take you somewhere safe very soon.”
At that moment—
“I’m curious just where that ‘safe place’ might be.”
A man’s voice rang out, and a long shadow slowly stretched over her head.
“…!”
Lynette bit her lip hard to stifle the scream that threatened to burst out.
After steadying her breathing, she slowly turned around.
A tall man who swallowed even the faint light around him. In the pitch-black darkness where nothing could be seen, a chilling blue glow shone.
Lynette swallowed.
‘A demon!’
Wasn’t this exactly how the demon from legend—the one who fought the saintess—would look?
With a resolute expression, Lynette hugged the piglet tightly to her chest and stared at the man.
Silence fell.
Derbel gazed at her with unreadable eyes, then the corner of his lips curved upward in a gentle arc.
It was a smile beautiful enough to steal one’s breath.
“Hand it over.”
“No!”
Smack.
A sharp, crisp sound echoed through the corridor.
“I’ll protect this child!”
Her body moved before her mind did. Lynette spun around and ran.
Derbel remained frozen for a brief moment—only moving once Lynette’s coral-colored hair vanished around the corner and out of the estate.
“So, you’re running.”
He murmured, his eyes curving elegantly. Despite the splendid smile on his face, there wasn’t a trace of warmth in his narrowing gaze.
“Very well. Let’s see you try, Princess.”
Derbel crooked his lips and beckoned with a finger.
Less than ten minutes later, Lynette was escorted into the duke’s office by the knights guarding the estate.
The escape had been short-lived.
Lynette was caught by knights who appeared seemingly out of nowhere before she could even leave the grounds.
They were familiar faces—knights she normally got along well with—so she begged them to pretend they hadn’t seen her, but they didn’t budge.
‘We’re sorry. We want to live, Your Highness.’
‘I have an elderly mother and younger siblings at home…’
‘I can’t handle being hung upside down.’
Spouting incomprehensible excuses, the knights escorted Lynette to Derbel’s office at a speed even faster than her attempted escape.
The real problem began after that.
