Chapter 24
Her cold voice echoed through the square.
Overwhelmed by Calliope’s presence, the head of the security forces instinctively handed her the sword.
“This, you see—”
Calliope pressed a button and retracted the fake blade, then looked at the assassin.
The man flinched at the piercing coldness in her eyes.
“It doesn’t activate by pushing a button,” she said.
Click-clack. Her heels echoed as she walked slowly toward him.
Her upright gait drew the crowd’s gaze along with it. Startled, the man shouted out.
“Wh-Why are you coming this way?”
Calliope stopped right in front of the assassin and looked down at the back of his hand.
The man, realizing what she was staring at, cursed under his breath and tried to shake off the guards and flee.
No—he tried to.
“Gahk!”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Lerazier’s aura, which had been on alert the whole time, wrapped tightly around the assassin. In an instant, he was restrained and collapsed onto the ground in a heap.
Lerazier approached him, knelt on one knee, and looked up at Calliope.
“Need a hand? Want me to cut one off?”
“Hiiik…!”
The man violently shook the only part of him that was still free—his head. Calliope smiled sweetly.
“What do you think we should do?”
“Please… Please spare me!”
“Losing one hand won’t kill you.”
Lerazier drew his sword and lightly pressed the blade to the back of the man’s hand. A single stream of blood flowed, and the terrified man screamed at the mere sight.
In the meantime, Calliope quickly smeared the man’s blood on the sword’s hilt.
Clack. With an eerie sound, the real blade sprang out.
It was a moment that startled the head of security, his guards, and even the bystanders nearby.
Only Calliope, who had already suspected the sword’s true nature, continued calmly.
“It’s a magical weapon that operates with the contractor’s blood. It’s designed so that the blade retracts when it’s no longer in their hands. The toy mechanism was just a distraction.”
She returned the sword to the head of security and said,
“Going forward, I expect a thorough investigation. May I count on that?”
“Y-Yes, of course!”
As he nodded absentmindedly, Calliope flashed a sweet smile.
And with the empire’s most beautiful woman smiling at him, his cheeks nearly floated up to the sky.
‘Could she be… interested in me?’
He even had the foolish delusion.
‘Come to think of it, didn’t she say she was looking for a husband?’
He had never dared think of it seriously, not feeling qualified—but now he regretted it. Maybe he should’ve tried his luck.
‘No, wait… maybe I do have a chance? That smile—wasn’t that basically flirting?’
Getting carried away, the head of security beamed as he said,
“Thank you, Lady! If it weren’t for you, we couldn’t have caught that vicious criminal!”
But the voice that came in return was cold as ice.
“You should be thanking His Highness the Prince, not me.”
“…Pardon?”
“It was the Seventh Prince who saved a citizen in danger and captured a vicious criminal.”
Calliope gave him a disappointed look as if he were hopeless and then slowly, clearly explained again.
“If His Highness hadn’t been there, I would’ve been seriously injured or even lost my life. And yet the security forces, who are supposed to be protecting the capital, only arrived after everything was over.”
“T-That’s…”
“So you should be expressing your gratitude to His Highness. After all, he did the job the security force failed to do.”
The head of security’s face flushed with shame. Wounded pride made him retort stubbornly.
“Milady, you must not know—our security forces are very busy. We do our best to protect the capital, but we can’t know everything that happens or act on every situation! If someone could, they’d be a god!”
“Exactly.”
Calliope replied indifferently to his emotional protest.
“So isn’t it all the more reason to thank His Highness for handling such a difficult matter in your place? Or… is there some reason you can’t thank him?”
Her voice rang out across the entire square, deliberately enhanced with magic.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“His Highness did help quite a lot, though.”
“Right. They showed up late and now they’re complaining.”
As murmurs began spreading among the crowd, the head of security turned red with embarrassment.
Calliope stepped aside to let Lerazier and the head of security face each other and asked,
“So what will you do, Captain?”
In the end, Lerazier received a formal thank-you from the head of security.
His chin trembled with humiliation as he bowed deeply, but no one paid him any attention.
The assassin was dragged away by the guards. All his weapons and magical tools were confiscated.
Lerazier decided to accompany them to help write the incident report.
“I’ll let you know once everything’s sorted.”
“Alright.”
As he looked at Calliope, Lerazier casually remarked,
“Didn’t think I’d get a thank-you from the captain this soon.”
“Huh?”
“Just saying—it was a fun experience. I’m off.”
With a light chuckle, Lerazier waved and disappeared.
After the incident was wrapped up, Calliope returned to the mansion with Sylvia and Agnes.
As always, Harold came out to greet her, bowing deeply—the image of a loyal butler.
“Welcome home, Young Countess.”
“Thanks. Nothing happened while I was out, I assume?”
“No, everything was normal.”
At his report, Calliope’s eyes curved with satisfaction.
“That’s good. Because something is about to happen.”
“…Excuse me?”
Startled, Harold couldn’t help but ask again, uncharacteristically.
“Summon everyone in the count’s household immediately, Harold.”
Her command was firm.
“That includes my uncle and his entire family.”
Calliope’s violet eyes gleamed like a predator ready to hunt.
Not long after Calliope’s summons was issued.
Everyone in the count’s household, except for essential security staff, gathered in the mansion’s central hall.
They looked around at one another, bewildered and murmuring, unsure of what was going on.
“Do you know what this is about?”
“Not a clue.”
Only Sylvia and Agnes, who knew the situation, remained calm.
Gilbert was the last to appear, accompanied by his wife, Natalie, and son, Nicholas.
He pretended to be composed, but inside, he was far from calm.
From the moment a servant told him Calliope had summoned everyone to the central hall, he’d been on edge.
Gilbert quickly scanned Calliope’s condition and swallowed hard.
‘She came back looking perfectly fine.’
He had asked for her to be killed—or at the very least, maimed. But neither had happened. She didn’t even have a scratch.
Still, he maintained a casual face and feigned ignorance.
“Calliope, what’s going on?”
His wife, Natalie, quickly chimed in.
“Ordering your elders around like this—how rude.”
She had held a grudge ever since Calliope stopped giving her separate household maintenance funds. Folding her arms, Natalie scoffed.
“Honestly, no manners or upbringing. That’s what you get with no parents—”
But she couldn’t finish.
Calliope cut her off sharply.
“The reason I called everyone here today is to report what happened earlier.”
From Calliope’s perspective, there was no reason to entertain the venomous nonsense of someone who clearly meant her harm.
Still, Natalie bristled and raised her voice.
“How dare you be so disrespectful to your elders—!”
“Be quiet, dear.”
This time, it was Gilbert who stopped her, and she was forced to shut her mouth.
Thanks to that, the hall fell silent, and Calliope’s voice rang out clearly.
