Chapter 42
Pedro returned just as Esh had half-finished the tasks he’d been putting off. The first to greet him back at the lord’s manor was Edmond. Edmond had given Esh an excuse, but he’d been pacing nervously, not knowing how long Pedro would be gone.
Damn, I should’ve used a different excuse, Edmond thought. He had been scheming to divert Esh’s attention and, as a last resort, had planned to feign clumsiness and let a tall stack of papers tumble. But when he heard the muted commotion from the first floor, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Unaware of all this, Esh—thinking, albeit mistakenly, that Pedro had been passed out drunk in the street and wanting at least to give the men who’d used that as an excuse a light scolding—thrust open the study door.
“You said he passed out drunk in the street, but he looks surprisingly okay.”
“Ha ha. Fortunately, no frostbite.”
Pedro, having roughly guessed what excuse Edmond had made, laughed and took a glass bottle his men had been holding for him.
“My lord.”
“I won’t issue a ban on drinking, so don’t worry.”
“A monster appeared at Steria Castle.”
“…What?”
Both Esh and Edmond frowned at the unexpected news. Esh was taken aback—he hadn’t expected such a thing—while Edmond muttered, “So there really were monsters?”
Hearing Edmond’s mutter, Esh looked more closely at the glass bottle in Pedro’s hand and noticed the black, sticky substance inside. Instinctively, he recognized it as monster blood.
“So he wasn’t actually drunk.”
“It appeared twice without our knowledge.”
Esh forced himself to pick his words and calm down. If it had been merely a report of a monster sighting, he wouldn’t have been this alarmed—but the fact that the appearances were at Steria Castle, and that they’d happened twice, and in whatever way had threatened Charlotte and Aria, made his spine chill.
“When did the monster appear twice?”
“One was a few days before your Grace was almost attacked by the raven monster, and the second was recently. Both appearances seem to have involved small beasts, so there wasn’t much damage.”
Was he relieved or angry at himself for not noticing sooner that their lives had been at risk? Esh rubbed his forehead and sighed, then suddenly snapped in a sharper tone.
“Then why didn’t you tell me earlier, Edmond?”
“Edmond wanted to tell you, but I said not to.”
“Why?”
“You ask the obvious. The curse is active—what would I report? Your body, wounded by the monster, isn’t fully healed. Even if it looks better now, if it concerns Lady Blanche, I thought you’d rush off with your face hidden by a robe, so I kept quiet.”
Pedro’s excuse—masked as concern and complaint—was all sound and hard to argue with. His judgment had been correct, whether Esh liked it or not. Acting as if he hadn’t noticed Esh’s narrowing eyes, Pedro set the cage he’d brought down on the floor. He unlatched it and opened the door; a staggering figure named Soo stumbled out.
Though injured, Soo kept a wary watch on his surroundings. When he recognized the familiar face of Esh, he staggered over and rubbed his head against Esh’s leg. Seeing how bad Soo looked, Esh scooped him up into his arms.
“It seems the northern fox Your Grace gave as a gift attacked and ate a monster, but it was brought back practically at death’s door.”
“…”
“They said its name is Soo. From appearances, it looks like Aria named him.”
Soo glanced around as if looking for Charlotte and Aria, then, exhausted, buried his head against Esh’s arm. Under normal circumstances he would have been extremely defensive in an unfamiliar place, but he seemed to lack the energy even for that.
“Did you say that?”
“Yes?”
“That it was at death’s door?”
“No way. But they did say they’d treat it and send it back—do you think there’s any hope?”
“It’ll be fine. Judging by how he looks, he probably only ingested a little monster blood. If he’d swallowed one whole, he’d already be dead. I’ll ask Lady Cassandra to help.”
Pedro relaxed. He’d brought Soo because he was worried the fox might turn into something like the northern fox monster they had captured before after eating a monster, and Aria had been tearfully refusing to let him go. It had taken nearly thirty minutes of everyone consoling her before they finally managed to bring Soo. Pedro had even made her pinky-swear they’d treat him and send him back.
“Take Soo to my room and contact Lady Cassandra. And—”
What Pedro said suggested the problem wasn’t that serious, but counting the black serpent, the raven, and the field mouse, this was already the third appearance. The snowy mountains were vast and contained many places monsters could appear, and the searchers had been combing that area. Still, the number of times monsters had been found in the snowy mountains matched the number of appearances at Steria Castle.
There was no guarantee they wouldn’t appear again. They couldn’t station snow-mountain searchers at Steria Castle—there simply weren’t enough people, and if another aggressive creature like a black serpent showed up, a handful of mountain scouts would be no match.
“I have to move Charlotte and Aria somewhere safe. Is there a suitable place?” Esh thought.
The blizzard season was approaching, so if they were to relocate, they had to prepare immediately. At that moment Pedro quietly raised a hand.
“I made an offer to the young lady without consulting Your Grace.”
“What did you say?”
“I asked whether she wouldn’t consider returning to the capital, since monsters have appeared three times.”
Esh’s shoulders twitched. He couldn’t help recalling the treatment Charlotte had received in her childhood. Things probably hadn’t changed much after he left. The fact that Marquis Blanche had even written a personal letter asking him to take care of Charlotte suggested she had suffered greatly at the hands of others. So Esh understood immediately when Pedro said Charlotte had refused to return to the capital.
But when Pedro continued, Esh’s eyes widened.
“She said she’s planning to have Aria adopted out, so going back right away would be difficult.”
“Adopted out?”
Esh was stunned by Charlotte’s decision to put Aria up for adoption—but it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.
He knew Charlotte well enough to have once asked if Aria was her daughter because the two resembled each other so closely. If they went to the capital, people would likely claim Aria was Charlotte’s child and, without even checking the truth, search for a father who didn’t exist. They would tear Charlotte down.
More than anything, Charlotte was kind-hearted; she surely wanted what was best for Aria. And Charlotte looked genuinely happy when she was with Aria. After reuniting in Nostri, Charlotte had seemed fragile as if she might vanish at any moment, but the more time she spent with Aria, the more her vitality returned.
Unmarried men and women cannot adopt a child.
If Charlotte had a husband, she could adopt Aria—but she did not.
“Did she ask for anything in particular?”
“No. She didn’t say that, but she looked troubled, so I asked if she’d consider staying at the manor.”
Esh nearly blurted out a loud protest. Charlotte and Aria living in the lord’s manor? Of course it wasn’t that he disliked the idea—after all, they’d lived in the same castle in their youth—but as an adult man and woman who weren’t closely related, it was uncommon for them to reside in the same castle without being married. Still, considering the circumstances, Pedro’s suggestion was probably the best option.
If they stayed at the manor, they’d be safer from monster incursions. Even without the snow-mountain scouts, Esh could protect them. But there had to be a better choice, and he figured Charlotte would refuse.
“Fine. I would have made the same suggestion. But she must have refused—so find a place as close to the manor as possible—”
“She accepted.”
This time Esh couldn’t hold back.
“What did you say?”
“What is the meaning of this! Even if you’re paladins, this is clearly Viscount Kenis’s—”
“If you resist any more, you won’t like the outcome.”
Marc, who usually took things lightly, showed no mercy to those who had defrauded the temple and embezzled funds over several years. The butler in charge of the viscount’s household affairs saw the sword pointed at his throat and could no longer resist; he was forced to kneel under the knights’ strength.
“We gathered the butler, the footman, and even the maid responsible for menial tasks. What shall we do?”
“Take them all away without exception. The brother and sister were accomplices—there might be more.”
Theodore had come to the manor with knights, claiming he was here to inform them about the theft at the temple. But if many men showed up, they would attract attention, and the Kenis couple might notice and flee. So Theodore only brought Marc and Siveron—two of the order’s most capable knights—and about five others.
But the moment the guard said, “Viscount Kenis and his lady are currently not at home,” the knights drew their swords without hesitation.
“There’s a possibility the Kenis couple fled! Search every corner!”
To those who had climbed ruined castle walls with their bare hands to fight monsters, the iron-barred gate offered no real resistance—more like a plank of wood. Though only eight of them, they quickly overwhelmed the hired men and captured them all. At that moment Siveron grabbed a servant by the scruff of the neck and knelt before Theodore.
“Commander.”
“What is it?”
“When we asked where the Kenis couple were, the servant in charge of mail said he didn’t know the details, but he handed this over.”
Among the letters the servant had surrendered was one unopened envelope stamped with a deer emblem. There was no recipient’s name or family written on it. Theodore opened it immediately. Reading the letter silently, he handed it to Siveron.
“Contact the High Priest.”
His pale-blue eyes flashed dangerously.
“They say they found Jamil Kenis.”
