Chapter : 5
“Since you got caught, it’s only natural you’ll die. We’ll torture you, try to persuade you, threaten you, interrogate you—until you die. …But why aren’t you killing me right away?”
I muttered loudly to myself. This time, there was no answer.
But I could feel someone watching me.
“I’m curious…”
It was strange.
I was upset that I failed, but the things I was about to experience for the first time made me a little—just a little—curious.
Even being tortured seemed somewhat fascinating. After all, I don’t die.
And I was also curious about this thing touching my back…
When I moved my arm slightly, a soft sensation brushed against me.
“…Huh.”
I couldn’t find the words to describe it, so I decided to simply enjoy the feeling.
At that moment, a voice like a boulder rumbled ominously above my head.
“The size fits perfectly. Good. Stay still there for a moment, assassin.”
“Mmm?”
“I’ll interrogate you after I clean up the floor.”
The floor?
When I glanced down, I saw the poison I had spilled earlier when I fired my poisoned needles.
Only then did I understand why he hadn’t killed me right away.
Since he’s cleaning this up, it looks like the torture won’t happen here, but somewhere else.
I nodded solemnly.
“Got it!”
…But this.
I kind of want to change my position.
As I squirmed slightly and shifted my hips, the white thing clung even more snugly to my whole body.
My mouth opened on its own.
“Mm.”
I heard a brief chuckle from somewhere, but my body had suddenly grown drowsy, and I couldn’t focus on it.
And when I opened my eyes again—
“Oh, you’re awake?”
“…Mm?”
Afternoon sunlight was streaming in through the window.
“…?”
With one cheek squished into a cushion, I stared blankly at the snowman.
“Your eyes look like they’re about to roll out.”
It took me a while to realize he was speaking to me.
It wasn’t an order, a threat, or anger.
I rolled my eyes, hesitated, then suddenly inhaled and lifted my head sharply as I shouted:
“No!”
“What isn’t?”
“You haven’t plucked out my eyes yet! Even if you do, eyeballs don’t roll around! Snowman is stupid!”
“‘Yet,’ you say.”
He stared at me without even frowning.
Is it because he’s a damn magician?
Do magicians talk comfortably with monsters because they’re like demons themselves?
My heart pounded, and I wriggled my hips as I leaned slightly toward him.
“Stupid snowman! Stupid snowman! I’ll beat you to death!”
“Enough. That’s not a good thing to say.”
“…Huh?”
He neatly stacked the documents he had been handling and approached me.
Then he looked at me quietly and said:
“Anyway. You said you’re an assassin, didn’t you?”
“! That’s right! I’m the youngest assassin!”
Even though I failed once.
…And even took a nap.
Still, once I die, I’ll succeed the second time.
“Good. Then, assassin. Did you sleep well?”
“…?”
Another unexpected question.
I tilted my head, then finally looked at what I was inside.
I was sitting in a basket filled with that incredibly perfect white material.
Next to it, there was a mysterious purple cloth.
That also looked very, very perfect.
Without realizing it, I chewed on my lips and then rested my cheek against the purple cloth, lying down on it.
“I can tell just by looking.”
Then he picked me up—along with the basket of white fluff—with one arm and strode out of the room.
With my cheek slightly squished, I asked:
“Where are we going? My interrogation? Or torture?”
“Your vocabulary is excessively biased in one direction. You have much to learn.”
Grrr…
At that moment, a sound I rarely made came from my stomach.
I silently waited for a blade or whip to come flying at me.
Then, a moment later, I realized—
This was a castle of damned magicians. There were no researchers nearby with knives or whips like before.
‘Right. This isn’t my family.’
But something was strange.
Even though this wasn’t my family, the urge to kill the snowman wasn’t as strong as it was yesterday.
I should go back.
‘Is it because I already failed?’
The basket moved steadily somewhere without even shaking.
Before I knew it, I had started looking around busily. Then I asked the snowman loudly:
“Snowman! Snowman! Do you persuade too?”
“Persuasion, huh. Yes.”
The corner of his lips twitched.
“I fully intend to. Properly.”
“Whoa!”
“But interrogation comes first. And interrogation requires preparation.”
“Preparation…? What do I have to do?!”
“Well. What do you think a captured assassin should do…?”
At that moment, a cold scent like yesterday brushed past my nose.
I instinctively turned my head, and there, at the end of the hallway, was the man in blue clothes from before, waving as he approached.
He kept bowing and straightening his back as he walked.
“Ahahaha! Brother—no, Your Grace. From afar, it looks completely ridiculous! The Duke of Icarus carrying a baby in a flower basket! Hahaha! My stomach—oh! Little miss, you’re awake? Did you sleep well?”
“….”
“….”
Together with the snowman, I stared at the man in blue without blinking.
‘Little miss?’
Was he… calling me?
But while I was trying to process that, the man in blue lowered the hand clutching his stomach and straightened up politely.
Then, sweating nervously, he said:
“Oh. Um. Why is that? Why do the two of you have the exact same look in your eyes? It’s like there are two assassins—no, I’m sorry, I was wrong.”
Only then did the snowman speak.
“Count Eden. We need to interrogate the assassin.”
“…Excuse me?”
Finally!
Forgetting all about the words “little miss,” I clenched both fists tightly and looked up at the snowman with determination.
…Ah, should I glare?
I widened my eyes and glared at him.
At that moment, the man in blue—who was also glaring at the snowman—spoke.
“Your Grace, wait—just a moment. What did you say you’re going to do?”
Huh? Now even the man in blue’s voice felt cold.
The snowman glanced at me, then said in a voice twice as cold:
“I said I will interrogate the assassin. So prepare warm bathwater and a meal.”
A strange silence followed.
Then the man in blue replied:
“I’ll prepare it immediately!”
I also bounced slightly and shouted:
“I am an assassin!”
I decided to do my own version of “preparation” before the interrogation.
In my mind, this was the moment I had to shout dramatically.
“I came to kill these damned magicians!”
“Yes.”
“I’m a terrifying monster! Interrogation is useless! Grr!”
“I’m glad you seem to be enjoying yourself.”
“Waaah!”
I shouted loudly enough to shake the castle and began spewing all sorts of threatening assassin phrases.
Each time, the snowman responded:
“I’m terrified out of my mind.”
“Yes, you truly are a one-of-a-kind assassin.”
“Crawford, was it? You once served a very impressive master—‘in the past.’ Now you’ve been captured.”
In truth, I didn’t realize that the interrogation had already begun back then.
Nor that it was an interrogation meant not for themselves—but for a baby they had never seen before, one who had been abandoned.
I only came to understand that a little later.
“Are you interrogating me?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to do water torture and starvation torture?!”
“Where on earth did you learn those words… Ha.”
…Hang in there, Your Grace.
Count Eden, the aide, shook his head with a faint smile at the conversation behind him.
As he briskly carried out the orders of his cousin and lord, the Duke, he thought about the baby who had suddenly appeared.
‘Even if not quite interrogation, there’s certainly a lot to find out.’
To begin with, it made no sense for a child—at most three years old—to be here without a guardian.
The territory of Icarus was a place where half the year was covered in extreme cold.
It was the primary habitat of winter monsters.
That was why, unless one was a magician, one needed at least magical tools to survive here.
‘And yet, that child was wearing nothing but clothes?’
There was no doubt.
That child was a magician.
And a very rare one at that.
