Chapter 20

Meanwhile.

“The contact location is the staff storage room? Where is it?”

Waaaaah—!

Knox’s question was buried beneath the crowd’s shouting.

“Now—this is the giant orc that Duke Kreutz, ruler of the north, supposedly faced!”

“Eek! I-it looks disgusting!”

“It looks over three meters tall... How did Duke Calypse deal with that monster?”

Urrrgh.

The orc, enraged by the shackles binding it, went on a rampage. The inside of the circus shook as if an earthquake had struck.

“Damn it... let us... through!”

Excited by the orc’s appearance, the audience began shoving us from front and back.

There were no rules here.

So there were no lines, and people whose eyes had gone mad from watching monsters had no consideration for a child.

“Eek!”

That was when it happened.

A huge man forced his way between Knox and me.

Dropped to the floor like an abandoned toy, I—

“Eeeek!”

Rolled this way and that with the hamster rolling technique, dodging people’s legs.

“...Phew. Crazy bastards.”

My legs trembled once I barely escaped the audience seats.

All right, I had succeeded in getting out from among the orc perverts for now.

It’ll be hard to meet back up with Knox, won’t it?

I stared at the dark audience seats tangled with people.

My best-case scenario had been finding Lucas together with Knox.

But in this situation, it seemed better to save Lucas first.

All right, then. Shall I go find Lucas?

I began exploring the area in earnest.

Lucas was probably somewhere difficult for me to find on my own.

From Ahili’s Circus’s perspective, Lucas was an S-class product. So they would have hidden him in the darkest, deepest storage room—

“Hey, kid.”

That was when it happened.

As I tried to sneak through a door that looked like a storage room, loudly patterned suit trousers blocked my view.

It was a staff member of Ahili’s Circus.

“This isn’t somewhere a little child should wander into. Are you lost?”

A black-and-purple striped suit.

A disagreeable smile that matched his rather bizarre fashion sense pressed down on the top of my head.

“I’m not lost. I came with my mom and dad.”

I lifted my head as high as I could and answered.

Unlike the people of the Kreutz family, he did not do anything like bend his knees to meet a child’s eyes.

At Ahili’s Circus, everything was divided into two categories.

Guests.

Or products.

“Is that so? What do your mom and dad do?”

Was I a guest, or a product?

Well. That would depend on what answer I gave.

“Business! They run a big business! My family is rich!”

Stretching out my arms and even standing on tiptoe, I expressed the biggest “big” I could manage.

“What?”

“What is it?”

Then another nearby staff member approached.

The man dealing with me whispered to him.

“She seems to be lost. Looks like her parents are rich.”

“...Well, you can tell just by her clothes.”

“But she says they’re commoners.”

“Commoners?”

At those words, the man’s indifferent gaze changed.

Concentrating on their quiet conversation, I did not miss the timing and cut in.

“Yes! We’re commoners, but my family is suuuuper rich!”

At my words, the two staff members exchanged glances, and the corners of their mouths rose ominously.

“...What should we do?”

“What do you mean? It’s the parents’ fault for losing their child in a shady place like this.”

“Right?”

“If her parents are rich, they might spend thousands of gold to find the kid.”

“...She’ll be profitable.”

Only then did they bend their knees and meet my eyes, as if they had finally taken interest in me.

“Little kid.”

I answered brightly, with a look that said I knew nothing.

“Yes?”

“We’ll find your parents for you, so how about you rest somewhere comfortable for a little while? Want to follow us?”

“Okay!”

And so, led by the unfamiliar staff members, I was able to enter the storage room naturally.

As I followed them, I acted like an innocent rich kid.

“Wow, what’s that?”

My chubby finger pointed to a white fox trapped inside an iron cage.

It was an animal found only in the northern region, but relatively common.

“That... isn’t as expensive as you.”

Not expensive?

My hands trembled at the words that treated life like an object, but to find Lucas, I had to endure at least this much.

That was when it happened.

“Kyaaaaaak!”

A staff member who had gone deeper inside opened the door to the inner storage room, and suddenly, a scream that seemed to tear my eardrums rang out.

“Baby, cover your ears if it’s loud.”

After warning me as if it were nothing, they walked between the animals trapped inside iron cages.

“Woof! Woof, woof!”

A wary wild dog. Small deer shrinking back and hiding in the corner as the staff appeared.

“Ugh, shut up!”

As if sick to death of the animals’ screams, a staff member kicked an iron cage, and the hedgehogs inside collapsed with shrieks.

Crazy bastards.

They had not only captured monsters.

To keep their top-grade products, the monsters, alive, they had also indiscriminately captured the animals that served as their food.

If I hadn’t come here to save Lucas...

At the gruesome future that suddenly came to mind, I closed my eyes.

Once this is resolved, I’ll have to set all those animals free too.

Looking at the animals trapped behind iron bars suddenly brought back a past I had forgotten.

The days when I had been born as a spy and had to suffer without even knowing why.

These animals must have been dragged here without knowing anything too. To become food.

That was when it happened.

“Now then, our little kid needs to sleep for a moment from here.”

“Kek—”

A heavy pain suddenly struck the back of my neck.

After letting out a short scream, I collapsed with a thud.

***

How long had it been since I fainted like that?

Deep asleep, I felt the cold and frowned.

“...Co... ld...”

Feeling the cold, hard floor, I instinctively curled up.

Why was it so cold?

Sleeping on a floor this cold had ended after mister adopted me.

In my hazy mind, somewhere between dream and reality, I heard someone’s voice.

You came back from the duke’s family and made something very interesting.

It was a voice I did not remember.

Don’t dispose of it. This should become quite entertaining later.

I struggled to escape the unfamiliar scene, but my body would not move as I wanted.

Where is this? And who is that voice?

Could it be that Calypse died, just like in the original story?

Like how my parents in my previous life died in a traffic accident?

Then, then what happens to me?

An anxiety that had been quiet for a while swallowed me.

Do I have to go back to the Pose family?

No. I hate that.

I’d rather die.

Hot tears gathered at the corners of my eyes.

“......”

If this was going to happen, I should never have met Calypse in the first place.

If I was going to be left alone again like this, it was better back when I did not know what it felt like to be loved.

It felt as if I had been dropped into the middle of a dark sea.

That was when it happened.

As I trembled in the cold and solitude, something suddenly covered my body.

“......?”

It was far too thin to withstand the cold air, but it was warm. Soon, a palm carrying body heat patted my back.

When I slowly opened my eyes—

“......?”

The sun unfolded before me.

A red iris deepening around eyes filled with gold.

The boy whose eyes met mine like that—

“Damn, you scared me.”

Pulled away, removing the hand that had been stroking my back.

He looked flustered, as if he had not expected me to suddenly get up.

The young boy seemed around my age, though he looked older than me.

This boy, could he be...

In the original novel, Lucas was about eight around this time, right?

I raised my upper body and checked the boy.

Crouched in the corner, he looked less like a person and more like a frightened beast.

His hair was matted, as if he had been trapped here for a long time. Power restraints bound both his wrists.

His clothes were worn and shabby. Even his chilling gaze was wary of people.

There was nothing about him that could be called noble.

But the moment I met those mysterious eyes shining through his disheveled hair, I realized it.

He was Lucas Kreutz.

Right. I came to save Lucas.

Only then returning to reality, I roughly wiped my wet eyes with the back of my hand.

Then I dragged myself over to him on my knees.

“Do not worry, young Lord Lucas.”

“What? How do you know me?”

“There’s no time to explain. Hold on.”

Leaving the startled boy behind, I used the tweezers I had prepared in advance to jiggle the keyhole of the power restraints.

Then, with a clunk, the restraints came undone.

“...Whoa, it worked.”

It was my first time doing it in a real situation.

They say even dog poop has its uses. Looks like the five years I trained like a dog were worth it.

Hoo.

“Now do not worry. Since I came to save you,”

Having finished that task, I held out my small hand to him.

Smack—

The hand I had offered was knocked away.

“I’ll never take your hand, so hurry up and get lost.”

“...What?”

When I looked up in confusion, a chilling gaze that sent a shiver down my spine met mine.

“At first they sent adults, and when I didn’t trust them, now they’re even sending a little kid like you. You came to swindle me too, didn’t you? I know everything!”

“Wh-what are you...”

“You’re a spy from the Pose family! Who do you take me for, an idiot?”

Open hostility echoed through the storage room.

“...Uh, that’s...”

“Are you not?”

“......”

I was not, but I could not refute it by saying I was not. Because I really had been a spy of the Pose family.

Good day, fake young lady.

Suddenly, I remembered the first greeting Knox had given me.

But it is different if that five-year-old is a ‘former’ spy.

Even the words he had spoken without malice began surfacing one after another.

That was right.

Separate from Duke Calypse adopting me, I was still Duke Pose’s spy.

A spy was a spy until death.

A being with no name and no status.

The kind of existence described only as a villain in fairy tales.

“......”

When I fell silent, lost in thought, he rose to his feet.

“Well, thanks for undoing the restraints. After trying so persistently to drag me away for five years, their service has improved. Or is this spy just stupid?”

Clink, clink—

“I won’t kill you, so get lost.”

After throwing off the power restraints, he brushed past me with a light movement.

“You look obviously stupid, so I doubt you could do anything to our family anyway.”

Even then, I could not say anything.

Spy?

To think that was the only answer I got for actions offered in goodwill.

To think that was what I was.

“...I am not a spy. Sit back down.”

I grabbed the ankle of the boy trying to move away.

“What?”

That attitude was unforgivable.

“If you treat me like a spy, I’ll lock the restraints again, so sit back down!”

“Aaagh!”