Chapter 21

Pulling his ankle with every last bit of strength I had used to drink formula, I startled Lucas so badly that he fell flat on his face.

“You...!”

When he jerked his upper body up, his forehead was red.

After blankly touching his forehead for a moment, his smooth brow crumpled.

“You! When I asked if you were a spy earlier, you couldn’t say anything! It was because you were one, so why are you saying you’re not a spy!”

At the question that lodged in my heart like an arrow, I shook my head.

“I’m not a spy!”

Actually, it was a lie. But....

“Even if I was born as a spy, if I don’t want to be a spy, then I don’t have to!”

But this was sincere.

“I’m going to change my own life!”

Lucas’s mouth fell slightly open as his eyes widened at the truth that had finally burst out.

The days I had endured until now flashed through my mind.

Do you know what I did to get away from being a spy?

How far I went?

“Hic... hic.”

Especially when my identity as a spy had been exposed and I had tried to choose death myself.

It had been so frightening.

Calypse, who had reached his hand out to me then, came to mind. At that, something hot began welling up at the corners of my eyes.

That jerk. I tried to rescue him safely because his face looked a little like Calypse’s.

But his personality is completely different.

“Ghk—”

I clenched my teeth so hard that walnut marks would be left on my chin, trying to hold back my tears.

“I’m not going to be a spyyyy!”

In the end, my small body, unable to overcome the hurt, collapsed.

Rationally, I did not want to cry.

But once I actually felt wronged, the tears burst out uncontrollably.

I had endured too much in this small body.

I had pressed down too many worries.

“Uh, hey, hey...! Why are you crying!”

Lucas’s wary expression began to crumble little by little, and he awkwardly sat down in front of me.

“No, then you could have just said you weren’t a spy.”

He even reached out his hand.

But perhaps he felt awkward about comforting me.

His hand, which had approached as if to touch my shoulder, fluttered in the air as though blocked by a barrier.

“Why, why are you making a fuss after making people misunderstand!”

I shrieked through my tears.

“I am a spy! But I saved you because I’m trying not to do this anymore!”

“So are you saying you’re not a spy, or that you are?”

“I said I am. You idiot!”

“Stop crying, no. Ack. Gross! Snot!”

“......?”

No, he looked like he had not washed in over a month himself.

“Lucas, you’re dirtier!”

Wounded, I shoved him away.

“Ah, that’s not what I meant. I didn’t mean that...!”

Lucas, who was pushed away obediently, waved his hands with a reddened face as if the words had slipped out without him realizing it.

Then, after agonizing with a complicated expression, he shouted.

“Hey!”

At the same time, rough hands grabbed both my cheeks.

“?”

When my eyes went round in surprise.

“You have snot, so I’m wiping it for you. Stop crying already.”

Muttering in a sulky voice, he furrowed his brow and wiped my snot.

An eight-year-old wiping my snot. It was embarrassing, but I was five right now, so it was fine, right?

“Haa—ugh.”

After finally wiping my snot with his bare hand, he rubbed his hand furiously on his T-shirt with a horrified expression.

But.

Drip—

“I have snot again.”

I pointed at my nose with my finger.

“Damn it! My hand is dirty right now.”

Lucas’s face turned red again.

So his face turns red when he gets flustered.

“It’s fine. I’ll just blow it on your T-shirt.”

As I grabbed the hem of his T-shirt with snot dripping from my nose, Lucas’s startled body flinched.

But he did not avoid me.

“Hnggg!”

“......”

Thanks to that, I was able to blow my nose properly.

Of course, Lucas’s expression grew even worse.

...Still, he was trying to comfort me earlier, right?

His way of speaking was like a complete thug’s, but when I was having a nightmare, I had definitely felt his hand patting my back.

He might be a pretty decent guy.

He had even wiped my snot while flustered, with his face turning red.

Glance—

After awkwardly looking at Lucas’s dirtied T-shirt, I shifted my bottom and crouched beside him.

Silence flowed for a moment.

Maybe because I had caused such a scene, the silence after crying was cleaner and quieter than ever.

Just like inside my head.

Let’s think again. How do I get Lucas out of here?

But once I returned to normal, I immediately fell into thought.

There were probably a lot of staff guarding the front, so sneaking out would be difficult. We had also come fairly deep inside.

What if I left the storage room alone and told Knox I had seen Lucas?

Well. Knox probably would not believe me.

I had already failed to find the young lady. If I said I had discovered the young lord this time, he would totally believe me.

Then what should I do?

As I was lost in thought.

“Hey.”

He glanced at me from beside me and asked timidly.

“...You said you came to save me because you wanted to quit being a spy, right?”

When I lifted my head, Lucas, crouching down, was scratching his forehead with his index finger awkwardly.

“...Yeah.”

It seemed he finally felt like talking.

I nodded, fidgeting with my short fingers.

“Then are you a fugitive?”

“......”

But the next question made me speechless again.

Strictly speaking, I was not a fugitive.

Because I was adopted by your father.

But if I told him that now, he did not seem likely to believe me, so I decided to put off saying I had been adopted.

“I’m thinking about that.”

“Fine, well. Think about that later.”

When I snapped at him primly, Lucas shrugged, then suddenly stood as if he had made up his mind.

Then a rough palm was held out before me.

“If you’re done crying, get up already.”

“...Why?”

“We have to get out of here. We can’t stay here forever.”

That was exactly what I had been thinking this whole time.

Hmm... I had not come up with a method yet, but we had to try somehow.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Having made up my mind firmly, I raised my eyebrows, took his hand, and stood.

“Just trust me and follow me!”

“What do you mean, trust you and follow you....”

Then he grabbed my hand and hid me behind his back.

“I’ll go first. You stay behind me.”

“What? But I came to save you...”

“Who’s saving who?”

My eyes widened as I looked at him saying that. Ice crystals were floating around him.

“Undoing the power restraints was already enough.”

I see.

I had been stupid to worry about taking him out. Lucas was a young lord of Kreutz who possessed a power, after all.

“Good, let’s go!”

Swipe—

I solemnly wiped the snot still flowing from my nose with the back of my hand.

“Then since it’s come to this, use a lot of ice.”

“Look at you changing your attitude right away. You look like a dandelion seed...”

“Huh? What did you say?”

Since I could not hear the latter part, I poked my head out and asked again, and Lucas’s face suddenly turned red as he whipped his head away.

“Ah, I said let’s hurry and go!”

He really can’t say a single thing nicely.

But that was not important right now.

With the relatively reliable boy in front of me, I grabbed the storage room doorknob. Soon, cold air began frosting the air.

“Shall I show what I’ve honed for five years?”

***

At that time, Ahili’s Circus.

...Damn it. I lost her.

Knox was still searching everywhere.

He had even held her by the back of the neck and watched her because he feared losing her like this.

The manners of the audience who had come to watch the illegal monster show were the worst.

“Aisha!”

“Waaaaah!”

“Ugh, move aside...!”

After pushing through people like a swarm of ants and climbing to the very top of the audience seats, he put monocles over both eyes.

Please. Please.

She was quite noticeable, so he thought he would find her quickly.

But the blond child with pigtails was nowhere to be seen.

No, even if he did find her.

It would be lucky if she hasn’t been trampled by those people....

Even if she had come to carry out a spy mission, the circus was packed with crowds.

To reach the contact location, a child would have to break through that crowd....

“......”

He felt a chill down his back.

Calypse, who had lived behind a mask after losing his family, had finally revealed his face.

The fact that she was a spy was a little troubling, but in any case, she was the child who had revived the collapsing head of the Kreutz family.

The moment he saw the endless crowd, Knox recalled the conversation he had shared with Calypse.

Saving that child. That was the only choice left in my life.

He had to save her no matter what.

Even if she turned out to be a spy and had to be imprisoned, she had to at least be shown to His Grace.

“Please... just don’t get trampled....”

As he prayed and looked around, perhaps his desperation had worked, because he discovered a door in a corner.

[Staff Storage Room]

It seemed like a place of no particular significance.

It was probably a storage room where products were kept.

Just as he was about to pass the door.

Ahili’s Circus. Twelve o’clock. Staff storage room.

The heel of his shoe stopped.