Chapter 22

This was not some ordinary storage room he could simply pass by.

It was the contact location that spy brat had written down.

The staff member in the gaudy suit near the door was...

Is he a fellow spy?

Knox put the monocle he had been wearing into his jacket pocket and approached him.

“Have you seen a five-year-old brat? She has blond hair and twin pigtails.”

“Ah. Do you mean the child with blond twin pigtails, wearing a dress?”

As expected, the staff seemed to know Aisha.

So he is a fellow spy.

Knox let out a hollow laugh inwardly.

To think she had truly come here to play spy. It was exactly what he had expected, and yet, for some reason, he felt bitter.

“Good. Since you know her, that makes this easier. I am that child’s guardian. Where is she?”

But then.

“Five thousand gold.”

The staff member, wearing an unpleasant smile, abruptly demanded money.

“?”

As Knox raised one eyebrow, unable to understand—

“For five thousand gold, we’ll hand the child over. We have her with us right now.”

The staff member whispered to him with a chilling smile.

“......”

He was not Aisha’s accomplice?

Knox bit down hard on his lower lip.

“...Are you saying you kidnapped the child?”

“We kept a lost child safe for you, so we’re asking you to pay the price. Why are you being so stiff—”

Baaang—!

It happened then.

With a tremendous roar that sounded like an earthquake, the storage room door flew open, and a terrified man slammed into Knox’s shoulder as he rushed out in a panic.

“C-Crazy... The power restraints came off! It’s an emergency!”

Power restraints?

Knox, who had been startled, furrowed his brow at those words.

“What? The power restraints came off? Why did those come off?”

The man’s shout confirmed Knox’s suspicion.

“What about the rest of the staff? Did you release the monsters?”

“If we release the monsters, everyone here dies, you idiot!”

“T-The brat!”

While the staff exchanged frantic words, Knox listened closely to every single thing they said.

A power in this kingdom meant...

Only the Kreutz family’s power of ice.

He still maintained his businesslike expression, but the hairs rose along the back of his chilled neck.

...No way.

Knox’s eyes suddenly widened as he realized something.

The moment he stepped into the entrance of the storage room as if bewitched by that familiar energy, he saw ice crystals covering the walls.

***

Baaang—!

“D-Do something about this monster!”

“Who removed the power restraints?! Damn it!”

After I removed Lucas’s power restraints,

the dangerous situation shifted so much in our favor that it almost felt anticlimactic.

“Dandelion, stay close behind me.”

How could the back of such a young boy look this reliable?

“Okay!”

I stuck close to Lucas’s back, nodded vigorously, then stood on tiptoe and peered over his shoulder.

It seemed the situation was already over.

Ice pillars had erupted all over the dark room where the staff had been prowling.

It looked exactly like we had stepped inside an ice cave.

...Is he overpowered? Why is he this strong?

He had been treated as already dead in the original story, so there had {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} not been much detailed information about him.

So this is the Kreutz power of ice. This is ridiculous.

Tex’s power, as someone from a branch family, had been strong too, but Lucas seemed to be on an entirely different level.

It was then.

“Shoot him with a sleeping potion or something! Put him to sleep first!”

At someone’s command, a large man sprang out from behind the iron cage.

He had an arrow filled with sleeping potion aimed at us.

“Dandelion, dodge!”

Lucas, who had not grasped what was happening behind him in time, belatedly stepped in front of me—

Pft—

“Kek.”

Just before the man could draw the bowstring, he suddenly collapsed. A long needle was stuck in his neck.

After confirming that he had fallen, I looked at Lucas, who was standing as if hugging me protectively.

Had he been prepared to take the hit in my place? His tightly shut eyelids slowly opened.

“...Dandelion?”

He had instinctively tried to protect me, but there was fear in his gaze that he had failed to hide.

His personality is bad, but he is brave.

They said he was Calypse’s son, and he really does resemble him in a lot of ways.

“Young lord. Did you protect me?”

I tilted my head because I was needlessly grateful—

“...Of course I did! It’s only natural to protect someone weaker than me... Huh?”

He had been muttering with his face bright red, but then abruptly stopped.

Then he checked the fallen man.

“But why did that bastard fall over?”

Soon, he discovered the needle lodged in the man’s neck.

“I’m a former spy. Of course I carry a self-defense poison needle.”

I had not had a chance to show it until now, but.

“Ta-da— Isn’t it cool?”

Now, look at this color.

A grip that fits perfectly in a baby hand like a maple leaf.

A sleek black color that doesn’t stand out!

This would be a poison needle for children!

“...You.”

I had shown it off a little because we had escaped danger thanks to me, but after seeing the poison needle, his brow faintly furrowed.

Oops. Maybe bragging that I was a spy was not the best idea.

“Hmm. I did say I’m not a spy, but it was an emergency... Still, surviving is what matters!”

I panicked and hurriedly made excuses—

“I’ll... repay...”

But then—

“Huh?”

“...I said I’ll definitely repay this debt!”

Lucas suddenly shouted and sprang to his feet.

“Eek.”

Unable to withstand the force of it, I tumbled and fell flat.

“Are you okay?!”

“Yeah. I’m fine...”

Just as I was about to say so,

through my ear against the cold floor, along with the vibrations of people running,

I thought I heard a strained groan.

“...Ugh.”

I heard it again. This time, it was definitely a frail groan.

What is it?

I snapped my head up like a spring bouncing upward and saw one of the men who had collapsed after Lucas’s attack.

And beneath his body—

“......”

Clear, shining purple eyes were watching me.

“Meow—”

A kitten.

“Mew—”

A kitten was pinned under the man.

“Dandelion!”

When I suddenly ran that way, Lucas, startled, urgently chased after me.

But I could not take my eyes off the kitten as I asked,

“Can you move that man?”

“What?”

“That man! There’s a baby cat trapped under him!”

“Huh!”

Startled by my words, Lucas turned his head and checked the kitten.

Then he slowly raised an ice pillar under the man’s crown.

Thanks to that, the man’s head tilted upward as if lying on a high pillow.

“Thank you!”

I lay flat on the floor and reached my hand toward the kitten.

“Now, come here. It’s all right now.”

But the kitten only trembled and did not come out.

It seemed some of its fur was still trapped under the man’s body.

I moved a little closer, pushed both small hands in, and carefully pulled the kitten out.

Soon, a tiny ball of fur was in my arms.

The moment I met those purple eyes buried in the darkness, my whole body froze.

Aisha.

When I had fled into the garden drainage passage,

mister’s desperate voice calling me in that dark cave echoed through my mind.

I wondered if this was exactly how he had felt when he found me.

“......”

I was lost in thought only briefly. For now, the kitten came first.

I shook my head with a flutter and abruptly held the kitten out to Lucas.

“Young lord. Save this baby cat.”

“What?”

“You said you’d repay your debt to me. When we go back to the ducal estate, repay it by saving this child.”

Lucas’s mystical eyes stared at me silently.

He scratched the back of his neck.

“...Whether it’s an animal or a person, I’ll protect weak living things. If it’s the Kreutz family, that is only proper.”

It was clearly a positive answer, but the way he said it was a little vague.

Had he not expected me to ask him to save the kitten as repayment?

Did he not like that?

He said he’d repay his debt, so why is his reaction so lukewarm?

Of course, regardless of what Lucas thought, I examined the kitten.

Its life was fading, but I could feel a faint warmth against my palm.

This child must have been brought here as food for the monsters too.

What on earth did they think there was to eat on this tiny thing that made them kidnap it?

The baby cat was dried out, as if they had not even fed it.

There was a slight wariness in its purple eyes, where eye crust had hardened, but it seemed to have no strength in its body and could not even hiss.

“Make your wish something else. Like you living at the estate as my subordinate...”

“Young lord! The baby looks really cold.”

“Hup.”

He flinched while trying to pet the kitten and hid his hand behind his back.

It was probably because his body temperature had dropped because of his power.

“I’m cold, so you hold it.”

“Okay.”

I shoved the barely breathing ball of fur into my clothes.

“Myaa—”

A faint groan slipped out, perhaps because it was uncomfortable inside my arms, but once the kitten felt my warmth, it no longer resisted.

It had a peaceful face, as if this was the first time it had ever felt such warmth.

If I had not found this child, it probably would have lost its life on the cold floor.

Just like me, shivering alone before Calypse found me.

“......”

Looking at the tiny living creature suddenly reminded me of my past self.

“First, Dandelion.”

Just as I was lost in thought, I raised my head at Lucas’s call.

“Let’s go again. You protect the cat, and I’ll protect you.”

Saying that, he nodded.

More precisely, he tried to nod.

Behind his small shoulders, an enormous shadow abruptly appeared.

And at the same time, what rose high was none other than a sword.

“Just die, power holder!”

Lucas’s eyes widened as he had let his guard down.

In my mind, dozens of possibilities swirled through in a brief instant.

Lucas dies, and I survive.

Then I lose trust and become alone again.

I save Lucas and die instead.

Then there will be no trust to lose and no chance of becoming alone.

“Young lord!”

If I had to choose between the two—

He may have pitied you and adopted you, but he likely does not trust you. You were the one who lied first, young lady.

Mai’s accusing voice pierced through my mind like an arrow.

Thanks to that, my decision was made.

Even if I died, I would save him.

“Aisha!”