Chapter 53

The moment Calypse heard Knox’s explanation, he quietly opened the door to Aisha’s bedroom.

“I judged that nothing dangerous would happen. To be honest... Lady Aisha has been secretly raising that cat for the past two weeks.”

He remembered Knox averting his gaze while reluctantly confessing.

“She actually told me first. I knew about it and pretended not to, so this isn’t entirely Lady Aisha’s fault. If you’re going to be angry, direct it at me instead. Lady Aisha still has no idea what that cat truly is.”

So his daughter had been keeping secrets with Knox behind his back.

More than anger, Calypse felt a childish sort of jealousy, but he decided to postpone judging Knox’s actions for later.

Right now, confirming Aisha’s safety mattered more.

As the door opened, light from the corridor spilled into the bedroom and illuminated the sleeping Aisha.

Contrary to all the worry, the scene was peaceful.

Watching the child sleeping with soft little snores, Calypse suddenly found himself thinking that if angels truly existed, they would probably resemble Aisha.

But beside her—

“......”

Under the moonlight, ominous violet eyes reflected brightly.

The cat sitting there with wide-awake eyes slowly rose to its feet.

“Mya—”

So that was a demon.

From the way people described it, he had expected something savage-looking.

“It’s just a kitten.”

Now he understood perfectly why Aisha carried it around everywhere. She was at exactly the age where children adored cute things.

Still, it’s better to separate them for now.

Letting out a sigh, he moved to sit on the edge of the bed—

“KHYAAAK!”

The puffed-up fluffball suddenly lunged straight at him.

Of course, it ended up dangling helplessly from Calypse’s grip after he caught it by the scruff of the neck.

“What the hell?”

“Khyaak! Khyaak!”

Even while suspended by the scruff, the kitten continued thrashing and swiping with its claws. It definitely wasn’t an ordinary cat.

Expressionless, Calypse carried the kitten out of Aisha’s bedroom while still holding it by the neck.

Then—

“Lock this thing in a cell. It’s still young, so it might get cold—give it a blanket. And... what was it again? Leave it some water and boiled chicken.”

After handing the cat over to a knight, Calypse finally went to sleep with a much lighter mind.

But the next morning—

“The baby’s gone! Where’s my baby?!”

“Dandelion, what happened?”

“My baby... the last time it disappeared I nearly had a heart attack too, and now my baby...”

“Baby? What baby?”

“The baby... I mean...”

Because she had been hiding the fact that she was raising a cat, Aisha couldn’t bring herself to answer properly and only mumbled incoherently.

Then she ran straight to Knox.

“M-My baby... my baby disappeared... what do I do? My baby’s so tiny... if it went outside...”

Completely panicked, Aisha was even stuttering while clawing anxiously at her own hair.

The moment Knox saw her like that, he immediately ran to Calypse.

“Your Grace. What did you do with that cat?”

Knox burst through the office doors in alarm and demanded an answer.

“In the prison.”

“...What?”

“I gave it a blanket, water, and boiled chicken too.”

Ahem.

Calypse coughed awkwardly, subtly trying to emphasize that he had acted with a conscience.

But it was pointless. Aisha knew nothing about any of that effort.

“...Right.”

“Yes.”

Exchanging glances, the two men huddled together and carefully cracked open the office door.

Out in the corridor, Aisha was still pacing restlessly, while a flustered Lucas hurried over carrying a handkerchief for her.

Knox shut the door again and sighed.

“Lady Aisha treasures that cat dearly. How could you suddenly separate them like this?”

“It’s dangerous.”

“It is dangerous, yes. But that cat hasn’t hissed at Lady Aisha even once in the last two weeks. It’s been perfectly docile.”

“It was hostile toward me.”

“...Pardon?”

“No. That’s beside the point.”

Aisha treasured it?

That cat?

Flustered, Calypse fell silent.

“Knox.”

“Yes?”

“...What if we brought her a different cat—”

“Please don’t say ridiculous things. Animals aren’t objects to be replaced.”

Truly the chairman of the Monster Lovers’ Association.

Knox adjusted his monocle sharply.

“And do you honestly think Lady Aisha would be happy with another cat instead? Lady Aisha?”

“......”

He was only trying to protect his daughter.

But Knox was right, and Calypse couldn’t argue back at all. In the end, he quietly shut the office door again.

“I’ll explain it to Aisha later.”

“Explain what?”

“That the cat’s true nature makes it dangerous, so I secretly isolated it somewhere safe during the night.”

Hah.

If it had been unrelated to Aisha, he would have killed it without leaving a trace.

Kitten or not, that creature was dangerous enough to determine the fate of the Frozen Kingdom itself.

But there was nothing he could do.

Because listening to the child’s miserable voice from beyond the closed door—

“I-It was dying at Ahili’s Circus, and it was s-so tiny, and I-I saved it, and it’s still just a baby, so if it wanders outside, th-the wolves might swallow it whole...”

“The baby was the cat? I’ll help you find it. There, there.”

—left his mind in complete turmoil.

Pretending not to hear any of it, Calypse sat back down and forced himself to focus on work again.

After everything settles down. Once she calms down a little. Then I’ll explain.

Parenting was impossibly difficult.

Especially when the sound of his beloved daughter in distress made concentrating on anything nearly impossible.

***

Meanwhile, at that same moment—

The Kingdom Aisha had stormed through the previous day was now in the middle of a massive investigation.

Specifically, an investigation into the identity of the dead man killed by the mysterious boy.

“He targeted the back of the neck precisely without damaging the face. At first we assumed the boy killed him, but there were bite marks from an animal on the corpse’s neck.”

“...Were there wild animals inside the royal castle?”

“Not inside the castle itself, but this forest is occasionally used for hunting tournaments, and His Majesty sometimes hunts here as well. There are rabbits and deer nearby... and occasionally weasels...”

“......”

“...Maybe it was bitten by a weasel...”

Even the knight giving the report realized how absurd that sounded, and his voice dwindled to almost nothing.

But the bite marks on the back of the man’s neck really were small enough to resemble those left by a weasel or another carnivorous animal.

If not a weasel, maybe a kitten.

But how could a grown man like this have been killed by a weasel or a kitten?

“For now, since it appears he died from an animal attack, we’ll classify it as an accidental death and investigate the corpse’s identity—”

Just as the knight captain sighed in confusion—

“May the sun of the world shine upon the Frozen Kingdom!”

At the sound of several knights saluting, the captain immediately turned and saluted as well.

“May the sun of the world shine upon the Frozen Kingdom. Greetings, Your Majesty.”

“Yes, yes. So how are things progressing?”

The king approached lazily while glancing sideways at the notebook in the captain’s hands.

Without suspicion, the knight captain showed it to him.

“Our investigation suggests the victim was killed by an animal rather than a person. However, since he appears to have infiltrated the royal castle without permission, we plan to investigate the body further and identify—”

“Postpone it for now.”

“...Pardon?”

“I said postpone it. Must I repeat myself?”

The faint irritation in the king’s tone made the captain flinch before hurriedly answering.

“My apologies! Then we’ll halt the investigation entirely until Your Majesty issues further orders.”

“Good. In that case, everyone return to your duties. You’ve all worked hard.”

Only then did the king smile faintly before walking away with slightly quicker steps.

...Did he really come here personally just to say that?

Usually orders were relayed through aides, and if something was important enough for the king himself to intervene, he would ask detailed questions and dig deeper into the case.

Why did he stop the investigation?

The knight captain felt uneasy, but a king’s command was absolute law to a royal knight.

“Postpone the investigation into the corpse for now. Just make sure it’s preserved properly.”

“Yes, sir!”

Still unable to shake his unease, the knight captain returned to his post.

Then the next day—

“T-The corpse has disappeared.”

“...What?”

Less than a day after the king ordered the investigation halted, the body vanished without a trace.