Chapter 73

“Hh... hh... hoo....”

Calm down, Aisha.

Calm down. I’m still inside the royal palace.

I have to be inside the royal palace.

I had only just managed to steady my hyperventilating breaths when—

“I am handling this personally just this once, Duke Pose.”

A thick, gravelly voice utterly unlike Ariana’s reached me.

It sounded strangely familiar.

After a moment of frantic thought, I remembered. It belonged to the man whose conversation I had secretly overheard from above the ceiling during my last visit to the royal castle.

It was King Argen.

“Of course. So long as you take care of this child, I will see to the rest.”

Argen clicked his tongue at Duke Pose’s fawning reply and sighed. Then an enormous man’s palm settled over my tiny stomach.

“What are you doing to me...?”

That was when it began.

“O god of Ebella, sleeping within the abyss. I release the shackles that bind you, so extend to me the hand forbidden upon this land...”

The god of Ebella...?

No way. Is he casting forbidden magic on me?

Forbidden magic had been outlawed because the Mage Association, to which Grace belonged, had determined that it endangered human life.

The law had been enacted by the royal consort herself.

And now the king of this very kingdom was using that forbidden magic on me.

“Let go! Let me go! You’ll regret this!”

I thrashed wildly, but King Argen only pressed his palm harder against my stomach.

“Ghk—”

Unable even to breathe beneath the pressure, I quivered like a dying frog.

He paid me no mind.

“Your hand is now my hand. In the name of Ebella, I command that all touched by my hand...”

No.

“...shall become dolls bound by thread and be made to dance in our puppet show.”

Just as Argen released a breath, apparently finished with the spell—

“Aagh!”

His scream erupted from beyond my blocked vision.

Now.

I tore myself out of his grasp and quickly rubbed the back of my head from side to side against the floor. The cloth covering my eyes shifted with the motion, slipping lower and lower.

When my vision finally cleared—

“Ghh...!”

King Argen was clutching his shoulder, where a set of teeth marks had been left behind.

And beside him lay Kyle.

Ariana was sitting on top of him, pinning him down.

My face drained of color, and I screamed.

“Kyle!”

“Kh... ugh...”

With Kyle forced flat against the floor, Ariana was trying to make him swallow something.

A potion.

“...It smells strange. You drink it.”

Perhaps Kyle had instinctively realized it was dangerous. His face twisted as he jerked his head away with all his strength.

But—

“If you refuse to drink it, then you can bathe in it.”

Pour—

Still wearing the same indifferent expression, she poured the liquid over his face.

The black fluid drenched his white hair.

It ran thickly over his eyes, nose, and round cheeks—

“...Kh... hah.”

Had he accidentally swallowed some while trying to breathe?

“...Aisha...”

His trembling fist suddenly went slack, and the purple eyes fixed on me slid shut.

No. No, they didn’t just... Kyle...

I jolted desperately, wanting to rush to him, but my hands and feet were bound.

I could do nothing.

Kyle had collapsed right in front of me, and I...

“What did you do to Kyle?!”

I burst into tears as the scream tore out of me. The golden eyes that had been gazing down at Kyle lifted coldly toward me.

“I didn’t kill him. His body is merely immobilized.”

“You didn’t kill him? Do you even understand what you just did?”

“Unlike you, I am faithfully carrying out my mission.”

“That’s not the point! You fed poison to a child! And if you really are Duke Pose’s spy... then did you spend four years pretending to be the Duchess just so you could kill Calypse?!”

How could you do that?

How could you take a family away from someone so kind—the person who taught me what family even was?

“You’ve destroyed an entire person’s life!”

I screamed until my throat hurt, but Ariana merely sighed and rose to her feet.

“It seems he overlooked your behavior because you are still young. Then again, Calypse was always weak when it came to children.”

Then—

“I am deeply disappointed in you.”

Nudge.

With the low-heeled shoes worn by servants, she lightly pushed Kyle’s fallen cheek aside.

As though he were nothing more than an insect.

“A spy who becomes lost in the role she was assigned and turns her back on her family has no value left in this world.”

Tap. Tap.

The unhurried sound of her shoes approached me, neither fast nor slow.

“You will be cast out by the Pose family. And eventually, the role you were given will be exposed as a fraud as well. Besides, you are the one who betrayed someone. You betrayed Duke Pose, who placed his trust in you.”

As Ariana drew closer, the back of my neck began to ache from craning my head upward.

Even so—

“You’re right. Spies can’t betray anyone.”

I refused to lower my head.

At my words, Ariana’s expression—hard as an impregnable fortress—shifted faintly with confusion.

“A spy isn’t a person. A spy is a tool. How can a tool betray anyone like a human being?”

“...What?”

I wanted to see that rigid face crack.

“Something that can’t tell right from wrong and only obeys the orders of its superiors isn’t a person. It’s nothing but a tool!”

“...Shut your mouth, little brat.”

“You shut yours! You’re going to live as a spy until the day you die, forgotten by everyone—”

Smack!

A sharp burst of pain snapped my head to the right.

The struck side of my face burned as though it had been scorched. My eyes flew wide in shock.

“...For a five-year-old, you truly are calculating.”

For once, Ariana’s voice trembled.

“You should never have been born.”

“......?”

Then came her confession, driving into me like a blade.

My head, still turned to the right, slowly rotated back toward her.

What did Ariana just say...?

“You weren’t planned. You only came into existence because of one moment’s mistake...!”

Ariana was trembling.

Like me after being slapped.

Like Kyle, who had fought to endure until the very moment he collapsed.

But more importantly—

“And so, even when I escaped to the ducal estate back then, someone like you...”

Is she saying... I’m her daughter?

That was when—

“Ariana. That is enough.”

A greasy voice tinged with amusement came from beyond the door as it flew open.

“Your Grace.”

In an instant, her shattered voice and expression returned to normal.

By the time I gathered my senses, she was already bowing her head to Duke Pose.

What was that? She was clearly agitated just a moment ago.

Something was wrong.

Knights and spies usually saluted or offered only a slight bow when greeting their master.

But Ariana had bent so deeply that the crown of her head was fully exposed.

......

No.

She remained bent at the waist, grinding her teeth.

...Why?

“The child has been placed under dark magic, so our work here is finished. Bring her.”

Something still felt deeply wrong, but the thought shattered beneath the storm of events that followed.

At Duke Pose’s command, a nearby knight hoisted me up like a piece of luggage.

“Let go! Put me down!”

Thump, thump.

I struck the knight’s arm with my tiny fists, but I already knew.

No matter how much spy training I had received, the body of a five-year-old could not overpower an adult.

No. I can’t let them take me away like this.

I had to think.

If that door opened and they carried me out of the royal palace, there would truly be no turning back.

“What is the situation outside?”

“His Majesty informed us of a hidden passage. It leads through an unfrequented area, so we should be able to escape safely.”

That was when—

...Hidden... hidden?

They said people could summon unbelievable strength in moments of crisis.

In my case, it was not strength that surged forth.

It was the memory of an old conversation.

‘So I’m not the only one. Other nobles have the same hobby. What is wrong with keeping one or two monsters as pets?’

The conversation between Duke Pose and King Argen that I had overheard while chasing Kyle.

There are monsters here.

My fading eyes widened.