Chapter 74

Maybe we still had a chance.

No. With Kyle unconscious, the odds were almost nonexistent—but I had to do something.

“Kyle!”

Still trapped in the knight’s arms, I forced out my voice with every bit of strength I had.

“Wake up!”

Please wake up.

“Wake up and call the monsters right now! They have to be somewhere inside the royal palace!”

This was the central region.

No matter how skilled the royal knights were, unless they came from the north, they had probably never faced monsters properly before.

If Kyle can summon the monsters being held nearby, we might have a chance.

“Kyle, please—call the monsters as loudly as you can—”

But—

“Tsk. Aisha. It seems your time in the north has filled your head with strange fantasies.”

Bang!

At Duke Pose’s voice, the door slammed shut.

***

The room, which had been noisy with Aisha’s desperate struggle, fell silent the instant the door closed.

It felt as though it had been cut off from the rest of the world.

A boy lay collapsed in the corner. An empty vial rolled across the floor, while black liquid stained the room here and there like blood.

Find Aisha.

Kyle remained motionless.

The potion clinging between his closed eyelids, over his round cheeks, and beneath the nose through which he breathed with difficulty had already dried.

Ha ha ha—!

The laughter of nobles drifted faintly through the closed window.

Find Aisha.

As the sky shifted from late morning into afternoon and the sun began to descend, the light that had filled the room was swallowed by shadow.

That was when—

Find Aisha!

Kyle’s eyelids slowly opened.

His purple eyes stared up at the ceiling, gleaming in the darkness like those of a beast.

Then—

“Aaaaaah!”

A tremendous crash shook the building.

The laughter beyond the window turned into screams of horror.

“Monsters!”

The monsters Kyle had summoned had broken through their iron cages and escaped the castle.

“...Aisha.”

Kyle had only been unconscious for a very short time.

In truth, he had awakened just before Aisha was taken away.

His limbs had remained rigid and his eyelids shut. He could not see, but he had heard enough to understand what was happening to her.

And Kyle had realized one thing.

When monsters were nearby, he could call to them with his mind—and they would answer.

The moment he regained consciousness, Kyle gave them a desperate command.

The monsters responded.

Want out. Going out.

Their answer was simple and clumsy, but it was enough.

At first, they hesitated.

They had lived inside iron cages since they were young and had never even considered the possibility of escape.

But—

There is a home for you in the north. Do not hurt anyone else. Save Aisha, then return home.

Kyle felt the monsters tremble at his explanation.

When they heard that there was somewhere they belonged, curiosity stirred in them for the first time about the world beyond their cages.

“......”

Listening to the chaos outside, Kyle pushed himself upright and looked around.

The potion’s effects had finally worn off enough for him to move.

But the bad people had already taken Aisha away.

Aisha.

My Aisha.

My precious home—the one I must never lose.

“I have to save Aisha.”

He slid the window open.

Unlike the north, the air in the central region was sticky and stifling.

He wanted to go home as soon as possible.

***

A short while before Kyle awoke.

After hearing the truth about Aisha from Calypse, Grace said very little.

Instead—

“Find Lady Aisha. This order applies to every knight in the royal consort’s palace under my direct command.”

She had merely moved to a more secluded location and issued orders to her closest knights.

“At the same time, seal every route leading out of the central city. Not a single person is to leave the capital.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

She understood the proper order of priorities.

The revelation that Lady Aisha was a spy of the Pose family had been shocking.

But because the one who had revealed it was Calypse himself, Grace chose to focus on finding Aisha.

Calypse hated Duke Pose.

Grace did as well.

She had pretended not to know, but thanks to Knox, she knew who had truly been responsible for the recent monster frenzy.

And that King Argen, who secretly envied Calypse, had been at the center of it.

Just thinking about her suffocating husband’s face made her close her eyes for a moment.

No. Argen can wait. Right now, Calypse must hate Duke Pose’s spies even more than I do.

Whatever the truth was, Calypse loved Aisha.

Grace did not need to hear him say it.

His actions made it obvious.

Throughout the banquet, he had never once set Aisha down.

Whenever the child stretched her neck to look around the hall, the corners of his mouth would rise without him realizing it.

She truly looked like his own daughter.

There had likely been many complications between them.

But those were their private affairs. Grace neither needed nor had time to hear about them.

Aisha’s safety came first.

“Duke.”

“Yes.”

“I will ask you about Lady Aisha again after this matter is resolved.”

“......!”

Calypse’s eyes slowly widened at Grace’s swift decision.

“Thank you.”

He bowed his head to her with genuine gratitude.

Then—

“A man and a woman standing together in such a secluded place!”

An exaggerated voice of surprise rang out from around the corner.

“Grace. You have always been so fascinated by monsters. Are you perhaps holding a secret conversation with the hero who kills them?”

It was King Argen.

The banquet hall is in the opposite direction. Why did he come from this side?

Grace found it strange, but Argen also appeared to have drawn some peculiar conclusion as he looked back and forth between her and Calypse.

She regarded him calmly.

“Your Majesty. That remark is insulting to you, to me, and to the Duke.”

“Insulting? Grace, I would say you are the insulting one for making me find my woman standing alone with another man in an isolated corridor.”

But—

“Your Majesty. Have you seen Lady Aisha?”

Calypse ignored Argen’s mockery and asked quietly.

Grace was not the only one who found King Argen suspicious.

Calypse, who had been silently watching him, clearly felt the same.

“Lady Aisha? Ah, you mean that little blonde girl with twin tails? I do not know.”

Naturally, Argen shrugged and shook his head.

“You truly have not seen her?”

“Why are you asking me where your young lady is? I told you, I do not know.”

“Then how do you know what my daughter looks like?”

At Calypse’s words, Argen stopped in his tracks.

“You did not attend the annual royal banquet, so you should never have seen my daughter’s face.”

Unlike Grace, Argen allowed emotion to overtake reason.

And that tendency revealed itself clearly once again.

“A-Aisha is quite famous, you see. The people around me have told me what she looks like.”

His face turned deathly pale as he lied.

He knows something.

Calypse’s gaze sharpened as he stared at Argen.

Just as he stepped toward the king—

Crash!

A deafening impact shook the area nearby.

Then—

“Monsters!”

“Monsters have appeared!”

Amid the panicked shouts of the knights, one of the royal guards came running toward Argen.

“Your Majesty! Monsters have broken in. They appeared inside the royal castle without warning!”

“What? How did they get out of the cages?”

Argen looked as though he might faint from shock.

“Cages? What do you mean by—”

The knight, unaware of Argen’s secret hobby, stared at him in confusion.

“How many are there? What species?”

Grace immediately seized control of the situation.

“Two. They appear to be giant orcs.”

“Send twenty knights to evacuate the nobles and servants from the banquet hall to the separate wing. Since the monsters appeared within the royal castle, there should still be enough time.”

“Yes.”

“Then send every remaining knight to confront them. Giant orcs possess strength far beyond that of humans. Kill them with everything you have. If you cannot, then do not allow them to leave the royal castle.”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

The knight saluted at her swift orders and was about to leave when—

“Your Majesty.”

A large hand suddenly blocked his path.

“Please rescind that order.”

It was Calypse.