Chapter 79

“A-Aaaaaagh!”

His thoughts were cut short. The moment the knights pulled the sword from the back of his hand, a savage scream burst from him.

“I-I’m bleeding to death! Bandages! Wrap it quickly!”

Pulling the blade out hurt even more than driving it in.

Duke Pose wailed like a child and threw a tantrum, but the knights paid him no attention.

Instead—

“Duke Calypse has collapsed. Move him at once!”

“Yes!”

Blood was thicker than water. They cared only for the noble of their own kingdom.

I’m being arrested like this? Have they truly uncovered everything?

Had King Argen really betrayed him?

If so—

If the king pinned every crime on him and exposed all the atrocities committed by the Pose family until now...

How many spies did we have in total...? No, before that, there was even the monster frenzy...

The moment he completed the calculation, his face turned deathly pale.

Being arrested in the Frozen Kingdom was not the real problem.

If this became public knowledge, neither the Frozen Kingdom nor the Kingdom of Doctia would accept him.

Of course they would not.

What awaited a spy who failed a mission?

Nothing but a quiet death unknown to anyone.

Then what awaited the master of those spies if he failed?

A death known to the entire world.

Nothing but a shameful death.

“Aaaaaagh! I-If you’re arresting me, then arrest King Argen too! King Argen was one of the principal culprits behind the monster frenzy incident!”

As Duke Pose screamed like a madman, the faces of the nobles he had seen at the banquet in the Frozen Kingdom flashed through his mind.

Those who had trusted him and believed him to be a good man.

Their expressions twisted all at once.

No.

The Pose family could not collapse like this.

Even if he had to die, the next generation had to carry on the family!

“A-Argen really does raise monsters inside the castle! He’s a madman illegally keeping monsters!”

He struggled wildly, so frantic that he forgot the pain, but—

“Enough. Knock him unconscious.”

“Yes.”

With a sigh, one of the knights struck the back of his neck.

“Ghk.”

Duke Pose’s eyes closed.

He was then dragged away to the Frozen royal palace.

***

Several hours before Duke Pose’s arrest, at the Frozen royal palace—

Something is wrong.

Calypse had rushed out in the middle of his conversation with Grace and was now surveying the monsters that had spread throughout the palace grounds. His brow furrowed.

Monsters rarely seen in cities even in the north had appeared in the central region.

That alone was strange, but their behavior was even more suspicious.

Monsters were ordinarily beasts that devoured any living creature that moved.

Yet those giant orcs merely defended themselves against the knights’ attacks. They did not strike back.

Instead, their movements seemed purposeful, as though they were marching intently toward a specific destination.

Boom. Boom!

The footsteps of the orcs, each more than three meters tall, shook the ground.

As far as Calypse knew, there was only one explanation for behavior like this.

Kyle had ordered them to—

“Aisha is in danger.”

At that moment, a white head abruptly thrust itself into his field of vision.

Kyle had appeared at exactly the right time.

He had already taken human form, and blood he had failed to wipe away stained the corners of his mouth.

“Where is Aisha?”

“I don’t know either. So I ordered those orcs to find her. Some woman made me drink a strange potion.”

Potion.

The answer was hidden in Kyle’s blunt words.

As expected, this was the Pose family’s doing.

“First...”

The problem was that he now had to explain the situation to Kyle.

Would the boy even understand him properly?

Damn it.

Overwhelmed, Calypse dragged a palm down his haggard face.

But he did not have time for hesitation.

And in this situation, Kyle was the only person who could follow his orders and move effectively.

Calypse bent one knee and lowered himself to eye level.

Kyle’s round purple eyes stared back at him.

First, I need to hide the color of his eyes.

“Drink this.”

“This? Ugh. Isn’t this the potion that woman gave me?”

“No. If you drink this, you can save Aisha.”

“Really?”

“Yes. We don’t have time, so hurry and—”

Swish.

Before Calypse could finish, Kyle snatched the potion away, squeezed his eyes shut, and drank it.

His expression made it clear the taste was horrible, but he swallowed every last drop.

That was how badly he wanted to find Aisha.

Good boy.

Without thinking, Calypse roughly ruffled his white hair.

Soon, the potion began to affect Kyle’s eyes.

Calypse took hold of his shoulders.

“You have a good sense of smell, don’t you? There will be many people inside the castle, but you need to find older brother Lucas among them. Can you do that?”

“Older brother Lucas?”

“Yes. Or find Knox.”

“Ugh. I hate Knox. He makes me wear weird monster pajamas.”

“But we have to find Aisha.”

“......!”

Kyle’s eyes widened again at the sound of Aisha’s name.

“Okay. Got it. What do I do?”

***

Contrary to Calypse’s concerns, the demon boy learned quickly.

Nod, nod.

Kyle nodded vigorously without missing a single word, then ran straight to the separate wing.

He darted between the frightened nobles gathered there until he spotted Knox in the distance.

“Knox!”

“...Kyle? Where is Lady Aisha?”

Knox turned at the sound of his voice, confused.

Kyle, who had been wedged between several tall adults, suddenly popped out from among them and spoke without even catching his breath.

“Calypse told me to tell you this. Calypse is going to Aisha now. And the operation will proceed as planned.”

“...What?”

“The operation will proceed as planned, so go to Grace and tell her to gather the knights. The location is wherever the monsters are walking.”

“Where the monsters are walking? Don’t tell me these monsters...”

“Yes. I called them. I ordered them to save Aisha.”

Knox was momentarily speechless at the demon’s clear-eyed declaration.

He had watched Kyle for some time.

His physical abilities were exceptional, but apart from that, his language and social skills were nonexistent.

To put it bluntly, he had been a complete idiot.

“...You did well. Now find older brother Lucas and stay with him.”

He is a little admirable.

Just as Calypse had done, Knox rubbed Kyle’s white head, then hurried toward Grace.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”

And when Grace heard everything—

“Duke Pose did what?! Is everything I just heard true?”

She reacted with silent horror, immediately summoning the royal order of knights.

King Argen, who had been watching from beside her, seized the opportunity.

“How dare Duke Pose abduct Lady Aisha of the Kreutz family?! And he even summoned monsters?!”

He pushed every crime he had committed with Duke Pose onto him and ordered the knights dispatched there without a moment’s delay.

Meanwhile—

The people who had been gathered in the separate wing for some time without any explanation began murmuring anxiously.

“W-What is happening?”

“I don’t know. We came here under Her Majesty Grace’s direction, but...”

“We are safe, aren’t we? We are not all going to die here, are we...?”

Soon, fear turned into anger and spread rapidly.

“Who in the world brought monsters to a royal banquet? Once the culprit appears, I’ll tear his head off and—”

“Marquis Tolly. Even in an emergency, mind your words.”

“But Marquis Tolly is right. Everyone in the Frozen Kingdom knows how dangerous monsters are. So why are monsters that should be in the north here?”

They did not know that Aisha had been abducted.

The monster frenzy incident had only been reported to the public as a natural disaster of unknown cause.

So they assumed this was another sudden monster attack.

But then—

“Aaaaaah!”

A young noblewoman screamed from one side of the hall.

Her face drained of color as she pointed somewhere.

“T-There’s a dead person over there!”

A dead person?

Had the monsters entered this far?

The murmuring crowd retreated like a surging wave.

“A-Aagh!”

A man pushed all the way into the corridor stumbled backward and shouted.

“T-There’s another dead person here!”

“Here too!”

“A-Aagh! There’s one here as well!”

Those who had been forced out of the hall rushed back inside in horror after discovering bodies scattered throughout the area.

“This is insane... This banquet is...”

A noblewoman muttering at the scene, which resembled a horror story, fainted.

Amid the chaos, Grace stepped forward.

“Bring every body here at once!”

Quickly assessing the situation, Grace ordered the corpses moved to one place.

She soon noticed a strange similarity between them.

Every one of them had been frozen solid, and there were teeth marks on their necks that appeared to have come from a beast.

Then—

“...We found a potion and a snake-shaped brooch.”