Chapter 35
<37화>
A man with a deathly pale face was dragged in roughly by other knights.
“…….”
The man looked as if he was about to spit out a string of curses, but the moment his eyes met the Duke’s for even half a second, he immediately lowered his gaze.
He seemed to have realized that even cursing required reading the room.
“Gag him and throw him in the dungeon so he can’t bite his tongue and kill himself. Put three knights on guard duty.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Thanks to the Duke’s decisive orders, the situation was quickly brought under control.
Even the other heads of households, who had been bewildered by the monsters and Marquis Lillis, were reassured by the Duke’s composure and came over to greet us.
“…Young Lord Lucas. I wonder if you remember me. I saw you when you were three years old… It is such a relief and an honor to see you again.”
“Young Lord, we were very worried. To think a scandal involving slavery would break out among fellow nobles… Marquis Lillis will surely face a punishment befitting his crimes.”
Lucas’s earlobes turned red, tension tightening his body as people swarmed around him.
Shift, shift—
His gaze darted around, unsure of where to land, until he spotted me and hurried over as if seeking refuge.
“M-my little sister found me.”
Hmph.
As Lucas pointed at me with a huff of breath and a proud expression, the gazes of the family heads shifted toward me.
“The Lady found Young Lord Lucas? Is that true?”
“I was impressed when you dealt with the monster earlier. Identifying its characteristics first before engaging… that’s not the kind of thinking one expects from someone of that age.”
“She’s only five, how is this possible…?”
“Hehe. Yes. I’m a genius.”
Brother Lucas, in times like this, you just have to say ‘Yes, thank you.’
I beamed brightly, standing in front of my brother, who was hovering behind me like a wary cat.
“Thank you very much~”
I was smiling, of course, but my mind was racing with a thousand thoughts.
I stared at a spot not too far away.
Past Tex, who was being dragged away in tears by knights, and past Calips, who was neatly commanding the chaotic scene.
No, even further back.
Beyond the knights standing guard and the servants waiting like shadows for any potential emergency.
There, a man dressed as a servant from another noble house stood watching everything with a faint smile.
‘So you were watching.’
Eyes narrowed into thin slits gazed at me. He gave a nod so subtle it was almost invisible before disappearing.
‘…….’
After that brief exchange, I turned my head away.
That man is a spy from the Pose Duchy.
While he doesn’t have a primary mission like I do, he travels the world observing the spies on duty and reporting the results back to the Duke of Pose.
And the spy must have confirmed it now.
That the medicine developed by the Pose Duchy actually worked on the monsters.
‘…Then the major incident will break out soon.’
Usually, a major incident in a novel involves the ‘main characters.’
In terms of the narrative arc, it would be the transition between the introduction and the rising action.
The very event where the Crost Duchy falls and Calips officially becomes a villain.
The Duke’s Castle, where the commotion had subsided, seemed even quieter than usual today.
Was it because all the lords of the North who had visited were gone?
Or was it because of the ‘slavery’ incident Lucas had suddenly exposed during the succession trial?
In the quiet night.
The sound of clicking heels echoed through the hallway where knights stood at intervals.
Marquis Lillis. The conversations with the lords. And the overall command of the situation. It would have been natural to be exhausted after finishing it all, but instead, Calips’s heart pounded with lingering tension.
The son he had never stopped searching for had returned.
The son who had been exploited in a circus.
The moment he saw the boy looking like a beggar, his heart had constricted, but seeing him appear brighter than expected, Calips felt grateful for Lucas’s resilient spirit.
‘But slavery.’
And that it was perpetrated by Marquis Lillis, someone he had considered a fellow northern noble and a comrade.
‘He was stuck in a cage until just a few days ago! He says he wants to rest a little—can’t a Duke even grant him that much?!’
As Lucas’s resentful voice echoed in his mind, he squeezed his eyes shut.
What he had thought was rebellion turned out to be fear.
‘He boldly presented the slave contract during the succession trial, but… he must have been a wreck inside.’
A man he thought was his father’s comrade—a man he might have even considered kin through some distant ancestor—had sold him off.
It must have been difficult for him to even look at the Marquis’s face due to the despair and fear, yet he had stepped forward like that. Calips felt both grateful and heartbroken.
“…Haah.”
Finally arriving in front of his son’s bedroom door, Calips wiped his face with both hands.
Is it okay to go in? Do I have the right?
“Greetings, Your Grace.”
A knight patrolling the hallway spotted Calips and bowed his head.
He merely gave a silent nod in response.
He couldn’t just stand in front of the door forever.
Even if he didn’t have the right to enter, he had to.
It was the same logic as having to apologize even if one didn’t deserve forgiveness.
Knock, knock—
Having made up his mind, he knocked and carefully opened the door.
In the bedroom where not a single light was on, the light from the hallway spilled in like a fan, revealing the sleeping Lucas.
‘He’s already asleep.’
Well, a lot had happened today.
Though he had entered thinking of having a conversation with his son, Calips felt a sense of relief instead as he stepped inside and sat on a small stool.
Looking closer, he saw a small golden head nestled next to Lucas.
“…Aisha?”
It was Aisha, curled up and sleeping with her back against Lucas.
When had these two started sleeping together again?
They were even curled up holding hands tightly.
“The little one is better than me, their father.”
It had been that way until now.
To the point where he considered meeting Aisha a stroke of heavenly luck, for since bringing this child home, things Calips had never imagined had begun to happen.
However.
“…I won’t be like that anymore.”
His red eyes, illuminated by the moonlight, flickered with an intense possessiveness.
“Aisha, and you, Lucas. From now on, I will make sure you never regret having me as your father.”
It was a vow no one else heard, but Calips heard it himself.
He reached out and gently took his son’s hand, which was half-curled outside the blanket.
Aisha and Lucas.
They were no longer children in a danger zone.
The children were within the safe fence of the Crost Duchy Castle and himself.
Though he had swung his sword for the past five years to protect people whose faces he didn’t even know, he didn’t intend to do that anymore.
“…I’ve protected others enough.”
He watched the peacefully sleeping children and repeated to himself.
“From now on, no matter what happens to the world, as long as the two of you are safe, that is enough for me.”
It was a vow he had made after losing his family.
But now, at this moment when he had found Aisha and Lucas, he could decide without hesitation.
That from now on, he would look only to them.
Even if the Ice Wall crumbled, even if monsters swarmed in, even if people screamed for him, his only priority would be them.
Even if that meant putting everyone else in danger.
Even if it dragged him, once praised as a hero, into the depths of hell.
“…….”
Calips, who had been gripping his son’s hand, was just about to lean back and stand up.
“Don’t throw me away.”
Calips froze at the quiet, youthful voice calling for him.
Lucas’s eyelids, which he thought were shut in sleep, slowly drifted open.
Mysterious eyes hidden behind long, thick lashes looked up at him with a gaze still hazy from sleep.
“Don’t throw me away so easily.”
