Chapter 54
<56화>
“Hmm.”
Deliberating over what to say, I decided to just ask frankly.
“But what’s with the cat costume…?”
At my question, Dad’s face turned awkward.
I understood his intention, at least. I’d been crying my eyes out lately because of the kitten, so he must have put this event together for me.
‘…But honestly, it’s a little scary.’
Think about it. A man standing nearly 190 centimeters tall, wearing a furry suit and a giant cat mask at your door. If this were America, it would be like a toddler bursting into tears at the sight of a clown!
‘I’m not just any five-year-old, so I won’t cry, though.’
That said, my eyes were swollen like a pufferfish because I’d spent so much time crying over the kitten earlier.
Dad looked around the room with his mouth tightly shut before letting out a sigh.
“You’ve been crying every day since the cat went missing. I thought it might cheer you up, so I took Knox’s advice and tried this.”
“Knox-nim is the president of the Masamo Club.”
“He is.”
“He obviously gave advice based on his own standards, and you actually listened to him?”
Calyps looked down at me with a face full of regret for a moment. Then, he bent his knees to meet my eyes.
“I was desperate. I just wanted my daughter to stop crying. I thought, ‘If anything, let her laugh at me.’”
“Hahahaha!”
“Don’t laugh.”
“Yes, sir.”
“…….”
“…Heehee.”
The atmosphere softened slightly. Fortunately, Dad felt it too; he let out a short laugh and carefully touched the corners of my eyes with his cold thumb.
“Aisha.”
“Yes?”
“I have something to tell you. About the cat.”
“…Huh?”
I thought he was just here to comfort me. My eyes widened at the unexpected words.
‘He came here in a cat costume, and now he has something to say about the cat?’
…Don’t tell me he’s going to say something like, “I will be your cat from now on”?
‘Chills!’
The cat costume was foreshadowing! Realizing what Dad might be planning, my pupils shook as I prepared to reject him in advance.
“Actually, I… that cat…”
It was then.
“Emergency! It’s an emergency!”
Knights came rushing down the hallway from a distance, out of breath.
“Your Grace. There is something you must confirm immediately. The maid named Rose was just found dead in the dungeon.”
“What?”
Dad’s expression instantly shifted into the serious look befitting the Duke of Crost. Even in a furry suit.
“And Marquis Lillis, who was locked inside, was found unconscious. When we woke him, he said some kind of cat attacked the maid….”
“!”
“!”
Calyps and I both widened our eyes at the same time.
“I’m going now. Aisha, you stay here and wait.”
As if warning me not to cause any trouble, he gripped my shoulders firmly and commanded one of the knights.
“Stand guard in front of the bedroom door. If Aisha tries to come out, stop her immediately.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
With that, Dad issued a ban on me leaving the bedroom and raced toward the dungeon.
“Lady. Please go inside the bedroom.”
“…Fine—.”
Hmph.
I gave the retreating Calyps a sidelong glance and stepped inside the room.
But who am I?
‘I am Aisha. A former spy!’
Crack. Crack.
As I stretched my arms with a grim expression, the ruthless sound of bones popping echoed from within my soft body.
‘A true master hides their strength.’
These soft fingers. This soft tummy. Dad has no idea how much power is contained within these soft little toes.
‘If I can’t go out through the door, I can just go through the window.’
“Honestly, Dad sees me as a real five-year-old sometimes.”
Well, I am five, but still.
“Heehee… Hehehe….”
As I chuckled wickedly and pulled out the scarf May had given me from the nightstand, I heard something.
Rustle—
“Huh?”
A suspicious sound came from the bedroom window.
Rustle, rustle.
“……?”
It was strange. The only person in the Crost Duchy who would ever enter through a window was Knox.
‘But he should have gone to investigate the incident with Calyps by now….’
Suspicious. It was highly likely that someone from outside the estate was climbing the walls.
‘Who is it?’
Quietly pulling out a poison needle, I killed my presence and approached the window. Then, a pale hand gripped the window frame.
‘I’ll identify them first, then aim for the back of the hand.’
I waited like a ghost, preparing to blow the needle, when—
Pop!
A white puppy-like boy suddenly appeared at the window.
“I killed someone again.”
His lack of conscience was astounding, saying something so insane as if it were nothing.
“This time, I even wiped the blood away so I wouldn’t leave evidence, but I got caught.”
Clink—
The poison needle fell weakly from my startled hand.
It was that boy from before. The one who looked like the kitten, very pretty, very strange, that…
“…….”
Whether I was shocked or not, his amethyst-like eyes sparkled as he looked at me.
“…You…”
“When are you going to give me a name? You said you’d give me one the next time we met.”
…Where on earth did he come from?
Slap!
This was no time for this. I slapped both my cheeks with my hands to snap myself out of my daze. Then, I pulled the still-beaming boy into the room.
I put my hands on my hips and asked clearly.
“How did you get all the way here? And what? You killed someone again?”
To say such a thing so casually—this kid really needs to go to jail.
“You shouldn’t kill people! Why do you keep doing that?! What if I report you?!”
He said he killed the person who kidnapped me last time, but who did he kill this time?
A normal person would have been terrified, but unfortunately, I’d been trained as a spy, so I wasn’t particularly scared by the news of a killing. I was just angry because I was worried about him.
The boy pouted his lips indifferently.
“Nagging again. Every time I become human, you nag.”
“I’m nagging because you keep doing things that deserve it! This won’t do. You need a timeout.”
“A punishment?”
I thought he wouldn’t even know the word, but his eyes widened in surprise.
“I’m being punished? Why?”
“Because you did something wrong! Because you made me angry!”
“Aha.”
I spoke sternly, but he just nodded without much of a reaction and looked around. Then, he pulled something pale out of his pants pocket.
“I’ll give you an apology. I’m sorry.”
“……?”
It was a piece of boiled chicken breast.
‘Where did he even get this…?’
Swish—
Using my lightning-fast hamster-hand, I slapped the chicken breast right out the window. The boy’s mouth slowly fell open in shock.
This wouldn’t do. I had to tell Dad before he killed someone else.
‘First, I’ll give him a lesson in discipline before Dad gets here.’
I channeled the expression of the scariest instructor from my spy training days, a man nicknamed ‘Viper.’ With sharp eyes, I pointed a finger.
“Kyle.”
“…Huh?”
“Your name is Kyle.”
There was no deep meaning behind it; it was just a name that came to mind. He was a character from the novel Sword of Judgment.
Hmm, I think he was called a minor god. He didn’t have a huge role in the original story, but he was an important figure who provided the catalyst for the world of Sword of Judgment to be created.
He was the reason the Crost family built the Ice Wall. The minor god who created the monsters.
However, that character ended up dying at the hands of humans around the time the novel began. Since I’d never meet the real one anyway, I figured I’d give the name to him.
“…Kyle. Kyle.”
Unlike me, who said it without much thought, Kyle’s earlobes turned slightly red as he repeated the name.
“I’m Kyle. My name is Kyle!”
Kyle clenched both his fists adorably and blurted out his self-introduction—
“Right, Kyle. So, go stand in that corner over there with your hands up.”
“……?”
Confused, Kyle’s mouth formed a little triangle as he stared at the spot I was pointing to. It was the darkest corner of the bedroom, where even the moonlight didn’t reach.
“There?”
“Yes. Stand over there, Kyle.”
“Why?”
“You’re in a timeout.”
“I gave you an apology.”
“You gave me one, but I didn’t accept it. So it doesn’t count.”
“!”
His amethyst eyes shook violently.
“If you can’t apologize properly, then you have to take your punishment. That’s the only way to be forgiven.”
As I explained it slowly to match his level, his flushed earlobes cooled down.
“…Fine.”
Fortunately, Kyle listened to me.
Thump, thump.
He made it very obvious that he didn’t want to do it, of course. And just as he reached the corner—
Bang—!
Someone threw the bedroom door open without even knocking.
“The boy. You, come out.”
It was Dad.