Chapter 37

A man with a deathly pale face was dragged over roughly by the other knights.

“......”

The man looked ready to spit out curses at any moment, but the instant his eyes met mister’s for about half a second, he immediately lowered his gaze.

Apparently, he realized even swearing required reading the situation first.

“He might bite his tongue and kill himself, so gag him and throw him in prison. Assign three knights to guard him.”

“Yes, sir.”

Thanks to mister’s crisp command, the situation was quickly brought under control.

Even the other family heads, who had been flustered by the monster incident and Marquis Lilith, regained their composure after seeing how calm mister remained and came over to greet us.

“...Young Lord Lucas. I wonder if you remember me. We met when you were three... I truly cannot express how relieved and honored I am to see you again.”

“Young lord, we were deeply worried. For a slave scandal to arise among nobles of the same rank... Marquis Lilith will certainly receive the punishment he deserves.”

Lucas’s ears turned bright red as people crowded around him from every side.

Fwish— fwish—

He kept darting his gaze around, clearly not knowing where to look, until he spotted me and hurried over like he was escaping.

“M-my younger sister found me.”

Heuph.

Lucas puffed proudly through his nose as he pointed at me, and immediately the family heads’ attention shifted toward me instead.

“The young lady found Young Lord Lucas? Is that truly so?”

“I was astonished watching you deal with the monster earlier. You analyzed the monster’s characteristics before confronting it. That is not the kind of thinking expected from someone your age.”

“How can a five-year-old possibly be like this...?”

“Hehe. Yep. I’m a genius.”

Older brother Lucas, in moments like this, you’re ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) just supposed to say yes, thank you.

Leaving my older brother stiffly hovering behind me like a wary cat, I smiled brightly.

“Thank you~”

Of course, I was smiling, but inside my head all kinds of thoughts were racing around.

I stared toward a spot not far away.

Behind Calypse’s shoulders, where Tex was being dragged away by the knights while crying, and where Calypse was flawlessly commanding the chaotic situation.

No, farther behind that.

Past the knights standing guard and the servants waiting like shadows in case something happened.

A man dressed like a servant from another noble family stood there, silently observing everything with a faint smile on his face.

So you were watching.

His narrow eyes, thin as threads, turned toward me. He gave me a greeting so subtle it was almost invisible before disappearing.

“......”

After that brief exchange of glances, I turned my head away.

That man was a spy from the Pose family.

Unlike me, he wasn’t assigned a major mission. He traveled around observing spies carrying out missions and reported the results back to Duke Pose.

And the spy had definitely confirmed it.

That the medicine created by the Pose family truly worked on monsters.

...Then I guess the major incident is about to begin.

In novels, whenever an important incident happened, it was almost always connected to the “main cast.”

If divided into beginning, middle, development, and conclusion, this would probably be the point between the beginning and the middle.

The incident where the Kreutz family would collapse, and Duke Calypse would truly become the villain.

***

After the uproar settled down, the ducal estate seemed quieter than ever tonight.

Was it because every family head from the north had gathered here today?

Or because of the “slave” scandal Lucas had suddenly exposed during the heir selection trial?

Quiet night.

The sound of heels echoed through the corridor where knights occasionally stood guard.

Marquis Lilith. Conversations with the family heads. Commanding the overall situation. After dealing with all of that, one would expect exhaustion, but instead Calypse’s heart pounded harder from tension.

The son he had failed to find in the end had returned.

The son who had apparently been exploited inside a circus.

The moment he saw that child dressed in rags, his heart had twisted painfully, but Lucas had appeared brighter than expected, and Calypse found himself grateful for the strength of his son’s spirit.

But a slave...

And the one responsible was Marquis Lilith, someone he had thought of as a fellow northern noble. A comrade.

“Just a few days ago, I was still trapped inside an iron cage! I said I wanted to rest a little, but you’re the duke and you can’t even do that for me?!”

The resentful sound of Lucas’s voice resurfaced in his mind, and Calypse shut his eyes tightly.

What he had mistaken for rebellion had actually been fear.

He boldly pulled out the slave trade contract during the trial and spoke without hesitation... but that probably wasn’t how he truly felt inside.

A man Lucas had believed was his father’s comrade—perhaps even someone tied to him by blood from some distant ancestor—had sold him away.

Lucas must have been overwhelmed with despair and fear, unable even to look at the marquis’s face, and yet he still stepped forward anyway.

That thought filled Calypse with both gratitude and unbearable pain.

“...Haah.”

In the end, Calypse arrived outside his son’s bedroom door and rubbed both hands over his face.

Would it be alright to go inside? Did he even deserve to?

“Your Grace. Good evening.”

One of the knights patrolling the corridor noticed Calypse and bowed his head.

Calypse merely acknowledged him silently with his eyes.

He could not keep standing outside the door forever.

Even if he had no right to enter, he still had to go in.

Even if he had no right to be forgiven, he still had to apologize.

The principle was the same.

Knock, knock—

Having made up his mind, he knocked and carefully opened the door.

Light from the corridor spread in a fan shape across the dark bedroom where not a single lamp had been lit, slowly revealing the sleeping Lucas.

He’s already asleep.

Well, today had certainly been exhausting.

He had entered intending to speak with his son, but instead Calypse felt relief as he stepped inside and sat down on a nearby chair.

Looking closer, he noticed a small head of golden hair pressed against Lucas’s side.

“...Aisha?”

It was Aisha, curled up asleep with her back resting against Lucas.

When had the two of them fallen asleep together again?

And on top of that, Lucas and Aisha were tightly holding hands while sleeping curled up together.

“The little brat is already better than her father.”

Until now, that had truly been the case.

Ever since bringing Aisha here, events Calypse could never have imagined kept happening, to the point where he genuinely considered meeting her a blessing from heaven.

But.

“...From now on, that won’t happen anymore.”

The red eyes exposed beneath the moonlight gleamed with obsession.

“Aisha. Lucas. Neither of you will ever regret having me as your father again.”

No one else heard the vow, but Calypse himself did.

Carefully, he reached out and gently clasped the hand of his son, whose arm had fallen halfway outside the blanket.

Aisha and Lucas alike.

Neither of them were children standing in danger anymore.

The children were now inside the safe enclosure of the Kreutz estate—and himself.

For the past five years, he had swung his sword to protect strangers whose faces he did not even know.

But that would no longer continue.

“...I’ve protected others long enough.”

Watching the peacefully sleeping children, he murmured quietly.

“From now on, I only need the two of you to be safe, no matter what happens to the world.”

It was a vow he had once made after losing his family.

But now, after finding Aisha and Lucas, he could decide without hesitation.

From now on, he would look only at them.

Even if the ice barrier collapsed. Even if monsters flooded in. Even if people screamed for him to save them, his priority would be only these two children.

Even if that endangered everyone else.

Even if it dragged the man once praised as a hero straight into the depths of hell.

“......”

Calypse tightened his grip around his son’s hand and began leaning forward to stand.

That was when—

“Don’t throw me away.”

The quiet voice calling out to him made Calypse freeze in place.

The eyelids of Lucas, whom he thought had been asleep, slowly lifted open.

Hidden beneath long, dense lashes, those mysterious eyes stared at him with a drowsy gaze.

“Don’t throw me away so easily.”