“……”
This was not some forgettable supply closet.
This was the rendezvous location that the little spy had written down on the dress.
The loudly-dressed employee standing near the door —
A fellow spy, perhaps.
Knox removed the monocles from his eyes, tucked them into his coat pocket, and approached.
“Pardon me — have you seen a five-year-old child? Golden hair, twin braids.”
“Ah. A gold-haired girl in twin braids, wearing a dress — that the one?”
The employee knew her. Of course he did.
So they are on the same side.
Knox suppressed a dry, soundless laugh.
He hadn’t truly wanted to believe it. But here it was — she really had come to carry out a spy mission. And yet somehow, that certainty left a hollow taste in his mouth.
“How fortunate that you know her. I’m the child’s guardian. Where might she be?”
Then —
“Five thousand gold.”
The unsettling smile on the employee’s face widened as he named his price without preamble.
“?”
Knox raised a slow, questioning eyebrow —
“Five thousand gold, and I’ll hand the child over to you. We have her, as it happens.”
The employee leaned close and whispered it like a secret.
“……”
Not a spy on her side after all.
Knox bit down on his lower lip.
“…Are you telling me you’ve abducted that child?”
“We’ve merely been looking after a lost little girl until her guardian arrived. Surely that deserves some compensation — why the look, friend—”
BOOM.
Without warning, an explosion of sound shook the building like an earthquake. The storage room door burst open. A terrified man came barreling out, colliding with Knox’s shoulder as he sprinted away.
“It’s loose — the power-restraint cuffs — someone got the power-restraint cuffs off! We have an emergency!”
Power-restraint cuffs.
Knox’s brow creased sharply.
“What? How were power-restraint cuffs removed? How?!”
“The rest of the staff — are the Creatures still secured?!”
“Releasing the Creatures means everyone in here dies, you moron!”
“Then what about the — the kid—?!”
Knox stood absolutely still, catching every word they exchanged in rapid succession.
Power-restraint cuffs in this kingdom meant one thing.
The Ice Affinity of House Krost.
His professional composure held perfectly on the surface — but the hairs on the back of his neck were standing straight up.
…Could it be.
Something clicked, and Knox’s eyes went sharp.
Drawn by an instinct he couldn’t name, he stepped through the entrance of the storage room.
What he saw on the walls stopped him cold.
Ice crystals. Floor to ceiling, wall to wall — the entire room encased in frost.
________________________________________
CRASH!
“D-do something about this thing!”
“Who removed the power-restraint cuffs?! Damn it!”
After the cuffs were removed —
The situation had turned in our favor with almost embarrassing ease.
“Stay right behind me, Dandelion.”
Could the back of a small boy really look this reassuring?
“Got it!”
I pressed close to him and stretched up on my tiptoes to see past his shoulder.
The situation was already over.
Ice pillars had erupted in every direction across the darkened room where staff had been stationed — an impromptu ice cavern.
…Is he some kind of monster? He’s absurdly powerful.
In the original story, he had been treated as though he were dead — so there hadn’t been much detail about him.
So this is the Ice Affinity of House Krost. Completely unreasonable.
The branch family’s ability had been strong, but Lucas was in an entirely different dimension.
Then —
“Hit them with tranquilizers! Knock them out!”
On someone’s command, a large man burst from behind one of the cages, a crossbow loaded with sedative arrows aimed directly at us.
“Dandelion, move!”
Lucas, who hadn’t yet clocked the threat from behind, spun belatedly to put himself in front of me —
Thwip.
“Ugh.”
The large man collapsed before he could release the arrow, a long, slender dart lodged in his neck.
Lucas, who had been bracing for impact, slow-blinked as the man crumpled. He glanced down at me — having thrown himself in front of me — and his tightly shut eyes opened slowly.
“…Dandelion?”
He’d moved on reflex to shield me, but his eyes still held the fear he hadn’t managed to hide.
Brave despite himself.
He really does remind me of Calypse, in certain moments.
“Were you just trying to protect me?”
I tilted my head at him, genuinely moved —
“—of course! If someone’s weaker than me, I protect them, that’s just what you do— huh?”
He was already bright red and getting redder. Then he noticed the man on the ground.
“But why did he go down by himself?”
He spotted the dart in the man’s neck.
“I’m a former spy. I carry defensive poison darts as a matter of course.”
I hadn’t had an opportunity to use them until now.
“Pretty impressive, right?”
Behold — the perfect grip for a small hand.
The kind you barely notice until it’s too late.
A smooth, understated black finish.
The children’s poison dart, ladies and gentlemen.
“…You.”
I had thought this was rather heroic given the circumstances, but Lucas’s brow furrowed.
Oh. Boasting about being a spy when I’ve literally just told him I’m not one.
“Um. I know I said I wasn’t a spy, but this was an emergency, so — survival comes first, right?”
I floundered in my own logic — and then —
“I’ll pay it back.”
He muttered something barely audible.
“What?”
“I said I’ll pay it back!”
Lucas leaped to his feet with a shout.
“Yikes!”
Caught off guard, I tumbled sideways.
“Are you okay?!”
“Yeah, I’m fine—”
I was about to finish the sentence when —
Pressed flat against the cold stone floor, my ear caught the vibration of approaching footsteps — and beneath that, a faint, struggling sound.
A small, pained whimper.
What was that?
I heard it again — unmistakably thin and fragile this time.
Hm?
I snapped upright like a spring and scanned the room — and then I saw him. One of the men Lucas had knocked down. And underneath that man’s prone body —
“……”
A pair of vivid violet eyes was watching me from below.
“Mrrrow.”
A kitten.
“Mrrrow…”
A kitten was pinned underneath the man.
“Dandelion!”
When I bolted in that direction, Lucas chased after me in a panic.
But I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
“Can you lift him off?”
“What?”
“That man — there’s a baby kitten trapped underneath him!”
“What!”
Lucas jerked his head around and confirmed it.
He placed one careful ice pillar beneath the man’s head, raising it slowly, like propping a head on a tall pillow at an angle.
“Thanks!”
I pressed myself flat to the floor and stretched my hand out toward the kitten.
“Come here. It’s safe now.”
But the kitten only shook, pressed small and rigid, and wouldn’t come out.
Its fur was still partially pinned under the edge of the man’s body.
I stretched further and carefully, carefully cupped both hands around it, drawing it free.
A tiny ball of fur settled into my palms.
The moment I met those dark violet eyes, everything in my body went still.
Aisha.
From deep in a garden drainage ditch. The desperate, searching voice calling for a child in the dark.
Calypse — searching for a child in the pitch black.
Was this what he felt when he found me?
“……”
There was no time for reflection. The kitten first.
I shook my head sharply and thrust the tiny creature toward Lucas.
“Lucas. Save this kitten.”
“What?”
“You said you’d pay me back. When we get back to the estate, save this one — that’s how you repay me.”
Lucas’s peculiar eyes held mine for a long, quiet moment.
He reached up and scratched the back of his neck.
“…Whether they’re animals or people — any life too weak to protect itself deserves protecting. That’s what it means to be Krost.”
Clearly an affirmative answer, but delivered in a tone that made it feel otherwise.
He wanted to repay me by saving a kitten, and that wasn’t what he’d expected — was it disappointment? Dissatisfaction?
He said he’d repay me, so why is he being lukewarm about it?
The kitten, in the meantime, demanded my attention. Its life was fading — but there was still warmth in my hands.
They had probably brought it here as fodder for the Creatures.
What could this tiny thing possibly provide, you monsters.
It hadn’t been fed; the kitten was skeletal. Its violet eyes were crusted with sleep and heavy with wariness — but it had no energy left even to hiss.
“Forget the repayment — just come and live at the estate as my subordinate—”
“Lucas! The baby looks so cold.”
“Oh—”
He’d been reaching a hand toward the kitten, but stopped himself and pulled back.
His body temperature, suppressed by the Ice Affinity, had dropped.
“I run cold. You hold it.”
“Okay.”
I tucked the barely-breathing little bundle inside my clothes.
“Nyaaah—”
The kitten gave a faint protest at the rearrangement — but once my warmth reached it, the fight went out of it. Its tiny face softened into something that looked almost like peace.
It’s never felt warmth like this before.
If I hadn’t found it, it would have died alone on the cold stone floor.
Like me, before Calypse found me — shivering in the dark by myself.
“……”
The little life in my arms brought something back to me from a long time ago.
“Hey. Dandelion.”
Lucas’s voice broke through the silence, and I looked up.
“Let’s move. You guard the cat. I’ll guard you.”
He nodded as he said it.
Or — he attempted to nod.
Because over his small shoulder, a massive shadow rose without warning.
A blade was raised.
“Better you just die, you freak of nature!”
Lucas’s eyes went wide with shock.
In the fraction of a second that followed, a dozen futures unspoiled through my mind.
Lucas dies. I survive. I lose what trust I’ve built. I’m alone again.
I save Lucas. I die in his place. I won’t be alone — because I’ll be gone.
The choice between them.
“He took you in out of pity, yes. But he doesn’t trust you. You were the one who lied first, my lady.”
Mai’s voice cut through everything like a blade of its own.
And in that sharp, sudden clarity — I made my decision.
Even if it cost me everything, I would save him.
“Young Lord Lucas!”
________________________________________
