The man, face drained to a pale grey, was dragged forward roughly by two more knights.
“…….”
He looked like he wanted to say something ugly — but the moment he held Calypse’s gaze for half a second, his eyes dropped.
He had just learned that there were times and places for defiance.
“He might bite his own tongue. Gag him and put him in a cell. Assign three knights to watch him around the clock.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
With that clean, decisive order, things resolved themselves quickly.
Even the other lords, who had been rattled by both the Creature incident and the Lillis affair, were calm enough to offer their greetings once they saw how steadily the Duke was managing things.
“…Lord Lucas. You may not remember me — I met you when you were three. I’m so relieved, and so honored, to see you again.”
“Young Lord. I was deeply worried for you. To think that a matter of slavery would arise between nobles — Marquess Lillis will face a punishment equal to what he’s done.”
The crowd pressing toward Lucas made the tips of his ears go red.
Whoosh, whoosh — he darted his eyes around, clearly unsure where to look, until he found me and came over as if escaping.
“M — my little sister found me.”
Ahem.
With a pointed sniff and a finger pointed in my direction, Lucas looked conspicuously proud, and the eyes of the assembled lords redirected to me.
“Young Lady Aisha found Lord Lucas? Is that true?”
“We were impressed earlier when you faced the Creature. Reading its characteristics and using that knowledge at your age — that isn’t thinking a child does.”
“She’s five years old and capable of all of this…”
“Heh heh. Yes. It’s called being a genius.”
Lucas, in this situation, you just say yes, thank you. That’s all.
I beamed at my brother, who was hovering behind me like a wary cat.
“Thank you so much~”
I smiled warmly to the lords, and inwardly, my mind was somewhere else entirely.
Not far off, I fixed my gaze on something.
Tex being led away, weeping. Calypse’s shoulders as he directed the situation with composed authority. The knights stationed beyond him. The servants waiting in the wings like shadows.
And then — further back than all of that.
A man dressed in the livery of a different noble house was standing perfectly still, watching everything with a small smile on his face.
You were observing all of it.
Eyes like slits in a pale face turned toward me. He offered a slight bow — just enough for me to catch — and then disappeared into the crowd.
…….
I held his gaze for the fraction of a second required to acknowledge him, then looked away.
That man was a spy from House Foss.
He didn’t carry formal assignments the way I once had — he was the kind of operative who drifted through the world watching others, then reported his observations back to Duke Foss.
And he would have confirmed it today:
The substance manufactured by House Foss had successfully worked on a Creature.
…That means the important event is about to happen.
In any novel worth its salt, the important events are almost always tied to the main characters.
In terms of structure — we were somewhere between the setup and the rising action.
And what came next was the event that would break House Krost and turn Calypse into the villain of the story.
________________________________________
Once the commotion had quieted, the estate felt unusually still.
Perhaps it was because every lord in the north had come and gone in a single day.
Or perhaps it was the weight of the “slave” revelation that Lucas had dropped so suddenly during the succession trial.
Quiet night.
The sound of boot heels moved through a corridor where knights were stationed at intervals.
After managing the Marquess, the other lords, the full coordination of the situation — any reasonable person would be exhausted. But Calypse’s heart was hammering against his ribs with a restless energy.
His son, whom he had spent years searching for, had come home.
The son who had been exploited in that circus.
The moment he had seen the boy in those rags, his chest had seized — but the surprising brightness in Lucas’s manner made Calypse grateful, deeply grateful, for his son’s strong spine.
But a slave.
And not just anyone — the Marquess of Lillis, a northern lord, someone he had considered an ally. A man who might as well have shared his bloodline at the far end of lineage.
“Just days ago I was locked in an iron cage! I want to rest for a little while — is a father really going to refuse even that?!”
He closed his eyes as Lucas’s resentment surfaced in his memory.
What he had taken for defiance had actually been fear.
He was bold enough to stand up at the succession trial and produce that slave document. But inside — that must have been anything but easy.
The man Lucas had believed to be his father’s ally — perhaps even distant kin — had sold him.
The despair and terror of looking at the Marquess’s face must have been enormous. And yet Lucas had stepped forward anyway. Knowing that made Calypse’s chest simultaneously swell with pride and ache with guilt.
“…Ha.”
He had walked all the way to the door of his son’s room.
Calypse pressed both hands to his face.
Can I go in? Do I have any right to?
“Good evening, Your Grace.”
A knight on corridor patrol spotted him and bowed.
He returned the acknowledgment with a look.
He couldn’t just stand here indefinitely.
Right or wrong, he had to go in.
Just as you owed an apology even if you didn’t deserve forgiveness.
Knock, knock.
He made up his mind, knocked, and pushed the door open.
The bedroom was dark and unlit. The light from the corridor fanned in like a folded blade and revealed Lucas, asleep.
He’s already out.
Understandable, given the day.
He had come hoping to talk, but Calypse felt something closer to relief settle through him. He stepped inside and took a seat in the small chair beside the bed.
Closer up, he could see a small gold-colored head tucked in beside Lucas.
“…Aisha?”
It was Aisha, curled up with her back pressed against Lucas, deeply asleep.
When had the two of them ended up like this again?
What was more — they were sleeping with their hands clasped together, fingers interlocked.
“She’s better at this than I am.”
Up to now, that had been true.
From the moment Aisha had come into their lives, things had happened that Calypse never could have arranged on his own. It had felt like luck — pure, undeserved fortune.
But —
“…From now on, that changes.”
In the moonlight, those crimson eyes burned with something that was almost obsessive.
“Aisha. Lucas. From now on, I will make sure neither of you ever regrets having me as a father.”
No one was listening. But Calypse himself was.
He reached out and carefully, carefully, took his son’s hand in his.
Aisha. Lucas.
They were no longer children in danger.
They were inside the walls of Krost estate, inside the perimeter of everything he was.
For the past five years he had drawn a sword for strangers with no faces. He would not be doing that anymore.
“…I’ve protected the world long enough.”
He spoke it quietly to the peacefully sleeping children.
“From now on — whatever happens to the world, all that matters is that the two of you are safe.”
It was a promise he had made to himself years ago, after losing his family.
But now, with both Aisha and Lucas found — he could make it without a moment’s hesitation.
From this point on, only you two.
Even if the ice wall crumbled. Even if Creatures came pouring through. Even if the world screamed and reached for him.
His only priority was these two children.
Even if that put everyone else in danger.
Even if it dragged the man they had called a hero straight down into ruin.
“…….”
Calypse was beginning to rise, bending forward from the chair, when —
“Don’t abandon us.”
A quiet voice in the dark stopped him entirely.
He had believed Lucas was asleep.
Lucas’s eyelids lifted — slowly, heavy with drowsiness. From beneath long, dense lashes, a pair of peculiar eyes watched him with a gaze not yet fully awake.
“Don’t abandon us that easily.”
________________________________________
