At that hour.
Near the edge of the world.
A knight squinted through a curtain of swirling snow, struggling to hold his sight line.
“A Creature that speaks? Something like that actually exists?”
House Krost dispatched knights to patrol beyond the edge of the world once each day. It was during one such patrol that the topic arose—a so-called speaking Creature that someone claimed to have encountered.
“I’m telling you, I heard it with my own ears.”
“Right, right. If it had been a false report, the consequences would have been severe. That’s precisely why we’re back out here again.”
Thanks to a colleague brazen enough to file what sounded like pure fiction, he found himself knee-deep in this snowfield once more.
This was the territory of the Alosini.
Four-limbed creatures resembling beasts, these things were enormous—the size of lions—but they did not live in packs, and were manageable enough to dispatch alone.
The leather of his sword-grip grew damp with perspiration.
It was nearly time for an Alosini to appear.
“If there really is a speaking Creature like you say, might as well try talking to it.”
And then it happened.
Beyond the wall of snowfall, a massive shape began to amble into view.
‘Alosini.’
The knights exchanged looks and fanned out into a wide arc, moving quietly toward it—
“Ksssshhhh!”
The Alosini, which had been lumbering perfectly calmly, suddenly lurched and staggered as though it had been struck by something. A small syringe appeared to be lodged in its flank.
From where?
A startled knight looked around wildly and caught sight of someone—whoever had fired the projectile—now leaping down from a cliff face at a brisk pace. From their silhouette, they were not one of House Krost’s knights.
But that was beside the point—
Kaaahhhh—!
With a cry that sliced through the eardrums, the Alosini abruptly launched itself at the nearest knight.
Shortly after.
Calypse pulled the syringe free from between the Alosini’s blood-soaked, matted fur.
“…Based on initial assessment, this appears to be the madness-amplification compound discovered at the succession trials.”
At the knight’s report, his mind went to Aisha’s words.
‘I know what this is. This is the madness-amplification compound manufactured by House Foss.’
A compound manufactured by House Foss.
‘Could it be that they…’
He had always known that House Foss had been conducting various experiments with their Poison Affinity over the years. But those had been aimed at warfare between kingdoms—not at killing Creatures. And even that scheme had been abandoned—because of the Creatures themselves. When House Krost erected the ice wall and delivered humanity from the Creatures’ reach, the Kingdom of Doctia had tacitly ceased its preparations for war.
Using compounds against Creatures had been entirely inconceivable until now.
Calypse straightened up with a deep furrow between his brows.
“What is the status of Marchioness Lilis?”
“We are conducting interrogations to extract answers, but she refuses to speak regardless of the method.”
“Escalate. Put her face in boiling water. If that yields nothing, pull her nails out one by one—but don’t kill her so thoroughly she can no longer speak.”
“Understood.”
What was House Foss’s intention?
What advantage did they stand to gain by driving Creatures into a state of madness?
It was then.
“Alosini!”
The surrounding knights called out in warning and assumed combat stances. Calypse too reached unhurriedly for his sword—
Thud—!
From ahead.
Thud.
No—from behind.
“Krreeaaahh!”
Struck without warning from every direction, Alosini after Alosini collapsed to the snow with thundering cries.
“They’ve been hit with the madness-amplification compound!”
“Everyone hold your formation—defensive positions!”
“There are too many Alosini to count!”
From all around, skin-crawling screams wove themselves into a hideous chorus and drew steadily, inexorably closer.
‘What on earth are you planning, House Foss.’
The eyes of Calypse—sword already in hand—went quietly, dangerously cold.
* * *
At that hour.
In the garden of the Queen Consort’s palace in the Kingdom of Frozen.
‘Hmm.’
I squinted toward the terrace, not far from where I sat.
The group clustered around the tea table had been deep in what appeared to be a grave discussion—and for over an hour now, not one of them had moved. Knox in particular, stroking his chin with a dark expression, looked especially troubling.
‘What is going on?’
It seemed as though they had sent me away because the subject was too dangerous for young ears.
“Baby. What do you suppose is happening? Shall we go eavesdrop?”
Baby, who had been rolling about happily in the grass, tilted her head at me.
“Nyoh~?”
In the warm spring sunlight of the capital, baby’s eyes shimmered with an almost jewel-like radiance. She had taken the eye-altering potion and looked for all the world like an ordinary cat—but I knew.
Looking closely, baby’s eyes were anything but ordinary.
And it wasn’t only her eyes. There was something else—a feeling of locking gazes with something that carried an intelligence, a selfhood, uncannily close to my own.
Come to think of it—it was strange.
Baby listened to me far too well.
A normal cat would knock things off a table while perched on it. Knock things off a bed. Knock things off a cat tower—
And then—
“……?”
A deep, penetrating gaze bored into the back of my head as if it might drill a hole straight through it.
“Who’s there?”
I spun around sharply—but all I could see were beautiful flowers and trees.
But.
Sparkle, sparkle—
It was unmistakable.
‘This is the same sparkling beam I send out whenever I’m desperate for something…’
I searched the surroundings with a vague but certain sense of familiarity, and found—
“…Ch-chiik~?”
Beneath the bench.
Between the tangle of rose stems in full bloom, a mouse had poked its face out—shooting the most desperately sparkling gaze imaginable.
A dispatch mouse.
“Oh! Little Chik!”
I immediately clutched baby to my chest.
“Baby—don’t eat that little chik. Understood?”
“Nya?”
Suddenly trapped in my arms, baby’s eyes narrowed to a straight line. She regarded the terrified dispatch mouse with an expression of complete and total disdain, then wrinkled her nose.
“Pffft—”
“…Did you just spit at it?”
As if to say: not even if you paid me. What a truly unusual cat.
In any case—this dispatch mouse had a message to deliver, and it would follow me until it did. It was far better to acknowledge it quickly and send it on its way than to keep pretending not to notice.
“Little Chik. Shh.”
I made a hushing sound toward the mouse, and little Chik—which had been beaming those desperate eyes—tucked its face behind the roses.
“Mai.”
“Yes, my lady.”
At my call, Mai looked up from her conversation with the attendants with a warm smile.
“I’m going to play hide-and-seek with baby—is it all right if we wander from here to there?”
‘There’ referred to within the white fence enclosing the garden. Mai stood up slightly in her chair and gauged the distance, seemingly judging whether she could keep watch over me from where she sat.
“It won’t be dangerous?”
Mai asked the royal attendant.
The attendant laughed as if the very question were amusing.
“Whether here or there, it’s all the private grounds of the Queen Consort’s palace. Royal knights are stationed all around, and those in the Queen Consort’s chambers are already aware the young lady is visiting. She’ll be perfectly safe.”
“Hmm. In that case…”
Reassured, Mai issued her caution.
“Even so, my lady—do be careful. How about just one round of hide-and-seek and then come right back?”
I was only going to collect the message and return. I nodded readily.
“Yes! One round and I’ll be back straight away!”
Clutching baby once more, I gave little Chik a small nod—
‘Little Chik. Follow.’
‘Chiik!’
Goodness only knows where it had learned such things, but little Chik raised a grain-of-rice-sized front paw in a precise salute, then scurried after me.
Walking a ways down the garden path, I finally crouched down and settled in place.
“This far, and no one from there should be able to see exactly what I’m doing. Little Chik, come out.”
“Squii… squii…”
The dispatch mouse, which had apparently been too nervous in the presence of baby to keep its legs from shaking, crept forward to stand before me.
It looked hopelessly, endearingly inexperienced.
“Little Chik—I’m your first delivery as a dispatch mouse, aren’t I.”
How unfortunate.
Last time, when I had been with Father, it had been Knox who spotted the mouse and caused all sorts of trouble. Today it had been frightened half to death all over again.
I felt genuinely sorry for it, and offered what encouragement I could.
“You’ve left that line of work now yourself—but I spent years in that world too, so I know: if you want to survive as a dispatch mouse, you cannot afford to be afraid of something as minor as a cat.”
It might have sounded like lecturing—but honest advice was the only encouragement I had to give.
“The ground is dirt, so no paper needed. Here’s a twig.”
I placed a small twig into little Chik’s front paw—
“Squii… squii…”
Apparently taking my words to heart, little Chik scrunched up its insignificant little nose and began to scratch something out into the earth.
* * *
