Chapter 163
The answer came immediately.
“Fine.”
“…Huh?”
“Let’s do that.”
“……”
Since the response came without a shred of hesitation, it was the seductress who ended up looking out for the Basilian family.
“Don’t you need to think about it a little?”
“Think about what?”
“I mean… releasing the fairies.”
At the question of whether it was really okay to decide so freely, Belzeon let out an unwitting chuckle.
His lips, pressed into a straight line, curved faintly upward in a twist.
Belzeon replied slowly.
“It’s not worth deliberating over.”
The fact that the three brothers had altered their appearances to adults and were working in the underworld.
The fact that the Basilians had captured the fairies—all of it was strictly confidential.
Yet the seductress knew it all too well.
If they were acting as subordinates of the underworld’s master, and as Basilians.
The twins would have torn through the curtain long ago and started a fight with the seductress.
They would have subdued her by any means necessary, interrogating her cruelly until she confessed how she’d obtained the secrets.
Even using Kierne’s mind control if needed.
But the three brothers endured.
It wasn’t because the seductress was now the lover of Hailon, the traitor to the Holy Empire, rather than an inquisitor.
They held back because she was Cheshire’s mother.
Suppressing the urge to rip the red curtain to shreds right then and demand where Cheshire was, they spoke.
“Because it’s about saving family.”
For a moment, the seductress was silent.
Cutting through the thickening quiet, Karha stepped closer to the curtain.
“Why did you abandon her?”
Belzeon and Isuel looked at him in surprise.
Karha stared straight at the fairy beyond the cloth.
“You left her at the orphanage. Such a precious child…”
A grinding of teeth echoed.
His eyes, sharp and pointed at the corners, were blood-red.
“And now you want to play mother?”
He ran his tongue over his fangs once, then pressed again.
“You stayed hidden all this time, and now you’re trying to take the baby to save the fairies, making this kind of proposal!”
As his voice rose, Isuel grabbed Karha.
But Karha immediately shook off Isuel’s hand.
“Listen well, seductress. We don’t care one bit about why you’ve hidden yourself like this, or why you suddenly vanished.”
Karha took a deep breath.
“I’ll give you whatever you want. Fairies, money, someone’s life—anything.”
This time, neither Isuel nor Belzeon tried to stop him.
Karha continued slowly.
“So leave the baby, leave Cheshire… let her live as a Basilian. Let her live as Cheshire Basilian, not as the seductress’s daughter.”
It was clearly a threatening tone.
But the faint tremor in his voice made it sound almost like a desperate plea.
“You can do without Cheshire. But we can’t.”
Karha panted after finishing his words.
Beyond the curtain, silence lingered for a long time.
Just before the impatient Karha could no longer hold back and flip it aside with his hand, the seductress finally spoke slowly.
“Don’t worry; this won’t happen again. And…”
She spoke as if she had traversed centuries.
“There are fates you can’t avoid, even if you don’t want them.”
Then Hata, who had been quietly huddled in the corner listening until now, suddenly sniffled.
The three brothers glanced at Hata, who was struggling to hold back tears, then turned their gaze back to the curtain.
“Where that child stays isn’t for me to decide… But let me tell you one thing.”
The seductress whispered, unable to hide her affection.
“Cheshire… loves the Basilians a lot too.”
The fairies were being held by Hailon.
They’d already suspected as much.
Only something like the Chains of Condemnation could restrain so many fairies.
Belzeon promised to contact Hailon’s side immediately.
However, since Hailon was in hiding as a traitor, communication with the Basilians wasn’t straightforward.
The next scheduled contact date was a week away.
Around the time of the birthday banquet hosted by the Palen imperial family, so he vowed to reach out then and release the fairies.
They didn’t think the Basilians would break the promise.
They would surely keep it for Cheshire’s sake.
“…So.”
With all agreements settled, Isuel asked impatiently.
“Where is my sibling?”
Cheshire swallowed hard in tension.
She recalled the moment she’d first planned this and told Jahan.
“I’m going to ask Mom for help.”
Jahan, who knew exactly who Cheshire’s ‘Mom’ was, turned pale.
But he had no choice but to cooperate meekly with Cheshire.
As instructed, he first went to Hata’s hat shop to contact the seductress.
Hata, who had stealthily gone ahead and transformed into his beastkin form, greeted Cheshire and Jahan with composure.
And thus, they orchestrated the entire situation.
Having achieved the goal of rescuing the fairies, all that remained was the final touching reunion.
Cheshire fidgeted with the flower attached to her neck.
It was the flower she’d placed to modulate her voice into ‘Lichesia’s.’
She gazed at the three brothers through the red cloth.
Their adult male forms felt unfamiliar and awkward, but not unpleasant at all.
No matter the appearance, the fact that they were Cheshire’s brothers remained unchanged.
“She’s waiting in the back of the shop here.”
Cheshire glanced subtly at the cabinet standing behind.
“Then I’ll be going… Take good care of her.”
After leaving her final words as Lichesia, she quickly peeled off the flower and dashed into Hata’s lab.
Before the three brothers, their patience worn thin, could wreck the shop, Hata hurriedly guided them.
“This way! Hata will open the door for you.”
The tense Hata had his tail tucked tightly between his legs.
He drew back the curtain and placed his hand on the cabinet.
With a rumble, the cabinet split to both sides, revealing a hidden wooden door.
The door was far too small for the three brothers; they’d have to bend deeply to enter.
Isuel, the smallest in build, took the lead and boldly grasped the bronze handle.
Click.
Click, click.
“…Uh.”
Isuel, who had been pulling the door, turned to Belzeon and Karha in confusion.
“The door’s locked…?”
Karha immediately tried to draw his sword.
Just before he could smash the door to pieces, Belzeon pushed his brothers aside.
Then he knocked carefully on the door.
“Cheshire.”
The three brothers held their breath and waited in silence.
After what felt like an eternity, a voice came.
“…Oppa-deul.”
It was clear pronunciation.
Not the Cheshire who struggled with words on her short tongue.
Realizing she wasn’t the young baby they remembered, the three brothers froze for a moment.
Belzeon was the first to snap out of it.
He quickly crouched in front of the wooden door and asked.
“Cheshire, it’s you, right?”
Following suit, the twins crouched on either side, ears perked, waiting for the answer.
“Yes. But…”
A voice utterly drained of energy flowed out.
“I suddenly grew up. I’m not a baby anymore; I’m a child now.”
Cheshire’s voice dropped even lower.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?”
Beyond the closed door.
Cheshire was pressed quietly against the wooden door.
She pondered how to plausibly explain to the three brothers why she hadn’t appeared right away.
After much thought, the excuse she came up with was that her appearance had suddenly changed and her powers had vanished, so she’d gone to find her mother.
She’d even resolved to display fireworks smoke.
“Maybe because I’m not human.”
The more she spoke, the more her heart felt strangely tangled.
“Only Cheshire is weird.”
No sound came from beyond the wooden door.
Sensing the stillness, strange emotions swirled wildly within her.
As if it weren’t smoke, but her true feelings pouring out…
The daughter of a mad fairy.
A being everyone feared and avoided, not human.
Without realizing, Cheshire blurted out.
“It feels like I’ve become a monster.”
