Chapter 82
Seeing Karha draw his sword, Itar burst into laughter.
“Are you trying to fight me right now?”
Without a word, Karha swung his sword.
At the end of a trajectory so fast it was hard to follow with the eyes.
With a slice, the iron bars were cut as smoothly as a soft pound cake.
While Karha, who had made a door on his own, stepped out of the prison.
Theo, who had been dazed by the situation unfolding beyond common sense, hurriedly ran over and shouted.
“Even if you’re royalty, you can’t kidnap an imperial citizen!”
“Kidnap!”
Itar looked extremely aggrieved.
“I’m going to pamper the little one. Think about it. Would it be better to live as the daughter of some noble family, or as a princess of the royal family?”
Karha let out a short, scoffing laugh.
His red eyes flared up brightly.
In a situation where it seemed like someone could die at any moment.
Chesha raised her hand high and exclaimed.
“I wanna be a princess too!”
“Hm?”
“What?”
“Pardon?”
In front of the men pouring out their varied reactions, Chesha spoke clearly and deliberately.
“Make me a princess.”
Karha dropped the sword he had raised downward.
After glancing at the boy’s bewildered face, Chesha turned her gaze back to Itar.
Itar smiled pleasantly.
“Alright, I’ll treat you like a precious princess. Little one, you’ll like the Skaya Kingdom too. Have you ever seen the sea?”
He seemed delighted by the situation flowing just as he wanted.
Seizing the moment when Itar’s guard was down in his joy, she spoke.
“I’ll be a princess, so send me home. I need to say goodbye to my daddy. And pack my things.”
“Of course we should. I’ll give your family a generous compensation.”
Itar grinned.
Chesha smiled back at him brightly.
Itar was already acting as if Chesha were his own.
He poked her cheek intimately with his finger and said.
“Little one, I’ll escort you home. I’ll have a carriage prepared, so take your time coming out.”
Saying to come out with her big brother, Itar set Chesha down.
Then he went out first to give orders to his subordinates.
Only Theo, Karha, and Chesha remained in the prison.
Karha asked in a shocked voice.
“You… wanted to be a princess…?”
Chesha shook her head.
She waved her hands frantically at the two men.
Theo and Karha bent down reflexively.
Chesha whispered softly.
“We’re running away now…!”
It meant to sneak away from Itar.
A princess? What nonsense.
Of course, she had no intention of going to the Skaya Kingdom at all.
But the reason she lied was because she knew Itar’s personality well.
He was the type who would break what wouldn’t bend.
If Karha had charged at him, there would have been blood spilled here, and he would have forcibly taken Chesha away.
Theo, the security officers, and Karha too.
They would have suffered considerable damage.
So she chose to lie like this and escape.
She had roughly thought of a way to handle the aftermath as well.
Karha was deeply moved by Chesha’s “We’re running away” declaration.
“I thought the baby was abandoning us. Because you wanted to be a princess…”
After muttering his brief sentiment, Karha quickly scooped Chesha up.
“Security chief. There’s a back door here, right?”
“Uh, yes. There is. It’s confidential to the station, but given the circumstances, it can’t be helped.”
Theo showed agile movements unbecoming of his large build.
He placed his hand on a wall that looked like nothing was there.
When he pushed a few bricks inward with a tap, a wooden door smoothly appeared.
“It’s enchanted with illusion magic.”
Theo explained as he pushed the door open.
‘Bear is indeed the young master of the Nemeia Marquis family.’
There was no reason to cast expensive magic on a mere security station.
It must have been set up so that, in case of an emergency, the precious young master could escape quickly.
Thanks to that, they were making good use of it.
The three who emerged into the alley behind the security station immediately started running.
They hadn’t run far when an enraged roar echoed.
The timid Theo flinched in surprise and looked back, only to get scolded by Karha.
“Don’t look away, just run!”
“I’m sorry…”
Theo and Karha ran side by side and asked Chesha.
“But where should we go? The Skaya prince will start pursuing us, and we can’t keep running forever.”
“Yeah. Baby, where are we going?”
Going back to the hotel would be pointless since Kierne, who could resolve the situation, wasn’t there.
And it would be the first place they’d search when looking for Basilian.
The Nemeia Marquis family… it was ambiguous since she didn’t know Theo’s position within his family yet.
‘They might not be willing to fight the Skaya royalty. Especially since it’s not about Bear, but Bear’s friend’s issue.’
Going to Duchess Evroiel also felt a bit off.
Knowing she was Kierne’s precious person, she didn’t want to drag her into such a headache.
After pondering for a moment, Chesha thought of a wicked idea.
It was an idea that would make tears stream from that bastard Itar’s eyes.
“I know a place to hide!”
Chesha said the location with a sly smile.
The Skaya royalty, descended from pirates, were aggressive and greedy.
They didn’t hide their plundering nature, and they wouldn’t be satisfied until they took what they wanted.
Itar was an exemplary Skaya royal.
He obtained everything he desired.
If it wasn’t given, he seized and stole it.
The one thing he uniquely couldn’t have was the enchantress Lichesia.
While visiting the underworld for fun, he happened to see Lichesia and fell for her at first sight.
Upon seeing her, who seemed like his ideal type bestowed by the gods, Itar proposed marriage right away.
“Become my wife!”
And he nearly got chopped by an axe.
An ordinary person would have come to their senses and fled right there.
But after barely surviving that time, Itar became completely obsessed with Lichesia.
The story of Itar diligently coming and going in the underworld for a while, proposing to the enchantress, was known to all residents of the underworld.
What made him stop his persistent clinging and chasing after Lichesia.
Was because some heretic inquisitor intervened.
Out of nowhere, this heretic inquisitor appeared and captured the innocent Itar under the pretext of heresy.
He attached all sorts of charges to Itar, repeatedly putting him in and out of the interrogation room for questioning.
It seemed like, since Lichesia was an enchantress, anyone associated with her was deemed a heretic.
Itar asserted his innocence.
“I was just chasing her because I love the enchantress!”
For some reason, the interrogation became even more intense.
It was a brutal questioning that, if he weren’t Skaya royalty, would have likely cost him limbs long ago.
Even while undergoing the interrogations, Itar stubbornly continued chasing the enchantress.
In the end, the Skaya royal family, not wanting to antagonize the Holy Empire, forcibly dragged Itar away.
The forcibly taken Itar, longing for Lichesia, began diligently collecting items related to the enchantress from then on.
Starting lightly with Lichesia’s wanted posters, to flowers she supposedly made, accessories she wore, discarded handkerchiefs, and so on.
He collected all sorts of items related to the enchantress, nurturing his yearning heart.
Then, using the Little Saints’ Prayer Assembly as an excuse, he entered the Palen Empire again.
Hearing recent news that the enchantress hadn’t been seen, the royal family permitted his visit to the empire.
But falling for a baby who resembled the enchantress was something no one anticipated.
“Find her! I won’t leave the capital until I have that little one!”
Itar, furious to the core, rampaged wildly.
How dare she lie to me and run away!
But even that behavior resembled Lichesia, making her even more desirable.
The Basilian County family was one he’d never heard of.
It seemed like an insignificant family, so once found, there would be no problem at all in claiming the baby who looked just like the enchantress.
Fortunately, the skilled mercenaries Itar hired quickly found the baby.
“We found her!”
Itar asked in a voice full of ecstasy.
“Where! Where is she?”
“Well, she’s in the most expensive luxury mansion in the capital.”
“…What?”
At Itar’s question, the mercenary also blinked in confusion.
“We checked, and it has no relation to Basilian at all. The owner of the mansion is unknown, but according to people, occasionally there.”
He hesitated for a moment, then continued in an uncertain voice.
“A holy knight comes and goes…?”
