Chapter 16

For an instant, my thoughts stopped, and my body froze like ice.

“...Then I’ll be going.”

Mai, too, looked flustered, as if she had spoken without meaning to. She bowed her head and hurried away.

A cold silence pressed down on my shoulders.

“......”

Mai was right.

I was the one who had broken the contract first.

***

At that time, in the office.

Once the child’s sweet scent vanished from the room, even the last trace of playfulness disappeared.

Especially right after Aisha left.

No longer needing to wear a gentle expression, Duke Calypse Kreutz’s eyes sharpened in an instant.

So sharply that even Knox, who had been angry, flinched.

“You cannot even tell what should and should not be said in front of a child.”

At that chilling question, Knox finally felt that Duke Calypse Kreutz had returned to his usual state.

He unconsciously stood at attention, but if anything, that was a relief.

It meant His Grace had not gone mad.

“That is why I fed her strawberries and sent her off, is it not? I will ask honestly, Your Grace. What about that little girl do you like so much?”

“Like her? Is taking in and raising a homeless little girl such a great affair for the ducal family?”

“If that were all, you would have sent her to an orphanage sponsored by the ducal family, or to a noble family that wanted a child. Just as you once said that was what an adult ought to do, Your Grace.”

In truth, Aisha was not the first orphan to enter the ducal family.

After the young lords and the young lady went missing, the people of the kingdom became frantic about finding the young lord and young lady of the Kreutz family.

No, to be precise.

They were frantic about creating a young lady of the Kreutz family.

There was nothing to be done about the young lords, whose faces were known publicly.

But the young lady had disappeared before the duke, who had been away for five years, had ever even seen her face.

All anyone could predict was that her hair and eye color would be the same as either his or the Duchess’s.

That was all.

Orphanages and lower nobles across the entire kingdom were thrown into chaos.

Whenever they saw a baby who looked even slightly like the ducal couple, they insisted by any means possible that the child was the young lady.

Duke Calypse Kreutz arranged for the children among them who had nowhere to go to be adopted into good homes.

Then, little by little, more and more people deliberately left crying infants in front of the ducal family’s gate.

Because Knox knew how bitter Duke Calypse Kreutz had been each time, he was even angrier.

He even began wearing a mask after losing his children.

Knox knew.

What face and what emotions he had hidden behind that mask.

“What on earth changed you, Your Grace?”

That was why Knox protested, despite knowing it was rude.

Duke Calypse Kreutz was a person before he was a hero.

He could break.

He could make mistakes.

Preparing for such situations and assisting the head of the family was the duty of an aide.

“......”

A suffocating silence flowed between them for a moment.

Duke Calypse Kreutz, who had at some point leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, looked deep in thought.

It was the face of someone seriously choosing the words he could answer with.

At last, he sighed and answered quietly.

“Nothing changed.”

“Then why...”

“Saving that child. That was the only choice I had left in my life.”

“...Pardon?”

The only choice left in his life. Saving her.

As Knox pieced together his master’s incomprehensible words, his eyes narrowed.

If that was the case.

If he had not saved the child—

“...Your Grace!”

Knox’s face turned deathly pale as he belatedly interpreted the meaning of the answer.

Even so, Duke Calypse Kreutz did not waver.

As if it were something he had been thinking about for a long time, all that reflected in his red eyes was a faint weariness.

“After all the hell I went through, the only result I earned was a medal. What reason would I have to keep living?”

“Was that why you asked for the vial of poison back then?”

Duke Calypse Kreutz closed his eyes.

“Think what you like.”

“What am I supposed to think! Your Grace. Even if dirt gets in my eyes, you will never...”

“Ugh.”

This was why he had not wanted to talk about it.

Sometimes Knox cared about Duke Calypse Kreutz more terribly than Duke Calypse Kreutz cared about himself.

Knox, watching his master recoil in disgust, let out a heavy sigh.

In the end, the aide, who could neither cast the child out nor acknowledge her, had only one choice.

“...I will take charge of the child named Aisha instead.”

“......?”

Duke Calypse Kreutz, who had been covering his ears half-jokingly and half-seriously, slowly opened his eyes.

Facing his startled expression, Knox nodded firmly.

He did not want to believe it, but he had to admit it.

That child had saved the duke.

“I will watch the child named Aisha myself and see whether she has truly given up being a spy.”

If she was that important to him, she needed to be tested.

Whether that child had truly saved His Grace.

Or whether she was preparing to stab His Grace in the back.

***

And.

Having no way of knowing this, I entered emergency mode.

I have to earn their trust no matter what.

Thanks to Mai’s truthful advice, I realized one thing.

Being adopted doesn’t mean it’s over.

Mister had not adopted me because he liked me. It was closer to adopting me because he pitied me.

If even the only person who trusted me was like this, how did the others see me?

There was no need to think deeply about that.

Because Knox, who was tormenting me even now, existed.

“Do the cheeks of ordinary five-year-olds become as round as freshly baked bread when they eat?”

“......”

As I was diligently chewing steak, a long finger poked my cheek.

Again.

Again, he was watching me.

No reaction is the answer.

Under his gaze, which was like he was observing some strange monster, I rolled my eyes away.

Then Knox, who had been resting his chin on his hand, opened his mouth in a dry voice.

“Or... because this little girl is a spy.”

“Eat meat!”

I hurriedly shoved the fork I had been bringing to my own mouth into his mouth.

However—

“Mmm. Delicious.”

As expected of the aide of the Kreutz family.

He did not panic even at a surprise attack from a former spy.

Instead, he was savoring my steak attack.

I can’t let my guard down. He’s someone who’s wary of me.

I did not know why, but ever since that day, Knox had been watching me all day long.

Knox Ilias.

Duke Calypse Kreutz’s foremost close aide and the second son of the Marquis Ilias family, an attendant family of the Kreutz family.

He wore his long blue hair neatly swept back and tied.

His monocle added to his intellectual impression, and his uncovered turquoise eye was beautiful, like greenery under a sea breeze.

In terms of appearance, he was quite a handsome man.

However. Only outwardly.

In reality, considering that he was a monster fanatic and extremely rational.

Considering only that he was a ridiculously childish adult-child who bullied a former-spy five-year-old.

Aside from those things, he was quite beautiful.

The reason he opposed Duke Calypse Kreutz’s beheading, too, wasn’t because he pitied me. It was because he was worried the image of the Kreutz family would suffer.

Knox’s outwardly flawless and intelligent image had all been manufactured.

Solely for the Kreutz family.

In the original story, he was so uninterested in people that I thought he would just loiter around and disappear on his own.

I never thought he would pour this much attention into me.

After tasting the steak for a long while as if to toy with me, he swallowed.

Then—

“...Lady Aisha is a spy—”

“Man!”

“The little lady is a spa—”

“Massage is my hobby!”

“...What is a spider-man, and what is a spa massage?”

“Things like that exist!”

He kept provoking me like this.

There was only one reason.

“Hmm. In any case, perhaps it is because you are a spy despite being only five years old. Your crisis management ability is excellent.”

He probably wanted to know how capable I was.

I appreciate the compliment, but I refuse the suspicion.

“You, too, are excellent at bullying a five-year-old at your age.”

“...Mister?”

It was then.

At the familiar low voice, I turned my head and saw a man standing there like a mountain.

“Little girl. Hurry and come here.”

“Yes! ...Huh?”

At mister’s magnificent entrance, I was about to leap up with frog fist technique, but—

He may have taken pity on you and adopted you, but he would not trust you. You were the one who lied first, my lady.

As the uncomfortable truth pierced through my heart, my body hesitated.

“...Little girl?”

Ah. Mister was calling me.

For a moment, I had spaced out. I hid my expression and grinned.

But mister had already noticed something was off and approached me, bending one knee.

Thanks to that, his red eyes were almost level with mine as I sat in the chair.

And then his arms opened.

“......”

It seemed to mean he wanted me to come into his arms.

“...Aisha.”

Even the low voice urging me on had dropped with half embarrassment and half hurt.

No. I already don’t have any trust as it is, so if I don’t even act cute...

I hurriedly shook my head and put on a bright smile.

And then.

“Ahaha, miiister~!”

Calling him in a slightly overdone acting voice, I gave him a wink.

Creak, creak.

I walked over awkwardly and went into his arms.

...To be precise, rather than going into his arms, it felt more like I pressed my head against him?

“......”

Mister looked down at me, then his gaze rose upward.

“Knox.”

“Yes.”

“Kneel.”

“...Pardon?”