Chapter 23

Meanwhile, at that time.

“As expected, something is strange. Let us investigate together.”

Knox spoke to those who had followed behind him. They were none other than knights of the Kreutz family.

Knox had not come here alone with Aisha without thinking.

What if Aisha was truly a spy, and she met another spy at the contact location?

An armed confrontation would be unavoidable.

That was why, naturally, he had kept the knights on standby.

“What is this?”

“Eek, hide!”

When armed knights stormed into the illegally operated circus in two lines, the audience fled in every direction, afraid they might be arrested.

And far away.

“......”

Knox saw it.

The host, who had been about to protest against the knights who had ruined his stage, turned deathly pale.

His gaze was clearly fixed on the blue wolf emblem that symbolized the Kreutz family.

No way, truly...

He had only sensed it briefly, but what he had encountered in the storage room was undoubtedly the power of ice.

The proof was the beautiful crystals that could only be created with a power, not an ordinary snowstorm.

With Calypse currently at the end of the world for monster subjugation, the only ones who could wield that degree of pure power were...

his direct children.

It feels as though the puzzle is finally coming together.

Knox let out a sneer mixed with fury.

Had the Pose family colluded with Ahili’s Circus to kidnap the young lords?

“Let’s go.”

Knox’s already cold expression hardened without the slightest warmth.

In truth, he wanted to grab anyone passing by by the collar and ask what they had done to the young lords, but.

First, he had to confirm whether they were alive.

Soon, when he reached the staff storage room door marked [Authorized Personnel Only]—

“...I apologize, but authorized personnel only. You appear to be an honored guest. What brings you to such a shabby place?”

The host, who had hurried over, forced a smile.

“If you saw the emblem, open the door.”

“It seems the owner of that emblem has not come.”

Even as he bowed his head, he showed a firm determination not to open the door.

“I told you to open it.”

“Inside this door are rare products even high-ranking nobles cannot easily obtain. If you wish to view them, you must pay—”

Baaang—!

It happened then.

A roar like the earth itself shaking rang out from the circus entrance.

As the startled audience’s eyes gathered toward the entrance—

a massive figure, easily over one hundred ninety centimeters tall, appeared through the black dust.

It was Duke Calypse.

“...Your Grace? How on earth did you...”

There was no time to ask how he had come.

Calypse strode forward with long steps, struck Knox’s shoulder as he passed, and stood before the host.

“Open the door if you don’t want to die. I am in a foul mood.”

Perhaps he had just finished monster subjugation and returned, because the armor covering his body was stained with blood.

The stench of blood should have made one frown, but when facing those chilling red eyes, the whole body froze so completely that even controlling one’s expression became impossible.

Duke Calypse Kreutz had an upright public image.

Because he had hidden the sharpened expression forged through countless wars behind the mask of a hero.

But.

“......”

The atmosphere of the duke who had just returned from a scene of slaughter was raw as it was.

“T-That...”

The host stammered, his face turning so white it resembled a corpse.

Even so, he did not step aside.

At this point, it would have been natural to move, so the fact that he held his ground to the end was suspicious in the extreme.

Calypse seemed to think the same. Treating the host like an invisible man, he raised his leg as if to smash the door down—

“Aaagh!”

Only then did the host’s survival instincts activate, and he fled.

Of course, he was caught by the knights waiting nearby.

“Your Grace. What about the monster subjugation...”

“I can feel the power of ice.”

Calypse cut Knox off and muttered.

“It wasn’t me, so what is this?”

His brow narrowed as he stepped into the room.

Gulp.

Knox swallowed dryly from tension.

“...That is why I was about to go in as well. It seemed strange to me too.”

Knox was furious, yet he still had doubts.

Had that spy brat truly kidnapped a young lord of the Kreutz family and tried to meet people from the Pose family here?

If so...

Crunch—

At that moment, something shattered beneath Calypse’s foot.

When Knox raised his head, he saw Calypse’s face, enraged to a degree incomparable to his own.

“I will judge for myself whether that child deceived me or not.”

“......”

“If that is the case.”

Calypse, who had closed his mouth briefly, continued as he pushed open the innermost door.

“Then according to custom, execution—”

“Hic... hng.”

Right then.

A young boy’s sobbing flowed through the crack of the open door.

There is something inside.

Calypse and Knox silently met each other’s eyes.

And the moment Calypse opened the door and burst in—

“Hic, hng... Aisha!”

They found a boy sitting collapsed on the floor, crying his heart out, and a little girl lying across the boy’s knees.

Knox, who had followed behind, took in the scene inside the room.

Sharp icicles had risen everywhere, and ice crystals floated around the boy.

With his violent sobs, the ice crystals repeatedly hardened and melted. As if they were following the child’s emotions.

But Calypse’s gaze was fixed only on the fallen child.

Aisha.

“......”

From beside him, he thought he heard someone say, “Your Grace, it is the power of ice. That person is surely...”

But Calypse, who did not hear it, walked toward the children as if bewitched.

Then he knelt and asked without looking at the boy.

“What happened.”

His voice cracked without him realizing it.

The child lying across those small knees.

Her lips were parted as if she were having a good dream, and her eyes were closed in gentle arcs.

If one looked only at her face, one might mistake her for sleeping soundly.

But her blond hair was a tangled mess.

There was dirty dust and bloodstains here and there.

Her shoelace had come undone. On the right side, perhaps because her shoe had fallen off while she fled, only her sock barely remained.

He did not know what had happened, but he felt as if he could understand how much the child had suffered.

How desperately she must have needed an adult’s help.

The word execution, which he had thought of for an instant, blurred.

No, rather, how cruel that thought had been toward this child...

Heh—

Idle thoughts quickly filled his mind. Calypse had let out a dry laugh and bitten into his lower lip.

“...You.”

The boy, who had been staring at him with startled eyes until then, spoke.

“How did you get here... Did you finally come to save me...?”

Calypse, who had covered his eyes with his palm, slowly shifted his gaze.

Only then did he begin to see the boy who had been sobbing while holding Aisha.

Was he about eight years old?

Between the tangled locks of the boy, who was in an even worse state than Aisha, familiar eyes were glaring at him.

Eyes of a mysterious color, like a drop of red paint fallen into gold.

For a moment, the newborn baby who had cried in his arms in the past overlapped with that face.

Calypse’s eyes widened—

“Why did you only come now! This child tried to save me in your place and ended up like this! Save her. You have physicians and money, don’t you!”

At the accusation sharper than a blade, only then did he come back to his senses.

She ended up like this trying to save the boy?

Aisha did?

Why?

“Pardon me, but may I ask your name?”

It was then.

Knox hurried over, knelt on one knee, and politely asked the boy.

Calypse still could not grasp the situation.

The only thing filling his mind was guilt that he had, even briefly, tried to kill this child.

But.

“Lucas. Lucas Kreutz.”

At the venom-filled young voice, it felt as if all the blood drained from his body.

Knox was the same.

Baaang—!

While the Kreutz knights who had belatedly burst in quickly rushed past them, Calypse and Knox could not say a word.

The boy looked like someone who could not even be called a commoner—no, like someone anyone would believe was a slave.

But in the gaze glaring straight at him, Calypse realized what sense of familiarity he had felt from the boy.

Those eyes.

They were far too similar to Lucas’s eyes, which he had last seen when he was a newborn baby.

“What on earth...”

For five years, he had thought about it.

If he met his children [N O V E L I G H T] again, what sort of reunion would it be?

What would the children have grown up to look like?

Among all his countless imaginings, there had never been a sight like that.

“Why on earth are you here...”

But—

“Don’t ask when you’re not even curious. If you need me now, then hurry up and take me.”

The boy cut off Calypse and held Aisha close.

“But treat Aisha.”

The boy was wary of everyone, as if Aisha were the only person he could trust here.

At that sight, Calypse’s lips twisted.

He was afraid.

It did not matter if words of blame toward him sprang from that child’s mouth.

But when he thought of what Lucas must have gone through before he could spit out those words, his hand tightened without him realizing it.

“...Protect the children first. Take them to the carriage.”

In the end, unable to say anything more, Calypse gave Knox an order.

The unconscious Aisha was carried to the carriage in Lucas’s arms.