Chapter 45

Probably about Lucas.

The heads of the northern families had seen him with their own eyes.

News about Lucas had probably already spread through the Frozen Kingdom’s social circles, and there was no way Duke Pose—who paid more attention to the Frozen Kingdom than anyone else—would overlook it.

Or is it about the madness enhancer?

I recalled the monster that had displayed abnormal behavior.

That enhancer had definitely come from the Pose family.

I had no idea how Marquis Lilith had gotten his hands on it, but rumors about the monsters’ strange symptoms must have spread too. Duke Pose would have noticed.

By the time I had sunk into all sorts of distracting thoughts—

“Jjiik!”

I opened my eyes at the rat’s cry announcing it was finished and looked down at the ground.

The message Duke Pose had sent me was neither about Lucas nor the madness enhancer.

[Why are you at the royal consort’s palace?]

It was about me.

“...Grrrr....”

“Baby?”

Right then, before I could even process the contents of the message, the baby that had been resting quietly in my arms let out a low growl.

Something felt strange. A bizarre cry seeped out from deep in the cat’s body as its nose wrinkled fiercely.

It was the kind of chilling beastly sound that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up—completely unbelievable coming from a tiny kitten.

Did something upset it?

No. This was blatant hostility.

“Why are you acting like this all of a sudden... baby?!”

“Khyaang!”

Before I could grab it, the baby leaped out of my arms and sprinted somewhere.

What do I do?

First, I hurriedly rubbed out the message carved into the ground with my shoe, then looked back and forth between Mai in the distance and the baby.

Sorry, Mai.

“Baby!”

My own business came first.

***

At that same time.

A cold silence filled the tea room.

Knox pressed hard against his temple, his thoughts in complete disarray.

...Something like this actually exists in reality?

What had come out of the Empress’s mouth was more horrifying than most ghost stories.

And Knox was not the only one who thought so.

The other three people seated there also remained silent, unable to speak.

None of them seemed to know how to even begin responding.

Damn it.

Letting out a long sigh, Knox dragged a hand down his face.

“Let’s organize this first. So the cat attached to Lady Aisha isn’t an ordinary cat, but...”

His head throbbed.

“Something capable of speaking with humans while also communicating with monsters...”

“A demon.”

Grace finished for him.

“Yes. That’s what it means.”

“Because of their superior sense of smell, monsters instinctively distinguish between the weak and the strong. To monsters, a demon is neither the same species nor a different species.”

Without even pausing for breath, Grace explained as she tapped the paper with her pen.

“They see it as their leader.”

“...This is insane.”

The words slipped unconsciously out of Knox’s mouth.

The leader of monsters.

At first glance, it might sound like nothing more than the alpha of some pack of wolves or monkeys.

But that would be a catastrophic misunderstanding.

The leader beyond the end of the world, beyond the ice barrier.

That meant the monsters humanity feared were capable of organization, and organization meant an army.

Monsters lined up in formation, preparing coordinated attacks.

A chill suddenly crawled down his spine.

The monsters beyond the enormous ice barrier were planning the extermination of humanity and using tools?

The Kreutz family had endured until now, but in truth, that was largely thanks to the ice barrier built through the power of ice.

But what if monsters capable of thought devised a method to destroy that barrier?

After thinking deeply for a moment, Knox asked,

“Why did no one know such a thing existed?”

Ordinary people could have remained unaware.

Most people outside Duke Kreutz’s territory did not even know what monsters looked like.

But Knox had always been deeply interested in monsters.

I should have seen this in a book somewhere.

“That’s because they aren’t classified as monsters.”

At his words, Grace retrieved a book.

Knox awkwardly lifted his head at the sight of the thick hardcover volume.

“This is... the Scripture of Rune, isn’t it?”

Rune was a religion created by stuffy old mages to explain the existence of power holders.

Anyone interested in magic had probably heard of it at least once.

But from Knox’s perspective—someone who directly served power holders—the exaggerated deification of power holders in the religion made him uncomfortable enough that he had never bothered reading it.

Grace tapped the cover lightly.

“Yep. Demons appear in the scripture.”

“...What?”

“And in the Scripture of Rune, demons are described as lesser gods created by the same deity that made power holders.”

“You’re saying that a fantasy invented by mages became reality?”

“No. I’m saying the mages wrote actual truth instead of fiction. Though even I never imagined I’d see a demon in person.”

Grace brought the book over and dropped back into her seat.

“The Scripture of Rune says demons die young because they fail to adapt to the world.”

“...But why?”

“Why else? Because Aisha saved it.”

In some ways, history was built from trivial coincidences like this.

Sympathy. Love.

A bitter smile curled across Grace’s lips.

“When demons are young, they take the form of beasts. In order to gather enough energy to become human, they choose one human host and parasitize them for a month.”

That human was Aisha.

Honestly, Grace did not care much about that part.

Well, technically she should have isolated it to prevent the demon from becoming human, but there was another reason she had sent Aisha away.

“The problem is that once a demon desires humanization, it drinks the blood of nearby humans—”

Crash—!

At that moment.

Knox’s chair toppled backward with a loud crash.

Lady Maria’s eyes widened in shock.

The color had completely drained from Knox’s face as he shot to his feet.

“...What did you just say? The blood of nearby humans?”

For once, Knox had completely lost his composure. Grace shook her head slowly and muttered,

“So you are capable of caring about people after all.”

“This is not a joke.”

“I know. That’s why I said to separate them. As long as they’re separated within two weeks, it’ll be fine.”

“Two weeks.”

Repeating the words blankly like a ghost, Knox slowly sat back down.

“...I see.”

Two weeks was plenty of time.

Now that we know the cat’s true identity, we can leave for the duchy today and separate it from her before we go.

They could probably leave the cat with Grace.

Knock knock.

That was when it happened.

The members of the Monster Lovers’ Association raised their heads at the sudden knock.

Without waiting for permission, the owner of the knock opened the door and entered.

“Forgive the interruption. The sun of the world shines upon the Frozen Kingdom.”

After properly greeting Grace, the knight held out a piece of paper toward Knox.

“An urgent message has arrived.”

An urgent message?

Normally, a message sent from the Kreutz family to the Frozen Kingdom took over two weeks.

So if an urgent message had arrived, it meant it had just come through a portal.

Something urgent enough for that?

Unease settled into Knox’s chest as he unfolded the message.

[Part of the ice barrier has collapsed. Monsters have invaded. Remain in the kingdom with Aisha until another message arrives.]

“.......”

Even rereading each word over and over, he could not believe it.

In the entire history of the Frozen Kingdom, the ice barrier had never once collapsed.

This was unprecedented.

No—something truly happening for the very first time.

“What? What does it say?”

Worried by Knox’s complete lack of reaction, Grace snatched the message out of his hand.

Right then—

Mai came running through the open door, gasping for breath as she reported,

“The sun of the world shines upon the Frozen Kingdom. Sir Knox, my apologies. Lady Aisha has disappeared.”

“.......”

Knox’s dazed eyes slowly widened.

One disaster after another.