Chapter 46

“Baby! Please!”

Aaaagh— this is driving me insane!

Why is a kitten that was behaving perfectly fine suddenly acting like this?!

“Khyaang—!”

With an abruptly furious expression, the baby sprinted across the garden and finally jumped over the white fence.

“Baby!”

Hop—

I lightly vaulted over the fence with the frog fist technique, and my mouth fell open.

The baby was leaving even the royal consort’s palace behind.

No!

Once it left the royal consort’s palace, I would really have to start sneaking around to stay hidden.

It would not have been especially difficult, but I still had something called a conscience.

I came here because of the baby in the first place. If something happens, it’ll all be my responsibility.

If the baby caused trouble, it was my fault.

If I messed up, Knox would scold me.

And then that would definitely reach Father’s ears.

Then Calypse would say—

“Didn’t I tell you it was dangerous, you little brat? You’re banned from going outside for a while.”

“Exactly like thaaat—!”

Calypse had never actually said anything like that before, but in most novels I had read, troublesome children always got banned from going outside at least once by their parents.

The horrifying thought made my cheeks tremble.

No.

I was a perfect golden seed. From now on, I was entering “spy mode.”

I pointed my tiny hamster hand-blade toward the rapidly disappearing baby.

Current distance between the baby and me.

Realistically, I could not catch it immediately.

In that case...

I’ll have to secretly tail the baby without getting spotted and wait for the right moment to pounce.

Okay. Let’s go.

Move quickly. Stay calm.

Fwoosh—

I scanned the surroundings.

From here onward was the sloped road connecting the royal consort’s palace to the main palace.

Fortunately, the baby had chosen a deserted path with barely any people instead of the main walking route.

As I hurried after it with quick little steps, the massive rear side of the main castle gradually came into view.

Baby. Please.

Please don’t go inside the castle. Just head toward the forest behind it.

As I prayed desperately, the baby—who had been sniffing around while glancing at its surroundings—wrinkled its nose again.

“Hmph.”

And just like that, the baby ignored my wishes completely.

It slipped through the rear entrance of the main castle while avoiding the gatekeeper knights.

“...Haa.”

Hiding behind a nearby tree, I dragged myself toward the corner of the castle wall with a hopeless expression and slowly climbed upward.

Then somehow I transformed into a cockroach and clung to the ceiling above the back entrance.

If the knights looked up, they would see me.

But—

Tap—

I threw a pebble I had picked up earlier toward the opposite side.

“What was that?”

The knights, who had been yawning lazily, frowned and walked toward the forest.

Tap—

I slipped inside through the doorway during the opening, checked that no one was nearby, then dropped down from the ceiling into the corridor.

“Ba. By.”

“Mya—?”

At my warning tone, the baby swished its tail and turned around.

Mischief sparkled in its perfectly ordinary brown eyes.

About ten minutes later.

“Goddammit, this little bastard cat.”

After an intense game of tag, the baby’s title had apparently changed.

Regardless of my rage, the baby continued flicking its tail while running up and down staircases until it finally arrived at—

The king’s reception room.

If I get caught, I’m dead.

Above it was the ceiling connected to the air circulation passage.

I swallowed hard as I stared down at the cat below and felt my mind go blank.

Baby. Why the king’s reception room of all places...?

The servant quarters. The kitchen. The indoor garden. The ballroom.

There were so many fun places.

So why here?

Sweat rolled down my face.

Father, was raising me this difficult too?

Though we had not been together very long, I suddenly felt endless gratitude toward Calypse for adopting me.

Still, I had to see what that little bastard—no, that bastard cat—was doing.

Peek—

I poked my eyes through the gap in the slanted ceiling.

The baby sat in the shadows of the room.

There’s a cat right there, so why is nobody noticing it?

Well, obviously.

The reception room was absurdly huge, practically the size of a field, and that little bastard—cat—was still just a baby.

The room was quiet.

And the baby was watching something.

...What?

Following the baby’s gaze—

I spotted a sofa and a low table in the center of the servantless reception room.

And sitting on the sofa were one gray head and one brown head.

From the ceiling angle I could not identify them clearly, but the gray-haired one was definitely the king.

And then—

“Shouldn’t we begin testing the waters now, Your Majesty?”

Flinch.

My tiny hand trembled slightly at the familiar voice.

No way.

My heart pounded ominously as the gray-haired king brushed back his hair, crossed his legs, and spoke.

“What’s the current situation? Has the madness enhancer spread through Duke Kreutz’s territory?”

Madness enhancer? Duke Kreutz’s territory?

I frowned.

Why were the king and Duke Pose discussing madness enhancers in Duke Kreutz’s territory together?

Even stray dogs knew Duke Pose and Calypse hated each other.

The king, more than anyone, should have understood that he needed to carefully balance the relationship between the two.

And yet, jealous of Calypse—the hero praised by all—the king had secretly colluded with Duke Pose.

Ah. For reference, all of this happened in the original novel.

But the problem was that the timing was far too early.

Did finding older brother Lucas really throw the entire original story off course?

I had even saved the cat that was supposed to die in Ahili’s Circus in the original story.

“.......”

Silently, I stared at the baby.

As if it had no intention of leaving, the baby yawned with narrowed slit eyes.

The conversation continued.

“According to the latest report, part of the ice barrier collapsed because of a sudden monster frenzy.”

“What? The ice barrier?”

The king shot to his feet.

As if unable to believe it, he asked again,

“Is that true? That single drug caused the barrier to collapse?”

No, it was not disbelief.

He looked slightly terrified.

“I-if the barrier really collapsed... if the Duke Kreutz family gets devoured by frenzied monsters...”

“That won’t happen. They’ll suffer some injuries at most.”

At Duke Pose’s faintly mocking reply, my heart dropped heavily.

Suspicion turned into certainty.

The original storyline really had accelerated.

...If that’s true, then the north must be complete chaos right now.

In the original novel, the Pose family developed the madness enhancer when the male lead had already grown to around eight years old.

But the male lead is still only seven....

I had probably caused this by provoking Marquis Lilith during the heir selection trial.

Marquis Lilith must’ve used the still-in-development drug, and the results were better than expected.

Damn it.

Everything around me is changing because of my actions.

Calypse and Lucas were probably fighting right now at the northern front lines.

Because of me... my family is in danger.

My chubby hand resting against the floor trembled faintly.

There was nothing I could do for them right now.

I clenched my fist tightly because I did not want to let go, yet it felt like sand was slipping through my fingers anyway.

Meanwhile, Duke Pose calmly continued speaking, fully aware of what he had done.

“If the madness enhancer proves effective, we’ll begin full-scale smuggling operations. In the north, this was a situation we deliberately created, but...”

Duke Pose paused briefly, and the corners of his lips twisted grotesquely upward.

“If the drug spreads randomly through smuggling channels, it’ll be difficult to trace where it originated.”

“But are there really people who want to drive monsters insane?”

“Wouldn’t Your Majesty know better than anyone?”

“...Ahem!”

At the duke’s question, the king awkwardly cleared his throat as though he knew nothing.

Unlike the northern nobles—who fully understood how dangerous monsters were—most nobles from other regions did not even know what monsters actually looked like.

As a result, secretly raising smaller monsters that appeared cute at first glance had become a hidden trend among high-ranking nobles.

Even I knew that from reading the original novel.

Tap.

That was when it happened, just as my thoughts continued.

A sudden quiet impact struck the back of my neck, and my vision went black.

***

At that same time.

“.......”

Hidden in the shadows, the cat stared up at the ceiling where Aisha had vanished.

Now.