Chapter 35 :

Chapter 35 - Intervention

“On the way back from visiting the merchant guild last time, there was a carriage accident. According to Tollin, some out-of-his-mind person rammed into us by mistake.”

Tollin must have firmly silenced the knights, because the young duke seemed to believe that the previous carriage accident had truly been a simple collision.

“I was in the alley, then I got lost because it was a place I had never been to before. But when I came back, they had all disappeared.”

The young duke clearly and, in his own way, orderly laid out the things that had happened during that time.

While occasionally picking up and eating the walnuts he had laid out, saying they were for me.

Someday, another adult would have to teach him that sharing food like this with another animal could make him sick.

“Ah, and I also met a kind mister in the alley. He guided me.”

In an instant, I had become a kind mister.

Since it had been a long time since I had heard someone call me mister after becoming ten years younger, I stopped pretending to eat walnuts for a moment with a strange feeling and looked at him.

The child seemed excited because he thought I was listening attentively.

“At first, I thought he was someone a little unwell….. Next time, I must not suspect people unconditionally.”

You looked like you did.

I recalled the confusion and distrust that had appeared on his face when I pointed to an alley that looked like a dog hole.

Still, at his age, suspecting strangers first was a wise attitude, so I pecked the child’s arm lightly twice, meaning he should keep doing that.

The young duke laughed as if it tickled, then finally brought up a story I did not know.

“Tollin said that if we want to find the children, it would be faster to search for stolen goods at jewelers or black-market dealers. He said he would start looking there. But there is still no news.”

What is that guy saying to a child?

It was fortunate that I had learned about Tollin’s secret movements and the situation, but I wondered whether I should peck the back of Tollin’s head a little for saying all sorts of things to a little child.

Leaving me like that, the child smiled quietly and continued speaking.

“But you know….to be honest, I was really happy that Tollin came looking for me so hard. I had not been able to meet Tollin much lately. Sometimes, I think it is all right not to act exactly as I was taught.”

The young duke’s expression looked much more at ease as he said that.

It was not wrong, but at least until the protagonist arrived, I wanted to tell him to restrain himself.

But since the little kid was smiling like that, all I could do was think to myself that I should not neglect watching over him for the time being.

It also weighed on my mind that I had driven, or rather seemed to have driven, his father to death.

The young duke, who did not know what I was thinking, continued pouring out the stories he had not been able to tell until now.

“Still, I should stay quiet for now. I heard Tollin’s elder brother visited, and ever since that day, he has seemed to be in a bad mood.”

Since Tollin’s eldest brother was supposed to be in prison, the one who visited must have been his second elder brother.

My black eyes gleamed.

This was probably where the gap with the original work had occurred.

Originally, Tollin’s eldest brother visited much later, after the original story began.

In other words, after the young duke died and even Duke Feedus disappeared.

He came to Tollin, who had completely broken down and had only venom left, asking him to help their father.

In the original, Tollin coldly refused his request.

That was how the Crisa family completely turned away from Tollin.

I had prepared myself for the changes that would arise from saving the young duke and sending Duke Feedus to the protagonist a little earlier than in the original, but Ego Crisa was an unexpected variable.

I had expected that he might visit Tollin.

After that, Tollin’s actions differing from the original and Ego Crisa’s imprisonment were also within the allowable range, but….

Then why had Ego Crisa, who should have sworn loyalty to the Second Prince, fallen into the hands of the First Princess and ended up acting as a puppet?

* * *

The First Princess, Mentil Abiran, ruled people’s hearts.

People who were slowly brainwashed over a long period lived while unknowingly responding to the domination that had grown like weeds in their subconscious.

However, those who received multiple forms of brainwashing in a short period had unnatural movements and could not control their bodies properly, like paper dolls.

Just as Ego Crisa had been last night.

Although it had only been for a brief moment, as soon as Ego Crisa’s face was revealed, he stopped all movement like a robot whose power had gone out and drooped limply.

Then, soon after, he ran toward the end of the corridor with movements incomparably faster than the swaying motions he had shown until then.

“Squeak!”

I vaguely heard the squirrel that had been hiding scream at the grotesque sight, but because I quickly changed direction to chase Ego Crisa, I could not take separate care of it.

The Eighth Prince had said that once it reached the end of the corridor, it vanished in an instant.

I did not know what kind of device existed at the end of the corridor, but at the very least, I put strength into my wingbeats to confirm how the other disappeared.

Unfortunately, it seemed the only thing Ego Crisa shared with Tollin was his face.

Unlike Tollin, who was relatively slender and could not even dodge a stone flying toward him, Ego Crisa could run at an inhuman speed.

Each time I flapped my wings hard, the distance between us narrowed, but the distance between the wall and me also narrowed.

At this rate, I will crash.

Unlike me, who instinctively slowed down, Ego Crisa, perhaps because he had no consciousness, rushed in without even fearing that he would crash into the wall.

And then.

Just as the Eighth Prince had said, he disappeared in the blink of an eye.

In the corridor where he had disappeared, only the moonlight that had descended on the dawn air remained.

* * *

Why was he sent to none other than the Eighth Prince’s palace like that, when Ego Crisa’s trial had not even begun yet?

Though she was quite mischievous, the First Princess was not stupid enough to take such a risk just to scare and tease someone.

Why had she suddenly begun intervening in an extra’s life?

Or was this an omitted piece of the original story?

“Blackie?”

Perhaps finding it strange that I was staying still without even pecking at the walnuts, the young duke carefully touched my wing.

—It is nothing.

“Caw.”

“Sometimes, it really seems like you understand people. The pigeons are busy running away even when I talk to them.”

You tried talking to them?

I thought that Tollin would surely tell him that ordinary pigeons would only give him diseases rather than become friends even if he approached them, and that he should not do strange things, but at the same time, I wondered whether I could really trust a person who brought up black-market dealers to a child.

“I have to go first today. If I do not play at all during playtime, the nanny gets worried.”

The young duke stroked my wing once more, then hurriedly got up from his seat.

“You have to come again next time.”

The boy kindly left the window slightly open and left the room.

Normally, I would have gone out the window without hesitation, but today, I thought I would try taking a different path.

What animal would not stand out even if it wandered around the house?

* * *

Tollin was listening to Pale’s report with a stiff face.

“They all died?”

“...Yes.”

Pale answered while looking at Tollin’s face, which stiffened frighteningly.

“All of them suddenly suffered seizures, then breathed their last. They said there was no time to do anything.”

“Poisoning?”

“No. It was not any kind of poison. They merely complained of difficulty breathing, then died just like that.”

Tollin furrowed his brow with a puzzled expression.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. They said the blood was clean, and there were no signs of suicide either.”

With Pale speaking gravely before him, Tollin sank into thought.

They were the ones who had guarded the young duke’s carriage.

At the time of the accident, they had not noticed the young duke leaving the carriage because they had not properly guarded it.

If the young duke had survived thanks to that, then they had been part of the plan to attack the carriage. If the goal had been to lure him outside the carriage, then they had participated in the plan to spirit the young duke away.

Either way, he had not intended to leave them alive, but he had not intended to kill them so pointlessly before uncovering the mastermind either.

To begin with, this was an incident with more than one or two strange points.

It was said that the knights who had been captured did not put up any proper resistance.

Seeing them be captured obediently without even attempting to escape, Tollin had been on guard, wondering if they had some corner they trusted.

And yet, for all of them to die like this inside the mansion, all at once.

Did it make sense to die from difficulty breathing, without poisoning or suicide?

“Jack must be deeply distressed.”

“He did not say much, but he seemed greatly distressed. Among them, it seems there were some who had served under Jack for a long time….”

Pale could not continue speaking as he recalled Jack’s prickly face when he had secretly left the ducal house today under Tollin’s orders.

Tollin nodded silently.

Yes, this too made no sense.

The captured knights had varied from new recruits to veterans, regardless of rank.

It was one thing for those who had just finished receiving their knighthood, but why would even those who had served the Feedus family in the face of greater danger suddenly do this?

Had they been targeting the young duke from the beginning?

Why now, after missing every other opportunity?

Jack, who had seen with his own eyes that the comrades who had sworn unchanging loyalty with him even when the Feedus ducal family was shaken had participated in an undeniable betrayal, seemed to have many thoughts.

He felt uneasy thinking of the knight commander, who would carry an indescribable bitterness, but he was not in a position to be considerate of him right now.

He had sent him outside partly to cool his head, but that had not been the only intention, so Tollin had a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Investigate the backgrounds of every member of the knight order. Find out whether there were any suspicious movements, and whether they met anyone. ….Including books.”

“...Yes.”

In a situation like this, he could not know how many people in the ducal house could be trusted.

Pale seemed to understand this as well, so without saying anything more, he left Tollin’s office.

As soon as the door Pale had left through closed, Tollin let out a sigh and covered his head.

He did not know what method they had used, but there was only one party that could dare plant people inside the Feedus ducal family and go so far.

The imperial family.

But why?

—Keep an eye on the young duke.

The blunt voice of Ego Crisa, who had spoken as if warning him, seemed to brush past his ears.

Is the young duke really their goal?

And was Ego Crisa trying to stop that?

What reason would there be?

If the young duke really was their target, if they intended to reach not only the duke but also the young duke.

Something inside Tollin was slowly crumbling.

* * *

That side is following a procedure not too different from the original.

Having transformed into a bat, I had easily settled in the space between the roof and the ceiling of the office, and I was able to listen to the conversation between Tollin and Pale.

The contents of the secret conversation coming through the small gap in the ceiling gave me certainty.

Though it was in a different way from the original, Tollin had also probably realized that this accident was something done by someone in the imperial family, and in the end, he would draw his sword.

The difference this time was that he still had something left to protect: the young duke.

With that, he would fulfill his role in the novel.

The flow of the original had not changed.

The problem was the continued intervention of another character.

Death by difficulty breathing of unknown cause was the assassination method the First Princess often enjoyed using in the original.