Chapter 36 :

Chapter 36 - The Mad Dog of the Shantytown

“Phew.......”

Jack, who had let out a heavy sigh without realizing it, forced his sluggish legs to move in time with it.

He had come out to investigate the district where the capital’s vagrants gathered, under Tollin’s orders.

The grief caused by his comrades’ deaths and the sense of betrayal toward the defectors.

The mixed feelings rising at the same time confused Jack’s mind.

Among those captured had been comrades who had lived under the same roof and fought with their backs entrusted to one another.

All those times made him sad, but at the same time, when he thought that all of it had been a lie, he trembled with rage.

What had flustered him most of all was the reaction of those imprisoned.

They had obediently admitted that they had broken formation while guarding the young duke’s carriage and left their posts.

All five of them.

With calm faces, they admitted that they had done such a thing.

When asked about the mastermind, they also said they knew nothing.

No matter what pressure was applied, they spoke in unison, as if reciting a set answer.

Until Tollin’s firm order was finally given that torture must begin.

And as if they had been waiting, the five of them showed the same symptoms at the same day and hour, then left this world.

Without even giving Jack time to prepare himself.

At the suffocating feeling filling his chest again, Jack roughly scratched his head and moved his feet.

Thinking again, perhaps it had actually been fortunate that he had received a mission and come out like this.

It would become an opportunity to focus on something else, calm his mind, and objectively organize his thoughts.

Jack shook off his heart, which was about to stir again, and approached a plank house that looked as if it might collapse at any moment.

It was the house with the blue roof that a beggar, who seemed to have settled by the roadside, had told him had a young child inside.

Most of the paint had peeled off, leaving only about two hand spans of blue, but still.

Jack carefully knocked on the door.

Knock, knock.

There was no answer.

Once again, he put great care into knocking on the door, which had been patched up several times and looked as if it might collapse at any moment, so as not to break it.

Knock, knock, knock.

“…It might be me.”

A faint presence difficult to see as an adult’s, along with a small voice, came over from beyond the door.

Jack lowered the hand he had raised to knock again and brought his ear close to the door.

Silence fell again, but he could be certain there was someone inside.

And that it was a very small child.

Usually, a man around Jack’s age might have difficulty with young children, but fortunately, until recently, he had guarded the young duke nearby and had conversed with a child several times.

Confident that he would be able to persuade the children without difficulty, Jack cleared his throat and adjusted his voice so the children would not be frightened.

“Ahem, I am not a strange person. I came because I heard young children were living in an old and dangerous place.”

Even at Jack’s calm words, no sound came from inside.

Thinking they might still be frightened, Jack raised both hands and continued speaking.

“I came to help you, so there is no need to be afraid.”

There were several things Jack overlooked here, and the first was his appearance.

The intimidation of a large man who had come wearing a black robe to hide his identity was not the kind that disappeared just because he raised his hands a little.

He did not quite know that the young duke, whom he had just dismissed as a child he met every day, was the young duke of House Feedus, which was why he did not feel fear or intimidation when seeing him.

The second was.....

“You rogue!!! What are you doing here!! You idiot!!! Thief!!!”

In this area, there lived a child far more rogue-like than rogues.

“No, calm down!”

Jack tried to answer while diligently dodging the not-small stones and trash that flew toward him, but the sudden attack was fiercer than expected, so he was flustered, and it was not easy.

“Wait, why are you suddenly doing this? I did not come to bully you.”

Jack, who had completely regained his calm, spoke composedly to the child waving a fist-sized stone from far away.

He had no idea how those bony arms could swing so powerfully.

“I cannot hear a thing! If you want to yap, come all the way here and yap!!”

At the rough words coming from the child’s mouth, Jack frowned.

Shaking his head, Jack ignored the child and turned back toward the door, but this time, a stone of truly unignorable size flew at the back of his head.

Thud!

‘If that had hit me, I really might have died.’

After confirming the size of the stone that had narrowly brushed past his head and fallen, Jack was shocked.

Where does a kid that skinny get the strength to throw a rock like this?

The child shouted again at the flustered Jack.

“An old geezer like you cannot catch me, can you?! You beggar bastard who came to the shantytown to beg!!”

At the word old geezer, which lodged in his ears when he had already been sensitive about his age, Jack became irritated and moved his feet.

What is that kid, charging at me like that like a madman?

To answer his question, the other was called the mad dog among children, commonly known as Mad Dog Seya.

He was a little brat who would empty Jack’s mind, which had been clogged with anguish for a while, and fill it with an entirely new kind of suffocation.

* * *

“Hoo.”

Jack gasped for breath.

It had truly been a difficult chase.

It was really close.

‘I almost caught him.’

When Jack came to his senses, he laughed self-mockingly at himself, who was standing in a dead-end alley.

To fail to catch one little brat was a disgrace so great he could not go anywhere and call himself the knight commander of House Feedus.

The child had been quick, but not to the point that he could not be caught.

Yet for some reason, whenever Jack thought he was about to catch him, the child disappeared before his eyes, and when he thought he would catch him again, he disappeared before his eyes. This repeated several times.

At first, he had only intended to catch him, warn him, befriend a child who seemed to live in this area, and ask a little about the geography nearby.

But perhaps because the close chase had continued, and because the child ran better than expected, he had unknowingly ended up chasing the child seriously.

Of course, it was also true that, here and there, the words the brat spat at him, such as ‘old geezer’, ‘old man’, or ‘hairy bastard’ had annoyed him a little.

And when he came to his senses, he was at the dead end of the alley, and the child had disappeared.

Jack looked up at the sky.

The sun that had been in the center of the sky had, at some point, tilted.

‘Just how long did I run?’

While running for nearly half a day, he had long since taken off the cumbersome robe and tied it around his back, and the clothes sticking to him as the sweat from his whole body cooled were even stained with salt.

No, more than anything else, what worried him was what he would report to Tollin when he returned.

What was he supposed to say?

I have returned, Lord Tollin.

It was just as you expected, Lord Tollin.

There were no very young children visible.

Then I went to a place where I was told a young child remained, and there I played tag with some little brat, lost him, and returned because it became night.

….This time, he might really end up leaving the ducal house for a disgraceful reason.

It was all thanks to that ill-mannered little brat.

Jack vowed that the next time he caught that cheeky brat, he would give him plenty of knuckle raps, and moved his feet, which had become heavier than when he came.

* * *

Quite a lot of time had passed since I possessed a character in the book.

I had met many characters and had the precious experience of seeing scenes from the book before my eyes.

I had seen all sorts of things until now, but even if I got out of here, would that sight not remain in my memory for a long, long time?

Celos Abiran crouching in front of the Seventh Prince’s palace, of all things.

On my way back from the ducal house, I changed direction at the red presence that caught my eye and settled on a tree at the entrance of the castle, looking at the Eighth Prince, who repeatedly sat and stood in front of the castle gate with a deep frown.

Unlike himself, the guy looked at the window of my office, moved his feet again, held his head, then came back.

He sure is busy.

Seeing how the guy, who had turned around as if he would never come again, was waiting like that, it seemed he had gotten frightened by last night’s commotion.

It was not as though he had anyone else to talk to.

With his other siblings, he was busy enough worrying about when his secret might be discovered, and going to someone who might actually be able to help would require even greater courage.

In any case, I also had business at the Eighth Prince’s palace, so I spread my wings to greet him.

* * *

“Did someone come to your castle yesterday?”

Perhaps having gotten more used to it than our last meeting, the Eighth Prince, who used polite speech without stammering, asked me with a very serious face.

“If your mind is already going back and forth at that age, this elder brother thinks he might be a little sad. The one who came to my castle yesterday should have been you.”

“.......”

At my calm answer, the guy narrowed his eyes and looked at me.

But soon, perhaps because he found nothing from my expressionless face, he clicked his tongue and turned his head.

“Did you come to confirm that? Did a ghost not appear in your dream last night, but rather this elder brother?”

“As if that could happen!! Sir!”

“Then what is it? There must be a reason you thought so.”

The guy, who had been glaring at me in irritation, hesitated for a moment at my question, then took out a small pouch from inside his chest.

The way he took it out rather preciously was so serious that it was a little funny, but if I laughed here, it seemed the guy would completely shut his mouth, so I did not pointlessly scratch at his temper.

“That ghost came again yesterday, but unlike what ‘someone’ said, that it probably could not inflict physical harm, it tried to open the door and come in.”

The guy did not forget to emphasize that ‘someone’ and glare at me once.

“Then, suddenly, along with a crow’s cry, it disappeared. But in the place it left behind.....”

Celos rummaged around in the pouch and placed what was inside on the table.

“This was there.”

It was….a small, shining acorn.

* * *

With that brown fruit between us, silence lingered for a moment between the Eighth Prince and me.

“Squeak?”

The one who broke it was probably the original owner of that bewildering fruit, who had approached before I knew it, discovered the acorn, and poked its head up over the tabletop.

How very helpful.

It seemed it had been very surprised last night, and while screaming, had spit out one acorn it had stored in its cheek pouch and left it behind.

It was also my fault for not checking because I was busy chasing Ego Crisa.

In any case, it did not seem like the guy would know anything from this, so I tilted my head and asked.

“It is an acorn?”

Perhaps even he felt quite ashamed that the thing he had carefully taken out was a small acorn, because he could not raise his head even at my question.

“Acorns are not exactly that rare to see in autumn, are they?”

“Just so happens that I also found a squirrel in front of elder....brother’s room.”

The guy continued speaking while warily looking at the squirrel, which could not take its eyes off the acorn.

“And within the imperial palace, this is the only place with an oak tree.”

The guy turned his gaze toward the old oak tree visible outside the window of my office.

He was right.

The Seventh Prince’s palace, which had no leeway to care about landscaping, did not bring in and decorate itself with beautiful trees from all over the empire like other places did.

There was only one old gardener barely keeping it tidy enough not to look messy.

Nowhere else in the imperial palace would they grow something as common as an oak tree.

The one here was probably not intentionally grown either, but naturally grew here and was left alone because dealing with it was a hassle.

The Eighth Prince, who had likely found his way here after asking many people about that, was still looking at the branches swaying in the wind.

“That is quite a reasonable thought.”

At my answer, the guy looked at me as if asking if I meant it.

“But you know that even if the only oak tree is here, acorns could be in any storage room in the imperial palace, right?”

Though the imperial storehouses where all sorts of precious things were presented would not have many shabby acorns piled up, so there would not be as many as in this place, where an oak tree was right beside it.

The Eighth Prince’s expression crumpled.

“I know. I just came in case. I only came to ask.”

Well, that would be true too.

On the very night after he consulted me, he learned that the existence he already feared could actually touch him, so he must have wanted to grasp at anything.

That was why he had treasured even that insignificant acorn and brought it here.

“Do something about this guy.”

Perhaps displeased by the squirrel that looked as if it would pounce on the acorn at any moment, the guy hurriedly wrapped the fruit back in the pouch.

A squirrel and an acorn....

“Now that I think about it, something comes to mind.”

A light of hope appeared in Celos’ eyes.