CBDBS l CH 07

Chapter 7

“Chut, chuut…”

Hack, cough…

I panted like I might collapse any second, giving my best performance in front of Gerard, who was watching me too closely.

“No matter what you do, it’s useless. If I let the thief escape, I could lose my head.”

Gerard drew a finger across his neck. He sounded like he had already seen through me—but that didn’t last long.

“Chuut…”

Because my acting was reaching its peak.

I didn’t roll around or flip my eyelids—those are cheap tricks.

Real experts keep it simple.

Smack!

I slammed my head on the floor and went limp.

“Th-theif? That sounded like a walnut cracking!”

Startled by the sharp, scary sound, Gerard panicked. He shook my limp body and then hurried to untie the ribbon holding me.

His hands were clumsy and rushed.

But—

‘Now!’

This was the moment I’d been waiting for.

As soon as there was the smallest gap in the pouch that wrapped my body, I kicked the floor and shot up.

I stepped on Gerard’s shoulder and sprang to the sofa on the opposite side.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

“Chut—.”

Sorry about that.

I even winked at the foolish guard.

“You scammer squirrel!”

Betrayal and humiliation flashed over Gerard’s face. He grabbed for me, but I was already gone.

With the climbing skills I’d learned on the giant trees of Bear Mountain, I scaled to the top of the display cabinet.

“Come down right now! If I catch you, I won’t go easy on you!”

He shouted threats toward completely the wrong spot.

‘What a total pushover…’

Despite his shady look, he acted like a clown. He pointed angrily at random places.

The tall furniture clearly hid me from view.

Riding this momentum, I sped toward my goal.

Tap tap tap.

Each time my paws hit the solid wood, a clear sound rang out—like a cheerful marching beat.

Opposite of my happy rhythm, Gerard’s insides must have been burning.

“The window!”

He finally realized my destination and whirled around, charging like an angry bull.

Too late.

“Chuchut.”

I was already on the window frame.

‘It’s higher than I thought…’

I swallowed hard.

If I missed by even a little, I’d splatter on the ground like an overripe persimmon.

You know—that horrible scene where a ripe fruit bursts and stains the ground red…

Still, it was better than being caught and tortured by a mad dragon.

“Chut—!”

Eyes squeezed shut, I threw myself into the air.

The cool wind hit my face for a brief moment—

“Got you.”

A cold, deadly voice fell over my neck like a blade.

It wasn’t Gerard.

It was much lower, rougher.

A voice I’d heard before.

‘That voice, that voice is…!’

The kidnapper himself, the master of the Black Dragon Castle—

König Kreutz.

“Chu, chuut…”

P-please… spare me…

I am Muriel Aymond.

I’ve lived like a weed that won’t die no matter how much you step on it—but today feels like the end.

Mom, I’ll see you soon.

I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise to survive somehow.

“Chu, chuu. Chujuuut…”

Tears fell like shiny brown chestnuts as I spoke my last words.

“What’s it saying?”

“Who knows? Maybe it means it’s really sorry—since it not only stole from Lord König, but also tried to escape.”

Gerard, who had been lying flat on the floor, slithered back up like a snake.

He was supposed to be punished for losing me, but he seemed to be using this moment to rest. The instant König looked his way, he flopped back down.

That left König’s full attention on me.

“What an amusing squirrel.”

König tilted his head. It wasn’t a compliment.

His golden eyes glinted strangely as he stared down at me, as if to say:

‘A mere squirrel dared to trick my aide and try to escape the Black Dragon Castle?’

“Chu, chuut…”

S-spare me…

I edged backward.

If I stayed, I felt like those beautiful golden eyes would roast me into a squirrel barbecue.

But I forgot one thing—

I was still trapped in that cursed pouch.

“Chu, chuchuut…?!”

My weight shifted backward, and I fell over with a stupid squeak.

“Heh. Trying to bluff me now?”

König snorted, amused.

‘Do you think I fell on purpose?!’

I kicked my tied feet, trying to get up, but only spun circles on the floor.

The straighter his lips had been, the more they curled into a diagonal smirk.

He was definitely laughing at me.

A tiny animal like me didn’t have many options.

“Chu, chuchut…!”

Don’t just watch—help me!

All I could do was look up at him with the saddest eyes.

“You want me to pick you up?”

“Chut!”

“And why should I?”

So cold!

“You’re the suspicious squirrel who riffled through my pockets, stole my things, and even fed me a strange drug. A spy sent by a family targeting Kreutz, perhaps?”

Before I could choose my words, König questioned me seriously.

“Chu… chut?”

A spy?

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I forgot who stood before me and glared, eyes blazing.

Even if König Kreutz was terrifying, I had to make my point somehow.

I was just a kind passerby who treated a handsome man I found collapsed in the forest!

‘Would anyone send a tiny, palm-sized squirrel as a spy?’

Frustrated, I spun my head—the only part I could move.

I swear on my storage stash back on Bear Mountain: I didn’t know that pocket watch was a Kreutz heirloom.

And I never imagined the sleeping forest hottie was the insane Black Dragon Duke!

But none of this reached König.

“As I thought, I can’t understand a word.”

“Chuu! Chuchuu!”

No, at least try to understand!

I stared up with the saddest face I could make.

A desperate struggle to live.

Did it work?

König looked at me quietly, then pulled up one corner of his mouth.

Annoying, merciless—and mesmerizing.

“Well, we’ll just interrogate you slowly over time.”

I—interro—what over time…?

Gerard stepped in for me, since I could only blink from inside the pouch.

“My lord, ‘over time’? You mean you’ll keep a possible enemy spy inside the castle?”

“Why not?”

It’s my castle. And it’s just one little squirrel.

König swung the pouch I was in like a pendulum, as if to say I couldn’t escape his hand no matter how I struggled.

“It’s still just a squirrel, yes—but as you saw, not an ordinary one. It understands speech and is incredibly crafty!”

Gerard jabbed a finger at me, clearly still humiliated by the chase.

He added, “A wicked spy disguised as a cute creature, surely!”

“Chut.”

“S-see? It mocked me again!”

No matter how Gerard ranted, König remained uninterested.

He poked my cheeks, then held me in his palm like a warm little heater.

“Are squirrels always this soft and warm?”

“My lord, are you listening to me at all? If Lord Ferdinand finds out, we’ll both be kicked out with nothing!”

Gerard clutched his hair, imagining the worst.

Who was Ferdinand?

I didn’t wonder for long.

“Do I have to care about that runaway old man who didn’t want to work?”

“Y-you’re calling your grandfather an old man?!”

Ah, I remembered.

Ferdinand Kreutz.

Former Duke of the Black Dragon line, called a living witness of Yggdrasia’s history.

He appears in the history books all the time.

Rumor says he’s over 800 years old—possible because the Black Dragon blood runs thick.

‘And König calls that terrifying beast-man… an old man?’

He really is crazy.

I stared at König with a sour face; our eyes met at once.

His well-shaped lips lifted into a sly smile.

“You heard him, right? If we’re kicked out, you have to take responsibility for me.”

“Chu, chut?”

M-me…?