CHAPTER 89…………………………
“Sigh…”
Lenox, seated in the carriage, rubbed his tired brow and closed his eyes.
The moonlight sliding through the window painted a graceful scene, but his face was full of fatigue and irritation.
‘They really cling like burrs.’
He’d been held by the emperor’s party until the end of the banquet and was now returning to his townhouse.
Most of the conversation with the emperor’s circle had been an obvious attempt to connect his cousin’s daughter, Lady Iris, to them — to pull her into the royalist faction.
It didn’t take long for the annoying small talk to become genuinely unpleasant.
“Lady Iris grows more beautiful by the day. Unlike someone who’s only getting older and meaner.”
Lenox had instantly noticed that the “someone” they were sneering at was Clemens.
The conversation loudly praised Lady Iris while rubbing Clemens’ name into the dirt.
‘I want to kill them all.’
He swallowed the murderous urge boiling inside and poured his energy into restraining it.
The emperor seemed to enjoy it rather than moderate it.
Their reason was that Clemens had refused his offer and declined to develop the fighter. Whether they didn’t understand that if the fighter had been deployed there would be no “hero” today, or they did and simply pretended not to know — either way, he was no one fit to lead a country.
‘Damn tradition.’
At a royal banquet, tradition dictated that when one was honored, the first dance should be with the princess. Since the emperor had no daughter, one had to ask his cousin’s daughter, Veronica Iris, to dance instead.
If he had known this sort of conversation would happen, he would have thrown tradition out the window.
And while he was trying to ask Lady Iris to dance, an infuriating thing happened.
‘Alfeo, that sly fox.’
When he saw that bastard brazenly ask Clemens to dance, his blood felt like it turned to ice.
For a moment he almost forgot they were at a banquet and wanted to challenge Alfeo to a duel.
After the dance he went up to Alfeo to warn him to stay away from her, but it didn’t satisfy him.
He was lucky that Clemens’ dancing that night wasn’t particularly good.
Yet if she attended a few more banquets she would improve quickly and attract the attention of many young nobles.
A throbbing pain at his temples deepened the frown between Lenox’s brows.
“…I need to make a plan.”
He had intended to propose to take responsibility for her — she was so poor she couldn’t even afford a coat — but that now seemed impossible.
‘The heir to the Duke of Dinero.’
Shortly after, she’d been promised a seat and wealth equal to any great aristocrat.
“Worried about something?”
Enzo, sitting opposite him, grinned and asked.
When Lenox stayed silent and ignored him, Enzo went on.
“Ah — is it something to do with Count Jacqueline?”
“……”
“Of course. Romance is always a bit tough, isn’t it.”
Jade, Lenox’s aide who was riding beside the marquess’ carriage, overheard and butted in.
“Romance counseling? That’s my specialty.”
“I’m not exactly useless either. Back when I was with the guild I handled lots of love-related requests, you know?” Enzo grinned and preened. Lenox glanced at them, then looked back outside — his expression showed he trusted none of it.
Jade said, “What about giving a gift?”
“A gift? Gifts are good~” Enzo chimed in, and Jade, encouraged, continued.
“It’s best if it’s something the other person wants, of course, but any gift with heart will be appreciated. Especially coming from a popular marquess like you.”
Enzo’s comment — spoken without knowing that the “popular” marquess had been rejected as a dance partner — only added insult inside Lenox.
“My thought’s different. People like expensive things. Except my friend — but he’s an exception; he’s not really ‘people’, you know?”
Enzo laughed, thinking of a friend who worked at Count Jacqueline’s estate. That friend didn’t know Enzo worked here.
‘If he found out, I’d be dead.’
He was from some warrior tribe — strong as an adult man and quick to throw a punch.
Hearing Jade and Enzo talk, Lenox suddenly remembered Clemens’ envious glance at his carriage.
‘A carriage.’
He’d never seen a man give a woman a carriage as a gift. Still, once you accept a carriage it would be hard to resell or refuse.
Just then, as he was mulling over what to give her, Lenox sensed a murderous tension nearby and went on alert.
Enzo muttered with an intrigued look.
“To think we’d see Jaeger here…”
Lenox narrowed his eyes at the word.
“Jaeger?”
“Don’t you know? The Penelop family raises some people in secret — they call them Jaegers. It’s unusual to see them out, though.” Enzo grinned with interest. “They don’t come out unless someone’s intended to be killed.”
He meant assassins raised by Duke Penelop.
Lenox had a bad feeling.
Who would the Duke of Penelop be trying to kill at this timing?
Many names flashed through his mind, but only one stuck.
‘Clemens Jacqueline.’
Lenox closed his eyes and strained his senses toward the shadows.
When he realized where those footsteps were headed, his heart hammered uncontrollably.
“Damn it…”
His green eyes gleamed colder than ever as he opened them.
Swearing under his breath, he swiftly opened the door and shoved Jade aside.
“Wait here.”
“Y-yes! Sergeant-major!” Jade barely managed to land on the ground.
Lenox dashed straight for the Jacqueline estate.
In his anxious eyes a thick, lethal intent had risen.
When the magic flowed in, Mion’s breathing visibly eased.
“Mion, can you take human form?”
“……” Mion blinked slowly.
A man wrapped in bright light appeared.
In human form, the large wound near his leg was clear.
“How on earth did you end up like that?”
Mion grimaced, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
“Ugh — I didn’t know there was magic there too.”
“There was magic there?” Lenox hoped his guess was wrong.
“Did you break into the Penelop place?”
“…Yeah.”
Unfortunately, Lenox’s guess had not been wrong. Mion avoided his gaze as if he knew he’d done wrong.
“Why on earth?!” Lenox demanded.
Mion kept his mouth stubbornly shut for a moment, then slowly explained.
“Since I matured… I started having nightmares.”
Most of those dreams showed baby divine beasts trapped and screaming in pain. They were then devoured by monstrous creatures.
The problem was that sometimes the divine beasts’ dreams weren’t mere dreams — they were prophetic visions showing real events.
“It looked like Penelop was sacrificing the divine beasts to some monster…”
So pretending not to know had become impossible.
‘Like human sacrifice, in other words.’
Lenox sighed.
“What kind of being was it?”
“I don’t know that far… I only felt a very old, rotting, evil presence.”
“And after you had those dreams?”
Mion hesitated, then continued.
“I was thinking about what to do, and it just so happened the house would be empty because of the banquet…”
“Who’s empty? Me, the Duke of Penelop, or both?”
“…Both.”
Lenox felt steam rise from his head.
‘This idiot!’
His face must have looked so fierce that Mion went rigid with fear.
“It could just have been a dream!”
For the sake of a single possibility — that it wasn’t just a dream — Mion had taken such reckless action. Alone, too!
Lenox’s anger made Mion flinch; his face fell dark in an instant.
“…Do you know what happens if imprisoned divine beasts lay eggs?”
“No. No! I don’t want to know.”
Life was already complicated enough without delving into this mess.
“…Right.”
Mion closed his mouth as if he’d expected the reaction. That made Lenox even angrier; he snapped sharply.
“Hey! Don’t stop in the middle of speaking! Say it now!”
“Really?”
“Yeah. If you don’t, I’ll break your other leg myself.”
Mion hurriedly began to reveal Penelop’s secret.
