IATVWAMOLS 54

54. The Master’s Loyal Dog

“What?”

“Have you already forgotten? You’re the one who picked me up, Master.”

The man tapped the choker around his neck with his index finger.

“You even went as far as to put a collar on me.”

His crimson eyes gleamed playfully.

His features were undeniably refined, yet the mischievous look on his face gave him an unruly air.

Soft golden hair slipped down across his straight forehead.

I had countless questions.

When exactly did he regain consciousness? How had he entered my room? What was his true identity?

But I had no time to ask.

Shhhk—

A sharp chill swept past my ear, and I froze as a blade grazed dangerously close.

A handful of blue hair fluttered down to the floor.

“Hiiik!”

I stiffened on the spot. My eyes darted around, but it was still just the man and me in the room.

“Not bad. Using concealment techniques, huh?”

He nodded casually.

“Master, seems like you’ve made plenty of enemies.”

He smirked, one corner of his lips lifting, while cold sweat trickled down my back.

Enemies?

I couldn’t say.

Perhaps the original Roselia before I possessed her body, but certainly not me.

I hadn’t even interacted much with anyone, let alone earned their grudges.

And compared to my past life, this had never happened before. Even in the original novel, Roselia had never been targeted for assassination…

The man suddenly reached out and gently clasped my hand.

“Excuse me.”

“……!”

Before I could react, he plucked the dagger from my grip and held it himself.

I wanted to demand what he was doing, but his eyes were fixed intently on empty space, as though tracking an invisible prey.

His gaze sharpened, locked onto a single point—then he struck.

Thud—!

He swung with the flat of the blade, not the edge, striking something.

A dull crash rang out, and a shadowy figure appeared.

“Ugh!”

With a groan, the figure clutching a longsword collapsed to the ground.

Almost indistinguishable from the darkness, the intruder wore a mask and black clothing from head to toe.

The man looked down at him leisurely.

“So here you were.”

“How did you pierce my concealment?”

“I just happen to have good eyes.”

“……!”

The assassin, kneeling, suddenly sprang forward like a coiled spring.

His longsword slashed with deadly force, emanating a sharp, oppressive aura.

The man dodged lightly, his footwork effortless, yet the assassin relentlessly pressed forward, driving him back.

Once, twice, three times.

The blade sliced through the air, the killing intent gleaming beneath the moonlight, herding the man into a corner.

Yet he continued to evade calmly.

‘Why isn’t he fighting back?’

At first, I thought he was waiting for an opening—but then I realized.

He couldn’t fight back.

A combat longsword and a self-defense dagger were not even comparable in reach.

A dagger was only effective for surprise strikes on vital points, not in a head-on battle like this.

And his opponent was a highly trained assassin.

Trying to protect me while countering the assassin’s vicious strikes would have been impossible.

The assassin must have realized this too, for he had been steadily cornering the man.

Finally, when there was nowhere left to run, the assassin lunged—not at him, but directly at me.

But then—

“Arghhhhhh!”

The assassin shrieked, collapsing to the floor, his body convulsing violently as though struck by lightning.

“Wh-what?”

Shocked, I looked up at the man. His gaze remained calmly fixed on the assassin.

“Physical Restraint. I don’t use it often, but for you, Master, I’ll make an exception.”

His tone was matter-of-fact, eyes still on the writhing figure.

This was clearly no ordinary restraint. If it were only immobilization, the assassin wouldn’t be suffering so intensely.

The man stepped forward slowly, closing the distance.

Three paces away, he crushed the assassin’s hand beneath his boot.

The longsword clattered to the ground. Disarmed, the assassin gasped for breath, glaring up at him.

“Who’s behind you? Tell me, or you die.”

“Kh…!”

Even writhing in pain, the assassin clenched his teeth stubbornly. Sweat poured down his masked face.

“Your mission failed. Your master won’t let you live anyway. Stop wasting loyalty and spit it out.”

The man pressed the dagger to the assassin’s throat.

“Now.”

“Urgh!”

The cold edge dug closer—but instead of speaking, the assassin bit down hard.

“Ghhhk…!”

His body convulsed violently. The man clicked his tongue.

“Tch. Best you don’t watch this, Master.”

He covered my eyes with his palm.

“Looks like he carried suicide poison in his mouth.”

Even without seeing, I could imagine the gruesome scene unfolding.

‘…Why is he protecting me?’

My mind was a tangle of confusion.

He had clearly saved me from the assassin, yet I still couldn’t tell if he was truly an ally or a foe.

Questions swirled, but I knew any answer he gave wouldn’t be straightforward.

So instead, I murmured his name.

“Cayenne. It really was you.”

“…How do you know that name?”

For the first time, a crack ran through his otherwise calm demeanor.

He dropped his hand from my eyes, and when our gazes met again, curiosity burned in his expression.

“Looks like you have questions too. Seems we’ll need a long conversation. What do you say?”

“Yes, but—”

Cayenne staggered suddenly.

“Been a while since I used my powers. Feeling a little dizzy.”

His brow furrowed in pain.

He gently set me down on the floor, then flicked his gaze toward the door.

BANG!

The door burst apart with a deafening crash, wood exploding into shards.

Cayenne turned his back to shield me from the flying splinters.

“We’ll talk later. I’ll leave the rest to someone else.”

He leaned down and pressed a light kiss to my forehead.

“See you again, Master.”

A fleeting touch—soft, warm—then gone.

“Wait…!”

But with movements like drifting through air, he slipped out the window.

I rushed to the sill, but he had vanished without a trace.

‘This is the second floor… Where could he have gone?’

“Lady Roselia!”

Almost simultaneously, the duke’s guards stormed into the room.

The guards quickly cleared the wreckage and removed the assassin’s lifeless body.

Not long after, Eckart and Philip rushed in.

Eckart, though dressed in casual clothes, was disheveled as if he had thrown them on in haste.

Philip paled at the sight of the wrecked room.

The guards had tidied somewhat, but shattered glass still littered the bed and the door lay in splinters.

“Roselia! Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?”

Eckart seized my shoulders, anxiously scanning me.

He looked utterly unsettled, terrified I might be injured.

“I’m fine, Brother.”

“Fine? Your face is white as a sheet. First, we need the physician—”

He, who almost never lost his composure, was flustered beyond measure.

A servant sprinted off to fetch the physician, while Eckart pulled up a chair to seat me.

The doctor soon arrived, panting, and confirmed I was unharmed.

Only then did Eckart exhale in relief.

“Now, tell me—what happened?”

“Well…”

Forcing my muddled thoughts into order, I explained.

That in the dead of night, an assassin had slipped in through the window. Startled by the sound of approaching guards, he had taken poison and killed himself.

I left out anything about the shadowy mastermind, just in case.

My story was patchy, but Eckart nodded grimly.

“So the intruder got in and the guards didn’t notice a thing.”

His sharp gaze flicked to the captain of the guard, who flinched and bowed deeply.

“My apologies, young lord. The assassin concealed himself so well that even those on night watch failed to detect him.”

“…I see.”

“If the intruder had forced the barrier, it would have alerted us at once. But the barrier shows no disturbance.”

“So he bypassed all of the estate’s defenses without a trace?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Eckart’s face darkened.

The Serteia duchy’s defenses were second only to the imperial palace. The family was famed for its martial strength, and layers of security guarded against outside threats.

For a single assassin to infiltrate undetected…

The intruder either had intimate knowledge of Serteia—or was simply that skilled.

‘If Cayenne hadn’t been here, I would’ve…’

I swallowed hard.

Eckart’s voice rang stern.

“This failure will not go unpunished. Until proper measures are put in place, no one is permitted to leave this house.”

Eckart spent until dawn disciplining the soldiers.

Meanwhile, I was questioned again and again about the incident, as though under interrogation.

When I finally managed to excuse myself, claiming I needed rest, Eckart suggested I stay in the physician’s quarters.

But instead, I headed for the servants’ lodgings—with guards flanking me, of course.

Clack.

When I pushed open the door, a man lying on the bed jolted upright groggily.