[“I can’t believe a place this beautiful was once destroyed and then rebuilt. It’s incredible.”
Rahin whispered those words as she gazed at the newly built, sparklingly beautiful building.
The original Heirs’ Residence had been built long ago in the wooden architectural style that was fashionable at the time, but now it has become a dazzlingly beautiful place made of marble.
“If the person who died back then were still alive, they would have grown into a wonderful adult by now.”
“Ah. You mean that Ian brat.”
Gerd couldn’t believe he was alone with Rahin like this.
After reading about the Heirs’ Residence explosion in a book containing the history of Driblyane, Rahin had shown tears for the child who had died back then, with such pure kindness.
Honestly, Gerd couldn’t even remember who had died at first, but he suggested, ‘Would you like to go to the Heirs’ Residence sometime?’ and as a result—
The two of them had come out together like this.
“I want to pray for poor Ian. Will you pray too, Gerd?”
“Pray? Of course. If you’re doing it, I’ll do anything.”
Who cared whether it was Ian or whoever.
He absolutely hated hearing the name of some other brat from those lovely lips of hers instead of his own.
But Gerd forcibly suppressed his dark thoughts. He had to show Rahin only the most beautiful and lovely things in the world. She had no need to know about anything dirty and ugly.
For example, the fact that he was the one who had caused that terrible incident.
‘I regretted only being able to kill one of them.’
He should have gotten rid of all of them back then. If he had, wouldn’t he have been able to have Rahin all to himself now?]
After remembering that much, I trembled as I felt the fur on my tail stand on end.
‘What? What is this? Wait a minute. Ian dies?!’
……That can’t happen.
As it was, this building had been built quite a long time ago and was already deteriorated. If even a pillar took a hard enough impact, the whole thing could come crashing down.
‘I have to hurry and tell the head of the family.’
There was a lot of gunpowder powder stuck to the soles of my paws. This powder, lodged between the wooden floorboards, was obviously meant to cause a chain reaction later.
If I showed this to him, he would listen to me.
‘No, wait.’
But if we disposed of the bombs beforehand, wouldn’t we be unable to catch the culprit?
‘But the children can’t get hurt.’
As I thought about it with a grave expression, I realized something.
‘If the entire place is the target, and I only want to protect one person.’
Then, conversely, there was the simple fact that I had to keep that one person here.
***
“The banquet venue was suddenly changed to here! How could something like this happen?”
“Shh, Prince. Someone might hear us!”
“How on earth did this happen?!”
Gerd was in a good mood today.
Surely, the day should have ended with that pleasant feeling. But suddenly, the Heirs’ Residence became noisy, and people who personally attended to the Duchess began appearing one after another.
Finally, when he saw even the head maid arrive from afar, Gerd was horrified and hurried back to his room.
“A treasure hunt out of nowhere! Isn’t it enough that we have to celebrate that ridiculous thing? Why are they hiding treasures in the Heirs’ Residence?”
“That isn’t what’s important right now, Your Highness. We could end up being discovered for planting the bombs.”
The man was anxious.
It was understandable for a little child to want to play a treasure hunt. It was a standard activity generally included in parties for children.
But treasures didn’t just fall from the sky. If the servants went around rummaging through the place like that, even a bomb that had been hidden well could be discovered.
And the gunpowder! What about the powder they had deliberately scattered across the floor?
This plan had been designed on the assumption that everyone’s attention would be focused on the main building of the estate.
There should have been almost no one in the Heirs’ Residence. A few people might get caught up in the explosion…… but they weren’t trying to kill everyone.
Even though the prince seemed to want that, they couldn’t do so. The goal was simply to bring down the Heirs’ Residence itself and have the prince stay in the main building, even temporarily. That would make it easier to steal information.
The man was someone who had received two separate orders: from the Queen, to ‘protect and assist her son,’ and from the King, to ‘bring back useful information from those damned saber-toothed tigers.’
Blowing up the Heirs’ Residence was the ideal way to fulfill both orders……!
“We have lost much of our wild nature through becoming human. But it’s possible that someone may have an especially sensitive sense of smell.”
“Hmph. Go dismantle the bombs at once.”
Gerd dropped onto the sofa irritably.
The man bowed his head without a word and hurried out.
It seemed no one had discovered the bombs yet, so if he went quickly and quietly retrieved them……
But it was at that exact moment, when he grabbed the wooden piece shaped like a leopard’s head where he had hidden the bomb.
“Huh?”
A young voice struck his ears.
“Now is treasure-hiding timeee. It’s not finding time!”
He glanced back and saw that damned white marten.
And behind her, as always, stood the grizzly bear beastkin, whose sheer size alone was enough to instill fear in others.
The grizzly bear beastkin, who could crush an enemy’s skull with his bare hands even without a weapon, was the very embodiment of terror on the battlefield.
Even if he was pretending to be docile here and now, the man knew that the knight could turn on him at any moment and smash his skull.
“Ahaha. I was trying to hide a treasure, too.”
“Really? Then that thing in your hand, is that a treasure?”
I’m screwed.
The man broke into a cold sweat and held out what he had in his hand.
It didn’t matter anyway. His opponent was just a child. It would be better to act confidently. Then she would quickly lose interest.
‘No one knows there’s a bomb inside this.’
The man also didn’t forget to make his movements look as servile as possible.
“It’s nothing much, so I’m embarrassed to show it.”
“Mm. But I wanna look closely.”
“Pardon? Why don’t you look after I hide it? Haha.”
“No! I wanna see it now!”
Oh, damn it.
He had heard about this white marten from Lord Gerd, but he hadn’t expected her to be this headstrong.
He cleared his throat and glanced at the knight.
But the knight didn’t move an inch. If anything, he only glared at him.
“Doesn’t the Little Lady want to see it?”
“Yes, you should give it to her. Of course…….”
But what if the bomb went off? If she threw it or dropped it, then……
A chill ran through the man. Pretending nothing was wrong, he handed the statue to the knight, then clenched his teeth and watched.
“Ugwy.”
“……”
“It’s even heavy. Not fun.”
“Haha, yes, isn’t it? Then I’ll hide this properly.”
He held out his hand as if asking for it back, but the white marten didn’t let go of the statue, which was almost as big as her own body.
“Little lady?”
“Hmph.”
“Er, Little lady……?”
As he grew increasingly anxious and cautiously approached, the knight raised his eyes menacingly. Under that look that clearly said, How dare you come closer?, the man felt like he was going insane.
“Eit!”
“Gaaah!”
“Gotcha.”
She couldn’t possibly know something, could she? Was this just a child’s prank?
He instinctively screamed when she pretended to throw it, his heart pounding so hard that even his nostrils flared.
But then.
The cursed white marten, who had been staring straight at him, grinned.
“I should reawy throw it away, this silly thing. John!”
“Nooooo!!!”
The moment the order was given, the stupid bear threw the statue onto the floor.
It was already too late to get out of the way.
A few seconds later.
The man, peeking through narrowed eyes, first checked whether he was still alive.
‘Gasp, huff. I-I’m alive.’
The bomb seemed to have failed to detonate, and only the statue had been smashed to pieces.
“Huh? That’s weird. Why are you acting like that?”
“!”
“Do you know what’s inside?”
Hehehe. That thing, despite being an animal, spoke human language too. It was quite literally like a demon.
‘Satan has come among you.’
Without realizing it, he muttered a verse from scripture and clenched his molars tightly.
‘For now, I need to get out of here naturally.’
He had a bad feeling.
‘There are two bombs. I have to retrieve the other one, too. If something goes wrong, everyone here will die.’
Then Lichenbium…… the royal family…… might be doomed. There was no way the head of the family, Immanuel, would forgive them.
“Eek!”
But the man’s escape failed.
Grrrrr.
At both ends of the corridor, black panthers appeared, growling threateningly as they scratched at their throats.
And standing behind them, elegantly directing the hunt, was none other than the mistress of the family, Duchess Inna.
“Florin was right.”
Why was the Duchess, who was said to have shut herself away, here?
The man’s eyes widened.
“She said that if we caused enough commotion, they would certainly come to retrieve the bomb.”
Inna gently stroked the head of the black panther baring its teeth, then released the leash she had been holding.
“Catch him.”
“Aaaagh!”
At her gentle command, the panthers sprang forward and pinned down the man’s vital points.
There was no way to escape.]
I kept the final reveal and the ambiguity around Florin’s plan intact, especially the implication that she deliberately baited the bomber into coming back for the bomb.
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