I Became A Squirrel Seeking For The Villain – Chapter 87

Author: Chewyy

“That’s….”

The adjutant sighed and answered.

“That’s the high priest Patre.”

The coachman who had been eavesdropping was also startled.

He already knew that a brazen assassin who had tried to kill Yurika—who had been staying as Yohan’s guest a few days ago—had been captured.

But the person behind it is the high priest Patre, who is currently in prison?

Why on earth would a High priest, who lacked nothing, go so far as to hire an assassin from prison just to kill an adopted daughter?

If so, isn’t it a much bigger deal than what the world knows?

More than curiosity, the coachman now wondered whether he should even be hearing such an important conversation.

“How foolish,” Yohan said, his expression turning cold.

“The trial is coming up—did he really need to add more charges on top of everything? …First, we must inform the Imperial Family. Not sure if it’ll work, but it might be worth asking them to hand over jurisdiction for punishment to us.”

Just as the coachman was thinking, “How much does he plan to torment him if he gets his hands on him?”

“Ah, but the thing is….”

The adjutant sighed again and scratched his chin.

“It is said that the high priest Patre has reportedly committed suicide. Despite strict surveillance to prevent it, no one knows how he managed to succeed….”

Yohan clicked his tongue with a displeased expression.

It’s true that he wanted to kill him, but his suicide wasn’t very good news anyway.

Especially when they still needed to dig deeper into him.

“Useless to the end.”

Yohan muttered irritably, running a hand through his hair.

Then he added a few more lines to the letter he was sending to Mariel.

“I guess there’s nothing more we can do now. It seems like he had made his last desperate attempt before he died.”

Yohan muttered in an annoyed voice for a moment about how the man got off far too easily, and handed the letter to the coachman and giving him a firm reminder.

“Okay, let’s go. I’ll say it again, these are very precious people. Treat them with care. Even more than you do when I ride.”

“Yes, I will serve them with the utmost care.”

So the coachman followed Yohan to the back of the temple, and almost fainted when he saw a tiger coming out of a passage he didn’t even know existed.

And after seeing the squirrel standing proudly on top of the tiger, he couldn’t help but rub his face several times, wondering if he’d gone mad.

Yohan gave the order calmly, without any change in expression.

“Make sure you don’t get caught by anyone, and escort them safely to Lady Mariel Medes.”

“.….”

“Answer.”

The coachman snapped out of his daze at Yohan’s chilling tone and bowed deeply.

“Yes. Leave it to me.”

The carriage of the Duke of Hyrad, carrying not one but two precious passengers—though they were a tiger and a squirrel—while the coachman continued to question his own sanity.

And only when the coachman succeeded in having a private conversation with Mariel and carefully opened the carriage door in the backyard did he confirm that he was not crazy.

Because Mariel also looked as if she was about to faint at the sight of a tiger and a squirrel riding on its head.

“Wh-what… what?”

Mariel was so startled by what she saw inside the carriage Yohan had sent that she nearly had a seizure.

The duke Hyrad’s carriage had shown up without warning, the coachman had asked to speak to her alone, and when she opened the door in the secluded garden, a tiger had stepped out—with a squirrel on its head, no less.

Anyone would’ve assumed they were dreaming.

“Wha—what the—”

Mariel gasped, almost lost in thought.

It was the kind of situation that would make someone curse loudly. But for Meriel, this was her version of a dramatic reaction.

As the equally pale coachman opened his mouth to explain, the squirrel suddenly jumped from the tiger’s head and landed in front of Mariel.

“Yu—no, wait… blackie?”

Mariel, who was about to call Yurika’s name, glanced at the coachman’s face and quickly corrected herself.

Yurika quickly started gesturing with her squirrel body.

Maryel quietly watched as she pointed at the tiger with her forepaws, made a shape like the roof of a temple, and pretended to walk.

“You brought it from the temple, and it listens to you really well?”

Still, Mariel could understand Yurika’s gestures well.

As Yurika continued to make various gestures, Mariel blinked and nodded.

“Really? If I tell the tiger to stay put, will it actually do it?”

This time, the one looking ready to faint was the coachman.

The coachman backed away with an expression that seemed to indicate that he was not sure whether Mariel or himself had gone mad.

Yurika gave him a dismissive wave, signaling that he could leave, and Mariel spoke politely.

“You may go now. Please thank the Duke of Hyrad for me.”

Even the tiger growled lowly in his direction, as if to say, “Good job.”

The coachman didn’t look particularly pleased with that but took off almost in tears.

“Kyuung.”

Yurika quickly explained to the tiger to stay where he was, then followed Meriel into the mansion.

* * *

After returning home for the first time in a long time, I absorbed Mariel’s magic power and became human, and changed into comfortable clothes to wear at home.

Since I came out of a dust hole, I washed up a bit.

After that, Mariel and I had tea together in the garden for the first time in a long time.

As luck would have it, Jayden was out on business for the merchant guild, and Mother was taking a nap after receiving treatment from Runart.

According to Runart, her condition was no longer life-threatening. That was a relief.

The sunlight was warm, and the flowers were blooming beautifully—perfect for a quiet tea time and conversation.

Now that I think about it, before the war ended, the two of us used to spend our afternoons like this, drinking tea together.

But ever since Yohan’s victory, everything had been so hectic that we hardly had time for such moments anymore.

“So, what you’re saying is…”

Of course, the scenery now is a little different from back then.

“That tiger could be my father?”

Right beside us, a tiger was sitting comfortably, playing with butterflies.

The servants at the Duke Medes’s estate, who had initially been terrified, quickly adapted to the tiger’s presence.

It was almost unbelievable that the same tiger had shown such uncontrollable aggression toward Yoha. Now, it was behaving very gently.

Not only did it listen to what I and Mariel said, but it also looked at the servants with kind eyes and moved carefully.

Moreover, it was even rolling around in the garden of the Duke of Medes with a very comfortable expression.

The butler, who had looked like he might faint at first, cautiously approached and asked me,

“Um, Lady Yurika… did Duke Yoham Hyrad send this as a pet for you?”

“Huh?”

“Well, it’s widely known throughout the Empire that the Duke is head over heels for you—enough to give you the moon and stars… so a tiger isn’t exactly out of the question…”

“Grrrrrr!”

Of course, when the name Yohan Hyrad came up, the tiger grumbled and showed its displeasure for a moment.

Still, the tiger adjusted to the Medes’ estate in no time.

Suddenly, the chef was very busy trying to figure out what the tiger was eating.

And it wasn’t just the chef—Runart also shut himself in the library, saying he didn’t know much about animal injuries and needed to study.

Even though I had applied ointment earlier, the tiger still had wounds on its hind legs.

“Yes. Yohan was almost certain of it.”

I spoke in detail about what had happened.

Meriel also knew well about the assassination attempt on me that had occurred a few days ago, but when I told her that the High Priest was behind it, her expression darkened even more.

“So that’s why he committed suicide,” Mariel said with a sigh.

“I thought it was strange that he committed suicide before even a full trial. In fact, I didn’t think he would be sentenced to death. But after doing something so reckless, he committed suicide. He really took a risk all the way to the end.”

“Exactly. And part of me wonders… Why does he want to kill me so badly?”

If I look at it one way, we’ve never even met before, but he showed his malice until right before he died.

I muttered with a sigh.

“Still, it’s all a bit suspicious. They say no one even knows how he managed to kill himself.”

Patre’s suicide was not very good news.

Publicly, he had still been the High Priest, and now it would be even harder to uncover whoever was behind him.

Even if Roymond did his best to reveal the truth about the divine beast, the person who should have taken the most responsibility was gone.

‘And Rivena wasn’t even involved. She was still walking around freely.’

Even though the imperial family was investigating everything, Rivena was still living well at Count Sevs’s house.

Even when Roymond came forward, she made no move to leave the capital.

Which meant… There really was no evidence linking her to any of it.

“Anyway,”