Chapter 79

Maybe I shouldn’t have just left the coachman alone. For a brief moment, that thought crossed my mind, but deep down I knew it was a pointless assumption. Even if I hadn’t done anything to the coachman, this kind of mess was bound to happen. At least it was a relief that this cliff wasn’t too far from the Territory of Portus.

“Wait, isn’t this… the place where Catherine and I used to come often?”

“You remember it?”

“Yeah…”

There was a sense of nostalgia in Lilian’s eyes as she responded. It was strange to see such an expression from her, given that she hadn’t lived through those memories herself. I couldn’t quite grasp it.

The Cliff Where the Moon Falls. That was the name of this cliff. It was the spot where one could see the sunrise from the Territory of Portus and the sunset first. I used to come here with the Young Lady to play when we were kids. Whenever she was tired of the indifference and violence from the Marchioness, she would come here to watch the sun rise.

As the sun sank and the moon rose in its place, Lilian lightly brushed her hair back. Watching her silvery hair being arranged by her pure white hands, I found myself lost in thought until she tilted her head, noticing my gaze.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing at all.”

I was so engrossed in watching her that I felt like I had completely lost my senses. In that moment, I realized I was caught in a web I couldn’t escape from. The debt of gratitude I felt towards her, the guilt for allowing the abuse against her, and the uneasy feelings I had towards the fact that she had pushed aside the Young Lady and took her place—all of these feelings suddenly started to seem meaningless.

Like paint soaking into paper, I was slowly seeping into her.

When I first realized that she had pushed aside the Young Lady, the first emotions I felt were anger and emptiness. When I came to the understanding that she looked like the Young Lady, I was filled with confusion and bewilderment. And when I understood that her feelings for me were different from the Young Lady’s, the emotions I experienced were… indescribable.

But the animosity I felt towards her was gradually fading. She was a castaway who had suddenly fallen into this world and a raider who had taken over the Young Lady’s body. But did that raiding happen of her own volition? If I asked that, I couldn’t bring myself to say yes.

I sighed softly. Lilian, hearing my response, stared blankly at the moon. The moon that the Young Lady loved the most when she was little was reflected in her eyes. In her lake-like gaze, the moon seemed to have a magical pull that drew people in.

Lost in the sight of her profile, I turned my gaze towards the sky. There was a large full moon hanging there.

#


“Things suddenly went out of control.”

“Yes. That’s why we lost sight of them.”

The moment the Knight, who had been stationed to accompany Lilian on her outing, rushed back to report, the Marquis felt as if the world turned a sickly yellow. Reading the surprise written all over his face, the captain of the Portus Marquis’ knights, Haven, stroked his white beard and spoke.

“Since Miss Catherine is with her, there shouldn’t be any major issues. Let’s send Sir Calia to look for them.”

At the mention of her name, Calia slightly flinched. After all, if Catherine was with them, they would most likely be safe; was there really a need to search? For a moment, Calia had that irreverent thought and subtly glanced at the Marquis. However, the Marquis was staring intently at the map.

“No, they said the carriage disappeared here, right?”

“Yes.”

“…If that’s the case, they should return on their own.”

The Marquis acted as if he knew something. There was a hint of relief on his face. Catherine was a monster that required at least ten knights from the elite knight corps to handle. With Catherine in the mix, Lilian was practically guaranteed to be safe.

“By the way, who could have pulled this off?”

“I followed the tracks from the carriage and found a man dead on the ground. According to the knight who was following them, he was the coachman.”

“Catherine, then?”

“That would be the case.”

The Marquis exhaled a small sigh at Haven’s concise answer. Watching that, Calia was convinced of something. It wasn’t likely to be the assassination guild. They wouldn’t handle matters in such a flashy manner. In the first place, even a hefty reward wouldn’t entice them to assassinate someone from the Portus Marquis’ direct line. It could risk their entire organization.

If it wasn’t the assassination guild, then who? Not the Marchioness. Despite being unreasonable, the Marchioness wouldn’t go as far as to kill her own child. After all, from her perspective, Lilian wasn’t worth killing.

“What if it was targeting Catherine?”

“…Catherine? Why?”

“I heard there were some incidents at the Academy.”

Lilian Beon Portus, the Marquis’ treasure, couldn’t be touched, but a mere common maid like Catherine could. Thinking this way made the pieces fit perfectly. The reason they didn’t hire the assassination guild? Unless they outright took them down, they couldn’t even touch a hair on Catherine. However, it would be tough to deal with a runaway carriage, no matter how formidable Catherine was.

Even someone as powerful as Catherine could die if she fell off a cliff. That’s why they had resorted to using a carriage. In that process, Lilian riding with her could be considered collateral. After all, the coachman wouldn’t know anything.

In reality, what the enemy consumed in this incident was just the coachman’s life and a little bit of coin. Given that level of threat, whoever was behind it was definitely not a fool.

“Someone who knows Catherine’s exact strength and can buy the coachman in the Portus territory…”

But the Marquis was busy mentally sifting through potential suspects. It’s not for nothing that the Marquis of Portus held the position of the Empire’s Chancellor. Even at this moment, countless suspects were likely flitting through and disappearing from his mind.

In fact, it was relatively easy to narrow down the list. Only high-ranking nobles would know Catherine’s true strength. Especially those who witnessed her spar against the elite knight corps would have fewer candidates to consider. And among them, the most likely one was…

“The House of Duke Elpeltain.”

The moment those words left the Marquis’ lips was almost simultaneous with Calia recollecting the name of the House of Duke Elpeltain.

“We should investigate.”

With the Marquis’ muttering, the presence of two individuals around them vanished. However, those inside the room remained as they were. Calia, however, appeared nonchalant and simply yawned.

“Calia. Behave yourself in front of His Excellency.”

“Yawn. Yes…”

Finally stopped yawning only after Haven warned her, Calia stealthily glanced out the window. It seemed the Marquis’ black knights were as busy as ever today.

#


“By the way, who could it be?”

“What do you mean?”

“The ones who messed with the horses.”

As we walked back to the Marquis’ manor, relying on childhood memories to navigate, Lilian asked me that question. The ones who messed with the horses, huh? Honestly, I couldn’t say for sure. There were too few clues. If only we’d left the coachman alive, it might have been different, but in that dire situation, there wasn’t a moment to spare to keep him.

“Who knows?”

“I’ve been thinking, maybe the ones who messed with them weren’t humans but demons?”

“Demons?”

That was unexpected. I tilted my head questioningly, and Lilian nodded with quite the assured face.

“Think about it, how many families would want to mess with the Portus Marquis?”

“Hmm, only about four main dukes and the imperial family, I’d say.”

“If we exclude the House of Duke Elpeltain, the other dukes are holed up in their territories and wouldn’t have any grudge against Portus. The imperial family is the same—they’re practically business partners.”

“That’s… true.”

“If the House of Duke Elpeltain orchestrated this, would they really have prepared in such a tangled way? Besides, the House of Duke Elpeltain knows Catherine’s strength very well.”

“Maybe they couldn’t anticipate I’d jump off from a moving carriage with the Young Lady in my arms?”

“…Isn’t it a bit odd that a family like the House of Duke Elpeltain couldn’t foresee such an event?”

Indeed, saying that the only house embroiled in central affairs among the four main dukes would plan without considering every possible outcome was honestly unreasonable. It could certainly be described as careless.

“Demons, huh.”

At this point, I had no choice but to acknowledge the possibility of demons altogether. Especially since Lilian seemed so sure of it. Should we conduct a separate investigation? As I pondered this, I found myself leading Lilian’s hand, which I had unknowingly grasped.