Chapter 35 : Intervention

“Last time, on the way back from the merchant group, there was a carriage accident. Tollin said some mindless person crashed into it by mistake.”

It seemed Tollin had strictly gagged the knights, as the Little Duke seemed to know the last carriage accident as just a simple fender bender.

“So, the kid named Seya collapsed, so I quickly went to call Tollin. But when I came back, they were both gone. I think it took too long because I got lost in the alley.”

The Little Duke laid out the things that had happened in a clear and, for him, orderly manner.

While intermittently picking up and eating the walnuts he had set out, saying they were for me.

Another adult would have to teach him someday that sharing food with an animal like this could get him sick.

“Ah, and I also met a kind 'ahjussi' in the alley. He showed me the way.”

I'd become a 'kind ahjussi' in an instant.

It was the first time I'd heard 'ahjussi' since becoming 10 years younger, so in a strange mood, I stopped pretending to eat the walnut for a moment and looked at him.

The child seemed excited, thinking I was listening intently.

“At first, I thought he was a sick person……. Next time, I must not just suspect people unconditionally.”

He looked like it.

I recalled the confusion and distrust that had appeared on his face when he pointed at the dog-hole-like alley.

Still, being suspicious of strangers at this age was a wise attitude, so I lightly pecked the child's arm twice, meaning 'stick with that'.

The Little Duke, who laughed as if it tickled, finally brought up a story I didn't know.

“Tollin said it would be faster to search for the children by looking through stolen goods at jewelers or black market dealers. He said he'd look there first. But there's no news yet.”

What the hell did that guy tell a kid?

It was a relief to learn of Tollin's secret moves and situation, but I wondered if I should peck the back of Tollin's head a little for saying all sorts of things to a little kid.

Leaving me to that, the child smiled quietly and continued.

“But you know……, actually, I was really happy that Tollin came looking for me so hard. I hadn't been able to meet Tollin much. I think it's okay to not act as I'm taught sometimes.”

The Little Duke's expression as he said that looked much more at ease.

It wasn't wrong, but I wanted to ask him to refrain at least until the protagonist arrived.

But seeing the kid smile like that, I could only think to myself that I shouldn't neglect my surveillance for the time being.

It also weighed on my mind that I had (seemingly) driven his father to his death.

The Little Duke, unaware of what I was thinking, continued to pour out the stories he hadn't been able to tell.

“But still, I have to be quiet for now. They said Tollin's older brother came to visit, and he's been looking unwell since that day.”

Tollin's first older brother was supposed to be in prison, so the one who visited must have been the second older brother.

My black eyes gleamed.

A gap with the original work must have occurred at this point.

Because originally, Tollin's first older brother was supposed to visit long after the original work began.

That is, after the Little Duke died and even Duke Piteos had disappeared.

He comes to Tollin, who is completely broken and left with only malice, asking for help for his father.

In the original work, Tollin coldly refuses his request.

And so, the Crisa family completely turns its back on Tollin.

I had braced myself for the changes that would occur from saving the Little Duke and sending Duke Piteos to the protagonist a little earlier than in the original, but Igo Crisa was an unexpected variable.

I had anticipated that he might visit Tollin.

Tollin's subsequent actions, which differed from the original, and Igo Crisa's imprisonment were also within the margin of tolerance…….

But why was Igo Crisa, who should have pledged loyalty to the 2nd Prince, in the 1st Imperial Princess's hands, playing the role of a doll?

***

The 1st Imperial Princess, Mentil Abalan, dominates people's minds.

People who are slowly brainwashed over a long period live by responding to the weed-like domination that has grown in their subconscious without them even knowing.

However, a person who has received multiple brainwashings in a short period moves unnaturally and cannot control their body, like a paper doll.

Just as Igo Crisa did last night.

It was only for a brief moment, but as soon as Igo Crisa's face was revealed, he stopped all movement and hung limp, like a robot that had been powered off.

And immediately after, with movements incomparably faster than the limping gestures he had shown until then, he ran to the end of the hallway.

“Squeak!”

I faintly heard the sound of the squirrel, which had been hiding, screaming at that bizarre sight, but I couldn't spare it any attention as I was quickly changing direction to chase Igo Crisa.

The 8th Prince had said that when he reached the end of the hallway, he disappeared in an instant.

I didn't know what kind of device was at the end of the hallway, but I put strength into my wing beats to at least confirm how the opponent was disappearing.

Unfortunately, it seemed the only thing Igo Crisa shared with Tollin was his face.

Seeing as he could run at an inhuman speed, unlike him who was relatively slender and couldn't even dodge a thrown stone.

Each time I flapped my wings hard, the distance between us closed, but the distance between me and the wall was also narrowing.

At this rate, I was going to crash.

Unlike me, who instinctively slowed down, Igo Crisa, perhaps because he was unconscious, rushed forward without any fear of crashing into the wall.

And.

Just as the 8th Prince said, he disappeared in the blink of an eye.

In the hallway where he had disappeared, only the moonlight riding on the pre-dawn air remained.

***

At a point in time when Igo Crisa's trial hadn't even begun, why send him to the 8th Prince's Palace, of all places?

She's very mischievous, but the 1st Imperial Princess isn't stupid enough to take such a risk just to scare and tease him.

Why had she suddenly begun to intervene in an extra's life?

Or was this an omitted piece of the original work?

“Blackie?”

The Little Duke, perhaps finding it strange that I was just sitting there without even pecking the walnut, carefully touched my wing.

-It's nothing.

“Kkaak.”

“You really seem to understand human words sometimes. Pigeons are just busy running away even if I talk to them.”

He's tried talking to them?

I thought Tollin would surely take care of telling him not to do strange things, as getting close to an ordinary pigeon, far from becoming friends, could just get him sick, but then again, the concern of whether I could really trust a human who brings up black market dealers to a child clashed with that.

“I have to go first today. The nanny worries if I don't play at all during playtime.”

The Little Duke stroked my wing once more, then hurriedly brushed himself off and stood up.

“You have to come again next time.”

He kindly left the window open a little and left the room.

Normally, I would have headed out the window without hesitation, but today I thought I'd try walking a different path.

What kind of animal could wander around the inside of the house without being noticed?

***

Tollin was listening to Pale's report with a hardened face.

“All of them are dead?”

“……Yes.”

Pale answered, looking at Tollin's face, which was hardening frighteningly.

“They all had a sudden seizure and then breathed their last. They said there was no time to do anything.”

“Poisoning?”

“No, it wasn't any poison. They just complained of breathing difficulties and then died.”

Tollin furrowed his brow with a puzzled expression.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, their blood was clean, and there were no signs of suicide, they said.”

Facing Pale, who spoke sorrowfully, Tollin was lost in thought.

They were the ones who had been escorting the Little Duke's carriage.

The reason they hadn't noticed the Little Duke leaving the carriage at the time of the accident was because they hadn't been escorting the carriage properly.

If the Little Duke's life was saved thanks to that, they had been part of a plan for someone to attack the carriage, and if the purpose was to lure him out of the carriage, they would have been complicit in the plan to spirit the Little Duke away.

Either way, he'd had no intention of letting them live, but he also hadn't intended to kill them so futilely before even uncovering who was behind it.

It was an incident that was strange in more ways than one from the beginning.

They said the knights who were caught didn't even put up a proper resistance.

Tollin had been wary, wondering if they had something to rely on, seeing them get caught so obediently without a single attempt to escape.

But to die like this, inside the mansion, and all at once at that.

Did it make sense to die of breathing difficulties, not poisoning or suicide?

“Jack must be greatly disheartened.”

“He didn't say much, but he seemed greatly disheartened. It seems some of them had been with Jack for a long time under him……”

Pale, recalling his haggard face as he secretly left the ducal family today under Tollin's orders, couldn't continue.

Tollin nodded silently.

Yes, this didn't make sense either.

The captured knights were diverse, from new recruits to veteran soldiers, regardless of rank.

The guys who had just finished their knight investiture were one thing, but why, suddenly, even those who had served the Piteos family in the face of even greater dangers?

Were they aiming for the Little Duke from the very beginning?

Having missed all other opportunities, why now of all times?

Jack, who had confirmed with his own two eyes that colleagues who had pledged unchanging loyalty together even at the moment the Piteos ducal family was shaken had joined in an undeniable betrayal, seemed to have a lot on his mind.

He didn't feel at ease thinking of the Captain of the Knight Order, who would carry an inexpressible bitterness, but he wasn't in a position to be considerate of him right now.

He'd sent him out to cool his head, but it wasn't as if there was no other intention, so Tollin had a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Investigate the backgrounds of all members of the knight order. Find out if there were any suspicious movements, or if they met anyone. ……Including Jack.”

“……Yes.”

In a situation like this, there was no way of knowing how many people in the ducal family could be trusted.

Pale, understanding this as well, left Tollin's office without another word.

As soon as the door Pale left through closed, Tollin let out a sigh and clutched his head.

He couldn't know what trick they had used, but there was only one person who could dare to plant someone inside the Piteos ducal family and pull off something like this.

The Imperial Family.

But why?

-Keep an eye on the Little Duke.

The blunt voice of Igo Crisa, speaking as if giving a warning, seemed to graze his ear.

Is the Little Duke really the target?

And Igo Crisa tried to stop it?

What reason would there be for that?

If the Little Duke really was their target,

If they intended to reach out not only to the Duke, but also to the Little Duke.

Something was slowly crumbling inside Tollin.

***

That side's procedure isn't too different from the original work.

Thanks to changing into a bat, I had settled without difficulty in the space between the roof and the office ceiling, and I could listen in on the conversation between Tollin and Pale.

The contents of the secret conversations coming through the small crack in the ceiling gave me certainty.

It was a different method from the original work, but in any case, Tollin, too, would have realized that this accident was the work of someone in the Imperial Family, and in the end, he would draw his sword.

What was different this time was that the one to protect, the Little Duke, remained.

With that, he would fulfill his role in the novel.

The flow of the original work had not changed.

The problem was the continued intervention of other characters.

Death by breathing difficulties of an unknown cause was an assassination method the 1st Imperial Princess favored in the original work.