40
The house, already in a bad state, suffered a fatal blow from the magical beast’s rampage.
Claws, as solid as iron, clung to the walls, tearing them apart with desperate thrashing.
The wall by the window began to collapse with a thunderous roar.
As one side of the wall was completely ripped away, a surge of oxygen rushed in, fueling the flames with an explosive whoosh.
And at that moment, my body was lifted into the air.
“You…!”
The startled face of the prince slowly faded from my view.
Caught in the explosion, my body was flung into the air before being violently slammed onto the ground.
A searing pain shot up my spine, but that pain was nothing compared to what came next.
Because my body was so small, I couldn't stop rolling. I was pushed all the way to the edge of the crumbling floor.
Before I could even scream, I started falling into the open void.
‘I’m going to die!’
Below my window was a garden my mother had made.
Aside from the flower beds, the rest was completely covered in stones to keep weeds from growing.
If I fell there, no matter if it was just the second floor, I wouldn’t escape unscathed.
The moment I shut my eyes tightly, I felt a hand wrap around my arm.
A sharp pain shot through my shoulder, but it stopped my fall just in time.
From the force, my body swayed side to side, slamming into the debris of the broken wall.
“Can you climb up?”
The person barely holding onto my arm was the prince.
His grip was surprisingly strong.
But he was just a child, too—he couldn’t withstand my weight for long and was slowly being pulled down toward the collapsing floor.
Where was all that sharp hostility from before?
Despite knowing the ceiling was caving in due to the fire, he stubbornly held onto my hand, refusing to let go.
For a brief moment, our eyes met in midair.
“Let go…”
“If you’re gonna say something stupid like that—”
“…don’t! Never! Someone will come to save us soon, got it? No matter what, hold on tight!”
The prince’s expression went blank. He looked somewhat bewildered.
‘I refuse to die!’
I reached out with my free hand and grabbed a protruding wooden beam.
Thorns pricked my palm, but the pain was nothing compared to my aching shoulder.
I had to climb up somehow.
I said others would come to help, but with the magical beast’s sudden attack, everyone must have been in chaos.
I gripped with all my strength, my nails nearly tearing off.
If it were my past life, I would have climbed up somehow.
"Miss!"
Betty's loud voice rang out from below.
She had finally noticed me.
Swish.
The magical beast, which had been lying still with only its tail trembling, as if it had no strength left to struggle, suddenly twitched.
At the same time, the stones lodged in its claws loosened and fell to the ground.
People screamed, scattering to avoid them. Betty seemed to be trying to get closer to me, but the magical beast was in the way.
‘Am I really going to die like this?’
The prince, too, looked like he was reaching his limit.
He clung desperately to my hand, but his grip kept slipping.
And yet, he never let go.
In the midst of the raging flames, his eyes burned with determination.
***
Near the Takiten Barony, there was a narrow canyon.
It was the shortest route from the Leopord mansion to the barony, but due to frequent magical beast attacks, it was normally a forbidden and treacherous path.
A massive tremor shook the ground, accompanied by the sound of tree roots and rocks being crushed.
Jagged shards of ice erupted from the ground, piercing the heart of a giant magical beast that resembled a bison.
At the same time, the ice spears impaled the palm of the heretic riding on the beast’s back.
As the magical beast collapsed, the heretic, skewered by ice, spun in the air before crashing to the ground with a groan.
“Ugh… magical beast…”
Seeing his fellow escapees in similar states, the man groaned weakly.
Leopord slowly approached him.
How many of his kin had died at Leopord's hands?
His heart burned with hatred, but a far greater fear took hold of his body.
Unconsciously, the heretic tried to push himself backward with his feet.
But soon, his back hit the lifeless corpse of the magical beast. He had nowhere left to retreat.
Leopord loomed over him.
“Go ahead, kill me here!”
His desperate shout was his last attempt to mask his terror.
“I’ve heard all about the infamous duke! If I’m going to die anyway, I’d rather die here like a warrior than at his hands!”
“You think you have a choice?”
“Aaaaghh!”
A blade of ice, sharp as steel, grew from within his wound, expanding and twisting.
The heretic lost all pretense of dignity and rolled on the ground, screaming in agony.
“Take some of the captured ones back to the baron's estate. The rest of you will stay and finish off the remaining magical beasts before we move.”
“Understood.”
At Leopord's slight nod, two knights stepped forward.
They seized the writhing man, who continued to scream for death, and dragged him away.
“So, the young lady’s birthday passes like this.”
Now that the danger had subsided, there was room for conversation.
Walter, who had approached, touched the fresh wound on his cheek and muttered.
Leopord instinctively glanced up at the sky, but the dense trees of the canyon blocked out the moonlight, making it difficult to tell the time.
She must have received the gift.
Sapphires were the color of Lucy’s eyes.
He was still an unfamiliar daughter to him, one who had never even called him 'dad' properly.
But she had Lucy’s eyes.
The sapphire would suit Mariela quite well.
"Well, with the mansion so lively, I’m sure everyone has taken good care of her. The young miss is someone deeply loved by many, after all."
Leopord, half-listening to Walter’s words, responded in a low voice.
"The main house already knows that we brought the First Prince."
"What? But we took him out secretly under His Majesty’s orders. How could the main house already know?"
For a moment, Leopord recalled the emperor’s gaunt, skeletal face.
'Please take care of Florian.'
Even those few words had been spoken with difficulty, each breath rasping with phlegm.
Once, they had both been promising heirs—one to the imperial family, the other to the northern duke’s lineage. Because of their similar positions, they had been close.
As crown prince, the emperor had been gentle yet confident.
He had lived a life untouched by hardship, never once bearing even the smallest flaw.
And yet now, that same emperor had lost all vitality, reduced to little more than a breathing corpse…
Leopord frowned briefly before answering.
"The empress must have sent word."
The emperor was barely clinging to life, but the imperial court and political power had long since fallen into the hands of the empress and her father, Duke Peterzen.
In an empire that followed the principle of firstborn succession, Florian—born of a woman who was not the empress—had still been declared the First Prince.
The empress and her father, who sought to maintain their power forever, would never have accepted that outcome quietly.
Leopord’s own brother, Dominic, was much the same—constantly waiting for a chance to seize his older brother’s position.
He didn’t believe Leopord’s claim that he had no interest in the duke’s inheritance.
"So, was it the young lord Dominic’s doing after all? He’s interfered with your affairs before. Is he still at it?"
"I can’t say for sure."
"If it wasn’t him, who else would try to sabotage you?"
"There’s still the old man."
"Surely… the duke himself wouldn’t go that far?"
Walter trailed off uncertainly, looking troubled. Leopord let out a dry laugh.
"You never know. He is, after all, the one who caused my wife’s death."
His words carried a faint trace of amusement, but beneath them lay an unmistakable depth of hatred.
Walter struggled to find an appropriate response.
At that moment, hurried footsteps rang out, accompanied by someone urgently calling for their commander.
"Young Master Dietrich has arrived, Captain!"
Leopord’s expression hardened at the mention of his son, whom he had not summoned.
In the distance, he saw his young son, wearing only a coat over his nightclothes, rushing toward him alongside his nanny, who was breathlessly keeping up.
Hearing the nanny’s urgent explanation, Leopord fell silent for a moment before asking one question.
"…And Mariela?"
"The young miss insisted on staying behind to protect the First Prince and remains at the mansion…"
The acrid scent of torch smoke filled the air.
A sense of foreboding settled over Leopord.
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