Chapter 91

Chapter 91

“Eugh…”

I caught my breath and looked at the boy, who was sweating nervously as he stared up at the high wall.

When he spotted me, he hurriedly tried to climb over the wall to escape.

But before he could make it to the top, his foot slipped and he plummeted down.

“Ah, be careful…!”

The boy flailed helplessly in the air and fell heavily to the ground.

I rushed over to check his condition.

He was breathing, but his eyes stayed shut—he must have hit his head in the fall.

“Hero!”

Seeing Adam arrive just in time behind me made relief bloom across my face.

If it was Adam, maybe he would know the boy’s condition better than I could.

But when he reached me, he immediately cupped my cheek gently.

“Are you alright, Eve?”

With a boy lying unconscious in front of us, was now really the time to be worrying about me?

I nodded dumbly.

Only after confirming that I was unharmed did Adam turn his gaze to the boy.

“Doesn’t this child… resemble the one Kyrillos showed us on the flyer?”

“I think so too.”

Adam rubbed his chin with a troubled look.

It seemed he disliked the thought of having to call Kyrillos back.

“I was hoping the boy would escape without catching his eye, since the palace is looking for him…”

“And yet he’s fallen right at our feet.”

Adam muttered quietly.

Could it be that when I was pickpocketed earlier, Adam already knew the boy was the same one from the flyer?

“But why is the palace searching for this child in the first place? He doesn’t look particularly special…”

He had tried to scale a wall taller than Adam himself, only to fall. He’d managed to pick my pocket, but it wasn’t as though he was skilled enough that I couldn’t notice.

He didn’t look like a noble—just an ordinary boy, raised with some care.

“Perhaps he saw something in the palace he wasn’t meant to.”

“That could be…”

Still, the boy was quick thanks to his small frame.

I had almost lost him too.

Only because he ran into a dead end in the capital’s maze of streets had I managed to catch him.

If he had witnessed something critical in the palace, and managed to flee in their confusion—especially with help from an accomplice—it would have been difficult, but not impossible.

“Wouldn’t it be better to ask Kyrillos?”

This was my chance to push him toward being Adam’s friend…!

I looked at Adam with ambitious eyes.

Though his face showed reluctance, he eventually nodded.

“It’s rare for us to come out alone together, only to have to head back like this.”

“…”

So that was why he looked troubled?

Despite his words, Adam bent down and carefully lifted the boy into his arms.

“Next time, we’ll go out again.”

His tone was as if he were comforting me in my disappointment.

But honestly, wasn’t he the one who seemed more disappointed?

I swallowed the thought.

It seemed Adam himself wasn’t even aware of how kind he was being to me.

And for now, I wanted to keep his affection all to myself.

* * *

Kyrillos arrived quickly, looking delighted.

“Hero. You say you dislike it, but your actions are more honest!”

“…Don’t spout nonsense. That flyer you showed us earlier—why are you looking for this boy? If it were a simple disappearance, it wouldn’t be something the mage tower concerned itself with.”

“Huh? Well… I’m not really interested, honestly. Ah, but I think they said he was a witness.”

“A boy who doesn’t even look ten years old?”

“Hm… now that you say it, that is strange.”

Kyrillos, the very one entrusted with the matter, looked clueless—just as he himself had once admitted that he never even dreamed of making achievements in the palace or the mage tower.

So he really hadn’t thought anything through.

“Strange… I’m sure they said he was an important witness. That he was tied to the disappearances somehow…”

“Who said that?”

“His Majesty, of course.”

Kyrillos frowned thoughtfully.

Adam listened carefully, choosing his words.

Then he looked up, locking eyes with me.

See? Isn’t something off here?

I mouthed the words silently. Adam nodded without reply.

He turned back to Kyrillos and began to speak.

“Then, Kyrill—”

“But Hero, sometimes you drop honorifics when you talk to me! I like it! Makes me feel like we’re close friends already!”

“…”

Adam fell silent, seemingly unaware he had been speaking informally at all.

Thinking back, he had acted casually with Kyrillos at times, almost like treating him as an old friend.

At first I had assumed it was just impatience, hoping Kyrillos would get tired of clinging to him. But judging from Adam’s startled expression, that wasn’t the case.

“My apologies. If I was rude, I beg pardon.”

“No, not at all! I said I liked it! It’s fate, really, so why not drop honorifics entirely? Be my friend!”

“I must decline.”

Kyrillos let out a pitiful whine and visibly wilted in disappointment.

He collapsed forward onto the table, muttering into the surface.

“Why, hero? I want to get close to you, as if we’d known each other for decades… That’s why I come running the moment you call…”

“…”

“I’m not really this kind of person… I mean it.”

Kyrillos tried to smile as he smoothed down his messy hair.

Adam’s thoughts were impossible to read.

“So, what exactly did His Majesty say?”

Adam, who had remained strangely silent while Kyrillos spoke, shifted the subject.

To an outsider, it would have looked like he was simply ignoring Kyrillos’s goodwill and focusing only on business, a taciturn man.

But to me, it seemed more like Adam was afraid.

Afraid of what?

It felt familiar, like a scene I had seen somewhere before.

During the fire… just before he had found me, his expression had been similar.

I pondered this as I watched them.

“But if you suddenly brought up the boy from the flyer, does that mean…?”

“That’s right. The truth is, earlier in the city, I was pickpocketed by that boy. He stole my purse, which is why we came back sooner than planned.”

I did not mention that the boy was currently asleep in one of the castle’s empty rooms.

“Hm…”

Kyrillos seemed to think it over, then took out a round crystal orb and went into a room.

I could hear him speaking, but not clearly enough to catch the words.

Of course, if I tried, I could have—

“I was only curious…!”

“If it were pure curiosity, you wouldn’t be pressing your ear against the door.”

Tch. Adam’s hand gently pulled me away, spoiling my effort the moment Kyrillos went inside.

Grumbling, I asked,

“Aren’t you curious, Adam?”

“He’s not one to hide things. If you ask, he’ll spill everything in detail. There’s no need to eavesdrop.”

Was that really true? His expression had looked so grave when he went inside.

What if he trusted the emperor more, and kept it from us?

But soon Kyrillos returned from the room, and I quickly arranged my face as if nothing had happened.

“You said that boy was a pickpocket, right? I asked a fellow mage from my year, and it turns out he’s the son of a palace maid. Apparently he ran off with something important.”

“…”

“What could it be? If it were truly vital, they wouldn’t have sent me to retrieve it.”

Kyrillos was well aware of his reputation.

The wastrel. The Duke of Evant’s problem child.

He bore many scornful names.

But he wore them with indifference—if anything, he seemed to like them, because they gave him an excuse not to live up to his duties as a young lord.

“You said your purse was stolen. Want me to help? Just give me a strand of hair, and I can track its location, at least roughly.”

Putting away the crystal, he grinned confidently.

He looked less like a lazy wastrel and more like someone overly eager.

“There’s no need for you to trouble yourself, Young Lord.”

Adam, who had smiled even at commoners in the market, answered Kyrillos curtly, as if determined never to let him draw close.

It was the same tone he used when pushing me away.

“…Ah, I see.”

Kyrillos rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“But if you ever need help, please don’t hesitate to ask!”

Still, Kyrillos wasn’t the type to give up easily.

He acted as though he didn’t even see the wall Adam put up.

Adam, growing more annoyed, gave a few curt replies before finally standing as if the conversation wasn’t worth continuing.

“Eve, let’s go.”

“…Ah, yes!”

Caught under his gaze, I rose from my seat.

Left behind, Kyrillos only smiled and waved, as if to say not to worry about him.

“He won’t be coming back.”

“…Are you sure about that?”

Adam was underestimating Kyrillos’s persistence.

He didn’t know how terrifying a stubborn person could be.

Even after what Adam had put me through, I hadn’t given up.

Kyrillos showed no sign of retreat either.

Hang in there, Adam.

I reached up and patted his head.