Chapter 94
Chapter 94
Adam chuckled softly as he quickly put together a sandwich for me.
I took a big bite.
“Adam, I thought this before too, but you really are good at cooking.”
“Am I?”
On our journeys, Adam had always been the one to cook at camp.
He used to say we could just eat whatever we found, but that was fine for the Mercenary Queen—Kyrillos had been the problem.
That pampered noble heir had once eaten raw vegetables and ended up with a stomachache, so after that Adam silently took charge of preparing meals.
Even if he didn’t remember, I thought, he must have always been skilled at cooking.
Once my hunger was somewhat satisfied, Adam handed me a warm cup of cocoa.
“So, Adam. What do you know?”
I toyed with the mug as I spoke.
“Do you have any idea what it was that Erwin said he saw?”
“To be honest, not clearly. But… I can guess to some extent.”
Adam furrowed his brows as though troubled.
“He said it was a hero, right? There can’t be more than one hero in a generation, so he must have meant the former hero.”
“The former hero?”
“You’ve heard the story—how the previous hero fell into despair after losing his beloved, then disappeared.”
I nodded readily.
Adam continued.
“Yes. My predecessor, the sixth hero, Lawrence Evant. After killing the Demon King, he returned to the capital, a groom-to-be preparing for his wedding.”
It was a story I had heard often, whether I wanted to or not.
Kyrillos himself had mentioned it. He said Lawrence was his great-uncle.
“On his wedding day, his bride was brutally murdered, and he vanished.”
What Adam said was no news to me.
But if he was bringing up Lawrence now, then surely…
“Are you saying he didn’t just disappear, but the emperor took him?”
“No. My thoughts differ somewhat.”
Adam spoke slowly.
“If the sixth hero received a curse like mine, then it was likely Lawrence himself who killed his bride.”
“…”
In the end, Lawrence must have succumbed to the Demon King’s curse and lost control.
“Even if he regained his senses after being consumed by demonic energy, he would’ve struggled to stay sane. The sensation and memory of killing his beloved would remain. After that, whether by his own will or another’s, he must have gone away somewhere… to keep himself from harming anyone else.”
“Then you’re saying Lawrence is in the imperial palace dungeons now?”
“If Erwin’s words are true, then yes. And the palace would want to silence him for it.”
“Then do I have to go?”
“…!”
A small head had appeared suddenly, bowed low in gloom.
I blinked at the sight of Erwin.
How long had he been standing there?
Erwin couldn’t even lift his eyes, mumbling as he stared at the floor.
“I don’t want to go…”
“Don’t worry, Erwin. If you don’t want to, we won’t send you.”
I patted his small shoulders.
His eyes trembled fiercely.
“Keeping him here in the Demon King’s castle is dangerous,” Adam said carelessly, and Erwin flinched like a startled rabbit.
“Then what about entrusting him to mercenaries?” I suggested.
They took on all sorts of work, and if given a child suddenly to care for, I believed they would do so earnestly.
Erwin suddenly lifted his head, eyes shining.
“My mother’s a mercenary too! She even raised an amazing mercenary herself, that’s what she said!”
His pale cheeks flushed with color as he clutched at his head, trying to spill out everything he knew.
“I thought if I could reach her, she’d protect me… but I had no way to get there, so I took your money. I’m sorry.”
“Who is she? If I can find her, I’ll help.”
“…Isella.”
He whispered the name.
Then, with a face full of certainty, repeated it.
“Her name is Lady Isella.”
The Mercenary Queen’s name, here of all places.
I looked up at Adam in shock. His face was equally surprised.
No one in the empire would dare impersonate her name.
That meant this boy’s mother, a mercenary, truly knew Isella.
Soon after, Adam fetched a white carrier pigeon from its cage.
Standing at his side, I voiced what had been on my mind.
“What about Kyrillos?”
“Let’s not tell him. Compared to taking Erwin away safely, his official task of investigating the missing child is secondary. And he already found it suspicious.”
I nodded slowly.
I felt guilty about deceiving Kyrillos, but as he himself had said, only a fool would give him such a chore.
After all, which high noble earnestly pursued menial tasks?
Still, part of me wanted to tell him the truth.
Because he had once been Adam’s companion.
Adam didn’t remember, and Kyrillos didn’t know, but I did.
I knew how close they had been.
And now, realizing I might never again see that closeness, I sighed quietly to myself.
* * *
Tok, tok tok.
In the emperor’s secret audience chamber, only the sound of fingers drumming on the table echoed through the silence.
The emperor leaned back, staring lazily ahead, while the knights before him held their breath, not daring to make a sound.
The drumming ceased, as though his thoughts had reached their end, and his gaze lowered.
Resting his chin in his hand, the emperor looked down with contempt at the one kneeling before him.
“First you fail at the hunting tournament—”
His low voice resounded through the hall.
“One fool wastes time running into Mia’s Forest to drag him out.”
Though it sounded at first like he was reciting their actions indifferently, his tone grew increasingly sharp.
“And then the two idiots couldn’t even catch a child, and let him slip away!”
“That was…!”
A knight opened his mouth to protest, but the emperor’s hand moved faster.
He seized the stone box from the table and hurled it.
The knight, struck on the forehead, clutched at the bleeding wound before remembering whose presence he was in. He quickly straightened his posture.
The emperor, still seething, hissed as he spoke.
“If not for the rope found in Mia’s Forest, I would have discarded you. Do you understand, Hakan?”
“Of course, Your Majesty! I am grateful for my life once again! This time, I shall devote my entire body to fulfilling Your Majesty’s will, so that the new name you have granted me will not be wasted!”
Flattening himself against the ground, Hakan’s voice rang with desperate loyalty.
At the edge of Mia’s Forest, what had been found was a rope.
Since none dared approach the forest, its presence there could mean only one thing.
The emperor believed it was that rope which had allowed the hero who entered Mia’s Forest to come out alive.
Hearing from the knight that the hero had entered the forest, he had briefly allowed himself relief, thinking he would never again see that face. That moment of relief had been a grave mistake.
Of course, he had never expected that damned hero to simply die quietly inside Mia’s Forest.
That was why he had ordered Hakan to bring back the man’s severed head!
Surely, the hero had help.
But who could that helper be, when only a handful of nobles had been summoned to the hunt?
Anyone with half a brain would have known that aiding the hero meant drawing the emperor’s ire.
So the one who helped must have been either entirely without sense—or someone who could afford to act without fear.
“You mean you still can’t even guess the identity of that insolent wretch.”
Tok, tok tok.
The emperor’s fingers tapped steadily against the armrest.
Could it be that maid?
Yet he had noticed nothing unusual about her.
Just an ordinary maid following the hero.
Still, it was she who came to his mind.
No matter how the hero pretended to keep his distance, a beast starved of affection will always leap at the slightest kindness.
On barren ground, if only one rose blooms, of course it will seem especially cherished.
And hadn’t the boy dared to give him a warning—like he meant to cast aside all “good men”?
Just one prank, and he had flared up like a startled cat.
Who would believe, watching that, that the hero kept his heart closed?
Arrogant, yet still unripe.
Like that wretched elder brother who always looked at him with the same scornful eyes…
Seeing Adam’s face overlap with the one he hated to remember, the emperor’s expression hardened.
