Chapter 31
“Cough! Cough...!”
I broke through the acrid smoke and emerged into the safe part of the forest.
Alina and Elysia were still wedged under my arms on either side, like pieces of luggage.
“Count! Over here!”
At my shout, Count Eisen, Kara, and the search party all turned their heads.
“Varg!”
“Alina!”
Count Eisen came running over, his face deathly pale.
I carefully lowered the two girls from my sides.
First, I handed Elysia over to the medic waiting with the search party.
She was limp with exhaustion, but still breathing.
And Alina.
I placed the trembling little girl in Count Eisen’s arms.
“Alina must have been terribly frightened.”
“Oh, dear God....”
Eisen caught his daughter and sank to the ground.
The father’s shoulders shook violently.
The coolheaded Eisen was nowhere to be seen tonight.
All that remained beneath the moonlight was a father who had nearly lost his daughter.
“Daddy...?”
Only then did Alina, held in Count Eisen’s arms, burst into the sobs she had been holding back.
“Waaaaah! Daddy... Sniff, I was so scared....”
“There, there... Daddy’s here. It’s all right now.”
“Because of me... Sniff! Masha? At the shop earlier... She got stabbed in the stomach protecting me... There was so much blood... What if Masha dies?”
The child was worrying first about the head maid who had been injured protecting her, rather than about her own safety.
Count Eisen hugged his daughter tightly and comforted her.
“It’s all right. Masha is safe. The doctors treated her right away. Her life isn’t in danger.”
“Really...? Waaaaah! I’m sorry... I... I was the one who asked her to go buy tarts....”
“It’s not Alina’s fault. The bad men are the ones at fault. It’s all right now.”
Eisen wiped away his tears and raised his head.
Then he looked at me.
His eyes held gratitude beyond words.
Usually, gratitude like this would have made me squirm, but....
Now that I was a father too, I could meet his gaze head-on.
“Mr. Varg... you saved Alina, my world. I could never repay this debt, not even with my life.”
“Think nothing of it. Protecting Yeppi’s big sister is only natural.”
I answered with a broad grin.
That was when it happened.
Alina, who seemed to have calmed down, began acting strangely.
Even while held in her father’s arms, she did not look at Eisen’s face and groped at the air with her tiny hands.
“Daddy? You’re really Daddy, right? I’m sorry, Daddy... I can’t see your face very well....”
Her eyes were unfocused.
Alina’s eyes remained shut.
It looked as though she could not open them even when she tried.
“Alina...? Don’t tell me, her eyes...”
‘No way…’
Eisen’s heart sank.
The ease I had felt earlier vanished as well.
Eisen examined his daughter’s eyes with trembling hands.
There was no external injury.
But even with her father’s thick fingertips approaching right before her eyes, the child could not move her eyelids.
She could not see what was in front of her.
“...It’s my fault.”
Just then, Elysia, who was being supported nearby, struggled to speak.
She lowered her head, her red hair spilling down with guilt.
“I... I couldn’t control it... The child looked straight at it.”
“That...?”
「Incineration」.
The reason Elysia was the protagonist—a fact even Eisen did not know, one that would turn the Empire upside down if revealed.
「Incineration」, the legendary Sun God’s power, which even the current direct Imperial descendants did not possess.
“I know this won’t be much comfort... but it shouldn’t be permanent. She’ll only be unable to see for a little while... I was, I was like that at first too....”
Elysia’s voice was dwindling to a whisper.
Even though her own palms had already been burned by the heat, she could not properly look at the girl who had temporarily lost her sight because of the power she had failed to control, nor at her father.
“What are you talking about....”
Eisen still did not know exactly what Elysia meant by 「control」, 「head-on」, and 「at first」.
Worry and relief for Alina.
Questions about Elysia.
Anger at the kidnappers.
Eisen turned his head through the confusion in his mind and looked at Elysia.
Her face was covered in dirt, and the hems of her clothes had been burned away.
At first he did not recognize her, but when Elysia raised her head, he froze at the sight of her eyes.
Golden eyes.
A symbol possessed only by the direct line of the Imperial Family, shining clearly even beneath the moonlight.
Count Eisen’s mind raced.
The unusual golden eyes.
The target the kidnappers had been after.
The red-haired girl from the rumors.
‘The bastard princess?’
He had heard rumors that the emperor had a bastard daughter, but never expected her to appear here, in such a state.
Eisen asked in a trembling voice.
“Could it be... Her Highness Princess Elysia von Croa?”
“......!”
The search party members around them stirred at the word princess.
Elysia weakly nodded.
She seemed to have neither the strength nor the will to hide her identity any longer.
Count Eisen was utterly stunned.
He had the sudden realization that his family had become entangled in the middle of a massive political maelstrom connected to the Empire’s succession.
Amid the heat and smoke pouring from the burning forest, Eisen hugged Alina even more tightly at the ominous premonition.
‘What am I supposed to do about this....’
While Count Eisen was struggling with his confusion.
I quietly approached Kara.
Kara was staring blankly at the burning cabin.
Drops of blood dripped from the tip of 「Frostwind」 in her hand.
“Kara.”
At my call, Kara started and turned her head.
The moment she saw me, her eyes shook violently.
Suddenly!
I pulled Kara and Yeppi into my arms.
I hugged them so tightly it felt as though I might crush them.
“Kara! Are you hurt anywhere? Did you breathe in a lot of smoke? What about your stomach? Yeppi?”
I asked urgently.
Kara’s body trembled faintly in my arms.
“......”
Instead of answering, Kara let out a small laugh.
Then she carefully brushed the soot and burn marks from my cheek with her fingers.
“Idiot. Worry about how you look first. You’re scorched and burned... and you’re worrying about me again.”
Kara’s voice was tinged with tears despite the dry heat of the flames.
While the forest burned, she had been unable to breathe properly, afraid Varg might not make it out.
She had wanted to run into the smoke, but because of the child in her womb, and because of her promise to Varg, she had been forced to endure what felt like an eternity.
The strength drained from her legs at the sight of her husband safe and sound.
Slowly.
Kara buried her face in my broad chest.
Then she pressed her ear against it and listened to my heartbeat.
Thump, thump, thump.
The strong, regular beat of my heart.
“...It’s beating.”
Kara whispered in relief.
“Thank goodness. Thank goodness.”
Kara’s warm breath moistened my chest.
I cradled Kara’s head as well, and we felt each other’s warmth.
We’re alive.
We’re all alive.
That alone was enough.
But I had a premonition that this peace would not last long.
We had not even entered the academy yet.
Nor had we heard the result of the single letter meant to change Karl’s circumstances.
And behind me, Count Eisen was having a serious conversation.
With Elysia, the protagonist of this world and this generation.
She was the protagonist of 「The Bastard’s Snowflower Path」.
Her very existence was trouble and disaster.
“Count! The fire’s under control!”
The search party leader’s shout reached us.
“Father! I brought the fire brigade! Where’s Alina?”
The forest fire, fueled by the strong liquor, was completely extinguished thanks to the search party’s swift response and the civil-defense fire brigade led by Lonas joining them.
The forest was blackened, but fortunately, major damage had been prevented.
“Did you catch them?”
“Yes. We’ve restrained the man whose leg Miss Kara severed, as well as the one who collapsed alone in the forest.”
“Alone?”
Count Eisen seemed to think he was a kidnapper I had injured, who had collapsed while trying to flee.
The search party members dragged over two kidnappers bound with ropes.
One was dragging his leg, while the leader was clutching his foot with all its toes severed and groaning.
‘What? I didn’t cut off his toes. Did Kara perhaps...’
But judging by the skill with which those toes had been cut off, it was not something Kara or I had done.
A third party had intervened.
And a very cruel and terrifyingly skilled one at that.
‘I have a rough idea who it was, but....’
For now, I decided to pretend I knew nothing.
In any case, Alina had been rescued.
And, as a bonus, I had rescued the original heroine as well.
The incident had been brought to an end for now, but it would not be over.
The kidnappers’ backers.
The Kingdom of Slokina, according to my memories.
And the arrival of the protagonist, Elysia.
The gears of the original story had begun turning powerfully with a new beginning.
And one conclusion had been reached.
Elysia had to stay away.
Only then would Kara and Yeppi be safe.
'Hopefully, I’m just being paranoid.'
“Let’s head back for now.”
Eisen rose, holding Alina.
We made our way back to the mansion, dragging our exhausted bodies along.
Lonas, who had planned to get a long night’s sleep starting tonight, would be pulling another all-nighter.
* * *
After returning to the mansion, we headed straight for the bathroom.
The bathroom was filled with warm steam.
I gently scrubbed Kara’s back while Kara washed the soot from my solid shoulders.
Black water flowed down onto the floor.
“Today was really... scary.”
Kara whispered with her face resting against my back.
“I was afraid I’d lose both Alina and you.”
“Don’t worry. I’m here.”
I reached back and stroked Kara’s wet hair.
“We’re strong. And Yeppi will be strong too.”
Mwah—.
Though the bathroom was thick with humidity, the sound of our kiss rang clearly in my ears.
Clearly enough for Yeppi in her belly to hear it too.
After we finished washing, in the bedroom.
Kara brought the medicine box and applied ointment to the light burns on my cheek and arm.
Though something serious had happened, Kara’s touch gave me a strangely sensual feeling.
“Does it sting? Hoo...”
“It tickles. It doesn’t hurt when you blow on it.”
I closed my eyes, feeling Kara’s touch.
The most peaceful moment, confirming that we were alive and together.
But the situation in the other rooms was not nearly so peaceful.
Elysia was resting in a guest room in the detached quarters.
We would interrogate the captured kidnappers, but we also needed Elysia’s testimony.
Before going to her own bedroom, Alina went to visit Head Maid Masha’s sickroom.
“Masha...”
“Oh... Thank goodness... Thank goodness.... You’re safe, miss....”
Alina could not see Masha lying there with bandages wrapped around her.
She still could not see.
But when she groped her way over with her tiny hands and hugged Masha, then touched the bandages—
“Ah....”
When Masha let out a muffled groan, Alina began sobbing again.
“I’m sorry, Masha... It’s because of me... Waaah!”
“Miss... Please don’t cry... I’m all right....”
Masha sat up despite her pain to comfort Alina, but the child’s guilt would not be easily washed away.
Only after she cried herself to sleep did a servant carry Alina to her room.
Count Eisen, who had watched it all, stood in the hallway outside Alina’s bedroom, fists clenched and trembling.
“I have to interrogate those bastards... right now.”
His eyes were bloodshot.
“How dare they touch Alina... my daughter....”
His coolheaded reason had already evaporated.
Today, Eisen was not a coolheaded administrator but a father burning with a desire for revenge.
Just then, Lonas placed a hand on his father’s shoulder.
“Father.”
Lonas’s eyes were cold and still as well.
There was none of his usual emotionality or paperwork-worn exhaustion.
Only the icy anger of Alina’s brother and the future head of the family, determined to protect it, lingered in his gaze.
“If you go now, you’ll kill them before you can extract any information.”
“But...!”
“Stay by Alina’s side. You need to hear the results of her eye examination, too. Alina will be anxious if you aren’t there.”
Lonas spoke firmly.
“I’ll conduct the interrogation... and come back.”
“......”
Count Eisen looked into his son’s eyes.
Lonas was just as angry.
But he was putting reason before emotion.
“...I’m counting on you.”
Count Eisen clutched at his breaking heart and entered Alina’s room.
Lonas turned away after watching his father go inside.
His footsteps carried him toward the mansion’s underground dungeon.
An eerie chill radiated from his back as he walked into the cold darkness.
Tonight, the underground dungeon would echo with sounds more horrifying than the screams of beasts.
Of course, Lonas would put gags in their mouths first.
So the pigs’ screams would not wake Alina.
The day when the pigs would see their own teeth without a mirror had been postponed until the next sunrise.