Chapter 32
The next morning.
The Eisengard mansion, swept by acrid smoke that had raged alongside the stench of blood and strong liquor, was quiet.
The blood trail left when Head Maid Masha came running to report Alina's kidnapping, clutching the hole in her abdomen, had not yet been completely wiped away.
Unfortunately, the bloodstains in front of Alina's bedroom were the clearest.
Morning sunlight streamed through the gap in the window and illuminated the white bedsheets.
The sun reserved its first warmth of the day for the sheets wrapped around Alina, whose eyes were covered in bandages.
Count Eisen sat beside the bed, his hollow eyes suggesting he had not slept a wink all night.
The count clasped his sleeping daughter's tiny hand carefully, as though it might break, yet firmly enough to say he would not let go.
Clatter.
The family physician who had come to make a house call rose after organizing his examination tools.
Count Eisen gazed at the doctor with desperate eyes.
“...How is she?”
“It is fortunate, all things considered, Count.”
The doctor calmly adjusted his glasses and spoke.
“Her optic nerves are not burned. There is no permanent damage.”
“Ah....”
A sigh of relief burst from Count Eisen's lips.
The strength left his legs, and he nearly sank to the floor.
“She was exposed to light that was far too strong, temporarily blocking her vision. It resembles what is commonly called flash blindness, though it will last a little longer. She is very young, and on top of that, she endured stress that would be difficult for a child to bear.”
The doctor looked pityingly at Alina lying on the bed.
“It is not that she cannot see at all even now. She can still distinguish light and vague shapes, albeit hazily.”
“Then... you mean she’ll be able to see again?”
“Yes. Her vision should return with time and rest. However....”
The doctor paused.
“She has been through something no child should have to endure. Kidnapping, a fire, and even the threat of murder.... Emotional stability is more important than physical treatment. Her sight will return once the wounds in her heart have healed.”
“I understand. I’ll remember that. Thank you... Thank you very much.”
Count Eisen took the doctor's hands and bowed repeatedly.
Neither the pride of being Eisengard's lord nor the dignity of a noble mattered.
Simply knowing that his daughter's eyes had not been permanently blinded was enough to make the father thank the Sun God, and the doctor, again and again.
“Still, even if it was nighttime, flash blindness from the light of a fire alone... And even though the kidnappers did not cover Miss Alina's eyes, for her to suffer flash blindness from the firelight alone....”
After finishing the house call, the doctor tried to point out the suspicious details he had noticed during the examination, but—
“Alina.... Thank goodness....”
He could not bring himself to interrupt the father as he shared his warmth with his daughter.
A short while after the doctor left.
The door opened with a cautious knock.
It was Kara and I.
We greeted Count Eisen with a nod and approached the bedside.
Perhaps sensing our presence, Alina, who had been sitting propped up against the bed, turned her head.
Her unfocused eyes wandered through empty space before turning toward the sound.
“...Big Brother Varg?”
“Huh? How did you know?”
Even though her vision must still have been blurry, Alina recognized me by my presence alone.
“Big Brother Varg walks on his heels. And he’s really huge, too.”
“You could tell that....?”
Alina's admirable perceptiveness stirred the emotion I'd pushed aside, and I approached and bent my knees to meet her at eye level.
Then I carefully took the small hand Alina was waving through the air.
“That’s right, Alina. Big Brother’s here. How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?”
“Mm... I’m okay....”
Alina smiled shyly.
That bright smile only hurt my heart more.
“Thank you for saving me....”
Hearing her offer polite thanks instead of the childish, lisping casual speech natural for a girl her age made my chest ache.
“No. I’m sorry I got there late.”
“No. I was really scared, but... when you broke down the door and came in, I wasn’t scared at all.”
Alina said this, tightening her grip on my hand.
“And... I could see until you picked me up and ran. So I remember your face.”
“......”
“You were so cool. You really looked like a hero.”
The child chirped like a bird.
She was wrapping the memory of the terrible fire in the trappings of a heroic tale, trying to reassure the adults.
Eisen and I looked at each other.
The count's eyes were rimmed with red.
My heart ached at how admirable she was, and at the thought that this incident might have forced a mere seven-year-old to grow up far too soon.
Just then, Kara, who had been standing behind me, stepped forward.
“Alina.”
“Big Sister?”
Kara sat beside the bed and took Alina's hand from mine.
Then she gently placed the child's palm against her lower abdomen, still flat but already sheltering a growing life.
Warmth passed into Alina's palm.
“Alina, did you know? Yeppi told me....”
Kara whispered in a gentle voice.
“Yesterday, Yeppi said that Big Sister Alina... was the bravest and coolest person in the world.”
“......!”
Alina's eyes opened wide.
But they still could not focus.
Her pupils could not settle.
With a single cough, Kara raised her voice and imitated a child's tone.
“Yeah! I saw everything too! Big Sister Alina didn’t even cry—she held on! I want to get out soon and become brave like you, too!”
“Pfft.”
I nearly burst out laughing.
Kara's atrocious acting.
Even in such a heavy atmosphere, I still found myself smiling.
Perhaps her sincerity and warmth got through, because Alina's face brightened.
“Really...? Yeppi said that?”
“Of course. Yeppi can’t lie. Yeppi knows that you worried about Masha and held on all the way to the end.”
“Hehe....”
At last, a bright, childlike smile spread across Alina's face.
The child's heart, stiff with fear and tension, was melting like snow before her little sibling's praise.
“Then... I’d better get better quickly.”
Alina said this, clenching her fist.
“I’ll get better quickly, learn swordsmanship like Big Sister Kara, and grow strong. Then when Yeppi is born... I’ll protect Yeppi.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes! I’ll protect Masha, Daddy, and Yeppi, too. I won’t let anyone get hurt!”
The vow was so pure that it struck all the more heavily.
Kara hugged Alina tightly.
“That’s right. Our Alina will become the greatest knight. I guarantee it.”
After their conversation came to an end, Alina yawned.
With the tension gone, fatigue seemed to be rushing over her.
“Are you sleepy?”
Eisen asked as he tucked her in.
Alina nodded, then looked at her father through her blurry gaze.
Her father, who had kept watch beside her all night without so much as closing his eyes.
Even through her blurred vision, she could make out her father's hollow eyes and roughened skin.
She could sense his exhaustion even though he did not show it.
“Daddy.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“Go get some sleep now. Thank you for holding my hand all night.”
“No. Daddy’s not sleepy. I’ll stay until you fall asleep....”
“No.”
Alina shook her head and snorted.
“I’m going to take a nice long nap now. But if Daddy’s beside me, you snore so loudly I won’t be able to sleep.”
“......!”
The count was flustered.
Just as he had been when he met me and Kara's father, Gorgon.
“D-do I snore?”
“Yes. Really loudly. So go sleep somewhere else. You’ll wake me up.”
Alina pulled the blanket over her head.
But the small hand sticking out from beneath it was gesturing, ‘Hurry up and go.’
“......”
Count Eisen's eyes grew hot again.
He knew.
He did not snore.
“For a moment, I thought I’d caught it from Gorgon....”
“My father's snoring is pretty bad.”
The child was giving her father a cute excuse so he could leave and rest without guilt weighing on his heart.
“You’ve grown up, Alina.”
Eisen swallowed down the emotion surging up inside him and hugged his daughter tightly over the blanket.
“...All right. I understand. Sorry for snoring.”
“Hehe.”
“Thank you, Alina. Sleep well.”
Count Eisen stroked her hair and rose.
Kara and I patted Alina in the blanket once each as well.
“Sleep well, little hero. Say good night to Yeppi, too. Sleep well, Big Sister.”
“See you later, Alina.”
We waited until the child began breathing softly, then carefully left the room.
Click.
The moment we closed Alina's door and stepped into the hallway, we came face-to-face with a figure approaching from across the hall.
Lonas, who had just returned after interrogating them all night.
“......”
The instant I saw him, I flinched.
The fragile young master who usually grew teary while wrestling with paperwork was nowhere to be seen.
He looked so wretched and ravaged, as though interrogating and torturing the kidnappers in the underground dungeon all night had consumed his very soul.
His eyes were cold and razor-sharp, and blackened bloodstains clung between his disheveled strands of hair, a sign of how roughly he had run his hands through it.
It was easy to tell without asking whether the blood was his or theirs.
“Lonas.”
Eisen called out to his son.
Lonas gazed at Alina's closed door for a moment, then smiled bitterly.
“Alina’s... asleep. That’s good. If she’d been awake, I wouldn’t have been able to bring myself to go to sleep, either.”
He wanted to hug his awake little sister, but he could not embrace her while reeking of blood.
With a sigh, Lonas pulled a thick bundle of papers from inside his coat and handed it to Count Eisen.
It was the interrogation report.
The edges of the papers were stained with blood.
“For now, I made them spit out everything they had to say. I left them with just enough blood in their bodies to keep their hearts beating, so they won’t die immediately.”
Lonas's voice was utterly dry.
“I’ve already sent people to investigate any additional remnants. Then I’ll be off... I’m going to get some sleep.”
Lonas started to walk away, staggering, then stopped short.
“For the record... I can’t sleep easy unless Father goes inside first.”
He made a joke, but the corners of Lonas's mouth did not move at all.
He was that exhausted—and that furious.
Eisen looked at his son with pity.
The son he had always regarded as immature and delicate had returned with blood on his hands for the sake of his family.
Between a single sunset and sunrise, both his daughter and son had grown up too soon.
Eisen had always carried the reason Lonas had taken on official duties so early as a burden in his heart; it was painfully clear now.
Graduating from the academy would take far too long.
Lonas had wanted to shower his little sister with affection until then.
He would graduate from the academy, while his father could not retire until Lonas graduated.
With their mother gone as well, it was difficult to give Alina enough affection, so their father had to be the one to hold her.
With that one thought, Lonas had left the academy early.
And this year, he had fully taken over his father's work, while tonight his father had held Alina's hand through the night.
Simply knowing this made Lonas feel as though the exhaustion from seeing and smelling blood all night was washing away.
And his father understood his son's feelings.
A son was half of oneself, after all.
“Lonas.”
“Yes.”
“Even if it’s a bother, soak in the tub before you go to sleep. You need to wash away the smell of blood.”
“......”
Lonas stood dazed for a moment, then finally let out a snort of laughter.
“...Then assign someone to pull me out if I fall asleep in the tub. I don’t want to drown.”
Lonas had been heading for the bedroom, but trudged toward the bathroom instead.
The heavy responsibility of the future head of the family could be felt in his slumped back.
After Lonas disappeared.
With trembling hands, Eisen unfolded the bloodstained report.
Kara and I checked its contents beside him.
《 Interrogation Results Report 》
《 Client: An unidentified broker. Judging from the details below, presumed to be from a western kingdom. 》
《 Payment: Made in high-denomination bonds circulated in the western region. 》
《 Target: Kidnap the red-haired, golden-eyed woman. (Capture alive mandatory.) 》
“......”
The contents were sparse.
The kidnappers were nothing more than underlings bought with money.
They were merely the ‘tail’ who had taken the money and acted without knowing who had hired them.
“The client is unknown.... We’ve lost the trail. Still, the bonds have narrowed the search area for the client’s location.”
Eisen furrowed his brow.
But my gaze fixed on one line in the report.
《 Payment: Made in high-denomination bonds circulated in the western region. 》
‘Bonds from the west... Just as I thought.’
When I matched it against my memories of the original novel, the answer was clear.
This kidnapping was the work of the 「Second Prince of the Kingdom of Slokina」's faction.
They intended to kidnap Princess Elysia and mingle her bloodline with their own.
The goal was to use the remaining Croa bloodline as a pretext to seize the Empire—or as a political tool—if the direct bloodline of the Imperial Family was ever severed or weakened in the future.
It had been planned long ago—not for the present, but for their kingdom's future security.
And the Second Prince had carried out this elaborate, filthy conspiracy to use it as a card that would overturn his position in the line of succession.
‘Should I tell them?’
If I said I knew this, they would suspect me.
I was wondering how I should explain it when Eisen spoke first.
“The report doesn’t identify the mastermind. But... I may have a lead.”
“Pardon?”
“Come to think of it... there was someone who told us the kidnappers’ location in the plaza yesterday, wasn’t there?”
Kara chimed in as she searched her memory.
“That’s right. He was wearing a mask. He clearly said, ‘The client who ordered the kidnapping is the western vassal state, the Kingdom of Slokina.’”
“That’s right. And his information was accurate.”
Eisen's eyes sharpened.
I asked, feigning ignorance.
“Someone told us that? Kara, was there?”
“Yes. I couldn’t see his face because he was wearing a mask... He was shorter than you but taller than me. There was something very strange about his presence. He had an incredible bloodlust, but he didn’t attack us.”
Kara tilted her head.
“And... his eyes were unusual.”
“His eyes?”
“Yes. They were... golden, I think.”
Eisen nodded as well.
“That’s right. I can’t forget those golden eyes visible through the gap in his mask.”
The Kingdom of Slokina.
A mask.
And golden eyes.
‘Ah, so it was him.’
I was certain of it.
I knew who that helper was.
In the original novel, after being kidnapped, Elysia escaped from the jar inside the carriage by using 「Incineration」 in a way close to self-destruction.
But after suffering burns and wandering through the forest, she received help from someone....
That helper was none other than Elysia’s half-brother—
「The Fourth Prince, Radiance von Croa」.