“Brother!”

It was Arsian. Standing in the doorway, staring at Jainer with a displeased look, he lightly shook his head at Rio’s call.

“I told you not to play in here.”

“Doggy is here.”

“That dog ba—... Doggy won’t be here anymore, either.”

“Why?”

The child’s face drooped at once. Was it disappearing again?

Arsian lightly patted Rio’s head as if to soothe him.

“The butler was looking for you. He said you weren’t in your room.”

“Grandpa Butler?”

“He said to come eat your snack.”

“Ah! Snack! Sweet stuff!”

Rio’s expression turned urgent. He’d forgotten snack time—the time he liked most! How could he forget?

TAP TAP.

“Huh?”

Something poked at the child’s back.

It was the Guardian, Luna.

As Rio turned, Luna slowly lowered her body in front of him, as if telling him to climb on.

“Good girl. Our Doggy!”

Understanding right away, Rio climbed onto Luna’s back with a beaming grin.

“Let’s go, Doggy! To my room!”

[.......]

Now accustomed to the name, Luna let out another short sigh, then carefully left the room so the child wouldn’t fall.

The moment Rio was gone, the argument exploded.

“Is it okay to treat a Guardian like that?”

“Mind your own business, and if you’re conscious, get out.”

“Nothing to say about monitoring someone?”

“I save your life and you’ve got a lot to say?”

“Haha. For that, I’m truly grateful. I’ll repay this favor. I’m very thorough about settling debts.”

“Enough. Just get out. And take the one who came looking for you with you.”

Frowning, Arsian flicked his eyes out the window. Jainer had already sensed it too, so he gave a small nod.

The movement was extremely stealthy—befitting an assassin—but there was no way it could slip past the eyes of those two.

“Master of Khan.”

The one who’d been hiding revealed himself at once, as if he’d been listening the whole time.

“Are you all right?”

Tay—the branch head in charge of one Khan branch—watched Arsian warily as he cautiously checked Jainer over.

He’d learned from their conversation that Arsian had saved him, but he couldn’t relax his guard. He clearly remembered that this man had once attacked their branch.

“I have something to report.”

“Speak.”

When Tay glanced at Arsian, gauging his reaction, Jainer gave a light nod as if to say it didn’t matter.

“Lady Camilla came to the branch.”

“Camilla?”

“She asked about the Master of Khan’s whereabouts...”

At the news that Camilla had been looking for him, a smile formed at the corner of Jainer’s mouth.

In contrast, Arsian’s eyes turned savage.

“But Priest Daniel urgently took her away as she was leaving the branch.”

“What?”

“Who took her?”

Both Jainer and Arsian reacted at the same time.

Jainer roughly knew what Daniel was, and Arsian also knew—based on Camilla’s reaction at the Papacy—that she was wary of Daniel.

“I assigned someone to tail them. We confirmed their destination, but...”

After hesitating, Tay carefully added his personal opinion.

“I believe it’s a trap. The fact that he took Lady Camilla right in front of us... and the way he moved as if telling us to follow...”

WUUUUNG—

“Hey! Wait!”

Before Tay could even finish, Arsian cast magic.

He’d already placed tracking magic on Camilla long ago, so he didn’t need anyone to guide him. Seeing that, Jainer grabbed him in a panic.

“Are you out of your— What are you doing!”

There wasn’t a second to waste!

Arsian’s Killing Intent surged and slammed over Jainer—like he’d kill him on the spot if he didn’t let go.

“What he wants is me. Like my subordinate said, if I don’t go, she could be in even more danger.”

“.......”

There was no time to argue.

Swallowing his anger, Arsian immediately moved his mana again.

FWOOSH!

In an instant, the two of them were swallowed by light—and vanished from the spot.

“...Haa.”

Watching it all from the side, Tay let out a deep, exhausted sigh.

“I clearly said it was a trap.”

Did either of them even hear that?

Pressing his fingertips hard into his brow like his head hurt, Tay quickly disappeared from the area.

*****

FWOOSH!

A quiet place a short distance outside the capital.

Arsian appeared, having chased the tracking magic he’d placed on Camilla, and hurriedly scanned the surroundings.

But...

FWOOM!

“...What is this?”

Everything was a sea of fire. A place that looked like a building was burning furiously.

The color drained rapidly from Arsian’s face, because the last place Camilla’s signal had been caught was right there.

“No way...!”

Arsian bolted straight toward it—to the burning building.

“What are you doing!”

“Let go!”

The only place she could be was there. And if that was on fire—

Arsian roughly shook off Jainer’s grip. But Jainer seized him again, harder.

“Get a grip! That isn’t ordinary fire!” 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The flames devouring the building and the surrounding area carried an overwhelming force. It wasn’t a normal blaze.

That was—

“.......”

Only then did Arsian flinch, as if he’d snapped back to his senses.

Jainer was right. It wasn’t just fire.

It was a presence Arsian could never fail to recognize.

“Div—!”

“Arsian?”

A voice cut in right then.

Arsian’s head whipped around.

And in his sight, a woman slowly emerged from between the thick bushes.

“What are you doing here?”

It was Camilla.

“Ah! You said you put tracking magic on me last time, right? So you came using that? But how did you know I was in dang—!”

She didn’t get to finish.

In a single stride, he closed the distance—and pulled her into him.

“Ars—!”

“You... seriously. Haa...”

Camilla, about to demand what was going on, had no choice but to shut her mouth at his trembling voice and long exhale.

Pat, pat.

Like she had on some day in the past, Camilla simply patted his back in silence—an apology for worrying him.

“Get away from her! Right now—get away!”

“Are you shouting at my daughter right now? Have you gone senile?”

“You two—how long are you going to keep clinging to each other?”

Then, an all-too-familiar voice cut between them.

At that sound, Arsian’s head snapped up again.

It was a voice he never expected here.

“Why is your son plastered all over that child like that? Separate them at once!”

“A whole hour and a half. You’re very late. I clearly told you to protect her well. And only now you show up.”

Arsian’s eyes went blank for a moment, unlike him.

“...Why are you three here?”

Staring at him with flat expressions—

The three Dukes of the Fable Empire.

Chapter. Daniel’s End

“Where is this...?”

“A place that used to be used as a retreat, long ago.”

The place Priest Daniel brought Camilla to was a quiet area on the outskirts of the capital. A fairly large building stood there.

“It’s where priests and clerics used to pray when they trained.”

“The condition...”

“Yes. It’s very old, isn’t it?”

The marks of time were etched into it. It looked like it hadn’t been maintained at all.

“Right now, we use a building located closer to the Papacy.”

“Then what about here?”

“It’s empty.”

In other words, it had been shut down a long time ago.

“You’re saying Jainer is here?”

“Didn’t I tell you a moment ago? I believed you’d been attacked, and I needed somewhere discreet to protect him. This was perfect.”

It made sense.

Camilla gave a small nod, then quietly followed behind Daniel as he headed inside first.

[Should I go in right now? This is suspicious. Shouldn’t we draw the sword first?]

[What are you talking about! You can’t just kill people without reading the situation. Let’s put him to sleep first. Knock him out and tie him up tight! Leave it to me!]

[When it’s dangerous, you use a sword. How is putting him to sleep a solution?]

[You’re so stupid! We need to interrogate him first! We have to drag out everything he knows! This is why people say sword types are dumb!]

[And looking at you, it doesn’t seem like all priests are smart either.]

[What did you say?!]

Ugh. I’m getting a headache.

Listening to Zeno and Arena bicker over who should possess first, Camilla lightly shook her head.

Let’s watch a little longer first.

If that man really was connected to Eva Faith, then there had to be a reason he’d called her here.

You watch first—then fight if you have to.

“This way.”

Unlike the exterior, the inside of the building was very bright. Magic lamps were mounted everywhere, so moving around wasn’t inconvenient at all.

Aside from being old, it was cleaner than she’d expected—it didn’t look like a place that hadn’t been used in a long time.

[Camilla. The ceiling.]

[It’s crawling over there too, you know?]

But the moment she heard that people were secretly positioned all over, it made sense.

So this was one of their places for doing dirty work.

So it really was a trap.

A trap didn’t really matter.

What was annoying was—what if Jainer wasn’t even here, either?

Camilla clicked her tongue lightly.

Since it had come to this, she’d at least strip him bare and find out what he really was.

Priest Daniel.

If there aren’t any spirits following him, it doesn’t look like his body was stolen.

Did he join Eva Faith of his own will?

With that mild, agreeable air, he looked like such a decent person.

They say you can’t know someone just by looking at their face...

If it were only his face, he couldn’t look more harmless—yet he was an Eva believer.

It was absurd.

And coming from someone like that—always going on about the Lord God’s blessings.

It was ridiculous.

“This place is a bit shabby. Please sit here.”

“Where is Jainer?”

The place he led her to looked like a reception room.

He’d brought her here using the excuse that Jainer’s condition was terrible, and then—

Isn’t this a little too fast to show your true colors?

He was blatantly making it obvious Jainer wasn’t here.

“I apologize.”

At Camilla’s question, a deep smile spread across Daniel’s face.

“I wanted time alone with you, and I ended up speaking falsely—regrettably.”

“So Jainer isn’t here.”

“Yes.”

Camilla let out a short sigh inwardly.

She’d still had a sliver of hope.

Then where the hell is he right now?

Is he even alive?

Should I have just gone straight to Sephra?

No.

Camilla’s gaze returned to Daniel.

Maybe she didn’t need to meet Luna at all.

“Were you the one who attacked Jainer?”