The Villain’s Aide Has Run Away

At that time, however, it had been Kailos’ scheme—an attempt to claim the Empire’s Guardian Beast as his own.

So if, as in the original story, the necklace had to be placed around the cat’s neck, then Blue must be the Guardian Beast…

“…Or not.”

The quiet murmur slipped out. In the original tale, the Guardian Beast had appeared in an extraordinary form and conversed with people. But the Blue he knew was no different from an ordinary cat.

There was no way Crown Prince Kailos would entrust the Guardian Beast to someone as lowly as his aide.

He wanted to ask others about Blue, but how many would give him a straightforward answer? In truth, apart from Aide Robin, there was no one he associated with closely.

Leslun decided not to dwell on it too deeply.

Still, for some reason, ever since he had seen that necklace, his chest ached faintly.

***

“Are you truly going to leave it as is?”

“What are you talking about?”

Kailos, leafing through documents, replied carelessly to Robin’s question.

“The necklace from the Empress. Surely she didn’t give it with pure intentions, and yet you went ahead and fastened it.”

The necklace that Lady Miroi had brought originated from Empress Tera. Since she wished for her son, Second Prince Cassian, to ascend the throne, the chance was high she had laid some scheme upon it.

Yet Kailos, fully aware of the circumstances, had fastened the necklace without suspicion. Because it had taken place before Lady Miroi, Robin had been unable to intervene, but now he voiced his belated concern.

“Blue isn’t even my cat. Why should it matter?”

It was true that Blue belonged to no one yet, being the future Guardian Beast of the Emperor. But still, Robin could not shake off his unease.

“Have you not treasured Blue?”

“You carried the ailing Leslun yourself into your bedchamber and laid him there, yet you cast Blue out for making a mess of your study. Isn’t the treatment far too different?” Robin’s words hung in the air, but Kailos answered with cold clarity.

“Treasure and possession are not the same.”

So Leslun belongs to the Crown Prince, but Blue does not—is that it?

“At the very least, you could have checked first—”

“Robin.”

Kailos snapped the document shut. Whether because he had finished reading it or for another reason altogether, Robin could not tell.

Kailos’s gaze seemed to peel back every emotion hidden in Robin’s face.

“Then what should I have done? Stalled for time?”

“If you had, I could have investigated in the meantime.”

“And what of the Empress?”

At Kailos’s even tone, Robin met his eyes.

“You think the Empress would simply wait patiently? She must have had her reasons for using Miroi.”

As Kailos spoke calmly, Robin realized what he had overlooked. In the Imperial Palace, where countless intrigues were woven, there were innumerable ways to deal with things discreetly.

Once again, he had assumed the Empress had employed some trick—but forgotten the most important point. If she had wanted to hide the fact that she was the giver, she would have used someone other than Lady Miroi, someone far more covert.

“The Empress has already dug the pit. We simply fell into it before we could prepare.”

Kailos summed up the situation with ease, then added before Robin could speak further:

“There’s only one thing that matters. That the necklace does not threaten Blue’s life.”

One could not kill the Guardian Beast and still sit upon the throne. Blue’s safety, therefore, was assured.

“Even so, I worry it may still harm him in other ways.”

“Have you grown more attached to Blue than I?”

“The one most attached is surely Leslun, not I.”

Thump. Kailos shut the folder with a sound, then stripped off his white gloves. The gesture felt as though to say: no more words.

A servant accepted the ink-stained gloves with due reverence, and Kailos picked up a new pair resting atop a red velvet cushion.

He bore no attachment to what was soiled. His coldness surpassed even Robin’s penchant for cleanliness. That he might discard Blue as easily as those gloves unsettled Robin deeply.

“Let us reconsider. If I had doubted the necklace from the Empress and stalled instead of fastening it, would nothing have happened?”

“In that case…”

“The nobles weighing me against the Empress would watch with interest, and those on her side would find it amusing.”

Ties formed within the Imperial Family were little more than bubbles. Outwardly they feigned harmony, but in truth, they were worse than strangers. And yet, no one burst the bubble, for it was the very thing holding the Imperial Family together.

“And what if the fallout from that trap does not end with Blue alone?”