The Villain’s Aide Has Run Away

Leslun bowed his head without a word and turned away.

Holding Blue tightly in his arms, he opened the door. As he stepped out of the Dean’s office, the door closed behind him, cutting off the space.

At the same time, Leslun exhaled deeply, as if some tension had suddenly been released.

“A student…?”

It couldn’t have been something the Crown Prince said casually.

“Am I really going to attend classes here?”

Turning over in his mind the conversation between the Crown Prince and the Dean, Leslun fought to stay clear-headed against the haze creeping into him. But the truth remained—it was a conversation too unbelievable to accept easily.

“This is amazing.”

He had only followed the Crown Prince on an outing, and yet an unexpected opportunity had arisen.

“How did I, of all people, catch His Highness’s eye and end up with such fortune?”

Meow.

Blue’s tail smacked against his wrist, not painfully, but sharp enough to be felt. It almost seemed like a reply to his words, so Leslun kept talking about what was on his mind.

“In the past, even when I was hurting, I endured everything alone. But now… there’s someone who notices. One special thing after another keeps happening, and I can hardly keep my bearings.”

One might say it would have been stranger not to notice after he had collapsed so conspicuously—but it was true.

Leslun was less healthy than frail. There had been days when he had to steady his breathing several times just to make it through. Even while carrying out orders, cold sweat would sometimes trickle down his back.

And yet no one ever noticed. And if they did, they only gave him looks that said it was his own burden to bear.

Once, when a pain like his insides being cut with knives struck him while he was climbing the stairs, he collapsed. The Count had only glanced at him and walked on. Another aide had shown some pity, but that was all. They could share some of his work, but they could not give him medicine.

And as for those who were not aides… they had looked at him with nothing but weary disgust.

So Leslun had had no choice but to endure, and endure again. Waiting for the pain to fade, forcing himself not to show weakness before others, no matter how much it hurt.

But since becoming the Crown Prince’s aide, he had been receiving proper treatment, every time. That alone was enough to overwhelm him with gratitude…

“When His Highness carried me, my heart was pounding so fast my face went bright red.”

Meow?

Remembering the moment, Leslun let out a long sigh and shook his head.

“If it happens again, I won’t even be able to let myself get sick. If he carries me one more time, I might honestly faint.”

To be in the arms of royalty—that was an experience that shook one’s heart in a way no one could understand without living it. Muttering that he never wanted to go through it again, Leslun suddenly felt Blue’s tail tap at his wrist again.

Puzzled, he set Blue down on the floor and met his eyes.

“Why?”

Meow—

Blue spun in circles in place. He looked like a cat, but in that moment, it was almost as though he were a person lost in thought. Perhaps it was only Leslun’s imagination.

Then, in a blink, Blue’s eyes flashed into a different color and back again. It was so instantaneous Leslun almost thought he had imagined it.

Before he knew it, Blue was purring, lifting a paw toward him. Without thinking, Leslun took the paw and stroked it, and Blue’s eyes narrowed like a smile.

There was something faintly sly about it… but perhaps that was only his imagination.

***

“You mean to say you handed over the necklace?”

At Brian’s question, Empress Tera set down her teacup.

“Yes. Wasn’t that the purpose of giving it to me?”

Her calm reply left Brian at a loss for words. After all, the one who had crafted that necklace was none other than himself.

Considering the materials and time he had invested in making it, it was not something to be taken lightly. Some might dismiss it as exaggeration, since the Empress had the solid backing of her position in the Empire—but it was no exaggeration at all.

That necklace had been created to draw out the power of a Guardian Beast. Such a thing was never easy to make.

He had thought the day would come when it would prove useful, but to hear that she had already used it through Lady Miroi—it was still a surprise.

“So in the end, the Guardian Beast has ended up in the Crown Prince’s hands.”

Now that the beast had revealed itself, he could understand why the Empress had acted so hastily.

Guardian Beasts were each born with their own special power. It was said the current Emperor’s Guardian Beast possessed a martial strength so great it was beyond comparison.