CATB Chapter 31

"My lord."

"......"

"Your Grace, wouldn't it be wise to reconsider?"

A calm voice resonated through the room, but no answer returned. Since he'd anticipated this from the start, the silence had become familiar to the man who'd spoken. The man looked at him. His silence was as good as an unspoken answer. While there was the difficulty of each person having to make their own judgments depending on the situation, based on the man's long experience with him, he judged that the current silence probably meant no. And that was an answer the man found far from welcome.

"Apelles, you say something too. Don't you have anything you want to say to His Grace in this situation?"

"......"

"Instead of just mindlessly swinging your sword, try offering some wise counsel when needed."

True to form as a direct subordinate, Apelles was just as taciturn.

Since the man couldn't dare glare at his lord, he could only shoot a sharp look at Apelles. However, Apelles's indifferent gaze hadn't been meeting his from the start, so the practical effect of his dramatically widened eyes reached him not at all. The man finally let out a sigh.

"Understood. If that is your will, my lord."

He nodded.

"Dismissed."

Judging from his tone as he opened his mouth for the first time since the man's objection, he probably had no intention of listening to the man from the beginning. The man's sigh grew longer before he bowed and withdrew from his position.

The thought did cross his mind—sighing in front of his lord—but his master wasn't as authoritarian a person as one might think, so this much would be forgiven. And considering the matter at hand - there was a mountain of work waiting back at the territory. No, more than that, with a mountain of work waiting back at the territory, what exactly was there to gain by staying here that made his lord insist on the capital to the very end?

"Haah."

The man's sigh grew noticeably longer after he closed the office door and came out.

"Salomin! Salomin!"

A voice far too contrasting with his gloomy mood reached his ears, and soon lemon-colored hair filled his vision. A small boy clung to the man.

"Mile, didn't I tell you not to run around like a colt?"

The man's voice was stern but not cold. He gently stroked Mile's head. The fine lemon-colored hair became tousled like breaking sunlight.

"Ow, I told you not to do that! I've been setting it since I got up this morning!!!"

"Didn't I tell you that someone so young shouldn't be so concerned with appearance? Now is a more important time for building your inner character."

Mile listened obediently to the man's words, then quietly protested.

"I'm supposed to meet Jane today! I won't be able to see her much longer, so I need to make a good impression!"

"You little rascal, where did you learn such words? My goodness."

Salomin ruffled Mile's hair even more vigorously. When he thought of his wife, whom he wouldn't be able to see for at least three or four months due to his lord's decision, he couldn't help but feel spitefully jealous of the young boy who was dressing up to see his girlfriend - though that was a secret only he knew.

"Salomin! Are you really doing this?!!"

As the hair he had carefully styled since morning was helplessly disheveled by Salomin's touch, Mile's voice came out mixed with tears and anger. Seeing him tear up over something so trivial, Salomin thought that a child was still a child after all, and feeling guilty, he added:

"Don't worry, you won't have to worry about not seeing your Jane for a while."

"Huh? What do you mean? You told me to say goodbye to everyone because we're leaving in a week."

"Yes, that was the original plan, but..."

Salomin trailed off, glanced back at the office, and sighed again.

"So we're staying here longer?"

"Yes, that's what's happened."

"Wow! I need to hurry and tell Jane!! Wow wow wow!!"

Seeing Mile jumping around expressing his joy, it seemed he had been quite disappointed by their usual schedule of visiting the capital just for necessary business and returning immediately. The child's cuteness almost made him smile, but thinking of the tightly packed schedule for the next three or four months already gave Salomin a headache, so the smile vanished from his smooth face and another sigh took its place.

"Why does our lord want to stay in the capital? With my limited insight, I can't fathom it at all."

"Hey, if you call Salomin's insight limited, who in Pellipe would dare discuss wisdom? You're just bragging on purpose, aren't you? Salomin, you're so obvious! Geez."

Looking down at the grinning Mile, Salomin sighed. He was a cute and bright child, but if there was one flaw, it was that he was quite oblivious - that was this child's small shortcoming.

"Even I find it difficult to understand our lord. Especially lately, he's become even more difficult to understand."

Indeed, since coming to the capital, his lord's actions had been nothing but incomprehensible. Voluntarily participating in a hunting competition he'd never once attended, staying until the very end during the monster attack to lead the subjugation—and now, at a time when he should already be back at the territory conducting military training, His Grace had said he wanted to remain longer in the capital. With the king and the nobles all watching His Grace's every move, waiting to seize upon any opening, there would be nothing good to come of staying—something His Grace should know better than anyone.

"...Hmm... I don't really know!"

Mile, who had seemed to ponder for a moment, quickly replied. Salomin gave a bitter smile.

"Yes, well, thank you for pondering it with me anyway. Go ahead and see Jane."

"Yes, but Salomin, you messed up my hair! I have to redo it before I go see her! Ugh, she'll be angry that I'm late again."

Looking at Mile, who was glaring at him reproachfully, Salomin seriously considered abandoning his dignity and giving Mile's head a good whack.

"Salomin, then I'll be going now! I need to stop by my room because of my hair!!"

After bowing and seeming to leave, Mile came back.

"Oh my, I almost forgot something I needed to tell our lord! Phew, that would have been terrible."

"Mile."

Salomin's stern gaze reached Mile.

"No, Salomin, I didn't forget on purpose! I was just so happy when you suddenly said we're staying in the capital that I just..."

"...I'll let it slide this once. If you neglect your duties again because your attention is elsewhere, I'll give you appropriate punishment. Understood?"

"Yes! Yes! This won't happen again! Don't worry!!!"

Seeing Mile earnestly making promises after being briefly deflated, Salomin's stern expression softened. He was truly an impossible child to dislike.

"What was it that you forgot?"

"Oh, Princess Alexa sent a message. She told me to deliver it to our lord, so I was on my way to give it to him!"

"Princess Alexa?"

'Could it be that beast? Why would the beast want to see our lord?'

Salomin's mood, which had relaxed somewhat after meeting Mile, sharpened again.

Salomin's eyes turned to the golden card Mile was holding.

'A challenge letter?'

He had heard she was fierce and violent, but he hadn't thought she would be so reckless as to pick a fight with our lord. What is Alexa the Beast's actual combat ability? Does our lord have a chance of winning?

At the emergence of a new strong opponent, Salomin's mind raced. Seeing his hardened expression, Mile looked at Salomin pitifully. This young child was sometimes too smart and would catch onto Salomin's thoughts when they went in the wrong direction.

"Salomin, Princess Alexa isn't that kind of person."

"Huh?"

"The princess just said she wanted to have tea with our lord."

"Tea? Why tea?"

'What business would the beast and our lord have sitting together drinking tea?'

'Is this reconnaissance?'

Salomin's mind began spinning furiously in the wrong direction again.

"Ah! My lord!"

Whether their conversation had reached the office, Belkellion had come out the door.

Belkellion silently extended his hand to Mile. After being momentarily stunned, Mile came to his senses and brought the card to him.

"Princess Alexa sent this. She asks for a reply by tomorrow afternoon."

"...I see."

As soon as Belkellion received the card, he went back into his office.

Salomin, standing dumbfounded in the corridor, seemed to be completely blocked from his view. Since this wasn't a first or second occurrence, it wasn't hurtful for Salomin as a long-time retainer, but it was somewhat unexpected that the target of such behavior was a card from Princess Alexa.

"...What's this..."

'Why is our lord reacting so sensitively to Princess Alexa's card?'

No matter who sent a message, he would just pile them up in his office or leave them all to me and only receive reports on the key points. Just now, it felt like he was worried I might read the card first and took it away himself.

'No, setting that aside, Princess Alexa and our lord... what is this?'

"Mile."

"Yes!!!"

"You said you've met Princess Alexa before?"

"Yes yes! I escorted our lord and the princess to the royal palace during the last hunting competition!!"

Mile said proudly.

"What kind of person was she?"

"What kind of person? Hmm... what kind of person... First of all, she's very very pretty!!!"

'The beast?'

Salomin was about to immediately ask back when he remembered that Mile was a child of the forest.

'This child has a more open perspective toward animals.'

"No, no!! She doesn't have fur! What are you thinking, Salomin!!"

This was the first time Mile had seen through Salomin's thoughts twice in one day. Feeling somewhat stupid today, Salomin asked back.

"Then?"

"Princess Alexa's magic has been broken!"

"Even so, how could that beast... how could an animal suddenly in one moment..."

"Salomin."

Mile spoke seriously.

"Princess Alexa is incredibly incredibly beautiful and kind, but..."

"...But?"

"She's also incredibly incredibly scary. When the princess gets angry, she's so frightening. Whew, just thinking about that time makes my liver shrink! If Princess Alexa had known what you were just thinking, probably... whew, scary again!! Just thinking about it is scary!!!"

Mile shook his head vigorously.

"Even our lord listens to what the princess says! She's an amazing person!"

"Our lord does?"

'Our lord's taste...?'

Salomin had been troubled by his lord, who despite being of marriageable age, treated women like stones. Not that any woman would voluntarily come to the descendant of the infamous demon race, but that made him even more worried about the succession issue, and if our lord's taste was...

'So that's why all this time...?'

Mile's comment about her being pretty had already been filtered out by the time it reached Salomin, who had never seen Alexa. Having been unable to attend either the ball that marked Alexa's debut or the hunting competition due to work, he had never seen Alexa once, and his image of Alexa, estimated based on rumors and stories he heard, was growing increasingly distant from human form. When he heard she was the mastermind behind the monster subjugation, that image became even more solidified.

'This is serious.'

The thought that he might have to serve a furry prince as heir set off alarm bells in Salomin's mind.