Chapter 83

"You dare!"

Lyssel didn't hold back — he sliced the dark figure clean in two.

The doctor had collapsed in shock, and Iberin still stared blankly into space.

But then, the moment hot blood sprayed from the split body and splattered across Iberin, her mind snapped back.

"Kyaaah!"

Iberin screamed at the sight in front of her.

She came to her senses to find a corpse in view and the thick smell of blood in her nose.

"Wh-what is this!"

The dark figure crumpled without so much as a cry.

Lyssel pulled Iberin into his arms and checked her over.

"Iberin!"

"Wh-what's going on?"

Lyssel squeezed his eyes shut against the fear in Iberin's gaze.

"A-are you hurt anywhere?"

"I don't even know what's happening…"

Iberin answered slowly.

Lyssel looked on the verge of tears himself, apologizing over and over with no idea what to do.

He kept wiping the splattered blood off her.

He didn't seem to realize his own state was no better.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

The staff came running at Iberin's scream.

Pons made it in first, swallowing a cry of his own as he took in the scene and started pulling things together.

Lyssel and Iberin drenched in blood, and a doctor sitting there with the lights gone out behind his eyes.

"Let's move Lady Iberin to another room first and get her cleaned up. Your Highness as well."

Rotte and Rozelia came in next.

Pons had left the lights off on purpose, so the room was dim, but moonlight poured in and laid the scene bare.

"Wh-what is this!"

Rotte hurried to cover Rozelia's eyes.

It had only been an instant, but Rozelia had seen everything, and she clung to Rotte's thigh, frozen.

"Rotte, move the lady somewhere else, quickly."

"Yes. Yes."

She steadied her shaken nerves and stepped toward Iberin.

But Lyssel showed no sign of letting go.

"I'll carry her."

Lyssel was clearly badly shaken and on edge himself.

Rotte nodded without a word.

When they got Iberin to another room, she finally seemed to come back to herself — her eyes flickered around, and she clutched Lyssel tight.

"It's all right."

Lyssel patted her gently.

"It's all right. Iberin, let's get you cleaned up first."

"Okay."

She'd been so badly shaken her voice came out cracked.

"I'll stand guard right outside, so don't worry."

He barely managed to calm Iberin, who wouldn't let go, and sent her off to the bath with Rotte.

The other staff dealt with the body and scrubbed the room down.

Lyssel had taken more blood spray than Iberin and was practically painted in it, but he was just as on edge as she had been, so he stayed planted right outside the door.

"Your Highness, you should hurry and clean up too."

"I said I'd stand guard."

"Looking like that?"

"Looking like what?"

Pons silently held up a mirror.

"Oh."

Only then did Lyssel quietly get to his feet.

---

By the time she came out, Iberin had settled some.

The doctor had a cut on his neck, but it wasn't deep.

For someone who'd come face-to-face with an assassin, that was little short of miraculous.

"But why was the doctor with me?"

"Ah."

The doctor froze.

"I'm not suspecting anyone, it's just strange…"

She hadn't been thinking at all earlier — too rattled, too busy trying to settle her own nerves. Once she'd calmed down a little, it didn't add up.

"Well…"

The doctor had been the one asked, but Lyssel was the one who answered.

"He was watching over you, Iberin."

"What? Watching me?"

It wasn't just Iberin — Pons, Rotte, and the kids, none of them had a clue, and they all turned to Lyssel in surprise.

"The truth is, Iberin is… a little unwell."

"Huh?"

Ether started tearing up the second the words landed, and Rozelia demanded to know what he was talking about.

"Did my holy power not work?"

"No, I'm not sick anywhere?"

Iberin answered, baffled.

The person in question wasn't sick anywhere — sick where?

"Not a physical illness. You've been wandering the estate every night. So the doctor and I have been watching you."

"Huh?"

"They're calling it sleepwalking…"

"Whoa."

Iberin blinked, stunned.

"So I got attacked while I was sleepwalking?"

From Iberin's point of view, she'd opened her eyes to find someone dead.

"It was an assassination attempt, wasn't it."

"Yes."

It was exactly what Iberin had predicted, but she couldn't hide the complicated look on her face.

It had only been a guess — she hadn't actually thought it would happen.

The kids quickly started welling up.

"I'd been with her every night, so they attacked the castle wall on purpose to draw me away from her."

"I'll kill them!"

Rotte and Pons went livid.

"And when the assassin attacked the lady and me — sir, light came shooting out of her ring."

That was the doctor.

"Light?"

"Yes. I believe it was the ring Count Elton gave you…"

Iberin looked down at the ring on her finger.

He'd said a holy spirit was sealed in it.

"Thanks to it, the lady and I are both still alive. If it hadn't been there…"

Lyssel made a small choked sound and grabbed her hand.

"I'll have to thank Count Elton."

The count himself hadn't known much about the ring; he'd said he'd come across it by chance and bought it.

A holy spirit might be sealed inside, but its only known function was giving someone with a weak body a slight boost of vitality.

It wouldn't have been worth much normally, but Aleta Holy Empire citizens were obsessed with holiness, so apparently it had been traded for a hefty price.

If Iberin hadn't been ill, Elton would never have offered it up in the trade either.

She'd been lucky.

---

By the time they'd worked out what had happened at the estate and finished talking it through, it was nearly three in the morning.

The whole household had been ripped out of sleep in the middle of the night, and now everyone was wide awake.

There was no point in staying like this.

They needed sleep, or tomorrow's work would suffer.

"All of you, go back to your rooms now."

"But…"

"I'll be at Iberin's side."

"Me too!"

"Me too!"

Lyssel had barely finished speaking when the kids shot their hands up and shouted.

"There's no need for us to stay on. It's right that we head back."

Pons backed him up.

The staff scattered, and the spot beside Iberin was instantly claimed by the kids, who flopped down in it.

"Mommy, sleep with us!"

"We'll put you to sleep."

"Thank you. I think I'll sleep well thanks to you two."

Iberin said it and closed her eyes.

The dark figure kept resurfacing in her head, but unless she did at least this much, everyone would just worry more.

That moment when the blood had sprayed.

When he'd killed monsters in the Forest of the World Tree, they'd been hideous creatures and she'd felt nothing. It had been awful, but the thing that died had deserved to die.

Watching a human die was a first, and the shock of it sat heavy.

On top of that, she'd nearly been the one to die first.

It hit harder because she'd been unconscious during it and only seen the aftermath.

But Iberin forced a smile and shut her eyes.

"Sleep well."

"You too, Mommy."

"Lady Iberin, no bad dreams!"

She'd thought she wouldn't sleep, but with warmth pressing in from both sides, her eyelids slowly grew heavy.

---

The next morning.

Maybe because of the night before, Iberin opened her eyes earlier than usual.

"Oh…"

The second she opened her eyes, she met Lyssel's gaze.

His expression was full of worry, soaked through with affection.

When Iberin froze and blinked, Lyssel brushed her hair back gently and asked,

"Did you sleep well?"

"…Yes."

Her face flushed for no clear reason.

"That's a relief."

"…Yeah. What about you, Lyssel?"

"I'm fine too."

"What time is it?"

"Six. You didn't get much sleep."

"I'm fine. I'm not that tired."

A brief silence settled.

Unlike the hollow look in her eyes the night before, there was light in them now.

Lyssel exhaled, a little of the tension easing.

"Don't tell me you didn't sleep at all, Lyssel?"

"I slept a little."

"How little is a little?"

"…"

His silence alone made it obvious he'd barely slept.

But without saying anything, Iberin sat up, pushed him down into the spot she'd just been lying in, and held him there.

The difference in strength meant he could easily have resisted, but Lyssel just lay there.

"Now you sleep, Lyssel."

"Still—"

"Hey."

"I can't."

"What, are you planning to never sleep again from now on?"

"…From now on?"

"You're on edge. Worried something else will happen the second you look away. The sun's up now. Nothing's going to happen."

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

Rotte and Pons clearly hadn't slept properly either after last night, and they'd come the moment dawn broke.

"Come in."

"Lady Iberin, you're up already? Don't tell me…"

"I slept. Lyssel's the one who didn't."

In the end Lyssel reluctantly closed his eyes.

But sleep wouldn't come — he kept shifting around, and the kids who'd been sleeping beside her ended up waking too.

"Later on, you really have to sleep, all right."

When even the kids were up, Iberin gave in.

Lyssel nodded quickly.

And so the day started earlier than usual.

---

"So that black figure — is he dead? Was it really the emperor who sent him?"

Iberin asked carefully.

Someone had clearly come for her life.

She'd felt the killing intent saturating the room.

"We're still looking into it, but the strongest suspicion is the emperor. Possibly Duke Cherity."

"Even if it wasn't, someone is definitely targeting Lady Iberin. And the one who'd be happiest if anything happened to her would be the emperor too."

The first person Iberin had thought of was the emperor.

The next-likeliest would've been the Gelta Six, but they'd already been hauled off to the capital and stripped down to nothing — no way it was them.

She couldn't quite wrap her head around how she'd ended up here.

"From now on, don't go anywhere alone, wherever it is. You got lucky this time, but there's no guarantee that holds next time."

Everyone hammered the point in.

Iberin was rattled herself, so even if they hadn't said it, she wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere alone.

If something had still happened when everyone had been bending over backward to protect her, she had to be twice as careful.

She'd thought of herself as someone who didn't scare easily, but watching a person die in front of her was a different matter.

Even if he'd been a bad one.

"You need to be with His Highness when you sleep too."

"She already was."

"Right…"