Chapter 85

"A lullaby?"

"A song that makes it easier to fall asleep."

"Then I'll trust it to you."

Lyssel closed his book and settled back down.

Iberin scooted over beside him and started to sing.

When mommy goes to gather oysters in the island's shade, the baby's left alone to watch the house.

It was a children's song Iberin had loved back in Korea, so the lyrics must have been hard for him to make sense of — but to her surprise, Lyssel's breathing evened out quickly.

She kept singing for a while, and only once she'd confirmed he was asleep did Iberin let herself relax.

"Sleep well."

---

The days stayed quiet, thanks to the knights guarding Iberin day and night.

That said, they were quietly searching for Moana, who'd dropped off the map in the capital.

"Whoever dared touch Iberin is going to pay for it."

"What if it's the emperor?"

"Even if it's a god, we're not letting this slide — never mind the emperor."

In other words, whoever it was wouldn't get a pass. Iberin had no intention of letting it slide either.

She'd nearly died — she wasn't enough of a pushover to forgive that.

Not Moana, and not whoever was behind them either.

Even if it was the imperial family.

Honestly, they could never have lived alongside the imperial family to begin with.

Using and being used. With both sides knowing the truth of it, there was no room for trust.

The emperor and Lecashe would always suspect each other, keep their guards up against each other.

---

The fortress-tight security held. So tight Iberin started to feel a little stifled.

But this was better than being dead, so she put up with it.

She was in danger, sure, but she was still working through her usual business.

The first item was selling the crops.

Marquis Bilson sent word that he was launching sales across the whole south.

The stockpile was there, so supply wasn't an issue.

"He says he'll send a trading party every week."

Even weekly, the storehouse would probably look as packed as it had the first time.

"He also asked if it'd be all right to set up a Bilson trading branch in Lecashe territory. I told him to go ahead."

"A branch?"

"Yes. Until the branch is up, the nearest existing one will cover us, apparently."

A branch would make things easier on a lot of fronts.

They wouldn't need a courier shuttling back and forth to Bilson territory, and anything they needed could be handled through the Lecashe branch.

"We can give them one of the empty units in the building Count Elton's workers put up."

"Yes. When I told him they could move in right away, he said he'd send a branch manager soon."

"Are there a lot of branches?"

"Almost every reasonably sized territory has one."

Marquis Bilson's reach across the south ran deeper than she'd realized.

If most territories had branches, that told you everything.

Branch or not, a trading party setting up shop would be good for the people too.

"And with knight orders moving around now, some of the residents are nervous."

"Ah…"

"I've been explaining there won't be any trouble for them, but…"

A lot of them had come from lives stripped down to nothing, and their anxiety ran high.

So when knight orders nobody recognized started moving around, of course it shook them.

"And since you've been out of sight lately, Iberin, there's talk going around."

"About me?"

"Yes. You used to walk through the village every day, greeting everyone."

She'd been in quarantine, basically, so she hadn't been out at all.

The residents had clearly read into that.

"I told them you were unwell. The fact that you're frail is something every stray dog in town already knows, so that quieted things down."

"Every stray dog in town…"

"N-not that you're — that's not what I — I just meant everyone already knows. Because you're a Lecashe."

For now they'd patched it over.

But if she was 'unwell' for too long, the anxiety would creep back.

"I didn't realize the people of the village liked me that much."

"Nobody here dislikes you, Iberin."

A short while later.

To put the unnecessary worry to bed, Lyssel and Ether started walking the village in Iberin's place.

Goodness.

Father and son look just like each other.

And they get along better than I'd have thought, don't they?

Ether had often come out with Iberin, so some people greeted him first.

But what they couldn't get over was the child showing no trace of fear toward his father.

"Sir, hello! H-hello to you too, Grand Duke!"

It was a little girl who always said hello to Ether.

She managed her greeting after a long stretch of not seeing him, but her eyes kept darting up to Lyssel.

"Oh, hi!"

"Yes. Hello to you."

Lyssel returned the greeting evenly.

The residents Lyssel had personally granted leave to settle in the territory — Habil's family and the jeweler — were completely at ease with the grand duke.

"Your Highness! Have some of this on the way!"

Habil's wife held out fresh-baked bread with a smile.

"You don't need to be giving me things like this."

"Please. I just want to do at least one little thing for you."

"Just take it. Mommy took some too…."

"…All right, then. I'll accept it with thanks."

Far from scary, he came off as almost endearingly mild, and the residents found that a little unexpected.

It didn't take long after that for them to stop being afraid of Lyssel walking through the village.

If anything, they were taken with the chemistry between Lyssel and Ether.

---

Word came that they'd found Moana.

Lyssel moved to wipe the assassins out.

But — as if the assassins had seen where things were headed — they came at it like they meant to die.

They actually had the nerve to charge in.

"Your Highness!!!"

The shout came from the knight stationed outside the door to guard Iberin.

The sudden uproar snapped Iberin's eyes open, and the sharp ring of metal on metal followed right behind.

"Eek!"

Lyssel was already up, dealing with assassins.

There were three of them.

She glanced at the floor, and three bodies lay there to match.

"Hng."

Iberin swallowed dry and pushed herself upright.

She didn't move recklessly, of course — she kept it to the smallest movements on the bed.

She held her breath and watched it all.

The window was thrown wide open, cold wind pouring in.

Whssh—

Lyssel cut down another assassin.

A throwing blade flew from the assassin as he fell, but it glanced off the tip of Lyssel's sword and dropped uselessly to the floor.

"Ngh."

Two left.

But Lyssel cleared the rest in an instant.

Every attack aimed at Iberin was wiped out before it could land.

"Your Highness! Lady Iberin! Are you all right?"

The moment the situation broke, the door flew open and Esmore burst in.

Captain Pigret had taken his order out to strike Moana's hideout first, so he wouldn't know about any of this yet.

"Are you all right yourselves?"

"Yes. We took some losses, but we're fine."

That was when it happened.

Something sharp came flying from behind and lodged in Esmore's shoulder.

He'd dodged as best he could, but with Iberin in front of him he hadn't been able to clear it fully.

"Esmore!"

A startled cry tore out of Iberin, and Esmore — biting down a groan — answered,

"Hngh, I'm fine, Lady Iberin."

But the moment his stance broke, more throwing blades flew in after.

Shhk!

It didn't help.

You think the same trick was going to work on him twice?

"Tch!"

The assassin must have figured out that the throwing blades were useless, because he scattered something into the air instead.

The instant Lyssel caught the smell, he clamped his hand over Iberin's mouth and nose.

"It's poison. Hold your breath."

Iberin nodded without making a sound.

Lyssel scooped her up and broke for the open window, leaping into the air.

"Captain Esmore."

Esmore knew what he was about to say before he said it.

"We'll handle the rest and clean up here!"

"I'm counting on you."

The assassins darted after Lyssel through the window and struck at his back, but every blow was knocked aside.

Using the balcony as a foothold, Lyssel landed cleanly outside and looked up at the estate, drowned now in darkness, his breath held.

"Blood."

"What?"

"Looks like a lot of people got hurt."

A heavy reek of blood was drifting out of the estate.

"Hng."

Iberin sucked in a sharp breath.

These were people who'd come to help her.

"I just hope none of them are badly hurt."

"Wh-what do we do?"

"They're here."

"What?"

She didn't get a chance to ask what's here — Lyssel turned. The assassins had caught up, and they fanned out to box the two of them in.

The target was Iberin, so most of them must have followed Lyssel.

Iberin had gone rigid with tension, but Lyssel didn't look the least bit strained.

He pushed off the ground in a long bound and went up into a tree.

"After him!"

Whoever was leading them — one of them shouted, and the rest of the assassins surged after Lyssel, attacking as they went.

"Fuck, he's way too strong! How much did we get paid, is this even worth it?!"

One of them snapped, unable to keep the frustration down anymore.

"Shut your mouth, you idiot!"

The assassins chased Lyssel, snarling at each other.

He was running through the dark, so Iberin couldn't tell which direction they were headed in.

---

No matter how many assassins came, Lyssel on his own would have cut through them at will — but Iberin was in his arms, and that meant he couldn't move freely.

Lyssel kept running.

The assassins kept running after him, and somehow the air around them was starting to feel heavier.

It was night, so the dark was a given, but it was something else — the feel of it was different.

Sure enough.

"Lyssel, this is…."

"It's all right."

It was the Forest of the World Tree.

But not the outer edges he usually walked with her.

Uuuuu—

A strange beast's cry came from somewhere.

A chill ran down her, and her arms tightened around Lyssel.

That was when a dark shape rose up in front of him like mist taking form.

Lyssel didn't bother engaging — he leapt straight up over it.

The dark shape had already caught the scent of prey and lunged, and when Lyssel slipped past, it crashed into the assassins chasing them instead.

—Skreeeee!

"Aaagh!"

The assassins who couldn't dodge in time ran straight into the monster, their screams ripping through the air.

Assassins were built for hiding and striking from cover — head-on combat wasn't their strength. Taking on a monster, and a higher-tier monster at that, was out of their league.

"Agh, sp-spare me, please!"

"R-run!!"

The screaming kept going, ragged and broken.

Iberin couldn't make herself look. She held her breath and covered her eyes.

Lyssel watched it through calmly, and only once they were all dead did he turn back the way they'd come.

He could only do it because he treated the Forest of the World Tree like his own home.

The higher-tier monsters had territories of their own.

In general, a higher-tier monster claimed its own range. Anything that crossed into its territory didn't get to leave.

Without lifting a finger, Lyssel had given the people who'd come for Iberin the most agonizing send-off he could.

No more assassins came up behind them. The forest had gone quiet.