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Chapter 5
For some reason, Calid felt that the pale lump had stiffened in the same way Sebastian did.
“The footprints were only left in one part of the room. As if it suddenly appeared there…. There were no traces of it entering or leaving.”
“That’s right, Your Highness! I saw it too! It was right in the middle of the room, like it had fallen from the sky!”
Henry shouted with a pale face as if remembering that moment again.
While listening to Sebastian and Henry, Calid glanced toward the pale lump.
As though it were carefully listening to the conversation, the being remained perfectly still beside him.
“And strange sightings started increasing around half a month ago. Most people claimed they saw things on the fourth floor.”
“What kind of stories?”
“Well…. At first, people simply said they often felt as though someone was beside them. But after some time, servants began witnessing objects moving on their own. Books suddenly falling in the library while they cleaned alone, or chairs in the office moving by themselves.”
The quiet lump suddenly flinched.
In truth, those were only accidental sightings that happened while Irene used the necklace to conduct all sorts of experiments.
But to people who knew nothing about it, it only brought fear.
“Some even claimed they saw something wriggling under the blankets in the bedroom… mostly stories like that.”
Calid tried his best not to look toward the lump, but the next story continued immediately.
“Your Highness, I saw it too. I stepped out of the library for a moment, and when I returned, the pages of a book were turning by themselves!”
While listening to the two men, Calid observed the pale lump that had been eagerly listening beside him.
Now, as though it had lost interest, it busily floated around the office instead.
“So then, has anyone been injured or killed because of it?”
“No, there has not.”
“Then were any belongings ever stolen?”
“Hmm…. No, nothing like that happened either.”
Even though it pretended not to care, the pale lump had clearly still been listening to the conversation.
It quickly floated beside Calid and puffed up its body dramatically.
It almost looked angry.
As if protesting against Calid for thinking it was some terrifying being, supported by Sebastian’s answer.
“…Then, has anyone actually seen that being?”
The pale lump, which had been puffing itself up in irritation, suddenly froze the moment Calid asked that question.
Calid instantly realized that the creature was extremely interested in this topic.
“It somehow looks like it’s expecting something…. No, expecting what? This is just my imagination. How could I possibly understand the feelings of that monster?”
Calid forced himself to ignore the strange feeling he had experienced ever since first meeting the being.
“Hmm…. I have not heard anyone say they directly saw something.”
“Yes, Your Highness. I also have not heard such reports.”
At Sebastian and Henry’s answer, the pale lump beside him seemed to deflate like a balloon losing air.
“Then I really am the only one who can see it. But is it… disappointed? Why? Does it want people to notice it?”
Calid’s head began to ache.
In truth, the being had never caused any major harm.
As written in the report, Sebastian had only hired various people to calm the growing anxiety among the residents.
Ironically, it only caused the rumors to spread even further.
“…For now, it would be best to simply observe the situation.”
“Your Highness. Is it really alright to just watch? They say mutant monsters have been appearing more often lately. Could this perhaps be one of them?”
“Henry, there is no need to worry. If necessary, I can simply destroy it.”
“But Your Highness… how can you destroy something you cannot even see?”
“Do not worry. I already have something in mind.”
Calid stared at the pale lump that somehow seemed to be glaring at him.
“A mere monster can simply be eliminated.”
Calid did not think much of it.
Completely unaware of how troublesome that being would become.
After returning to the castle, Calid’s daily life became simple.
He woke up early in the morning, exercised briefly in the training grounds, ate breakfast, and then headed to the office to handle the territory’s work that had piled up during the war.
After a light lunch, he held meetings with his aide and retainers before going to the training grounds again for sword practice.
After training, he ate dinner, finished whatever work remained from the morning, read books in the library, and finally returned to his bedroom to rest.
And beside him, the pale lump was always there.
On the first day after returning to the castle, Calid had given up his room.
And after that, he never returned to it again.
Or more accurately, he could not return.
Every night without fail, that being occupied Calid’s bed.
At the same time, staying together in the same room felt dangerous since he still knew nothing about the creature.
“But carelessly capturing or attacking it is risky as well.”
Although it appeared harmless and had caused no real damage so far, the increasing number of sightings suggested it might continue changing in the future.
For now, the only thing he could do was quietly observe it while pretending not to notice.
And since only he could see the pale lump, this was not something he could leave to others.
Fortunately, after Calid returned to the castle, the creature stopped following him around so closely, making observation much easier.
One thing he had learned during the past few days was that the pale lump clearly understood human speech.
“It understands human language, reacts to it, and can even hide itself. If it could somehow be tamed, it would be useful in many ways….”
Calid began making all kinds of guesses about the creature’s abilities.
“Perhaps that pale form is also a disguise to hide something. Maybe it possesses deadly poison that kills upon contact. Or perhaps it is a special creature focused on wide-range attacks.”
His imagination gradually headed in a very strange direction.
Afterward, Calid often felt the urge to test the creature.
He believed it definitely possessed intelligence greater than any monster he had encountered before, along with hidden abilities it had not yet revealed.
And his instincts as a knight whispered that this new type of monster might be stronger than any other.
The perfect chance to satisfy that curiosity arrived unexpectedly.
Like usual, Calid spent the afternoon training in the training grounds.
And as always, the pale lump continued floating around nearby.
“Captain! Please spar with me for the first time in a while!”
“Hey, you idiot Miller! How dare you speak so casually to His Highness?!”
“Ah, why not? Once a captain, always a captain. What’s wrong with calling him captain?”
Calid lowered the sword he had been swinging and looked toward the source of the voices.
Miller had spotted him from the entrance of the training grounds and was now running toward him while his blond hair fluttered behind him.
Beside him stood Luke, Calid’s right-hand man and the newly appointed commander of the Black Knights.
“That’s right. Once a captain, always a captain. Within the knight order, I will allow you to call me captain. Let’s see how long you can last today.”
“Captain, just watch! Today I’ll definitely cut your collar!”
Miller quickly raised his sword and prepared for the spar.
“My lord. You are too lenient with them. You should not keep accepting these requests.”
Despite Luke’s worried complaints, Calid only smirked slightly.
“Captain! I’m ready now!”
Miller looked extremely excited to spar with the Calid he admired so much.
As their spar began, more and more knights gathered around to watch.
While the duel continued, Calid noticed the pale lump moving around relatively close to him, and the curiosity he had suppressed for so long suddenly surged up again.
“If I suddenly attack it, how would that white lump react? Would it defend itself? Or counterattack?”
Even during the spar, Calid’s attention kept drifting toward the pale lump.
Perhaps because of that, the direction of his attack changed unexpectedly.
The strike passed by Miller and headed toward the pale being floating nearby.
The moment he saw the result, Calid, who had been watching with great interest, became deeply startled.
“…Did my sword even touch it? It didn’t even seem close, yet it reacted like that?”
Calid’s sword had indeed swung toward the pale lump.
But it had never been a serious attack aimed at it, nor had he used much strength.
He had merely swung his sword in that direction.
Yet somehow, the pale lump scattered and flew away like dust or a leaf blown by the wind.
“……”
Calid froze completely in shock.
Taking advantage of the opening, Miller rushed forward quickly.
Calid instinctively blocked his sword, but the recoil caused a small part of his collar to be cut.
“Wow! Captain, I cut your collar! Everyone saw that, right?!”
Feeling extremely proud, Miller ran toward the other knights to brag.
But despite the noisy celebration around him, Calid’s eyes remained fixed on the pale lump that had flown away like the wind.
He could feel his expectations toward the creature crumbling slightly.
After that incident in the training grounds, the pale lump occasionally began launching attacks—not really attacks—at Calid.
But the attacks were so weak that they caused absolutely no damage.
They were merely annoying.
“This level of impact is probably similar to being hit by a kitten…. No, perhaps even weaker than that.”
Calid recalled being scratched by a cat he met in the forest during childhood and could only sigh.
Everything he had imagined and planned about the creature until now had turned out to be completely useless.
“If it is this useless… is there really any reason to keep it alive?”
Calid seriously began considering whether he should get rid of the increasingly troublesome being.
Meanwhile, the pale lump—completely unaware that it had fallen from a promising new monster to something even weaker than a kitten in Calid’s mind—burned with a fierce desire for revenge against him.
