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chapter 24
“Please take good care of it.”
As expected, he obediently followed my request.
‘So… in the end, did things work out smoothly?’
After tucking a blanket over Lily, who had already fallen asleep, I rested my chin on the windowsill.
Outside the rattling window, the sun was slowly sinking below the horizon.
That same night, in the duke’s estate annex.
Erhi and Irene lay awake in the darkened room, their eyes wide open.
“Erhi.”
“Yeah?”
“How many nights has it been?”
“Three.”
“Only?”
“Yeah.”
A long sigh escaped—no one knew whose.
“Erhi.”
“Yeah?”
“I hope Cielina comes back soon.”
“Yeah.”
Irene soon fell asleep.
After tossing and turning alone for a while, Erhi quietly slipped out of bed.
Careful not to wake Irene, he pulled the curtain aside. The clouded night sky was pitch-black, not a single star in sight.
It was a good night for flight practice.
Erhi gently closed the curtain again and left the annex through the underground passage.
Under a tree where no one was around, he spread his wings wide and began to flap.
Lately, if he didn’t do this, his wing joints would ache and throb all day.
He couldn’t tell Irene.
Because… maybe he really was turning into something even more grotesque.
After much deliberation, he had confessed his secret to Cielina.
Cielina listened carefully, then thought for a while before saying,
‘Could it be that your wings are growing?’
She said it might be similar to how knees hurt when someone grows taller.
Only then did Erhi realize that his wings—once about the same size as Irene’s—had grown noticeably larger.
From that day on, the fear weighing down his heart vanished as if it had never existed.
‘That’s amazing, Erhi!’
At Cielina’s words, the wings he had once wanted to tear off somehow started to look… cool.
‘I wish I could fly like you, Erhi.’
He wanted to fly higher, farther, and show her.
Erhi kicked off the ground with all his strength and soared upward.
If he practiced for seven more nights, he thought he could really surprise Cielina.
“Huh?”
While flying freely, Erhi suddenly stopped in midair.
Among the line of carriages parked along the road, he spotted a flag bearing a familiar emblem.
‘A wolf…’
Killian’s face flashed through his mind, making Erhi flinch.
‘But the carriage Cielina rode in also had a wolf on it.’
On the day Killian brought Cielina here, there had been a line of carriages with wolf-emblazoned flags as well.
‘Could Cielina be there?’
There were still seven nights left, but maybe she had returned earlier than expected.
Erhi turned toward the carriages.
Suddenly, he remembered what Cielina had said when he mentioned practicing flying at night.
‘Hmm… honestly, I am a little worried. But if you fly really, really high, you’ll just look like a bird, right?’
Erhi hesitated briefly, then convinced himself.
‘I’ll just check if she’s there and come back.’
He was confident he wouldn’t be seen.
Up close, all the carriages and horses were stopped, and he even saw people lying in the grass by the roadside, snoring.
He wanted to look inside the carriages, but both were fully curtained.
‘What should I do…?’
As Erhi debated whether to give up and head back, unfamiliar men stepped down from one of the carriages.
‘It’s not Cielina.’
The mustached man who always followed her around was nowhere to be seen either.
‘I should go back before Irene wakes up.’
Just as he began flapping his wings again to leave—
“Killian… how dare you… deceive us… and hide and raise….”
The name Killian struck Erhi’s ears sharply.
“This time, we need to teach him a lesson… make sure he never disobeys us again….”
Without realizing it, Erhi drifted closer.
“This time, we’ll handle those demon beast brats ourselves. Cielina, was it? Before that foolish grand duke’s daughter notices….”
That was when—
“A demon beast! A demon beast has appeared!”
Erhi shot upward in panic, but it wasn’t enough to escape their sight.
“Load the crossbows!”
“Activate the purification stones!”
“W-what’s happening?!”
“Your Excellency! Please get into the carriage!”
The knights guarding the carriages loaded their bolts in unison.
Pshhk— pshhk—
Metal cut through the air.
Erhi dodged desperately, but flying in panic made him lose his sense of direction.
‘W-which way is home?!’
As he frantically looked around, he spotted the lit windows of the duke’s estate.
‘I have to fly faster!’
Fixing his destination, Erhi spread both wings with all his strength.
Thud!
A dull impact exploded before his eyes in a flash of light.
“Ugh!”
His body tilted violently to the side.
One wing no longer responded.
‘Irene….’
Forcing his fading consciousness to hold on, Erhi desperately flew toward the faint lights of the estate, using them as his guide.
‘Cielina….’
He prayed with all his heart that those small lights would not go out.
At that same time, Killian was seated in his study, reading—a rare occurrence.
“Your Excellency, it’s quite late. Perhaps you should rest now.”
Hans, making his final round of the corridors before bed, found Killian still in the study and approached him.
“It’s been a while since I last saw this. It brought back old memories.”
Hans glanced over Killian’s shoulder and smiled.
Understanding the Imperial Sword Forms.
A basic swordsmanship manual that every noble boy learned around the age of ten.
‘He must have looked it up because of what Her Grace said recently.’
Killian closed the book and stood.
“Any word from Gabriel?”
“The messenger I reported this morning was the last.”
“Oh… that was this morning already, was it?”
Hans kindly pretended not to notice Killian’s sheepish expression.
“The weather isn’t bad, so they should be traveling according to plan.”
“I suppose so.”
“Then please rest without worry.”
While Hans put the books away, Killian walked to the window.
‘The moon isn’t visible.’
He studied the dark sky for a long moment, gauging the thickness of the clouds.
In this region, even if the weather was fine today, a blizzard could strike tomorrow. It was hard to feel at ease.
“Ah, I must remember to replace the study candles tomorrow morning.”
Hans muttered to himself while looking at the nearly melted candle.
“Shall we go, Your Excellency?”
“Hans.”
As Hans reached for the door, Killian called him back to the window.
“Look.”
Killian pointed into the empty night sky.
“I’m not sure what you mean….”
“Isn’t something flying toward us?”
Hans rubbed his eyes.
“It looks like a small dot… but my eyesight isn’t what it used to be, so I can’t quite—”
At that moment, the moon emerged from behind the clouds.
Against the pale, hazy moonlight, a large bird appeared to be dancing as it flew.
‘Flying… like it’s dancing?’
Hans frowned at the thought that had come to him and turned to Killian.
“Your Excellency, why is that bird flapping so unsteadily—”
“Wake Remfrey!”
Leaving behind the brief command, Killian rushed outside without even putting on his coat.
Killian sprinted madly across the garden.
His destination was behind the annex, deep in the western forest.
‘If it fell straight down, it should be around here.’
Stopping at a fork in the dense woods, he caught his breath, his lungs burning.
‘Was it Erhi? Irene? Did I fail to notice one of them?’
Hans had said “a bird,” but those were unmistakably the wings of a demon beast.
‘Where did it fall?’
Forcing down his anxiety, Killian focused his senses.
As someone with mana, detecting a demon beast’s presence—even without seeing it—should have been easy. Yet his thoughts kept scattering.
“Kyaaah—!”
Killian’s eyes snapped open.
And in that instant—
“Kyaak—!”
With a piercing scream, the demon beast’s body slammed into him.
“Ugh!”
Caught off guard, Killian rolled across the ground. But once again, the beast was faster, pinning him down.
Thud! Thud!
The demon beast’s forelimbs pounded heavily against his chest.
“Ugh….”
Instinctively reaching for the sword at his waist, Killian clenched his fist instead.
‘You lunatic.’
Once was enough—drawing a blade against his own nephews.
“Kyaaah—!”
Gritting his teeth to keep from groaning, Killian continued to burn through his mana.
