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Chapter 7
“We have to go back out and catch them…. Ugh.”
“Ack, it splashed on my face!”
“Stop it, stop it…!”
The desperate cries of the slave traders echoed out of the building.
‘Good luck getting out. Because that wind won’t stop.’
Rayna stared at the building with cold eyes.
She confirmed that everyone inside the cage had made it out.
After blocking the entrance of the building—where only the slave traders remained—with magic, Rayna left the spot and walked through the village.
Then, thinking of Tiernan, she muttered to herself,
“…He’ll be fine, right? He’s the male lead, after all.”
Since this was inside a novel, Tiernan would grow up receiving plenty of main character buffs.
Even now, as long as he had a sword, he wasn’t someone with the skill to be caught by the likes of slave traders.
‘I put a location tracking spell on his ID, too.’
She had considered keeping him by her side like Kebeniark, but given the original plot’s progression, his identity as the prince of the Tuntera Empire would inevitably be revealed someday.
If that happened, there was a very high chance that the surrounding situation would turn bad for both children in many ways.
Besides…
‘Rayna Heart is the very person who raided the Tuntera imperial palace.’
To think she was the enemy who killed every single one of the male lead’s kin.
He had bristled and raised his guard just from her handing him a Betuzenia citizen’s ID.
‘If he finds out I’m Rayna, Tiernan might charge at me to kill me on the spot.’
In fact, instead of Kebeniark, maybe she would end up being killed by the male lead.
…Thinking about it like that made it feel dangerous.
“Well, that’s a problem for later…”
Rayna looked up at the sky. The sun was setting.
“Let’s go eat dinner.”
Since her kid was waiting.
The light of teleportation magic enveloped Rayna’s body.
After breakfast.
Rayna went out to the main palace, saying she had been summoned by the Emperor.
From the moment Rayna stepped out the front door, Kebeniark sat in the middle of the stairs of his detached palace, waiting for her.
It was a staircase connected to the lobby, frequently used by the servants working in the detached palace.
The Fourth Prince’s figure was clearly visible as they came and went. However, the servants paid him no mind and focused on their work.
It was because they had already experienced it yesterday.
They had seen Kebeniark sitting on those stairs all day, staring intently at the entrance until Rayna, who had gone out, returned in the evening.
Even when they spoke to him to tell him to wait somewhere comfortable, he didn’t answer or move. Like an animal waiting endlessly for a lost master. So, they had no choice but to leave him alone.
Fortunately, Rayna returned before lunch.
“…Rayna!”
The door opened, revealing light purple hair. Kebeniark dashed down the stairs like an arrow and stood before Rayna.
She was unbuttoning her coat to hand it to a servant. Rayna raised the corners of her lips playfully at Kebeniark, who was just staring up at her with sparkling eyes.
“Your Highness, don’t you have something to say to me?”
“‘I’m back.’”
“…?”
He clearly seemed to have no idea what Rayna was talking about.
Even without looking inside, it was vivid to her eyes how his small head was working overtime.
‘He’s contemplating.’
Rayna watched Kebeniark quietly.
Although she liked that he ran to her calling her name every time she came back…
Wasn’t it about time he learned a proper greeting?
“…”
Kebeniark looked around to find a clue about what he was supposed to say.
Then, spotting the servant organizing the coat next to Rayna, he realized something and bowed his upper body.
“You have arrived.”
Pfft.
Rayna barely managed to hold back the laugh that was about to burst out.
“It’s not bad, but in times like this, you can just say, ‘Welcome back.’”
“Wel…come back?”
“Yes. ‘I’m back.’”
Whether the words felt awkward coming out for the first time, Kebeniark repeated what Rayna taught him a few more times in a quiet voice.
Rayna added an explanation for him:
“It means that the place I return to is you, Your Highness. Those greetings—‘Welcome back,’ ‘I’m back.’”
“…Ah, ah!”
To think that the place Rayna would return to was himself.
Even though Kebeniark unconsciously felt those words could change as easily as flipping a hand, he was so happy he could jump.
And he actually did. He followed behind Rayna as she walked toward the dining room, practically skipping while repeating “Welcome back!” several times.
Not knowing how to express the emotion of happiness in words, he poured it into the phrase “Welcome back”—until Rayna told him that once was enough.
And a moment later.
Sitting at the dining table, Kebeniark faced an even more unbelievable event.
“Your Highness, will you become my disciple?”
It was what Rayna said just as all the food was brought out.
Kebeniark, who was about to pick up a piece of steak cut with his fork, froze right in that posture and stared at Rayna.
Me, her disciple?
‘Why?’
I’m a monster.
He couldn’t understand it. Questions like ‘Me? Why?’ rose up to his throat.
Yet Kebeniark couldn’t even utter an exclamation, merely nodding his head repeatedly.
Because he felt that if he questioned Rayna’s words, she might cancel her offer to take him as a disciple.
Unaware of his cheeky inner thoughts, Rayna smiled like a flower and spoke:
“That’s great. I look forward to working with you, Your Highness.”
Rayna probably didn’t know that he was a monster. That must be why she offered to take him as a disciple.
However, he didn’t dare have the courage to reveal that he was a monster to Rayna and ruin this happiness.
Kebeniark swallowed the words apologizing for deceiving her and nodded his head.
“…Yes.”
Rayna looked at Kebeniark with satisfaction.
‘That’s one weight off my chest.’
When the Emperor called her since morning, she wondered what it was about, only to find out it was to appoint her as the Fourth Prince’s master.
“You must fulfill your duty as the Fourth Prince’s master. To the prince’s father, and as the Emperor of this Empire, to me as well.”
It seemed he had chosen Kebeniark as a substitute for the Potion of Subjugation.
Rayna sneered inwardly.
She wanted to ask if he had ever considered himself the Fourth Prince’s father until now, but that was a question born from personal emotion.
“I shall do so.”
Instead of criticizing, Rayna agreed with the Emperor’s words.
There was no need to kick away an offer that gave her the position of his master.
‘I was worried about what to do if Kebeniark said no, so I’m glad that’s not an issue either.’
It felt like things were being resolved one by one.
Above all, what pleased Rayna the most right now was the juicy, glistening steak placed on the plate.
A complete steak visible without a single thing blocking her field of vision.
‘Tiernan’s descriptions aren’t popping up anymore either. Looks like he isn’t starving.’
It seemed he was making good use of the bag she had given him.
Right, whether he resented her or whatever—as long as he grew up without going hungry, that was enough.
Rayna hummed inwardly as she picked up her fork and knife.
Now that nothing was holding her back, until the original story begins, at Rayna Heart’s territory…
“Ah.”
Then she remembered there was something she hadn’t told Kebeniark yet.
Rayna set down her utensils and turned her gaze toward the child, who was still at a loss for what to do.
“Your Highness, I plan to leave for Ribeiro soon.”
“Ribeiro…?”
“It’s my small territory in the countryside. Would you like to go together?”
She thought an answer saying yes would come out immediately, just as when he agreed to become her disciple.
For Kebeniark, the imperial palace was a place without a single good memory, after all.
“I…”
However, Kebeniark hesitated to answer.
A few days later.
Rayna was inside a carriage heading to Ribeiro.
Across from her, Kebeniark was kneeling on his seat, looking out the window.
‘Was he observing his surroundings like that in the palace, too? Hiding in the bushes and such.’
Rayna rested her chin on her arm placed against the window frame and looked at the child.
Going to Ribeiro via teleportation would have been faster, but she deliberately chose the carriage.
It was because she wanted to instill in the child the realization that he was leaving the imperial palace.
His blue eyes, fully revealed beneath his black hair, sparkled like water reflecting sunlight.
‘And to think he’d like it this much.’
When Rayna asked if he wanted to go to Ribeiro, Kebeniark had hesitated to answer for about a day.
Rayna realized the reason when Kebeniark asked her a question with a face full of fear:
“Is Rayna… scared of monsters…?”
A monster. It was a word that had appeared in the description of the Fourth Prince’s past in the original novel.
She wondered what he was talking about, then firmly shook her head.
“No. I am stronger.”
Kebeniark gained a blank look on his face, as if he had heard an answer he had never expected.
After contemplating on the spot for a moment, he said he would follow her to Ribeiro.
‘Monster, my foot. He’s nothing but pretty.’
The person who should have been possessed into the novel was the original author, not her.
They should come and see for themselves—to see if they could still find it in their heart to dump such a cruel, tragic backstory onto such an adorable child.
While Rayna was inwardly venting her dissatisfaction toward the faceless author, someone knocked on the carriage window.
It was the Commander of the Imperial 3rd Knights, assigned by the Imperial Family as a guard for the Fourth Prince leaving the palace.
“Viscountess Heart, it seems we’ll have to camp out tonight. They say the nearest village is still half a day’s drive away.”
“Alright.”
The carriage stopped on an deserted forest road.
The thirty or so people, including the knights, pitched tents and built a campfire to prepare for the night.
After eating dinner with the simple food they had brought along, Kebeniark lay down on the bedding Rayna had made with magic.
Perhaps because coming outside the imperial palace for the first time was quite exhausting, the child quickly fell fast asleep.
‘I’m getting a bit sleepy, too.’
Lying beside him and patting the child, Rayna’s eyes drifted shut as well.
And when she opened her eyes again, she was alone.
“An ambush!”
“Everyone, wake up!”
It was chaotic outside the tent.
Hurrying out of the tent, a scene reminiscent of a battlefield unfolded before her eyes.
Tents set ablaze. Knights fighting the enemy without even wearing their armor, having just woken up.
And.
Kebeniark, who had vanished.
Fwump.
Red flames flickered in her eyes as she searched for the child.
