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Chapter 09
“Karlier Esperos”
I awkwardly smiled at his half-right, half-wrong guess.
“Yes, you’re right. I didn’t expect you to guess that much…”
Trying to say something I didn’t truly feel made my tongue twist again and again.
Lafer, clearly misunderstanding my avoidance of eye contact as guilt, spoke with a much more serious face.
“But Lady, it’s better if you don’t try to imitate that woman.”
“…Pardon?”
“Especially if you’re planning to imitate her at the ball three days from now. Even more so.”
His joking expression had disappeared. I looked at him seriously too and asked,
“What if I have to imitate her?”
At my question, Lafer looked into my eyes. His gray pupils stared so deeply, it felt like he could see through me.
“So you knew after all, Lady.”
“……”
“No, when did you find out?”
There was no way I wouldn’t have known.
Of course, when I first overheard the conversation between him and the stall owner, I didn’t realize. But the moment I discovered he was Lafer, it all made sense.
He referred to Heidi—the one called the Flower of Zeros—with the codeword flower.
Seeing me remain silent, Lafer shrugged.
As his gray eyes looked at my stiffened expression, a strange glint passed through them.
“Interesting. Thinking that you knew everything, Lady, now I’m really curious.”
“……”
“You knew Karl might abduct that woman, and yet you still chose to dye your hair the same color as Heidi Eliana’s.”
The moment I saw the way he looked straight into my eyes, I realized it.
He had figured me out. And now, he was more dangerous than ever.
“La-Lafer, I-I wasn’t trying to interfere with the plan, I swear…!”
“It’s fine. Whatever you do, I have no intention of getting involved.”
“…What?”
“But.”
Lafer suddenly smiled—a smile that made my lips go dry from sheer unease.
It was the kind of grin someone wore when a mischievous idea came to mind.
“Now I’m a bit curious myself. Especially since, in my opinion, you really do resemble Heidi quite a bit.”
T-That was actually good news for someone like me who was planning to swap places with Heidi, but still…!
“So now I’m curious. If Karl meets you today and sees you again at the ball—will he kidnap you instead?”
“……”
“Aren’t you curious too, Lady Levelia?”
“Nope, not curious at all…!”
I was about to quickly finish my sentence when he shoved me.
The firm windowsill that had been supporting my back was gone before I knew it, and I lost my balance, falling backward.
Even though it all happened in an instant, everything felt slow.
I could even see Lafer’s pupils clearly, as he laughed while pushing me.
“So go to him, Levelia. I’ll be guarding this room in your place.”
As he flicked his fingers lightly, he waved at me with a smile.
I tightly shut my eyes and made a vow:
If I survive this, I swear I’ll kill that man first.
It felt like I was falling for quite a long time.
Especially for a fall from the second floor to the first, the sensation lasted way too long.
I shut my eyes tightly and prayed that I wouldn’t die.
I hadn’t even escaped from Piace yet, let alone reached any sort of brilliant future—there was no way I could die so meaninglessly now.
“That bastard killed me…!”
I clutched the whistle Lafer gave me with both hands and chanted the same thing over and over.
If I survive this, I’m killing you first—Lafer Wizard!
Huh?
At that moment, I felt something soft catch me with a thump.
It felt like I had landed in something like a hammock strung between trees.
A fresh and cool forest scent wafted into my nose, unmistakable and calming.
Because of that, I tried to deny the feeling of something wrapping around behind my knees and shoulders.
It felt like a person’s hand was gripping my shoulder.
And the thing supporting behind my knees—definitely felt like a person’s arm.
So I silently prayed to every god I knew.
Please, anyone but him. Anyone but him who caught me.
The villain of White Horse of Zeros, the one who kidnaps the female protagonist Heidi Eliana—Karlier Esperos.
Please don’t let it be that madman!
“I’ve never thought I lived a life so noble that a woman would literally fall from the sky into my arms.”
The voice I heard was unfamiliar, yet not unfamiliar.
It echoed like a deep voice in a cave, laced with sarcasm and a faint scoff.
“I know you’re not unconscious, so why don’t you open your eyes and explain this situation?”
His words pierced my ears. Slowly, I opened the eyes I had clenched shut.
I had squeezed them shut so tightly that the figure in front of me was still blurry.
As I stared at him—his head glowing under the sunlight—my heart began pounding with fear and anxiety.
“Are you alright, sir?!”
Voices of alarmed men and hurried footsteps rushing toward us rang out in confusion.
As the noise escalated, I cautiously moved my eyes and lifted my head. The man’s face—once blurry—finally came into clear view.
Crimson eyes like blood, jet-black hair, the strong arms holding me up, and those twisted lips curling into a smirk.
Damn it.
“…Karlier Esperos.”
Lafer Wizard’s friend, and the mastermind behind Heidi Eliana’s kidnapping.
It was Karliér Esperos.
As Levelia was pushed and fell down, her eyes showed a mix of anger and utter disbelief.
Lafer, who had watched her always pretending not to know anything with such a clean face, now laughed as he saw the variety of expressions she showed in response to his prank.
“She’s honestly really entertaining.”
To be honest, Lafer hadn’t realized her last name was Piace until he came to this room.
The family crest engraved all over the room revealed that she was none other than Levelia Piace, the daughter of Crocan Piace—the very person Karlier had mentioned.
…He had a daughter, huh?
A daughter? Crocan Piace had a daughter?
She doesn’t look like him, though.
“She certainly doesn’t resemble that snake-like bastard. If anything…”
Suddenly, the face of a man flashed through his mind, but Lafer quickly shook his head.
“No, no. That’s going way too far.”
With a quiet chuckle, Lafer recalled his past conversation with Karlier. The things he had once found puzzling now started to make sense.
“So… she already knew about Karl and my plan?”
Lafer muttered to himself and then paused mid-thought.
A sudden doubt made him slowly scan Levelia’s room.
But… if she really did know, then wasn’t something strange?
The Piace family was one of the most powerful marquess households in all of Zeros.
Crocan Piace was the head of that noble house, and Levelia was his only child.
“Even so…”
Yes. Even so, Levelia’s room was far too plain.
No—plain wasn’t enough. It was bare, even shabby.
The Marquess Piace family was said to have wealth rivaling even the emperor’s.
And yet, this was the room of their only daughter?
All she had was a creaky old bed, half-empty bookshelves, a worn-out sofa, and a rotting wooden table.
“…Ha.”
Lafer let out a dry laugh as he stared at the dusty carpet on the floor.
No matter where he looked, it didn’t seem like Levelia was being treated properly in this house.
In such a situation, would Crocan really have shared this grand plan—of colluding with a foreign duke to kidnap the future crown princess—with Levelia?
The answer was obvious.
“Of course not.”
Lafer plopped down onto the worn-out sofa.
“Then how did she know?”
Levelia Piace.
He couldn’t be sure of a single thing about her, yet he found this whole situation oddly exciting.
Someone who had always found everything in life so easy—Levelia was the first person to feel like genuine uncertainty to him.
Enjoying this rare sense of curiosity, Lafer casually twitched his fingers.
But then his eyebrows twitched slightly.
There were footsteps—softened deliberately—approaching the room from behind the door.
Lafer formed a small circle with his thumb and forefinger.
Closing one eye, he peered through the circle with the other—and the space beyond the door became visible.
There, he saw a maid with short, orange-tinted hair pressing her ear closely to the door.
…Is she spying? Why?
Frowning, Lafer watched as the maid seemed to notice something strange. Her eyes sharpened.
She looked at the closed door for a moment, then as if making a decision, knocked softly.
“Miss Levelia, are you in there? May I come in for a moment?”
At the unwelcome intrusion, Lafer’s face twisted with displeasure.
