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Chapter 22

Her sharp, pointed eyes quickly drooped. Seeing that, Sasha asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Oh, by the way, you were feeling better that day, weren't you? You had such a high fever that I had no choice but to use healing magic on you."

"Ah… right. So that's what happened that day. No wonder…"

Alexa McDonner… you really did receive healing magic. That precious, rare thing.

Alexa curled the corners of her mouth awkwardly.

"Please stay the night. There are plenty of rooms, so you can use whichever you like… but since you're unexpected guests, the other rooms aren't properly prepared."

"Don't worry about that. Shall we go up to the second floor?"

"I'd prefer the first floor."

At Adrian's indifferent remark, Sasha quietly looked at him.

He didn't say anything directly, but even Alexa could tell it wasn't a favorable sign.

"Then you can use my, my room! There are only two bedrooms on the first floor. The other one is…"

Her brother's room… Alexa's voice trailed off naturally, then shrank as if she'd caught herself.

"No, it's fine. We'll sleep on the second floor. Of course, we only need one room. We'll share it."

Sasha politely declined with the same gentle face. Alexa thought about offering more to make them comfortable, but decided against it.

If they said they'd share and didn't mind the mess, what more could she say? She didn't have the energy to prolong the conversation anyway.

"Then we'll head upstairs."

"Oh, when you wake up, I might not be here. I have to go to work."

"We'll see ourselves out."

They rose and climbed the stairs to the second floor.

Watching them go, Alexa let out a deep sigh. Since there was nothing to steal, it didn't matter if they left after she did—if anything, if they did take something and it reduced the debt, that'd be even better.

The only thing that bothered her was thinking about the thick dust that must have piled up on the neglected second floor. But—

"Ah, whatever. They said it's fine."

There was no way she could clean it at this hour and still sleep. She'd be lucky to get three or four hours as it was.

Alexa gave up and went into her room.

---

"So very interesting. How did she manage that?"

After washing up, Sasha magically dried his wet hair and looked at himself in the mirror. Despite being tired, his skin was still smooth—quite satisfying.

Concluding that good skin was indeed a matter of genetics, Sasha glanced at Adrian reflected in the mirror.

He didn't respond, just lay stretched out on the bed. Adrian's tall, broad frame filled the single bed entirely.

Eyes closed, Adrian cracked one open to look at Sasha. As if seeing something offensive, he frowned deeply and shut his eyes again.

"Where did you dig up that vulgar thing?"

"It's not bad, actually. They have a fairly thick robe here."

Sasha was wearing only a loosely tied robe over his bare body. Of course, the robe was just a robe—it had done nothing wrong.

Sasha approached the bed where Adrian lay, deftly claimed his spot, and shoved him aside.

Adrian didn't budge—but Sasha wasn't the type to back down either. If he wouldn't move, he'd make him move.

"'Shoo, like a bird or a mouse'—does that actually work as a way to drive something off?"

"Get away from me."

"Was it really because it was so small? That thing has fifty teeth, top and bottom, sharper than a saw blade."

"Don't touch me."

"Driving it away with words instead of force—maybe it was so shocked by the unexpected approach that it fled?"

"Ah… don't touch me!"

Adrian couldn't take it anymore and shot upright. Goosebumps stood on the back of his neck.

Sasha had already claimed more than half the bed.

"Mmm, tired."

"Just go home and sleep!"

Sasha's family—his parents and younger sibling—lived in the grand Marquis of Patrick's mansion in the capital.

"Who wants to get beaten to death at this hour…? Would you come with me?"

Sasha pulled the blanket up to his chin and gazed at him pleadingly.

Adrian despised that kind of look, but he knew there was no winning. He let out a deep sigh.

He'd whisked away the only son and heir to use as his secretary, and the man hadn't gone home for years…

"If you went back now, what are the odds we'd both come out alive?"

"Calculating odds—how heartless. It's obviously zero."

"Right. How dare I think we'd come out unscathed."

"Well, I could squeeze over if you want to share? Or I could ask for the next room. I've already checked—nothing threatening in there."

"Forget it."

Adrian turned abruptly and sat on the small sofa. Thankfully, Sasha had already blown away every speck of dust in the room, so there was no dusty explosion—just a slightly cramped seat.

Adrian recalled the first night he'd spent in this house.

The sofa in Alexa's room had been worse, but this one was still old, with fabric worn thin in places.

He folded his arms and closed his eyes.

"And they call this a sofa."

So many rooms, yet all the furniture was tiny—single beds, small sofas. Every spare room was the same, like a hotel suite.

Who designed this building? If he were the owner, he wouldn't have used this vast land so inefficiently. How could there have been no one to stop—

Click!

Ah. A tiny wood chip fell onto Adrian's head. He picked up the thumbnail-sized piece from the floor.

Wondering if the ceiling was rotting, he looked up—but he couldn't tell where it had come from.

He rubbed his head in irritation. From under the covers, Sasha let out a quiet giggle.

---

Six in the morning. Having barely slept, Adrian waited in the palace reception room for an audience with the king. As he rubbed his stiff eyes and stretched his neck, a flurry of sounds came from outside the door.

Soon, the king appeared with a tired face—looking as if he'd slept just as little as Adrian.

He heard that some mages who had been out fighting monsters, along with geologists, academy professors, and the captain of the guard at the Mana River—the boundary between sea and land—had gathered for an all-night meeting.

Adrian bowed, and the king waved him off as he slumped into his seat.

"The matter is urgent, so let's skip the pleasantries."

Though their relationship was less formal than other sovereigns and subjects, the king was still the king. Adrian knew when to relax and when to be alert—and now was clearly the time to focus.

"Is the information from last night true?"

"Yes."

"A person died, and a small monster came out of an unknown black void to devour the body…"

"Yes."

"So now we know why the bodies have been mutilated. Those creatures had been emerging and feeding on the dead. At least we've figured that much."

The king downed his lukewarm tea. His throat felt parched.

Since King Schvein Balzer had ascended the throne, the nation had prospered, and its military had grown stronger.

Though his fiery temper occasionally flared, he was generally fair, respected for his swift judgment and decisiveness.

But at some point, people began dying. And in grotesque ways.

Yet the cause remained elusive, driving everyone to wring their hands in frustration.

How could a person wither away like that? How could a monster appear in the sky above the continent?

"Honestly… I'm losing my hair over this."

He looked at the strands of blonde hair in his hand. At this rate, his thick mane would soon thin out.

"…Anyway, we're putting all our efforts into finding the cause. For now, we have to deal with the immediate problem."

"You mean the Scylla that appeared in Count Carlton's territory."

"Yes. With multiple heads."

King Schvein Balzer shook his head.

Deep-sea monsters, which should only live in the ocean, had fallen onto the kingdom's land.

Everyone was terrified by the inexplicable phenomenon, and the enormous monster's sheer size had already dealt a heavy blow to the territory.

But the bigger issue was that this wasn't a problem they could solve just by slaying the monster.

The Kingdom of Chelburg, surrounded by sea, was protected by a vast magical barrier that shielded the entire land from monsters.

The so-called "Mana River." The fact that monsters had breached it was enough to shake the entire nation.

The shadows under the king's eyes grew darker by the minute.

"The Count of Carlton is evacuating his people at the risk of his own life. We managed to drive the monster away, but the climate in the territory has yet to return to normal—strangely enough. We're providing as much support as we can, but the people have already lost trust and are growing anxious. Understandably, I suppose."

"……"

His face was a tangle of doubt and anguish. Every day, he reviewed old texts, reports, theories, and held meetings—yet no convincing answer emerged.

Until he fell asleep, the words "why" and "how" churned endlessly in his mind.

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