CHGD 10

Chapter 10

“There’s no need to confront him anytime soon, so Roaz, you don’t have to worry too much about—”

Just as I was about to tell him not to make unnecessary enemies and focus on his escort duties, someone suddenly blocked my path. It was an empty space, but then a person dropped down from the sky.

It was the maid with white hair.

“My lady.”

“……What is it?”

I patted my startled chest and forced a calm expression. In response to my question, the maid bowed deeply and spoke.

“Currently, Sir Valos is unable to perform his escort duties due to unavoidable circumstances.”

‘If it’s Valos…… then he was the escort knight before Roaz.’

I didn’t remember him, but it was easy to infer the situation.

I glanced at Roaz. True to his confidence, the maid didn’t notice him standing beside me.

“What happened that he had to stop being an escort?”

“I’m afraid I cannot say.”

“Will I be able to see him again?”

“……It is expected to take a considerable amount of time.”

That was a blessing in disguise.

If an escort knight I had no memory of appeared, I might come under unnecessary suspicion.

To keep Roaz hidden, I had to show the Count that my memory was intact.

“We will contact you as soon as a new escort knight is appointed. So, please, if possible……”

“Refrain from going out?”

“……Yes, I apologize.”

I nodded, indicating it was fine. After all, I had no particular schedule once the garden walk was over.

When I said I’d return to my room, the maid bowed once more and vanished. An entrance and exit as mysterious as her appearance.

As I started walking back to the annex, Roaz spoke to me in a reluctant voice.

“You…… you talked so calmly with that one.”

“She’s not an ordinary maid?”

Of course, given her appearance and disappearance, it was clear the maid wasn’t human either, but compared to the Count and Roaz, she was tame. She didn’t even seem particularly scary.

Roaz frowned as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Ordinary? Did you see her legs?”

“Legs…… I didn’t see anything though?”

“Of course you didn’t. Because she has no legs.”

“…….”

When I fell silent, Roaz sighed as if I didn’t even know that much.

“If you want to live long, don’t get close to that one. If you get sucked in, it’ll be a headache.”

“Is she that dangerous in your eyes, Roaz?”

“Rather than dangerous, I’d say she’s troublesome…… If you get entangled, you’ll wander in the shadows for at least a hundred years. Haster is really something else, using something like that.”

I’d ended up hearing information I didn’t need again. Now I didn’t know what expression to make whenever I saw that maid.

“……By the way, Roaz, about Valos.”

I changed the subject, trying to erase the information about the maid from my mind.

Roaz frowned deeply at the name Valos.

“What about him?”

“What would you have done if I had heard that Valos disappeared while my memories were still manipulated? I would have suspected you.”

“You couldn’t have. It’s rare for someone to doubt a fixed memory. You’re the strange one.”

Come to think of it, that was true.

If I’d been certain of my memories, I would have suspected the Count instead.

Wondering who Valos was when my escort knight was right here…

And in the midst of that confusion, Roaz would have subtly tried to manipulate me.

‘Come to think of it, he really is dangerous.’

We’d formed an alliance now, but if we hadn’t, I could imagine how I might have been used.

I suppose we got lucky forming this alliance.

“By the way, I didn’t expect them to already find a replacement for Valos. I thought it’d take some time.”

“An escort knight suddenly disappears, of course they’d notice.”

“Then wouldn’t they go looking for him first, instead of immediately finding a new escort knight?”

“……That’s true too.”

Since my memories were manipulated in the morning, only half a day had passed since Roaz’s intrusion.

If Valos had disappeared in that time, it was natural to assume he was somewhere in the castle.

Skipping duty, or stepping away for some reason.

Choosing to immediately find a new escort knight seemed too hasty.

At that moment, an unpleasant thought crossed my mind.

“Roaz!”

“What now?”

“By any chance, you didn’t kill Valos, did you?”

It was a chilling hypothesis—that someone had discovered Valos’s dead body and was hurriedly seeking a replacement.

Roaz’s expression hardened coldly.

“……I know what you’re thinking.”

He smirked and said.

“I do have a grudge against Valos, and I’d like to kill him if I had the chance…… but I won’t touch him before bringing down Haster. I swore to that.”

“Does the Count know about that?”

“Probably not. He might know about my deep grudge, but not about the oath.”

The unpleasant suspicion grew larger.

I continued questioning in an uneasy voice.

“Then, where is Valos now?”

“I sealed him somewhere no one knows. ……Why are you so fixated on that guy?”

It’s not fixation.

I just want to know the truth to eliminate this unease.

“Anyway, you’re saying you didn’t kill Valos? That he’s alive, and the Count just hasn’t found him?”

“Don’t make me say it twice. I didn’t kill him!”

I sighed, hoping my assumption was wrong.

An ending I didn’t want to imagine flickered before my eyes.

‘If Roaz isn’t the only one who infiltrated this castle……’

My head began to throb with a new problem.

I don’t know why my worries are always so accurate.

The next day, while I was sleeping, Roaz went to check on Valos and returned with a report that turned my concern into certainty.

As if it were someone else’s business, he spoke with surprise.

‘The seal is gone. There was blood around, so it seems Valos was murdered.’

Then the conclusion was obvious.

‘Someone murdered Valos. The Count found the body and said he’d find a new escort knight.’

I never expected the situation—finding a new escort knight instead of searching for Valos—to connect like this.

Since I had no memory of Valos, I didn’t feel much sympathy, but the problem was what came next.

‘So…… the one with a grudge enough to kill Valos is you, Roaz?’

‘Yeah, Haster is probably suspecting me right now.’

The main suspect in this case was Roaz.

The relationship between Roaz, Valos, and the Count seemed quite famous among monsters. Apparently, Haster was likely already operating under the assumption that Roaz was the culprit.

‘If we get caught, it’s over.’

If our alliance were discovered in this situation?

Forget divorce, I’d clearly be branded a traitor alongside Roaz, who killed the Count’s subordinate.

‘Plus, it’s unsettling not knowing the murderer’s goal.’

Unlike Roaz, whose goal was Haster, I had no idea what a third party’s objective was.

If they were targeting me, they’d be a more dangerous enemy than the Count. At least the Count showed me kindness on the surface, but this one was completely unknown.

And so, amidst an unknown enemy, a ticking time bomb of a Count, and Roaz’s protection, my daily life filled with worries began.

When would the murderer show themselves? Would the Count suspect me before that? I felt my insides rotting with all sorts of worries…… but time passed quickly.

Surprisingly, I was living without any major incidents, making all my worries seem unfounded.

Three meals a day were delicious, the bedroom was cozy, and I enjoyed the luxurious comfort of changing dresses every day.

Of course, it wasn’t without problems.

For some reason, there were issues with appointing a new knight, and my escort still hadn’t been decided, so my range of activity had become even more limited.

In the meantime, I could only go to the dining hall, the library, and the garden by the lake.

“What, another walk today?”

After lunch, seeing me pick up a book and stand, Roaz grumbled.

During this time, Roaz seemed to be looking around here and there to find the Count’s weakness, but with no results, his irritability had noticeably increased.

He seemed to be trying to intimidate, but because of his appearance, it actually looked kind of cute.

It was like a younger sibling throwing a tantrum. I almost felt like pinching his cheeks.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“……Nothing. And there’s nothing else to do but walk. Just bear with it until a new escort knight comes.”

“Hmph.”

With Roaz grumbling, we walked to the garden. Normally, I’d sit on a bench near the lake and read, but since Roaz was so bored, I moved to the opposite side of the lake.