Chapter 105

Riding my summoned creature, I opened the window to my fourth-floor bedroom. I shoved Dante inside without a second thought and immediately jumped in after him.

As I slid off its back, the creature let out a rumbling sound and soared upward. It was returning to its master.

I quickly shut the window and began dragging Dante across the floor.

There was no way the search party hadn’t seen the summoned creature flying toward the Ruthius estate.

They would be storming the place any minute. I had to hide Dante before they arrived.

“Where should I hide him…?”

Just then.

The sound of hurried footsteps echoed, and my bedroom door burst open.

“Hey! Where have you been?!”

It was Alex, dressed in his pajamas. He spotted Dante lying face down on the floor and froze.

“…Is he… dead?”

“No, but he was close.”

I did have to restart his heart with CPR.

Alex started smacking my back.

“Are you crazy?! Insane! How could you bring a dying royal here? What are you going to do if Father finds out?!”

I clapped a hand over Alex’s mouth as he rambled on.

“Why don’t you just announce it to the whole neighborhood? That the Second Prince is here.”

“…”

Alex’s expression turned to one of realization as he calmed his excitement.

“This is a secret from the Duke. For now.”

Right now, we were in a tug-of-war with the Emperor.

He was waiting for us to make a single mistake, and we were treading carefully to avoid giving him any reason.

In a situation like this, getting caught smuggling Dante out would give the Emperor the perfect justification to attack us.

If Duke Ruthius found out about this, he wouldn’t just stand by.

“How did you know I was back? Was it because of the summoned creature?”

If so, that was a problem. It meant Duke Ruthius might have noticed, too.

“How am I supposed to sense a creature summoned from another dimension? I knew because I asked the constellations.”

“What did you ask them?”

“Just if they knew where you were. Why?”

It seemed the constellations hadn’t shared the details. My efforts to keep them quiet had paid off.

“What on earth happened? Why is he here, in this state?!”

I let out a deep sigh.

“I helped him escape. He was being held captive.”

“…The Second Prince? Why?”

“How should I know? Since we’re already here, you might as well cooperate. We have to hide His Highness before the pursuers arrive.”

“Why should I? You’re the one who caused this mess. You clean it up.”

“…You disloyal bastard.”

“Tsk! To your older brother!”

“You disloyal older brother bastard.”

Alex glared, putting on a stern expression.

“You shouldn’t talk to your older brother like that. Now, ask politely. Say, ‘Older brother, please help me.’”

“You have such a colorful way of being a pain.”

“Hey!”

“I didn’t want to have to say this, but you have no idea how much you’ve wronged me, do you? If I told you, you wouldn’t even be able to look me in the eye.”

“What did I do? Cursed at you when we were kids?”

“You think I hold a grudge like you do? No, it’s because you tried to set me up with the First Prince!”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“The First Prince is a moral degenerate and a severe narcissist! And you tried to set your sister up with a guy like that!”

“…No way! He’s such a gentleman! He’s the head of Yggdrasil!”

I explained in detail the dirty tricks Igrid pulled when he visited the Guardian headquarters.

Alex, who had been listening with suspicion, found his face contorting in disgust.

“Did the First Prince really do that to you?”

“Yes. Do you get it now? What you almost did to me?”

“You should have told me… I had no idea he was that kind of person.”

“Is being a poor judge of character something to be proud of?”

Alex hung his head gloomily.

“Sorry…”

“Forget it. Now hurry up and grab his legs.”

“Alright…”

Just as we each took hold of Dante’s limbs and stood up.

The bedroom door burst open.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Alex and I froze simultaneously. The temperature in the room seemed to plummet.

Duke Ruthius, his nightgown worn with impeccable neatness, struck the floor with the end of his cane.

“I asked what the two of you are doing at this hour.”

“…”

“Cat got your tongue? In that case, shall I explain?”

His icy green eyes slowly swept over me, Alex, and Dante, who was dangling between us like a piece of laundry.

“You have just been caught attempting to secretly dispose of an unconscious royal. For your information, even nobles cannot escape punishment for harming a member of the imperial family.”

With me at a loss for words, Alex spoke up in my defense.

“Ah, Father, Astell didn’t knock him out… and we weren’t trying to dispose of him.”

“Does the truth matter? Appearances are what count.”

“…”

“His Majesty will be overjoyed when he learns of this. He has finally found a weakness to exploit. What are your thoughts on the matter?”

It meant we had given the Emperor justification to attack us.

That’s why I was trying to handle this quietly.

We’re screwed. Dammit.

“…How did you know?”

“Did you think I would be unable to sense a summoned creature?”

What? I thought you couldn’t sense creatures summoned from other dimensions. Why the different story now?

I glared at Alex, but he just shook his head, looking just as surprised.

‘Is it because he’s a Sword Master?’

In any case, now that Duke Ruthius had found out, my best option was to ask for his cooperation. I quickly explained the situation.

Duke Ruthius, who remained expressionless throughout my explanation, looked down at Dante with cold eyes and gave an order.

“Alex, move His Highness to the dressing room.”

“Will that be alright?”

“They cannot forcibly search a noble lady’s bedroom without concrete evidence.”

“Understood, Father… Ugh!”

Grunting with effort, Alex heaved Dante onto his back and headed for the dressing room.

Only then did Duke Ruthius’s gaze turn to me.

I felt a pang of guilt.

Just as I was about to look away, feeling like I was about to be scolded, Duke Ruthius held out a scroll of unknown purpose.

“…What is this?”

“Clean yourself.”

“With a scroll?”

“It is a scroll that removes foreign substances from the body.”

“…”

Ah, right. He’s a germaphobe.

Our dear Duke Ruthius had such a *beautiful* personality that he couldn’t stand having anything on his body.

And because he was so incredibly wealthy, he carried around these impurity-removing scrolls—costing about twenty times as much as a handkerchief—instead of an actual handkerchief.

Because a handkerchief gets dirty after one use.

‘Talk about first-world problems. Still, this is perfect, since I didn’t have time to bathe.’

I bowed my head slightly and took the scroll.

The moment I tore it, all the mud and stains on my body vanished.

“The pursuit team will be here soon. I’ll pretend to be asleep, so you should go down to your bedroom, Duke. Ah, and if they look for Alex…”

“I will handle it. You just lie down and calm your mind.”

“If I change into my pajamas and mess up my hair a bit, they’ll think I just woke up.”

“Your aura isn’t that of someone who has just woken up. It’s too sharp.”

It was true that I was more agitated than usual, likely from everything that had happened.

“…I will.”

Just then, the chaotic sound of hooves reached my sensitive ears.

Looking out the window, I saw what looked to be well over thirty knights riding toward the estate.

Soon, the empty dawn garden was filled with the thundering of hooves.

“This fast?”

Duke Ruthius and I moved at the same time, as if on cue.

Duke Ruthius loosened his impeccably neat nightgown as he walked out.

“Tell Alex as well. He is not to come out unless I call for him. The same goes for you. Don’t forget to change into your pajamas.”

As the door closed, I frantically changed into the slip that was laid out beside my bed.

Then I jumped onto the bed and hastily messed up the neatly spread sheets.

As I pressed my head into the pillow, I glanced toward the dressing room and saw the light go out.

Alex didn’t come out. It seemed his plan was to stay hidden with Dante.

I don’t know how long I lay there, trying to calm my nerves.

Someone burst into the bedroom without even knocking.

That alone was absurd, but they then strode confidently over to me and began shaking my shoulder.

“Princess, wake up. We know everyth— Gak!”

With a *thud*, the knight who had touched me screamed and clutched his face. Dark red blood streamed from his nose.

“Aaargh! My teeth! You broke my front teeth!”

Damn, I was aiming for his jaw but ended up knocking out his teeth.

I slowly drew back the fist I had thrown and sat up, squinting my eyes as if I had just been woken from a deep sleep.

“Which bastard woke me up.”

The color drained from the knights’ faces.