Chapter 151

“Sigeber! Do not come out! Do not come out, no matter what!!”

“You contemptible little brat—!”

“Do not come out, and remember everything you see, then tell Father every bit of it!! Tell him to punish them all. Waaahhh!”

Even when a child steels herself with such ferocity, it cannot last long. Her cheek throbbed, her shoulder ached, and blood spilled from her mouth. Unable to endure the bitterness and humiliation any longer, the princess pressed her forehead to the floor and burst into loud sobs.

The enraged man strode toward the girl who was collapsed on the ground. This wretched little creature was beyond reason. Just how pampered must she have been to grow up with such stubborn pride in so small a body?

At that age, he had always watched others’ expressions, never able to speak plainly even of what he wanted. Caught between a mother who did not love him and people who feigned praise while mocking him, he had spent his childhood isolated and insignificant, nothing more than a timid, unsightly loner before donning the boisterous persona he later crafted for himself.

“Pathetic little thing.”

Eugène leapt between them as if in flight, snatching up the girl just before the man could kick her. The princess, who had been sprawled on the floor, felt her body suddenly spin once before she realized she had been tucked against a man’s side. Dazed, she lifted her head.

However, given their position, she could not see his face. All that entered her view were thighs thicker than her own waist and a powerful hand holding her firmly in place.

“…Baron Amieux?”

The man froze as gray eyes looked upon him with open contempt. Having believed that no one but his own companions was watching, he had acted more brash than usual. Now he felt his ears burn red with shame.

“Is your mother well?”

“To think we would meet again like this… How did you come here?”

He let out a deep, low murmur, confronted with the face of someone who should never have been present. Hearing the question, Eugène answered with a provocatively amused smile, as though daring him to guess.

In truth, Viscount Gagnon thought that he had asked a foolish question even as the words left his mouth. If the man they had seized and imprisoned was now walking about freely outside, it could only mean one of two things: either he had escaped on his own, or he had been rescued. There was no other explanation worth considering.

“Has the safe house been exposed?”

“It would put your mind at ease to assume so. Is there any need to learn the truth in detail?”

“…Damn you. You were the one who exposed it.”

“I did receive considerable assistance from your family.”

Eugène answered without yielding an inch, barbing his words with open mockery. He had good reason to be irritable. Having just witnessed a man who styled himself a noble attempting to vent his anger by kicking a young girl with all his strength, he was in no mood to be charitable.

“Hand her over.”

Viscount Gagnon felt a creeping sense of urgency. If Eugène was not lying, matters might unravel far beyond what had been planned. The place where they had confined him was the Eastern nobility faction’s primary stronghold, where most of their critical documents were stored.

He barked out his threat as he advanced toward Eugène. In response, the other men closed in as well, narrowing the distance step by step as though shielding their leader.

“If that were my intention, I would not have intervened in the first place. I thought you were clever, despite appearances, but it seems you are merely reckless and foolish.”

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The child glanced around uneasily, then his gaze passed over the men’s backs and came to rest on Eugène, who was facing them head-on. It was unintentional, but their eyes met. The moment Eugène looked directly at him, the boy recoiled like a wary cat and darted back behind the wall.

The place where the child had appeared was behind the tapestry that had, until that moment, seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary wall. Only then did Eugène realize that there was a hidden space concealed within.

The problem, however, was that Eugène was not the only one who had witnessed that scene. A man who had finished searching another room and was returning to rejoin them caught sight of it and blurted out an involuntary sound as he pointed.

“Over there, behind the tapestry—?”

He never managed to finish the sentence. Anyone with a dagger buried in their throat would not. Eugène moved like a flash of lightning, hurling a dagger to seal the man’s mouth, then scooped up the girl he had set down and broke through the encirclement at a diagonal.

His first target was the man standing on the far right. There was no special reason, other than the fact that he was holding a pistol that had already been fully primed. Eugène hooked the barrel aimed at him with his stiletto and twisted it aside. The timing was so precise that the man had no chance to react and reflexively pulled the trigger. The shot tore through the knee of the companion standing beside him instead of Eugène.

“Aaaagh!”

The man whose knee joint had been obliterated in an instant let out a horrific scream. Startled by the sound, the girl’s eyes flew wide, and Eugène clicked his tongue softly as he offered a low admonition.

“Close your eyes.”

“Ami—Amieu, I mean, Baron…?”

“This is not a sight meant for someone so young.”

To the adults, it was a well-known name. To a young girl who knew nothing of politics, Baron Amieux was merely a man she had seen once before. Still, she understood well enough that he was acting for her sake. She squeezed her eyes shut as he instructed and, finding that insufficient, carefully covered her face with both hands.

Carrying the girl in his arms, Eugène charged forward. Those who missed him by a hair’s breadth clung to his back, blades clashing in a brutal melee. Fearing that the princess might be harmed, Eugène twisted his body hastily and shielded her with his own.

The timing of the turn was perfect, and the princess was unharmed. Eugène, however, was cut. In his haste, he had intercepted the opponent’s blade with his forearm instead of the dagger he had been holding.

Having ruined the only arm with which he could wield a weapon from the very first strike, the situation was dire. Even so, Eugène continued to retreat backward, the princess still held in one arm as he withdrew from them.Damn it.Of all things, the muscle had been cut. He felt strength failing in the hand holding his sword and, with no alternative, shifted his grip to a reverse hold.

“Your Highness.”

“Hm?”

“There is a space behind the tapestry. Run there.”

“…Huh?”

“Now!”

Eugène, realizing that moving while carrying her placed too great a burden on him, set the princess down. The young princess did not understand the meaning of his hushed, urgent words, but she obeyed as told. The moment Eugène shouted“Now!”, she clutched the hem of her dress and ran. Sensing that something was amiss, Viscount Gagnon issued an order to his companions.

“Seize the princess first!”

A desperate struggle erupted between those trying to capture her and those trying to stop them. Eugène had to face them with nothing but a single dagger and a single pistol. Fortunately, the pistol was still loaded, but they did not allow him even the time to aim.

If only they had attacked him directly, he might have had some leeway. Instead, their target was the child running behind him. As he leaned back to evade a cutlass slicing horizontally, as though to take his head clean off, he spotted another man at the side aiming a pistol at the princess’s back and lunged in the opposite direction.

Because he changed direction too abruptly, he could not avoid everything. Another strip of flesh was torn from his cheek. The searing sensation, as though his face were being peeled away, burned vividly, like a fresh scald.

“Ah.”

Even a child could tell that the sounds of fighting behind her were ominous. Fleeing in terror, Princess Anne Meredith stumbled over her own skirts just as she reached the tapestry. Prince Sigeber, who had been peering out at the situation from within, witnessed his sister fall right before his eyes. Startled, the boy thrust his upper body out into the open.

“Sister, here. Quickly!”

“It is Sigeber!”

“Prince Sigeber!!”

At the sight of the boy, the attackers grew even more frenzied. Overwhelmed by their terrifying momentum, the girl hurriedly grasped the boy’s hand and followed him into the space within the wall. Eugène, still keeping the tapestry at his back, was pushed back step by step.

If he could advance, evade, or take any action at all to break the present deadlock, he would not be driven back so one-sidedly. But Eugène had something he had to keep behind him and protect at all costs.

At some point, enemies had packed in densely around him. Drawn by the ferocious clash, those who had been searching elsewhere had all converged here. He could not say for certain, but even in this state, he seemed to have cut down three or four.

Even so, it was far from enough to justify the damage he himself had taken. His upper arm and shoulder were deeply slashed, and at one point, his right ear had nearly been taken off. The cut to his cheek was the least of it. Once his forehead was split, the bleeding grew so severe that he could barely use one eye.

“It has been some time, Baron Amieux.”

When a brief lull fell over the chaos, Duke La Mer, who had been standing back like a bystander, finally stepped forward. Eugène turned toward him, prying open the eye that would not fully open because of the blood.

Duke La Mer examined Eugène’s battered state at leisure, then clicked his tongue softly.

“Were you dissatisfied with the hospitality of our house? To leave without so much as a word, truly.”

He spoke lightly, as though trying to ease the atmosphere with a joke. But the content itself was laughable. After delivering such treatment, and then calling him a guest? Eugène gave a cold, incredulous smile and replied with sharp sarcasm.

“If it were me, I would be too ashamed to let such words pass my lips. Even if I had held no prior grievance against you, resentment would be inevitable after such treatment.”

Duke La Mer, however, seemed not to fully grasp his meaning. He frowned briefly, as though puzzled, then glanced toward Viscount Gagnon. A fleeting trace of bitterness crossed his composed eyes.

“Even so, had you remained in our care, you would not have been reduced to such a state.”

He was not so foolish a lord as to publicly chastise his subordinates in a place like this.

“Why have you come here?”

It was far too late for such a question. Eugène bared his teeth in a smile. In truth, it was exactly what he wished to ask them.

“I should be the one asking. You did not take part in the war to reclaim your family lands, yet you have gathered here in force. Why is that? Could it be that while you lack the courage to kill enemy soldiers, you have confidence when it comes to killing women and children?”

“W-what?”

“You dare spout such filth with that mouth!”

The eastern nobles surrounding them grew visibly hostile at his scathing provocation. Some spat open curses, while others rolled up their sleeves and stepped forward, as though ready to resort to force at any moment.

The moment Duke La Mer raised a hand to calm them, everyone fell silent despite their barely restrained anger. He stared at Eugène with eyes that betrayed nothing of his thoughts.

“I fail to understand why you are so devoted to the Emperor.”

He stepped forward slowly, meeting Eugène’s gaze head-on. Eugène, recalling the man who had always seemed inexplicably gentle from the very first meeting until now, could not help but wonder silently.Why is he like this?

If they were alone, perhaps Eugène would have asked outright: “What on earth is wrong with you? Why do you persist in taking the wrong path, knowing full well it is wrong?”

Eugène recalled the countless questions this man had posed, the strange riddles that tested him, created misunderstandings, yet always seemed to provide subtle clues that would guide him onto the right path.

Now that he thought about it, it was truly strange. Why had he shared those things? To persuade Eugène to his side? Or to obscure the truth before his eyes? Eugène had never received a convincing explanation for it.

“Is it really necessary to go this far? You owe him nothing. Why put your own life on the line for this?”

“Do you think one must incur a debt to do what is right?”

Those children were innocent, before they were princes and princesses. Eugène had not forgotten that.

“Stand down, Eugène. If you wish to live, that is your only choice.”

Eugène met Duke La Mer’s sorrowful gaze. He understood clearly that the man wanted to spare his life, that he was showing the utmost favor he could offer. But his advice had never once stirred Eugène’s heart.

“His Majesty said I have a cursed habit of falling in love with those in trouble. I thought it was merely one of His Majesty’s cruel little jests. But now I see it, it was not.He, as always, has seen straight through me.”

Eugène adjusted the pistol in his hand, taking care to reverse the slickened cylinder from sweat and blood, and smiled faintly.

“I would pose the reverse question to you, Oscar. Could you, in my place, step back from this moment? Could you turn away, pretending not to see, when the one you love is in danger?”

If he truly had a habit of falling only for those in peril, then Ebroin V was the most extraordinary example of all. He lived under constant threat of assassination, had nearly been obliterated with the entire cathedral turned into his coffin, and now, his entire family was on the verge of being wiped out by rebels.

Moreover, he was a man who, as a mere individual, was in a position to take responsibility for this vast empire.

To Eugène, there could be no one more pitiable and yet more endearing than him.

“I cannot.”

That was his final answer. Eugène raised his dagger once more, and at the sight of him, Viscount Gagnon shouted and charged. Duke La Mer remained frozen in place, staring at Eugène. Eugène met them with a smile as red as blood.

He remained unmoved from his position until the very end.