Several minutes had passed since violent sounds started reverberating from the roof of the speeding train. Holy—no, Lupus—looked up anxiously at the ceiling.
Tsushima certainly seemed to be an excellent Informationist, but there was probably a glaring difference in power between him and one of the Six Imperial Swords. They were the strongest Informationist group in the world. Lupus could count on one hand the number of Informationists who could rival them.
She stared at the ceiling with prayer-like feeling. Someone was watching her and smiling.
“No waaaay. I never thought you’d do something like this, my lady.”
Lupus didn’t even seem surprised as she turned to face the direction the voice had come from.
Canus stood near the door of the train, leaning against the wall. He adjusted his bangs with his fingers, using the train window as a makeshift mirror as he fussed over his appearance.
Lupus steadied her breathing and faced Canus. Even if she was just bluffing, she held her small chest high, pushed back her fear, and showed as much confidence as she could muster.
“You being here means the Second Prince sent you, right? Would you mind telling me what he’s planning?”
“His plans? How amusing. But what would you do if I told you? The number of options you have left is so small, it’s barely even enough to fill up the tip of my little finger. It turns out a girl with impure blood like you is unfit for the royal family. That’s all.”
Canus readjusted his bangs and straightened his posture as if satisfied. Then he looked at Lupus with languid eyes. Although he was still a child, his expression showed signs of arrogance and disdain disproportionate to his age.
Canus Miles, one of the Six Imperial Swords, was also a knight serving Second Prince Ross Ruber of the imperial family.
Second Prince Ross Ruber was a known hothead, considered hawkish even in the imperial family. He held strongly discriminatory views against Informationists and took the initiative in actively working to eliminate any of their kind he had no use for.
Like his master, Canus had a taste for blood. At just ten years old, he was hailed as a genius Informationist, rising to level eleven, one of the Exceptional Levels. He was extremely prideful and tended to hold contempt toward others. He always prioritized his own emotions, making him dangerously unpredictable.
And Lupus was alone with him. She could be killed at any moment.
Holding her breath, she faced Canus. Her fingertips were trembling with fear. She slowly clenched her fists so he wouldn’t notice.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t keep associating with you all. I’m fed up with these pointless power struggles,” she said.
“Even so, defecting is a bad move. Ultimately, if you keep running away, you’ll keep getting used. Having you under our thumb is effortless since you’re so stupidly easy to read.” Canus spread his arms as if he was starting a speech. A faint smile played on his lips, revealing grotesque canine teeth.
As Lupus listened to the boy’s words, something stuck in the back of her mind.
“I get used? What do you mean?” she asked.
Canus’s creepily tenacious smirk became even more pronounced at her question.
“Oh? Don’t tell me you haven’t realized anything…? I see. Damn, you’re so dense,” Canus said with wide-open eyes.
Lupus sensed there was something big happening that she didn’t know. Her mind wandered.
At first, Lupus had thought Ross Ruber had gotten information about her defection and had been trying to kill her. That’s how serious of a crime it was for someone of the imperial family to defect.
But that didn’t explain everything.
Her escape attempt had been arranged by an organization called Storm Hill. The only ones who knew her route to get out of the country were them and Tsushima.
So then, why had the Fourth Division been lying in wait to ambush her at the port? Same with the situation with the lookouts at Sherun Station. And the final nail in the coffin was the appearance of Ross Ruber’s knight, Canus.
Looking at her like he could read her mind, Canus grinned in a truly gleeful way as he continued the conversation.
“Due to your impure blood, Lord Ross wishes to eliminate you by any means possible, my lady. However, it would be taboo of him to kill a member of his own family. That’s why he thought he might as well use you to his advantage before making you disappear. After everything I’ve said, that should be enough for you to figure out why I’m here and why you’ve ended up in this situation, right?”
The arrogant boy twisted his mouth into a spiteful grin, as if he was tormenting a weaker opponent.
Lupus knew she was being led on, but she couldn’t help following these revelations to their logical conclusion.
Unconsciously, she brought a hand to the base of her neck and clutched at something through her coat. Her breathing started becoming shallower.
“Surely you’re not saying you planned all this, starting with getting me to defect?”
Her vision flickered as she hyperventilated. Canus, savoring her distress, pushed a little more in a quiet voice.
“Yeah, that might be what happened. You know Storm Hill, the people you believe are your allies? They’re actually a puppet organization under Lord Ross’s control. They lured you into defecting, and you fell right into their trap.”
Tsushima had warned her of the possibility of there being a mole in storm hill.
However, his prediction was way off. There wasn’t just a traitor in their ranks. The entire organization was working against her and had been intent on using her from the very start.
“And that’s not all,” Canus whispered demonically, as if delivering the final blow. “There was an incident that solidified your resolve to defect, right? You know, that bloodbath at your estate, where your servants and guards were all slaughtered. Why do you think that happened?”
At his words, those nightmarish events came rushing back through her mind. Every time she blinked, images from that day resurfaced. The stench of fresh blood covering her entire body, the dying screams of her servants, the despair of her trust and friendships being shattered in an instant.
Lupus bit her lip. With tears in her eyes, she asked, “Were you the ones who led my knight astray?”