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“I’M headed for Oreille now.”
When Claude left the scorched garden, he called out to the waiting Maurice.
With every second counting, the two walked and talked.
“Is that where Lady Agnes is?” Maurice asked.
“Yes. This was done on the King of Oreille’s orders. It seems Lady Sabina was threatened with having to pay the huge debt that idiot Philip had racked up. Without even consulting the Marquis, they agreed to kidnap and sell a royal fiancée to a foreign country. They will be shown no mercy.”
Amidst many lightning bolts, Claude had finally gotten the whole story. But learning the truth was just the start.
Abducting a royal of one’s own nation on another country’s orders was an act of treason. On top of the usual punishment for treason… Agnes was Claude’s Dragonmate. Harming her was tantamount to harming Claude himself. They should consider themselves lucky they would face their judgment day with all five limbs intact.
“I’ve talked to Marquis de Barthet,” Maurice said. “It seems now all Barthet’s authority, including the private army, will be surrendered to you.”
A wise decision.
If the response was delayed here, it could affect the entire Barthet territory.
If the Marquis hadn’t been in bed sick, this foolish thing would never have happened. Claude cursed Philip’s existence, but he didn’t have the time to string the rat up.
“Have those two locked up,” he ordered. “Then lift the checkpoint and tell His Majesty what’s going on.”
“…You really made a big show of it, didn’t you?” Maurice said carefully. “You can smell the burnt smell from here. What if there’d been a fire?”
“The lightning blast blew out any small fires. No need to worry.”
Maurice nodded reluctantly and began instructing several nearby servants.
The power of their loyalty to the Marquis was evident as the servants calmly proceeded to lock up his daughter and her fiancé without question.
“So…you’ll let them live?” Maurice asked.
“Of course. I can’t just kill them. In general, it’s the king’s domain to judge crimes. Rescuing Agnes is my priority. So…I just surrounded that idiot with lightning and roasted him a little bit. I knew he wouldn’t die.”
Claude walked through the garden with Maurice and stopped in a deserted corner. Thanks to the tall trees, nothing could be seen from the surroundings.
“Maurice,” Claude said firmly. “I entrust you with full, temporary authority over Barthet. Please cooperate with the Marquis. I’m heading to Oreille alone.”
“Even on horseback, it’ll take days. And I cannot let you go alone, my prince. I’ve noticed you’ve been unwell these past few days. I can’t allow you to overstrain yourself.”
Maurice’s taut expression came out of worry for Claude. But they didn’t have time for worrying.
Claude began dragging his sword through the soil of the garden.
“This is a royal secret,” he muttered, “so I can’t explain in detail. Put simply, I can’t live without Agnes. My physical condition will worsen in Oreille. But…I’ll go anyway. I’ll summon something faster than a horse. I leave the rest to you.”
Maurice grew paler and paler as he listened to Claude. “You just gave me a whole lot of details! Don’t go leaking royal secrets!”
In a way, yes. And also, no…
Either way, Claude would be acting alone. He needed Maurice to understand the basics of the situation at least.
“This is necessary information for you if you continue to serve as my bodyguard knight,” Claude stated.
“After hearing this, I can’t exactly quit, can I?”
“No, you can. You’ll just be monitored for life and executed if anything leaks. I’m in a hurry. Move aside.”
Claude had drawn a circle in the soil large enough for a person to stand in, with complex geometric patterns layered on top of one another. After writing a few more letters, he sheathed his sword and removed a dusty, small book from his vest pocket.
“Okay…now I need blood. I’m not sure how much… Well, better err on the side of caution.”
Claude rolled up his sleeves and cut his left arm with a dagger from his pocket.
“…Y-Your Highness?!?”
Checking Maurice with a stern glance, Claude held his arm out over the circle and let the blood fall. It was then sucked into the drawn leylines, filling all the lines and letters, which now began to emit a faint light.
Claude had planned to summon the sacred beast all along, so he’d pilfered a dagger from the treasury that would let him skip a few steps.
He stabbed the dagger into the circle and muttered the words written in the book. Ancient words, once with true meaning, now reduced to mere sounds.
The light’s intensity increased at these words, and Claude could no longer keep his eyes open.
Finally, the glare subsided, the lines of light disappeared, and now a large tiger sat in the circle, black stripes on its pure white body. Its eyes were at the same height as Claude’s face and as beautiful as the clear blue sky.
It wasn’t just a large animal. It was an awe-inspiring magical beast. It had the presence required of something considered sacred.
“You called me, Dragon Child. To seal our contract, speak your name and mine.”
The tiger’s mouth didn’t move. But Claude could hear its voice inside his mind. Apparently, Maurice didn’t. Perhaps this proved the bond between the Dragon Crest Bearer and a sacred beast.
“My name is Claude Visage. I will not name you yet.”
It was written that by giving the summoned sacred beast its own name, a contract would be formed to permanently anchor it to this plane. Which was why Claude was reluctant to name it right now.
“Very well…” the beast said. “A temporary contract. But it will cost double the magic.”
Offering double the magic when he was already going to be strained by entering Oreille was risky, but Claude had his reasons.
“I am the one who summoned you and formed the contract. But the one you must stake your life to protect is the woman I love. That’s why I shall have her name you.”
A sacred beast was a creature a Dragon Crest Bearer called upon using their own blood and name, to do their lifelong bidding. Naturally, the beast obeyed its master and protected him.
But Claude had done this not for himself, but for Agnes.
Due to unforeseen events, he planned to use the beast as emergency transport. But his original aim was always to have the beast serve as Agnes’s bodyguard. He wanted to ensure a deep bond between Agnes and the beast.
“Your…mate?” The white tiger looked quizzically at Claude, who nodded. “A Dragon Child’s mate is also precious to me.”
“Good. Now come. Let’s get on with it.”
Sacred beast or no, time was of the essence.
However, the white tiger stared at Claude and licked his bloody left arm.
The pain and bleeding disappeared before the rough tongue could irritate the wound or cause any pain. Claude couldn’t say for sure, but he suspected this was the sacred beast’s power. His deep cut was almost entirely healed now.
“Your mate would be alarmed,” the tiger explained simply. “Also, ’tis a shame to waste such…tasty blood.”
The tiger seemed more concerned about its own appetite than Claude. But he was grateful. He had no time to treat the wound himself, and now he wouldn’t have to encounter Agnes with such a bloody wound.
“You can have my blood. But not Agnes’s,” he said firmly.
“If I have a Dragon Child’s magic…I need no other sustenance.”
Does…that mean my blood was like some sort of dessert…? He should probably do a little more research into these beasts. Another time.
“…Maurice, I’m leaving now. Please take care of the rest.”
Maurice sighed as Claude rolled his sleeve back down. “I feel like I’ve just been shown an immense secret. But perhaps, it was just my imagination. Reasoning with you never works when it comes to Lady Agnes. So please…bring her home quickly, my prince.”
Nodding as Maurice performed a knightly bow, Claude leaped on the tiger’s back. Gently touching the silver mushroom hair ornament in his pocket, he felt a slight warmth in his chest.
“All right. Off we go.” To Agnes, who meant more to Claude than anything. She was his world.
He would never part from her. Nor could he ever stand to lose her.
The white tiger dashed off in the blink of an eye, leaving only faint traces of light in its wake.