Cesar regarded Armand with his gray eyes and stopped stroking Ciel. “…I understand. There are models of the surrounding area and previous battles in an outbuilding of the mansion. Let’s look at them as I explain.” Cesar patted Ciel’s head as the cat snuggled against his legs. “Ciel, I’ll be leaving for a while, so please take care of Agnes.”
“Rawr!” Ciel responded politely and came over to sit by Agnes’s feet.
“…Is that a cat?” Armand asked.
“It’s a sacred beast,” Cesar replied.
“A sacred beast… You mean like a SACRED beast?”
Judging from the surprise in Armand’s tone, it seemed he was aware of their existence.
“I’ll explain about that, too.”
Agnes watched Cesar and Armand enter the residence together and sighed a little.
People make mistakes.
Even so, Armand was able to admit and own up to his mistakes and move forward. Despite almost being the victim of a murder plot, even Agnes felt somewhat uplifted by the sight of Armand trying to turn things around.
Agnes stretched and took a deep breath. “Well then, I suppose I should get on with the cleaning.”
“… Agnes?”
It was a low-pitched voice… But it made Agnes stiffen all the same.
Slowly turning her head toward the garden gate, she saw a young man with golden hair standing there. He wore a simple shirt and trousers and a hat that didn’t suit him at all. Her ex-fiancé, that bumbling rogue, Philip.
“Philip? What are you doing here?” Agnes asked, her voice low.
“Rawr!”
Ciel leapt to his paws and bared his teeth at Philip, who’d begun ambling across the garden toward Agnes. Despite Ciel being kitten-sized, he was still a ferocious beast, and Philip was a bumbling coward.
Philip, looking extremely disconcerted, came to a stop some distance from Agnes and shook in his boots. “It’s been a while. I heard that you were kidnapped by the King of Oreille… Are you all right?”
It was ridiculous how Philip could stand there and try to chit-chat when Agnes couldn’t make it any clearer how NOT welcome he was. Anyway, what was there to discuss?
“I’m fine. But I heard that YOU tried to sell me off to cover your own debts,” she snipped.
Philip was the one who’d facilitated her kidnapping. How dare he say things like, “it’s been a while,” and “are you all right?”
“I didn’t know! The King of Oreille and Sabina planned it all between them. It wasn’t my fault!” Philip whined.
“Not your fault…?”
Unbelievable. Agnes’s jaw was hanging open. Was Philip deranged?
“Ah, right. Have a word with the king, would you?” Philip asked as casually as he might a servant. “It’s cruel and unusual punishment to bundle me off to a dangerous excuse for a town like this one.”
“How dare you ask me for favors?”
Philip was lucky Agnes hadn’t whipped out a sword and swung for him on sight. Was this really how little he thought of Agnes? Or was it just that Philip was really that much of an idiot?
“Well, if you’re here, you must have come to see me, right?” he assumed.
“What could possibly give you that impression?” Agnes snapped.
Philip did look a little bit pink in the face, perhaps. But Agnes was so mad and disgusted, she didn’t want to think about that. She put a mental block on this whole interaction.
“Because I know that, no matter what, you can’t forget about me, Agnes. You can’t just give up on me,” he droned on.
“Like I said, what could possibly give you that sort of deranged impression? It’s Claude that I love. I don’t care for you at all, Philip. How many times do I have to repeat myself?”
“There’s no need to try to seem tough.”
Philip’s dogged insistence was starting to shatter her mental block, her much sought-after calm. Agnes felt her forehead contort in anger. She gasped for breath and let it out in a huge, shuddering sigh of annoyance.
“Is there no limit to your utter stupidity, Philip?”
“…Say what?”
A popping sound covered up Philip’s words, and a reddish mushroom resembling a Matsutake appeared on his arm. Philip, alarmed by the sight of the Tricholoma bakamatsutake, let out a girlish scream, which made Agnes’s head pound.
“Not your fault? You didn’t know? You seriously think excuses like that are going to work, here?” Agnes glared at him with hatred, and Philip paused in the act of plucking the mushroom. “The only reason why Sabina went along with the King of Oreille’s instructions was because of YOUR debts, Philip. You wouldn’t pay, so she had to! Getting your wife involved in dirty dealings because of your own poor finances… You think feigning ignorance here is going to work out in your favor?!” Agnes exploded. And Philip’s eyes darted about as he clutched the mushroom.
“Y-You’re making it sound like it actually was my fault!”
“It WAS,” Agnes snarled.
Philip squeezed the mushroom in his hand, his throat contorting.
“I’ve been put in the same quarters as the knights, and every day is all about those horrible monsters. What I mean is, I’m being treated badly. I shall stay in this house instead. And have a word with the king, would you, so that I can be brought home soon.”
Agnes heaved a huge, lung-emptying sigh, as Philip blinked at her, utterly incapable of comprehending his own culpability. She wanted to scream and rant at Philip. Her entire body was shaking with exasperation and irritation.
“Shifting responsibility, acting the victim, don’t you have any other way of operating?!” she shouted.
“What?!”
“Prince Armand is also here as punishment, but he has owned up to his sins, repented, and is moving forward to make amends. He’s a far cry from you, Philip. All you do is blame others and try to weasel out of things.” She shook her head.
“What did you just say?!” Philip’s face darkened and he took a deep breath.
But before he could say more, Ciel’s low roar shook the vicinity. It wasn’t a light, threatening roar like the one he gave to Philip earlier.
Agnes looked at Ciel, surprised by the change in him, and that’s when she saw something shrouded in black mist slink into the garden. In terms of appearance, it resembled a dog.
But Agnes could tell at one glance that its empty yet malicious eyes, its overly sharp fangs, and the strange way it walked like it had broken bones, meant that this was no ordinary dog.
“M-Monster!”
As Philip unleashed a pathetic scream, Ciel suddenly transformed. The white kitten morphed instantly into a huge white tiger, causing Philip to scream again.
“Aaagh! Another monster!”
Looking annoyed by Philip’s remark, Ciel swiped Philip aside with his mighty paw. It was a simple bat of a paw, but currently Ciel stood shoulder height to Agnes. As a result, Philip was knocked forward, right into the path of the monster. Immediately, the monster opened its jaws and clamped down on Philip’s arm.
“Aaargh!”
“Philip?!”
Did monsters EAT humans? Or was this an attack pattern? Either way, if Philip didn’t get help, he’d die. But Ciel moved between Agnes and Philip, blocking her from coming closer.
Then, for some reason, the monster that was biting Philip stopped moving.
Before Agnes could process what she was looking at, the monster opened its jaws wider and spat out Philip’s arm.
“…Huh?”
“It huuurts!”
Philip was rolling around on the spot and screaming like a child, but there was something odd. His hat came off when he fell, and the strips of balding hair on his head were visible… Though plenty of time had passed, Philip was still half-bald. A testament to the power of that mushroom punishment he’d previously received.
“I’m sure it does hurt, but what the heck was that just now?” Agnes asked.
Why would a monster—if it did indeed eat humans—spit one out? Even if the monster simply meant to maul Philip, what made it release its grip?
The monster in question was currently shaking its head vigorously back and forth. It kept spitting and spluttering, like it had eaten something very bitter… Or very spicy.
“Monsters hate royal blood!” Philip whined. “I’ve been used as bait SO many times! But never mind that! I need first aid!”
Philip finally stopped rolling on the ground, got up, and put his hat on, but he was still bleating away annoyingly.
Was this what Armand was hinting at when he said that royal blood helped to a point?
Anyway, from the monster’s perspective, Philip clearly tasted extremely gross. There wasn’t even any blood on Philip’s arm. The taste of his skin alone must have been enough to repel the monster.
Actually… Monster-repellent flesh was quite the super-skill.
The monster finally stopped shaking its head, as if the worst of the Philip taste had passed, and turned its gaze toward Agnes. Yucky Philip aside, Agnes and Ciel were both also present at this scene. Agnes was obviously the easier choice of prey compared to a giant tiger. It was only natural that the monster would go for her next.
At that moment, a cluster of mushrooms appeared in the center of Philip’s chest with a loud popping sound. The white mushroom that looked like squid legs was a Lysurus arachnoideus, and the mushroom that looked like an octopus’s legs with bright red tentacles and black slimy spots was a Clathrus archeri.
Their foul smell wafted in the air and made Philip scream even louder, but Agnes didn’t have time for that right now.
The monster lunged for her only to be intercepted by a mighty swat from Ciel’s huge paw. That swat Ciel had given Philip earlier had been a mere tap compared to this. Knocked off the ground, the monster flew through the air and landed a considerable distance away.
“We have to get Duke Granier!” Agnes said.
Ciel was strong, but Agnes wasn’t sure of the protocol for actually dealing with monsters. Claude had used magic to attack one before. Cesar, also a Crest Bearer and a brave man in his own right, would know just what to do.
But as Agnes was turning to head for the house, another creature resembling a boar shrouded in black mist appeared and lunged at her.
Agnes threw her hands up to protect herself. Suddenly, Ciel appeared and knocked Agnes out of the way. Before she could hit the ground, she heard a loud pop and felt something soft beneath her. She was saved by the yellow-brown cracked cap of the Rugiboletus extremiorientalis that had served as a cushion. However, the number of monsters had increased, and now she was surrounded.
“Whoa!”
As if triggered by Agnes’s voice, all the monsters pounced at once.
Roaring, Ciel batted several away, but he was outnumbered. Now a monster’s fangs were at Agnes’s throat, and she didn’t even have time to scream. All of a sudden, something fluffy appeared between Agnes and the beast, and she fell back… Landing on another soft sprouting Rugiboletus extremiorientalis.
Ciel held a monster between his jaws. As he bit down, it turned into black mist and dissipated.
Agnes gasped in relief, but the next instant, one of the other monsters clamped down on Ciel’s white forepaw…