As she staggered, Agnes quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her upright.

“Ah, thank you.”

Her head throbbed again.

‘This isn’t the time to be thinking about kisses…’

Ariel was clearly slaughtering magical beasts just for that purpose.

This wasn’t the time for such things. Everyone was so serious, yet he alone!

Quickly shaking off these thoughts, she showed the newspaper to Agnes as well.

“…Ha! I was just happily slicing up magical beasts, and now this.”

Naturally, an incredulous laugh escaped Agnes’s lips.

His flashing eyes showed that if the newspaper’s writer were to cross his path, he would kill them on the spot.

“Right now, the most likely culprit is the Emperor.”

“As far as I know, the Emperor isn’t the type to do such things.”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying!”

When Agnes immediately shook his head, saying it couldn’t be the Emperor, Seren agreed.

“If anyone would plot something like this, it would be the Second Prince.”

Agnes’s low murmur was chilling.

Around the time Forcite was praised as the empire’s hero, before he was adopted as a prince. Their feud began when Forcite officially announced that dragons were the top predators of magical beasts and controlled them.

Already the last remaining dragon and living in hiding, he had no shortage of humans coming to kill him because of that nonsensical rubbish.

“But the Emperor’s letter said Forcite had collapsed with a high fever, didn’t it?”

“…Forcite? Are you acquainted?”

Eyes that had been filled with anger quickly turned toward Merrien.

The anger quickly dissipated, leaving only clear black pupils.

“Ah, we were childhood friends… well, something like that. I don’t really know much about it.”

“…?”

Merrien glossed over it vaguely. It was a habit she wasn’t aware of, something she did when saying things she didn’t want to say.

Though Agnes didn’t understand what she meant, that wasn’t what was important to him.

Not only did she know the Second Prince, but they were on a first-name basis. That bastard must definitely be the culprit.

The newspaper was crumpled terribly before catching fire from the flames leaking from Agnes’s hand.

“Then I’ll infiltrate the imperial palace.”

“You, Mr. Nes?”

“Yes. I’m confident in my infiltration skills.”

Agnes proudly dusted off his hands.

The ashes of what had just been a newspaper were scattered across the floor.

“Then I’ll leave it to you, Mr. Nes.”

Agnes took a deep breath.

Those eyes were full of concern. Her hands raised to her chest, revealing her tension.

Merrien’s attention was entirely focused on him.

“Yes.”

Even with that short answer, his throat felt tight.

Agnes slowly turned around and bit his lip.

As if that was the signal, he soon completely disappeared from Merrien’s sight.

Leaving behind only the ashes that hadn’t been cleaned up.

Merrien, who had been looking down at the remains of the newspaper, slowly opened her mouth.

“I should be going now, too. If anything happens or if Ariel contacts you… hmm.”

“I’ll send a letter to your room, Saint.”

“Yes.”

Merrien put on the dog collar with a stiff face.

That nimble action showed she no longer had time to feel shame.

The combination of her serious expression and the crude dog collar with tufts of grass sticking out here and there. Seren closed his eyes to resist the urge to glance at her.

For an instant, a flash of light was caught beneath Seren’s closed eyelids.

***

At that moment, Agnes was standing inside the Imperial Palace.

Seeing servants approaching from a distance, he quickly turned around a corridor corner to hide. He peeked out slightly to observe their movements.

Thinking about the mischief he was about to engage in after so long, a sly smile bloomed on his face.

Infiltration. With his specialty, transformation magic, it was as easy as eating cold porridge.

Agnes raised his hand to snap his fingers but hesitated.

‘Ah, wait a moment.’

Come to think of it, it was only a few hours ago that he couldn’t transform into a child or woman.

What if he failed after making such bold claims?

His empty gaze turned to his trembling fingers. Oh well, whatever—. He closed his eyes tightly and snapped his fingers.

Soon, very carefully lifting his eyelids, he faced a huge dust ball.

He had succeeded in transforming as he wished.

Into a tiny mouse, as small as the dust that servants couldn’t see and thus couldn’t clean.

‘…It works? Why?’

How strange. He held one question in mind as he quickly crawled toward a servant heading to the Emperor’s bedroom.

He planned to secretly attach himself to the servant’s shoe before they opened the door.

“Saint Charlotte is coming.”

However, the person who stopped in front of the bedroom door, rather than opening it, whispered quietly to the other servants.

Seeing him giving instructions, was he the head butler? Agnes was still trying to figure things out.

“Saint Charlotte. You’ve arrived.”

As Charlotte approached, all the servants nearby bowed their heads, starting with the head butler’s greeting.

Agnes, despite being in a fluster while clinging to the head butler’s shoe, was quite impressed.

‘They said there was another Saint. I guess that’s her.’

Having lived for so long, he had rarely been interested in anything unless it involved pranking Ariel or magical beasts.

Even the usually indifferent Agnes seemed somewhat surprised, his eyebrows twitching slightly.

The holiness flowing from Charlotte’s every step was on another level. Plus, with her white hair and white pupils. She seemed like someone born to be a Saint.

‘Still, Merrien is more human. Her eyes are warmer too…’

Agnes unconsciously defended Merrien before being startled. If he hadn’t transformed into a mouse, he would have hiccupped.

Meanwhile, Charlotte, with a worried expression, moved closer to the head butler.

Though they were quite far from the other servants, she opened her mouth very carefully, lest anyone hear.

“…I heard His Majesty the Emperor has collapsed.”

“Yes. Please come this way.”

What?

This was no time to be flustered. The words whispered secretly to the head butler echoed loudly in Agnes’s ears.

The Emperor, who had sent a letter to Ariel just hours ago, had collapsed? As the door opened, he quickly moved to the back of the Saint’s shoe.

Creeeeak-

Finally, the door to the room where the Emperor was opened.

Agnes easily infiltrated the Emperor’s location as expected.

To see properly, he climbed up Charlotte’s back and peeked down at the Emperor from near her shoulder.

The Emperor was indeed lying motionless in bed.

‘…He really has collapsed?’

What Charlotte and the head butler had been saying outside was not a lie. The Emperor looked like a walking corpse, barely breathing.

Charlotte sat in the chair prepared for her and placed her hand over the Emperor’s heart.

Watching white light spread from her hand, Agnes recalled the scene he had witnessed every day during “that month.”

The white light that always appeared when Merrien healed Ariel.

The light, seemingly identical yet larger, formed into a sphere before slowly dissolving and disappearing into the Emperor’s body.

Color returned to the Emperor’s face.

However, not long after, didn’t it return to a pale, bloodless face?

“Why is this happening? This is strange…”

Charlotte was perplexed. She had never seen or heard of a condition worsening during healing.

No matter how much holy power she infused into his heart, his condition still wouldn’t improve.

After observing the situation for a while, Agnes finally noticed something.

‘It’s the same energy as the object in the body of that top-grade magical beast.’

The strange energy he had felt since entering the room.

The black aura undulating around the Emperor had exactly the same texture as the ominous small object inside the top-grade magical beast’s body.

No, perhaps it seemed even more ominous.

Moreover, the black aura seemed to be thinly stretched from the Emperor’s room, connected to somewhere else.

“…I should go see His Highness the Prince.”

Having used all her holy power with no change, Charlotte stood up with labored breathing. The sleeve she used to wipe the sweat from her forehead was soaked.

Agnes quickly climbed down her back and settled onto her shoe again.