After confirming that Echo had fainted, Wit finally approached and questioned Adriel with narrowed eyes.
“Adriel, you killed Lucian Berto as promised, right? Kekeke.”
Promise?
“What do you mean? Please explain, Sir Knight.”
“We need to get away from here first.”
I wanted an immediate explanation, but seeing the torches and shouts in the distance, going home first was the priority.
I sighed and followed Adriel, who was carrying Echo.

***

“So what happened between you two? Wit, why did you suddenly leave the Marquis’s mansion?”
“Stupid Adriel sent Wit away, saying he had a way to eliminate Lucian!”
“What does that mean?”
Wit tried hard to explain something using his hands and feet, but I couldn’t understand any of it.
Instead, I looked at Adriel with eyes demanding an explanation.
After carefully covering Echo with a blanket, Adriel approached me as I was warming myself by the fireplace. Then he wrapped a blanket around my shoulders.
“A week ago, I found a clue to reveal Marquis Berto’s criminal charges.”
A week ago….
That was the day Adriel suddenly disappeared, saying he had something to do.
“Do you remember the spy that Marquis Berto had planted in the temple?”
I slowly nodded.
I remember.
On the day I first visited the temple to make Cynthia my ally, Adriel said he had caught Lucian’s spy who had been following me.
“By turning that priest into a double agent, I was able to discover all the dirty deeds he had committed so far. Including the fact that ledgers related to the Marquis’s mansion were being kept.”
I blinked blankly.
I hadn’t thought at all that he had been doing such work.
Ah, so that’s why Adriel….
“So that’s why the infiltration was so natural? Because you had already figured out the structure of the mansion.”
No wonder he was climbing walls and trees like it was his own home.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in advance.”
Adriel bowed his head with an embarrassed expression.
“You’re already busy with other matters. I didn’t want to make you worry about my affairs.”
I waved my hand dismissively.
“I’m fine. More importantly, did you find what you were looking for in the Marquis’s mansion?”
I wanted to know how he ended up being discovered by Lucian when it seemed like he had prepared thoroughly.
To my question, Adriel said that he encountered Lucian just as he was collecting documents from a hidden room in the Marquis’s mansion.
“That bastard was spouting nonsense about how a dog who covets his master without recognizing them deserves to die.”
He gritted his teeth as if recalling that moment.
“…You know you don’t need to take what he says seriously, right?”
Feeling awkward, I carefully gripped his shoulder, and Adriel turned his head to look at me quietly.
The warm light from the fireplace was creating shadows on his face.
As I was staring at him as if entranced.
“Eek! You’re too close! Get away, get away, stupid Adriel!”
Wit, who suddenly appeared between Adriel and me, started pushing Adriel’s face away.
I turned my head, belatedly feeling embarrassed.
“A-Anyway, then what happened?”
“…After that, the floor suddenly collapsed, and I fell into a space that was sealed on all sides. Before I could recognize anything, my lungs were filled with toxic smoke.”
Toxic smoke. It must have been the demon’s poison that Lucian mentioned. The one that could instantly k*ll people if just a little was mixed in the air.
Come to think of it, that’s strange.
I turned to look at Adriel again.
If the smoke entered his lungs, it means he inhaled the poison.
How could Adriel be alive and well like this? Did Wit help him perhaps?
“Poison gas? Adriel, you inhaled poison gas?”
…Or not?
Wit mocked Adriel as if hearing about the poison for the first time.
“Humans die when they drink poison. Adriel is a corpse, Master. This Adriel here is a corpse pretending to be alive. Kekeke. Kekeke!”
“Shut up, demon.”
“Wit is not a demon!”
Here we go again.
I caught and calmed Wit, who was about to rage, while giving Adriel a look to continue his explanation. Adriel nodded slightly and began speaking.
“As my consciousness was fading, I felt a strange power in my body.”
“A strange power?”
What’s that?
As I tilted my head in confusion, Adriel answered that he wasn’t sure either.
“What’s certain is that it was a distinctly different energy from the aura I’ve been accustomed to handling.”
An energy different from the aura that knights handle.
As an ordinary citizen, I couldn’t understand at all what he was talking about.
“Why suddenly such power….”
“This wasn’t the first time.”
Huh? You mean it’s not the first time you’ve used this power?
As I looked at him questioningly, Adriel slowly opened his mouth, lost in memories of the past.
“I had felt it a few times when I was staying with you as well.”
“When you were with me?”
In that cabin?
Come to think of it, there was something puzzling in the original novel.
It was the fact that Adriel, who had gone mad from Rosemary’s obsession and t*rture, killed Wit and escaped from the cabin.
No matter how strong a knight Adriel was, it seemed a bit strange that he could easily k*ll Wit, who was a demon, and escape.
But if all of that was accomplished through this strange power Adriel mentioned.
If that power was related to Rosemary….
“So you escaped using that power?”
“Yes. The pain that was gradually tightening my lungs began to disappear, and I felt like my blocked airways suddenly cleared.”
I nodded as I listened to Adriel’s words.
“Whatever that power is, I’m just glad it helped. But you mentioned falling into a trap, so how did you find the exit?”
“Wit helped, Master. Kekek.”
“To be precise, I found the exit by following the sound of that demon’s humming.”
“Master, Wit rescued Adriel as instructed, so you must reward Wit.”
Yes, yes. Well done.
As I gently tickled Wit’s small cheeks, Adriel’s gaze sharpened. I pretended not to notice his look and continued.
“Anyway, you met Wit and got out, right? I understand roughly, so stop fighting.”
Well, for now, we all safely escaped from the Marquis’s mansion, including Echo, so the situation has been resolved for the time being.
The remaining issue is….
“What consequences we’ll face for harming a high-ranking noble.”
The adoption of Echo shouldn’t be a problem since we have legal documents prepared before the bet with Lucian.
However, I was concerned about how to deal with the fact that we had stabbed Marquis Berto.
Since we had been moving around openly showing our faces, it would be ridiculous to pretend it wasn’t us now.
…Should we have just killed him?
A brutal thought crossed my mind, but I decided to stop thinking about it since I wouldn’t have been able to do it even if someone had handed me a gun.
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“What do you mean?”
I looked at him questioningly.
How could I not worry?
Could it be… he’s saying he has nothing to worry about?
Because he plans to escape before problems arise?
“You’ll understand everything tomorrow.”
“You’re not planning to run away alone tomorrow, are you?”
I was quite serious when I said that, but Adriel burst into a small laugh as if I had some strange idea.
“What’s so funny….”
I knew exactly what was happening to me.
I had no plan at all, yet my heart was crumbling at just one smile.
Fine. Whatever happens, let’s trust Adriel.
He’s already climbed walls. What else could happen?
Anyway, tomorrow will come, and whatever happens will happen.

***

“What? Can you say that again?”
I stared blankly at Cecil, who was calmly delivering the news.
“I said that Marquis Berto is facing trial again. Unlike last time, this time it’s at the Imperial Court.”
So you’re saying Lucian is on trial right now?
And that’s because the corruption among the High Priests was exposed?
Suddenly, yesterday’s events came to mind.
So that’s what the ledger Adriel found in the Marquis’s mansion was about.