3. I Like You

Lepus was glaring at the inside of the banquet hall.

The stiff paper crumpled in his trembling hands.

‘In the end, trying to steal my house……’

The Atrain viscountcy wasn’t just a simple house to Lepus.

It was something he had obtained by acting obsequious to those unlucky old folks and catering to the whining siblings’ moods.

The only property he possessed.

That house was such a place.

‘If she finds out that this will be taken away….’

Lepus thought of his always confident lover.

Just buy another one. I’ll give you money.

She would say that, but that’s exactly why he couldn’t ask for help.

Lepus was always conscious of the fact that he had nothing to give to his partner.

Moreover, even if he found another house, it would be difficult to find conditions as good as this one.

‘Does it have a secret passage in the basement?’

It wasn’t like buying an old castle, and asking a broker that in the capital would only result in being treated strangely. Looking at how things were going these days, he would obviously be reported immediately.

Setting aside that the capital guards wouldn’t really arrest him,

His lover was now giving him space, seeming to have just discovered usefulness other than s*x from him. But if he couldn’t supply as much as she wanted when she wanted it, this relationship would obviously fall into ruin too.

‘But…… you’re laughing so comfortably like that?’

Lepus gritted his teeth and glared at Spica.

Though she was mixed among people wearing a mask, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize her. Just seeing the tip of her nose or the curve of her lips outside the mask was certain enough.

“Sp……!”

He was about to shout her name when someone snatched his collar and his body was yanked backward.

“Urk!”

While he bit his tongue and couldn’t even scream properly, Lepus’s body lifted into the air with his nape grabbed. His feet left the floor, and while he struggled, choking from his pulled collar, the paper he was holding dropped to the floor with a thud.

“Sa, save……”

What on earth was happening.

Lepus’s feet stopped abruptly when he barely managed to look back.

The person holding him like a child. His helmet was glinting, receiving light flowing from the banquet hall.

An ominous voice resonated from inside the helmet.

“Can’t you understand simple words? I told you not to appear before Spica’s eyes.”

Red gaze touched the paper that had fallen to the floor.

Alkaid, who roughly unfolded the paper with his toe, chuckled.

It was a property return order.

“This is an order from His Majesty the Emperor’s glorious representatives. Do you have complaints?”

“Do you think this makes legal sense……?”

Lepus tried to protest violently, but the moment Alkaid raised his visor, he lowered his gaze.

“Th, there’s no evidence either…… cough.”

“Well. The late Viscount Atrain had quite a lot of friends.”

Lepus’s face, which had reddened from lack of breath, instantly turned white.

When the viscount handed over the house to him, he had been bedridden for a long time and was very weakened both physically and mentally. So he thought it was something done impulsively, without any written agreement…….

The delinquent-like knight commander before his eyes was mocking such thoughts of his.

“There were quite a lot of letters exchanged too.”

Alkaid wasn’t a fool who tried to achieve what he wanted through power alone.

Spica’s father also wasn’t a fool who relied only on trust. Lepus looked down on him, but he had sought advice from friends before handing over the house, and those letters remained intact.

The viscount’s friends, who had only seen Lepus as a rare, decent son-in-law candidate these days and agreed it seemed fine, actively cooperated out of guilt after hearing about Spica.

“Just with that…… it’s not like we wrote an agreement, just with letters!”

“Making the impossible possible is what power is for. If there’s just a pretext.”

“Th, this swindler……!”

Even while watching the aggrieved Lepus, Alkaid didn’t get angry.

‘Criminals are all like this.’

Ordinary people think that those who commit crimes have some conscience.

But that’s not true.

If there was conscience, if there was even the slightest hesitation in their hearts, they wouldn’t be able to torment weak opponents who couldn’t resist.

To Alkaid, who was recalling information he obtained from slave traders, Lepus brought up a name he absolutely couldn’t let slide.

“Does Spica also kn, know that you’re doing this?”

It would have been sufficient to ignore and pass over those words, but when Spica was attached to them, the story changed.

Alkaid slammed Lepus against the wall and grabbed his throat.

“Kuhuk!”

“Being fired wasn’t enough? Do you want to resign from life too?”

Alkaid neither laughed pleasantly nor made his eyes glimmer. However, behind his quietness was an indescribable distortion.

Lepus realized that was killing intent.

‘He’s really…… really trying to kill me.’

Desperate Lepus reached his hand toward Alkaid’s back.

“Urgh! He, help……”

In such banquets, servants always stood guarding both sides of the door about ten steps away. However, they didn’t move even while clearly watching Lepus request help. Even if a cat came in and rolled around before their eyes, there would have been more reaction than this.

‘Dirty nobles!’

Lepus ground his teeth fiercely.

This guy was a noble, those guys were nobles too. They were all in cahoots, so there was no way they would help a commoner like him.

Then even if he died, he’d scratch more before dying.

“I was curious why you hired someone who can’t even use a sword, but now I understand.”

Emotion dwelt in Alkaid’s eyes, who had been contemplating whether to use this powerless rabbit beast-human more or just break his neck here.

‘Can’t use a sword.’

Lepus Arneb clearly completely ignored the new path Spica had taken. Or was indifferent to her achievements.

Thinking that Spica would have chattered to this guy day by day about what training she did, where it was difficult, made his throat ache deep down.

“……If you’re going to say dirty things, shut up.”

“You know yourself that you’re doing dirty things, huh? Putting a noble lady in the adjutant position instead of a courtesan and fondling her…… Is this also the power to make the impossible possible?”

“You’re acting desperate because you couldn’t get imprinted by a crocodile, yet your tongue is long.”

Alkaid decided to personally cut off that unnecessarily long tongue.

First he’d dislocate the jaw…….

That’s when it happened.

“Commander?”

For some reason, Spica was coming out of the banquet hall and approaching their way.

Alkaid lowered his visor and turned around.

“Dame Atrain.”

“What are you doing here? Dame Megrez is worried because you disappeared.”

Spica grabbed and pulled Alkaid’s hand.

Alkaid was dragged by her, unlike the person who hadn’t budged no matter how much Lepus struggled.

Lepus, who had been thrown to the floor like an object and was gasping for breath, let out a hollow laugh at that sight. What was somewhat comforting was Spica, who looked back at him several times with worried eyes.

‘Right. There’s no way Spica would hate me.’

The problem wasn’t Spica, but that bastard Alkaid Winterhold blowing strange ideas from the side.

The rabbit beast-human who didn’t forget grudges petulantly vowed revenge.

* * *

A giant chandelier hung from the ceiling, scattering gorgeous light like the sun. Beautiful musical sounds echoed in the high ceiling, pouring down like stardust, and people dressed like peacocks displayed bright smiles and dances beneath it.

‘This is an imperial banquet……’

Within it, Spica wore a well-tailored navy uniform with a large half-mask. Thanks to the people around the Crown Prince risking their lives to dissuade him, the dress code had changed from helmets to masks.

A couple wearing masks with gorgeous feather decorations passed by Spica, who was slowly looking around. Spica watched them and thought.

‘It’s good that knights don’t have an obligation to bring partners.’

Spica had no one to dance with. No father, no younger sibling, and Alkaid was…….

‘No, why is Commander coming up here!’

She tried to erase Alkaid’s helmet that suddenly popped up from her mind, but it wasn’t easy.

For several days after Spica collapsed, the Second Knight Order commander’s office had been empty. The problem was that neither the sounds nor the fragrance from the person next door had been felt at all since that day.

‘Did I act too embarrassingly? What if we grow distant like this.’

She thought that way at first, but after several days passed with both sides having disappeared, her worries changed too.

‘What if it actually wasn’t Commander?!’

If the person who received the note said ‘What? What sounds? What’s with this house, it’s scary’ and moved out…… it would be something to feel sorry about to Mrs. Hudson, who wanted a bustling life.

Then someone tapped Spica’s shoulder.

“Dame Spica, you came.”

When she turned around, a man wearing a dark gray mask was standing there.

The same uniform as Spica with a familiar voice, a height slightly shorter than Alkaid with a slender silhouette and familiar hair color.

“Dame Megrez!”

Spica greeted her warmly.

Actually, this was her first time attending an imperial banquet, so she had been very awkward. She had planned to find fellow knight order members to exchange greetings and then return, but she was grateful that Megrez had found her first.

“Did you also come alone, Dame Megrez?”

“That’s just how I am…… I don’t know where my partner is.”

Megrez, who had been sniffling pretending to be sad, asked.

“By the way, did you happen to see where our Commander is?”

“Why are you asking me that. So you were actually looking for Commander, not that you were curious about me?”

When Spica answered sulkily, Megrez gave a bitter smile.

‘I knew this would happen.’