Clank.
After locking the heavy padlock, Idir checked it several times, fiddling with it to make sure it was secure. Only then did she smile brightly.
“Your mind hasn't changed in the meantime, has it?”
“The price of summoning a demon is not something you can bear.”
“I'll experience it myself and decide that.”
“Have you never considered another method?”
“It’s getting late. Shall we continue this conversation tomorrow?”
Ignoring Deyan’s objection, she turned on her heel with a cheerful smile.
A moment later, the heavy iron door slammed shut, the thunderous sound echoing through the prison once more.
“...That stubborn woman.”
Unable to bring himself to turn around, Deyan stood dejectedly before the bars.
“Honestly! Aren't you supposed to be a knight? Couldn't you at least take care of yourself? How did you let yourself get caught?”
“...If you hadn't become a hostage, I could've escaped somehow on my own.”
“That's easy for you to say!”
Holdin immediately began berating his superior.
His attitude was downright insolent, but Deyan showed no sign of reprimanding him. Knowing that, Holdin only became bolder.
“What are you going to do now?”
What could he do?
His only option was to pretend to go along with Idir and wait for another opportunity.
“Don't even think about exploiting an opening.”
Holdin saw straight through him.
“That duchess is a complete witch! Just look at that two-faced personality of hers! And she's ridiculously clever too...!”
He looked ready to burst into tears as he vented.
“I tried every trick I could think of while you were gone, and she saw through every single one!”
Same here.
Deyan swallowed the words.
Instead, he recalled Idir’s face as she calmly smiled at him.
“...For a witch, she's excessively pretty.”
Weren't witches supposed to have long noses and faces covered in warts?
The absentminded comment escaped his lips.
A murderous aura immediately rose behind him.
Deyan cautiously glanced over his shoulder.
Holdin was glaring at him as though he might shoot fire from his eyes at any moment.
“Well...”
Deyan hurriedly tried to change the subject.
“The duchess figured it out.”
“Figured out what?”
“...That I'm cursed.”
“...What?”
Unfortunately, he had chosen the wrong topic.
Holdin's jaw dropped.
“She figured out what?”
In the next instant, Holdin grabbed Deyan by the collar with both hands and started shaking him.
“How did she figure that out? How is that even possible?”
“She noticed.”
“Noticed my foot! How?”
“My injuries healed too quickly...”
“Then she'd think you're not entirely human, not that you're cursed—!”
Holdin suddenly froze.
His eyes widened to their absolute limit.
“You told her?”
“...”
“You told her! You actually told her!”
Furious, Holdin smacked Deyan on the arm.
“...The duchess said she was going to summon a demon.”
Rubbing his arm, Deyan pouted slightly.
“That doesn't make it any better!”
“I was trying to stop her.”
“You thought she'd listen?”
“I thought she'd reconsider.”
“Ah. Ahahahaha!”
Holdin's shoulders trembled.
For a moment, he laughed mechanically like a man whose soul had left his body.
Then he shot Deyan another vicious glare.
“And that's why you spilled everything?”
He looked like a teacher trying to educate the world's greatest fool.
“You think she'll let us go after taking a few drops of blood? Don't be ridiculous! She'll slit our throats without a second thought!”
“Do you really think there's no room for negotiation?”
“Did you not see her grab me by the hair and wave a sword in my face? Negotiation, my ass.”
Snorting, Holdin launched into a fresh stream of insults aimed at Idir.
It started with things like split personality and witch.
Then it rapidly descended into complete nonsense.
“She’s the ugliest woman I've ever seen.”
“That's a bit much.”
“Oh, come on. Have you never heard of irony?”
At Holdin's shrill voice, Deyan simply plugged his ears with his fingers.
It seemed wiser to leave him alone until he calmed down.
“So, what exactly did you discuss with the duchess?”
Much later, after finally cooling off, Holdin plopped down in front of him.
Deyan recounted nearly every word of his conversation with Idir.
“The murder of the Grand Duchess... That happened nine years ago, didn't it?”
Even at the time, her death had sparked considerable controversy.
Officially, she had died suddenly from an unknown illness.
But few believed it.
The Grand Duchess had been remarkably healthy during her lifetime.
“If she really was murdered, the kingdom's reputation would have suffered. They probably concealed it intentionally.”
“Which means conducting a proper investigation would've been difficult.”
Deyan nodded in agreement.
Then Holdin raised a question.
“But why does the duchess believe the culprit was someone powerful?”
“She must have some sort of evidence.”
“Then she should've identified the culprit already.”
That was true.
Idir wanted to summon a demon because she sought the murderer of the Grand Duchess.
But if she didn't know who the culprit was, how could she be certain it was the work of a powerful figure from another nation?
After a moment's thought, Deyan offered two possibilities.
“Either the Grand Duchess left behind a clue pointing to the killer before she died...”
“Or she has a suspect in mind but can't move against them recklessly.”
Holdin immediately followed the same line of reasoning.
“Judging by the duchess's actions, I'd say the latter is more likely.”
Idir Hubert had already identified the murderer.
But the culprit's power was so overwhelming that she couldn't touch them.
So she intended to summon a demon and seek revenge.
That theory seemed plausible.
Yet after pondering it for a while, Deyan slowly shook his head.
“I don't think that's it.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“The duchess really doesn't know who the culprit is.”
“How can Your Excellency be so sure?”
“Her eyes.”
“...Excuse me?”
Deyan remembered those green eyes, quietly rippling with rage.
Idir was angry because she didn't know.
If she already had a target for revenge, she would've searched for a more practical solution than something as absurd as demon summoning.
“She wants to borrow a demon's power because she doesn't know.”
Perhaps Idir Hubert had been pushed to her limits.
The thought stirred a faint sense of sympathy within him.
And before he could stop himself, Deyan voiced the soft-hearted thought aloud.
“If we helped her find the culprit, maybe she wouldn't need to summon a demon—”
“There you go again with that bleeding-heart nonsense.”
Holdin immediately cut him off.
Then, as if that wasn't enough, he spent the next ten minutes scolding him.
“Why do you always turn into the world's biggest idiot at times like this? You're perfectly capable of cutting people in half without hesitation, so why do you suddenly become soft whenever it's something like this? Huh?”
The worst part was that every word was true.
Deyan had grown up starving for affection and human connection.
As a result, whenever he encountered someone carrying a painful story, his heart weakened.
Especially when family was involved.
And yet, the moment an order was given, he could cut down the very person he had pitied without hesitation.
That was the kind of man Deyan had been shaped into.
“This is all the former Count Nemanich's fault. That miserable bastard.”
Tsk.
Holdin clicked his tongue loudly enough for the sound to echo through the prison.
But blaming the dead accomplished nothing.
Finding a way out of their predicament was far more productive.
After sitting in thought for a while, Holdin finally spoke.
“Either way, I think the duchess is going to kill us. So we might as well gamble.”
“...How?”
“From this point on, Your Excellency, do absolutely nothing.”
Deyan had already been doing exactly that.
Still crouched in place, he watched blankly as Holdin marched confidently toward the bars.
Sliding his hands between the iron rods, Holdin took a deep breath.
Then—
“Duuuuuchess! Let's have a little chat with us, shall we?!”
He began shouting at the top of his lungs.
Warm sunlight filtered through the thin curtains and flooded the room.
“My lady. It's morning.”
Giselle's gentle voice called out to me.
I could feel a pleasantly cool breeze drifting in through the open window.
“Yaaawn.”
Stretching both arms high above my head, I sat up in bed.
Thanks to the first good night's sleep I'd had in a long time, my body felt wonderfully refreshed.