The Villain's Lost Daughter - Chapter 96

Opening my closed eyes, I saw a different, familiar room.

In a room on the top floor of Lagrace, two people were waiting for me.

“You have come.”

“Miss Erita!”

We had arranged to meet today, so they didn’t seem surprised by my sudden appearance.

“Hmph, Yurgen, Thane. How are you?”

I smiled awkwardly and waved. Normally, I would have been giddy with excitement to see the two of them, but today, I was a little ambivalent.

Approaching the couch with hesitant steps, I glanced over at Yurgen, who looked unchanged.

‘At least he seems to be in a good mood.’

With that thought, I slid into the seat next to Thane.

I wondered if it would be somehow reassuring to have a large Thane by my side.

“…Are you feeling it?”

Yurgen asked me as I sat next to Thane and stared at him.

I visibly flinched, not expecting him to ask me so openly.

Forgetting that Yurgen’s personality was blunt and straightforward.

“Huh? Oh, no, look at me. Haha…”

He was looking at me very intensely, but I laughed and denied it.

Of course, it was an awkwardly obvious answer that anyone could see and feel that I was being watched.

A look of disbelief crossed Yurgen’s face.

“You don’t look right, just carry on as usual.”

With that, he picked up the kettle and filled the teacups in a casual tone.

Soon, a pale mauve-colored cup of tea was set before me and Thane.

It was, I realized, Yurgen’s way of saying it was fine.

“…Did something happen to you and Yurgen?”

Thane, who had been sitting next to us, asked cautiously.

As Thane looked back and forth between me and Yurgen, the latter continued to sip his tea with his usual look of caution.

That was his way of telling me to answer for myself.

‘Whatever, that personality isn’t going anywhere.’

Seeing him like this, I remembered the first time I met him.

I wondered if there was anyone else in the world who could be so harsh.

After a moment of reminiscing, I shook my head as I looked back at the bright face.

“No, nothing happened.”

“Mmm…”

Thane’s eyes widened in disbelief, as if my answer wasn’t bad enough.

Of course. Thane might be naive, but he wasn’t blind.

“Were you worried that I might have fought with Yurgen?”

Staring at Thane for a moment, I smiled mischievously and stroked his head. His fine, ash-colored hair slid through my fingers.

“…Yes. I don’t want you feeling upset, Miss Erita.”

Thane murmured softly as he bent down to make it easier for me to pet him.

The triangular wolf ears perched atop his ash-colored head twitched as he spoke.

After a moment’s stare at the excessive cuteness, I burst out laughing.

“Oh, look at me. Is it alright that I’m upset?”

Yurgen, suddenly abandoned by Thane, looked stunned.

Thane hesitated for a moment, then lowered his gaze.

“…Because Miss Erita has a big heart.”

I laughed at that answer, and Yurgen spat out a wry smile.

Thane, who had spent so much of his life in the arena, hated the idea of me and Yurgen fighting.

His ears perked up in Yurgen’s direction, indicating that he was worried about both of us.

Yurgen would know that better than anyone.

But it was clear that Thane had taken my side.

“Hey, Yurgen, are you pouting?”

“Not for a day or two. Do you think I was?”

At my playful, almost condescending question, Yurgen narrowed his eyes.

“No, of course not, Yurgen, you have a surprisingly childlike side to you.”

“…Enough of that nonsense, let’s get to the point.”

Having known him for years, my words stung somewhat, and Yurgen turned away with a crumpled face.

The first time I met him was a dark time for Yurgen.

It was at the height of his distrust of humans.

A time when he was among the most brutal in the Empire.

Nowadays, he’s mellowed out with me and Thane, but he’s always been a bit of a hothead.

“Okay, enough of that. Now let’s get down to business.”

Knowing that any more teasing would make him snap, I ended the teasing in moderation.

“Well, first of all, did you both get the letter I sent you?”

“I had no idea that His Highness the Prince and the Grand Duchess were in an alliance.”

“I see. I didn’t know that either.”

After that, I briefly told him the story of my meeting with Callian.

Filling in some of the details I’d sent in my letter, including the fact that Callian had fallen victim to black magic, which I hadn’t written much about.

Aside from my family, Yurgen and Thane were the only people I could trust one hundred percent.

Callian had said it was okay to tell anyone I trusted about his situation.

I haven’t told him about Thane and the others yet, but…

They’ve agreed, so perhaps I should bring it up next time we meet.

“Such… If there’s black magic involved, as Miss Erita predicted, things will be more complicated than I thought.”

Yurgen rubbed the corners of his eyes tiredly.

“I suppose so, but that’s why I think it would be a good idea for you and Thane to come with me the next time I see His Highness.”

“As you wish, Lady Erita.”

Thane replied meekly.

Sometimes Thane acted blindly, as if he would listen to anything I said.

“No matter how much I want you to, Thane, if you don’t like it, you have to say no.”

“…There’s nothing you want me to do that I don’t like,”

Thane whispered to me, smiling faintly as I stroked his hair and shook my head.

Just out of the fighting ring, Thane had used the word master to refer to me.

Although I didn’t like the hierarchical nature of the title and told him he could just call me by my first name, it took months for him to grasp the concept.

‘And for some reason, he seemed to insist on using the word master.’

Luckily, after a few months, Thane himself started calling me by my first name.

But he would still occasionally drop the word master when he could get away with it.

‘There was something in his eyes that was too wistful for me to tell him not to…’

So today, I continued to stroke Thane’s hair without saying a word. I know I’m saying this, but Thane was a sore finger for me.

They say that a baby bird recognizes the first person it sees as its mother.

And maybe that’s what Thane felt for me, that blind love.

As much as I loved his uncharacteristically gentle demeanor, I didn’t like how his quick acceptance and resignation had become ingrained in him.

‘Memories don’t just disappear, no matter how good I am.’

Helplessly, it was not something I could do anything about.

“…Let me know the next time we meet. I need to check my schedule.”

At that point, Yurgen lightened the mood.

“Oh, yeah! Okay, I’ll let you know later.”

“Also, I received this letter from the Amber Guild.”

“Huh? From the Amber Guild?”

The Amber Guild was the one with Cayden Ambrone as the head, the same one she had seen a few days ago.

“Yep. It was sent directly to the top, with my name on it. It’s pretty standard stuff, but I thought you should take a look.”

Yurgen slid the letter from the corner of the table toward me.

“A letter out of the blue.”

The name Yurgen Casey was written in neat handwriting on the white stationery.

I pulled the letter out of its neatly cut envelope, which had already been opened once.

Carefully, I read the not-so-long letter.

“…I hope we can develop a good relationship in the future. If you have the time, please visit the Amber Guild. We’ll have some fruit tea from the West waiting for you.”

As expected, the letter was plain and unremarkable.

The intent was the same, to get along as allies on the same side. But it was the last sentence that caught my eye.

“Well, I guess the Amber Guild is pretty awesome after all.”

“It’s no secret that I love western fruit tea.”

Taking the letter back, Yurgen nodded.

No one but me and Thane knew of Yurgen’s fondness for fruit teas from the West.

‘Back in the day, when the tops were big, they used to poison the tea.’

The Tops of Lagrace had aggressively bulked up and pushed their way to the top of the empire, and as such, Lord Yurgen was a celebrity.

In other words, he had many enemies.

From the mildly corrupt nobility to those who resented Yurgen’s success, to the more serious, other Overlords.

That’s why he deliberately kept his tastes to himself.

“Didn’t you bring in the same amount as the others? It doesn’t seem like there was any difference in quantity.”

“There was no difference. That’s why it’s so great. Why else would we be the most famous information guild on the continent?”

“Well, that’s true.”

I agreed with Yurgen.

There was no disagreement that the Amber Guild was the first-ranked intelligence guild on the continent, beyond the Empire.