They had extended their break because Neko said she wasn't feeling well. This suited Leoral too, because being on the move all the time was bad for his body.
But hours had passed and they still hadn't finished their break and moved on, because their caravan was missing one person. Bart, the former butler of Virgo Cathedral, was nowhere to be found.
“I told you, that Valarfin bastard did something!”
“Hold your tongue in front of His Excellency!”
One of his personal guards reached for his sword and turned towards the boy with black hair and green eyes. He was angry that he had insulted and shouted in front of his master.
“How would he know we're talking about him?”
Leoral was just thinking out loud. Yu Valarfin had appeared out of nowhere. Of course, most of the people he'd just met would technically have appeared out of nowhere, but the problem here was Neko's incredible closeness to him.
She was almost closer to him than she was to Rie. She didn't want to get off his lap, kissed him in public, jealous of the girls around of him, and sometimes made him eat dinner with her own hands. Sometimes she even asked him to feed him, just like she asked her mother.
Their closeness was not normal, Neko was not the kind of child to do such things. That was why Leoral had suspected Yu Valarfin, and the first contradictory information that emerged from his investigations only increased his suspicions.
Yu Valarfin gave people conflicting information about where he came from. The girls with him said he came from İlonya, but when he entered the capital he said he came from the Storm Kingdom, and he refused to tell Bart where he was from.
Then there was a second event that heightened his suspicions, news of a robbery in İlonya. It was the biggest robbery the İlon state had ever faced. When Bart learned that Yu Valarfin was hiding gold, he couldn't help but connect him with this robbery.
Moreover, Yu Valarfin had stayed in İlonya instead of coming here with his friends, and in doing so, he said, he had borrowed money from his family. It would not be surprising if the two events were connected.
But it was the boy in front of him that raised his suspicions the most and made him think that Yu Valarfin should definitely not be with Neko.
“Let's find him now, Sivina will believe me when I tell her what happened at Rolderhelm.”
But the boy in front of him looked like a hopeless case. The only reason he had come this far was his love for a woman, and it didn't matter to Leoral whose side she was on.
In fact, he could understand that he had come all the way here because of his love. If Natalia were alive today, no matter where she was, Leoral would go to her, even when he was in his death bed.
“So what if she believes you? As long as Neko is with her, all our claims about Yu Valarfin will be useless.”
"These are not any claims, these are facts! I investigated everything, I even talked to a girl we on a duty with. That man is the one who swindled people with letters, I'm sure of it. He smuggled money into İlonya, there are documents."
“Do you have these documents?”
“N-no...”
Raul bowed his head as he clenched his fists. Since the İlon state was not obliged to give him any documents, he had no proof.
And even if they got these documents, they still couldn't provide any evidence that he was guilty. There was no evidence that he was a fraud.
“Have you tried explaining this to the authorities?”
“Why are you making me retell it?”
Raul sat down on a chair without waiting for permission. The guards took a step forward to lift him from the chair, but Leoral stopped them.
“After tearing myself apart, I was able to meet the prime minister himself. When I told him everything, he just laughed.”
Raul clenched his fist so hard that his nails dug into his hand and made it bleed. The hatred in his green eyes gave the impression that he would pounce on Yu Valarfin the moment he saw him.
“Why?”
Rolderhelm was not such a country, Denise was not such a person. How could all she do was laugh? Leoral couldn't understand.
“That guy...” Raul started to speak. “He's seen as a folk hero for leading us in Redchapel. To reveal that a folk hero has committed such a large-scale crime could cause a public uproar.”
They couldn't get any hard evidence that he was guilty, Bart had disappeared and they couldn't find any evidence that he was responsible. No one they questioned said anything against Yu Valarfin.
Even Luna, whom he had assigned to watch him, said she hadn't seen him.
“I guess there's only one thing to do. I'm sorry, Neko... This is all for your sake and Mora's.”
***
By late afternoon there was still no sign of the missing Bart. As time passed, he became more and more convinced that Valarfin had something to do with it, but he couldn't understand how he knew what they were talking about.
He had talked to two girls, Sivina and Ana, but Bart was not with him and he had not said anything about Bart.
“I should have been there when you were talking to the girls. I told you.”
“If you had been there, after talking to us, they would have immediately gone to Yu Valarfin and demanded an explanation. The man who turned Neko into someone she wasn't would have easily fooled them too.”
He was thinking of using Raul as leverage. He would suddenly reveal him and Yu Valarfin would be finished before he could give any explanation.
Now they were to hold a meeting about Bart's disappearance. That's why Leoral had summoned the members of the Virgo Cathedral to his tent.
Waiting for him in his tent were Neko, Sivina, Ana, Link and Yu Valarfin. Today he would enter the tent and take Yu Valarfin from there. His soldiers marched behind him, ready.
“You wait for me and come when I tell you to come in.”
Pushing his wheelchair, Luna led him inside the tent. Four guards had entered the tent with him for now, but others were waiting outside to enter at his command.
“Now that Bart is dead, I'll have to do everything alone…”
When he went inside he saw two other people he had not allowed to be here. Two of Neko's roaron warriors were in his tent. If he remembered correctly, their names were Kigaro and Dimen.
On the way to the refugee camp below Andromedia with the two girls, he had spoken to Neko and learned that thanks to Valarfin she had taken their services.
Leoral wondered if their loyalty was to Neko or Yu Valarfin.
“Still no sign of Bart?” Leoral asked.
“That is what we were planning to ask you,” Yu Valarfin replied.
“Interesting, I thought you might know. After all, don't you run them all?”
“If I had known, I would have said so already. It is my duty to take care of the young lady's entourage.”
He thought Yu Valarfin would be nervous, but he was relaxed. If young Leoral were here he would have laughed inwardly, but with seventy years of life experience under his belt he was only stressed now.
The stress was dangerous for his old body. Leoral was afraid when it was Yu Valarfin who should be afraid. His heart racing, he asked for water and Luna gave him a drink.
“If it is your duty to take care of it, you are responsible for its disappearance.”
“It's my job to take care of them, but I'm not their caretaker, and neither is the young lady. Bart is an old man, he's probably passed out somewhere.”
Link Yachi Long nodded. He was acting as Tauntis' eyes in the Virgo Cathedral.
“I agree with Yu, he's been missing for about six hours, he could have been sleeping somewhere the whole time.”
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“If he was asleep, we could have found him,” Ana said.
Yu Valarfin remained silent.
“Do you really know nothing?”
“How many times do you plan to ask me this question? If you suspect me, tell me clearly.”
“I suspect.”
Leoral wasted no time in answering. Neko and Sivina approached him as Yu Valarfin clicked his tongue.
“You can't accuse Yu of this nonsense! Accusing him means accusing me!”
“Your Eminence has misunderstood me, I speak for your sake.”
“You're not the one who decides what's best for me.”
This sentence hurt him so much that he could have cried. He felt like a father seeing his child betrayed him.
“Can't you see that Yu Valarfin is not normal, Neko?”
“Don't make me angry.”
Neko was as clear as Leoral. The little girl also clenched her fists and took a step ahead of Yu.
“Why are you so close to him? Do you know what he did?”
“We've been side by side with him since Rolderhelm, tell me, what he did?”
Leoral turned his head and winked at Luna, and Luna bowed her eyes and walked out of the tent. After gesturing for someone to come, a boy with black hair and green eyes entered the tent.
“I'll tell you what he-“
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!”
Neko's terrible roar was accompanied by the roar of the roarons as the tent was shaken by a cold and deadly wind. Sivina and Ana drew their swords while Leoral's guards drew theirs and moved in front of the wheelchair. With Luna's long scream, Leoral's soldiers, who had been waiting outside, entered the tent and there was no room to move.
“Y-Yurine... You... What did you do?”
“SHUT UP YU! DON'T TRY TO DEFEND THIS GUY ANYMORE!”
Who was Yurine? Why did Yu Valarfin call her that? Who did Neko claim he was defending? And why was Raul's head rolling on the floor?
“Why?” Sivina asked. He could see through the soldiers in front of him that she too had drawn her sword, but she was looking at Neko.
Link was the last to draw his sword. He was the eye of Tauntis in the cathedral, why was he pointing his sword at Leoral and not at the evil that haunted this cathedral?
“And you shut up”" Neko shushed Sivina. “I cannot forgive this insolence.”
“But why?” These were the only two words that escaped Leoral's lips as he still couldn't get over his surprise.
Why was Neko killing for Yu Valarfin? He hadn't calculated it, he hadn't thought it would happen like this. How could Yu Valarfin have convinced her to do this? No, did Yu Valarfin even know about Raul in the first place?
“Yurine, do you realize what you're doing?”
“I said shut up, Yu! I told you we should have killed him a long time ago!”
“A long time ago? What are you talking about?”
“Shut up Sivina... Don't make me say that again...” The storm around Yurine grew stronger and stronger.
The wind spell that had just separated Raul's head from his body now knocked down the soldiers in front of Leoral, leaving nothing between Neko and Leoral.
The other soldiers were about to attack Neko when Leoral stopped them, realizing that Neko was strong enough to kill them all.
“Stop! Stop!” He was coughing from shouting, but he shouted one last time to stop them. “Stop!”
His chest was tightening, and when he lifted his hand to his heart, he was frightened by the rate at which it was beating.
“Why are you bringing someone here who tried to kill Yu?”
“Someone trying to kill him?”
Neko was saying something Leoral didn't know. Raul hadn't said anything about it.
“By trying to kill...”
Silenced by Yurine, Sivina could not speak even if she wanted to, it was Ana who spoke instead.
“He tried to kill me when I left Rolderhelm. I was saved by Yurine.”
Sivina turned her head and looked at Yu Valarfin. She was questioning why he hadn't mentioned it. Yu Valarfin, noticing Sivina's gaze, replied quietly.
“He did it because he thought I stole you from him. If I had told you, you would have blamed yourself and been sad. Since I didn't think both I and you would ever see him again, I decided it was better to forget.”
“But in the end you were wrong, Yu.” Neko spoke without taking her eyes off Leoral. “Answer me, Leoral. Why did you try to kill Yu?”
“I...”
“DON'T TELL ME YOU DIDN'T TRY TO DO THAT!”
If Leoral had been standing, he would have fallen to the ground in fear. Neko's face was the same as it had been when he had spoken to her in Andromedia, but now she was shouting at him.
His hands shaking, he could not say anything.
“I just think it's not good for you to-”
“What do you know about me that you think I'm not good!”
Leoral had lost, Yu Valarfin had this girl completely in his grasp. Even if he presented a thousand irrefutable proofs against Valarfin, Neko would stand by him.
“Yurine, let's end it here. More chaos-”
“There's only one person causing trouble here, and that's Leoral! I will not be kind to those who try to harm you, Yu!”
“I understand, but we're not going to get anywhere this way. Let's go back to our tents to calm down and do nothing until things get back to normal.”
“But Yu!”
“I harbor no anger towards Leoral, Yurine. If I were him, I would try to protect you in my own way, so please...”
Leoral could think of nothing as Yu Valarfin held out his hand to Neko. He knew things would be difficult, that Neko would be angry, but how could he have known it would come to this?
“Take me in your arms, Yu.”
As Neko's storm subsided, Yu Valarfin took her in his arms and walked on, ignoring the soldiers still standing. At Leoral's command, instead of blocking his path, the soldiers moved out of the way and the two of them stepped outside the tent.
Sivina and Ana followed them, looking at Raul's body, and the roarons followed the girls out. Link was the last to leave the tent. Before leaving, he stopped and looked at Leoral.
“You don't know anything about sword fairies, do you? Do you know how things would have turned out if you had somehow managed to harm Yu?”
Leoral shook his head, he really didn't know anything about sword fairies. He knew they existed, but he had no idea about the specific things about them.
***
“Did Raul really try to kill you?” Sivina asked. They were now in Yurine's tent. Yurine was sitting on Yu's lap and was hugging his neck.
“Yes.”
“Why?” Sivina was about to cry, holding back the tears that were trying to flow from her reddened eyes, taking deep breaths to keep from crying.
“I've said it, don't make me tell you again.”
There was nothing wrong with what Yu had said in the tent. He told it as it happened.
“I forbid the mention of his name, now leave us alone.”
With Yurine dismissing them, Sivina, Ana and Link went out, although they couldn't talk as much as they wanted. It was Yu who prevented Kigaro and Dimen from leaving.
“Increase the number of guards around the tent by five.”
Kigaro and Dimen saw him kill Bart, but kept it a secret. He had no doubt that they would not reveal this secret because of the culture they had grown up in.
When everyone left the tent, Yu and Yurine were left alone. Yurine leaned her head on Yu's shoulder. She lifted her head and looked into Yu's eyes with a smile.
“Yu, did I do well?”
“Yes, Yurine. You did very well.” Yurine would have made a great child actor in the First World. “Now all that's left is to finish off Leoral. It's dangerous to keep him alive, even though I don't think he'll do anything after this. And after he's dead, we'll have to kill Cecilus.”
That was one of the good things about Vermia being in enemy hands. If Cecilus had Vermia, he would have been made duke immediately.
“We must raise an army, go to Vermia at once, befriend Cornelia and make her a duchess. That's the only way we can close this.”
“Yes, Yu. Let's kill Cecilus.”
Yurine was happy that Cecilus was going to die. After Cecilus there were Bishorys and he didn't think it would be hard to kill them.
So after Cecilus died, they could move on without having to deal too much with revenge.
“Now let's take a walk around the camp to calm down. Don't forget to be a grumpy yandere loli catgirl.”
“Don't worry Yu, I'm a grumpy yandere loli catgirl.”
Yu took a pair of kisses from Yurine's cheek, put her down and they went outside. Today they were supposed to sit at the dining table with Leoral again as if nothing had happened.
It was imperative to get Leoral off the stage as soon as possible, so as not to give him one last chance. Even if he thought that Leoral would make no more moves, he could see no other way out and, seeing no other way out, he could be a fool and try to kill him.
To prevent this from happening, they would enter the tent where dinner was being prepared, and Yu would pour the poison he had prepared into the soup they would have for dinner while an angry Yurine scolded and distracted people.
“I hope he won't say he has no appetite and skip dinner. Even if he does, I won't be able to get rid of him today, Yurine you will invite him to dinner in private.”
“I will, Yu.”
As Yurine inspected the camp, she scolded everyone and gave the impression of being angry. When she entered the tent where their special dinner was being prepared, as they had planned, she kept them occupied by scolding them for trivial reasons and gave Yu the opportunity to pour the poison into the soup.
Widow Poison was the name of the poison he chose. He chose it because he also had the antidote.
He would give the antidote to the diners, ensuring that only Leoral would be poisoned. Leoral would die in a few days and Yu could breathe a sigh of relief.
When it was time for dinner, as Yu had expected, Leoral didn't show up for dinner. So Yurine invited him to dinner in private.
“Yu,” it was Link. He was calling Yu by his first name. “Are you sure this is a good idea? His Eminence still looks angry.”
“Hmph.”
Yurine said nothing and puffed out her cheeks and turned her head towards Yu.
“Leoral is our supporter, we can't afford to fall out and lose him.”
When Leoral entered the tent where they were going to eat on his wheelchair, there was silence.
When everyone was at the table, Yu began to memorize the faces of the people at the table.
“Sivina and Ana will not drink the poison. Link, fuck it. Leoral's gonna die, and those two are Leoral's squires.”
One squire was from the Salamon family and the other from the Bishory family, both are vassals of the Vermila family.
As the others at the table waited for Yurine to start eating, Yurine put her spoon into her soup and lifted it to her mouth. The soup was steaming. She blew on it because it was hot, but then... She didn't drink it.
“I'm not in the mood for soup today.”
Yurine tore off her bread and put a piece in her mouth, then spat it out. Even Yu did not expect such a feat, the bread went straight into Sivina's soup.
“What the hell is this! Yu! Why is it stale?”
“I'm sorry, young lady.”
As Sivina looked at the bread that had fallen into her soup, Yu saw that Leoral had already taken the first sip of his own soup.
“Yeah, that's pretty much it.”
He was happy but not smiling. He stood up and went over to Sivina and took her bowl before Ana started drinking her own soup. It was not his job to serve at this table, but today he had to be a bit more of a butler.
“Yu!”
Frightened when Yurine suddenly shouted, Yu spilled Sivina's soup on Ana.
“Ah, hot!”
"I'm sorry, let me clean..."
Putting Sivina's bowl back, Yu set about cleaning up after Ana. He had prevented Ana from touching her own soup.
“Tch, never mind. I've lost my appetite,” Yurine said. “I won't eat, you come with me. Sivina, teach Yu the sword, come on.”
"S-sure."
Leaving her meal behind, Sivina got up from the table with Yurine. Ana was with her, so the four of them left the tent, leaving those inside alone with their food.
He was confident in the effectiveness of the antidote, but he didn't want to risk Sivina and Ana by relying on it. That's why he had to carry out such an outrage today, otherwise two people might die unnecessarily.
And of course he couldn't risk Yurine, no matter how strong the antidote was. They were going to eat something later.
“Everything turned out so beautiful.”
Link and the two aides left at the table could then somehow get the antidote to drink.