Duke, This Will Sting for a Moment (30 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 59

Cassandra was summoned to the Marquis and Marchioness’s chamber in the dead of night.

“How astonishing! That such a feat could be accomplished by a mere twenty-year-old young lady…! I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”

The dark mage flipped over a cockroach flattened like a fossil into the floorboards with the toe of his black shoe, marveling aloud.

The insect’s insides were hollow from the start, as if only its shell remained.

Beside it, the distinct imprint of my black shoe was clearly visible—though more precisely, it was the swarm of mayflies that had burst from the cockroach, crushed beneath my foot.

“Yes. I’m astonished too, Cassandra.”

I shot a warning glance toward the admiring dark mage.

“You boasted you’d woven magical wards around the room so tightly that not even an ant could slip through—yet here crawls a giant cockroach? Frankly, this hardly seems worthy of the Empire’s greatest dark mage.”

The dark mage bowed his head deeply.

But the captain lifted his chin slowly, stroked his jaw, and stared straight at me.

“What surprises me even more than that, Your Highness, is your footprints. How could you possibly have stamped out those flying insects with such perfect uniformity? After all, why are they called ‘flying’ insects? Because they fly! And yet, not a single one escaped your notice. Hmm.”

Leo’s steel-gray eyes flickered between me and my footprints, sharp as a blade.

Hmm. That look. That slanted, probing tone. It reminded me of Grandfather, the Imperial Palace’s chief investigator, during his frequent interrogations of suspects.

“How could those mayflies bursting from the cockroach have been crushed so densely, so astonishingly evenly—without even managing to take flight? Did Your Highness cast some sort of time magic to accomplish this?”

“Leo. Drop that amateurish line of questioning. She is your Highness.”

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