I slowly walked towards the Red Caterpillar, who was unable to get up after being slammed into the wall.

He lay there as if dead, then, after a while, he twitched and opened his eyes.

“It’s been a long time.”

“Shouldn’t you not be doing this to me?”

He jeered, spitting blood-stained saliva on the ground.

“Did you set off a bomb or something?”

I silently commanded and turned on the recording stone.

“What did you whisper to Lady Julia Nugent? How did you manage to make her say those things about you, when she has known you for such a short time?”

He grabbed his chest, his face contorted in pain, and chuckled, “It hurts, doesn’t it, White Caterpillar. Why should I tell you?”

I infused my scabbard with energy and struck his left shin.

“It will hurt a bit. It’s not broken, just cracked, so it should heal soon enough with your physique.”

“You monster!”

“What did you tell her?”

“I told her that the South didn’t orchestrate the death of the former Northern Duke’s Regent. It was overlooked by the Duke. If the Regent hadn’t died, the Duke couldn’t have returned to the North.”

“!”

“Is that all?”

“You shouldn’t be doing this to me, right? We are on the same side.”

I jabbed his right ankle with my scabbard.

“Just cracked.”

His eyes flickered with rage.

“You traitor.”

“You betrayed me first. Why did you tell her I was a spy from the South? We are supposed to be allies.”

“When did I?”

He looked up at me in disbelief.

Why is he pretending not to know? He knows I heard everything.

The Caterpillar said, “You’re attacking me, even though we’re on the same side. My suspicions were right.”

“?”

“Everything turned into a mess after I met you. Cecilia, who was happily under my hypnosis, suddenly snapped out of it. And then the Empress appeared out of nowhere.”

One side of his mouth twisted up maliciously.

“You’ve turned traitor, haven’t you?”

I looked down at him expressionlessly.

“No.”

“Liar!”

He clutched his chest again.

“But why are you attacking me? It’s strange. Wasn’t our goal to bring down your Duke? I was doing well on my own while you were away.”

“How much did you lie to her?”

“See. You’re indeed on their side, trying to kill me.”

I said emotionlessly.

“You can’t die. Not until you confess.”

“Why would you betray her for that stupid Duke? A political invalid who wanders battlefields. Why side with such trash, ah! Maybe because you’re also a cripple, right?”

“You’re the real fool.”

I briefly turned off the recording stone.

Then…

I broke his right arm.

“A mere puppet of Medea who knows nothing.”

He dare not speak so freely about someone who treated a young girl labeled a monster as a human, saved her from a den of monsters, agreed to use her despite disbelief, allowed her to sleep beside a warm pechka, braved cold winds to find unexpected solutions, and saved the lives of a baron couple and a woman – insignificant to you.

“Medea’s puppet, huh.”

He laughed through pain.

“You just confessed, didn’t you? You betrayed her. My instincts were right.”

A shiver ran down my spine.
I looked at the chest area where the Red Caterpillar kept placing his hand.

Clearly, I had hit him in the abdomen, so why.

‘!’

I tore open his chest. He pushed me away with his unbroken left arm. I held back his hand and stripped off the Caterpillar’s clothes.

‘Oh no!’

There was a small hole where his hand had covered on his clothes, and beneath it, a dull red stone.

A magic stone.

I snatched the stone and pointed my sword at his throat. He kept cackling.

“A recording stone?”

“No. Ha, foolish woman. It’s a transmission stone.”

“Transmission stone?”

“Everything you’ve just done has been seen by Lady Medea. She’s probably still watching.”

I was startled and looked at the stone.

“Oh, shoot. It’s turned off.”

“Red Caterpillar.”

“Why~?”

“I really need to… kill you someday.”

I returned Julia and came back with the Red Caterpillar, wrapped up like a cocoon, on my horse. I rode quickly back to the Duke’s castle.

It was late at night, so I couldn’t make much noise.

I needed to inform someone.

But whom?

Not Arcadia. It’s too much for him to handle.

The things Julia Nugent said in the video I recorded could be interpreted as treasonous.

It’s not something to be broadcasted widely. It needs to be dealt with quietly and secretly.

‘I have no choice but to meet the Duke.’

I sneaked into the stable and called Yora.

Sleepy Yora came out with half-closed eyes, then got startled upon realizing what I brought was a person.

“Esdel, what is this…?”

Then, the former assassin’s eyes sparkled, recognizing who the cocoon was.

“Red Caterpillar.”

Yora once told me that the Red Caterpillar had fed him sleeping pills and cut off his tongue.

That’s when it happened.

“What are you two doing there?”

At the top of the stairs stood Bran, in his pajamas and holding a cup of water.

‘Oh no…’

“What are you doing? Two guys from the South?”

Bran approached us.

There was no helping it now that we were discovered.