What is this?
Shu blinked, then snapped his head up.
Without so much as glancing in his direction, Ian, having finished his work for the day, was already tidying up the area.
“Ah, oo.”
Thinking Ian would leave abruptly as usual, Shu hurried over and held out the steaming cup.
Only then did Ian turn his head.
As Ian stared at him blankly, Shu began moving his lips with exaggerated care.
‘Thank you, for doing, the laundry.’
He mouthed each word as clearly as he could, but there was no way to tell whether Ian understood.
Just as Shu began to wonder why Ian was simply staring at him—neither nodding nor ignoring him—
Swoooosh!
With a sudden roar, a jet of water shot high into the air.
The fountain, which had remained dormant until now, had begun to run.
Caught off guard, Ian and Shu both turned their heads just as another stream surged upward before their eyes.
A fine mist scattered through the frigid air.
Ian reached out and touched it with his fingertips.
Warmth dampened his skin.
“Whoa! Whoa!”
Shu’s eyes went wide with amazement.
He had never seen anything like it in his life.
The water did not merely spray upward. The streams shifted constantly, changing shape as they cascaded down, and even Ian had to admit the sight was impressive.
He had assumed the fountain was broken after being neglected for so long.
Now, warm water poured through the snow-covered garden, making the place look almost like a hot spring.
Ian kept his distance, feeling as though his body might melt just from looking at it.
Shu, on the other hand, moved closer.
Apparently, he had a habit of touching anything that caught his interest.
So perhaps it was inevitable that, after waving his arms around recklessly, the boy lost his balance and toppled straight into the fountain.
Splash!
“Splutter!”
Had the water still been ice-cold, he might have had a heart attack.
Instead, having fallen into warm water, Shu merely shook his head violently like a soaked puppy.
Idiot.
Perhaps he failed to notice Ian mouthing the word, because the instant their eyes met, Shu broke into a broad grin.
Evening was already drawing near.
“Ho ho. It’s been twenty years since I last saw this myself.”
Ed chuckled as he looked out at the spectacle, clearly visible through the window.
In the distance, people who had noticed the unusual sight were beginning to gather one by one near the eastern entrance.
It had not been seen since the previous Grand Duke passed away.
For those who had only recently come to the estate, it must have been quite a novelty.
As the atmosphere outside grew livelier, Ed turned his head, a faint smile still resting on his lips.
Logan stood silently at the window.
Yet his attention seemed fixed on something other than the fountain itself.
It had already been an hour.
Following the line of his master’s unmoving gaze, Ed soon found exactly the person he had expected.
The office had a direct view of the eastern fountain.
The distance made the scene somewhat hazy, but Ed knew Ian had appeared there every single day for the past week, so he could just barely make out his figure.
Logan, however, moved his eyes slowly, as if he were observing everything from only a few steps away.
His vertically slit pupils narrowed.
The expression brought to mind an entirely different kind of activity.
“Schwartz?”
Despite the abrupt mention of the knight commander’s name, Ed answered as though he had been expecting the question.
“He has fully recovered and should return to his unit sometime tomorrow. We were concerned because the infection kept causing the skin to necrotize, but fortunately, his constitution responds well to holy water.”
Schwartz had badly injured his arm during the last expedition and had been absent from every event since because the wound refused to heal.
His skin had begun to rot away as though from an infection, oozing fluid and causing him relentless pain. Even the estate physician had been at a loss.
Fortunately, his body reacted remarkably well to holy water.
Thanks to Logan granting permission for its use, Schwartz had been allowed to soak his injured arm in the precious liquid every day.
It was something even nobles in the royal capital struggled to obtain.
At first, Schwartz had protested, saying he could not possibly use something so valuable.
But after seeing how dramatically his wound improved, he had fallen silent.
“Tell him to stop by after dinner.”
Ed thought he could guess why Logan had chosen to summon him now.
After bowing his head slightly, he decided to ask what might ordinarily have been considered an impertinent question.
“Is it because of Lord Ian?”
At those words, the gaze that had remained fixed on the window slowly shifted.
Even when confronted with Logan’s expressionless face, as empty as a shore after the tide had withdrawn, the elderly butler did not so much as flinch.
Edward Hilter was one of the very few people in this estate whom Logan had never killed.
That was not simply because he had been at Logan’s side through every stage of his life, from birth to childhood and beyond.
If mere time spent together had been enough to postpone death, more than a hundred others would still be alive.
“I went to all the trouble of healing him, and it was pointless.”
The setting sun washed over Logan’s cheek as he tilted his head slightly.
It was an unusually picturesque sight, the soft crimson light blending with his features.
Logan had not personally treated Ian’s hands and feet on the day he collapsed and was brought to the estate.
The wounds had been red, bruised, and torn.
Common enough, if one wanted to dismiss them that way.
Severe enough, if one did not.
But one thing was certain.
They had not been life-threatening enough to require Logan to use his power himself.
Ed chose to attach significance to that fact.
“What is that?”
Logan, indifferent to whatever thoughts were passing through the old butler’s mind, tapped one fingertip against the windowpane.
Ed’s gaze shifted as he tried to determine what he meant.
Then he realized Logan was not referring to an object at all.
He was referring to a person.
“Ah. That is a child the knights brought back from the forest several years ago. Since he cannot speak, he was likely abandoned by his village. For the moment, he belongs to the knights, but… he is only a trainee.”
“……”
In truth, the boy barely even qualified as a trainee.
Ed chose not to add that part.
As Logan returned his attention to the fountain, Ed suddenly remembered what Aily had told him when he ran into her before coming to the office.
“The assassins in the dungeon…”
“Kill them.”
Ed had not even finished the question.
Logan cut him off in a flat, indifferent voice, boredom flickering across his face.
No matter how much they had been tortured, the assassins had stubbornly refused to reveal who had sent them.
But it hardly mattered.
Everything had already unfolded exactly as expected.
An opportunity shone brightest when there was only one.
If they refused to open their mouths, then they could simply keep them closed forever.
Logan watched the child who had climbed out of the fountain and was now hovering around Ian.
Then, finally, he lifted his gaze toward the endless Black Forest.
As though he had heard something.
“I need a hunting dog.”
……
“One with a good nose and sharp hearing. Preferably one that doesn’t whine or try to be clever.”
He had found nothing during the most recent expedition.
Muttering that his prey was becoming more cunning, Logan tapped the windowpane once again.
His gaze lowered slowly.
The thing had sensed his presence with uncanny precision.
Which meant he needed a dog that was quicker still.
“It seems he doesn’t whine…”
Against the white, snow-covered ground, the black hair stood out more vividly than anything else.
Logan’s eyes followed Ian as he left earlier than usual, apparently having finished all his work.
Then what about that one?
The words escaped him so softly they were almost a monologue.
For reasons Logan still did not understand, this was the man who had rushed in bare-handed to protect him.
The way Ian held a knife.
The timing with which he aimed precisely for vital points.
Every movement had been clean.
Disciplined.
Clearly trained.
His sense of smell would probably be good as well.
And considering how quickly he had noticed an assassin approaching with their presence concealed, his hearing was undoubtedly sharp.
Logan’s bright yellow eyes took on a cool, appraising gleam, as though he were examining a fine piece of merchandise.
In that case……
“I wonder how clever it will be.”
That was what he wanted to know.
The training ground felt different the next day.
Ian had already decided that if Fred brought him more laundry or some other nonsense today, he would simply hit him.
Yet when he arrived, he found himself glancing back and forth in confusion between the empty training floor and Fred, who sat nearby looking thoroughly irritated.
Normally, Fred started some pointless argument the moment he saw Ian.
So the fact that he now refused even to look at him was unsettling in its own way.
What is he scheming now?
Even under Ian’s persistent stare, Fred showed no reaction.
He merely sat there with his lower lip jutting out, his face turned toward the eastern entrance.
Instead, Daniel approached Ian.
“Now, now. Let’s put an end to this.”
He was the man who was almost always with Fred, though Ian had rarely spoken to him directly.
Ian knew that Daniel sometimes wore a deceptively friendly smile while pretending to restrain Fred.
More often than not, however, he was the one deliberately fanning the flames.
Sensing something strange in the atmosphere, Ian looked away from the two men and scanned the area around him.
The other knights, who had been sneaking glances in his direction, hurriedly looked away and feigned indifference with painfully awkward movements.