IBMB :7

CHAPTER:07

“Chyut, chyuuut……”

*Ack, aack……*

I panted heavily, looking as if I were about to collapse at any moment.

I was putting on the performance of a lifetime for Jared, who was staring down at me with intense scrutiny.

“No matter what you do, it won’t work. If I lose you, Mr. Thief, my head might roll.”

Jared said, making a slicing motion across his neck.

He was firm, as if he had seen right through my inner thoughts, but that attitude didn’t last long.

“Chyuuut……”

Because just as intense as his suspicion was, my acting was reaching its climax.

I didn’t roll around on the floor or roll my eyes back.

Only amateurs did things like that.

True masters don’t use such cheap tricks.

*Crack—!*

They simply plunge their head straight into the floor and collapse.

“Th-Thief? I just heard the sound of a walnut cracking!”

At the brief but alarming sound, Jared panicked.

With helpless hands, he gently shook my unresponsive body before starting to untie the tightly bound ribbon.

His movements were quite frantic.

But.

‘Now!’

This was the exact moment I had been aiming for.

The moment a gap opened in the pouch that had tightly bound my body, I kicked off the floor and sprang up.

Stepping on the shoulder of a dazed Jared, I quickly leaped over to the sofa on the opposite side.

It literally happened in the blink of an eye.

“Chyut—”

*Sorry about that, pal.*

I didn’t forget to give my foolish guard a cheeky wink.

“Y-You swindling squirrel!”

Betrayal and humiliation flashed alternately across Jared’s face as he realized he’d been tricked.

He hastily reached out his arm, but I was already long gone.

Using the skills I’d honed climbing the massive trees of Brown Bear Mountain, I scrambled all the way to the top of the display cabinet.

“Get down here this instant! If I catch you, I swear I won’t let you off easy?!”

Jared’s threats were directed at a spot nowhere near me.

‘That guy…… is a total klutz.’

Contrary to his shady appearance, he acts like a complete fool.

Even now, he is huffing and puffing, pointing his finger at a ridiculous spot.

He clearly couldn’t see me, hidden behind the tall furniture.

Seizing this momentum, I quickly scurried toward my destination.

*Pitter-patter, patter.*

Every time my paws hit the wooden furniture, a crisp sound echoed.

It was as cheerful as a marching tune.

Though, in contrast to my lighthearted mood, Jared’s insides were probably burning with frustration.

“The window?!”

Finally realizing my destination, Jared whipped around.

He charged like an angry bison, but it was already too late.

“Chyuchyut.”

Because I was already standing on the window sill.

‘The drop is a bit higher than I thought, though……’

I swallowed hard.

If I miscalculated the distance even slightly, I would plummet to the ground and turn into a splattered ripe persimmon.

You know, that thing.

The gruesome sight of a ripe persimmon falling and staining the ground orange……

Still, it would be better than getting caught by a crazy dragon and subjected to horrific torture.

“Chyut—!”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I threw myself into the air.

My body floated in midair, and a cool breeze whipped against my face, but only for a brief moment.

“Caught you.”

A chilling, murderous intent settled over the scruff of my neck.

It wasn’t Jared.

It was much lower and deeper than his.

A voice I had heard somewhere before.

‘This voice, this voice is……!’

The very person who kidnapped me, and the master of the crazy Black Dragon Castle.

It was undoubtedly the voice of Koenig Kreuz.

“Chyuy, chyuuut……”

Pl-Please spare me……

* * *

Me, Muriel Aymond.

Though I have clung to life like a weed that never dies no matter how much it’s stepped on, today seems to be my final day.

Mom, I’ll see you soon.

I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise to survive no matter what.

“Chyu, chyuu. Chyu-chyuuut……”

I left my final words, shedding tears that looked like autumn chestnuts.

“What is it saying?”

“Who knows? Perhaps it’s saying it deeply reflects on its actions? After all, it dared to steal Lord Koenig’s belongings and even attempted a prison break.”

Jared, who had been prostrated on the floor, rose like a sly snake as he spoke.

He was being punished for letting me escape, but he looked like he was trying to use this opportunity to slack off.

Though he quickly face-planted back onto the floor the instant Koenig’s gaze swept over him.

Thanks to that, his attention became entirely mine.

“What an interesting squirrel.”

Koenig said, tilting his head slightly.

Naturally, he didn’t mean it in a good way.

For the golden eyes staring down at me gleamed with a bizarre light.

‘To think a mere squirrel dared to outsmart the Duke’s lieutenant and attempt to escape the Black Dragon Castle.’

That seemed to be what his look meant.

“Chyu, chyuut……”

Pl-Please spare me……

I could only scurry backward, inch by inch.

If I stayed like this, I felt like I would get trapped in those golden eyes I had once thought beautiful, and end up as a roasted squirrel.

But there was one thing I had overlooked—

The fact that I was trapped in this damn pouch again.

“Chyu, chyuchyuut……?!”

As my center of gravity shifted backward, I made a stupid noise and tumbled over.

“Ha, are you trying to blackmail me now?”

Koenig snorted in disbelief.

‘Are you saying I fell on purpose just now?’

Flabbergasted, I flailed my tiny legs to get up, but only ended up spinning in circles on the floor.

The more I did, the more Koenig’s tightly set lips curled up into a smirk.

He was definitely laughing at me.

But there weren’t many options for a tiny animal like me.

“Chyu, chyuchyut……!”

*Don’t just stand there watching, help me!*

My only choice was to look up at him with the most pitiful expression I could muster.

“Are you asking me to help you up?”

“Chyuchyut!”

“Why should I?”

So heartless!

“You’re a suspicious squirrel who not only went through my pockets to steal my things but also fed me some strange medicine. Are you a spy sent by a family targeting the Kreuz house?”

Before I could even choose how to respond, Koenig interrogated me with a deadpan, serious face.

“Chyu…… chyuchyut?”

A-A spy?

This is driving me crazy.

I glared at him with narrowed eyes, completely forgetting who was standing in front of me.

No matter how terrifying Koenig Kreuz was, I had to make my point.

I was just an innocent passerby who treated a handsome man collapsed in the mountains.

‘Would you send a bite-sized squirrel as a spy?’

Frustrated, I could only shake my innocent head side to side.

It was the maximum expression of protest I could make while being completely tied up.

I swear on my stash back on Brown Bear Mountain, I had no idea that watch was a Kreuz family heirloom.

And I certainly never imagined that the sleeping beauty of the forest would be the crazy Black Dragon Duke!

However, my desperation didn’t seem to get through to Koenig.

“As expected, I have no idea what you’re saying.”

“Chyuchyu!”

*No, at least try to understand!*

I looked up at Koenig with the saddest expression I could possibly make.

It was a desperate struggle for survival.

Did this method actually work?

Koenig quietly stared down at me.

Then, he slowly curled one side of his lips into a smirk.

He looked obnoxious and merciless, yet he possessed a presence that was impossible to look away from.

“Well, I suppose we’ll find out through continuous interrogation.”

C-Continuous what……?

It was Jared who stepped in on behalf of me, as I could do nothing but blink from inside the pouch.

“My Lord, continuous interrogation? Are you saying you plan to keep a spy, who might have been sent by our enemies, inside the Duke’s castle?”

“Why not?”

It’s my castle, and it’s just a single squirrel.

Koenig said, swinging the pouch I was in back and forth like a pendulum.

He seemed to be indirectly telling me that no matter how much I struggled, I would never escape his grasp.

“It may be just a single squirrel, but as you can see, it is no ordinary squirrel. It understands human speech, and above all, its cunning is beyond words!”

Jared pointed a finger directly at me.

The chase from earlier must have been quite humiliating for him.

He even added, “This wicked spy is undoubtedly playing tricks under the guise of a cute face!”

“Chyut.”

“L-Look at that! It just laughed at me!”

Despite Jared’s veins bulging from his passionate speech, Koenig remained entirely indifferent.

He poked my cheek, and then went as far as to cup me in his hands like a hand warmer.

“Are squirrels normally this squishy and warm?”

“Lord Koenig, are you even listening to me? The day Lord Ferdinand finds out, both of us will be kicked out penniless!”

Jared clutched his hair as if imagining the worst-case scenario.

Just who was this Ferdinand?

Fortunately, that question didn’t remain unanswered for long.

“Why should I care about an old man who ran away from home because he didn’t want to work?”

“Gasp, still, calling your grandfather an old man……!”

Ah, now I remember.

Ferdinand Kreuz.

The former Duke of the Black Dragon family, and a figure referred to as a living witness of Yggdnia’s history.

That’s why he frequently appears in history books.

Rumor has it he’s over eight hundred years old?

They said it was possible because he had inherited a strong strain of the Black Dragon’s blood.

‘Calling such a terrifying beastman an old man……’

As expected, he’s no ordinary madman.

As I stared at Koenig with a slightly sour look, our eyes met instantly.

Then, his shapely lips curled up.

“You heard that, right? If I get kicked out, you have to take responsibility for me.”

“Chyu, chyut?”

M-Me……?