Chapter 15
He recited the name Cassian Gray quietly.
He felt like his mouth was stiff for no reason.
Astel’s friend from the orphanage, ‘Cassian Gray.’
The information about him was similar to what Astel said.
He was a gentle-looking knight with brown hair and green eyes.
The Duke slowly lowered his gaze.
Among the many characteristics that describe Cassian Gray, there was definitely one that caught his eye.
[Gender: Male]
He frowned his eyebrows and said once again as if to emphasize.
This time it tasted bitter.
“… A Male, you’re a knight.”
“Yes, who are you talking about… Oh, Sir Cassian Gray? Yes, he was…?”
In the shapeshifters society, there were not many stereotypes about gender.
However, implicitly, male and female exist.
The name “Cassian” was mostly used for male names.
No, about 95%.
The aide asked again, as if it was new for Duke Anais to dwell on Cassian’s gender.
“Was there any problem, Sir…?”
The Duke touched the portrait of Cassian with an expressionless face and whispered low.
”I don’t like him.”
The aide tilted his head.
It was a portrait that was roughly drawn for identification purposes and was slimmer than the actual figure.
However, I think he’s more handsome and better than ordinary people.
It was the Duke who had no mood swings of emotions and never told other people about his preference.
But to say ‘I don’t like him’ openly.
The aide tilted his head and said.
“Oh! He doesn’t look like a knight, does he? He looks so smooth in the picture. But I’m sure he’s more handsome in person.’’
“…”
“It was said that in the capital he has taken the hearts of many women! And he belonged to the Knights of the Roses, was it because he was handsome? He was famous for being called the flower of the capital, these days!”
“Ah.”
Duke Anais gazed at the aide who was making noise without notice.
“Was that so?”
Within the deep-sea eyes of the Duke of Anais, the dark blue energy briefly flickered then disappeared.
It was only then that the aide realized that his words were somewhat uncomfortable.
Come to think of it, I somehow felt a cool chill in the office.
He muttered, taking a step back.
“Oh, if you don’t like him, you may not give him a permit to pass to the north.”
“No. They say the real thing was more handsome.”
In an elegant manner, Duke Anais picked up an old fountain pen engraved with his signature.
“I want to meet him once.”
Soon the Duke’s clean signature was written on Cassian Gray’s permit.
* * *
Meanwhile, Cassian Gray, ‘The best brother in the world’, was very upset at the moment.
“You and I, we’re the only ones who got permission to pass?”
“That’s right.”
”The vice-commander wasn’t also given permission to pass?”
Cassian was on the good side of self-objectification.
He wasn’t the leader or the vice-commander of the Knights of Roses, but only the leader and one of the Knights of the Roses, Cassian himself could participate in the North’s Monster War strategy conference.
Does that make sense?
However, the knight commander laughed as if he had no idea.
“What else was wrong, Lord Cassanova Cassian Gray, the best of our Knights of the Rose? You wanted to participate in the monster war so much!”
Whatever the case, Cassian’s expression, which was always soft, hardened and rarely unfolded, so the knight commander grabbed him by the shoulder.
”Tell me. What’s wrong?”
Cassian was sharp.
His instinct as an older brother with a younger sister was warning him about something.
This situation was something quite suspicious.
“But I thought there would be a delay for about a month.”
Whether Cassian was suspicious or not, the knight commander looked very happy.
He had admired the Duke Anais for a long time and had been waiting for the day to meet him.
“Yes. But there was no grace period. We have to go by tomorrow. What’s wrong? Didn’t you want to go there as soon as possible?”
It’s not enough to issue a pass for only the two of us, so it wasn’t a matter of doubt, but I wanted to arrive in the north as soon as possible.
Of course, it was true that the war of monsters should resume immediately after the conference.
Last time, Duke Anais suddenly ended the war, so it was said that he couldn’t deal with all the little monsters.
But wasn’t it something in order to come all this quickly?
Cassian, looking at the knight commander, said, frowning.
“Well, it’s suspicious, so you have to be careful.”
“What? What do you mean? Be careful what you tell the Duke. All the knights of the Empire may punish you.”
He had a glimpse of the Knights Commander, but, like other knights, he was no more than a follower of the Duke of Anais.
Clearly, he could predict that it would not help him.
He scraped his curly brown hair and went to the Knights’ quarters.
‘I had to pack my luggage tonight.’
As Duke Anais said, we have to start right away for the Duke Castle.
Immediately after packing briefly, lying in a five-person field bed inside the Knights quarters, he recalled the conversation he had with Rachel about the Duke of Anais recently.
‘How many people from the Vietry family fled to the north last time? One of the main traitors hid in the Duke of Anais Castle. I tried to plant a spy on the Duke somehow, but it’s not easy. As you know, the shapeshifters society was closed…’
Not long ago, Cassian caught a traitor from his family and got a piece of high-quality information.
‘But if there’s still information about the traitors from windbreakers hiding in the Duke Castle, you must enter the Castle.’
The windbreaker who spread rumors that Count Vietry was a traitor in the Empire, a swordsman who killed a person who tried to prove the Count’s innocence and destroyed the evidence of the Count, and a wizard who was believed to have brainwashed his parents.
These three were the main figures that destroyed the family.
Among them, the windbreaker infiltrated the Duke Castle. No, there’s only one person.
‘Therefore, I have to enter the Duke Castle somehow, but there’s one better way than being recruited as a knight for the Monster War.’
‘What?’
‘The Duke of Anais has recently begun to look after a human being.’
At the news, Cassian clenched his teeth.
‘The life savior of the Duke. The Duke treats that human well that he even invited the capital boutique to the north just to remodel a room he didn’t care about before. What do you think, pretty advanced information right?
‘… Uh, yes. It’s very luxurious for a room.’
‘Well, that doesn’t mean that human savior would live long. Duke Anais must be so cold. If you make a little whim, then the old human would die soon.’
Cassian knew it. The Notoriety of the Duke of Anais wandering the capital…
‘I’m sure they like him because he’s strong, but for the general public, it’s scary. There are rumors that even aides couldn’t make it for a year, and they say that he doesn’t have any emotions at all. So could a single fickle human be more favored.’
Rachel whispered low.
‘However, it’s still possible to contact that human if it’s alive, use the human moderately, and then be invited to the castle.’
‘You mean using people? Was your personality this strange?’
When Cassian spoke with a straight face, Rachel swept her forearm, saying she was scared when Cassian who was laughing looked serious.
As he recalled the conversation, Cassian’s thoughts became more complicated.
‘I still have a long way to go before I could get my revenge, but I don’t know if Astel suddenly becomes a variable.’
Cassian left the Zenette Orphanage to join the Knights Templar seven years ago, and Astel moved to the Northern Healing Center three years ago to become a full-time healer.
During that time, Cassian has been working on revenge.
At this time, it was a great harvest for him to come into contact with Rachel, the leader of the Dark Guild.
She, who had been indebted to Count Vietry in the past, became a good source of information for him.
So their revenge play was slowly finding a clue towards the traitors.
By all means.
‘The spy was in Duke Castle, and Astel was also in the Duke Castle.’
Cassian habitually felt the ancient magic stigma on his wrist.
Fortunately, the stealth magic that changed the identity of him and Astel has not been solved.
But why do I feel uneasy?
A red light lit up in Cassian’s head.
‘Okay, shut up and sleep, I’ll find out when I get to the North Duke Castle.’