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The two gatekeepers standing in front of the gate looked suspiciously at the child who had come before them.
"What's this? Are you lost?"
They couldn't see the child's face or figure because they were wearing a deep hood, but they had deliberately approached them, who were guarding the largest Cassinelli residence in the eastern noble district. They might be from a noble family.
He winked at his partner, who was also serving as a gatekeeper at the Cassinelli residence, and took a step forward.
"Hey. We won't know if you don't say anything."
When he took a step closer to the child, the child flinched and took a step back.
He regretted startling the child by suddenly approaching them, so he squatted down on the spot.
The hair that could be seen slightly from the child's hood was a dark color. He couldn't tell the exact color because it was in the shade.
"See? I'm not scary."
When he closed the distance slightly, the child didn't run away this time.
"Good, good. I'm not a suspicious person, okay?"
Suddenly, he noticed that he couldn't hear the voice of his partner, who should have been behind him.
Normally, he would have heard a retort to his previous statement.
Feeling that something was wrong, he tried to turn around.
"Hey, mister."
"Eh...?"
The child, no, the boy, spoke.
"Don't look away, okay?"
He was captivated by the boy's unusual black hair and green eyes peeking out from the hood...
The gatekeeper collapsed in front of him with a thud.
"Now then, Your Highness Raymond. Shall we go in?"
Master Cyrillos, who smiled and said that, carried the gatekeepers who had lost consciousness under his arms on the left and right, and laid them down on the roots of a tree, an inconspicuous place on the side of the road leading from the gate to the Cassinelli residence.
"This will make it a little easier even if we have to escape."
While giving a bitter smile at Master Cyrillos, who said that with a nice smile, I put my hands together for the kind gatekeeper brother.
No, I didn't kill him, but just in case.
"Also, what were you going to do if Cassinelli was unrelated to this?"
"Haha. In that case, I'll scold them for being too lax in their usual security. Now then, shall we go?"
I was picked up again by Master Cyrillos, who had a nice smile again, and proceeded along the road to the mansion, hiding in the garden's screens so as not to be found.
Since the knocker was too high for me to reach, I left it to Master Cyrillos, and I stood one step behind.
At Master Cyrillos' wink, I took off the hood that was hiding my hair and eyes.
Knock knock
"............Who is it?"
A man's voice, wary of us, came from the other side of the door.
"Excuse me. Is Lord Hofre there?"
When Master Cyrillos answered, the other party seemed to be struggling to decide whether to open this door or not.
"Hey, is Hofre in this mansion right now?"
Master Cyrillos, who had a grim face, reached out to stop me, but I stopped him with my hand.
"............May I ask what your business is?"
To the other party, who was still carefully searching for us, I strengthened my tone and ordered.
"Open this door without complaining. How long are you going to make me wait outside? Tell Hofre that Raymond has come to see him."
The moment I said the name, a loud noise rang out behind the door, followed by the door being opened vigorously.
Master Cyrillos protected me reflexively, but the other party was slightly faster.
I was grasped firmly on the shoulder by a middle-aged, gray-haired butler, and I could see that my reflection was in his eyes, we were so close.
"L-Lord Raymond!!? Is this real!?"
Taken aback by the other party's momentum, the strength in my shoulders, which had been tense until now, was released.
"I-it's the real Raymond-kun, you know?"
"T-this is!? Beautiful velvety black hair, and clear emerald-like eyes! It's exactly Lord Raymond!"
The butler's fingers were digging into my shoulder tightly and it was subtly painful.
"Hah! We can't stay like this! Come, I'll guide you to Hofre-sama's place. The escort over there too, please come this way! Hofre-sama will make time for the two of you!"
He took a step back from that man, who had put his hands together in front of his chest as if he was impressed, and hid behind Master Cyrillos.
"Oh, can I come too?"
"Of course!! I would have picked you up if you had given me a warning in advance. Now, now, this way."
Following the man who started to lead the way, he guided us into the mansion.
"Is Hofre in this mansion right now?"
"Yes, that's right. He's probably talking to his fiancée, Maria-sama, right now."
".........Hee? Maria is in this mansion."
To think that the information about Maria, whom we were looking for, would be so easily obtained.
This may have been a trap to lure me out after all. I lightly pulled the pants of Master Cyrillos, who was walking next to me.
Master Cyrillos' gaze, glaring at the man with gray hair, became stronger.
"That's right. I heard that she has been practicing etiquette at the royal palace for seven years. This time, Hofre-sama wanted to hear Lord Raymond's story, so he welcomed her to this mansion the other day. Does Lord Raymond also know Maria-sama?"
Oh? Something seems strange.
Master Cyrillos seemed to have noticed that too, and looked at me.
However, I don't know what's going on either, so I can't answer.
Should I wait and see for a little longer?
For the time being, when I shook my head from side to side, Master Cyrillos released his hand from the sword that he wore on his waist.
"By the way, that gray hair color, are you from the Ost Empire?"
"Does it look like it!?"
The face that turned to us suddenly was dyed with joy.
"No, no! Actually, I myself was born in Chentro, but whether it's an ancestral return or just abnormal, I'm the only one among my siblings who has this color. When I was a child, none of my family considered me family because of this hair color... Well, thanks to that, Hofre-sama picked me up, so it was a good result as a result."
The man's face looked really happy as he said that.
General Baltzar had said that Hofre Cassinelli was dangerous, but perhaps he was different depending on how you looked at him.
"I see. By the way, I didn't ask for your name. May I ask? My name is Cyrillos Nialkos, you may already know me."
"Ah, this is rude of me! My name is Sergio. I'm very grateful to be serving as Hofre-sama's attendant."
The man, Sergio, introduced himself like that and opened one of the doors in the mansion.
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