"What? I don't believe this!" The knight with mottled hair slammed the table, his cold demeanor had completely vanished. "He isn't dead! He can't die now!"
Legs trembling, the messenger withstood the knight's pressure.
"I-it was officially announced this morning. B-both the first and the second prince are now contracted spirits of the crown prince."
"Contracted spirits? The third prince was a shaman?" The knight's anger vanished as he sat back down. "If that's the case…heh. I got it, you go back."
The messenger quickly scurried away.
Glancing at the scared man passing by him, the burly knight calmly walked into the room, gnawing on an apple.
"Captain, what do we do with the snake? From the merchant's words, he should be turning soon."
"If the new crown prince wants the snake, we'll have to give him what he wants. If the crown prince doesn't mention him, we will take the snake in. Anyway, didn't Lanae always want to raise a child of her own?"
The knight's one eye narrowed leisurely—the other was permanently closed due to a scar.
In the box which was placed at the very corner of the room, Ciel listened carefully.
'I should escape at the first chance. I didn't escape one palace just to get shipped to another palace. If the shaman third prince that just became crown prince is the one I know, he should be the third harem member, the rich man. Knowing him, he'll definitely want the winged snake eve.'
Winged snake eves were rare since they were reclusive, solitary creatures. Many creatures could only become eves because of their eve tribesman imparting knowledge and resources to them. Plants could only become eves if they have survived for a long time or had been taken care of by someone. As solitary predators who avoided contact with other sentient beings, winged snakes rarely turned into eves. However, when they did, they would be very powerful.
—It had to be known that the rich man representative of the harem loved collecting and using useful figures such as that winged eve. Though the winged snake eve wasn't ever mentioned in the novel, Ciel just assumed that the eve was probably away on a mission and hadn't shown up to the protagonist yet. After all, he hadn't read much of the novel before throwing it away.
Ciel waited until it was nighttime before moving. His body was stiff from maintaining the same position for a long period of time—he couldn't even use mana because the knight group had a mage whose mage rank was far above his own and they would immediately sense him.
It was a good thing his mana senses didn't use mana directly.
'Peeking' out of the box, he noted the window right next to him. He didn't know what brainless person put the snake's box right next to an open window but he thanked them in his head as Ciel quickly jumped to the tree right outside the window.
But just as he regained his balance on a branch, a shiver suddenly ran through his spine, Ciel had a bad feeling in his chest as he looked down. The one eyed captain of the knights who were in charge of the serpent stood right below him, a pitch black muzzle gun pointed at his head, subtle pressure emanating from him.
"Caught you. Make a single move and I'll shoot."
Ciel slowly raised his hands silently, still maintaining balance on the branch he was perched on. 'Oops. Guess my skills are rusty.'
"Lift up your hood."
'Damn, it's been a while since I've heard such a commanding tone.'
Ciel inwardly dissed the captain, but still followed his instructions. His pure white hair shone a brilliant silver under the moonlight. Good thing his eyes were still blindfolded.
"Why were you in the serpent's box?" The captain asked, squinting his one eye.
'Damn, other than this guy's blinding hair, the rest of his face is covered in shadows. There was no f*cking point in taking off the hood!'
"I wanted to get to Anatol." Ciel answered honestly.
"Why?"
"To sightsee."
"So you sneaked into a poisonous winged serpent's box because you were avoiding someone?" The captain frowned in disbelief. Ciel shook his head.
"Well, dull colored snakes aren't normally poisonous. And I'm not avoiding anyone, I just wanted to see for myself what the nation of beauty looked like. I heard both the people and the landscapes here are worth dying for."
The captain obviously didn't believe him.
"Then how did you know the merchant caravan was going to Anatol?"
"I didn't." Ciel didn't elaborate any further.
"So what's the verdict?" The captain looked down. Ciel also looked down. At some point, another silhouette had arrived at the bottom of the tree.
The new arrival had short brown hair and sharp greenish yellow eyes, with half of her face covered by a mask. She had a close resemblance to a hawk.
"No harmful intentions."
The one eyed man nodded before directing his words at Ciel.
"Follow me. If you play any tricks I'll immediately shoot you. Got it?"
Ciel nodded, resisting the urge to smile. 'It's been a while since I had been threatened by someone.'
Holding onto the branch, Ciel was about to slide down the trunk when he missed his step. Even though he had loosened up his body a bit before leaving, he had still spent around three days in a single position. His legs had long gone numb from the short time he had spent squatting on the branch chatting with the captain.
The tree wasn't that tall, but Ciel's fragile child's body would definitely break something from the fall.
"Sh*t."
'I really shouldn't have neglected training my body back in the tower.'
Jadiel's one eye widened as he watched the black figure with shining white hair fall. Instinctively, he jumped up, catching Ciel easily. Surprisingly, the load in his arms was lighter than expected. Previously, Ciel's figure had blended in with the tree behind him, with only his white hair completely visible. Now that they were closer, Jadiel could clearly see that Ciel's body was much smaller than an adult. Upon catching sight of his face, his eyes widened.
"A child?"
Ciel grinned awkwardly.
"Uh, thanks for catching me, but can you put me down first?"
***
..
.
Entering a small room, Ciel was greeted with three more people playing cards on a small wooden table.
'Cards!' Ciel was instantly fixated on the playing cards. He still remembered his card affinity.
His blood and card attribute affinity had made him an dual item affinity user; someone who could infuse their other affinities to the item they had an affinity for. Usually, people were born with one affinity. This made those who had an item affinity become exceptional combatants rather than mages.
In this world, there was also another respected occupation other than mages. Unlike the uncommon people who could only become mages with open mana veins, anyone could become a combatant—someone who used weapons or their body to fight. Though combatants still required talent and hard work, if they could or could not become one was not determined by birth.
Item affinity users would generally have a high talent for the item they had an affinity for, so even if they could use magic, this affinity was generally called the 'combatant's blessing'. A large majority of them didn't advance their mage rank unless they really wanted to infuse other attributes into their item.
—Because Ciel had never found any cards in the tower, he hadn't had a chance to practice his card affinity yet. Adding on his previous life's obsession for cards, Ciel's senses became glued to the cards.
One of the people who were playing cards noticed his captain and vice captain's arrival, turning around.
"Huh, Jadiel, is this kid a girl or a boy?" The young man looked around 25 years old and had dull brown hair with startling gray eyes.
Jadiel frowned, "call me captain."
"Sure sure, captain." The man waved his hands dismissively before turning back to Ciel.
"Hey kid, you know what we do here?"
Ciel shook his head. They were dressed as knights, but they sure didn't act like the soldiers in his past life nor the knights he had read about. If he were to describe them, they were more like mercenaries. However, when he had arrived here, they clearly had addressed themselves as the second prince's knights.
The man's gray eyes smiled, "then, do you want to guess what'll happen to you?"
"Kacha my head off after torturing me for information?" With an innocent expression, Ciel made a slicing motion towards his neck.
Ah, but he had no information to reveal, so they would be disappointed.
The man laughed, "Ah, kids these days have such vivid imaginations. Sadly, that's not it, we want to… hey Jadiel, why did you kidnap a random kid here?" He looked at the one eyed man.
"Mason, I told you to call me—ah nevermind. This kid has good nerves. We're also lacking a servant."
The only woman at the table slapped her cards down and got up.
"Captain, you should return the kid where she belongs before the sun rises."
Squatting down next to Ciel, she pinched his thin cheeks happily.
"Cute child, don't worry about those b*stards. Where do you live? This big sister will bring you back home."
A vein bulged on Jadiel's forehead. "I didn't kidnap her."
Just as his words fell, the bulky man got up and patted Ciel's soft hair before directly skipping over his captain to the half masked woman.
"Kierra, as the vice captain, shouldn't you know when to stop your captain when he goes too far?"
Jadiel whipped his gaze over to Kierra, his gaze radiating the words 'explain clearly, please.'
Kierra bowed her head, hiding the small smile that appeared on her face.
"It was my fault. I should have stopped him."
Ciel gave a small puff of laughter. This group of five was pretty amusing.
Meanwhile, Jadiel was about to explode.
"This one sneaked in by herself! Didn't I already say that Kierra and I were going to capture the one who came in uninvited along with the serpent?"
Ciel, who barely managed to free his cheeks, nodded in agreement.
"Hello, my name is Ciel and I'm probably around nine years old. From now on, I'll be working with you."
That was what he had discussed with Jadiel and Kierra on the way here. From what he gathered from them so far, although he was rough, Jadiel was not the type to leave a hapless child alone. When Ciel also expressed that he wouldn't stay obediently at an orphanage, Jadiel offered to hire him as a logistics worker for his team for the time being.
Mason froze before turning back to Jadiel.
"Working with us?"
Jadiel looked away expressionlessly.
The fluffy haired woman sighed, "well, I guess old habits die hard. But you normally drop children at the orphanage right? What's so special about her? I don't think she's a eve."
"Not a eve, but also not a human child." Jadiel glanced at Ciel's innocent expression. "You can try it out."
For some reason, after his words, Ciel felt a tangible heavy pressure in the room coming out from all the knights. He sniffed the air like a small animal—huh, it reminded him of his past world.
Seeing his reaction, a spark of interest lit up in all the eyes of the adults present and the pressure dissipated as if it was never there.
Jadiel gave a faint smile seeing his subordinates' reactions.
"It's as you see it, but this one's only a hired worker. Lanae, if you want to raise it, you have to convince the child first. I'm going to sleep." He yawned again, walking away.
'So this the Lanae who wanted to raise a child before?' Ciel curiously glanced at the woman with long gray hair and black eyes.
She reminded him of a sheep.
Another hand patted his head. Ciel smilingly looked up and saw the gray haired Mason, gritting his teeth secretly.
Now that he was shorter, it seems like anyone could pat his head now eh?
Mason ignored his gaze, ruffling his fluffy white hair with wonder.
"Not a human but not an eve, are you a human-eve hybrid? I heard that hybrids are all abnormally strong because they inherit the traits in both parents. No wonder you're not afraid of us."
"Why should I be afraid of you? Anyway, I was told that I only need to do miscellaneous jobs. Since you know my face, I'll go back to my room. Pleased to meet you, good night!"
Still smiling, Ciel fluidly freed his hair and ducked behind the table.
'Enough social interaction for today, time to leave!'
With that, he quickly escaped from the room, not forgetting to nab a deck of cards as he left. He hasn't seen playing cards in a long time, but this world's cards were exactly the same as his past life's cards.
…
Back in the snake's box, Ciel relaxed against the snake's scales.
Joining a group of knights was a good way to start over. He wouldn't be confined in one place anymore at least. Since they were going to take him in as a servant, they would have to take care of the troubles that came his way or let him go free. Anyway, as long as they didn't strictly guard him, he was sure he could escape if he was in danger.
Behind him, the steady breathing of the snake suddenly quickened. Instinctively, Ciel jumped out of the box in a hurry just as a big 'bang!' sounded from inside of the box.
Black mist rose from the opening of the box. Through the mist, a human silhouette slowly took shape.
'The snake's turning into an eve!' This was the first time Ciel had seen something like this. He stared blatantly with interest, even taking off his blindfold.
The newly formed eve looked about his age. Moonlight reflected off of the smooth black hair of the eve, and as its eyes opened, Ciel realized that they were a bright crimson red, his favorite color. He had never looked at the snake's eyes clearly before since it was always dark in the box—even if the snake had slept with his eyes open.
A wave of pressure descended on him, but instantly disappeared when the eve's eyes met Ciel's colorful blue ones.
The eve's voice sounded naturally gentle, with a childish lisp to it.
"Little sister?"