Chapter 69
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Recently, Calix’s mood had hit rock bottom. It was because his fox had not returned for over a month.
“Your Highness, are you going out again today?”
Ilion followed behind him with a worried expression. As Luna still hadn’t returned, Calix was beginning to suspect that something bad might have happened to her. Otherwise, there was no reason his clever fox wouldn’t have come back by now.
So he started searching everywhere near the palace. He combed the nearby hills and even the imperial hunting grounds, but he couldn’t find even a trace of the fox with her unique brown fur.
Ilion knew Calix cherished Luna, but he hadn’t realized just how deep those feelings went, so he spoke lightly.
“Don’t worry, Your Highness. Do you think Luna is an ordinary fox? Even if she died, as a spirit, she must have gone to a good place.”
“Luna… is dead?”
“A fox that used to come visit every day hasn’t come back in a month. That’s the only explanation…”
Ilion, who had been speaking thoughtlessly, belatedly noticed Calix glaring at him as if he wanted to kill him, and quickly closed his mouth.
His loose tongue seemed to have gotten him in trouble again, so he quickly changed the subject.
“Ah, or maybe she’ll suddenly pop up and snort at me again.”
Sometimes, Luna would snort at Ilion as if exasperated by his words. She acted almost like a person, and every time that happened, Calix would burst out laughing.
Ilion tried to comfort him, but under the assumption that Luna might be dead, Calix found it impossible to keep his composure.
“…If she’s really like that, why hasn’t she been able to come back?”
A clever animal like her would have known he’d be searching everywhere. At the very least, she should have left some kind of trace, especially if she was in danger.
“There’s not a single trace, and she hasn’t come back for over a month. If that’s the case, then like you said, there can only be one reason, right?”
His voice trembled uncontrollably as he finished speaking. He could no longer deny a reality he hadn’t even wanted to imagine.
“I have to at least find her body. I have to find that much, at least. Otherwise…”
His words gradually turned into ragged gasps. Just imagining that Luna might be dead made Calix feel like he was suffocating from the pain.
He was already aware that their lifespans were different. In fact, he even knew she was already living longer than the average fox.
He had never thought of Luna as old… But maybe, in reality, she had gone somewhere else to meet her end?
“Ugh…”
Dark, negative thoughts kept clouding his mind. As Calix walked through the hunting grounds, his heart suddenly started pounding so violently that he had to stop.
“Agh—”
She was ‘just a fox’, but he had grown so deeply attached that he simply couldn’t accept the idea that she no longer existed in this world.
“Your Highness?”
“Hah!”
As Calix’s heart began pounding out of control, his vision started to blur and he felt the energy inside his body raging violently.
“Your Highness!”
Ilion, who had been watching him stop suddenly in confusion, sensed the wild energy and hurriedly picked Calix up on his back.
The violent energy spilling from Calix scratched Ilion’s body. That was how unstable Calix’s energy had become.
Thankfully, they managed to return quickly to the Crown Prince’s palace, but Ilion was at a loss for what to do and called for Daisy.
“Daisy, bring the court physician. No, wait…”
Would calling the physician really solve anything? Anyone could see that this was an Esper’s problem, and only a Guide would be able to help.
“W-Why is His Highness like this?”
Daisy, equally flustered, regained her senses and stammered,
“I’ll tell the knight to bring the physician.”
“No. Not the physician, but Her Majesty the Empress must be brought.”
Having laid Calix down on the bed, Ilion spoke with a trembling voice. Calix’s energy was exploding out so fiercely that he couldn’t stay by his side any longer.
“Ugh, Daisy! Bring Her Majesty the Empress!”
“…Ah— Y-Yes!”
Not knowing how she’d explain this to the Empress, who she’d never had contact with, Daisy ran outside anyway. Her hurried footsteps quickly spread rumors throughout the palace.
News of the Crown Prince’s impending rampage and Bianca’s refusal to guide him spread rapidly through the imperial palace.
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