The boy whimpered, unable to hold back his tears.
“No, wait, sweetie?” I tried to comfort him to no avail. The child proceeded to wail harder, tears flowing down his cheeks.
I just made him cry again! My mind went blank. I had never seen him sob like that before.
“Are you the one who abandoned this child?” A deep voice sliced through the chaos in my head.
Before I could even process his words, I instinctively snatched the child away from the man’s arms. I asked the boy, “Why are you crying? Did Mr. Stranger here make you cry? Did he hurt you?”
“Mister… what?” mumbled the man, testing out the title in bewilderment.
I disregarded his reaction and raised my voice in frustration.“Why did you leave Walter? And how did you end up with this man here?”
Taking a deep breath, I turned to look closer at the man. To my chagrin, I recognized the stranger immediately. Although Eleanora was not so short herself, he was so tall that even she had to crane her head to look at him, and he wore the unmistakable uniform of Laurent’s detectives—black clothes with a golden pin.
I quickly scanned the man’s features with a sideways glance. He had black hair, but what struck me the most were his rare violet eyes. While I didn’t care too much about his appearance, it was hard to ignore the aura surrounding him and signaling that he was not an ordinary person.
Could he be the male lead of the novel? The knight in shining armor himself?
Just in case, I asked, “Are you Kyle Leonard?”
“I am honored you remember me, Baroness Aiselle,” Kyle replied sarcastically, shattering my hopes that he might be a nameless extra who only happened to resemble the male protagonist. The man reached into his uniform, pulling out a small notebook and pen, and spoke matter-of-factly, “You still have not answered my question, Baroness.”
“What question do you mean?”
“Did you abandon this child?”
“Abandon—what? No, I was just trying to return him to his real guardian!” I protested.
However, Kyle Leonard’s expression remained unaltered. “Is that so? That is not what the child informed me.”
“What?”
The child, still sobbing with his face buried in my shoulder, suddenly looked up at me and tearfully pleaded, “Please don’t abandon me!”
“Huh?” I didn’t think I could get any more confused. The child was talking?
“I won’t drink milk anymore. I won’t use your blanket, either. I promise I won’t bother you. So please, don’t send me to that scary man!”
It was astonishing. Just yesterday, he could barely babble, and now, he was speaking clearly! Although his pronunciation was a little bit off, his speech was still understandable. I was a little afraid of this baby dragon’s rapid growth and of what was about to happen to me.
Kyle scribbled something in his notebook and turned back to me. “If you are not this child’s guardian, what type of relationship do you have?”
“We have no relationship, I swear!” I protested once more, but my plea seemed to fall on deaf ears. Maybe the child sensed that I was trying to distance myself from him. He clung tightly to my neck and shouted, “Master!”
A moment of silence hung in the air. Then, Kyle slowly repeated the child’s words. “‘Master’?”
The misunderstanding was spiraling out of control, and I struggled to keep up with the rapidly unfolding events. My mind raced as I stammered out an excuse. “I don’t know what he’s talking about. I mean, Sir Kyle, he doesn’t belong to me. I saw him for the first time less than a week ago, and no matter how hard I tried to return him, he wouldn’t go back—”
“Child abandonment.”
I flinched at his choice of words. “Excuse me, what?”
Kyle regarded me with disdain, his eyes gleaming with contempt. “On top of that, I suspect child abuse. It is already concerning that you abandoned your child in a butcher’s shop, but making a three-year-old call you ‘master’ is beyond common sense.”
“But I didn’t make him do that!”
“As soon as you left the child in the shop, the owner of the place left for the capital. Are you going to claim that this was a mere coincidence?”
“That’s because the child’s guardian is in the capital!”
“Can you prove it?”
I found myself utterly speechless. As I gaped like a fish out of water, Kyle jotted down something in his notebook. Fear clawed at me, wondering what he might have penned down regarding my alleged crimes.
“I will require a written statement from you, Baroness.”
“A statement—”
“Furthermore, I must inform you that you are a person of interest in the current case of Lizeverne’s missing egg in Laurent. Your cooperation would be greatly appreciated.”
What? I had no idea I could be more stunned than I was when the kid first burst into tears. Was it possible to be even more dumbfounded than this?
The male lead was on a mission to uncover the thief of the dragon’s egg. And this little child, born from that very egg, refused to stay away from me. At this rate, there would be no avoiding getting labeled an egg thief.
Kyle snapped his notebook shut as he delivered his final sentence. “I should also inform you that, as you hold a substantial criminal record, I have already issued a warrant with the permission of His Majesty the Emperor of Laurent.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe it. I had not only been accused of theft, but this man appeared absolutely convinced of my guilt.
As I hastily set the child down just inside the door, Kyle continued, “So please, I’d like you to accompany me to the—”
“W-Wait, let’s talk inside. Please!” I cut him off mid-sentence, clamping one hand over his mouth and using my other hand to pull him inside.
Despite my efforts, of course, the man remained as immovable as a mountain. Kyle rolled his eyes in exasperation, and his lips twitched against my palm. “Baroness Aiselle, if you act like this, I have no choice but to resort to—”
“Blanket!” Desperately, I called upon Eleanora’s magical powers. The blanket flew up from the living room and wrapped around both of us.
Wait! Why both of us?! Trapped, I bumped into his chest; our bodies pressed tightly together from head to calf. Kyle groaned quietly above my head as both of us staggered, unable to maintain our balance.
“W-Wait!” Before I could react, Eleanora’s damn blanket yanked us into the house.
The bizarre turn of events that immediately followed was extremely disorienting. Although my face remained buried in his chest, obstructing my view, I could sense that my body had twirled at least twice, crashing into a few things along the way.
With a jerk, I suddenly felt my body lurch backward. Reflexively squeezing my eyes shut, I flinched, expecting terrible pain. With my low blood pressure and lackluster stamina, mornings were rarely my prime, and it seemed today I was destined to conclude my morning with a concussion.
With my eyes closed tightly, however, I slowly came to a strange conclusion. I didn’t feel any pain. It was most peculiar, seeing as I had definitely fallen somewhere. I gingerly opened my eyes, realizing something quite unfortunate—to my chagrin, I was resting directly on top of the male lead’s chest.
“Are you going to stay here forever?” he asked, annoyed.
The room was still spinning before my eyes. Feeling like a withered, flappy vegetable, I barely managed to wiggle my fingers. Finally, the blanket, which had cocooned us together like a swaddled baby, slipped away. Yet, I remained immobilized, the dizziness still making my head spin too much to consider standing.
Besides, if I looked up now, I’d be forced to make direct eye contact with the man I had unintentionally squashed. I was kind of keen to avoid that.
My face still buried in his black uniform, I tried to summarize the chaos that had just unfolded in my home. Here I was, in my small living room, with a baby dragon and the man who had come to arrest me.
“Baroness Aiselle, get off of my body now,” the male lead demanded, clearly unamused by my presence.
It appeared I did not get up fast enough for Kyle because he started to sit up before I could appropriately gather myself. Moving briskly, he rose carelessly, causing me to flail backward, off-balance.
Just like that, I found myself in the very situation I wanted to avoid since arriving in this world—staring face to face with Kyle Leonard, his gleaming violet eyes glowering intensely at me. As we exchanged stifling glances, the child’s quiet hiccups echoed throughout my tiny living room.
I struggled to suppress a sigh, realizing that it had only been six days since I first discovered the baby dragon. In my attempts to remove it from my life, I had inadvertently acquired an unwanted male lead. Truly, instead of escaping the frying pan, I’d ended up jumping into the fire.
“I failed to remember that I should always be on guard when dealing with you. You do not seem to be capable of the concept of self-reflection,” the man bellowed before suddenly switching to a mix of panic and confusion, “Baroness?”
As my body began collapsing helplessly to the floor, he hastily grasped my waist with a strong arm. “Are you all right?”
Even as this man supported me with one arm, his other hand reached for the gun holstered at his waist. The weapon, snug in a leather holster, was far from a symbol of peace and tranquility. His body was taut with tension, ready to draw the gun and pull the trigger at the slightest hint of suspicious behavior. In fact, it seemed he had already set that plan in motion.
All of my energy drained out from my body, leaving me feeling like a flailing paper doll.
“I’m sorry, Sir Kyle. I have low blood pressure,” I uttered, hiding my real thoughts. I’m still somewhat stunned by the fact that I’m in a face-to-face conversation with you right now.
“I’m getting older, and my back isn’t what it used to be.” I carefully pulled away from him, taking slow steps backward. “I no longer possess the stamina for physical confrontations, you see.”
Kyle’s narrowed eyes followed my every move.
I took at least three steps away and glanced furtively behind the imposing man. The curtains that had previously hung from the ceiling were now floating in the air, twisting themselves into long cords.
I continued, “What I truly desire right now is to get some more sleep.”
“What are you trying to say?” Kyle demanded.
There was a reason I had invited this man inside. Since I knew all the magic manuals of my house like the back of my hand, this building could function as both a powerful weapon and a prison.
The same blanket from earlier slid up behind him silently.
“What I’m saying is,” I began, snapping my fingers, “I don’t allow such dreadful things in my house, Sir Kyle.”
In an instant, the blanket covered Kyle’s body.
“Things like, say, a gun,” I finished.