Silenveloped the room like an oppressive, suffog cloak.

  Mirac stared at Carmen with pierg eyes, digging beyond her silence.

  “So?” he asked, his voice calm but with the determination of someone demanding an immediate answer. “Did I guess correctly?”

  Carmen diverted her gaze, taking a moment. A deep sigh escaped her lips, carrying with it the weight of a thousand thoughts.

  “Yes, young Prince. You are right: the sed reason I didn’t warn anyone about Krk recisely to find out who hired him.”

  Mirac’s eyes widened slightly. A spark of uanding fshed in his gaze, sharp as lightning in a dark night.

  “So…”

  Carmen nodded, her face marked with a bitter expression ret.

  “I ’t tell you how, but I am absolutely certain: it was someone here at the castle who hired Krk!”

  Mirac’s blood turned cold.

  Although he had already suspected this truth, hearing it firmed was like feeling a cold dagger pluo his back.

  “I see…” he whispered, his voice barely audible, as his gaze wao an indefinite point. “So, there’s someone here who wants me dead, huh?”

  His hands ched into fists, his jaw tight. He turned his face to hide his frustration, but the tremor in his muscles betrayed the storm within him.

  “Tsk, BUT WHY?! What have I doo deserve this?!” he hissed, his tone cracked with the weight of injustice. “I’m just… a child…”

  Those words, sile, echoed in the room, fading into a silehat seemed even more suffog.

  The idea that someone wanted him dead left him numb, draining his strength, leaving him to drown in a sea of unanswered questions.

  In the brief moment of silehat fell between them, Mirac’s mind became crowded with tless thoughts and siderations.

  Now that Krk was out of the picture, Mirac realized that whoever had hired him would surely tiheir attempt to get rid of the young Prince, perhaps by hiring another assassin.

  The thought made his heart beat faster for a moment, an irregur rhythm that reflected the growing anguish inside him.

  ‘But, it’s irely true!’ he quickly corrected himself, his breathing calming and his heart returning to a mur beat. ‘Now everyone knows someoempted to take my life by hiring an assassin. So, the royal guards won’t be fooled so easily by arying to infiltrate the castle. And whoever hired Krk knows this well, and I’m sure they won’t use the same pn to kill me. In fact, holy, they’d be a plete dumbass if they tried!’

  With this thought partially f him, he forced himself to take a deep breath to shake off the ahat had overwhelmed him. He then made an effort to stay calm, because, upon refle, there was no sense iing agitated like this now.

  Then, Mirac turned his steady gaze back to Carmen, his green eyes filled with renewed calm.

  “So, Carmen… Who hired Krk?”

  Hearing that question, a bitter expression crossed Carmen’s face. She lowered her head, her shoulders hunched as if bearing an invisible burden.

  “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, young Prince…” Carmen began, her voice veiled with a grave tone, “…but unfortunately, I have no idea.”

  Her eyes reflected a shadow nation that Mirac immediately noticed.

  “None of my iigatioo the hoped-for results,” she tinued, her lips pressed into a stiff line. “I only know that Krk art of a secret anization, and that, at the request of someone here at the castle, they assigned him the mission to eliminate you. However, I couldn’t discover who is behind all of this. And for that, I deeply regret exposing you to stant danger for aire year, without achieving anything crete…”

  The words crowded in her mouth, heavy with frustration and remorse, as she desperately tried to find a way to express the weight of her “failure.”

  “Therefore, I ask for your fiveness once again, young Prince…” she finally cluded, her tone a little shaky, almost broken.

  Another silence fell between them, even thicker than the previous ones, as if even the walls were abs the tension saturating the air.

  “Again?! Why do you insist on apologizing so much?”

  Mirac’s question broke the suffog atmosphere, ringing clearly in the room.

  fusion showed on his face, his eyebrows slightly furrowed. His green eyes, intense and questioning, rested on Carmen, waiting for an answer.

  Feeling observed, the servant lifted her gaze, her eyes now fixed on him, full of plex emotions. It was a silent struggle to find the right words in a sea of feelings. But despite everything, she seemed hesitant to respond.

  Notig her difficulty, Mirac decided to take the initiative to break the silence:

  “I’ve already told you that you have no reason to do that, Carmen…” he said, his voice soft but firm, like a verdict that admits no appeal.

  Then, uedly, he k before her, l himself to meet her eyes at the same level.

  “In fact, I should be the one kneeling to you! After all, you’re the one who saved my life! Although…” he lowered his gaze for a moment, a bittersweet smile, “Well, I ’t deny that I feel a little sorry for having lost my arm…”

  He cast a fleeting g the missing limb, like a bittersweet memory, but without being overwhelmed by emotion, he tinued:

  “But if I am still alive, here talking to you and able to breathe the same air you’re breathing, it is only thanks to you!”

  With a gentle gesture, he pced his hand on Carmen’s shoulder, his touch as soft as a caress.

  “You’ve always been by my side, and as far back as I remember, you’ve helped me tless times. The fact that you saved me from Krk that day only firmed what I already khat you really care about me! And for that, I am deeply grateful, you know? Not everyone is lucky enough to be loved so much…”

  Mirac’s previously tense expression softened, illuminated by a youthful sweetness.

  That glow on his face seemed to emerge from deep within his heart, warming the atmosphere around them and dispelling the shadows of fear and uainty.

  “Thank you, Carmen… for everything you’ve done for me!” he cluded fervently, his voice trembling with emotion.

  Carmen looked at him, surprised, caught off guard by his words. For a moment, her posure wavered, and a faint smile brushed her lips.

  In her dark, obsidian-like eyes, a flicker of emotion sparkled—quid almost imperceptible—before dissolving bato her usual calm demeanor.

  “Your words touch me deeply, young Prince,” she replied gently, her voice exuding a reassuring calm.

  “Really? Wow! I hought that the cold and fearless Carmen could be moved like this…”

  “Oh heavens, is that what you think of me?”

  They exged a gnce before breaking into a soft, restrained ugh—a moment of levity that seemed just what they both o feel better.

  But then Mirac paused, Carmen’s radiant face.

  Though he had seen her ugh in the past, this time her smile was different: it seemed menuine, more authentic, as if that simple act had granted her airely new identity.

  Or rather, more thao Mirac’s eyes, that… seemed to be the true Carmen!

  A side of her personality that, until then, she had always hiddeh her usual cold and posed demeanor.

  “You know, Carmen…” Mirac began, still smiling. “You should smile more often.”

  The words slipped out as a sincere invitation, a desire to see that light in her eyes more often.

  “Yh is, how I say… tagious. It makes everything feel lighter.”

  Suddenly, however, Carmen’s smile vanished.

  The red-haired woman froze, pletely taken aback.

  For a moment, it seemed as if the young Prince had spoken forbidden words.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Mirac excimed, jumping up from his kneeling position. “I didn’t mean to make you unfortable!”

  Carmen shook her head slowly.

  “No, please don’t worry, young Prince,” she reassured him, rising to her feet with calm posure. “You haven’t said anything wrong.”

  A faint smile returo curve her lips, subtle and almost shy.

  “Quite the opposite, in fact…” Carmen cluded, her voice tinged with a shadow of mencholy.

  Mirac tilted his head, puzzled by the hidden meaning in his bodyguard’s words. Yet he received no further expnation: Carmen maintained her usual reserve, only a faint, fleeting smile.

  After a moment of silence, Miraapped out of his thoughts.

  “ht! I almost fot!” he excimed, abruptly ging the subject. “There’s something else I wao ask you, Carmen…”

  She nodded, her face serious and attentive.

  “I’ll be happy to help you, young Prince…”

  Without wasting any more time, Mirac began to expin:

  “When Krk attacked me from behind, I barely mao avoid being cut in half, as sadly happeo poor Mr. Foss…”

  Even though the memory of his corpse was still vivid in his mind, Mirac didn’t let the nightmare overwhelm him and tinued expining:

  “Right after narrowly dodging his attack, I fled into the woods, taking advantage of the dense vegetation to hide behind some bushes where he couldn’t see me. Once I was safe, I treated my arm with the small pieagical gauze that, luckily, had fallen out of Mr. Foss’s pocket—probably when Krk took him out. Fortunately, I had picked it up almost instinctively before running into the forest, as if a part of me, unsciously, knew I would …”

  In truth, things hadn’t happely that way.

  First of all, it had been Mr. Foss who ed a generous pieagical gauze around Mirac’s finger after the boy had injured himself trying to pluck a rose. So, the magical gauze hadn’t just “fallen out of his pocket.”

  Moreover, if Mirac told the full truth, he’d also have to—out of narrative sistency—admit that he had used his secret ability, ”Multiplicative Touch”, to transform that small piece of gauze into enough to bandage his entire amputated arm.

  Revealing that would have been catastrophiirac because it would mean exposing his Anomalous Sintony with Math and, sequently, his true nature as a Chaotic!

  With this in mind, Mirac had e up with that excuse—the same one he had already given to the iigators during the interrogation—to expin where he had found the magical gauze he used to treat his arm.

  Thankfully, no one had raised any doubts about it.

  This was because the discovery of the roll of magical gauze in the pocket of Mr. Foss’s corpse perfectly matched the version of events provided by the young Prince.

  “After bandaging my amputated arm, something unbelievable happened… and that’s exactly what I wao talk to you about!” Miratinued, his toense. “When Krk roag the bush I was hiding behind, two swords suddenly appeared o me!”

  Once again, to protect his secret of being a Chaotic, Mirac had deliberately omitted the truth. In fact, only one sword had appeared o him, and then, thanks to his secret ability, “Multiplicative Touch”, he had created a sed one.

  “To the iigators who came today, I simply told them I had found them he garden shed,” Mirafessed. “But iy, even though I didn’t clearly see anyone approag me, I’m pretty sure it was someone who left those two swords near me!”

  He paused, staring at Carmen with a serious look.

  “However, I obviously didn’t think for a moment that it was you. After all, it wouldn’t have made sense for you to give me those two swords and then leave, only to return shortly after and save me from Krk.”

  With her eyebrows slightly furrowed, Carmen didn’t let a single word of what the young Prince had said slip by.

  “I see…” she said, as she pohe matter. “In fact, even I, when I picked up those swords from the ground—to avoid fag him bare-handed—was quite puzzled to find them there, abandoned in the middle of the forest. However, notig they were near where you and Krk had been, I guessed that you had used them to face him. So, I had po ask you, sooner or ter, where you had found them. But it seems that, like me, you don’t really know their in. Or rather, who gave them to you…”

  Unfortunately for Mirac, Carmen didn’t have the ao the mystery of the sword that had miraculously appeared for him.

  However, ohing was certain to him, so much so that as he reflected, Mirac voiced his thought aloud, as if it were an undeniable truth:

  “Someone wants me dead, while someone else, besides you, seems determio secretly save me… But who could these people be?!”

  Mirac fell silent, processing all the information he had gathered so far. His gaze wandered between Carmen and the empty space, as if he were trying to piece together the fragments of an unfinished puzzle.

  With no way to resolve this great mystery at that moment, Carmen simply remained silent, watg Mirac lost in his thoughts.

  By pure ce, the servant’s gaze fell on the clock resting on Mirac’s desk, and her face lit up with surprise.

  “Oh, damn! It’s getting te! Maybe it’s better if I return to my duties,” she excimed, bowing with her hands together in front of her and then taking a half step back, ready to leave the room.

  Mirac jumped, snapping out of his reflective state as if those words had brought him back to reality.

  “Ah, yes of course... No problem,” he murmured, his mind still ed in his thoughts.

  Meanwhile, the woman with red hair made her way toward the exit, but not without the young Priig her graceful and calcuted movements.

  Indeed, now that he aying attentioep was fident and disciplined, clearly refleg a life shaped by discipline and rigor since childhood, just as she had told him.

  But apart from Mirac, who now knew Carmen’s true identity, no one else would have noticed this detail about her.

  “Oh, young Prince… I almost fot to tell you something important as well!” Carmen suddenly excimed, stopping at the door and turning toward Mirac.

  In the short distance she had walked toward the door, the servant’s sweet expression had vanished, repced by a more serious one.

  “I kindly ask that you don’t speak of me to anyone.”

  Mirac remained silent, nodding with an uanding expression.

  Before he could open his mouth to respond, however, Carmen added with a determione:

  “A assured, young Prince. I solemnly promise that no one will even y a finger on you!”

  The wind ing through the window made her long red hair dance, emphasizing the strength of her words.

  “I’ll do everything in my power to find out who hired Krk.”

  Mirac stared at her for a moment, the sileween them heavy with plicity.

  Then, a faint smile curved his lips, as if they were sharing a secret bigger than themselves.

  “I don’t doubt it, Carmen…” Mirac replied, nodding.

  With o reassuring ghe servant crossed the threshold aly closed the door behind her.

  As soon as Carme, Mirac’s expression ged radically.

  The smile vanished, and the hand that had just waved goodbye to his “secret bodyguard” slowly lowered.

  A rigid expressioled on his faot born from anger but from a scrupulous and imperable iy.

  His eyes, slightly narrowed, were shadowed by furrowed brows that betrayed a mix of turbulent thoughts and unyielding resolve.

  “I don’t doubt it…” he murmured at st, in a low, meaningful tone.

  His hazel eyes, now more intense, reflected a new awareness, an idea just emerging or perhaps a suspi that was rooting itself ever more deeply.

  After a few moments, the intense expression faded, and Mirac let out a long stretch, arg his back as if to shake off the weight of his thoughts.

  “Ahhh…” he sighed deeply.

  Left alone in his room, Mirac wasted no time and rushed to his bed to rest.

  But his mind refused to give him peace.

  Curiosity devoured him from within, as too many questions remained unanswered.

  Who were the two parties trying, respectively, to eliminate and protect him secretly? And most importantly, why?

  There was another puzzle tormenting him, one he had skillfully avoided showing too muterest in:

  ‘Who could possibly be the figure, unknowo the King, who entrusted Carmen with secretly proteg me? And for what reason? Furthermore, how did Carmen know in advahat Professor Shirkenn was actually Krk? Did someone warn her before he arrived? Could it have been a traitor within Krk’s anization? Or maybe Carmen herself belongs to a secret anization, and one of its members infiltrated Krk’s anization as a spy? And if that’s not the case, there’s no doubt that Carmen is at least supported and aided by someoside these walls.’

  Mirac sighed deeply, the weight of his thoughts pressing on his chest.

  ‘Well, in any case, today it didn’t seem like she lied to me. Of course, she didn’t tell me the whole truth, but not a single lie either. That’s because she wants to protect the most important information, especially about herself, hiding it even from me, the only one here who knows her “true identity.” And now that I think about it, she didn’t even reveal the name of Krk’s anization, nor the ohought Carmen beloo. Maybe because I’m still a “child”?’

  He ran a hand over his face, almost to chase away the weariness, before staring at the ceiling with a thoughtful gaze.

  ‘In any case, if I py my cards right, when I grow up, Carmen could bee an incredibly valuable source of useful information. I could learn a lot about various secret anizations, as well as gain knowledge that ’t be found in books. But not only that! Until I’m strong enough to defend myself, I’d also have someone who’s stantly proteg me. And with Carmen’s help, maybe I’ll even figure out who hired Krk and who gave me the sword to face him…’

  Mirac paused for a moment, deep in thought.

  ‘Damn it! In that case, it would be easier and faster to warn my father and the royal guards, telling them that whoever hired Krk is someone residing in the castle. But I ’t do that! If I did, they might ask me where I got this information from, and Carmen’s identity could be promised! It’s better to act cautiously, so I don’t ruihing.’

  He sighed, his mind in turmoil.

  ‘So, until I fully uand her iions, figure out who she is and who sent her, and especially whether or not she could pose a threat to my family, it’s better not to tell anyone about Carmen. And then…’

  A cold shiver ran down his spine.

  ’I don’t know why—maybe it’s just my instinct or a bad feeling—but I feel that if Carmen were discovered, it would be the end for me as well…’