How to Live as the Mad Duke’s Fake Daughter - CH 103

“…It means you couldn’t find them.”

Pedro sighed and leaned on the railing.

The next moment, before his men could stop him, he jumped out of the watchtower.

The ground rang again.

“Damn it! Hugo, that brat must have used a magic trick.”

Pedro stirred up dust and soil as he approached the knights.

One by one, the wolves gathered around him like they were looking for their leader.

“Leader, what should we do?”

“It seems that Hugo has made the specific intention to go out. In this case, even if we mobilize the standing army in full force, it’s not certain as to whether we can catch them or not.”

“Ah! I think I know where the Princess went.”

Roxy jumped out from between the furred beasts.

Pedro, along with dozens of wolves, tilted their heads in the same direction.

Roxy gazed at them and said proudly.

“Her lover’s house!”

What did she mean a lover — the princess who just made her debut, not even a fiance but a lover?

If it was another noble young lady, it would have been nothing, but Pedro opened his eyes wide and jumped instead of being angry.

“Did Lily have a boyfriend?”

“Probably?”

“I don’t know who he is, but I’ll have to scold him. I can’t believe he called my precious sister to his home without saying a word…”

Pedro scratched his head as if only that was ridiculous, seemingly fine with the idea that the noble princess had a lover.

He tied his cape and gestured with his chin towards Roxy.

“Let’s go get Lily.”

Roxy smiled broadly and took the lead toward the ‘Princess’ Lover’s House.’

***

“I’m the Princess’ lover?”

Benimus raised his head and blinked.

In the gloomy evening wind, his silver hair fluttered.

Pedro, who came straight into the mansion of ‘Benibeni’, the ‘princess’ lover’, looked more confused than the owner of the house.

“No?”

Benimus did not answer immediately and glanced sideways at the wolves who came to him. His eyes were dry as if he was looking at someone else.

“I’m not…”

Benimus turned his gaze to the setting sun.

The dark purple eyes resembled the sky colored with wine. It was closer to a landscape than to a living person.

All the knights felt subtle discomfort at his appearance.

The 16-year-old boy in front of them and the knight’s order under the direct control of the duke had been on the battlefield together for the past four years during the recapture of the West.

No matter how much they were mortal enemies, if you went through life and death together, you were bound to become friends.

But that boy didn’t open his heart even until the war was over.

The evidence was that the first prince of House Bauner visited his home personally, but instead of welcoming him, he was sitting on a chair in the middle of a weed field.

This was not simply a matter of being blunt. Introverts also had minimal emotions toward those around them.

Something like, ‘It’s annoying’ or ‘I wish you would disappear.’

However, Benimus had no interest in others from the time they first met him until now.

Like a person who saw an ant passing by and had no thoughts.

“Roxy, he said no! What happened?”

Among the knights under the direct control of the duke, those who did not feel uncomfortable with such Benny were the open-hearted Pedro and….

“I made a mistake! I’m sorry!”

…Roxy, the only other one without much thoughts.

Benimus looked at them as Pedro scolded Roxy and the latter hit herself on the head.

“Why are you looking for the Princess here? What happened to the Princess?”

The boy’s eyes, which had been indifferent all along, suddenly shook. It was an amazing reaction.

Even if they combined all of Benimus’ outward emotions over the past four years, the amount was less than the agitation he was showing now.

He seemed to build up the nerves he had usually put to rest only in matters related to the princess.

Pedro answered him coldly.

“Hugo, that brat ran away with Lily.”

“…Ah?”

Benimus spit out a shrill sound.

After a while, the boy’s fingertips slowly turned black. Black veins popped out from the whites of his left eye, and his flesh stretched like mud.

The knights swallowed their breaths in unison.

They had already seen Benimus’ transformation several times.

Therefore, everyone gathered here knew well.

How strong he was, who exerted the power of evil spirits.

“Why, all of a sudden?”

Benimus mutters were low and dreary.

Pedro gave Benny a onceover and shook one hand without any sign of surprise.

“I don’t know. Maybe they went out to play. In the past, the two of them went out to watch a gladiatorial match.”

“…Ah.”

Benny’s flesh cooled down in an instant like an iron dipped in ice water.

The boy’s hand returned to its human form as if nothing had happened.

“They didn’t leave completely.”

For some reason, Benimus seemed to have misunderstood that the archmage kidnapped the princess.

Pedro mistakenly looked down at the top of the boy’s head and whispered.

“Wouldn’t people usually ask ‘where did they go?’ first?”

“…….”

Benimus looked far away without saying a word.

From the time the knights visited the mansion until now, the boy’s eyes had been fixed at only one place.

Pedro followed his gaze and beckoned a nearby subordinate.

“Bring out the horse.”

“What?”

“Bring the horse that Benibeni used to ride in the West.”

The subordinate was caught off-guard by the words, but soon ran to the stable attached to the annex.

After a while, a horseman of the mansion brought a huge horse to the vacant lot. It was a black horse from the East, famous for being difficult to handle.

Perhaps it felt the presence of the wolves, the horse stomped its feet and loudly exhaled through its nose.

The horseman hurriedly pulled the reins, but the rougher he was, the rougher the horse became.

Pedro sighed as he watched the stumped horseman.

“I don’t know why they picked these guys….”

The servants of this mansion were reminiscent of the Duke’s Castle of four years ago. In other words, it meant that their quality was bad.

At that time, it was because there was no one to manage the Duke’s Castle, but Benimus was a different case.

There were so many people who wanted to be servants of a war hero that they lined up in the garden, and among them were children of prestigious families.

However, Benimus pointed anyone out as soon as he could, rather than reading the servants’ letters of introduction.

And he left it as it was.

He didn’t know if the indifferent boy remembered the name of the servant who brought the chair.

“You’ll stay up all night to tame it.”

Pedro grabbed the reins from the horseman’s hand.

He easily pulled the struggling black horse toward him and stroked its mane.

After a while, the wild horse calmed down.

He brought the horse to Benimus and threw the reins on the boy’s shoulder.

Benimus received the reins without even a backward glance. The leather hit the calluses bluntly.

“Benibeni, help me find Lily, too.”

“Didn’t you say the Princess just went out for a while?”

“But we still have to look for them.”

Pedro put one hand on his waist and tilted his head.

“You know where Lily is, right?”

Benimus stared forward silently.

Pedro winked in the direction of his gaze.

“Is it that way?”

“…….”

“Is that also a newly awakened ability?”

No answer came back. However, Pedro was convinced that his thoughts were true.

Benimus’ power evolved day by day in the West.

He used to awaken a whole new ability, it was not just a matter of becoming stronger.

For example, overpowering the evil spirits with just a glance without even moving his hand.

With that ability, it seemed possible to completely remove evil spirits from the world, but Benimus did not try to make an achievement.

The only time he did more than he promised was when the princess was involved.

“I’ll find the Princess.”

Benimus finally took his eyes off the sunset and stood up from the chair.

After getting on the saddle, the boy lightly kicked the horse on the side.

The black horse, who became calm like a mouse in front of the cat, ran to the main gate, rolling its hooves.

The knights were left alone in the garden.

One puzzled knight shouted.

“Hey, tell us where you’re going!”

Regardless of whether he was called or not, Benimus didn’t look back. He went at an unbelievable pace. The boy’s back suddenly became as small as a dot.

Pedro did not care and reorganized the formation of the knights.

“Leave him alone. We can chase him through his scent.”

“Even though the leader said that, isn’t it too loose on the hierarchy? He doesn’t even listen to us.”

“I’m letting him do it because he knows the hierarchy, dude. Now that the recapture of the West is over, he’s not my man.”

Grrrr.

Pedro’s legs got longer and ears popped out between his curly hair.

A wolf tattoo engraved through his arm to his chest covered his hard body, and black and shiny fur sprang out.

The knights, who used to be in human form, followed and turned into wolves.

Dozens of howls rang out in the spectacular garden.

Even after turning into a beast, the formation of the knights did not break at all.

Rather, the bodies of the huge beasts were firmly fixed at each of their positions.

The leader wolf, who stood at the forefront, raised his chin toward the direction of Benimus’ disappearance.

A pack of wolves ran off with the gesture as a signal. From a distance, it was a sight, like a huge wave was overflowing the ground.

They arrived at Benimus’ destination by sunset.

It was the largest slum in the ducal territory, the ant cave.

***

“I don’t think you’re in a position where I can ask you anything.”

Hugo shone the light into my father’s pupils and sighed.

I couldn’t understand this situation at all.

‘What the hell happened?’

Throughout my return to my hometown, I imagined what my biological father would look like.

As soon as he saw me when he was drunk, he would yell, or he wouldn’t recognize me at all. If any of my imaginations had something in common, it was the thought that ‘Dad wouldn’t have changed.’

But my expectations were completely wrong.