Chapter 18: Where Predators Watch
Zera’s heart shot into her throat.
This was the child Master Kael had picked up outside. More importantly, Zera could tell Master Kael hadn’t brought Puff back on some casual whim, like a toy to amuse himself with. His mouth was rough, and he was always too forceful with his hands, but the fact that he cared about Puff wasn’t hard to see.
If something happened to Puff here, under her watch, and Master Kael blamed her for it, she definitely wouldn’t escape punishment.
"Da... Daddy."
Puff choked out the word, then called again.
"Puff, don’t cry. What’s wrong?" Zera hurried closer, lowering her voice until it was very gentle. "Master Kael isn’t here right now."
Puff lifted her wet eyes.
"Not... here?"
"That’s right. Master Kael already went out, so you can’t find him right now."
The moment Zera said that, Puff’s wounded little expression finally crumpled.
"Mm... waaah!"
She opened her mouth and burst into tears. They came even faster now, like sorrow she’d been holding in for a long time had finally found an outlet, streaming nonstop down her tiny cheeks.
"Huh? Puff?"
Zera quickly reached out, trying to wipe her tears.
"Da... Daddy!"
Puff had no attention left for the cup of milk she loved most. She didn’t even glance at it. She only raised those soft, pale little hands and kept rubbing at her eyes. Her skirt swayed with her movements, and the two small bone bumps on her head bobbed along with every trembling shake of her sobbing head.
She cried harder and harder.
Seeing her like this, how could Zera keep sitting there and wait for her to calm down on her own?
"Okay, okay! I’ll take you to find Master Kael, so don’t cry anymore, all right?"
Puff’s sobs paused.
She sniffled, tears still hanging from her lashes.
"Go... find?"
"Yes. We’ll go find Master Kael."
Only after Zera said she would take her to find Kael did Puff’s loud crying slowly settle down. She blinked those jewel-clear, silvery-white eyes, and her rosy little mouth gradually closed, no longer wailing.
But her gaze had already turned toward the doors at the front of the breakfast hall.
She stared straight at them without moving.
The meaning in those eyes was obvious.
She wanted to go right now.
"Mm. We’ll leave now."
Zera immediately rose from her seat. She didn’t waste words. First, she quickly cleared the food and tableware from the table.
She moved fast.
The plates were collected, the cup moved aside, the bit of milk spilled on the tabletop wiped clean, and the wrinkled napkin folded neatly again. The small patch of mess Puff had made while crying was restored to the same tidy state as before the meal in less than five seconds.
That kind of speed and efficiency was something few people in the entire royal palace could match.
After all, Zera had once undergone ten full years of maid training at a professional maid academy. That was exactly what her courses had taught her: how to use magic and her own skills to handle every kind of problem perfectly in the shortest possible time.
Of course, keeping her master from getting upset was also one of her required subjects.
"Let’s go, Puff."
Once everything was cleaned up, Zera walked to Puff’s side and lifted the little one—still sitting in her chair, still staring at the doors—into her arms.
Puff didn’t struggle.
She only clutched Zera’s clothes with her small hands, eyes still fixed on the entrance.
Soon, Zera carried Puff out of the royal palace.
...
To find Kael as quickly as possible, Zera carried Puff all over the capital of the Suncrest Empire.
The capital’s streets were far livelier than the inside of the palace. Carriages rolled over stone-paved roads. Vendors’ calls came from street corners. Pedestrians passed back and forth, hems and cloaks crossing in the wind. Zera held Puff close, avoiding the crowd as she searched the places Kael might appear, while using tracking magic to confirm his direction.
She was often the one responsible for calling Kael home.
Because of that, she already had a rough idea of where Kael went at certain times, or which places he tended to linger.
If she wanted to find Master Kael at this hour, there were only two places he was most likely to be.
One was Blackrat Lane, that lawless, chaotic place.
The other was the military camp he usually visited when he had nothing better to do.
However, today was a little different from usual.
Kael had left in a hurry, and he was wearing the military uniform he rarely put on. Zera remembered very clearly that uniform wasn’t something he would wear just to go out casually. Since he’d left dressed like that, it meant he definitely had something important to do today.
So Zera narrowed her search to Blackrat Lane.
That place was chaotic, dangerous, and rotten.
But if Kael really had gone to deal with some troublesome matter, it wouldn’t be strange for him to go there.
"Da... Daddy?"
When Zera carried Puff to the entrance of Blackrat Lane, Puff suddenly lifted her head.
Her tears had already stopped, but her eyes were still red. She looked toward that dark street, her tiny body going quiet in Zera’s arms, as though she had heard something only she could hear.
Then she sensed a familiar energy signature.
Puff was a dragon child, after all. Even though she had been born less than a day ago, she could already sense the energy moving inside other people. Especially when it came to the person she most wanted to be close to, the person she trusted most—that feeling became even clearer.
So when she arrived at the entrance of Blackrat Lane, she quickly picked up Kael’s energy signature.
"Hm? Master Kael is inside?"
"Mm..."
Puff nodded and stretched out a little hand, pointing toward a lavishly decorated building not far ahead.
Its lights burned brighter than anything around it. People streamed in and out through the entrance, and noise poured out from inside, mixed with the smell of alcohol, laughter, and heavy footsteps. One after another, people dressed in combat gear and armor walked in from outside, all carrying weapons either in their hands or at their waists. They didn’t look like ordinary guests. They looked more like the kind of people who could turn a drinking table into a battlefield at any moment.
Zera stood by the street with Puff in her arms, staring at that door, her brows drawing together slightly.
"Doesn’t Master Kael hate this place? Then why would he go in?"
She carried Puff toward the entrance of the building, taking each step carefully. The closer she got, the more alertly she watched the crowd shifting around them, and the tighter her arms held Puff.
Because this was Blackrat Lane.
Among the people coming and going here, there were always plenty of vicious, lecherous little men. They weren’t like those mercenaries, who only wandered here for money, exchanging information or looking for commissions.
More often than not, they were here to use their own methods to threaten and persecute those weaker than themselves.
Powerless beggars. Little girls who had lost their way. Mercenaries a bit weaker than them. As long as such people were targeted, as long as the target couldn’t beat them, they would make their move, squeezing out every bit of value that could be squeezed from their victim.
What happened to the victim afterward? They didn’t care at all.
Why did they dare to be so brazen?
Because this was Blackrat Lane.
Here, no one would stick their neck out unless there was something in it for them. Someone could be hurt, screaming right in front of them, and as long as the trouble didn’t land on their own heads, most people would pretend they hadn’t seen a thing.
And right now, Zera and Puff stood out far too much.
Zera wore a fitted black-and-white maid uniform, with light makeup on her face. As a maid serving at her master’s side, letting herself look sloppy was not allowed. That was one of the rules drilled into her during training.
Not to mention, she was carrying Puff in her arms—soft-looking, adorable Puff in a tiny princess dress.
A maid.
A child.
And the two of them were looking around inside Blackrat Lane.
In certain people’s eyes, this combination was practically a lost woman and child, or some pitiful pair abandoned by nobles, with no idea where to go.
