That was my twelfth request letter.
When I was thrown into prison, they took everything I had, including it.
But I never expected that the Emperor would have it now.
“Yes! If I present this to the International Shapeshifter Association as evidence, it has the headmaster’s seal on it.”
“Actually, I’ve already checked this.”
“You checked it? Then, my identity isn’t that of an assassin…?”
For a moment, the man’s expression seemed odd.
The strange, pitying smile that appeared on his face was unsettling, and I didn’t like it at all.
“Unfortunately…”
He paused, observing my expression.
“This is a forged document.”
“A forged document? Why? That can’t be!”
I jumped up from my seat.
The doctor’s earlier warning not to walk flashed through my mind, but it didn’t matter. I limped over to the Emperor, reached out, and snatched my twelfth request letter from his hand.
I couldn’t believe it without seeing it with my own eyes.
That can’t be true.
This is the letter I got directly from the headmaster…
Then, I noticed something odd.
“Wait…?”
I could now clearly see the differences between this letter and the original.
How had I missed it before?
The man kindly explained.
“The request letters for shapeshifters should have a seal shaped like a ram’s horn. But this one has a seal shaped like a stag’s horn.”
When I received the letter, I hadn’t noticed anything wrong.
Then, an assumption crossed my mind.
What if someone switched the sleeping potion with elephant aphrodisiac and swapped the request letter at the same time?
If that were true, it would make sense.
But then the question remained: Who could have approached me so quickly, with both the request letter and sleeping potion, and swapped them?
The only person who could have done that after receiving the sleeping potion from Cherrybel was… Berriel.
However, I couldn’t believe Berriel would do something like that.
We had been together for over ten years.
He lost his family at a young age and came to live with us.
He had always taken care of me, treating me like family, with a look in his eyes that said he was grateful to have someone like me.
“Who does our beautiful Lady May take after? I’m already tearing up thinking about the day you get married…”
I immediately shook my head.
I shouldn’t suspect Verriel without any evidence.
I gripped the request letter tightly in my hand and stared at the Emperor.
“So, what’s your excuse now?”
It was so foolish of me to have trusted that letter and come all the way to Hamilton.
Here, I had no family to rely on, no one who believed in me.
They were all shapeshifters I didn’t know.
Only now did I realize how stupidly I had acted.
I bit my lip hard, then let my head fall weakly.
“…I have nothing. No matter how much I claim my innocence, if there’s no evidence, no one will believe me.”
The Emperor didn’t say anything. I had expected him to mock me or say something cruel, but after waiting for a while, he remained silent. I was the one who asked next.
“What will happen to me now?”
“You’ll return to prison as a first-class assassin who tried to kill the Emperor. This time, to a dungeon where not a single ray of light enters.”
That was probably the outcome I had expected.
I sighed deeply in despair, but then he added something else.
“If you don’t want that.”
At those words, which were like a sliver of hope, I quickly raised my head.
“If I don’t want that?”
“Then you have to catch the one behind it.”
That was a truly unexpected response.
He was telling me to find the mastermind myself.
I hesitated before asking him.
“Does that mean… you’re giving me a chance?”
“You’ll have to wait and see.”
His gaze shifted toward my injured leg.
“We’ll finish the rest of the conversation tomorrow morning.”
With that, the Emperor made a cryptic remark and, claiming to be tired, dismissed me.
Contrary to my expectation that I would be sent back to prison, the wolves took me to a secluded room not far from the Emperor’s office.
It seemed like they wanted to let me rest tonight, perhaps because I was injured, or perhaps because it was the last night.
The room was fairly well-decorated for a guest room.
The only difference from a regular room was that there were no windows anywhere.
However, seeing the comfortable bed and soft blankets made me feel a wave of emotion.
“It’s been such a tough day…”
This was what I had missed.
In Medderland, waking up in a soft, plush bed was part of my daily routine.
But during the trip to Hamillon, I had been confined in a cage, and even in prison, I had lain on the cold, hard floor.
As I was about to collapse onto the bed to heal my tired body, a horrifying scream rang out behind me.
“You’re going to lie on the bed in such filthy clothes? Don’t shapeshifters have any concept of hygiene?”
I turned around and saw a girl in a maid’s uniform standing there.
The room had been empty, so how had she gotten in without me noticing?
“Wh-Who…?”
“Well, if you want to know about me, I’m the one who’s been assigned by the boss to watch over the wicked assassin.”
From her words, it seemed like she was referring to the Emperor when she mentioned “the boss.”
But she looks too young for a task like that, doesn’t she?
Her face was quite youthful.
She was even shorter than me by at least a head.
She might even be younger than my sister Cherrybel.
With that thought, my guard lowered.
Perhaps my thoughts showed on my face, because the girl shot me a disgruntled look and snapped.
“Don’t think I’m easy just because I look young! And there are a lot of eyes watching here, so you better watch out!”
I looked around the room, but there wasn’t even a shadow of a person in sight.
However, more than anything, I was desperately in need of rest. I couldn’t bear to stay standing, and I had to lie down on the bed immediately.
“What should I call you?”
The girl in front of me stared at me with suspicious eyes.
After a moment of thought, she answered in a low voice.
“Perry.”
“Then, Perry, do you know where I can find some clothes to change into?”
She responded sharply.
“How would I know that?”
When I saw her sharp eyes and the black ears sticking out from the top of her head, I instantly realized she was a cat beastkin.
“But you’re the only one I can ask. Like you said, these clothes are too dirty for me to lie down in.”
Earlier, I had been too tired to notice, but my activity clothes were stained with fatigue, and they were so dirty, it looked like I had been rolling in a dirt pit.
Perry seemed to take offense at my words, her ears twitching in annoyance, and she hissed like an angry cat.
“That’s not part of my job! Ask the maids or something.”
But there were no maids in sight, and I wasn’t even sure if I should leave the room on my own.
‘I really don’t want to get mistaken for an escaped convict again.’
Despite trying to speak kindly, I wasn’t getting a cooperative response.
My body felt as heavy as if a weight had been placed on me, and my injured leg began to throb painfully.
I wanted to end this meaningless argument quickly.
“Perry, you said your job is to watch over me, right?”
“Yeah, so what?”
“Then isn’t this part of your job too?”
“Why?”
“You’re the only one who’s shown yourself, even though others are watching me. It seems like you have other tasks assigned to you as well, right?”
Her eyes widened, as though I had hit the mark.
“How do you know that…!”
“If you really don’t want to help, I’ll go out and find the maids myself. But I don’t want to be misunderstood this time, so is it okay if I say you told me to find the maids?”
“You…!”
Perry glared at me, her fists clenched, and she stood there fuming for a while.
“If it weren’t for the boss’s orders…! Don’t think I’m listening to the words of a bad assassin like you. I’m following the boss’s orders!”
With a stomp of her foot, she glared at me one last time and stormed out of the room.
A moment later, Perry returned with pajamas in her hands, looking like she had just grabbed whatever was available.
“Wear it or don’t.”
The pajamas were tossed onto the bed, and as I touched them, I could feel how soft they were.
Even though she was angry, it seemed like she had picked out something comfortable for me.
“Perry.”
“What now? What do you want me to do this time?”
Perry turned to face me, her sharp cat eyes narrowed in irritation.
“Thanks for bringing the clothes. I’ll wear them.”
“What?”
I watched her face as she froze in surprise, and then I quietly laughed.
She may have been angry, but she didn’t seem like a bad person.
After finishing up and getting changed, I lay down on the bed, the soft blankets enveloping me.
A warm sense of drowsiness started to overwhelm me.
I just wanted to sleep like this.
But I had one pressing issue on my mind.
‘What was the Emperor’s true intention with those words?’
Just as I was about to focus on my thoughts, something kept distracting me.
I couldn’t lie there any longer, and I finally got up from the bed.
“…Do you have to be there?”
Perry was standing silently in the dark room, looking down at me.
Only the faint glow of the flickering lantern illuminated her face, which appeared cold and expressionless.
I found her unamused face unnervingly intimidating.