Come Here, Baby
Rioric was the first in several generations of the Leotel family to manifest the Authority of telekinesis.
It was a rare and formidable power—precious enough that he, a third son, had surpassed his elder brothers in a single stroke and been named heir. Among those his own age, no one short of Sirca could overcome that telekinesis.
"How...?"
How could she stay so perfectly calm?
Don't tell me Rioric wants the young lady for himself, and that's why he's going easy on her?
Obli dragged her gaze up to him with difficulty.
"......I didn't see this coming."
But Rioric, and Torman standing beside him, both looked utterly stunned. She had no idea how any of this had happened, and yet—
"My lady, run!"
The reason didn't matter. Getting Bariya clear came first.
"Got it!"
Bariya spun at once and fled the other way. What they wanted was her, not Obli, so she didn't dig in her heels and insist they go together. She knew all too well that clinging to Obli would only put her in greater danger.
"Catch her, Torman."
At Rioric's command, Torman took off after her at once.
No...
Obli bit her lip. A child that young could not outrun an adult lion beastkin for long.
I'm powerless.
She had slipped out from under her father's shadow and gone searching for Bariya alone, determined to stand on her own strength. And now, when it mattered most, she couldn't even help. The helplessness of it made her furious.
"Impressive. I'd heard the Glossa family was straining itself for the chance to become a young tiger's mate. To think you'd devote yourself body and soul to a beastkin who isn't even a tiger, all for that."
Rioric sneered down at the despairing Obli.
"But what a shame. Lose the little lady, and that ambition of yours shatters."
Glossa's greed was notorious enough to have spread beyond the tigers, into the societies of other great predators as well. It was only natural that Rioric, heir of Leotel, would know of it.
"Thanks to you, I've learned that little lady is an honored guest of Caliph, so I'll spare your life as my thanks. Not that it matters. Lose her, and Caliph's hand will kill you anyway."
He thinks I brought the young lady here on an outing.
For a moment she had wondered whether Leotel had kidnapped Bariya, Caliph's honored guest. Apparently not.
"If harm comes to the young lady—ngh—all of Caliph will be furious."
"Ha. You think Leotel would cower before something as trifling as Caliph's anger?"
For the first time, Rioric's face twisted hard. The force crushing her body grew heavier still, but Obli kept smiling.
"Leotel will learn to fear Caliph."
"......"
"Ghk—!"
When the telekinesis surged as if it meant to burst her organs, Obli could endure no longer and lost consciousness.
Rioric looked down at her with a sneer.
I'd like to kill her this instant, but...
Letting her live to bear the whole of Caliph's wrath would be the crueler death. Better still if her family collapsed along with her.
But does Caliph truly cherish that little lady so much?
In all of Caliph's history, they had never officially presented a young beastkin with no blood tie as an honored guest. The curiosity had nagged at him—and that girl had turned out to be the guest herself.
She certainly has more than a few peculiarities.
Her hair and eye color changing in an instant was one. Whatever the reason, the fact that she was holding the special tiger he had come to see was another.
Above all else, my Authority doesn't work on her.
Even the current head of Leotel had to yield a step before Rioric's power. And a little girl of barely ten had undone it with a perfectly untroubled face. He wanted to seize her at once and find out how.
"......Hm?"
Rioric, who had been strolling along at his leisure, soon noticed something strange. Torman, whom he had expected to have Bariya in hand by now, lay collapsed along one side of the corridor.
"Torman!"
He thought the man had been attacked, but there wasn't a single wound on Torman's body. His breathing was even, too.
He's asleep?
His loyal right hand, ignoring orders and sleeping? Worse, he couldn't sense Bariya anywhere.
"Ah. Now I really don't want to let her slip away."
When he spread his senses wide, he caught the presence of someone running in desperate haste a short distance off. He drove strength into his legs and broke into a sprint in that direction.
"Grr!"
The tiger in her arms let out a warning growl.
"I know, I know. Why is he coming after one kid this seriously?"
Bariya snapped in irritation at the presence of Rioric closing in at speed. They were almost outside the auction house! Chasing a child in earnest—lions really were impossible to deal with.
Rioric's Authority didn't work on me. So maybe I can put him to sleep with my own power.
She had run because she didn't want anyone finding out she possessed a strong Authority, but if she got caught, she would have no choice!
"Ah."
At last the final corner came into view. Turn there, and she could get out of the building.
But why is it so loud?
The closer she drew to the exit, the louder the noise became. Surely they hadn't noticed she had vanished with the tiger and sealed the way out? Bariya clenched her teeth and drove her legs harder.
And when she finally rounded the corner, she stopped without meaning to.
"Huh?"
Most of the auction-house staff—people she had barely seen on the way here—were gathered near the exit. But contrary to what she had expected, they were not there to stop her.
"......Sirca?"
Sirca, dazzling silver hair and beautiful blue eyes, had one of the staff by the collar.
"Bariya?"
At the sound of her voice he turned, and their eyes met. The savage face that looked ready to kill someone on the spot brightened all at once.
"Baby!"
Sirca flung the staff member aside and started kicking the others who had closed in around him.
"If you don't want to die, every last one of you get out!"
It was a violence she had never once seen from him.
"Baby, come here!"
Once he had cleared the staff from his side, Sirca reached out a hand. She had asked Obli to summon the people of Caliph, but she had never imagined they would arrive so soon.
"Baby!"
When Bariya didn't move an inch, Sirca shouted again, his face half crumpled. Her heart thudded hard.
"Please!"
The moment she left, she had missed Caliph—but she had turned her back on them so coldly that she had no thought of returning. All she had been thinking was that she had to leave quickly, before Caliph, called by Obli, arrived here. She hadn't expected to meet them again like this.
......And she had expected even less that Sirca would reach for her with a face that desperate. A face afraid she might leave again. She had thought the longing was hers alone.
Was leaving Caliph really the right choice?
Confusion swept over her all at once. She had believed that Caliph's standing falling because of her was the most frightening thing, the hardest thing of all. And now?
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
The moment she saw Sirca, she nearly cried from joy. Her heart was racing beyond her control.
"Baby!"
At the desperate cry that came again, she took a step toward Sirca without thinking.
"That won't do."
Thud!
But while her attention was elsewhere, Rioric—who had caught up without her noticing—seized Bariya by the scruff of the neck.
"Ack!"
"Rioric!"
At Bariya's scream, Sirca's face went terrifyingly still.
"Well, now. Sirca. I didn't think you'd be here already. I should have taken her before you arrived."
Rioric smiled brightly at him.
"I wondered why Caliph was giving her special treatment, and she really does have a great many curious points. My interest is piqued. I'll be taking this little lady with me."
"Don't talk nonsense, Rioric. If you don't want to die, hand our child over this instant."
"If she was that precious, you should have kept her safe. Blame yourselves for letting her out of your arms."
Smiling, Rioric moved to sling Bariya over his shoulder.
"Hey, mister."
Bariya's eyes flashed as she glared at him. You dare grab me—and torment Sirca?
"They say it in the fairy tales. If you do something bad, you have to be punished."
"What?"
Bariya grinned at his bewildered face. Then she set her claws and raked them hard across the back of the hand gripping her clothes.
Shhk!
With a rough sound, Rioric let out a short groan. Because she had swung somewhat carelessly, a length of Bariya's long hair was sliced away along with his skin. Hair and droplets of Rioric's blood pattered to the floor.
"With only this..."
A deep wound had opened on the back of his hand, deep enough to show the raw flesh beneath, but Rioric didn't so much as blink.
Right. I wasn't planning to end it with just that, either.
"Blackie!"
The instant Bariya called the name, the tiger spat poison at Rioric.
"What—ugh!"
The moment the vicious poison seeped in through the wound, Rioric's hand went rigidly stiff. Bariya didn't miss the opening. She kicked him off and slipped free in a flash.
"Baby!"
And she was caught, safe and sound, in the arms of Sirca as he came running toward her.