“That’s a white bird…”
As she was about to say that, she suddenly thought that there were others as well, so she turned around. Richard and Jade fell to the floor, motionless.
‘Did you collapse because of the black smoke? But that doesn’t mean the duke and I are fine…’
“So what about the white bird?”
Hearing the duke’s voice, she turned her head forward again.
“When I returned to the barracks after the hunting competition started, I soon heard the cries of a white bird. At first, I tried to ignore it, but the noise kept getting more and more annoying. When a bird cries, there is always a reason. “
“That alone doesn’t explain why you came here.”
“It seemed like it was encouraging me to come outside, so when I left the barracks, the bird flew away as if telling me to come inside the hunting ground. After following it, I ended up here.”
“…”
“I’m truly sorry for breaking my promise. Also, for not contacting me.”
“Why did you come out after hiding the whole time?”
“Did you know that I was hiding nearby?”
“Yes. Because I felt your energy. I was going to call you after the operation was over.”
“Just when I was relieved that the operation was over safely, I suddenly felt something unpleasant. But the duke didn’t seem to notice it at all.”
“Is that why you came out?”
“Yes. I have a feeling the duke will get hurt…”
Soon the duke let out a deep sigh.
“I’m truly sorry, Duke. In any case, it’s clearly my fault for not keeping my promise to you.”
The Duke, who was staring at her in silence, let out a small breath again.
“I’m not trying to judge you right or wrong. I was just worried about you.”
“…yes. I know.”
“The situation is not over yet, so let’s go back to the barracks first…”
The duke who was saying that paused for a moment and looked behind her. He also seemed to have realized that Richard and Jade, who had followed her as her escorts, had collapsed.
“Well, I hope you don’t say anything to those two. They were just listening to my insistence.”
“…”
“Duke, please do me a favor.”
“…ha.”
The duke let out a sigh, but she thought he would listen to her.
“Oh, and I know the route roughly. I’ll go back first, even if I’m alone.”
“No.”
“But I might raise strange suspicions if I stay here.”
Instead of answering, the duke took something out of his chest. When she looked closely, it looked like rolled up parchment.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a moving scroll. I’ll take you to the barracks, so wait for me.”
Wasn’t a moving scroll an incredibly expensive item? It’s almost priceless…. She thought it was expensive.
“But this is really expensive. There’s no need to use it because of me.”
“Sometimes you seem to forget who I am.”
“Rather than that, I think it would be a waste to just use it like this.”
“Okay, go back first.”
The duke spoke firmly, as if he would not listen any more. When she nodded slowly, he tore open the movement scroll without hesitation. At the same time, she felt like her body was floating, and before she knew it, the location had changed.
‘I can’t believe I’m really coming back to the barracks.’
While looking around for a moment, she heard the sound of something falling. When she looked back, she saw Sarah dropping the cloth.
“What happened?”
“The duke moved me to the moving scroll. Things got a little complicated, so I came back first.”
“So, were you able to see the Duke?”
“Yes. It just happened to be like that.”
Sarah looked at me for a moment and said with an understanding expression.
“Okay. Then, please change your clothes again.”
“That’s right. Oh, but the clothes I lent you are a little dirty. Are you okay?”
“It’s okay. I have some extra clothes too.”
Sarah handed her another set of clothes to change into. She took her clothes and headed to the dressing room inside.
* * *
It was after she had changed all her clothes and waited for quite some time. From the commotion outside, she realized that the duke had arrived. As she left the barracks, she saw the duke walking in the distance, supporting the emperor. The emperor still seemed to have not come to his senses.
“What on earth is going on?”
“Why is Your Majesty looking like that…”
“Perhaps His Majesty was attacked…”
The surroundings were truly chaos. Everyone, including the nobles and the remaining knights, seemed to be in a panic. It has to be that way. The emperor, who went out hunting fine, came back in an unusual condition. All of the knights who remained here ran to the emperor.
“Your Majesty, are you okay?!”
“Your Majesty the Emperor!”
“Your Excellency the Duke, how on earth did this happen?”
In response to the knight’s question, the duke glanced at the emperor and said.
“Your Majesty was attacked during a hunt.”
“Attacked? What about all the escort knights?”
“I will explain later, but first, take His Majesty into the barracks. He has inhaled smoke and needs medical attention urgently.”
“All right.”
The emperor entered the barracks, supported by the knights. The duke then gave various explanations and instructions to the knights. There was a wound on the duke’s shoulder, and his blood was flowing profusely. It was different from before, when he was fine without a single wound, but she wasn’t embarrassed. Because that was also part of the plan. After she left, she found out that the Duke had inflicted the wound on himself. But that didn’t mean it didn’t bother her.
She looked at the duke, whose expression did not change, and then, unable to bear it any longer, walked over to them and joined in the conversation.
“I know it’s rude, but since the duke is also in need of treatment, can you please let him go for a while?”
Only then did the knights lower their heads with embarrassed expressions, as if they could see the wound on the duke’s shoulder.
“Dorry. Dismiss. Because of the situation, I couldn’t pay attention…”
“Okay, quickly clean up the surroundings. I’ll get treatment for a while and then come back.”
“All right.”
Soon the knights dispersed and she headed to the barracks with the Duke.
“Sarah, please bring me some recovery potion.”
“All right.”
Sarah immediately brought a recovery potion and handed it to her. She immediately poured the potion into the wound on the duke’s shoulder. After wetting all the wounds by shaking off everything, the gaping hole began to heal. After confirming that the wound was completely healed, she wrapped my shoulder with the bandage Sarah had provided.
“There’s no need to reel it in like that. You can stop.”
“But you never know.”
Although the wound was completely healed, the reason she kept the bandage on was because it was a kind of performance. The fact that you saved the emperor will be more noticeable if you are clearly injured.
“…Anyway, who did what happened earlier?”
“We haven’t secured accurate evidence, but there’s a high possibility that it was the Marquis’s doing.”
“But if what the Marquis did is true, then that is…”
Even if the previous situation was the Marquis’s fault, it was just as serious. Because it meant that the Marquis found out about the plan the Duke and she had made. The Duke must have had the same thoughts as me, his expression was serious. At that time, a voice calling for the duke was heard outside the barracks. It was none other than the emperor’s attendant, and he brought news that the emperor had just come to his senses.
“I’ll be back for a bit, so wait here.”
“Yes I will.”
When the duke left, the only people left in the barracks were her and Sarah.
“Elia, clean your hands with this.”
Sarah handed her a clean cloth.
“…oh.”
While she was treating the Duke’s wound earlier, she noticed blood on his hands. As she took a cloth and wiped away the blood, her mind was filled with thoughts of the Marquis. If it was true that the Black Arrow did what the Marquis did, how on earth did they find out? She didn’t know why the Marquis is so resourceful. Why was it that no matter what she did, the duke kept getting into trouble? Even though it is a process that blocks even the slightest hole that may create a gap in advance. Wasn’t he very cunning like a snake?
Snake, snake…
“Sarah.”
“Yes, please tell me.”
“…What should I do to completely kill the snake?”
“Snake, what you mean?”
“Yes. A deadly poisonous snake.”
Sarah seemed to think about her words for a moment and then said.
“Normally, you would have to cut off the head. That would kill it all at once.”
“Is this the serpent’s preface?”
“Yes.”
What Sarah said was a very common way to kill a snake. Well, it was a method she also knew. You have to hit the snake’s head with one strike to die. However, to be honest, it was close to impossible to defeat the Marquis, who had the second most powerful power after the Duke, at once.
“…Whew.”
If she had a possession buff or special ability, it wouldn’t be such a headache. At that time, Sarah said to her as if she had remembered something.
“Oh, there’s one more thing. How to kill a snake.”
“What is that?”
“Even if you can’t kill it right away, there is a way to weaken it and kill it. All you have to do is cut off the snake’s tongue.”
“…Snake’s tongue?”
“Do you know why snakes stick out their tongues often?”
She shook her head.
“No, I don’t know.”
“It is said that it is for survival. It is said that they use their tongue to help their sense of smell and detect odors. They also say that when they sense natural enemies that threaten their survival, they use their tongue to smell and avoid them.”
“That means find your weaknesses. It would be better if it was a fatal weakness.”
“Yes, it is.”
While she was quietly contemplating her thoughts, something suddenly popped into her mind.
‘Come to think of it…’
According to the contents of the book, after the sudden death of Estan Dior, the former Marquis of the Dior family, the current Marquis Pasion Dior succeeded him, perhaps? The cause of Estan Dior’s death was still unknown. Many questions remained about his death. The person who mourned the death of ‘Estan Dior’ more than anyone else was Dior Pasion, the current Marquis. The Marquis did everything he could to find out the cause of his father’s death. In a way, it was natural since his parents died suddenly. But now that she thought about it, there might be something a little unclear about it. She had been trying to find out the reason without stopping for five years, to the point where she believed it was an obsession. Even when she was reading the book, she felt like that part was excessive. Since it was a relationship between parents and children, she thought rationally it was reasonable enough.
“…Yeah, it’s still a little strange.”
The relationship between the current marquis and his father was so bleak that there was almost no interaction of any kind. The reason was none other than the abnormal symptoms that ‘Estan Dior’ was suffering from. It was said that due to unexplained neurological symptoms every night, he did not come out of the mansion’s villa except for official schedules. Eventually, the will was discovered around the time the Marquis was about to stop the investigation. A will written in Estan Dior’s handwriting.
[Real is fake, fake is real. It was a will with the words, so our God will continue to live forever.]
It was not something suitable for a will. However, trying to put that sentence into context in the current situation seemed to make sense.
‘Real is fake, fake is real’
As she pondered that sentence over and over again, she suddenly remembered the performance at the opera house that she went to see with the Duke.
“…no way.”
At that time, the main content of the performance was about Phezetion. In order to prevent Phezetion from disappearing, the last believer used his own body to create a sword, and using it, the believer caused Phezetion to fall into deep rest instead of disappearing. After Pezetion fell into deep rest, in the last scene, an unknown person suddenly appeared and spoke to himself.
[At last, the person I serve can ascend to the position of the sun. Ah, how happy this is.]
The content of the performance was obviously adapted, but in the current situation, it came as a hint. What if the reason Phezetion’s power weakened was due to some kind of scheme?
“Sarah, would you like to check out the situation outside?”
“All right.”
When she saw Sarah leaving the barracks, she took out the pendant necklace she had in her arms. She looked down at the feather he kept inside and muttered softly.
“..Maybe I should check it out.”
She thought that she might need to check closely the ‘Holy Sword of Phezetion’ that the emperor keeps. Just as she saw a white bird when she came into contact with a stone statue, sheu might see something else if she came into contact with a holy sword. So she held the necklace tightly while wondering how she could make contact with the Holy Sword of Phezetion.
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Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on April, 7.
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