When the woman saw her son who had been lying on the bed unable to move until yesterday, now running with such energy and vitality, she took out a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped away her tears once more.
Soon after, the boy came out again, holding a clumsy necklace made of shells in his hand.
Karaf’s eyes widened slightly as the boy approached.
“I made it myself and I want to give it to Your Majesty.”
The boy said, lowering his head and holding out the necklace with both hands.
The woman’s face turned pale and she shouted.
“His Majesty can’t accept an ugly present…!”
But her eyes soon widened as Karaf accepted the necklace and examined it carefully.
“I like it.”
The boy’s face lit up with joy.
As the woman stood beside them, confused, Karaf took something from his bosom and lowered his head to the boy as if telling a secret.
“Actually, I really like this kind of thing.”
In his hand was the suncatcher Asha had given him.
The boy smiled so wide that his missing front tooth was visible.
He was thrilled that the Emperor liked his gift.
Karaf looked at the child’s smiling face calmly, remembering his own childhood, which was a dark period he never wanted to recall.
He had never smiled innocently like that boy, not even once. So he wanted to protect the child’s smile.
He put the necklace the child had given him around his neck.
“I promise you. I will make the empire safe from monsters and peaceful.”
“Yes!”
Karaf left for the next village, receiving everyone’s enthusiastic farewell.
The faces of the villagers behind the procession were brighter, filled with hope and trust in him.
He and the priests headed for a village deeper in the forest this time, hurrying their steps as the day grew darker to save time.
As the forest was completely shrouded in darkness, a loud noise suddenly echoed from the surroundings.
“… It’s a monster!”
The knights shouted, drawing their swords and blocking the front of the carriage.
The procession came to a halt in the middle of the deep forest due to the sudden appearance of a monster.
Karaf frowned and poked his head out of the carriage window.
Suddenly, the ground vibrated, and something huge and long sprang out of the ground.
It was an incredibly large and long looper.
Everyone lost their balance and staggered in the high-intensity earthquake.
Everyone’s eyes widened slowly.
Before the knights could even react, the looper snatched Karaf by the head and shoulders and dived back into the soil.
* * * * *
“Lady Vanessa….!”
Sonya burst into the Emperor’s office, where Asha was handling paperwork in Karaf’s absence.
Breathless and pale-faced, Sonya continued.
Asha put down the documents and asked urgently.
“What’s the matter?”
“A… a package came for you…!”
Sonya struggled to speak, trembling.
Asha suspected that something was wrong, and her expression hardened.
As Asha hurriedly followed Sonya back to her room, she noticed a gift box lying loosely on the table.
As she approached and saw what was inside, her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth in shock.
Inside the box was Gabe’s hawk, dead….
The box’s interior was coated in blood, and it appeared that Sonya had already inspected it to ensure Asha’s safety, given the blood seeping out.
However, a note was tied to the hawk’s leg.
It appeared that someone had attempted to communicate something to her but the hawk was attacked during the process.
With trembling hands, Asha cautiously untied the blood-soaked note.
However, the writing was too smudged with blood to read.
The only legible characters were the final message and the initials.
[…..I love you, Asha.
-J-]
The moment she saw it, Asha’s legs gave out and she collapsed to the ground.
“Lady Vanessa!”
Sonya and Ella hurriedly ran to Asha’s side and supported her.
Asha was drenched in a cold sweat, trembling all over as if she had just come out of a cold bath.
Ella exclaimed urgently.
“Sonya, quickly get a warm towel!”
“Yes!”
Sonya rushed to get the towel while Ella made some warm tea.
Asha lay on the floor, muttering as if she had lost her mind.
“Jackal is in danger… It’s clear that something happened when he returned to the village…”
Despite the bloodstains making the note difficult to read, Asha recognized Jackal’s handwriting immediately.
Asha could tell right away. She had read every letter he had sent until they were worn out.
“Lady Vanessa, please pull yourself together. Take a sip of tea first. I must write a letter to His Majesty…. Lady Vanessa!”
Ella shouted after Asha, who suddenly ran out of the room, but Asha didn’t seem to hear them anymore.
I have to save Jackal!
Asha muttered to herself over and over again as she ran down the hallway like a crazy person.
Could it be that the village chief had attacked Jackal in retaliation for becoming a spirit’s contractor?
Perhaps he had heard about Lycan being called from the palace and realized their plans.
As the minorities were completely defeated by the Imperial Family, Jackal could not have avoided being treated as a traitor in the village.
She was about to write to Karaf about this, but then a knight ran into the palace.
“Lady Vanessa! His Majesty……! His Majesty was attacked by a monster…!”
At those words, Asha completely lost her mind.
The knight was quick to tell how, on the pilgrimage, Karaf was suddenly attacked in the forest, and the looper dragged Karaf underground.
To think that both of them were attacked at the same time, it was hard for her to regain her senses because she was too confused.
But then, at that moment…
“Lady Vanessa…!”
Asha looked back to see Nia in the distance running towards her with a pale face.
Nia decided to go back to the Count’s residence for a while, as Count Delphinium was leaving on a monster subjugation mission.
But for some reason, Nia had run all the way from the palace without stopping.
Nia, who had just overheard her father’s conversation, said, holding Asha’s hand tightly.
“I think it was my father’s fault.”
“What? What do you mean…?”
Asha’s eyes widened in surprise. Nia’s voice trembled as her face showed signs of distress.
“As you know, my father recently received orders from His Majesty and was preparing to go to guard the border. However, a stranger came to my father and made a strange proposal.”
“A strange proposal…?”
“Yes. The man held out a piece of paper to my father, but I couldn’t see the contents. I hid and overheard their conversation.”
Nia knelt before Asha and confessed the truth.
“He talked about this being an excellent opportunity to remove the Emperor from the throne, and I think they are plotting treason. Although the man was wearing a hooded robe, I believe he is from the minority.”
Asha’s eyes widened even further.
“Why did you think that?”
“When they were talking, the topic of ethnic minorities came up. They said they would handle the Emperor themselves, so they asked for my father’s help. If the minorities and my family join forces, they will be able to drive out the Rose Family.”
Asha trembled.
This was different from the proposal the village chief had made to Jackal.
The village chief had wanted to assassinate Karaf by making Jackal a spirit contractor.
This was an obvious betrayal.
Did he know that Jackal was colluding with the Imperial Family?
Or did he not believe in Jackal from the beginning?
Asha suddenly recalled the memory of the day when the minority village was in ruins.
Looking back now, the day she was sold to the palace and the present were very similar in timing.
It was a slightly different direction from the past, but perhaps it was an inevitable event.
Even now, Jackal was tangled in that fate, trying to take away the new life he had just obtained, barely escaping the fate of death.
Asha felt like crying.
Nia continued to reveal all the instructions her father had given her until now.
Unlike in the past, Nia had not followed everything her father had instructed her to do. But she confessed that her family was planning to commit treason, even though she didn’t know what result she would get from it.
Asha looked at Nia with trembling eyes.
Originally, Karaf would kill all family members and the servants who work in the mansion if a family committed treason.
As Karaf hated betrayal, it was a precedent to show that he would eliminate all the seeds of discord even in the far future.
Nia trembled as she spoke, but she had a stern face and would say anything for Asha.
Looking at her like that, Asha could barely hold herself together.
Asha grabbed her shoulder and said.
“Thank you for being honest. After all this is over, I will do everything I can to save you, Nia. So please bear with me for a little while.”
Nia silently shed tears and nodded her head.
Asha looked back at the chamberlain, the ladies-in-waiting, and the knights.
“I guess I’ll have to go alone.”
“But Lady Vanessa…!”
The knight was surprised and tried to stop her, but Asha spoke resolutely.
“Didn’t you say that His Majesty was kidnapped by monsters? I have a feeling that he might be in the minority village. This is my intuition as a butterfly.”
Asha had a feeling that the village chief was waiting for her.
She didn’t even know if he was trying to negotiate with her.
If Karaf and Jackal were really victimized by the village chief, she had to go.
This tragedy had to end in her hands..
Asha immediately came out of the room, took her bow, and got on the horse.
“I’ll contact you right away if anything happens.”
She started running alone along the long way.
* * * * *
After running for a long time, Asha finally arrived in the northern part of Herta.
“…… You’re here, Lady Vanessa.”
When she looked in the direction the voice came from, Kiam was standing there with his knights.
As soon as she saw his face, Asha felt uneasy as old memories came back to her.
The image of him from the past overlapped with his face, which was covered in desire and madness.
In the past, he had been laughing heartily in the middle of the village turned into hell.
“Count Delphinium, are you trying to rebel against the Imperial Family?”
“Rebel? As you can see, I was just diligently protecting the border. His Majesty kindly gave me a mission, so I’m just fulfilling my responsibility.”
He replied, his eyes giving off a strange and chilling light.
“I’m not in the mood for jokes right now!”
As Asha yelled, Kiam asked calmly.
“Weren’t you on the side of the minorities? I came here to protect the minorities, and I would be truly disappointed if you did this.”
Asha glared at him.
“Don’t think about making excuses. I came here after hearing that you were planning to rebel.”
At those words, Kiam’s face twisted horribly.
“No way… Nia told you that…?”
