“A trap?”
Reinhardt wanted to ask Walter for more details, but he couldn’t.
This was because Walter’s gaze shifted to Edith, who had just emerged from the building.
Edith, with her long blond hair swept to one side and wearing a soft white fur coat, looked like a fluffy lamb puffed up to withstand the cold.
Walter smiled slightly as he watched her stroke the soft coat.
If the weather had been a little colder, he would have seen her wearing the white fur hat he had bought along with the coat.
Walter felt a little disappointed, but when he saw her checking the texture of the coat with her fingertips, his satisfaction returned.
Edith seemed to really like her new winter coat as she continued to touch it.
『 …Was he a guy who knew how to make that expression?』
Reinhardt found it difficult to accept that the Walter who had once clashed swords with him and the current Walter, who was looking at Edith with a warm gaze, were the same person.
Walter couldn’t take his eyes off her every move, like a cat watching a goldfish in a fishbowl.
By this point, Reinhardt felt guilty for holding him back.
“We should start heading to the capital soon if we want to arrive on schedule. We can talk in detail later.”
As Reinhardt said this and walked away, Walter turned to Edith.
As she was about to get into the carriage, he offered his hand.
“Thanks for the coat, Walter. It’s so cozy, isn’t it?”
Edith said with a smile.
It was the moment when Walter realized the pleasure of spending money.
He sat down across from Edith, thinking that he should take a stroll around the shops as soon as they arrived in the capital.
As the carriage set off, Edith asked with curiosity.
“Walter, are you riding in the same carriage as me?”
“I’m no longer a stableman. I’m a knight now.”
Walter replied, leaning against the backrest with one arm draped over it and his long legs half-crossed. His demeanor was arrogant yet relaxed.
Edith stole a glance at Walter’s profile reflected in the small window, pretending to look at the grand procession.
Even when he was a stableman, he had an air of dignity, but now, dressed as neatly as the knights, with a sword at his waist, he was more imposing than usual.
The black shirt, designed not to get dirty during battles, fit him perfectly and clearly accentuated the contours of his muscles.
She couldn’t take her eyes off the shirt that was bursting through the jacket.
『 …I must be crazy.』
From the beginning, it was extremely difficult for a healthy woman like her to think only sound thoughts when faced with a man like Walter.
Edith looked at him and gulped without realizing it.
On top of that, she was still confused because she had a dream in which he approached her with his glistening naked body and asked her to make a baby with him.
⋙“When you have a child, your body adapts to it, and sometimes it can lead to unintended consequences, like having naughty dreams or intense thoughts.”⋘
Mrs. Homan explained. She reassured Edith that it’s not unusual for a woman’s desires to change during pregnancy, so there was no need to feel guilty about it.
After hearing this explanation, although medical books do not usually mention it, Edith realized that some pregnant women experience intense desires. She now understood that it wasn’t just another person’s story.
『 …Of course, it was said that feeling sexual desires happens after reaching a stable stage.』
Edith recognized that each woman may experience certain things differently and, in her case, she thought it probably happened a little faster. She excused herself, attributing it to her pregnancy.
Walter, unaware that Edith was stealing glances at him, frowned as he wondered why she was staring so intently out the window.
From his position, it seemed as though she couldn’t take her eyes off the young and sturdy militiamen.
Eventually, he couldn’t bear it any longer and blurted out.
“You’re looking at them as if you’re going to drag them into the bedroom and devour them.”
Startled, Edith felt as if she had been caught in her thoughts and hastily tried to explain.
“What are you talking about? You know I’m pregnant, Walter.”
“Pregnant, so what?”
Since learning from Edith’s favorite book, “Reproduction and Childbirth,” that it was possible to make love even during pregnancy as long as one was careful, Walter had taken quite an interest in that particular section.
Now that he knew this, he couldn’t help but wonder who exactly Edith, who was pregnant and soon to have a child, was stealing those lustful glances at.
“I… I think it’s the first time I’ve seen you wear such clothes.”
However, when she confessed that she had been actually looking at him while avoiding his gaze, he was momentarily breathless.
“I was wondering why you were staring so intensely.”
A feeling of unparalleled satisfaction washed over him compared to when he had given her the coat.
“If you continue to lay your hands on this stableman and now even the knights, there will be rumors that M’lady has a penchant for causing trouble.”
“…”
“The travel time is so boring. Do you want me to do something for you, Edith?”
Edith was embarrassed to have been caught by him, so she wanted to step out of the carriage for a while and then come back in.
“I think we should at least wait until we get to the inn where we’ll be staying tonight.”
“…”
Edith gave him a suspicious look, accusing him of being a playboy.
Then suddenly…
“There’s an attack!”
Along with a shout, the sound of swords clashing at the rear of the procession filled the air.
Her body froze as cries of surprise and the wailing of horses reached her ears.
The current situation vividly reminded her of the day she was abducted by Nicholas Fortrion.
As terrifying memories threatened to overlap with her current view despite her will, Walter placed his hand on her shoulder.
“I’ll make sure nothing happens.”
As he assured her, his face exuded confidence as if he had anticipated an attack.
His reaction resembled that of a hunter approaching a carefully set trap.
Unlike the day she was trapped in Fortrion Manor, Walter was by her side now.
Edith braced herself to keep from being consumed by fear.
Thanks to Helen deploying skilled escorts, the assassins couldn’t even approach the carriage where Walter and Edith were.
As the people’s screams gradually subsided, Cassius rode a horse and caught up with Walter’s carriage.
“Walter, we have subdued them all.”
“Then capture those guys alive and scatter the things.”
Walter instructed, avoiding the use of a specific term to prevent alarming the pregnant Edith.
However, Cassius understood Walter’s command accurately.
『 I never thought that he would ask Reinhardt to prepare corpses in advance.』
Walter had asked Reinhardt to prepare about ten bodies.
⋙“If an attack occurs, don’t kill them all. Capture them alive.”⋘
⋙“You mean to take them as hostages?”⋘
⋙“Reinhardt will obtain corpses of criminals with their faces disfigured so that we can scatter them as decoys. The captured man can be put to good use.”⋘
Cassius wondered if they really needed so many hostages but decided to follow Walter’s instructions for now.
『 I wonder where the commander got them.』
Cassius undressed the hostages and dressed the corpses, finding that their hands and feet seemed to be quite fitting.
Then, he tossed the corpses onto the street as if the assassins had received fatal blows from the Fortrion Knights and died.
Aizen, who came to check the situation a while later, was speechless as he looked at the bodies of the assassins lying around.
Their faces were so disfigured that it was a horrifying sight as if they had been torn apart by a wild beast.
『 Is this the extent of the power of House Lexion’s bloodline?』
Aizen took a step back.
It seemed that more power would be needed to defeat Walter.
──────────✿◦•
Fortrion and its party were able to enter the capital after another full day of travel.
The people of the capital, who had observed the long procession, exchanged various opinions upon seeing the unfamiliar family emblem.
“Where is Fortrion’s territory located?”
“Well… Isn’t it a fiefdom involved in some business? I haven’t heard much about it in the capital.”
“If it weren’t for His Majesty’s summons, they wouldn’t even have a reason to come to the capital, I suppose.”
To the commoners of the capital, who often gazed at the luxurious manors, carriages, and banquets of the great nobles, Fortrion was just one of the rural nobles with nothing particularly worth mentioning.
However, it was the nobles themselves who paid close attention to Fortrion’s movements.
『 It could be that the dying emperor has called in rural territories to make some arrangements.』
『 If the Imperial Consort, who has a weak influence in the rural territories, tries to ally herself with that family…』
Perhaps it was because of the thought that the power struggle between the Duke of Lexion and the Imperial Consort Dowager would enter a new phase with the arrival of a rural noble house in the capital.
Even within the opulent manor of House Lexion, second only to the palace in the capital, people were paying attention to Fortrion.
“Your Grace, Fortrion, and its party have entered the capital.”
The Duke of Lexion’s butler reported politely.
The Duke, who had been waiting for the report, calmly closed the book he had been reading.
As he did so, his hand still bore traces of holding a sword in various power struggles and numerous large and small wars.
His pitch-black hair, the symbol of House Lexion, was now mingled with newly grown white hair, giving it a grayish appearance. Such a look only added to his air of wisdom.
Franz Lexion, second in line to the throne of the current empire, was the head of House Lexion and the leader of the aristocratic faction.
“I don’t know if the new matriarch may or may not be a reliable person.”
He remembered how Nicholas Fortrion had sent an actor to him, pretending that a descendant of Lexion had appeared.
If he had been from a noble family based in the capital, he would have killed him a long time ago, but since he was from a territory far from the capital he didn’t kill him.
He just made some minor interventions.
However, the news that the offending House Fortrion had entered the capital didn’t sit well with him.
“The foulness may have been passed down along the bloodline, so assign someone to watch them. If any of Fortrion’s people try anything foolish…”
A strange sparkle appeared in his golden eyes.
“Kill them.”
❀.°• ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ •°.❀
