If they took the carriage now, it would take about an hour to get there, but going to the Imperial Palace without preparing properly was impossible. It would be considered disrespectful to the royal family.
“If we hurry, we might just make it!”
Emily ran to Elaine’s closet, saying she would get out some clothes first.
However, Elaine was too flustered by the sudden proposal and the lack of time. She didn’t know what to do.
“Of all times, it has to be when the Master is away…”
Hubert also looked through the letter again, feeling confused.
“Maybe he sent it while Sergey was away on purpose. If he were here, he would have done everything to help me.”
“That’s probably it. He made this offer on purpose when the master wasn’t here, and if you didn’t come at the right time, he would have used that as an excuse to take you away.”
Elaine glanced at the clock again.
It was 12:33.
“I don’t think we’ll make it in time. Lark will probably bribe the palace guards to block my entry.”
“Miss! You have to try anyway. If you don’t go, he’ll claim you never intended to leave the Newt family in the first place!”
Emily took Elaine by the arm, urging her to get up.
Hubert also joined in.
“Emily is right. And don’t worry too much. Though the Master isn’t here, I, Hubert, will accompany you.”
“Thank you, butler. Thank you, Emily.”
Elaine realized she was no longer alone.
That wasn’t like her previous life, where she had to face everything by herself, constantly running into walls and being crushed by despair.
Now, she had kind people around her to lean on, to cheer her on, and to support her.
‘I can do it! I have to do it!’
Elaine changed her clothes and got ready briefly, determined to cut ties with Newt once and for all that time.
Meanwhile, Hubert ordered the fastest horse in the mansion to be harnessed to the carriage and prepared to enter the palace.
It took Elaine just 15 minutes to gather Lark’s letter and some essentials before arriving at the first-floor entrance.
“Okay, shall we go?”
“Yes! Thank you for coming with me.”
“Not at all, my lady. If I let you go alone the master will eat me, no, will tear my throat.”
“Hahaha! Butler, you’re joking!”
Elaine laughed lightly, thinking that Hubert was joking to ease her tension. Of course, Hubert was serious.
The two hurried into the carriage, and Hubert instructed the coachman to drive as fast as possible.
The carriage started to run really fast, but Elaine was anxious even as it shook wildly due to the fast speed.
‘Just so happens that it’s the busiest time of the day….Can I arrive at the registry office by 2 PM?’
Whether it worked out or not, as Emily said, she had to try to show her will to leave Newt. But on the other hand, she was angry at Lark for using such cowardly tactics.
Moreover, Elaine later began to wonder why she had to follow his unilateral proposal.
‘There’s no need to be afraid. I’m only going to show my intent to leave. Whatever Lark says, I simply won’t return to Newt.’
After thinking that way, She felt a lot better.
And one thing Elaine didn’t know was that Hubert, who accompanied her, and the coachman who drove the carriage were both demons.
Thanks to that, the carriage Elaine was riding in ran smoothly to the palace. Even a carriage carrying the imperial family could not have run faster than that.
“Oh my goodness, I think God Bara is helping me!”
Elaine shouted as she looked out the window of the carriage that was speeding down the road like the wind.
The carriage reached the palace gates at 1:20 PM.
But as Elaine had expected, the palace guards held the carriage back and wasted time.
“So… where are you headed again?”
“I told you earlier. I’m going to the family register office.”
“Oh, right! I forgot. And what business do you have there?”
“I told you that earlier. I’m supposed to meet Count Newt there. I need to sort out the family register.”
“Ah, I remember. Eh, then…Again, what is your name?”
“Haa… Elaine Newt.”
“Please spell the name slowly, one by one.”
She has already spelled her name twice, so she is getting angry that the guard is asking her to spell it again.
At that moment, Hubert, who had been watching quietly from the side, pulled Elaine back and stepped forward.
“Hahaha! You all worked hard.”
“Who are you? Please spell out the names of each person who accompanied you…”
“That’s enough, now, would you all like to take a look here?”
Hubert opened his demon eye hidden in the center of his forehead as the guards focused their attention on him.
The guards were too shocked to notice a crimson eye appearing in the middle of the person’s forehead, and just stared blankly at the eye as if possessed by something.
“We have an urgent matter. We would appreciate it if you could open the door quickly.”
As Hubert spoke politely, the guards nodded and opened the gate to the palace. Their attitude was completely different from before, and they were very polite.
“Wow, how did you do that?”
Elaine looked at Hubert with admiration as the carriage started moving again.
“Hahaha! I have a friend there, so I just showed him his name tag.”
“He seems to be a very powerful person.”
“Perhaps so. Haha!”
Hubert laughed, holding back his tail that was about to appear along with his eyes on his forehead.
Thanks to Hubert’s intervention, it seemed they would reach the Registry Office before 2 PM.
But at the entrance to the main palace where the family register was located, someone greeted them.
“Are you Elaine Newt?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“You came here regarding family registration?”
“Yes.”
“To delete a family register rather than register it, you must first visit the nobility office to revise the list of nobles. Count Newt is waiting for you, so please follow me.”
Elaine followed the officer, hoping that Lark would really let her go.
Being no longer a noble meant that she could no longer be a saint or a chaplain at the Temple of Pavelo, but Elaine didn’t care.
As long as she could erase her name from the Newt family registry, she was willing to face the consequences, even if it meant leaving Count Lindell’s house today.
“Okay, let’s go inside.”
“Is this the nobility office?”
“Yes. Once you’re done with your business, I’ll take you back to where you got off the carriage.”
“Thank you.”
Elaine took a deep breath and pushed open the heavy door with Hubert.
However, the room that she thought would be packed with a list of nobles was completely different from what she had imagined.
A tea table full of gorgeous decorations, soft chairs, bright flowers, and large windows.
It was a living room by any measure.
And Elaine knew for certain she was in the wrong place when she saw the one person sitting there: Prince Abel.
“Oh, I’m so sorry! I was told this was the nobility office. I must have come to the wrong place. I’ll excuse myself immediately.”
Abel smiled as Elaine bowed in apology.
“You didn’t come to the wrong place. You came to the right place.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve been waiting for you for a very long time.”
Elaine’s instincts screamed at her that something was off. This wasn’t the same Prince Abel she knew.
And her gut feeling was right. The person in front of her wasn’t Abel at all—it was Malek.
Malek smiled as he turned his gaze to the “dragon’s core” hidden inside Elaine.
‘No, it was alive and breathing inside a human body, so it was incomparable to the Dragon Stone that fell from the dragon’s heart and rolled around on the ground.’
Eager to claim his prize, Malek felt his excitement mounting.
But at that moment, Hubert stopped in front of Elaine.
“Let me introduce myself first. I’m Hubert Lowell, the butler of the Count of Lindell, and I have come as guardian to Miss Elaine, who is still a minor.”
“Ah, I heard that there was a capable butler in the Lindell family. It was you.”
“Thank you for your words. It is an immense honor to meet you, Your Highness, but before that, I would like to ask you a question. We received a letter from Count Newt, telling us to come to the registry office by 2 PM. And the person waiting in front of the palace brought us here, saying that we had to revise the list of nobles. This was the nobility office.”
“I guess so.”
Hubert also had an ominous feeling at the sight of the prince who still looked calm.
“Your Majesty. Why did you call us here and deceive us?”
“Hahaha!”
Malek laughed out loud at Hubert’s question.
“You weren’t deceived; it was Lark Newt who was. That idiot did as I planned, and that’s why you’re here now.”
“You deceived Count Newt?”
“I needed a way to get Elaine Newt out of Sergey Lindell’s house on her own two feet. That damned house is protected by so many barriers that I couldn’t step foot inside.”
Hubert realized that his ominous premonition was correct as the prince knew of the existence of the ‘Barrier’.
Ignoring his anxiety, Malek looked at Elaine with his bow-like eyes and spoke as if telling a funny story.
“Isn’t it a perfect plan even for you? Monsters in the north lure Sergey Lindell away, and you have to come to the palace in a hurry. You don’t have time to think deeply, and you don’t have the presence of mind to figure out exactly who led you here.”
Malek’s voice gradually changed, and Hubert and Elaine’s complexions also gradually became pale.
* * *
