Since the teacher who taught Ayla was gone, it was clear that it would affect her in some way. Cloud’s absence was also embarrassing for her.
They say he wasn’t caught by the Royal Guard, so he might be able to return safely.
Now that she knows Byron’s identity, she plans to show him that her skills are gradually improving so that he can join the Duke family as quickly as possible. However, due to an unexpected variable, things are going strangely.
She couldn’t figure out how things would turn out, so her mind was confused. Without realizing it, Ayla randomly drew lines on the paper she was taking notes on. The ink marks crisscrossing here and there seemed to be in her head.
She put away the writing utensil and paper, being careful not to spill ink on the table. She lay down in bed and tried to sleep, but it was a night where it didn’t seem like she would fall asleep easily.
* * *
‘Is this place?’
A man stood in front of an old inn building. The name “Poinsettia Inn” was written on the sign.
“Hey, excuse me.”
The inn was so calm and peaceful that it was uncertain if it was even open, yet the man tapped on the door. while he was here on business.
“… … “Are you there?”
But no matter how much he knocked on the door, there was no response from inside the inn. He was starting to get annoyed. After a long time had passed.
“Who are you? What brought you here?”
A nervous-looking man opened the door and came out. At first, he was shocked and asked why he was speaking informally, but when he saw the man, he completely froze.
At first glance, the tall man had a well-trained body and an intimidating appearance. He was wearing ordinary, or rather shabby, clothes, but he had an unusual presence that was not completely covered by the clothes.
‘Shit. I thought it was a simple task and decided to do it quickly.’
It was just a matter of going to an inn and delivering a letter to a woman. The reward was quite large, so he wondered how lucky he was. Somehow, he should have thought it strange that such a large amount of money would be paid for such a simple task.
“Uh, over there… … . W, is there a guest named Capella staying at the inn?”
The man didn’t want to show that he was intimidated by this large man, so he opened his mouth with a lot of strength on his shoulders. That was the best. He didn’t have the courage to respond to the man’s informal language with the same informal language.
“… … “What is your business?”
When he brought up Capella’s name, the man’s already harsh gaze became even sharper. Now he couldn’t even straighten his shoulders and act confident.
“Well, I asked you to deliver a letter to that woman.”
He took the letter out of his pocket, but the moment he did, the man snatched it.
“… … who?”
“Well, an old man outside the castle… … .”
The man’s eyebrows rose when he heard the word “old man.” It was an unexpected expression.
“Now that I’ve told you, let’s go.”
The handsome man sighed harshly. He felt he had to tell him face-to-face, of course. He didn’t have the confidence to ask for it back, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have been able to confront the woman called Capella inside the inn, so he departed.
Vince Midland, a knight under Byron’s command who was watching the man walking away, looked down at the letter the man had given him with a puzzled expression.
It is true that a woman named Capella is staying at this inn, but how did she know and send this letter?
At first, he naturally thought it was sent by his boss, Cloud Air. It was a letter from someone who had been out of contact for several days and whose life or death was unknown.
But he’s an old man.
He felt uneasy and wanted to check the contents. However, if he open it without Capella’s permission and she catches him… …. It would lead to an unpleasant situation.
Vince quenched his appetite, picked up the letter, and went up to the third floor. He looked for Capella, who was guarding the ‘lady’s’ room.
“What’s going on?”
“Well, a man brought a letter to Capella.”
He wondered if this was how the man who stood in front of him felt a moment ago. Vince was very scared, but carefully delivered the letter to her.
Capella was such a being. She didn’t have any special powers, but strangely, she became smaller when standing in front of her.
It may have been because Byron was acting as the hostess in their group since his wife was not there, but even putting that reason aside, there was a strange sense of intimidation that Capella had.
“This… …. “It’s Cloud’s handwriting.”
Capella’s expression lit up as he opened the letter. The news came at a time when he was worried about his brother-in-law, who had not heard from him for several days.
Vince’s stiff face brightened at her words. He was equally too worried about Cloud.
But the joy was short-lived.
“I need to see my lord.”
Capella’s expression darkened as she read the letter. She then left to find Byron, leaving a message asking him to look after the ‘lady’ for a moment.
“… … Mrs. Capella?”
Vince urgently tried to call Capella, but she didn’t even look back. Thanks to this, he ended up taking on the role of babysitter for a child he didn’t know anything about.
“A letter arrived? From Cloud?”
“… … “Yes, my lord.”
Capella urgently visited Byron and hurriedly handed him Cloud’s letter. Byron, who had been waiting desperately for news from him, hurriedly read the letter.
“This is a disaster.”
Byron quickly finished reading Cloud’s letter, and leaned heavily in his chair and sighed. It was a truly embarrassing situation.
The letter began with an apology to Byron. It was a request for forgiveness for not only failing to carry out his orders but also for having his true identity discovered by the knight guard accompanying the prince.
However, Byron’s thoughts were so complicated by the following content that he felt like his head was hurting. This headache wasn’t just the aftereffects of the alcohol he drank the day before.
“… … What should I do, my lord?”
Even now, the Imperial Guard is searching the entire city to find him. Fortunately, the Poinsettia Inn was on the outskirts of the city, so the Guard had not yet invaded, but it was as obvious as seeing the fire that a search party would come soon.
The good news among the misfortunes was that Cloud escaped out of the city early. When he heard his sentence that he was treating his wounds somewhere, Byron was heartbroken.
It wasn’t the worst yet. It was truly fortunate that Cloud was alive.
Cloud was indispensable to Byron. He told him not to return if he didn’t succeed in his mission, but he couldn’t possibly be serious about that.
In reality, the few days he was gone were like a living hell. Byron was anxious about what would happen if Cloud did not return, and could not even sleep properly.
“We have to get out of the city first. Then they say Cloud will join us.”
We had to get out of here, Agrio Castle, as quickly as possible.
“… … But, my lord.”
Capella opened her mouth in a worried voice.
It was already a heavily guarded gate, but because of Cloud’s failed attempt to assassinate Winfred, the guard was standing tight.
He was worried about whether he would be able to escape through such security.
No matter how much he changed his hair and eye color by taking magic potions, his overall facial features remained the same, so Byron’s identity could have been revealed.
It might be okay if it was routine security, but if it was a search for a specific person, it would be different.
“I’m going crazy, really.”
Byron also seemed to realize the problem and pulled out his hair.
No. It’ll be okay. Byron calmed himself down. He had experience getting out of worse situations. He wasn’t the type of person to break down in a situation like this.
Even after failing to kill the emperor and his father, and with his hand cut off and bleeding, didn’t he escape?
“first… … . “Get ready right away so you can leave at any time.”
Byron had calmed down a bit and opened his mouth in a calm voice. Capella nodded and left Byron’s room. There was a lot to prepare.
* * *
“… … .”
“… … .”
There was only silence in ‘s room.
Vince’s relationship with the ‘lady’ was not very deep. It was Capella and her daughter Laura’s responsibility to take care of the young lady, and it was Cloud’s responsibility to teach her.
Ayla was raised in complete isolation and was not close to anyone except Byron and Cloud’s family. In the first place, she rarely even had a chance to talk.
However, suddenly being tasked with guarding her in the room like this only resulted in a thick, awkward silence.
“… … .”
Vince, who was sitting on a chair with his arms crossed, was shy and just avoided ‘s gaze.
Laura stayed by Ayla’s side all night, was resting, and Capella urgently went to see Byron. However, she said it was unavoidable since there was no one to watch the child.
It was truly unsettling to encounter a poor child ‘being raised to be an assassin’ so close by.
“Hey, his name is Vince… … Right?”
“… … Ah, yes, yes. That’s right, lady.”
Ayla broke the silence and opened her mouth. Vince had no idea that the ‘lady’ would remember his name and answered quickly with a surprised look on his face. He was nervous because he didn’t know what she was going to say.
But that tension did not last long. Ayla melted his heart with an infinitely pure and bright smile.
“Capella, do you know where you went?”
In fact, she already knew what was going on because she overheard the conversation between Vince and her outside the door, but her intention was to boil Vince to get more information.
It was funny how, when the person who had been hiding her dark emotions, revealed a childlike grin, half of Vince’s frozen face thawed.
“Ah, my lord, I went away for a moment because I had something to urgently report to my master. He will be back soon.”
“Aha, I see. What’s going on?”
Ayla asked again with wide eyes like an innocent child. She was pretending to be an innocent curiosity that could not be seen as a trick.
