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THE jailed assassin had been tortured and had revealed that he was from Saleilles, and that his client had instructed him to kill the prince’s consort and then immediately commit suicide.
If the man had met this terrible fate while purporting to be a Ferrier citizen, the truth would have been lost in the shadows. But his plan had been foiled, and thanks to Sara’s confession, everything had been brought to light.
The Saleilles envoy who had been staying in Ferrier and was promptly imprisoned had also admitted his complicity in the assassination plot against Sara. When they examined the tin of tea leaves in Sara’s room, there was a small gap on the lid, just as the envoy said there would be. That was where he had slipped in a poisonous plant in such a way that it would fall out when Richard brewed the tea.
All this meant that Richard was once again being kept at the main castle. The days that they were unable to meet stretched on and on… However…
“Another one arrived today!”
“Thank you, Claire.”
After Sara’s breakfast, Claire had practically skipped over to hand her a simple white envelope. In brusque letters, the envelope was addressed To my wife, and on the back, From your husband.
“It still seems like the prince is too shy to call you by your name, Sara,” Claire teased.
Sara spared her an embarrassed smile before pulling out the letter from the envelope.
“It seems so. I’m so happy everyone is calling me by my real name now, but…I suppose Richard always did call me ‘you’ or ‘my wife.’”
The day that Sara had revealed the truth, she had turned to Richard after the king and queen mother had left and said, “I want you to call me Sara from now on.”
But Richard always had his own particular rules, and he hadn’t ever called her “Hermine” before. Sara had been incredibly grateful for that in the past, but now that she had disclosed her real identity, she did want the man she loved to call her by her name, after all.
But Richard’s face had immediately turned red, and he had gently refused, saying, “I’ll try, but I can’t right now.”
Calling Sara by her name seemed to be incredibly embarrassing to him. She had thought that maybe it wouldn’t be as bad writing it out in a letter…but even in his letters, he only addressed Sara directly as “you.”
She received letters from him every morning and evening. They were just short messages, such as Did you eat enough today? or Is anything different? But Sara was truly happy to be able to continue the routine of wishing him good morning and good night, even if in a letter.
But Richard had written slightly more in this one.
She soon understood why as she read through it.
“Claire, look at this,” she called out.
Claire perused the letter herself.
“I see… So they came to an agreement at today’s meeting and have decided to dispatch troops to Saleilles.”
“And Prince Richard will be commanding the forces… Surely he must have volunteered for that himself, right?” Sara said.
“He must have. I can imagine him triumphantly putting his name forward, burning with the conviction to bring the people who hurt you to justice.”
I can certainly imagine that, too…
It seemed that Richard, having finally accepted the powers of his ability, had become rather keen on fighting as the Black Beast. He had already transformed in front of a room full of people to save Sara, so he couldn’t dance around the truth anymore.
There would probably still be people in Ferrier who were prejudiced against him because he could transform his body, a power that had been despised for generations.
But Richard had come to grips with this and had still decided to go into battle as a member of the Ferrier royal family, openly transformed into his beast form.
All I can do is affirm and support Richard’s choice…
And with that, Sara came to a decision on what she ought to do next.