AS I clung to Albert in his arms, the fearful trembling of my body eased. Without thinking, I held onto him even tighter, his heartbeat comforting me. Suddenly, it occurred to me what we were doing. Coming to my senses, I tried to pull away from him, but he continued to embrace me tightly.
My face flushed, and when I looked up at Albert, our eyes met. Ah, how I longed to see those dark brown eyes, I thought as he gazed at me with concern.
When Albert looked at me, did he see my true self, or did he see Rosemary? This worry had plagued me for so long. Are you projecting my past self onto me? I’d wondered when he’d professed his feelings to me. As a result, something about his declaration of love left me even more distressed.
Yet, out of anyone, I’d been the most concerned about Rosemary’s lingering shadow.
I’m done with that.
I could finally let go of the doubt constricting my chest. Albert’s racing to my aid filled me with joy. I loved him more than anyone, regardless of whether he couldn’t forget Rosemary or continued to adore her. Free, I leaned into him, letting go of my deep-seated worries.
“Are you okay?” Albert asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “Thank you so much. But how did you know where I was?”
Once he’d made sure of my safety, Albert looked into my eyes, his embrace relaxing. “My apologies, but I peeked into your room. When you weren’t there, I went looking for you. In any case, I’m glad you’re safe.”
He’d looked for me simply because I hadn’t been in my room? My heart swelled with joy, and I nearly burst into tears again, but I stopped myself.
After cutting the rope binding my arms with a dagger, Albert checked on the fallen men. The man who’d tried to drag me away had been pierced with an arrow, but what had become of his comrade? I had no way of knowing, seeing as I’d been running like a madwoman until a few minutes ago. Apparently, however, he’d noticed Albert and fled.
We need to chase after him, I thought.
“It’s okay,” Albert reassured me as if he’d read my mind.
He picked up the man who’d been pierced with an arrow. The man groaned, barely conscious.
“There you are, high commander!”
Sir Eva called out to us from near the castle gates, dashing over to Albert with a few knights in tow.
“We caught a suspicious man trying to slip out of the castle,” Sir Eva reported.
“Well done,” Albert said.
With that, we could rest easy.
“We threw him in the chivalric order’s prison,” Sir Eva continued. “Lady Liella has been taken to the guest room as well.”
Hearing her name, I turned to Albert. How did he already know of her involvement?
After passing the injured man to Sir Eva, Albert wrapped his arms around the backs of my knees. He picked me up in a bridal carry and began walking.
“I’m heading back now,” he announced.
“S-Sir Albert!” I cried out in a shrill voice.
I could hardly speak, what with Albert speed-walking as he carried me. While I reeled at this sudden turn of events, Albert headed towards the chivalric order’s building. All the while, I could see Sir Eva laughing from my elevated vantage point.
“Please put me down,” I said. “I can walk.”
Albert shook his head. “Respectfully, I must refuse. Your legs are injured.”
I looked at my legs, which were peeking out of my skirt. Putting aside my immodest appearance for the moment, I had sustained many cuts. Upon reflection, I probably scraped my legs when breaking the window and climbing outside. Back then, I hadn’t felt any pain, perhaps due to everything having occurred so quickly.
“It’s not just your legs,” Albert pointed out. “Your arms are injured too.”
Albert looked down at me from mere inches away, his gaze somewhat angry. When I looked at my arms again, I noticed a few cuts similar to those on my legs.
“I’ll treat you right away,” he said.
“That’s okay,” I replied. “It doesn’t hurt that bad.”
Getting a handle on the situation was more important. As I thought this, Albert’s dark brown eyes glared down at me, exerting silent pressure.
“I’ll treat you right away,” he repeated.
“O-Okay…”
Maybe I should keep my mouth shut for now.
I latched onto Albert’s shoulders to prevent myself from falling as he walked much faster than I did. Eventually, we entered the chivalric order’s building beneath the stares of curious onlookers.
Sir Eva had already finished interrogating the men. As such, he gave his report while the high commander treated my wounds. A bizarre sight indeed.
“They’re pretty tight-lipped,” Sir Eva said. “Well, that’s not too surprising. With a little more time, we could probably make them talk, but at the very least, they’re not from Dirésias. They have northern accents. Oh, and by all accounts, Lady Liella didn’t know anything about the men coming.”
Liella’s interrogation had already ended as well. According to Sir Eva’s report, her family had once been close associates of King Grey, but after his deposal, they’d lost their standing. Until recently, they ignored the management of their territory, sharing in the king’s wealth without any toil. Now impoverished, they began making unreasonable demands of Liella, who worked in the palace.
“Could you seek an audience with King Rizel?” they’d asked. “Or look for someone who can support us financially?”
This had likely been humiliating for Liella, who took pride in being the daughter of a viscount. For a long time, these worries plagued her, but one day, a certain noble’s messenger appeared before her. He passed along some money, asking her to cooperate. In short, she’d been taken advantage of.
“You know of a handmaid named Mary, correct?” the messenger had asked.
Liella hadn’t thought well of me, as I’d shown up out of nowhere and spent so much time with the Duke of Rose and the high commander. Though she’d never harassed me directly, I had noticed the disgust in her gaze. Still, since we hadn’t been friends, I could listen to Sir Eva’s report without too much concern.
Albert held my hand softly, worried about me. When our eyes met, I smiled to convey that everything was all right.
After receiving instructions from the messenger, Liella didn’t understand why my name had come up.
“The noble offering this money would like to stay anonymous,” the messenger explained. “Regardless, they hate Mary and would like to prevent her from attending a special occasion.”
That’s right—the messenger asked Liella to act on the day of my trip to McClain. A mere handmaid receiving the favor of a duke and the high commander simply for being a distant relative of Rosemary’s irritated Liella. My invitation to an exclusive ceremony was the clincher. Liella agreed to cooperate with the messenger, and after accepting the money, she hadn’t been able to refuse his orders.
“Trap her in the storage room to prevent her from leaving,” the messenger had instructed.
At first, Liella sympathized with her employer and had no qualms about carrying out the plan. However, as the day of the assignment drew nearer, she’d grown increasingly uneasy. Why had she received so much money just to harass someone? Trapping Mary in the storage room would certainly suffice, but if you were simply locking someone up, weren’t there better places to do so? And after Mary had been imprisoned, what did they plan on doing with her?
Liella had grown more and more terrified. Even so, she hadn’t been able to return the money, as she’d already given it to her father. In the end, she went along with the plan.
“Liella’s too ashamed to even offer an apology,” Sir Eva told me.
I smiled, unable to describe my feelings. After everything she’d done, Liella would be banned from working in the palace. She’d lost the ability to ever see me again, much less apologize to me.
“Do you know who the messenger was?” I asked, curious about the instigator.
Sir Eva shook his head. “According to Liella, the messenger works for someone high-ranking, but she doesn’t know who. Not to mention how foolish it would be to believe a single word from someone that dodgy.”
Though Sir Eva spoke harshly, I agreed with him. At the same time, I reconsidered the matter. The employer was someone high-ranking who also knew about Liella’s family circumstances and their former ties to King Grey. Furthermore, this person had instructed her to lock me in the storage room because they knew about the secret passageway. Their plan had been for the two men to kidnap me from there.
If I had to guess, very few people in the palace know about that secret passageway.
“The queen,” I murmured. “Yes, they mentioned the queen’s name…”
Realizing I’d spoken reflexively, I clapped my hands over my mouth. However—
“That makes sense,” Albert said.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking!” Sir Eva concurred.
Both men had already come to this conclusion. With the queen having possibly reappeared, a messenger needed to be sent to King Rizel as soon as possible. Due to unfortunate timing, however, he wasn’t in the castle. Not long ago, he’d left to inspect various regions in the kingdom.
“The men who tried to kidnap you were probably hired mercenaries,” Sir Eva said. “But what bothers me are their northern accents.”
During his interrogation, Sir Eva hadn’t been able to identify the men, but in contrast to their boorish natures, they’d displayed incredible loyalty. In the end, they refused to give up their employer. Kidnappers and evildoers of this sort often faced the death penalty; they regularly sold out their leaders and companions in the hopes of reducing their sentences. Nevertheless, these men hadn’t given anyone up. They hadn’t even reacted to the queen’s name.
“Whenever I provoked them into talking, they spoke with an accent,” Sir Eva went on. “Judging from that, the small northern tribes are probably involved somehow.”
“In that case…” I trailed off.
“Mary?” Albert asked.
As my mind jumped to the worst possible conclusion, I grabbed Albert. “Reynaldo might be in danger! We need to check on the Rose region right away!”
“Reynaldo?” Albert’s face went pale as he came to the same conclusion. “I see.”
Over ten years ago, Reynaldo deceived the small northern tribes and stole their territory. If my kidnapping was somehow related to that grudge, Reynaldo was their real target.
“The queen is likely involved behind the scenes, but if the northerners are targeting Reynaldo, he might be in danger,” Sir Eva agreed. “Where is he now?”
“…He’s traveling to McClain with Rosemary’s coffin,” Albert replied.
The horrible timing made the danger of this situation all too clear. My heart pounded in my chest. At times like these, my gut feelings tended to be right.
“High commander!” No sooner than an out-of-breath knight had burst into Albert’s office, he brought us the worst possible news. “One of Duke Reynaldo Rose’s guards has informed us that their party was attacked.”
And sadly, my gut feeling was correct.