HTMSAE - Chapter 135 < The Empress Who Jumped into the Enemy’s Enemy’s Encampment While Pulling an Old Cart >

Ines hurried the horse to hide Carson’s body from the enemies with the cart. When the cart stops, Manisut will also know. Who is in this cart?

The horse and cart that were running towards each other stopped at the same time. Before the grass that had been lying down due to the wind could return to its place, Carson jumped off the horse flying.

While Ines squinted her eyes to check his appearance, a huge shadow immediately appeared over the cart where Ines was sitting.

It happened before she could do anything. Her body was immediately pulled into a hot chest.

“Ha.”

The breathing that rang in Ines’ ears was too rough. The man’s chest that was throbbing was too hot. The hand that was holding her back trembled too much.

Haa, haa, the breath that she couldn’t hold back was relief, resentment, and an endless longing.

“It’s okay.”

So Ines comforted him instead.

Even with the shadow of death on either side of her that could come at any moment, Ines was no longer afraid.

Her heart naturally settled in his arms. The anxiety she had felt while riding the carriage felt like a distant memory.

Carson grabbed the hand that was knocking on her and held it tightly. When the hand that was always a little warmer than the others touched her, Ines realized that her hands and feet had grown cold.

Even as he held Ines’ hand and confirmed her presence with his shaking eyes, Carson could not easily say anything.

Ines continued to answer, picking up the words he could not bring herself to say.

I came to you alive like this. I always made you wait, but I never failed to come.

So now it’s really okay, and there’s no more separation between us.

***

When Ines returned safely to the palace, the first person to greet her was none other than Ines’ mother, Elena.

Carson saw that Ines' calf was cut by the sword and did not let her step even a single step on the ground. As a result, Ines had to be held in Carson's arms until she faced Elena in front of the Empress's Palace.

After barely escaping from his arms, she was held in her mother's arms.

After smelling her mother's warm and affectionate scent for the first time in a long time, her calf, which she had never felt pain before, began to ache. She felt like complaining to her mother. Ines, surprised by her own change, could barely hold back her tears. When Duke Manisut saw Ines in Carson's arms at Mount Ellin, he immediately launched an attack.

It must have been because he realized that his daughter's life could not be saved regardless of whether he won or lost the battle.

Nevertheless, since his daughter was near Carson, he could not shoot his arrows rashly, so he tried to launch an all-out war by sending out his cavalry.

However, when a sharp gunshot rang out from behind their camp, Manisut's knights were unable to come to their senses. Carson let the soldiers of Landhill attack them for a while.

Meanwhile, the Imperial Knights also advanced.

Duke Manisut, who was literally in a dilemma, continued to attack with a desperate spirit. Manisut's knights, who could neither do this nor that with the enemies coming towards them, were too easy for Carson.

Furthermore, when he learned that the person Ines had brought in on the wagon was Anthony von Raymond, whom Duke Manisut had intended to make Emperor, the Duke realized that his last remaining hope was gone.

As a result, Duke Manisut admitted that he had lost the war he had waged.

It did not take long for the place to be cleared up after that. The short shadows lengthened and the sunset.

When the shadows lined up in the basin became difficult to distinguish from the darkness, all the enemy forces were captured and moved to a suitable location.

Since many knights surrendered, the leaders were taken to the Imperial Prison, and the rest were divided into several groups to prevent them from uniting again. Duke Manisut and the four Counts who had joined his rebellion would not be able to avoid destruction in the end. But Carson said he would not punish the knights who belonged to them.

When a noble family disappeared, it was natural for the knights belonging to the family to be disbanded.

The Emperor explained that those who wanted to would be admitted to the imperial family and those who did not would be transferred to other territories, but it was not yet completely decided.

“An Empress who drove a wagon into the middle of enemy territory?”

Carson was finally able to hold Ines in his arms again after dawn.

“Your Majesty, it wasn’t enemy territory.”

“Ah, it was in the middle of a battlefield.”

The more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed. Leaning against the headboard of the bed, he hugged Ines, who was in his arms, tighter and buried his nose in the nape of her neck.

“And the leader of the traitors was carrying the Prince who wanted to be crowned the new Emperor on a wagon.”

A familiar, low voice gently brushed the nape of Ines’ neck.

Marcus had handed Anthony over to the Imperial Knights and fainted on the spot. However, he had just woken up and was reported to be in good health.

“I would have imagined that you would be fighting a war there.”

Ines had done nothing wrong, but she had mumbled. Even to herself, it was clear that this was a very unusual situation.

“How much more pathetic are you trying to make me?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Are you trying to blind me again?”

Before Carson could finish speaking, he turned Ines’ head and gently pulled her lips to his. As she made a sound and tilted her neck back, a familiar scent came from her.

The scent was the same when she was Viscount Swenden’s daughter when she was a maid at the temple, and when she was his maid. That consistency had never failed to move Carson’s heart. Carson’s heart ached anew.

She pushed Carson away a little and turned her head forward again.

“Emma’s going to scold you.”

“What?”

She had taken a long, elaborate bath after returning from the war. She heard Emma sigh, upset that her hair and skin were a mess because she had been locked up in such a dirty place.

“If you keep touching me like that, Emma’s going to scold you.”

Ines lightly scolded Carson, who was messing up her hair.

“Emma had a hard time untangling it.”

Even as she listened to those words, Carson stroked Ines’ soft, golden hair with his lips and hands as if he were counting each strand. Every time he did, he bit the blushing part of her ear and teased her.

“I’m so sorry.”

Ines laughed a little, finding it amusing that he was apologizing without any sense of apology. It was a night when everything felt unreal.

“I can’t believe all this happened in one day.”

Ines's escape from the former Empress, her jumping into the middle of the battlefield as Carson had said, the war starting, and her long bath while avoiding her injured leg, all happened today.

The wound on Ines' leg wasn't big, but she had been told that it might leave a scar. Somehow Ines thought it would be okay if her leg had a little scar.

Whenever she looked at this scar, she would realize that everything she was going through was very real.

"If it hadn't been over in one day, I... might have died."

Carson's hand lingered, unable to touch Ines' injured leg.

"Because my heart felt like it was going to burst."

The low voice that sounded like a joke made Ines's back ache. When she thought about the fear Carson must have felt when he found out she was gone, her heart tightened.

The wedding was postponed for three days. She had only three days to persuade the Emperor to hold the ceremony as scheduled. Carson decided to provide a place for the local nobles who had gathered for the wedding to stay for three days.

Thanks to that, the palace couldn’t sleep until dawn. The chaotic atmosphere that had continued since late evening had not yet subsided.

“Still, the wedding should have been held as scheduled.”

The moment Carson saw Ines driving the carriage from afar, he mistook himself for a scene from a myth he had read with admiration as a child.

It was as if the goddess of war was coming down from the sky, pulling the sun chariot.

“It’s impossible. You know that. Even if the wedding is delayed, now... nothing will change.”

Yes, you’re right. He shook his head while speaking softly. You’re right, but even so, he didn’t want to wait even a single day anymore.

“I understand you now.”

Ines’s head snapped up at the unexpected words that he had said as if confessing. When their eyes met, his pupils dilated as if trying to focus, then narrowed again.

“What?”

“I’ve been wanting to say this for a while, but I thought you’d think I was crazy if you heard me...”

Ines furrowed her brow slightly as she watched him trailing off uncharacteristically.

“What are you talking about?”

“I guess I’m going to... revere you now.”

“Huh?”

Ines burst into laughter as if she had just heard something truly funny.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“Yes, even if you laugh like that, I have nothing to say.”

Carson turned Ines’s body slightly and pulled her toward him. The woman who was being hugged lightly settled heavily on his life.

“I need to get a portrait of you.”

“Mine?”

“Then who else is here?”

“You want to put it next to the goddess Heclesia?”

Instead of answering, he hugged Ines tighter. His hands were full of strength as if this was all he could do right now.

“Yes, anywhere. I need you when you’re out of sight.”

When he realized that she was gone, his vision went dark.

Ines’s features, which he could draw with his eyes closed, seemed to fade into distant memories. If he had just one portrait of her at that time, he wouldn’t have felt so lost.

Ines would have felt the same way. That portrait must have been a great source of strength in those dark and distant situations where he had to spend time away from his faith.

“You really are a lot like your parents.”

Ines tilted her head in his arms. Her father was strong-willed but soft-hearted, and her mother was a person who could easily seem indifferent but was quirky and cute. She hadn’t heard much about their appearances, aside from the color of their hair.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, very much.”

“I haven’t heard that kind of thing. What do we resemble?”

Ines asked with genuine curiosity. There was a faint smile at the end of her words.

“That’s because you hold my heart and shake it.”

Ines's eyes widened slightly at the unexpected answer. At that sight, Carson brought his lips to her eyes.

His lips touched her naturally closed eyes. The lips that flew like butterflies to her eyelids tickled her and she smiled involuntarily.

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