THIBV - Chapter 104

She walked closer to Julian and held his hand gently.

Julian didn't shake her off.

Two blunt people who were used to holding back their emotions awkwardly shared each other's warmth.

Julian took two deep breaths to calm his emotions.

"Don't condemn her. Treat her as before."

"Your Majesty..."

"And if I ever have another fit and hurt Bridget or you, take her with you and leave the palace without looking back."

Julian was preparing for death while suppressing his desire to live.

Millea looked up at the ceiling with tears welling up in her eyes.

"Bridget will insist that she won't leave me. But you must take her out somehow and hide and protect her. Just like you hid and protected me when I was younger."

Instead of crying, Millea sighed.

"Your Majesty is too cruel to me."

"I know, I'm sorry. Thank you."

How could Julian, the one who was betrayed, hate Bridget when he says things like this?

"Even if that's true for Bridget if you don't even touch the food that I don't make for you and you tell me to avoid it, what are you going to do about it?"

"Was I really afraid of poison? I just liked your care."

"...Is It just for that reason that you refused the food of the most famous chefs and ate my poor food?"

"It was worth it."

Julian chuckled.

Millea bit her lips in heartbreaking pain and managed to keep her expression from collapsing, with great difficulty.

"...At this rate, I can't even play the role of a mother-in-law who claims to be a villain."

She took out Bridget's note and handed it to Julian.

"It looks like Bridget is up to something dangerous. Please run and bring her back safely."

"...?"

Julian frowned after reading the note and got up.

He ran out of the office without even saying goodbye.

"May you fully enjoy Your Majesty's happiness during the time permitted."

There was still something left for Millea to confirm.

'Bridget volunteered to do background checks on me.'

There must have been something going on with her too.

She will have to hear it for herself to decide whether it was worth betraying Julian, who loved her so much.

***

It was not long before Bridget's carriage had been running along the forest road that formed the border of the capital.

Two men were coming on horseback from the opposite direction.

When a carriage and two horses pass each other.

Clang!

"It's a raid!"

The coachman shouted with the sound of clashing blades.

The coachman deliberately drove the carriage slowly, following Bridget's instructions.

Bridget planned to confront anyone head-on instead of running away if they attacked her.

'They really did send an assassin.'

Bridget's heart raced at the thought that the Duke of Linchester had acted as expected.

He didn't know much about Bridget.

Without Julian, he would have thought of her as just another ordinary, powerless woman, so he would not have thought that she had set a trap and would have stepped in.

The carriage stopped.

Bridget opened the door abruptly.

"Black knights, stop it!"

In an instant, a black knight leaped out of her shadow and shot out in the shape of a dozen arrows.

This arrow was an arrow that pursued its target by itself.

The assassin, whose face was covered by a mask, turned his horse's head In great confusion, but the black knight was faster than him in piercing his body.

“Heeeeee!”

The rider fell, and the horse screamed in surprise and leaped away as the black knight took his original form before his eyes.

'Even if the Black Knight changes form and splits into several pieces, it only targets one target."

Bridget quickly realized the Black Knight's limitations.

Then the other assassin is...

Bang!

As soon as Bridget felt some creepy instinct and bent down, an axe was stuck near where her head had been.

It was powerful enough to shatter the carriage walls.

"Black..."

As Bridget was about to order the Black Knight to stop the remaining assassins, the coachman who had been distracting the assassins shouted.

"Run away!"

"I have to catch it!"

The Duke of Linchester may not have known that Bridget had a black knight attached to her and sent assassins.

No, maybe he sent them to check that.

Or perhaps they wanted to obtain some specific Information that was not yet predictable.

The assassin sent by the Duke of Linchester was seen trying to escape without a major battle, so she judged that there was a high probability that they approached to gather information.

'Even I, who have never learned martial arts, have figured out the Black Knight's limits, so there's no way that guy wouldn't know that."

Bridget gritted her teeth..

'I won't give you any information!'

"You little punk!"

Bridget tried to capture the assassin with the Black Knight. As long as the Black Knight was present, it was neither impossible nor dangerous.

However.

Gooooooooo 

The movements of the black knight, chasing the assassin slowed down and cracks appeared all over his body.

The black knight looked back at Bridget, unable to regain his form. It seemed as if he was asking for something.

"What?"

Are you asking for magi?

A moment of confusion and hesitation for Bridget.

Break!

The black knight was shattered into pieces.

"...!"

Bridget's eyes widened.

She wondered why the Black Knight had lost his form and been reclaimed as her own shadow.

However, the presence of the black knight was not felt.

'No...'

It was nowhere to be found.

"Shall I chase after you?"

The coachman asked and Bridget nodded.

However, the assassin had already gained quite some distance in the meantime.

'Are you missing out?'

No, that wasn't the case.

Push!

"Ahh!"

The assassin's scream was heard from afar.

Upon closer inspection, he was impaled like a skewer by the massive spear of another black knight.

A color came to Bridget's face,

'Julian!'

As she looked around, leaning her upper body out of the carriage, looking for Julian, someone suddenly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into the carriage.

"...!"

Bridget was helplessly dragged in and thrown onto the other man's lap.

"Why... can't you find me?"

"Julian!"

It seemed like he had opened the door on the other side and come in.

"You said you could find me anytime, anywhere."

"Yeah. That's weird."

Bridget smiled broadly.

She didn't know he had come so quickly that the carriage was filled with magi energy.

He covered the center of Bridget's chest with his hand with an indifferent expression.

"Calm down."

Now that she thinks about it, she feels like she's a little out of breath.

It was only then that Bridget realized she was shaking.

Her eyes were wide open, but she was slightly dazed.

"It was my first time seeing an assassin."

All the tension in her body was released.

"I've only heard about it. I never thought I'd experience it myself. Thanks for coming, Julian."

As she tried to sneak a hug from him, he tilted his head and put strength into the hand he had placed on her chest.

Bridget returned to her seat with her jaw clenched, looking slightly up at Julian.

When Bridget, who had been pushed out, made a sullen face, Julian glared at her coldly.

"It's overly planned considering you didn't know what to do."

He waved the note in front of Bridget's face.

There was a clear message written there asking people to come out to greet them when a danger signal was reached.

"Ah, what I mean is that even though it was expected, it felt different when it actually happened..."

"What the hell are you..."

Julian's cold gaze did not change.

"I didn't put the Black Knight there to test your safety by throwing yourself into a fire pit like this. If you do something like this again, I'll tie your hands and feet and throw you in the dungeon."

He recalled that he had said something similar just a short while ago.

Even then, Bridget smiled and nodded just as she does now.

"Yes, I got it. You'll pack me some food, right? I can't use my hands, so you'll have to feed me yourself. Then we can see each other three times a day."

"... It means promise me you won't do it again."

Bridget shrugged her shoulders with a sour look on her face.

"If that's what you're saying, then you should say it like that. Why are you saying it so badly? If you do that, your mouth will become crooked. Even if you're like that, it'll be hard to maintain your beauty if your mouth becomes crooked."

"Bridget."

Julian became serious.

Bridget complained as if she was being treated unfairly.

"Because you don't meet me and just push me away, I have no choice but to see you."

"For just that reason...!"

This time, Bridget made a surprise move and managed to hug Julian.

"It's not "just'. It's precious time. It's a gift to me, and it's a golden time to you."

"..."

"I can't waste this time like before. I don't want to push each other away, miss each other from afar, not have the courage to be hated, and then everything will disappear in vain. I don't want to do that anymore."

"..."

"Hug me, Julian. Unless you really hate me. It's a waste of time to let go without seeing or touching you."

Julian, who had thought that Bridget was desperately ignoring his death and pretending not to know, bit his lip when he heard those words.

He knew that Bridget was also preparing for the breakup in her own way.

He couldn't push her away.

Julian raised both arms and hugged her, his heart collapsing behind his expressionless face.

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