By the time the sky turned vermilion, most of the participants had gathered in the clearing.
None of them had been hunting monsters properly.
I heard from my servant that for some reason, not a single monster appeared in the forest.
So they all gave up hunting and came back empty-handed.
I glanced outside the tent, looking for Kishian figure in it.
I checked more than fifteen times, but I couldn't find the Kishian.
He still hadn't come back from what he was doing in the forest without monsters
Did he find a monster that he could hunt properly unlike others?
It would be nice if it was like that, but for some reason, an ominous thought kept coming over my mind.
Maybe he had an accident.
It was when my anxiety soared to the point where there was nowhere else to go. The servant who came to visit in a hurry gave me the most ominous news.
"Your Highness, it seems that there is a problem."
Something went wrong?
I felt dizzy for a moment, but I managed to regain my senses and asked the servant.
"Problem?"
"Yes, the Marquis de Graz and the Count Rosen have just returned, and they both heard a voice that resembled a human scream. On the east side of the forest."
I remembered that the Kishian had headed east of the forest, and I was dizzy.
I almost staggered, but I stood up on a table nearby.
Was he in distress? Or did he encounter a horrible monster?
All kinds of ominous thoughts cluttered my mind.
Anyway, I had to stay calm.
"You two heard that...? Then something might have happened."
"Shall we stop the convention and send a search party?"
I tried to tell him so.
I didn't do it right away because I remembered what Kishian had said to me at that moment.
"We will win, and we will bring the best hunt and offer it."
In my bedroom that day, he had assured me so.
It must have been spit out of honor, but if I stopped the tournament at will...
'My intervention might annoy him.
It would have been better to deal with things more quietly than to stop the tournament outright.
First, I took a deep breath to calm down my confusion and then ordered my servant.
"Let's keep the tournament going."
"Then you can proceed with the tournament as it is, but send a search party?"
"Nope. If you send people on such a large scale, it will be too noticeable. The other participants would be uneasy, and they might misunderstand that I sent someone to help the Archduke hunt. Then, even if he wins, he will be disgraced for making a cowardly move."
"What if you do it..."
"...Just don't do anything. I'll take care of it."
"Yes, Your Highness."
He looked a little nervous, but he bowed his head and withdrew.
When the servant disappeared, we were left alone. Letie asked,
"What are you going to do?"
"I'll send someone to check it out. But I have to select one person with good skills so that he doesn't stand out."
I knew the right person.
I told Letie to wait and stepped out of the tent.
There was no need to send someone to summon him.
I came out and wandered around the neighborhood for a while, looking at him, and he came to me first, as if he had been waiting for me.
I waited for the man, Rodrick, to come to me, and then I took him to a corner.
He was the first to speak.
"Do you have something to tell me? You looked at me with a sad look."
I replied with a little relief at the sad tone that didn't change much from when we first met.
"I don't remember looking at you with a longing look. I have something to say, though."
"What is it?"
"I'm a little embarrassed to say this suddenly in the first place, but I want to ask you something as the Grand Duchess."
In fact, I and Rodrick were already old.
In short, it meant that we had met each other when I was "Princess Elona."
But now, I'm pretending to be Letie as the Grand Duchess.
I had to pretend to be new to him.
In conclusion, my efforts to hide my identity were completely wasted.
"Princess? Are you pretending to be someone else in front of me now?"
"What...?"
"You don't have to pretend to be a twin sister. I already know everything."
Even Kishian didn't know that I was Elona.
Only my family and their relatives knew who I was.
I've kept it a secret.
I didn't know how he could recognize it right away, so I looked at him curiously. and he explained it to me in a puzzled way.
"Not long ago, I went to the Imperial Palace disguised as a merchant. To see my employer, Princess Elona."
"..."
"But the Princess there didn't recognize me at all. It's like I'm seeing someone for the first time."
After hearing that, I thought I knew what was going on.
When Rodrikc went to the Imperial Palace, it seemed that Letie had not been able to imitate me properly.
She couldn't pretend to be a spherical face with Rodrick, so Rodrick would have noticed it right away.
The remaining princess in the palace is not Elona.
I didn't expect him to find out my identity so vain because of Letie.
Even as I pressed my throbbing head against Letie and resented her inwardly, Rodrick continued to talk.
"I was confused until now, but now that we have a face-to-face conversation like this. I am convinced. You're Elona."
I sighed heavily, thinking that it would be useless to say no now.
"Who did you tell me? My Identity."
"I didn't tell anyone. It seems like there are complicated circumstances."
Even though he looked a little gritty on the outside, I was relieved that he wasn't a light-mouthed person.
If he talked about his client's personal safety, his credibility as a mercenary would also be lowered.
He would keep his mouth shut for his own sake.
As I calmed down, he opened his chatty mouth again.
"What happened anyway? Everyone knows that you stayed in the palace as a Princess, so why did you come to the North and become another man's wife?"
"I'll explain the situation later, It's going to be a very long story. I have a favor for you."
As if to tell him what I was asking, I managed to get out of my luck while he was silent.
"Can you go to the forest now?"
"...To the forest?"
Unexpectedly, his green eyes filled with bewilderment.
I was embarrassed to ask him out of the blue, but I couldn't find anyone more suitable than Rodrick.
So I endured a little embarrassment and told him about the situation.
"My husband... The Grand Duke is not coming back. Moreover, they said that they heard a scream coming from the direction he was. I'm worried about what happened, but please come and check it out."
He had a relaxed smile on his face as if he had just said as much as he wanted.
But when I mentioned Kishian, his smile disappeared from his face as if it had been washed away.
"Ha, do you know that we've met again after three years?"
"..."
"It's been a long time since we met, but it's a lot of..."
For some reason, he seemed to be more upset about this situation than I thought.
Was it so upsetting that I took over the job without saying hello as soon as I met him?
I couldn't understand it well.
In the first place. It was only an employer-employee relationship with him, not a personal relationship, so whether or not he greeted me would not be so important.
I hurriedly added, wondering if it was because I was asked to start from scratch without talking about the case.
"...I'll give you a reward. I'm going to take care of you like before."
"..."
"How much do you want?"
He seemed to have a lot to say.
He swept his hair in a panic and finally spoke in silence.
"No, it's not a matter of remuneration, I mean. Why don't I go into the forest and check it out for a while? I was a little injured because of the dagger your husband threw earlier, but it's not too difficult to search for him. I can do it without getting paid."
"Then what's the problem?"
"I'm just..."
I listened to see what he wanted, but unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to hear what he had to say.
I heard the urgent voice of the servant who had reported to me earlier.
"Your Highness! The Grand Duke is back!"
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