Bang!
“What on earth are you doing that you can’t catch!”
The King of Sharka lost his senses.
His anger was so high that he couldn’t even think straight.
He had been hit twice in a row.
Tiwakan came into Sharka’s palace without any thresholds, stirred things up as he pleased, and left.
The corpses of the guards were piled up in the backyard, but there wasn’t even a single corpse of the bastards.
In addition, the King hurt his back. At that moment, someone dared to step on the King as he fell in the villa. It was obvious that it was the guards. There was a clear bootprint on his face.
The King’s current rampage was also partly to vent his anger on the guards.
“They’re blocking all the roads to the border, even the non-roads. Soon, their tails will be stepped on. Don’t be so angry, Your Majesty.”
“What? Don’t you know who’s making me angry right now?”
Bang!
The King stomped his feet like crazy. Then his back hurt so much that he clenched his teeth.
“And... we are too short, Your Majesty. We are doing our best, but the guards alone cannot seal the entire border. We need troops.”
“These useless things!”
Bang!
The King, unable to stomp his feet because of his back pain, slammed the armrests of his throne. Thanks to that, his palms also started to hurt.
“We need troops, Your Majesty.”
The guard knights bowed their heads repeatedly.
“Please gather troops as soon as possible.”
“Shut up! Get out of here!”
The King shouted and stood up.
It was true that he needed troops. They said the enemy was gathering at the southern border.
However, it was also true that the nobles’ response was lukewarm.
The King had no choice but to summon the eight families with a considerable number of private soldiers to the castle.
Unfortunately, however, the Queen was a bit faster.
As promised to Princess Liene, Queen Dileras sent letters to each family she was friendly with.
“The Lille and Hen families have decided to send their knights to the southern border.”
The Queen greeted the man from her family with a very tired face.
Everyone couldn’t sleep because the King who had taken refuge in the villa last night was so upset. Seeing him like that, the remaining stamina was gone.
The Queen was worried that even if the King went to the battlefield and was beheaded right now, she wouldn’t shed a single tear.
“Really? How much?”
“The number itself is not that many. Each family put up about twenty.”
“Did the King accept that number?”
“Of course he was furious. Knights were different in quality from infantry, but it was an absurd number to satisfy the King. The families that put up knights have just offered up knights and incurred his wrath for nothing.”
“That’s the kind of person the King is. What about the other families? I heard that eight were called in.”
“It seems like they’re making excuses. Many families say they’ll send troops when the war starts. The southern border hasn’t opened yet.”
“You’re trying to see what’s going on. The Princes haven’t come forward yet.”
“That’s right. The Fifth Prince will never come forward first and take the King’s side, even for the sake of his son’s release. The other Princes seem to be worried that the power relations will change if they rashly give up their private soldiers.”
“That’s right. Indeed, the first one to come forward dies first.”
The Queen was satisfied with what she had done.
She had confirmed that the influence of the Ren family was still alive and that they could sufficiently keep the King in check. The King would pay the price for turning a blind eye to his son’s death and for banishing her to the villa.
“But Your Majesty, what would happen if the borders were opened in this situation?”
It wasn’t that Queen Dileras didn’t think of betrayal. Princess Liene could have tricked her with sweet words about resolving the common problem, interrupted her efforts to gather troops, and then forcibly opened the borders.
“The King should take responsibility first. Their numbers have decreased considerably due to yesterday’s incident, but aren’t the royal guards the biggest in Sharka?”
But that was okay.
The King started the war. It was the King’s job to handle it.
As she said, the King had to pay a price. For what he had done to her and her son.
“You have done well. Find out what the families the King has not yet summoned think.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Because of the Queen’s efforts, the King’s efforts to gather an army were at a standstill.
“Over there...?”
Bliny frowned at the castle at the entrance to the valley.
It was such an insignificant place that the word castle was meaningless.
They often used it when going to and from hunting grounds, but there was no such sign. The walls were covered with moss and grass, and the same was true of the one tower.
“Surprisingly, it has a simple taste.”
Bliny closed the carriage window as if there was nothing more to see. She felt bad as she was tapping her shoes that ahe had taken off and hung on her toes.
“...Indeed.”
She agreed that she should get away for now.
However, she could not understand why the King had chosen such a remote place.
“It’s not a refuge, it’s exile.”
Bliny muttered irritably.
The maids lowered their heads as if they were afraid of sparks flying.
Bliny tried to rub her ring out of habit, but when she realized that it was no longer on her finger, she twisted her eyebrows for no reason.
She could not wear the ring any longer because it caused the King to have a seizure when he saw it.
She spit it out, and her throat bled. After all that hard work, she could not wear it anymore because she could see the signs.
“...I’m annoyed.”
Thinking about it, everything she's done since killing her husband up until now was all to get Black involved.
No matter what she did, the results were always unexpected. Now, she's become the type of person who picks out clothes every morning to please the old King.
“Should I go to the duchy?”
A headache arose as she thought about staying in the small, shabby castle as if she were dead.
She wanted to return to the duchy, but she didn’t think the royal guard would listen to her easily. There were so many things she didn’t like about this and that. Bliny pressed her fingers to her throbbing head and shut her mouth.
She wished war would break out as soon as possible.
The King would die, the Sharka kingdom would be torn apart, and the Princess of Nauk, who was dying, would die quickly.
...Squeak, bang.
While she was thinking that she wished everything in the world would die and disappear, the carriage pulled into the castle.
“We’ve arrived....”
The words to get off stopped midway.
There was no polite gesture to open the carriage door.
“...?”
Bliny nodded to her maid. It meant to open the door.
But before the maid could get up, the door opened on its own.
Boom!
The one who opened the door was not a royal guard. He was wearing rough pilgrim clothes.
“Welcome to Gelm Castle. We’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Aren’t you too slow?”
“...? You...”
Bliny remembered that rough, rough voice mixed with all the accents of the continent.
He pulled back the large hood he wore over his head.
His eyes, mixed with irritation, contempt, and a strange sense of playfulness, smiled at Bliny.
“I think you remember me, my apologies... Mad Princess.”
"...”
Bliny’s face hardened.
Randall. His name was Randall.
The death of ten guardsmen took place in an instant.
Bliny stared at the corpses falling down as if they were playful, frozen in place.
She couldn’t believe it. This was happening right before her eyes.
That this was happening to her, of all people.
In the front yard of the small castle that she didn’t like at first sight, the corpses of the guards were piled up.
People wearing ugly robes, with their backs to the corpses, surrounded her and her maids.
One of them was the man who had been disturbing her dreams until last night.
He came to her in that state. She had thought about meeting him tens of thousands of times, but it wasn’t like this.
It wasn’t like sitting on the floor, helpless, surrounded by corpses, as if she had committed a crime.
She didn’t like everything.
“You see me like this... Bliny Bashad.”
“...”
The woman who spoke to her was the one she hated the most.
Her dark blond hair caught her eye.
It was disheveled and dirty. It seemed like she hadn’t washed her face. The pilgrim’s robes on her body smelled musty.
The one who was speaking to her now must be the Princess of Nauk.
Bliny looked at Liene as if she was seeing a living being for the first time.
It was strange. The Princess of Nauk was standing in front of her, dressed exactly like that man.
“...You should be dead.”
Bliny licked her lips.
“You lied?”
Before Liene could say anything, Black wrapped his arms around Liene’s shoulders from behind, making her distance herself.
“Don’t come near her. I don’t know what she might do.”
“...”
Bliny's lips twisted.
It was only after a long time that Bliny realized that a strange, dry laugh was leaking out of her lips.
“You told me she was dead. She was dying.”
There was a laugh in her words.
“If the Princess died, wouldn’t you get your past back?”
When she heard that the man who rejected her proposed to the Princess of Nauk.
Bliny believed in one thing.
Black had to get his past back, and the person who took that past away was the Princess of Nauk.
The proposal was a means. It had to be that way.
Black had never been in love with anyone. He was a man who didn’t know how to do that. Just as she couldn’t have him, it was the same with everything else.
There was no reason for the Princess of Nauk to be special. There shouldn’t have been.
“You married her to kill her. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten married.”
“The ring.”
Black didn’t listen to Bliny.
It was as if he had no reason to listen.
“I know you have it on you. If you give it back, I won’t kill you.”
Her eyes seemed to twitch as she looked at him.
“Kill the Princess. Then I’ll give it back.”
“...You haven’t come to your senses. You’re...”
“Wait a minute.”
The Princess of Nauk grabbed Black’s arm. Black’s body was easily dragged along. It was the strongest and heaviest body she knew.
“You promised. You’ll leave it to me.”
The Princess of Nauk was making a fuss, but Black smiled at her face.
“I’m leaving it to you.”
“No. You keep interfering. I said no.”
Why would he laugh at such nonsense?
“I can’t make the Princess listen to such nonsense.”
Black affectionately stroked his dirty blond hair.
“That’s right. It’s not fair. The Princess suddenly becomes cute when you put on your smelly pilgrim’s clothes.”
“No! You shouldn’t say that!”
The Princess of Nauk turned to look and covered Black’s mouth with her hand.
He must be quite tall, but his mouth was well covered.
“We need to get the ring back... You keep your mouth shut.”
“...”
Black kept his mouth shut and nodded.
In Bliny’s eyes, it all seemed like a puppet show gone wrong. It didn’t make sense. It all didn’t make sense.
“What on earth are you doing that you can’t catch!”
The King of Sharka lost his senses.
His anger was so high that he couldn’t even think straight.
He had been hit twice in a row.
Tiwakan came into Sharka’s palace without any thresholds, stirred things up as he pleased, and left.
The corpses of the guards were piled up in the backyard, but there wasn’t even a single corpse of the bastards.
In addition, the King hurt his back. At that moment, someone dared to step on the King as he fell in the villa. It was obvious that it was the guards. There was a clear bootprint on his face.
The King’s current rampage was also partly to vent his anger on the guards.
“They’re blocking all the roads to the border, even the non-roads. Soon, their tails will be stepped on. Don’t be so angry, Your Majesty.”
“What? Don’t you know who’s making me angry right now?”
Bang!
The King stomped his feet like crazy. Then his back hurt so much that he clenched his teeth.
“And... we are too short, Your Majesty. We are doing our best, but the guards alone cannot seal the entire border. We need troops.”
“These useless things!”
Bang!
The King, unable to stomp his feet because of his back pain, slammed the armrests of his throne. Thanks to that, his palms also started to hurt.
“We need troops, Your Majesty.”
The guard knights bowed their heads repeatedly.
“Please gather troops as soon as possible.”
“Shut up! Get out of here!”
The King shouted and stood up.
It was true that he needed troops. They said the enemy was gathering at the southern border.
However, it was also true that the nobles’ response was lukewarm.
The King had no choice but to summon the eight families with a considerable number of private soldiers to the castle.
Unfortunately, however, the Queen was a bit faster.
As promised to Princess Liene, Queen Dileras sent letters to each family she was friendly with.
***
“The Lille and Hen families have decided to send their knights to the southern border.”
The Queen greeted the man from her family with a very tired face.
Everyone couldn’t sleep because the King who had taken refuge in the villa last night was so upset. Seeing him like that, the remaining stamina was gone.
The Queen was worried that even if the King went to the battlefield and was beheaded right now, she wouldn’t shed a single tear.
“Really? How much?”
“The number itself is not that many. Each family put up about twenty.”
“Did the King accept that number?”
“Of course he was furious. Knights were different in quality from infantry, but it was an absurd number to satisfy the King. The families that put up knights have just offered up knights and incurred his wrath for nothing.”
“That’s the kind of person the King is. What about the other families? I heard that eight were called in.”
“It seems like they’re making excuses. Many families say they’ll send troops when the war starts. The southern border hasn’t opened yet.”
“You’re trying to see what’s going on. The Princes haven’t come forward yet.”
“That’s right. The Fifth Prince will never come forward first and take the King’s side, even for the sake of his son’s release. The other Princes seem to be worried that the power relations will change if they rashly give up their private soldiers.”
“That’s right. Indeed, the first one to come forward dies first.”
The Queen was satisfied with what she had done.
She had confirmed that the influence of the Ren family was still alive and that they could sufficiently keep the King in check. The King would pay the price for turning a blind eye to his son’s death and for banishing her to the villa.
“But Your Majesty, what would happen if the borders were opened in this situation?”
It wasn’t that Queen Dileras didn’t think of betrayal. Princess Liene could have tricked her with sweet words about resolving the common problem, interrupted her efforts to gather troops, and then forcibly opened the borders.
“The King should take responsibility first. Their numbers have decreased considerably due to yesterday’s incident, but aren’t the royal guards the biggest in Sharka?”
But that was okay.
The King started the war. It was the King’s job to handle it.
As she said, the King had to pay a price. For what he had done to her and her son.
“You have done well. Find out what the families the King has not yet summoned think.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Because of the Queen’s efforts, the King’s efforts to gather an army were at a standstill.
***
“Over there...?”
Bliny frowned at the castle at the entrance to the valley.
It was such an insignificant place that the word castle was meaningless.
They often used it when going to and from hunting grounds, but there was no such sign. The walls were covered with moss and grass, and the same was true of the one tower.
“Surprisingly, it has a simple taste.”
Bliny closed the carriage window as if there was nothing more to see. She felt bad as she was tapping her shoes that ahe had taken off and hung on her toes.
“...Indeed.”
She agreed that she should get away for now.
However, she could not understand why the King had chosen such a remote place.
“It’s not a refuge, it’s exile.”
Bliny muttered irritably.
The maids lowered their heads as if they were afraid of sparks flying.
Bliny tried to rub her ring out of habit, but when she realized that it was no longer on her finger, she twisted her eyebrows for no reason.
She could not wear the ring any longer because it caused the King to have a seizure when he saw it.
She spit it out, and her throat bled. After all that hard work, she could not wear it anymore because she could see the signs.
“...I’m annoyed.”
Thinking about it, everything she's done since killing her husband up until now was all to get Black involved.
No matter what she did, the results were always unexpected. Now, she's become the type of person who picks out clothes every morning to please the old King.
“Should I go to the duchy?”
A headache arose as she thought about staying in the small, shabby castle as if she were dead.
She wanted to return to the duchy, but she didn’t think the royal guard would listen to her easily. There were so many things she didn’t like about this and that. Bliny pressed her fingers to her throbbing head and shut her mouth.
She wished war would break out as soon as possible.
The King would die, the Sharka kingdom would be torn apart, and the Princess of Nauk, who was dying, would die quickly.
...Squeak, bang.
While she was thinking that she wished everything in the world would die and disappear, the carriage pulled into the castle.
“We’ve arrived....”
The words to get off stopped midway.
There was no polite gesture to open the carriage door.
“...?”
Bliny nodded to her maid. It meant to open the door.
But before the maid could get up, the door opened on its own.
Boom!
The one who opened the door was not a royal guard. He was wearing rough pilgrim clothes.
“Welcome to Gelm Castle. We’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Aren’t you too slow?”
“...? You...”
Bliny remembered that rough, rough voice mixed with all the accents of the continent.
He pulled back the large hood he wore over his head.
His eyes, mixed with irritation, contempt, and a strange sense of playfulness, smiled at Bliny.
“I think you remember me, my apologies... Mad Princess.”
"...”
Bliny’s face hardened.
Randall. His name was Randall.
***
The death of ten guardsmen took place in an instant.
Bliny stared at the corpses falling down as if they were playful, frozen in place.
She couldn’t believe it. This was happening right before her eyes.
That this was happening to her, of all people.
In the front yard of the small castle that she didn’t like at first sight, the corpses of the guards were piled up.
People wearing ugly robes, with their backs to the corpses, surrounded her and her maids.
One of them was the man who had been disturbing her dreams until last night.
He came to her in that state. She had thought about meeting him tens of thousands of times, but it wasn’t like this.
It wasn’t like sitting on the floor, helpless, surrounded by corpses, as if she had committed a crime.
She didn’t like everything.
“You see me like this... Bliny Bashad.”
“...”
The woman who spoke to her was the one she hated the most.
Her dark blond hair caught her eye.
It was disheveled and dirty. It seemed like she hadn’t washed her face. The pilgrim’s robes on her body smelled musty.
The one who was speaking to her now must be the Princess of Nauk.
Bliny looked at Liene as if she was seeing a living being for the first time.
It was strange. The Princess of Nauk was standing in front of her, dressed exactly like that man.
“...You should be dead.”
Bliny licked her lips.
“You lied?”
Before Liene could say anything, Black wrapped his arms around Liene’s shoulders from behind, making her distance herself.
“Don’t come near her. I don’t know what she might do.”
“...”
Bliny's lips twisted.
It was only after a long time that Bliny realized that a strange, dry laugh was leaking out of her lips.
“You told me she was dead. She was dying.”
There was a laugh in her words.
“If the Princess died, wouldn’t you get your past back?”
When she heard that the man who rejected her proposed to the Princess of Nauk.
Bliny believed in one thing.
Black had to get his past back, and the person who took that past away was the Princess of Nauk.
The proposal was a means. It had to be that way.
Black had never been in love with anyone. He was a man who didn’t know how to do that. Just as she couldn’t have him, it was the same with everything else.
There was no reason for the Princess of Nauk to be special. There shouldn’t have been.
“You married her to kill her. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten married.”
“The ring.”
Black didn’t listen to Bliny.
It was as if he had no reason to listen.
“I know you have it on you. If you give it back, I won’t kill you.”
Her eyes seemed to twitch as she looked at him.
“Kill the Princess. Then I’ll give it back.”
“...You haven’t come to your senses. You’re...”
“Wait a minute.”
The Princess of Nauk grabbed Black’s arm. Black’s body was easily dragged along. It was the strongest and heaviest body she knew.
“You promised. You’ll leave it to me.”
The Princess of Nauk was making a fuss, but Black smiled at her face.
“I’m leaving it to you.”
“No. You keep interfering. I said no.”
Why would he laugh at such nonsense?
“I can’t make the Princess listen to such nonsense.”
“Don’t tell me. It makes me feel bad just being near her. You know I haven’t washed my face yet, right?”
“I know. What does that matter?”
“My clothes are a mess, and these clothes even smell.”
“My clothes smell.”
“No, what I’m saying is that it’s not fair right now. Princess Bliny is very... clean, unlike me.”
“I know. What does that matter?”
“My clothes are a mess, and these clothes even smell.”
“My clothes smell.”
“No, what I’m saying is that it’s not fair right now. Princess Bliny is very... clean, unlike me.”
Black affectionately stroked his dirty blond hair.
“That’s right. It’s not fair. The Princess suddenly becomes cute when you put on your smelly pilgrim’s clothes.”
“No! You shouldn’t say that!”
The Princess of Nauk turned to look and covered Black’s mouth with her hand.
He must be quite tall, but his mouth was well covered.
“We need to get the ring back... You keep your mouth shut.”
“...”
Black kept his mouth shut and nodded.
In Bliny’s eyes, it all seemed like a puppet show gone wrong. It didn’t make sense. It all didn’t make sense.
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