It was a familiar voice now.
I've heard it when I was dancing before.
I turned my head to the left, where I heard the voice.
I made eye contact with Baron Wolfstein, who was leaning crookedly against a large tree planted in the garden and glaring at me.
I thought I would just ignore it, but the eyes on me were so enthusiastic that I replied for the time being.
"I don't know what you mean by mercenary groups."
Currently, I have only changed my hair color and eye color, but I have my true face.
I had changed my face when I had met Baron Wolfstein before, so he didn't know that I had anything to do with the mercenaries.
Still, I was worried about the fact that he was talking about the mercenary group.
I don't know if he really recognized me, but I felt like I had to take my time off first.
"You must have been very drunk. Why don't you go back and rest today?"
When I replied with the hour hand off until the end, a smile came from his teeth.
"Did you think I wouldn't recognize you if I didn't know? You ran into me a while ago. You were with Rodrick then."
I had a completely different face from back then, and I wondered how he really recognized me.
Is it a good eye?
Anyway, he seemed to already know everything, so I couldn't take it off anymore.
I answered the question he had just asked.
"Of course, the main quests that mercenaries receive are monster subjugation and top escorts, but these requests also come in from time to time. Have I answered your questions now?"
"Pretending to be a lover of a lesser bastard. You do all kinds of poetic things. Do anything if you get the money?"
"..."
"I'm willing to pay the commission fee, too. Can you give me some time?"
I've been thinking about him since I first met him, but he was a really strange person.
Still, he didn't show any signs of anger when we first met, but now that he is openly showing his displeasure, it feels much more dangerous.
I don't know what made him angry, but I turned around because I didn't want to deal with him anymore.
"Don't go."
He approached quickly and stood in my way
"Talk to me, you even pretended to be a lover of a lesser bastard, so there's nothing you can't talk to me."
This time too. There was a hint of desperation in his gaze.
He was a dangerous person anyway, so I stared at him with my eyes tightened.
"...I hope you don't insult ny client in that way. If you have a personal request, you must come to the Mercenary Corps headquarters and formally accept it."
When I replied in a businesslike way, he lowered his gaze as if he had heard something terrible.
At first glance, he looked pathetic, and when he felt a little weak, his mouth opened.
"Just wait a minute."
"..."
"It won't drag on for long."
He was acting pitiful, as if he had set the day.
Normally, I would have ignored it and just passed it by.
However, it was hard for me to ignore it because it came out so low.
I also felt that I shouldn't openly ignore an aristocrat who could hold a ball of this size.
"Can I take five minutes?"
"That's enough. Let's go to a place where there are no people. It's an important story."
There were no people here either, but there were people passing by from time to time.
I nodded and followed him.
He reached a corner of the garden before he stopped and looked at me again.
"Stop working for the mercenary group."
"...What?"
I asked him what he was trying to say, but he was saying something really strange.
I looked at him in amazement, and he brushed his hair.
Somehow, that movement was ominously familiar.
The Baron said again to me, who was confused.
"If you need money, I'll support you, so stop it. Trying to make other men feel good."
I don't know what you're talking about, but it's not a matter of making people feel good, and it's not a situation where money is urgent. You're rude."
"If it's not something that makes you feel good, what is it? You were flirting while dancing."
"..."
"If you don't need money, why would you do that?"
I really tried not to get angry.
But the opponent didn't let me do that.
My voice kept getting higher and higher without realizing it.
"It may have looked pathetic to you, but it was a high-grade request. I accepted this request to prove my skills."
"Prove your skills? Why do you have to do that? Is Rodrick not protecting you at all?"
"..."
"Why are you living like that? If you left home with a lot of difficulty, you would just do something that you enjoyed and not feel sorry for the South."
It took my breath away.
He told me that I had left home.
That meant that he knew that I was the Grand Duchess who had escaped from the Grand Palace.
My mouth, which had been moving well until just now, froze.
I barely moved my frozen mouth and couldn't even form a sentence.
"Party, you..."
"You still don't know who I am?"
He took off his mask and pulled the necklace around his neck.
As if it were a magical tool, he removed the necklace from his neck, and his appearance changed.
He looks like a man I know very well.
"...Kishian."
A cracked voice scratched my throat and barely came out.
"Why, since when did you want me..."
"I've been watching it for quite some time. It wasn't that hard to find you."
"..."
"Monsters disappear where you are, right? We searched around the area where the monsters suddenly disappeared. Then I found out that Rodrick's mercenary headquarters were here, and considering your acquaintance with Rodrick, it's obvious where your hiding place is."
"..."
"Ever since I found out that you were in the Mercenaries, I've been keeping an eye on Baron Wolfstein. Of course, I planted people inside the mercenary group to hear about you."
I was too sloppy.
Instead of hiding in one place, I should have kept moving from place to place.
This was the result of relying on the fence of mercenaries.
'What will happen to me now? Am I going to be dragged away like this?'
Would I be taken away to pay for my sins?
The sin of deceiving him and running away...
He said in a low voice, as if he had read my mind.
"Don't be afraid, because I won't think about it."
"Then why the hell..."
If you didn't come here to take me away and punish me, why did you come all the way here?
I scowled at him with eyes full of caution.
He was shaking badly, so he wouldn't be too threatening.
He didn't laugh at me like that.
On the contrary, he slowly opened his mouth with a face that looked more nervous than mine.
"Forgiveness."
"Forgiveness?"
To beg for forgiveness."
I never imagined that it would come out of his mouth, and my mind was confused for a moment.
He's not asking for forgiveness, but he's asking for forgiveness himself.
He said to me in a confused voice.
"To ask for forgiveness and ask for another chance."
"But...why you?"
The sin was committed by me and the imperial family.
He was always a victim.
But what kind of forgiveness do you ask for?
He stammered with trembling lips.
"...You have to get angry. Even if you couldn't help it because of your father, I deceived you."
"I was angry at first."
A sad voice fell into my ears.
In front of me, who had become stiff, he continued to confess.
"I was really angry when I found out you ran away. I promised myself that if I caught you, I would make you kneel down and beg."
"..."
"When I found out that it was Rodrick who stole you, I wanted to kill him."
"..."
"When I found out that you were doing well in my absence, I wanted to die."
His grip on my shoulder tightened a little.
"In the end, I found out that all of your suffering was because I was by your side. It was because of me that you ran away."
Not. He was not the distressed one.
I indeed suffered by his side, but it was only because I was afraid that my sins would be exposed.
I shook my head with a stiff body.
"Why is it your fault? That's all...'
"You ran away because you were afraid I would behave like when I went to the Imperial Palace and forcibly dragged you away."
"..."
"You were afraid that I would be as violent as I was when I believed that you were in love with the Duke of Hersen."
That was true.
I was afraid that he would be the same as before.
I was afraid that I would turn into the way je was when he forcibly dragged me to the Grand Duke's mansion, locked me in an annex that didn't get any sunlight, and left me to be held captive by the maids.
I was afraid that the kind smile he had given me would disappear without a trace...
My whole body trembled as if I had been hit by rain on a cold winter day.
A lump that had been suffocating deep in my chest wriggled in my heart.
And the next moment, words that melted the old lump came out of his mouth.
"You never betrayed me in the first place. You weren't the ones who fell in love with the Duke of Hersen."
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