The first thing Ippolito felt was the loss of flesh where there should have been, and the next thing he felt was the sound of arrows again, or rather, the crackling sound of arrows rushing in.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
“Ugh!”
Ippolito tumbled down the rock, shuddering from the pain of being burned by a fire that had come upon him late. There was no time to stop.
Pashot!
The second arrow struck the tree, cutting through the exact space where his head had been two seconds ago. Ippolito began to run frantically through the forest.
'You damn brat! Are you still following me?'
The assassin who had followed him from the diocese of Chiriani did not give up on Ippolito even after crossing the Prinoyak Mountains and entering the borders of the Kingdom of Salamanta. Hired assassins usually did not pursue him this far. Ippolito began to have doubts about the identity of his opponent.
'That... A sadistic hobby... Is that the kind of person who does dick stuff?'
At first, he thought there was only one assassin. But after being chased for a month, he realized that there were at least two, and at most five or six.
'If we had been chasing rabbits by number, we would have caught them a long time ago...'
But among all those people, only one person attacked him. And that person's skills improved day by day.
'It was definitely awkward at first!'
The assassin's actions became more agile and sharper by the day. He had been desperately running away for a month, but the other side's skills were improving faster than his running away. The result was today. Ippolito finally lost one of his ears.
“F*ck!”
He was furious that he had come all this way, right in front of Marquis Variati's fortress, and had been shot by arrows. If only he had held out a little longer...! My ears! My precious ears!
The part where Ippolito was fortunate was that the Marquis of Variati had set up his garrison at the edge of a mountain range, not in a city in the middle of the plains like other lords, and was thus trapped in the mountains. If Ippolito had gone down to the plains, he would have been turned into a hedgehog in less than thirty minutes.
“Gasp... Gasp...!”
He ran along the forest path with the utmost passion in his life. Even the tenacity of a waste of time was no match for the arrows chasing him.
'Father..., Father...!'
The strong father of his imagination will save him...! The iron-clad Variant must be strong and handsome, right? A handsome man like his strong father... Hey, my precious ears!
After running for a while, the arrows stopped flying. However, Ippolito could tell that it was not that he had let go, but that he was getting close and trying to cut with his sword.
'Save me....!'
As Ippolito reached the entrance to the citadel made of giant logs, the thoughts in his head began to blurt out from his lips.
“Father...! Please save me!”
The fierce-looking mercenary guarding the entrance looked at Ippolito with a face that seemed to show that he had seen all kinds of crazy people. If it were Ippolito, he would have been furious at being ignored, but he was in no position to be picky right now. He ran behind the mercenary who seemed to be the leader and clung to him, begging.
“Please save me! I am Ippolito from San Carlo!”
Ippolito knew that this was no guarantee, so he spat out his words like a machine gun before the mercenary could chase him away.
“I am the biological son of the Iron-clad Variati! My mother is Lucrezia of Taranto!”
The mercenaries' expressions changed slightly. Some of them began to whisper among themselves.
But at that time, the group of assassins also arrived at the log fortress of Marquis Variati. The person who had been harassing Ippolito for a month had finally revealed himself.
“...!”
As expected, it wasn't just one person. It was a group of five or six, including a large figure wearing a black hood pulled down deep, and his subordinates following him. The mercenaries and Ippolito were both tense because they looked unusual.
The leader standing at the very front, the one in a black hood, opened his mouth.
“...You stay out of my way and don’t get in my way.”
It was a more polite, quiet, and deliberately low voice than I had thought. That made it even more threatening. It was a sign that he wasn't a slacker. The captain of the mercenaries shouted.
“Hey, who are you all?”
This time, a thin young man answered ominously. He was a tall man who was standing behind a black hood, as if protecting himself.
“I don’t know.”
The young man replaced the taciturn Black Hood as the captain of the mercenary army.
“We owe him a debt. If you don’t interfere, we won’t pursue you either.”
The captain mercenary looked around to assess the situation. First, there was one man who claimed to be the lord's son, and a group of men who looked formidable.
His eyes scanned the attire of the black hooded group. The decorations on the leather straps that tightened the quiver. The patterns were engraved on the longsword that the black hood held. The boots, worn from crossing the mountains, but of the highest quality, and the buttons on them. Nothing was ordinary. The mercenary captain focused on the button that looked like a family crest.
“...Please wait here for a moment.”
The captain's words became polite. He called one of his subordinates and gestured. The subordinate tried to run inside.
“Now, just a moment!”
Ippolito cried.
“This, show this to my father!”
With trembling hands, he took out a silver button from his pocket. It was a button with the emblem of the mercenary corps, a roaring dragon.
“When my father sees this, he will remember that I am his own son!”
A token that Lucrezia had treasured all her life. It was undoubtedly the property of the Marquis of Variati.
The captain of the guard, who had blocked the Prince's carriage, began to list the reasons why Countess de Mare was forbidden from entering the palace.
“Countess de Mare’s brother, Ippolito de Mare, has been wanted throughout the country!”
“...”
“The crime of tempting the strong men of San Carlo, the capital of the kingdom, with the smoke of the devil and causing their death; the crime of distributing wicked pagan goods; the crime of smuggling goods across the sea without His Majesty the King’s permission; the crime of disturbing the good customs and other social order of San Carlo; all these crimes are so heavy that they can only be repaid with life!”
Ariadne silently listened to the charges that were clearly memorized. There were many things she could say, such as that he was not her real brother and that he had already been excommunicated from the family. However, for some reason, she had a feeling that there would be no point in arguing.
Deeply grateful for Countess de Mare's silence, the captain of the guard went on to list Ippolito de Mare's crimes, mainly about how he was a villain. Finally, he got to the point.
“...Therefore, Duchess Rubina has issued an order to prohibit all members of the de Mare family, including Countess Ariadne de Mare, Countess Contarini Isabella de Mare, from entering the palace!”
Ariadne rested her head on the back of the carriage, partly in resignation, partly in reserve for the future. She felt as if she were being crushed by a stone.
The Duchess Rubina and her are not in front of them right now, and it would be ridiculous to talk to the person who received the Duchess' orders.
For a moment, her heart clenched as she thought about the dress she had prepared for today's ball and the appointment she had made with Canali's costume shop, but those were just problems that could be solved little by little.
Ariadne decided to accept the fact that she had to go home now. She hung her head cautiously, wondering where to stab Duchess Rubina for the best effect.
“...”
Patience was a virtue that all weak people had to possess. Ariadne, who started out as the weakest and survived to this point, possessed this virtue better than anyone else.
On the contrary, it was Alfonso who couldn't hold it in any longer and exploded.
“Rude!”
The Prince, who never raised his voice, raised his eyebrows and shouted.
“How dare someone like Duchess Rubina or someone like that interfere with my procession?!”
He was genuinely angry. He could bear being touched. A weak dog barks loudly. He was born the most precious, the one who had everything, and he was not infected by the anxiety of others.
His authority was inviolable. There was no need for anger or revenge. But to touch Ariadne? That was not something that could be understood or overlooked.
“As the only direct descendant of His Majesty the King, I have the right to go anywhere except the King’s bedroom and the Queen’s inner chambers. Also, it is the law of the palace that my partner of my choice can go anywhere I can!”
The captain of the guard faced a situation where the Prince, the embodiment of gentleness, was so angry that he could do nothing but bow his head.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I’m truly sorry.”
He kept bowing his head and waist.
“I am simply passing on what I have been given.”
It was difficult to expect a mere guard captain to defy Rubina and allow Countess de Mare into the palace. That was beyond his ability to do in his position.
“How could I dare disobey the orders of my superiors?”
However, being low in rank also meant that there was a loophole to escape. People in low ranks had to obey multiple superiors.
Alfonso looked straight at the guard captain and said. It was not a calculated action, but an instinctive action. The guard captain could not disobey Prince Alfonso's orders.
“You report to the higher-ups.”
A spark flew from his eyes. He had no intention of fighting here, and he certainly had no intention of going home with his head down like a defeated dog. No, this was his home, where could he go? The intruder was not he, the only Prince in this country, but Rubina, who had pushed his mother out and taken her place in the civil war.
“His Highness the Prince broke through and passed by without warning, so I couldn’t stop him.”
The guard captain looked up in surprise. However, since he had heard that he would ignore him, the guard captain, who would normally be angry, looked moved instead. The current situation was the same as if the Prince had said, 'I will take responsibility, so you get out of the way.'
“I, Your Highness...! I am simply in awe of Your grace...!”
In this Palazzo Carlo, the only person who looked after the position of the lower class was Prince Alfonso. This was a story of a different level of equality.
The Prince, as a superior, did not pass the burden of risk to his subordinates but willingly shouldered it himself. This was the kind of responsible leader that was lost in Palazzo Carlo. Subordinates, get out of the way. The Prince will take care of complicated matters.
This was not an action that Alfonso had calculated. He had never been in power, so he simply moved in this direction instinctively and comfortably.
“Stop talking nonsense and get out of the way.”
“Yes, yes, Your Highness...!”
And it wasn't just the captain of the guard who was impressed by Alfonso. Ariadne, too, was looking at the profile of Alfonso sitting next to her with different eyes.
'Alfonso....'
When the Mireille affair broke out, Alfonso was just struggling. He couldn't save Ariadne and Elko at the same time. The choice of a scapegoat was made only when Elko volunteered.
Ariadne also did not want to torment Alfonso, who was weak. She had sworn to be a knight, wanting to embrace him, the good and beautiful but weak man who had committed a crime.
He was a completely different person now.
Moreover, her judgment of the situation was also perfect. If this had been Leo III’s action, she would have once again bowed down and insisted on returning. However, if the decision to block Ariadne’s entrance today was the sole action of Duchess Rubina, Alfonso’s choice was the right one.
“Thank you, thank you...!”
The guard gave countless awkward 90-degree salutes while stepping aside. A normal senior in this palace would have been upset that his procession had been blocked and would have been preoccupied with figuring out how to deal with this guard. It was a magnanimous act, almost miraculous, in Palazzo Carlo that Alfonso did not hold a grudge against him and gave him a space to escape.
'Why didn't I think of this?'
The more she thought about it, the more she thought this was the right direction. No one got hurt, they got what they wanted, and even the security chief was happy. Surely Rubina had intended to humiliate her, and she really didn't think the mere security chief would be able to stop Prince Alfonso.
'Isn't bending the first step the best...?'
She seemed to have discovered a use for power she had never known before.
But just as the guard captain was about to call all the guardsmen away, the shrill voice of a middle-aged woman resonated through the gate.
“How dare you slip away without my orders?”
It was Duchess Rubina who came to see the beautiful sights and ended up watching the lowly servants disobey her orders without any filter, which was infuriating.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
“Ugh!”
Ippolito tumbled down the rock, shuddering from the pain of being burned by a fire that had come upon him late. There was no time to stop.
Pashot!
The second arrow struck the tree, cutting through the exact space where his head had been two seconds ago. Ippolito began to run frantically through the forest.
'You damn brat! Are you still following me?'
The assassin who had followed him from the diocese of Chiriani did not give up on Ippolito even after crossing the Prinoyak Mountains and entering the borders of the Kingdom of Salamanta. Hired assassins usually did not pursue him this far. Ippolito began to have doubts about the identity of his opponent.
'That... A sadistic hobby... Is that the kind of person who does dick stuff?'
At first, he thought there was only one assassin. But after being chased for a month, he realized that there were at least two, and at most five or six.
'If we had been chasing rabbits by number, we would have caught them a long time ago...'
But among all those people, only one person attacked him. And that person's skills improved day by day.
'It was definitely awkward at first!'
The assassin's actions became more agile and sharper by the day. He had been desperately running away for a month, but the other side's skills were improving faster than his running away. The result was today. Ippolito finally lost one of his ears.
“F*ck!”
He was furious that he had come all this way, right in front of Marquis Variati's fortress, and had been shot by arrows. If only he had held out a little longer...! My ears! My precious ears!
The part where Ippolito was fortunate was that the Marquis of Variati had set up his garrison at the edge of a mountain range, not in a city in the middle of the plains like other lords, and was thus trapped in the mountains. If Ippolito had gone down to the plains, he would have been turned into a hedgehog in less than thirty minutes.
“Gasp... Gasp...!”
He ran along the forest path with the utmost passion in his life. Even the tenacity of a waste of time was no match for the arrows chasing him.
'Father..., Father...!'
The strong father of his imagination will save him...! The iron-clad Variant must be strong and handsome, right? A handsome man like his strong father... Hey, my precious ears!
After running for a while, the arrows stopped flying. However, Ippolito could tell that it was not that he had let go, but that he was getting close and trying to cut with his sword.
'Save me....!'
As Ippolito reached the entrance to the citadel made of giant logs, the thoughts in his head began to blurt out from his lips.
“Father...! Please save me!”
The fierce-looking mercenary guarding the entrance looked at Ippolito with a face that seemed to show that he had seen all kinds of crazy people. If it were Ippolito, he would have been furious at being ignored, but he was in no position to be picky right now. He ran behind the mercenary who seemed to be the leader and clung to him, begging.
“Please save me! I am Ippolito from San Carlo!”
Ippolito knew that this was no guarantee, so he spat out his words like a machine gun before the mercenary could chase him away.
“I am the biological son of the Iron-clad Variati! My mother is Lucrezia of Taranto!”
The mercenaries' expressions changed slightly. Some of them began to whisper among themselves.
But at that time, the group of assassins also arrived at the log fortress of Marquis Variati. The person who had been harassing Ippolito for a month had finally revealed himself.
“...!”
As expected, it wasn't just one person. It was a group of five or six, including a large figure wearing a black hood pulled down deep, and his subordinates following him. The mercenaries and Ippolito were both tense because they looked unusual.
The leader standing at the very front, the one in a black hood, opened his mouth.
“...You stay out of my way and don’t get in my way.”
It was a more polite, quiet, and deliberately low voice than I had thought. That made it even more threatening. It was a sign that he wasn't a slacker. The captain of the mercenaries shouted.
“Hey, who are you all?”
This time, a thin young man answered ominously. He was a tall man who was standing behind a black hood, as if protecting himself.
“I don’t know.”
The young man replaced the taciturn Black Hood as the captain of the mercenary army.
“We owe him a debt. If you don’t interfere, we won’t pursue you either.”
The captain mercenary looked around to assess the situation. First, there was one man who claimed to be the lord's son, and a group of men who looked formidable.
His eyes scanned the attire of the black hooded group. The decorations on the leather straps that tightened the quiver. The patterns were engraved on the longsword that the black hood held. The boots, worn from crossing the mountains, but of the highest quality, and the buttons on them. Nothing was ordinary. The mercenary captain focused on the button that looked like a family crest.
“...Please wait here for a moment.”
The captain's words became polite. He called one of his subordinates and gestured. The subordinate tried to run inside.
“Now, just a moment!”
Ippolito cried.
“This, show this to my father!”
With trembling hands, he took out a silver button from his pocket. It was a button with the emblem of the mercenary corps, a roaring dragon.
“When my father sees this, he will remember that I am his own son!”
A token that Lucrezia had treasured all her life. It was undoubtedly the property of the Marquis of Variati.
***
The captain of the guard, who had blocked the Prince's carriage, began to list the reasons why Countess de Mare was forbidden from entering the palace.
“Countess de Mare’s brother, Ippolito de Mare, has been wanted throughout the country!”
“...”
“The crime of tempting the strong men of San Carlo, the capital of the kingdom, with the smoke of the devil and causing their death; the crime of distributing wicked pagan goods; the crime of smuggling goods across the sea without His Majesty the King’s permission; the crime of disturbing the good customs and other social order of San Carlo; all these crimes are so heavy that they can only be repaid with life!”
Ariadne silently listened to the charges that were clearly memorized. There were many things she could say, such as that he was not her real brother and that he had already been excommunicated from the family. However, for some reason, she had a feeling that there would be no point in arguing.
Deeply grateful for Countess de Mare's silence, the captain of the guard went on to list Ippolito de Mare's crimes, mainly about how he was a villain. Finally, he got to the point.
“...Therefore, Duchess Rubina has issued an order to prohibit all members of the de Mare family, including Countess Ariadne de Mare, Countess Contarini Isabella de Mare, from entering the palace!”
Ariadne rested her head on the back of the carriage, partly in resignation, partly in reserve for the future. She felt as if she were being crushed by a stone.
The Duchess Rubina and her are not in front of them right now, and it would be ridiculous to talk to the person who received the Duchess' orders.
For a moment, her heart clenched as she thought about the dress she had prepared for today's ball and the appointment she had made with Canali's costume shop, but those were just problems that could be solved little by little.
Ariadne decided to accept the fact that she had to go home now. She hung her head cautiously, wondering where to stab Duchess Rubina for the best effect.
“...”
Patience was a virtue that all weak people had to possess. Ariadne, who started out as the weakest and survived to this point, possessed this virtue better than anyone else.
On the contrary, it was Alfonso who couldn't hold it in any longer and exploded.
“Rude!”
The Prince, who never raised his voice, raised his eyebrows and shouted.
“How dare someone like Duchess Rubina or someone like that interfere with my procession?!”
He was genuinely angry. He could bear being touched. A weak dog barks loudly. He was born the most precious, the one who had everything, and he was not infected by the anxiety of others.
His authority was inviolable. There was no need for anger or revenge. But to touch Ariadne? That was not something that could be understood or overlooked.
“As the only direct descendant of His Majesty the King, I have the right to go anywhere except the King’s bedroom and the Queen’s inner chambers. Also, it is the law of the palace that my partner of my choice can go anywhere I can!”
The captain of the guard faced a situation where the Prince, the embodiment of gentleness, was so angry that he could do nothing but bow his head.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I’m truly sorry.”
He kept bowing his head and waist.
“I am simply passing on what I have been given.”
It was difficult to expect a mere guard captain to defy Rubina and allow Countess de Mare into the palace. That was beyond his ability to do in his position.
“How could I dare disobey the orders of my superiors?”
However, being low in rank also meant that there was a loophole to escape. People in low ranks had to obey multiple superiors.
Alfonso looked straight at the guard captain and said. It was not a calculated action, but an instinctive action. The guard captain could not disobey Prince Alfonso's orders.
“You report to the higher-ups.”
A spark flew from his eyes. He had no intention of fighting here, and he certainly had no intention of going home with his head down like a defeated dog. No, this was his home, where could he go? The intruder was not he, the only Prince in this country, but Rubina, who had pushed his mother out and taken her place in the civil war.
“His Highness the Prince broke through and passed by without warning, so I couldn’t stop him.”
The guard captain looked up in surprise. However, since he had heard that he would ignore him, the guard captain, who would normally be angry, looked moved instead. The current situation was the same as if the Prince had said, 'I will take responsibility, so you get out of the way.'
“I, Your Highness...! I am simply in awe of Your grace...!”
In this Palazzo Carlo, the only person who looked after the position of the lower class was Prince Alfonso. This was a story of a different level of equality.
The Prince, as a superior, did not pass the burden of risk to his subordinates but willingly shouldered it himself. This was the kind of responsible leader that was lost in Palazzo Carlo. Subordinates, get out of the way. The Prince will take care of complicated matters.
This was not an action that Alfonso had calculated. He had never been in power, so he simply moved in this direction instinctively and comfortably.
“Stop talking nonsense and get out of the way.”
“Yes, yes, Your Highness...!”
And it wasn't just the captain of the guard who was impressed by Alfonso. Ariadne, too, was looking at the profile of Alfonso sitting next to her with different eyes.
'Alfonso....'
When the Mireille affair broke out, Alfonso was just struggling. He couldn't save Ariadne and Elko at the same time. The choice of a scapegoat was made only when Elko volunteered.
Ariadne also did not want to torment Alfonso, who was weak. She had sworn to be a knight, wanting to embrace him, the good and beautiful but weak man who had committed a crime.
He was a completely different person now.
Moreover, her judgment of the situation was also perfect. If this had been Leo III’s action, she would have once again bowed down and insisted on returning. However, if the decision to block Ariadne’s entrance today was the sole action of Duchess Rubina, Alfonso’s choice was the right one.
“Thank you, thank you...!”
The guard gave countless awkward 90-degree salutes while stepping aside. A normal senior in this palace would have been upset that his procession had been blocked and would have been preoccupied with figuring out how to deal with this guard. It was a magnanimous act, almost miraculous, in Palazzo Carlo that Alfonso did not hold a grudge against him and gave him a space to escape.
'Why didn't I think of this?'
The more she thought about it, the more she thought this was the right direction. No one got hurt, they got what they wanted, and even the security chief was happy. Surely Rubina had intended to humiliate her, and she really didn't think the mere security chief would be able to stop Prince Alfonso.
'Isn't bending the first step the best...?'
She seemed to have discovered a use for power she had never known before.
But just as the guard captain was about to call all the guardsmen away, the shrill voice of a middle-aged woman resonated through the gate.
“How dare you slip away without my orders?”
It was Duchess Rubina who came to see the beautiful sights and ended up watching the lowly servants disobey her orders without any filter, which was infuriating.
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