A pale hand with visible veins desperately pushed against his chest.
Barcas gathered her wrist in one hand and pressed her head down onto his shoulder with the other.
He wondered how long he had been like that. The strength slowly drained from her body, which had been tense like a tightly drawn bowstring.
He laid the woman, who was completely agitated and panting heavily, diagonally on the bed, and placed the back of his hand on her forehead. Fortunately, she did not seem to have a fever.
As he let out a small sigh, the woman lifted her wet eyelashes and glared at him.
“I feel terrible for you.”
Barcas showed no reaction. The woman lowered her eyes wearily and muttered in a faint voice.
"And I'm even more terrible."
***
Before he knew it, the season of rest was deepening.
A cold wind swept across the training ground, frozen white by the snow that had fallen overnight.
Lucas, who had been swinging a wooden sword undeterred by the biting cold and wearing nothing but a single coat over his bare body, suddenly looked up at the sky.
Gray clouds were covering the sun, as if it were about to snow again. He was staring blankly at them with hazy eyes when a hoarse voice was heard from nearby.
"Do you really not remember anything about how you got hurt?"
As he turned my head, he saw Baredon sitting on the fence of the training ground, spinning a dagger around with one hand.
Lucas let out a sigh mixed with annoyance.
"How many times do I have to tell you I don't remember?"
"But don't you remember everything about me, Miss Raina, and everyone else?"
He tilted his head to the side and rebutted.
Lucas, who had been striking a training straw dummy repeatedly with a wooden sword, stopped his movements and turned around.
"Are you saying I'm scamming you right now?"
"Who said that? I'm just asking... because I don't quite understand."
"I don't understand it either."
When he gave Baredon a fierce look, Lucas muttered in a despondent tone.
"It feels just like someone has been messing around inside my head, however they want. Memories come back sporadically, but then they cut off abruptly, as if blocked by something. Especially..."
He was about to say that if he had been attacked, most of his memories of the wolf and its owner were as hazy as fog, but he closed his mouth. For some reason, he was extremely reluctant to say those words.
He stroked the scar on the back of his neck and gazed at the forest path at the end of the training ground.
According to the soldiers' testimony, he was attacked somewhere over there by a dire wolf raised by the Grand Duchess. And the woman abandoned him as he lay dying and ran away with the wolf.
He had no way of knowing why he felt as though a hole had been torn in his heart every time he ruminated on that fact. All he remembered about the woman was the fragmentary fact that their relationship had been terrible.
He vaguely recalled the times they had argued a few times fiercely shortly after Barcas's return to the East, but the woman's appearance was unclear, as if hidden behind a curtain.
Why did only the memory of that woman disappear completely?
As he asked himself the question, Lucas suddenly felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his temple and clutched it.
An instinctive sense of revulsion enveloped his entire body. For some reason, he felt as though he shouldn't think about anything related to that woman.
“Are you okay?”
Seeing that his face had turned pale, Baredon hurriedly asked him.
Lucas waved his hand to indicate that he was fine.
"I was just a little dizzy for a moment, so don't make a fuss."
"Didn't you push yourself too hard for no reason, and your health just got worse again? Even the High Priest told you to rest for the time being.'
"I've been confined to my bed for over a month. Isn't that enough rest?"
Lucas retorted irritably.
"If you're that worried about me, stop bothering me and go do your own work. You'd need two bodies to handle my share of the work, wouldn't you?"
"I actually came here to check when you might be able to return. However, judging by your condition, it looks like you will have to wait quite a while longer."
Baredon let out a deep sigh as he tucked the dagger he was holding into his belt.
Lucas let out a hollow laugh.
"So, you were prying into me like that to see if I was faking it?"
"Judging by the intensity of the work Young Master Lucas was undertaking, there is a reasonable suspicion that you're acting to extend your break period..."
Baredon, who had been chattering nonchalantly, suddenly fell silent. A trumpet blast announcing the arrival of an important guest had rang out from the castle walls.
Lucas turned his head and looked at the castle gate.
With the loud noise of horses' hooves pounding on the stone ground, five or six cavalrymen mounted on massive warhorses were entering the training ground in step alongside.
Recognizing the Roem Knights' emblem embroidered on the outside, Lucas immediately put down his wooden sword and ran to the front of the castle gate.
"What brings you here?"
When he asked the question loudly, the man at the front turned his head.
It was a familiar face. Was his name Edric Rubon? He was the man who frequently visited Raedgo Castle as a messenger for the imperial family.
He quickly dismounted from his horse and greeted Lucas politely.
"We apologize for visiting without notice. We have come to deliver a message from His Imperial Majesty.'
"A message from His Majesty?"
When Lucas cast a suspicious glance, the man nodded with a stern face.
"An uprising has broken out in the northern region. Fearing that the situation would escalate if suppression were delayed, His Majesty ordered the feudal lords of each region to immediately dispatch reinforcements."
A strong commotion arose among the soldiers. The Emperor's messenger looked around and shouted as if making a declaration.
"The East is no exception. Grand Duke Sheerkhan's family must immediately obey His Imperial Majesty's command and join the suppression!"
***
It was an hour after the emergency meeting was convened that the Grand Duke appeared at the meeting hall.
As Barcas, having crossed the hall with his usual flawless demeanor, took his seat at the head of the table, the murmuring hall was instantly enveloped in silence.
Since the incident involving the subjugation of the direwolf, the Grand Duke had been holed up in the annex, handling all official business in writing.
It had been nearly a month since he last appeared in public. Naturally, the gazes of his retainers were filled with deep distrust. They seemed worried that the Grand Duke might try to disobey the Emperor's orders.
"I will issue a mobilization order for the southeastern region immediately and deploy an additional 4,000 troops to the north."
The Grand Duke, who had been carefully reading the Emperor's letter, finally opened his mouth.
One of the Emperor's messengers, seated at the end of the long table, suddenly stood up and raised an objection.
"His Majesty has ordered the deployment of 10,000 additional troops!"
"The Grand Duchy of Sheerkhan has already sent 8,000 cavalry to the North. With the security situation in the East also unstable, we cannot deploy an additional 10,000 troops."
"But in the east, more than 50,000..."
'If we dispatch an additional 4,000 troops, it amounts to having already sent nearly a quarter of our total forces to the North."
The Grand Duke firmly cut off the messenger.
"This is an excessive demand. If you do not wish to lose the public sentiment of the East as well, advise His Majesty to be satisfied with 4,000."
At the words laced with subtle threats, the faces of the other messengers, except for Edric Rubon, hardened. However, the Grand Duke paid no heed.
The Grand Duke stood up with a resolute attitude, as if to say that he would not allow any further counterarguments. Seeing this, Edric Rubon spoke urgently.
"Would it be acceptable to convey the stern order to appoint Your Excellency as Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Allied Forces, no matter what your reply is?"
A bluish-gray eye glanced past him. Soon, a dry reply came back.
"Tell them I will humbly accept this."
With those words, the Grand Duke left the hall again.
Only then did murmuring spread again in the hall, where suffocating tension had been hanging in the air.
As a heated argument raged among the retainers over the issue of recruiting 4,000 additional troops, the imperial messengers rose from their seats one by one.
Baredon, who had been sitting at the end of the table quietly observing the situation, rose to guide them to their quarters. It would have been fine to leave it to the servants, but he could not allow gossip to spread that they had treated the Emperor's messengers poorly.
He approached the Imperial Guard with a friendly attitude and spoke to them.
"Please follow me. I will guide you to the room."
"Thank you"
Edric Rubon answered politely.
Baredon led them out of the hall. Just then, a low voice was heard from the corridor connected to the nature.
"You, come out and talk for a moment."
Baredon turned his head and widened his eyes when he saw the Grand Duke leaning against a pillar in the corridor.
Edric Rubon pointed at himself with his fingertips and asked.
“You mean me?”
"Yes."
The Grand Duke, having walked out of the shade, replied in his characteristic indifferent tone.
"There is something I would like to ask you for separately."
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