24.
Bang! Ba-ba-bang!
Fireworks burst here and there.
The opening ceremony had begun.
The emperor, who appeared beyond the dais, looked no bigger than a matchstick.
He seemed to be giving some sort of impassioned speech, but honestly, it all sounded useless, so none of it really reached my ears.
I was standing there with my weight on one leg when I suddenly felt a gaze fixed on me. Instinctively, I straightened my back and corrected my posture.
Afterward, when I glanced sideways to check, the emperor really was looking this way.
‘No way. He couldn’t have been looking at me.’
Soon, the emperor tilted his head slightly and continued his speech naturally, and I no longer felt his gaze.
I let my eyes drift naturally toward the three dukes standing near the emperor.
Right beside the emperor, Duke Kanesion stood upright, making his presence known,
and on the opposite side stood Duke Peregrine, his hair gone completely white, leaning on a cane.
He was Princess Meriana’s grandfather.
Meanwhile, Duke Gladinair stood one step behind them, quietly lowering his eyes.
As always, his face was expressionless, but today he looked especially bored.
Just then, the sound of trumpets rang out from the front.
The knights were waving flags and seemed to be carrying out some kind of ceremony, and the nobles applauded here and there as if they had been waiting for their cue.
And finally.
From the front, people began mounting their horses, and the murmuring gradually grew louder.
There were people moving alone like me, but many nobles had several beaters or attendants following them, making the scene chaotic.
In that bustling atmosphere, the trumpet sounded once more, and at the signal, the mounted riders began to pick up speed from the lead onward.
I mounted my horse as well and galloped after the others, sometimes ahead and sometimes behind.
When I glanced back, I saw the duke setting off at a leisurely pace.
I did not particularly like hunting, so I only intended to kill time.
Once I entered the forest, I was soon surrounded by tall trees, shadows falling everywhere.
Though it was midday, the slightly dim forest was filled with cool, refreshing air.
I stared blankly at the nobles rushing in a swarm toward one side, as if they had already found prey, then turned my horse in the opposite direction.
Just then, a black horse shot out beside me, and a low voice fell from above my head.
“Shall we move together?”
Naturally, it was Isitan Gladinair, the only man at the hunting festival who would approach me and speak of his own accord.
For a moment, I thought of the pervert.
Since I had entered the hunting festival with the duke anyway, the rumors would already be spreading wildly.
But if we looked too close, I was worried that bastard might move on to the next stage and do something.
I shrugged and answered.
“I’m fine.”
“It must be your first time at the hunting festival. And your first time in this forest as well.”
“I’m not a child. Are you worried I’ll get lost?”
I laughed and lightly tapped his arm, then startled myself inwardly.
Was that too casual?
But the duke did not seem to mind, showing no particular reaction.
To think I had acted the same way I did when playing around with the other servants at the mansion. Habits really were frightening.
Then again, I had hardly interacted with nobles at all until now…….
“Anyway, don’t worry. I’m not planning to go far.”
Perhaps he had no intention of forcing me, for the duke said nothing more and untied a waterskin from his waist.
Then he held it out to me.
“You’ll need it once you go in.”
There was no reason to refuse even that, so I accepted it obediently.
I had not known I would be attending the hunting festival in the first place, so it was not unnatural for the duke to take care of such small things for me.
“Your Grace, then I’ll see you later. Don’t forget to take me home when we leave.”
“All right.”
After watching the duke leave my side and disappear deeper into the forest, I fastened the heavy leather waterskin securely at my waist.
Then I approached a group leisurely wandering through the forest as if they had come out for a pleasure outing.
I did not know for certain, but the face they saw on me must have looked rather shameless.
‘You lot have been selected to serve as my guides.’
Whatever happened, I did not want to risk getting lost.
* * *
“You saw that earlier, didn’t you?”
“Lady Serena saw it too?”
At the entrance to the forest, they had seen Duke Gladinair and Baron Roxan conversing in a manner that looked quite intimate.
It was even clear that the duke had approached her first and started the conversation!
“It seems the rumor that the duke brought her personally to the hunting festival is true.”
The woman glanced back at the figure loitering along behind their group.
Anastasia Roxan.
Even as everyone ignored her all at once, the way she stubbornly followed along on horseback was honestly enough to make one click their tongue.
What had happened earlier, too—if it had been her, she would already have gone back, shut herself in her room, and cried up a storm.
“Could that news possibly be true? That he recommended her before His Majesty…….”
“In any case, those two certainly did seem to have an unusual relationship.”
“No, how on earth did that happen…….”
It was none other than that Duke Gladinair.
A man who, they said, would only barely reply after others spoke a dozen or more sentences in front of him.
Of course, what was even more famous than that were the chilling rumors that had spread everywhere about the duke.
Soon, the young ladies exchanged glances, and cold sneers spread among them.
“You’ve all heard that rumor, haven’t you?”
The question, raised as if meant for someone in particular to hear, rang clearly among them.
“What rumor?”
“About that young duke who’s being praised as a war hero right now…….”
“Ah, I know which rumor you mean.”
Responses came from here and there.
“That rumor, right? That even after returning to the capital, he couldn’t give up his habit of killing people, so not a single servant was left in his mansion.”
“Good heavens!”
Rather than the truth of the rumor, its ominous content made several of them shudder.
“That’s right, I heard it too! Then is the rumor that he’s addicted to murder true?”
“They say that’s why, as soon as he rose to the ducal seat, he volunteered to go to the battlefield.”
“What? Then you mean he went to war in order to kill people?”
“What about that rumor? The one that said the previous Duke Gladinair kept him hidden away until he came of age because there was something wrong with his mind.”
“No wonder…….”
“It may really have been like that.”
“Why wouldn’t it be? Just counting the number of people who died by his hand on the battlefield over the past six years…….”
The woman who had been chattering with contempt suddenly met Anastasia’s eyes, and without realizing it, she flinched and closed her mouth.
It was not that she gave off a murderous or excessively cold air,
but Anastasia’s eyes somehow had a tendency to make people shrink back.
As if it was difficult to meet them for long.
It was strangely unpleasant, as though she could see straight through one’s insides.
The woman needlessly raised her voice and asked the group.
“What sane woman would want to become intimate with such a man?”
“Exactly. How dreadful must her reputation be…….”
“She must be starved.”
Several people nearby suppressed their laughter, as if they wanted to laugh loudly but could not because of propriety.
Still, the mood must have been conveyed clearly.
Anastasia looked at them for a moment with incredulous eyes, then lost interest entirely.
“It’s not as if such unsightly behavior is anything new, is it?”
“It makes me sick.”
“In any case, that attention must have been gained through some petty trick as well.”
As it happened, Meriana was not present, nor were any of the other nobles who were close to her.
After confirming that once more, their eyes gleamed, and they began to speak with a little more confidence.
“Ah, you mean the love potion?”
“Does she think she’ll be lucky enough to be forgiven again?”
“Surely not. This time, she’ll be killed for certain. Unless she’s an utter fool?”
“The moment she’s found out, of course.”
“If anyone were to tell the duke about this situation……”
As if by prior agreement, their gazes turned once again to Anastasia.
But this time, all they saw was her face, even wearing a wry, almost spiteful smile.
Anastasia, who had been smiling as though she found them ridiculous, soon turned her face beyond the thicket.
As if there were something there.
In truth, one who had taken the potion could never harm the person they had fallen in love with.
Though this spellcraft, based on protection, did share certain fundamentals with “magic,” if one were to classify it by lineage, it was a forbidden art closer to “heresy.”
So the notion that someone would kill the other person in a fit of rage after learning they had drunk the potion was truly absurd.
Rather, they were far more likely to be beside themselves with an intense desire to protect them.
Anastasia knew that well, but she felt no need to explain it.
Just then, the underbrush rustled slightly, and a roe deer suddenly sprang out, charging toward their group.
“Aaaah!”
Raw screams rang out here and there, startled horses bolted forward, and several people crouched down in utter panic…….
Amid the chaos, the roe deer vanished in an instant in another direction.
‘Hah, I almost fell off my horse…….’
Meanwhile, at the rear of the group, a woman who had only avoided an ugly fall by grabbing someone’s arm lifted her head.
“…….”
“…….”
Her eyes met squarely with those of Anastasia Roxanne, the owner of that arm.
The woman hastily let go and straightened her upper body.
The very instant she lost her balance, the sleeve that entered her vision looked as though it had been prepared just for her—but why did it have to be…….
‘She was definitely back there just a moment ago, so when did she get all the way beside me? Honestly, how unlucky.’
As the flustered woman muttered whatever came to mind inwardly and blamed Anastasia, someone abruptly said,
“Where’s Daena?”
Come to think of it, amid that commotion earlier, it seemed as though one horse had shot like an arrow into the forest…….
“Surely not?”