Didn't Plan to Become a Companion (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 86

The family had agreed to leave the empire immediately once the oracle was delivered. I still hadn’t told them that I wouldn’t be going with them.

Ricardo had said he was looking for a way, yet our relationship remained uncertain.

If my guess was correct, the Duchess seemed unaware that the oracle soon to be delivered might even include the name of the woman destined to become Empress.

Had she known Judith Pan Monzania’s name would be explicitly stated, she wouldn’t have urged me to stay and endure.

But how on earth did the Crown Princess know about that? Although the unanswered question lingered, the fear the Crown Princess felt was clearly not unfounded—such an oracle must surely exist.

Ricardo had been right when he said no path would appear. Even drawing upon every ounce of the power of affirmation I possessed, the situation unfolding around me kept insisting on impossibility.

“There he is—Julian.”

Following Sabrina’s voice, I turned to see an extravagantly elegant man standing proudly at the head of his household.

He wasn’t even dressed in particularly colorful clothes, yet his mere presence evoked the image of a peacock. The moment Julian dismounted and set foot on the ground, women nearby began approaching him.

“You made the right choice giving up on him early.”

Sabrina clicked her tongue and kept fanning her neck with her fan, deliberately turning her gaze away from him. I watched her profile, feigning haughtiness, and chuckled softly before looking toward the site of the competition.

“Pallium” was a word formed by combining the archaic term “palli,” meaning stake, and “um,” meaning to pull out. It was a simple game: the first to pull out the stake fixed in a designated spot would win.

In a place within the imperial palace so densely overgrown with lush greenery it seemed unbelievable, the stake that would be today’s objective for the men stood majestically planted.

It was so thick I wondered if it could ever truly be pulled out by human strength alone.

Pallium was played with two teams of five: two riders on horseback and three on foot. The mounted participants were given long poles, while those on the ground received bows capable of shooting arrows at their opponents.

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