82.

Ro swiftly stepped backward. However, her panicked movement prevented her from gaining the desired distance. Turner did not let go of his hard-won advantage and pressed Ro again.

Each time she retreated a few steps, Turner’s attack immediately rained down on that exact spot as if he had anticipated her move. Ro barely avoided the hand flying toward her head by bending her waist. What was truly terrifying was that she could clearly see with her eyes exactly where Turner was attacking.

She used this to buy herself a few more minutes. The man reacted instantly, lunging in the direction the moment Ro gave even the slightest signal of moving right. It was merely a ribbon-snatching match, yet the tension was taut. She wiped away the sweat trickling down her chin with the back of her hand.

Ro deliberately leaned her upper body backward as if retreating, then quickly ducked under Turner’s arm. She then reached for the long trailing ribbon, but Turner calmly turned his body, keeping the ribbon just out of her grasp.

Turner calmly struck the back of Rosetta’s neck with the side of his hand, destabilizing her balance from the reckless attack. Immediately afterward, the ribbon came loose from her neck. Ro clenched her fists tightly, breathing heavily.

“Just… huff… one more time… huff… please.”

“That’s enough for today.”

He said, tossing the water flask lying on the ground toward Ro. She barely caught it before it hit her face. Turner’s judgment was correct. Her entire body ached intensely from overexertion, making even the slightest movement difficult.

“Here. Towel.”

Ro took the towel Turner offered and wiped the sweat off. Unlike Ro, whose entire body was drenched in sweat, Turner remained completely dry, not a single drop perspiring despite having run around the training ground so vigorously.

What rotten luck. Ro grumbled inwardly as she gulped down water from the flask. Turner, who had been idly kicking pebbles on the ground until she caught her breath, suddenly asked.

“Let’s hear it today—what’s the real reason you’re pushing yourself this hard?”

“There’s no such thing.”

“Just so you know, you’re not strong enough to hurt anyone with your current strength.”

Ro glared at him fiercely as she draped the towel around her neck. She was utterly sick of his gentle probing of something she already knew. She gritted her teeth.

“I know without you telling me.”

“Then who exactly is it that you want to kill so badly?”

“There is someone.”

“Oh, come on, just tell me.”

“If I tell you, will you know?”

“Who knows? Maybe I do know them.”

She shook her head dismissively, as if refusing to dignify the question with an answer, then gathered up her belongings. Turner clicked his tongue and watched Ro’s retreating back as she left the training ground. Her limbs trembled so much she looked like a newborn fawn barely able to stand.

She’s really going to fall. Turner, deeply worried inside, immediately rushed forward and caught her waist as she staggered forward as if about to collapse.

“Are you okay?”

“Uh… yeah…”

Hearing her dazed reply, Turner didn’t hesitate—he slipped his arm under her armpits and supported her. Then, to his genuine surprise, he realized just how light she was.

He had always thought her frame was slender… but this frail? Did I push her too hard? Normally, she’d have kicked him senseless by now, but seeing her quietly leaning against him, panting heavily, stirred the last shred of guilt within Turner. Awkwardly, he stammered.

“Are you… feeling very unwell?”

“…No.”

Just as she moved her lips in a whisper, wincing slightly, Turner instinctively leaned his head closer to hear her voice. Then suddenly, he felt a strange emptiness at the back of his neck. He reflexively jerked his head back to protect his throat—but the ribbon was already in the woman’s hand.

“Haha!”

Ro let out something between a laugh and a growl, then tossed the ribbon onto Turner’s stunned face.

“Life is real combat! Where did you let your guard down?”

“What…?”

“Consider yourself lucky I didn’t throw sand in your eyes.”

The woman giggled. She laughed so hard, throwing her head back, that Turner felt foolish for having worried even a moment. Her frail appearance vanished instantly with that wide smile, leaving behind an image as lively and vibrant as a fish leaping out of water. In that dramatic moment, tiny ripples stirred in Turner’s chest—like a small turquoise fish flicking its tail against the water’s surface.

Turner stood frozen, staring blankly at her for a long while.

“I… underestimated you.”

The words slipped out before he even realized. Then a dry chuckle forced its way through Turner’s lips, slowly spreading into a smile. It was a cheerful laugh, as if he’d caught her smile like an infection.

“Yeah. That’s how it’s done.”

* * *

Five days later.

Ro sat at her desk, freshly bathed and feeling refreshed. On the desk, books she had selected with Anna were piled up like an overwhelming backlog of work. Despite having started working on them whenever she found time over the past few days, progress had been minimal. After all, the codes had been hastily rewritten at random to evade the navy’s eyes, and without knowing the monthly assigned number, decryption had its limits.

Then, just last evening. While testing numbers from 1 to 9 in sequence within the cipher, she discovered the number was ‘23’. Thanks to this, today had been even more chaotic than usual for Ro, as her entire mind was focused on cracking the code.

She dipped her quill deep into the ink and pulled over the book she had previously folded a page in, opening it. Now that she knew the number, the parts that had troubled her before were now easily solved. Fortunately, the format didn’t seem to deviate much from the basic structure.

‘Thirteenth sentence of Chapter Thirty-One, twentieth sentence, next is Chapter Sixty-Seven’s… probably four? Five?’

She rapidly decoded the cipher under her breath, writing down the sequence on paper. She skipped over parts she was unsure about. Then, once more, she opened the books in order, collecting and combining the corresponding characters.

‘In the morning, within thirty days… send letter, no, contact.’

‘Contact signal is… sunlight, no, sun? When the sun… sinks behind?’

‘Location is, the Marquis’s daughter.’

Ro scratched her forehead with the tip of her quill. Since it was a crude cipher typically used by pirates, constructing complex sentences required combining hundreds of words. Nick’s chosen workaround was to gather as many words as possible within a single page.

This made sentence assembly easier, but overall, the resulting text felt somewhat nonsensical and disjointed.

‘Done.’

After struggling for a long time with six books, Ro finally set down her quill, her hands completely stained with ink. She proudly held up the paper and quickly scanned the completed sentences. Since the order of the books was unknown, the written sentences were jumbled.

‘Format the letter as always. The woman who watches with guarded eyes. Be careful. Contact within thirty days from morning. Remember our objective. Signal for meeting is when the sun sinks behind. Pay attention to actions. If a mistake is made, report the situation to Delam. Location is the Marquis’s daughter. After the first day, live dead. Monotonous spring.’

She tilted her head, puzzled. Some words seemed correct… but the sentences felt subtly off. She carefully wrote down interpretations beside each line, starting from the top.

‘So, at the very least, it means to send a letter within thirty days from morning.’

‘Who is “the woman”? Is it referring to the Marquis’s daughter? Then perhaps Lady Blake?’

‘Meeting signal… when the sun sinks behind?’

Damn it… Really, it was becoming more and more like grasping at clouds. Ro placed the quill on her philtrum and pressed her lips tightly against the bridge of her nose. Ink smeared all over her face, but luckily—or unluckily—there was no mirror nearby, so Ro remained blissfully unaware.

She glanced at the clock on her desk. It was already well past ten. Anna would be coming in soon to tidy the bedroom.

Ro quickly memorized most of the sentences in her head and copied a few key phrases onto a clean sheet of paper. Then she crumpled the rest and tossed them into the wastebasket as if they were useless trash. She planned to read them again tomorrow morning to fully memorize them. Just as she barely finished this task, she heard a knock on the door.

“Miss. I’m coming in.”

“Hmm.”

Ro brushed back her disheveled hair, which had become messy from poring over the books. Anna didn’t enter immediately. Instead, she rattled the doorknob for quite some time—long enough to make Rosetta curious—before finally pushing the door open and struggling in with both arms full of dresses. Ro burst into a nervous laugh.

“Did you rob a clothing store on your way here?”

“I pre-selected the dresses for tomorrow, but just in case something happens, I brought a few extra… Good heavens, Miss!”