According to the knights who had gone on reconnaissance, it was more of an atmosphere of searching for something rather than standing guard.

“I suppose so.”

It had been over five years since Earl Graham had jumped into the project to obtain the railway annexation right. The business proposal he put forward had already been brought up in the royal agenda. Perhaps he had found something in the land of the Ines family while looking for the optimal railway route through Landhill.

So to think that all he had come up with was to seduce the naive young heiress and scheme to take away my authority… Marriage alone couldn’t take away the authority, so it was clear how much more vile deeds he must have planned.

“But how did Lady Swelden get hurt?”

Noah had returned to the mansion not long after the hunting party had started, so he didn’t know much about Ines’s injury.

“Trying to avoid a dangerous beast.”

“There was a dangerous beast?”

“A snake.”

“A snake?”

“Yes, a very long and disgustinglooking one.”

“I’m glad you weren’t seriously hurt.”

“Yes, that’s true, but still.”

Carson wanted to think that he was sensitive, but he couldn’t let it go when he thought of Ines’s intense reaction to the snakelike man.

“Winningston Zemerun.”

“Who is that?”

“Someone who received a junior earldom recently. He’s desperate to become a real aristocrat now. Find out why he wants to meet with high nobles.”

“Yes, understood.”

“And investigate his past actions and those around him in detail. Especially, make sure he hasn’t caused any women problems.”

“Is he related to Earl Graham?”

“No, it’s not that.”

Carson thought of Ines, who would be asleep on the other side of his office. His first thought was to get rid of Graham and Joseph from her.

And now Zemerun had been added. Whatever happened next, it suited his temperament to get rid of all the obstacles.

He would then ask for her opinion. The moment he heard today from Louis that Ines was in danger, he made up his mind.

A royal proposal was different from that of an ordinary noble. If she felt the same way, he would have to go to the Imperial Palace to receive the Emperor’s approval for their marriage.

But strangely, he felt impatient. Was it because the way forward wasn’t clear yet?

Trying to calm his increasingly anxious thoughts, he focused on the task at hand.

(This is a time delimiter.)

That night, without fail, Ines was tormented by the same nightmare.

It was the courtroom that day, where everyone had turned their backs on her. Every person on the witness stand had cursed Ines, and all the evidence had pointed to her as the culprit without fail.

〈Thus, under the patronage of the water goddess Hecklesiah, this sacred court sentences Ines Brnoa to 30 years in Rompfield.〉

The face of the judge who decided her exile to Rompfield came uncomfortably close to Ines’s neck.

‘Bang, bang, bang’ The sound of the gavel determining her fate pounded in her ears. Everyone in the courtroom began to curse at her like demons.

Ines gasped and rose from her seat. But even when she opened her eyes, she was still in the nightmare.

‘Please, please…….’

An endless plea burst out, but no one was coming towards her. Feeling like she was going to die from suffocation, she turned and saw Joseph, who had been kneeling by the carriage, swearing his love.

Not wanting to see him, she turned her head sharply, and the next moment Ines found herself lying on the ground, not in the carriage.

She heard the sound of rain, and every sensation of the day Ines had died came back to life.

As her vision flickered, just like then, Joseph, who looked much older than before, looked down at her with a grin. She wanted to strangle him and reached out, but her body wouldn’t move at all.

Ines screamed a scream that didn’t burst out and thrashed her body, barely escaping from that hell.

“Huh, huh.”
But the place she looked around, tearing at her chest, was very familiar to Ines. Walls entirely gray without a single window, in one corner, a familiar silhouette mumbled something, facing the wall, head down.

‘I killed the royal. I killed the royal….’

‘No, no. That can’t be. I couldn’t have returned to Romfield.’

Ines, who was looking around, breathing ‘raggedly,’ met eyes with Gemerun, who was staring at her through the iron bars, his black eyes shining.

“Aaaaaah!”

Unable to bear it, Ines ran out like a madwoman. What spread before her eyes was still Romfield. Now Joseph and Gemerun were haphazardly mixed, circling around her.

〈You can’t escape from me. You know that, Ines. You’re mine.〉

Someone blocked her way. Ines instinctively drew the sword from the sheath he was wearing. Then she swung the sword wildly towards the two hellish figures before her.

When someone fell with a “ugh” sound from her swinging sword, Ines ran outside, avoiding him.

When she strained to push the door open, rain was falling.

The rough breath from her hot body made white steam amid the raindrops. Despite the pouring rain, as if it would pierce her body, Ines couldn’t regain her composure.