The hand holding the letter opposite was viciously crumpled. Veins stood out prominently on the clenched fist. The blue lines swelled upwards as if about to burst at any moment.

The vivid wrinkles left around his eyes described Sieghart’s immediate anger in detail. His fierce gaze followed, directed at the culprit of the incident.

“It seems the contract is wrong, Grand Duke.”

“It was unavoidable.”

“Unavoidable? Did you think such words could represent this situation?”

“If I hadn’t cooperated with the lady’s escape, an even bigger accident would have occurred. It would have been the lady’s corpse, not the lady herself, that greeted Your Excellency.”

At those words, Sieghart’s eyebrows waved greatly like turbulent waves. His mouth, which had been about to accuse the Grand Duke of Kshant of a crime, closed shut.

After a moment, both men’s gazes were simultaneously directed to one place. At the end of their locked gaze was the dagger Sieghart was holding.

With Natasha’s blood on it.

“Are you pretending not to know even after seeing the bloodstained knife? Then let me explain in detail. The lady slit her throat. She was poised to stab her neck straight through with the knife if anyone approached, so there wasn’t even a chance to stop her.”

Sieghart’s expression loosened as he listened to the explanation. However, the man’s countenance never softened.

Beyond his seemingly impassive face, a vague tension seeped through abundantly. His thick, broad shoulders were stiffly frozen due to anxiety.

“It seems she judged death to be better than returning to Your Excellency.”

“Shut your mouth, Grand Duke.”

Sieghart retorted immediately.

“The lady did not fear death.”

But his rough mouth closed again at the Grand Duke’s continued words. Instead, his shoulders trembled finely.

“The lady was more emaciated than when we reunited two years ago. Though she seemed to have improved when I saw her at the suburban banquet, it seems that wasn’t the case. She was completely rotten inside.”

There seemed to be another meaning hidden in the Grand Duke’s words describing the princess’s unfortunate change.

That the woman wanted to escape her married life with Sieghart to that extent.

Sieghart did not answer in the end. It wasn’t because he was shocked. He displayed an attitude as if he knew everything.

He put the letter containing the order disguised as a request into his jacket’s inner pocket. He put the dagger Natasha had left back on the table.

“What will you do?”

The Grand Duke questioned the man who was about to leave.

“Why ask the obvious? I’m going to find my wife.”

“How? She’s already been caught by Your Excellency years ago, so she’ll flee even more meticulously. Ah, now she might even move to a different region every day to hide herself.”

The Grand Duke of Kshant probably meant it as a concern in his own way, but his words instead grated on Sieghart’s nerves.

“It doesn’t matter, I can find her anytime.”

“……”

“It’s nothing to recover the person who should be by my side.”

The man headed straight for the door as if it was too bothersome to reply.

The man who returned to the mansion immediately headed to his office. Meliana and the other three knights returned to their quarters, feeling dejected.

Jenkis approached Sieghart, who was sitting at the desk lost in thought, with a worried expression. It seemed he had vaguely anticipated today’s incident.

And rightly so. The duchess who had left at some point had not returned even by nightfall.

“The lady……”

“Voluntarily went missing.”

Having received confirmation, Jenkis now put on a solemn face.

The atmosphere between the two had been strange these past few days, but he hadn’t expected it would come to this. Jenkis predicted the ducal residence would be frozen over for the time being.

Swallowing a deep sigh inwardly, he eventually asked.

“Should we deploy the knights to search for the lady after all?”

It was troublesome, but there was no better way to find the lady who could be anywhere. It might cause some commotion, but that could be covered up through various methods.

“No need.”

Sieghart, who seemed like he would take the lead in searching for the missing duchess by immediately deploying the knights, was strangely quiet. He even rejected Jenkis’s suggestion.

“N-no need means……”

“I’m saying there’s no need for that.”

“You won’t search for the lady?”

“If news spreads, she’ll only shrink away more, so there’s no need for that. It’s better if I search alone.”

A dry hand groped the table and pulled over a pipe. Heavy smoke swirled above the pipe.

The man had not yet dismissed Jenkis. It clearly meant he had more business. Jenkis could not relax due to the master’s lingering orders.

“Bring me the application forms for the Asthart Knights.”

It took longer than usual to understand the sudden order. After a while, Jenkis recalled the Asthart Knights recruitment notice posted three months ago to increase defenses in preparation for winter.

“Yes, yes. I’ll bring them right away. Please wait a moment.”

Jenkis who had left returned shortly with a stack of papers.

Sieghart began to examine the documents. The meaningless action that continued silently persisted until all the papers moved from the right side to the left.

About an hour later, a total of five documents remained in front of Sieghart.

“Contact these people promptly.”

“Pardon? Ah… yes.”

Jenkis, who answered that he understood, was inwardly curious about the intent of the abrupt order. The duchess had disappeared, yet he wasn’t deploying the knights, and now suddenly hiring additional knights?

It was around the time he was thoroughly examining the personal information of those the duke had ordered to contact. Suddenly, several overlapping details piqued Jenkis’s curiosity.

All five were staying in Baile, and were commoners, not noble children.

‘Just what are you up to?’

As Jenkis stared blankly ahead, he saw Sieghart, who had been lost in thought all this time, finally smile languidly as if he had regained his composure.

“I need helpers who won’t reveal that the ducal family is moving.”

He habitually tapped the bottom of his pipe and then answered.

The uncharacteristic kindness was nice, but unfortunately, Jenkis’s curiosity was still not satisfied.

Natasha suggested to Sir Dante to go to the village every week and have training sessions with the knights. Though it seemed like a troublesome activity that would be annoying, he readily complied with the woman’s request.

Every Sunday, Sir Dante began training in the village with knights from the former royal knights and knights from other families.

Natasha also consistently attended Sir Dante’s training sessions in disguise. She took a seat in a corner like a spectator and watched them.

‘Ten from the royal family, ten from other families, twenty commoners…’

Natasha, who had been counting, sighed softly.

She couldn’t draw in the children from other families. Only five out of the twenty commoners were citizens of the kingdom. It was unknown how many of those five would join them.

‘For now, I need to recruit more knights.’

If it was a gathering of royal knights, citizens of the kingdom would be more interested and gather, so first she needed to bring more royal knights.

That evening, Natasha sent a letter to where Sir Leon had worked.

A month passed. It had already been four weeks since Natasha started coming to watch the Sunday gatherings.

After the number of people increased and the scale of the gathering grew, training was held three times a week.

Although the structure allowed attendance at just one of the three weekly trainings, Sir Dante, who was the representative of the gathering, came out every time to lead the training.

She had already asked the Marquis of Murhen for a two-month vacation for Sir Dante.

‘He looks busy, but happy. Did he say it’s more enjoyable than working at the Murhen Marquis’s residence?’

Natasha also raised the corners of her mouth as she watched Sir Dante smiling while dripping with sweat.

When the training ended and most of the group had dispersed, Sir Dante belatedly approached Natasha and whispered in her ear.

“You were observing diligently today as well.”

Sir Dante lightly pointed at her notebook.

Whenever Natasha watched the training, she separately recorded knights to keep an eye on in her observation notebook.

She wrote down not only their skills but also observed and noted in detail what their personalities were like. Somehow, even personal information of some was written down.

“Yes, I have to study hard.”

The reason for the gathering was the unity of the knights. Although only Sir Dante knew for now, Natasha planned to select a few in the future to be assigned to a unit that would contribute to the rebellion against the kingdom.

For that, support from former royal knights, or commoner knights among the kingdom’s citizens who desired to reclaim territory or future honor, was needed.

So this training was a deception. If former members of the royal knights gathered weekly, it might draw checks from the Letius Imperial Family, whose power had weakened and become sensitive.

Deliberately increasing the scale of the gathering was also to avoid others’ suspicion.

“Don’t overdo it.”

“I was just about to stop anyway. A knights’ gathering this large must have spread rumors to other regions by now, it might have even reached the ears of the Asthart ducal family.”

Natasha recalled the days she had lived hiding her identity. It had already been a month since she started living the life of an ordinary commoner woman named ‘Elise Ripper’ on the identification card given by the Grand Duke.

A month in Baile meant a lot of time had been consumed. If she hesitated any longer, she might be caught by the nape by Sieghart even before properly starting the plan.

“Sir Dante, will you convey this to the knights?”

So,

“Please ask those who want to see the sunset again to stay behind.”

It was time to move now.