“But is this really the right way?”

Thanasis was following Reniel.

At first it wasn’t like that, but somehow he ended up walking behind her, which didn’t feel very good.

He wanted to walk in front. However, he knew almost nothing about this mansion.

After all, he had never even visited the Duke Le Pelique’s residence out of courtesy.

“Of course. Just trust me.”

Thanasis was bothered by Reniel’s slightly disheveled clothes.

And it seemed all the luggage she brought was just a few documents in her pocket.

Perhaps she could only bring very little to pretend she died in the fire.

Yet he wondered if that was even necessary since no one would know what she took if it all burned anyway.

“Why do you have so little luggage?”

Reniel glanced back at Thanasis who suddenly asked that.

She looked alternately at the knight’s uniform he was wearing and the one in his hand.

Come to think of it, he did have more luggage than her.

“Well… I left all the important things at the bank. All I need are these two documents.”

“Why? Don’t you have any mementos?”

She didn’t mention the brooch Felix gave her in her pocket.

She thought the brooch’s gem was a ruby, but it was actually one of only two red diamonds in the world.

“It’s fine, I’ve left them in my heart.”

To be precise, it seemed more like regret than a memento.

She felt sad wondering if she would ever have such a good job in her life again.

But thinking of the threats to her life she felt here, leaving was the right choice.

It seemed difficult to keep living while constantly feeling such threats to survival.

And yet.

The image of Felix she saw just before leaving didn’t seem like such a frightening existence, making her feel unsettled.

Slap!

“What was that?”

“Ah, I was just lost in thought for a moment.”

She slapped her own cheek and then smiled brightly. Then she turned back towards the direction of the garden and started walking again.

Even after slapping her cheek, the thoughts wouldn’t stop.

‘Reniel.’

‘What, should I quit drinking too?’

‘Does he want me to quit sleeping pills as well?’

Reniel was troubled by how Felix had gradually changed.

Her master was less scary than she had thought.

If he had been as frightening as she used to know him, her head should have been cut off every time she acted disrespectfully.

But he enjoyed her behavior and focused on her eyes when they talked.

So as she was about to leave, strangely, Felix weighed on her mind.

No. He’s someone who will live well without her.

He was fine when they were strangers all this time. Although he did have some bad habits, still.

He was good at business and a dignified master in the mansion. And he was respected by the people of his territory.

Someone like that wouldn’t change just because she was gone.

Reniel unconsciously looked back at the smoke rising from the Le Pelique mansion.

The fire seemed to be spreading slower than expected.

“What’s wrong? Having regrets?”

“Well, I did work there for 10 years after all.”

Reniel consciously tried not to talk about Felix. Somehow it felt like her steps would grow heavier if she spoke of him.

“Just because time passes doesn’t mean you develop feelings for everything.”

“How was it for Your Highness?”

Thanasis had lived in the imperial palace his whole life, but there was no place he hated more.

He was just returning to find his original place.

“It was terrible.”

Reniel wondered if he meant the secret room and chuckled.

“Our master…”

“He’s not your master anymore.”

Thanasis cut off Reniel’s words and stared at her. Reniel nodded and corrected herself.

“Duke Le Pelique will live well without me, right?”

It might be presumptuous, but she wanted to hear from someone else that he would be fine.

“You call that a question? If you disappear, he probably won’t even remember someone like you. No, you should hope he doesn’t remember. He’d try to kill you if you met again.”

“…Why?”

“Why? Wouldn’t it be fortunate if he doesn’t think you dared to deceive him?”

Thanasis’s words made sense. Reniel smiled bitterly like someone who had just come to their senses.

“Let’s go.”

“…Alright.”

Thanasis felt strangely uncomfortable.

It seemed she had grown quite close to Felix while working for 10 years.

But he remembered how Felix had tried to kill Reniel so nonchalantly when he was first kidnapped here.

So he decided to think that they couldn’t have been that close, that it was just attachment to a workplace she had been at for a long time.

“Was it always this wide?”

“Of course. The Duke Le Pelique’s mansion is really big.”

Reniel and Thanasis had to walk for a very long time. It took quite a while just to cross through the back garden.

“How much further do we have to go?”

“It takes about 20 minutes by carriage. The mansion is so big and the bushes are so thick. It takes about an hour to walk to the village.”

He hadn’t realized it was that far. Of course the duke’s residence would be big, but he never had to walk it.

“Isn’t the imperial palace wide too?”

“That place is wide too. But there, you only go where you need to go.”

When Thanasis was the crown prince, he only used the buildings he needed.

Everything was tailored to him, so all the necessary buildings were near the crown prince’s palace.

It wasn’t common for someone like him to walk like this as if training his stamina, in a place that wasn’t even a training ground.

“Are you tired?”

“Would anything change if I said I was?”

“I was wondering if I should carry you on my back.”

Reniel said brightly, as if trying to change the mood. Thanasis unconsciously sneered and said:

“How could you? With that weak body, you’d fall forward the moment you tried to carry me.”

“I may not look it, but I’m good at lifting heavy things and have good stamina.”

Reniel said with a smile. Talking with her like this seemed to give a strange sense of reassurance.

Even though this wasn’t the time for that.

“Are you the one who’s tired?”

“If so, will you carry me?”

Thanasis realized her intention in asking him earlier and immediately grabbed her hand to turn her around.

He looked into her surprised eyes and said seriously:

“Get on my back.”

“Ah, no. I was just joking.”

Reniel smiled, meeting his eyes, grateful that he seemed to be worried about her.

Suddenly, Thanasis let go of the hand he was holding and said:

“This isn’t the time for jokes.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry.”

Thanasis felt annoyed and indignant that he had worried she might be tired, so he decided to hold his tongue.

“We still have a long way to go. So hang in there.”

They continued walking towards the bushes, in the direction where almost no knights were stationed.

Reniel had carefully observed the placement of the knights from the 5th floor of the main building in preparation for times like this.

From what she saw, the knights’ positions changed once around 3 AM. Moreover, since the mansion was burning now, they would all be heading there.

She looked back as if to check the situation at the mansion.

“I wonder if the fire has gone out?”

Black smoke was still rising. But it didn’t seem as large as before.

“Even so, the basement must have all burned down.”

Thanasis answered like that, checking that quite a lot of his magic power had drained out.

With this much magic power, it would be impossible to extinguish the fire while it was still contained.

But from the outside, only smoke was thick and no flames were visible on the exterior of the mansion.

He cut off the supply of magic appropriately and turned around. Then he gestured for her to walk again.

“What will happen to the prisoners in the basement?”

“There should be a device to open all the doors at once, so they would have gotten them out on their own.”

Thanasis recalled the prison facilities he had seen while coming up. He sighed as Reniel’s steps kept slowing down.

“Do you want to go back?”

“No.”

“If you leave here, you can become a maid at the imperial palace. And as my close maid, you’ll have power unlike being mistreated here. Yet you’re reluctant about this place?”

In reality, she hadn’t been mistreated lately. Rather, thanks to Felix treating her very well and being considerate.

Of course, in the past she had been mistreated.

“I’m not reluctant. I don’t want to live as a man anymore.”

She didn’t want to keep living as a man forever.

And Felix needed her because he thought she was a man. That thought made her mind clear again.

“Right. If you had stayed here, you would have had to live forever hiding your true self. What’s the point of living like that?”

“…You’re right.”

Reniel forced a smile and didn’t let go of the hand Thanasis was holding.

Then she started walking again.

“Fire broke out in the main building!”

“Everyone go to the main building!”

“Wake up all the knights!”

As Reniel grew quiet, the voices of servants and knights carried on the wind could be heard around them.

Those sounds felt like they were interrogating her, making her feel guilty.

From now on, she decided to focus on the sound of the grass brushing against her legs.