“Charles.”

Lucy stopped walking as she stepped out of the playroom and called for Charles.

“Yes, my lady.”

Lucy slowly closed her eyes, then opened them, clenched her fists tightly and looked up at him.

“How much do you know about Count Shannon’s schemes?”

“…Pardon?”

Meeting the green eyes that were looking at him, Charles opened his lips for a moment.

Just a moment ago, her pupils were clearly shaking with anxiety, but that was gone without a trace, and only the lady who commanded him during the kidnapping remained.

Unable to adapt to Lucy’s sudden change, Charles gaped like a goldfish.

“Did you not hear it just now? Helen called me Lucy Shannon. Doesn’t that mean the Shannon Count is planning such a move?”

Even in that confusion, Lucy accurately grasped the situation.

Facing the young lady’s youthful face that he had to look down at for a long time, Charles took a deep breath. Is this really something a 7-year-old can say?

Charles realized that the young lady had deliberately expressed such anxiety in the playroom.

It was an act.

The same chills he felt when she called him, disguised as a knight, ran down his spine.

He could see that it was not just a moment’s wit that the young lady calmly conversed with the kidnapper even in the kidnapping situation and rather embarrassed the culprit.

He felt like he was getting a glimpse of what the blood of the Zenova ducal family, who was said to have mastered all studies around the age of 10, was like, and how the duke he served did not lose his reason even in the chaotic battlefield.

“You wouldn’t have thought they would just go hunting at the hunting festival, would you? You must have read something into Count Shannon’s obvious moves, right?”

Lucy’s sharp questions continued one after another.

“Count Shannon… did not win the heart of Marquis Farnese.”

In the end, Charles revealed the story, which was close to a secret, to Lucy.

“He did not win the heart of Marquis Farnese?”

When Lucy asked back in surprise, Charles nodded.

*

Eriel was sitting in the tent for a moment for the upcoming Empress’s tea party.

Once the hunting festival began and the men left, the Empress prepared a grand tea party.

Since it was a hunting festival where His Majesty the Emperor showed a warning to Zenova, the tea party hosted by Her Majesty the Empress would be no different.

A different response than usual would be waiting for Eriel.

Knock knock.

“My lady, someone delivered a letter.”

The maid called Eriel from outside the tent.

With a puzzled expression, Eriel told the maid to come in. The maid handed Eriel the plain letter she was holding and tilted her head.

“I don’t know who sent the letter. They said they asked to deliver it through several people. But it seems to be a letter meant to be delivered to you, my lady.”

“Is that so? A letter…”

“I will leave now. If the contents of the letter are strange, please call me right away.”

The maid bowed and went out.

A letter, from whom?

As Eriel unfolded the letter, she thought of people who would send her a letter one by one, the Emperor, the Empress, and even Eden.

But if it was someone from the imperial family, they wouldn’t send it like this.

The answer to the brief question could be found as soon as she unfolded the letter.

Frowning, Eriel unknowingly put strength into the fingers holding the letter. Her quickly descending pupils showed her urgent heart.

The green eyes that stopped at the period shook for a moment, and the letter was soon crumpled in her hand.

Holding the letter in her hand, Eriel closed her eyes tightly, raised her hand high, and trembled as it was.

“…Gerald.”

Her voice, filled with anger, spoke Count Shannon’s name.

Unlike the maid who said she didn’t know who sent it, Eriel knew who sent it as soon as she unfolded the letter.

[Do you know the trap Count Scala has prepared? You probably don’t. Your husband doesn’t explain such things to you. Aren’t you curious? What kind of poison will be on the arrows aimed at your husband, how many arrows are prepared… and what decision I, who knows all of that, have made.]

If he asked if she was curious about how many traps there were for Damian, Eriel could say without a moment’s hesitation.

“I want to know.”

Yes, she wanted to know the things Damian didn’t tell her. But Eriel didn’t budge from her seat.

[If you want to save your husband’s life, come to me, Eriel. I’ll be waiting at the tree behind the rightmost tent.]

“…My lady?”

Perhaps because of the letter with an unclear sender, the maid called Eriel in an anxious voice.

“My lady, shall I deliver it to the knight? If the letter…”

“No. Do you know who delivered the letter by any chance?”

“The letter was delivered by the maid from the tent next to it. I asked that maid too, and she said she also received it from the maid in the next tent.”

Judging by the way they subtly spread the existence of the letter, it seemed they wanted to openly shout about an affair.

Eriel unfolded the crumpled letter in her hand. And she folded it very tightly and put it in her bosom.

She was not one to fall for the same trick twice.

*

Giving a gentle smile to Lucy, who asked back, Charles spoke words of assurance to calm the child.

“…So the Shannon Count’s side will be fine. There will be nothing they can do other than stand by and watch. But the duke will want you to get hurt.”

“It will be… fine. …Is that all?”

Lucy’s breath shook a little as she looked up at Charles.

Her fingers gripping the teddy bear dug into the brown fur, and anger and similar emotions showed on her twitching nose ridge. Charles looked at Lucy with a surprised face and took away the smile that had briefly appeared on his face.

Charles’s words seemed to sound to Lucy like excuses from someone who was unprepared.

“Count Shannon probably won’t be able to do anything in this situation right now. I can’t say in detail, but just because he didn’t win the heart of Marquis Farnese doesn’t mean it’s not a political matter. My lady, for now, you should calm…”

“We can’t be relieved yet!”

Lucy shouted.

Tears flowed down Lucy’s eyes, which had somehow become teary.

Lucy quickly lost her composure. Her green eyes, moving aimlessly, missed Charles.

The green eyes moving in the aimless void moved restlessly without settling anywhere.

Her small moving lips eventually began to bite her nails.

“Louis hasn’t been… born yet. Not yet, not yet. Come to think of it, mom was pregnant around this time.”

Hearing Lucy’s words, Charles frowned at the new name.

Louis? Pregnant?

Charles understood the words coming out of Lucy’s mouth only as words.

“This won’t do. I have to go to mom quickly. No, not mom… dad. I have to go to dad.”

“To the duke? But the duke is currently in the forest…”

“I was too complacent thinking the bears would all be dead. Because it’s not the sea. It’s not the sea here. But the location isn’t important. I shouldn’t have let go of any variables, but I made the same mistake as dad. Ha… Me? Me…! Complacent like dad…”

As if the phrase ‘like dad’ acted as a trauma, the moment she uttered that sentence, Lucy’s anxiety soared and she ended up passing Charles.

“Ah, complacent like, like dad…”

Lucy, who started to run, soon tried to go into the forest through the bushes.

Startled, Charles grabbed Lucy’s wrist and quickly hugged her.

“My lady. You need to calm down first. Why on earth… My lady!”

Lucy, struggling in Charles’s arms, sobbed and shouted.

“I have to go to dad. Even if I die, dad can’t die. Dad…”

Suddenly turning to Charles, Lucy grabbed his collar.

“Sir Charles. Please send me to dad. Please… If dad dies, mom will be in danger.”

Grabbing his collar as if collapsing, Lucy spoke with tears streaming down her face.

Charles was flustered by Lucy’s breakdown without understanding anything.

But Lucy’s words couldn’t be dismissed as just the nonsense of a 7-year-old.

Charles tried to memorize what Lucy was saying rather than understanding it for now.

For some reason, it was clear that if the duke died, the duchess would be in danger, and that was a situation the young lady couldn’t bear.

It didn’t seem like the duke would be any safer even if the young lady went into the forest, but for now, Charles nodded to Lucy.

The only thing he could do here was to go into the forest and show that the duke was safe.

Of course, it was a place that was extremely dangerous…

Charles swallowed his saliva. The abdominal wound was now completely healed. He couldn’t show a miserable appearance like during the kidnapping.

“You know that the fact that you and I are entering the forest is something no one should know, right?”

When Charles asked, Lucy nodded.

“And one more thing. As soon as we confirm the duke’s well-being, we’re coming straight back. Promise me, my lady.”

“No, let’s go and come back with dad together.”

“…Pardon?”

“Let’s go now and just come back with dad together.”

“But that’s…”

“I’ll persuade dad, so please just do that for me.”

“Ha…”

Charles put Lucy down and washed his face repeatedly.

Not only would he be scolded by the duke, but several days of high-intensity physical training at the training ground would be waiting for him.

“Ha… Yes, coming back safely with the duke. Yes, I understand.”

But isn’t this the young lady who is so anxious and worried about the duke’s well-being? For some reason, it felt like a moment when he had to listen to the young lady’s request rather than the duke’s orders.