Long Live the Emperor, Minus Me (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 76

While I was making such calculations, an arrow whizzed past my ear. ……Was my judgment wrong? Could the other side really be willing to risk danger just to eliminate me?

Reflexively, I froze in place and only turned my eyes toward the direction from which the arrow had come.

All I could see were trees. ……It’s fine; the trees serve as a barrier, so they won’t be able to hit me from that direction again. I held my breath and slowly crouched down.

Hiding myself in the grass, I waited briefly—then I heard movement beyond the trees.

“Is the child visible?”

“No, not at all.”

“Could they have gotten lost?”

Ah. So they weren’t targeting me directly after all.

It seemed they’d either tried to frighten my horse into bolting after confirming I wasn’t on it, or perhaps even aimed directly at the horse’s legs to immobilize it.

An ordinary child wouldn’t possibly make it back to headquarters on foot, so just that alone would be enough to scare them thoroughly. Apparently, the arrow they’d shot for that purpose had accidentally grazed past my ear.

I turned over, careful to keep my conspicuous silver hair out of their sight.

Perhaps my clothes, which happened to be in protective camouflage colors, helped. The culprits failed to notice my presence and exchanged a few more words.

“Well, a child couldn’t have gone far. At this depth, we’ll find them soon enough.”

“Then let’s go look.”

They probably wanted to avoid the scenario where I, having lost my horse, got eaten by beasts—or at least wanted to prevent such an outcome.

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