“Shall we go see the harvest festival?”

Blair, who had woken up late and was eating breakfast alone, opened her eyes wide at the maid’s suggestion.

“Yes, today is the last day of the harvest festival. On the final day of the festival, shops sell high-quality goods at cheaper prices, and there are many people out to enjoy the last moments, so there’s a lot to see.”

The maid said this while recalling Luth’s instructions she had received this morning.

‘Take the lady out to see the festival.’

In fact, this was Luth’s suggestion.

The perceptive Luth had noticed just from Herdin’s expression last night that things had soured again between the two.

While he couldn’t know the exact details of their situation, Luth understood Blair’s feelings.

She was someone who had run away saying she disliked being by Herdin’s side, so from her perspective, being forcibly brought back must be unpleasant.

But thinking coldly, being by Herdin’s side would be a hundred times better, especially now that she was with child.

If they were going to live together anyway, wouldn’t it be good to at least try to lift the lady’s spirits?

That was the thought behind his suggestion.

Of course, it would be nice if Herdin could join them to see the festival, but he seemed to have other plans for today. Above all, forcibly putting the two quarreling people together might only worsen their relationship.

So he had suggested to the maid to take Blair out to see the festival.

“And the festival in this seaside town is different from the ones held on the mainland, right? It’s not often you get to see Nerha’s festival, so I think it would be good to go out and take a look.”

Blair fell into thought. She had already been troubled by yesterday’s incident with Herdin.

‘Staying in the annex will only make me think of Herdin anyway…’

After pondering for a moment, Blair nodded.

“Alright, that sounds like a good idea. Let’s go together.”

After finishing her meal, she prepared to go out with the maid and came down to the first floor. There, Blair encountered an unexpected face.

“Hello, my lady. Have you been well?”

Blair’s eyes wavered greatly upon seeing Caligo, who greeted her in a friendly manner.

She had thought she would never encounter him again after leaving the empire, abandoning her name and status, and had naturally forgotten about him.

He must have killed her for some ulterior motive, as there was no emotional exchange between them, but her life, no longer that of an imperial princess or a duchess, shouldn’t be worth such effort.

However, contrary to her will, she had become a duchess again, and so she had to risk facing Caligo once more.

Blair carefully composed her trembling voice and asked, trying to appear nonchalant:

“Did you come here together as well?”

“Ah, I just joined now as I was investigating other matters entrusted to me by His Excellency.”

“…I see. You must have worked hard.”

Blair attempted to conclude the conversation with that ceremonial greeting. The more she learned that Caligo was a decent person, the more uncomfortable she felt about having to suspect him.

But unfortunately, her wish was not granted.

“I’m in charge of your escort today, if that’s alright with you?”

Blair hesitated at Caligo’s brazen words.

Though she felt uneasy about him, she couldn’t refuse to his face.

‘It’s not like we’re going alone, and there will be crowds in the square, so it should be fine, right?’

Blair instinctively cradled her belly protectively as she tried to answer calmly.

“Then I’ll be in your care.”

“It’s an honor to escort you, my lady.”

Caligo helped Blair into the carriage.

Once in the carriage, Blair watched through the window as Caligo and several knights mounted their horses.

It was then that she noticed a faint red glow reflected on her collarbone in the window.

‘…A magic circle?’

Suddenly, she remembered seeing something like a magic circle in this area the day after her wedding night as well.

As Blair touched her collarbone and blinked, the maid who had followed her into the carriage noticed her behavior and looked at her with curious eyes.

“What’s wrong, my lady?”

“I thought something was on my collarbone.”

The maid examined her collarbone and tilted her head.

“Hmm, I don’t see anything visible… Are you very uncomfortable?”

Hearing the maid’s words, Blair looked back at the window, but this time she saw nothing. After feeling around her collarbone area for a while, Blair shook her head.

“It’s nothing. I must have seen wrong.”

Soon, the carriage departed.

* * *

The square was bustling with the atmosphere of the harvest festival’s final moments.

Blair, who had been enjoying the festival for a while, entered a shop at one corner of the square.

Inside the shop, various delicately crafted glass artworks were sparkling brilliantly in the light. These glass crafts were one of Nerha’s specialties.

“Oh my, they’re so beautiful…”

While the maid was absorbed in admiring the glass artworks, Blair also chose gifts for Lina and Mellie. She wanted to give them presents that symbolized Nerha.

Although she felt uneasy about returning to the duke’s mansion contrary to her original plan, there was one thing she was happy about – the fact that she could meet those two again.

She felt especially apologetic towards Lina, who must have been hurt by her sudden departure without a word.

After looking around the shop, Blair chose a water globe with delicately engraved glass pieces.

‘I hope they like it.’

Blair left the shop, preciously holding the box containing the gifts for the two, after stopping the maid who had offered to carry it.

“Where would you like to go next?”

“I think this is enough for me. I’ll return to the mansion to rest, but if you want to look around more, feel free to stay longer.”

“Oh, really?”

The maid’s face brightened at the offer of free time. Blair nodded with a slight smile.

“Yes. Thank you for coming out with me today.”

“No need to thank me. I enjoyed the sightseeing thanks to you. Then, I’ll escort you to the carriage first.”

Due to the crowds in the square, they had left the carriage a bit far from it.

Blair took in the scenery of the square as she headed towards the carriage with the maid and knights. It was a scene of the bountiful harvest festival, filled with the laughter of couples and families.

However, that peaceful scene was shattered by someone’s urgent scream that suddenly rang out.

“H-help me!”

People reflexively looked in the direction of the scream, which was discordant with the scenery. Blair did the same.

A moment of silence, and then…

“Kyaah!”

Another scream broke the silence. Following it, the cry of a newborn baby instinctively sensing danger was heard.

Noticing something amiss, people stopped what they were doing and began to murmur.

Caligo and the knights also put their hands on their sword hilts and surrounded Blair. At the same time, screams began to erupt from various places.

As Caligo watched the situation alertly in a defensive stance, he began to see the source of the terror.

Horrifying corpses with rotting bodies appeared en masse and started attacking people.

‘Undead? Why are undead here…?’

Undead were created when evil energy or black magic inhabited the corpses of the dead, so they usually only appeared in cold regions like the north.

In warm places, corpses decayed quickly, so they couldn’t maintain their integrity.

But Nerha was a coastal region with mild temperatures year-round. It wasn’t a place where undead should appear.

Caligo pushed aside the questions that came to mind and immediately drew his sword. Whatever the reason for the undead appearing here, there was only one thing he needed to do now.

“Everyone, escort the lady to the carriage!”

The knights surrounded Blair and the maid and began to make a path through the crowd.

However, it wasn’t easy to break through due to the densely packed crowd and everyone trying to escape in confusion.

The Nerha knights who had been guarding the surroundings began to fight against the undead, but they were no match for creatures they had never encountered before, living in a temperate region.

The undead would rise again no matter how many times they were cut down.

Caligo shouted towards the Nerha knights who were confused by the existence of undead that wouldn’t die even when killed.

“Fire! Set them on fire!”

Despite the efforts of the Nerha knights, Blair’s group soon encountered a group of undead that had been harming people and approaching them.

Caligo shouted while cutting down the charging undead.

“My lady, this way!”

Blair, who had been trembling in fear at the sight of these terrible monsters she had never seen before, suddenly felt the baby move and snapped back to her senses.

‘The baby, I must protect my baby.’

Blair broke through the crowd with the knights and came out to the alley where the carriage was waiting.

But that was a mistake.

Another group of undead was approaching from the opposite side of the carriage where they had been waiting. With undead coming from behind as well, and the carriage being surrounded by undead, it was a situation with no way out.

One of the Delmark knights guarding the rear suddenly fell as he was ambushed by an undead that lunged from the side.

At the same time, another undead that charged in bit Blair’s arm, and the shock made her drop the gift box she was holding. The water globe that fell out shattered.

“Ugh…”

Even though Blair felt pain as if her arm was being torn off, she didn’t loosen the arm protecting her belly.

“My lady!”

Caligo, who had cut down the undead in front of him, belatedly saw this scene and shook off the undead clinging to Blair.

Caligo gritted his teeth as he saw Blair’s wound. The undead began to rampage even more after smelling blood.

‘If only we had fire…’

It was still broad daylight, so there was no fire to be found on the street.

Just as he was despairing at the hopeless situation with undead rushing in from all directions, it happened.

A shape of light in the form of a sword appeared above the rampaging undead and plunged down.

‘Magic…?’

Blair, who realized what it was a beat later, turned around to see a familiar figure.

Herdin, approaching with blue mana rippling with killing intent.