Yes.

Perhaps I also felt pity for this woman.

When we visited the bereaved families together, she looked human as she held back tears behind me.

Enough to reluctantly hand her a handkerchief even though I didn’t want to.

It didn’t seem fake.

She seemed to feel guilty towards her lord.

Through several incidents, I almost felt my heart softening towards her a bit.

But if she was passing suspicious notes, that’s a different story.

Tristan glared at the note.

A note she tried to hide and then got flustered when caught.

It was obvious what this must be.

A note betraying and backstabbing Arthur.

Despite Arthur treating her too generously, and the knights constantly signaling they don’t see her as an enemy and want to embrace her.

To be doing this.

“……”

Tristan’s eyes turned cold with a faint sense of betrayal.

He was angrier at the fact that he had almost felt sympathy for such a woman.

He had guessed she was Julius’ pawn and must have received some orders from the Duchess.

But seeing actual evidence that she was carrying out something was a different matter.

Tristan clenched his jaw, thinking this time Arthur wouldn’t let her off the hook.

Yes. Let’s read the contents first and then think.

We need to confirm what kind of spying she was doing.

Once Arthur hears the note’s contents, his view of her will change at least a little.

After that, if I advise him objectively that it’s better not to keep her close due to the dangerous situation, Arthur will agree.

Above all, Arthur has a weakness that must not be exposed to that side.

Tristan unfolded the note.

“……”

[ ― Sir Arthur is also a picky eater when it comes to sardines. ]

“…?”

[ ― Sir Arthur is also a picky eater when it comes to sardines. ]

“……”

Tristan stared at it with a hardened face, then folded the note back up.

“What does it say?”

Arthur asked.

“……”

What is this?

Tristan wracked his brain.

“It seems to be… some kind of code. I’ll analyze it and report back to you.”

“…Code?”

Arthur tilted his head.

“…She wouldn’t have had time to learn such things, would she?”

“……”

Tristan couldn’t continue speaking.

“What’s written on it?”

“……”

“Tristan?”

Tristan’s expression stiffened.

“Please give me a little time. I’ll analyze it and return.”

“……”

Seeing that Tristan was reluctant to answer,

Arthur rubbed his forehead and sighed.

“Tell me exactly what’s written. That’s an order.”

“……”

Though his voice was calm, it carried an official reprimand.

Tristan flinched for a moment, biting the inside of his cheek as he apologized.

“…I’m sorry.”

To dare to… to him, just because Arthur couldn’t see.

That wasn’t his intention.

Of course, he had planned to relay the intelligence content as it was, without addition or omission.

But…

Tristan bit his lip, lowered his head, and then reluctantly opened his mouth.

“…Your Excellency. Do you dislike sardines?”

“What?”

Arthur furrowed one eyebrow as if to say ‘What are you talking about?’, looking equally confused.

“……”

Tristan finally confessed in an unwilling voice.

“…It says that Sir Arthur is a picky eater when it comes to sardines.”

Upon hearing that ‘Reina’ had been leaking Arthur’s information to Julius’ side, Kay silently removed his monocle, put it down, and rubbed his face.

Lucian raised one eyebrow with a ‘What?’ expression,

And Lionel’s expression became more serious than usual, sinking.

Lucian straightened his posture and asked.

“Has important information been leaked?”

Tristan’s expression became peculiar.

“……”

Guessing it wasn’t so, the knights didn’t press for an answer.

If it had been, Tristan would have said that first, his expression would have been much more grim, and he would have spoken in a more serious atmosphere.

Tristan finally shook his head once, moistened his lips, and opened his mouth with a displeased air.

“Well… I’m not sure yet. That’s why I wanted to discuss it.”

Tristan took out the note.

The knights’ gazes focused on it.

“Hmm……”

Tristan hesitated as if unsure what to say, then reluctantly passed it to the person next to him.

“…Please take a look first.”

Lionel, who was closest to Tristan on his right, was the first to receive the note.

“…I’d like you to see if it looks like it could be a code.”

Tristan added.

Lionel looked up at Tristan once, then silently examined the note for a while.

“……”

After a moment, he passed the note to Lucian.

And quietly looked up at Tristan.

Lucian, receiving the note from Lionel, alternately raised his eyebrows with a strange expression while looking at it.

“……”

And unlike Lionel, without looking at it for long, he immediately passed the note to the last person, Kay.

“?”

Glancing once at Lucian, who was rubbing his forehead with a sigh as he passed it to him,

Kay also took the note and looked at it.

“……”

Before Kay could fully understand it, Lucian spoke first.

“Sir Tristan. No… Brother.”

“……”

While Kay’s expression became strange as he looked at the note.

Lucian, with a deflated face, leaned back on the sofa and looked at Tristan.

“Does that look like a code to you, brother?”

“……”

“I mean… You know roughly what code messages look like, don’t you? Why are you acting like this? Do you dislike that woman?”

Tristan said.

“…Since I don’t know what kind of code it might be.”

“It’s too short to be a code hiding some meaning, you know. Any kind of code needs some length to hide the true meaning.”

Lionel offered a similar opinion agreeing with Lucian.

“…There are limits to the coding methods possible in such a short structure. Even more obvious for methods a person without background knowledge could use. Structurally, it’s not a vertical reading method, nor a skip-code. Of course, it’s not a letter-shifting method either… Unless the entire sentence itself means something else.”

“……”

“But that lady probably didn’t have time to prepare such a thing.”

It was true.

But Tristan, unwittingly agreeing with that conclusion, steeled his heart lest he become flustered.

“…Assuming she was a trained operative who had always memorized such things…”

Lucian said.

“If she were such a trained operative, isn’t this too sloppy? When startled, she just freezes up and it shows all over her face. And she got caught red-handed with this note like this.”

“……”

Kay, who had been carefully examining the note, looked up and asked.

“What did His Excellency say?”

“……”

Tristan hesitated, seeming displeased.

“Well…”

Tristan said reluctantly.

“…He says he doesn’t particularly dislike sardines.”

“……”

“He says the only thing His Excellency dislikes is mushrooms.”

“……”

It felt somewhat foolish.

But Tristan resolutely asked Kay for his opinion.

“Is there a possibility it’s a coded message?”

However, Kay’s expression was also quite ambiguous.

Still, the cautious Kay probed a bit further.

“The circumstances when this note was discovered? How did you obtain it?”

Tristan explained.

A sudden accident that appeared to be a mistake.

A note that fell to the floor.

Reina’s reaction that seemed very guilty,

And Arthur’s words, saying he already knew and didn’t seem to consider it a big deal.

Kay quietly looked at him and touched his chin.

“Hmm… It seems she did receive instructions from the Duchess’s side.”

Tristan waited tensely for Kay’s words.

“But since His Excellency already knows, there’s probably no need to worry too much. Well, if we succeed in recruiting her, we could use her as a double agent or something. He must have his own thoughts on this.”

“……”

Tristan’s face darkened.

In fact, Arthur had mentioned having a double agent plan.

But Kay hadn’t directly seen Arthur sighing while watching that woman fumbling.

He also doesn’t know that Arthur is hiding a fatal weakness.

Would he be able to speak like this if he knew that?

Kay continued.

“We can’t jump to conclusions, but the possibility of it being a coded message seems low. I’ve considered all the encryption methods I know, but none match.”

Kay said, holding up the note.

“However, there does seem to be a possibility of persuasion.”

Kay tilted his head and smirked.

“…I’ll try talking to her myself.”

“……”

Hearing the knights’ reactions, Arthur lowered his head and covered his face as if touching his forehead.

…He’s laughing.

“Your Excellency. This may not be a laughing matter.”

“…Hmm.”

Arthur removed his hand from his forehead and turned his head towards the window.

He covered his mouth with his fist and coughed, but it was obvious he was trying to hold back laughter.

…Damn it.

Tristan wanted to ask if “Sir Arthur is ‘also’ a picky eater when it comes to sardines” meant that information about his other picky eating habits had been transmitted before.

“……”

But that would only double the mockery rather than create any sense of vigilance.

Ahem.

Arthur cleared his throat and said.

“…I told you. That note isn’t some kind of code. It was just a conversation between us. It’s not me but my wife who dislikes sardines.”

Arthur added, lowering his hand.

“She heard that I don’t like fish, so she kept it away from the table. I think she misunderstood that I dislike it.”

“……”

Arthur calmly extended his hand to Tristan.

“I’ll talk to her. Give me the note.”

“……”

Tristan reluctantly returned the note to him.

Arthur received the note back with a seemingly amused expression.

…What are you smiling about when you can’t even see it.

Just in case, he pointed out the position of the writing on the note and its distinctive handwriting,

Watching Arthur listen to this, Tristan suddenly felt a pain in his stomach.

Consciously trying not to get emotional about Arthur’s blindness, Tristan changed the subject.

“Sir Kay says he’d like to talk with your wife.”

“With my wife? Why?”

“After seeing that note, he seems to think there’s a high possibility of persuading her. It looks like he’ll attempt to recruit her.”

“Hmm……”

Arthur seemed to think for a moment.

But soon he shook his head.

“No. Not yet.”

“…No?”

Arthur smiled slightly.

“Kay can wait. Let me talk to her first.”