What could a fellow who was merely mimicking a knight, or those who couldn’t even mimic a knight, do?

“Tsk.”

The man who lightly clicked his tongue let out a faint sigh.

Well, they are in a different situation than him, so they can behave so carelessly and thoughtlessly.

Even if they return to their home country without even seeing a single hair of the princess, they would live their own lives.

But that’s not the case for him.

He is just…

“…Isaac? Isaac, where are you?”

The man, with a foxlike smile, soon spotted a wearyfaced knight calling him and descended from the tree without a sound.

“Hey, did you find me?”

The wearyfaced knight was startled by Isaac, who had appeared out of nowhere without making a sound, but that was only momentary.

He opened his mouth as if he were accustomed to his ghostlike behavior in the midday.

“Hey, where have you been?”

“Ah, just over there for a bit.”

Pointing vaguely to one of the crowds gathered, the wearyfaced knight shook his head and let out a sigh.

“Everyone is bustling about the martial arts tournament. I was actually looking for you to talk about that. Isaac, what do you think?”

It was a question without a bottom or an end, but Isaac didn’t bother to ask back.

And the wearyfaced knight who had spoken seemed not to expect a particular answer either, and followed with a lamentation.

“Everyone is so excited, it’s like a festival, but it’s not. A martial arts tournament. If you’re unlucky, you could lose an arm or a leg during the tournament.”

He tapped his unimpressive sword.

“Even if that doesn’t happen, there’s no hope anyway, but I wish I could live thoughtlessly like them. The world is truly unfair.”

The knight, who kept on lamenting, then remembered that Isaac was there and subtly offered him words as if seeking agreement.

“You and I, if we go back like this, it’s over, isn’t it? We were initially sent here as throwaways.”

At his words, which came out with a deep sigh, Isaac didn’t give any particular answer this time either.

It was true, but he didn’t want to sympathize with the dreadful, futureless, whining that was horribly depressing.

Isaac, who was letting the knight’s words in one ear and out the other, suddenly twitched his ear and then his eyes lit up.

And shortly after.

“Isaac? Isaac? Oh no, not again…”

The one left behind alone was scratching his head in disappointment.

“Goodness, he’s at it again.”

Even while talking facetoface with Isaac, if he took his eyes off him for a moment, Isaac would vanish without a trace.

At first, it was surprising and annoying.

How many people would tolerate someone who disappears suddenly without a word during a conversation?

Especially when he couldn’t be found nearby whether he shot up to the sky or sank into the ground…

But there weren’t many people in a similar situation to him, and he didn’t want to be at odds with Isaac, who was one of them, so now he just let it be.

He watched the knights showing off their flamboyant swords, excited about the martial arts tournament, then turned his heavy footsteps.

At that time, Isaac was walking along the corridor of the princess’s palace in the shadow of a fallen painting.

He was keenly observing his surroundings, examining what was different from the day before.

“…He went back…”

“I had no idea he was leaving…”

From a few words leaked by the servants, Isaac, who had found out that the unexpected guest from the Nordern Kingdom had already left, narrowed his eyes.

It was strange that he had sent someone abruptly from the Nordern Kingdom, which would be busy preparing for the national mourning, but he had gone back again out of the blue?

Even without the servants noticing?

Unless he was running away from something, there was no reason to return like that.

“Hmm.”

Come to think of it, the palace was a bit noisy a few days ago.

I thought it was that ‘night out’ again, but it seems not.

On a night when a huge crowd of people rushed out and into the imperial palace.

Three people came into the princess’s palace with a sudden downpour.

No, one guy was dragged in.

He wasn’t sure because he saw it from afar…

Isaac tapped his chin.

His instinct was screaming that this was not a common event.

The guest from the Nordern Kingdom. The three people on the night of the downpour.

“If I could find out what happened, it might be a breakthrough.”

He didn’t intend to return to his home country and become a hunting dog cooked after the hunt.

Therefore, do not pity me and drone on like a tired knight, but rather, we should strive to live.

For an outsider to settle in a new place, they must satisfy one or, perhaps, multiple of the three conditions.

To be liked by someone, to prey on someone’s fear, or to be useful to someone.

Given that this place is not merely a village to pass through on a journey, but the imperial palace of the empire, it would be very difficult to meet even one of the three conditions. However, this place is still where people live.

Besides, he is not just a passerby.

“If nothing works out, I could secretly go in the middle of the night and pray hard, stating that I am of a rather significant lineage in Bolshevik history…”

Isaac, who was mumbling incomprehensibly to himself, suddenly stopped in his tracks.

He, in the shadows, looked into the shadows.

And the shadows were looking back at him.

A pair of crimson eyes, quietly observing him from a spot that seemed cloaked in darkness despite the daylight.

“You… are.”

The rumored ‘that’ knight, Iris.

A nameless knight of the Norden Kingdom, but a man who has secured a position in the empire in the eyes of the princess.

This was the first time he came face to face with the knight, who was only known for rumors and gossip.

And Isaac had to swallow his hollow laughter.

No name?

Presumably, ‘yet’ nameless.

If Her Royal Highness the Princess was love at first sight with the man in front of her, it was not because of that sculpted face….