A few months ago, Little received portraits from the Rose Faction leadership. The hundreds of vivid color portraits he received were distributed throughout the Rose Faction.

Little also received that portrait. Below the portrait was written brief personal information.

If found, do not capture but only report.

The importance of the person was evident just by looking at the family of the protagonist in the portrait.

When Little received the portrait, he thought the Rose Faction leadership was going to use it to capture the Duchess of Hastings and pressure that family.

It wasn’t until after he learned that the Hastings Duke’s family and the Rose Faction had been caught that he realized that wasn’t the case.

Little also arbitrarily assumed that the two organizations he believed could not go together in the process of finding the Duchess of Hastings had joined hands.

Although it was a hasty assumption, he never spoke his thoughts to others, so there was no opportunity to correct the misunderstanding.

In fact, the distribution of Jane’s portrait throughout the Rose Faction was done entirely on Cedric’s own decision and expense.

Little thought there was no way Jane would come to such a remote place.

Whatever the reason she left the Hastings family, there was no place here suitable for a duchess to stay.

But then Jane appeared right before his eyes.

She was such a striking beauty that he recognized her as Jane immediately. So he hastily let her into the room.

After letting her in, he thought it was strange. How did she know and find him?

“Why did you come looking for me?”

Instead of answering, Jane rummaged through her bag. Soon a book came out of her bag.

The dark green cover and size of the book looked familiar.

“That’s!”

“Yes, it’s one of the Rose Faction’s propaganda materials.”

“How did you get that?”

There were criteria for distributing propaganda materials. Centered on workers, children, and women, but not given to those who looked like nobles.

Jane was clearly recognizable as a noble. No matter how shabby clothes she wore, it was difficult to hide the signs of being well-fed and well-educated from childhood.

“It’s not mine. I received it. That’s not important.”

Jane opened the book and took out a letter to deliver her message, regardless of whether Little was surprised or not.

“This is it.”

Little’s eyes turned harsh upon seeing the crude map and poor quality letter paper. It was a directive letter from above.

“Did you see it?”

Jane nodded. Little’s jaw clenched tightly. Only the recipient should see directive letters.

That means, if anyone else saw it, that person must be eliminated.

But could he kill the Duchess of Hastings?

That didn’t seem right.

“The letter, I’m sorry but I read it. I was going to just throw it away, but it seemed like important content. You should read it.”

Little carefully approached Jane and received the letter.

“I’ve delivered the letter, so I’ll be going now.”

As he was about to read the letter, Jane turned to leave.

“No, wait!”

Little grabbed Jane’s shoulder. He couldn’t control his strength in his haste to grab her. Jane cried out, “Ack!”

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

Jane sighed and nodded. The cold sweat flowing down his face was enough to tell that his words were not a lie.

“Why did you stop me?”

“Depending on the content of the letter, you may need to stay with me.”

Jane frowned at him.

“That is, if it’s an important matter, security is important…”

Does someone who cares about security allow a letter to fall into their hands?

To be honest, Jane was quite disappointed in the Rose Faction.

To think that Whitney and Hastings were involved with such a sloppy organization.

“It is important.”

At Jane’s words, Little gulped and opened the envelope. After confirming the contents, he bit his two lips together. Considering just the confidentiality of the letter, Jane should be killed immediately.

But she was the wife of Duke Hastings, who was working together on the great cause. Little couldn’t deal with such an important person on his own.

“I’m sorry, my lady.”

Little bowed deeply. Jane tilted her head.

“You’ll have to come with me.”

“I refuse.”

Jane was merciless. But her stubbornness soon crumbled. Because of what Little said.

“Don’t you want to help with what your husband is doing?”

“Husband?”

“I mean Duke Hastings. Isn’t the Duke working together with the Rose Faction on the great cause? That’s why we’re traveling by train.”

She thought the mode of transportation was strange.

But Cain has joined hands with the Rose Faction?

Jane’s eyes shook aimlessly, confused.

* * *

D-7.

Cain woke up early in the morning and finished exercising. As the day of the uprising approached, he began to pay attention to taking care of his body.

With the change in plans, a situation arose where he had to use his body directly on the day of the uprising.

If lucky, he would just have a scuffle with a couple of people, and if unlucky, he would have to break through dozens.

The meat tasted like chewing rubber, and the vegetables and fruits tasted like paper, but what could he do?

Cain ate the set amount and trained his body.

“A letter has arrived for young master Joseph.”

As he was wiping sweat with the towel handed to him, Nathan held out a letter. It was Joseph’s letter with more drawings than words. The child sent a letter to Cain every day.

Joseph’s letter, received before breakfast, was the only breathing hole in Cain’s life that had fallen into the abyss.

“Looks like the rabbit doll’s ear fell off. He drew the stitches where Letty sewed it. Maybe we should have Joseph study art. He has talent.”

“Didn’t you say yesterday you’d make him a knight? You’re quite nimble in catching dragonflies.”

“Did I? Well, let’s have him be a knight and draw pictures too.”

Last time, after hearing about him applying medicine to his own wound, he said he’d make him a doctor.

Nathan shook his head, seeing the small smile hanging on Cain’s lips.

‘Overprotective parent.’

While thinking he should never become like Cain, he thought he couldn’t help but love a child who resembled Joseph.

‘He only writes happy stories in his letters so Your Excellency won’t worry.’

Life in the unfamiliar palace, surrounded by strange courtiers, must not be all that comfortable, and he must be afraid, but still.

“Did you get the list of attendees for the birthday banquet?”

“Who do you think I am! Of course I got it.”

“Put it on the table. I’ll look at it after I wash up.”

Normally, Helena would have shared the list with Cain and ordered him to identify dangerous individuals.

But Helena visibly ostracized Cain.

It’s a stupid thing to do. If she wants to strike at him, she should prepare without showing it.

‘She still hasn’t given up on me.’

Helena is hoping for Cain to return. Because she can’t let go of Hastings, she’s showing it so obviously.

I’m going this far, and you’re not coming back?

She was like a clingy ex-lover trying to hold onto a former partner.

‘Am I like Helena to Jane?’

As he met the pouring water, Cain became lost in thought.

I wonder if Jane is doing well.

A dark bruise formed in his heart.

D-6.

As the sun slowly hid its form below the mountains, the clouds were dyed yellow, orange, and red. Soon darkness came, and stars began to show their faces one by one in the deep blue sky.

Cain was staring blankly at the sky, lost in thought.

“Do you have worries?”

Nathan, who came with an outer coat, asked. He draped the coat over Cain’s shoulders.

“No worries.”

“Shall I bring you a cigar?”

“I quit.”

If the uprising ends successfully, Cain planned to search extensively for Jane. To the extent that Jane would have no choice but to come find him out of embarrassment.

It’s not with the intention of holding onto her. He just wanted to return to her what she should have enjoyed, and then let her do as she pleased afterwards.

So they had to meet once. Cain quit cigars while waiting for that day.

Because Jane didn’t like it.

“It’s time to depart.”

“Looks like the test run ended well. How did you report to the old raccoon?”

“I reported that there were engine problems during operation and we stopped a few times at places that weren’t scheduled stops. When I reported that it would be a big blow to Hays Railroad, he was pleased.”

A response without even a hair’s breadth of deviation from expectations.

“How stupid.”

“He could be pretending to be stupid. Don’t let your guard down. I circled the families that need to be closely examined on the list of nobles attending the birthday banquet that was brought yesterday. Send out the Black Hawk to definitely buy them over to our side before the birthday banquet.”

“Shall we turn back?”

“I only marked families that could be turned. Only greedy families.”

While preparing for the uprising, Cain diligently gathered nobles who would join his cause. Of course, few were willing to step forward to give up their rights.

But there were more awakened nobles than Cain had imagined.

And there were those who were dissatisfied with the hierarchy within noble society. At the very least, they wanted royalty and nobility to become equal. The number was considerable, so things after the uprising seemed likely to proceed smoothly.

However, only a small number of families were actively willing to participate in the uprising. Cedric was enraged by their cowardly behavior, but Cain was calm as he had anticipated it.

In the end, Cain had to shoulder most of it.

“Have all our private soldiers come in?”

“Yes, they’ve been infiltrating the capital in small groups for several months. Some are disguised as Hays Company employees.”

“We will focus all our efforts on surrounding and occupying the palace.”

“What about the outside? There will be forces pushing in from the outside or resisting.”

“We’ll have to leave that to the Rose Faction.”

At least Cedric lightened Cain’s burden.

Cain checked his watch.

“I should go. Cedric will be angry that I’m late.”

Today was the turn to inspect the test run train.

Cain couldn’t imagine even in his dreams, but Jane was there.