The place Killian led Alicia to was the tent where the Crown Prince was staying.

Arriving at the tent, which was twice as lavish as those of other nobles, Alicia shook off Killian’s hand she had been relying on and rushed inside.

“Brother!”

“Alicia?”

“Ari? How did you…?”

“Brother, are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?”

Adrian, who was receiving treatment from Dalton in the middle of the emperor’s tent, smiled awkwardly at his sister who was worried about him with a pale face.

“Looks like rumors are already spreading.”

“Brother!”

“It’s just a scratch, no need to worry so much.”

“That’s right. How sturdy do you think this person is? No need to make such a face.”

Sienna, who had been looking like she was about to cry next to Adrian as he received treatment until just now, suddenly smiled and comforted Alicia as if nothing had happened.

“B-but…”

The white bandage wrapped around Adrian’s shoulder.

What it evoked were memories of the past.

On that day too, Adrian had greeted Alicia with a smile before leaving the imperial palace, and returned with bandages soaked in blood.

The day he suffered for four days and nights with excessive bleeding and high fever, and finally left without ever opening his eyes again.

Alicia collapsed from the shock of losing her blood relative, and when she opened her eyes, the funeral was already over.

The emperor, worried about losing his daughter after his son, quickly weakened after seeing Alicia safely open her eyes.

And Father…

“Alicia.”

It was the moment when memories of the past, which she had wished to fall into hell and suffer rather than remember, were flooding back and about to engulf her.

The emperor approached Alicia, who was staggering like someone caught in a tidal wave, and placed his hand on her shoulder.

Feeling the familiar warmth on her shoulder, Alicia looked up and was able to meet the emperor’s blue eyes that emitted a gentle light.

“Adrian is safe.”

“Father.”

“I’m more worried about your complexion.”

“I’m… fine.”

“I’m fine too, Ari.”

Adrian, who had put on his outer garment with Sienna’s help, gently held his beloved wife’s hand to comfort her and spoke to Alicia.

“Are you really alright?”

“Yes.”

“Really… are you really okay?”

“It’s no different from a scratch I got falling from a tree when I was young.”

“Why did you fall from a tree?”

“I’ll tell you later, Sienna.”

Adrian shook his head pleasantly as he looked at his wife’s face with her eyes wide open in curiosity, and spoke with strength to his sister who was still looking at him with uneasy eyes in their father’s embrace.

“I’m really fine. So you don’t have to make that face.”

“Ah…”

Alicia, who had been looking alternately at Adrian, Sienna, and the emperor’s faces, was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief after confirming that there was no lie on their faces.

The firmness of the floor, which had been shaking so much until just now that she couldn’t stand properly, could finally be felt.

“I really… thought something terrible had happened. I heard you lost a lot of blood.”

“It’s just a scratch.”

It wasn’t a lie to reassure Alicia.

Adrian, who had been consoling his disappointment at not being able to participate in the hunting competition by looking at the beasts brought in by the participants, was injured by the attack of a beast that hadn’t been properly killed.

The problem was that it happened to be a feline predator.

The next issue was the emperor rushing over in surprise after seeing Sienna personally grabbing Dalton by the collar and running, upon seeing her husband appear with beast claw marks on his shoulder.

The blood of royalty spilled at the place where the dead beasts’ carcasses were gathered, the Crown Princess dragging the royal physician, and the emperor chasing after them with a surprised face.

These were just the right scenes for exaggerated rumors to spread.

“Did a rumor spread that I was bleeding profusely and dying?”

“It didn’t go that far. Just that brother was injured and lost a lot of blood…”

Alicia, who now seemed embarrassed for making such a fuss, blushed as she sat at the table set up inside the tent.

The emperor, who had been watching Alicia with a warm gaze, stood up at the whisper of the head servant who approached him.

“Father?”

“I need to leave for a moment.”

“Has something happened?”

“It’s time to announce the winner.”

“Ah…”

At the emperor’s words, Adrian also stood up and straightened his slightly wrinkled clothes.

Sienna looked at him with worried eyes, but didn’t stop Adrian’s actions.

“Are you going too, brother?”

“If you were so surprised that you came running, other people must be curious about my well-being too. So I need to stand on the platform and show them I’m fine.”

He was a man accustomed to a life of eliminating anything that could become a weakness, as he was responsible for the next throne.

If he didn’t appear before people because he couldn’t endure the current fatigue, it was unclear how this incident might become a weakness that would hold him back.

It was a way of thinking that ordinary people couldn’t understand, but for Adrian, who had shouldered enormous power and duty from the moment he was born, it was as natural as breathing.

Sienna, who had begun to understand little by little that she too should live such a life now, tried to compose her expression and opened her mouth towards her husband.

“I think I should go too, what do you think?”

“I’d like the empress to stay with Alicia…”

“No, it’s okay. Don’t worry about me and just go, everyone.”

“Will you be alright?”

“Of course. I’ll wait here quietly.”

Although the emperor would present the award to the winner, since the Crown Prince couple had been present at the start of the hunting competition, it was good for them to show their faces at the final event of the competition as well.

If not, other speculations might give birth to strange rumors.

Alicia, who had waved her hand to see off her family leaving the tent, let out a long sigh.

It was really fortunate that Adrian was safe.

‘I must prevent that accident. Only then can I send them off with a smile like this again.’

The tragic event that brought about Adrian’s death occurred on the day of his birthday celebration.

Alicia, who had been counting the days left until his birthday, realized that the winner of the hunting competition had been decided when she heard the sound of trumpets from afar.

“It must be Killian.”

Today in the past was the last day Killian won the hunting competition.

They held their engagement ceremony before spring ended, and their wedding ceremony before winter came.

If he hadn’t married her, how many victory flags would Killian have claimed?

Unlike in the past, he would be able to participate in this competition steadily every year now, so she would be able to know the answer by watching from now on.

“Ah… right. Killian…”

As her thoughts flowed in that direction, she belatedly remembered that it was Killian who had guided her here earlier.

She was so busy checking on Adrian’s well-being that she didn’t even thank him…

“I didn’t expect to run into him and receive help like this, how should I thank him? He guided me and supported me… huh?”

The large, firm hand that had been around her waist.

The broad chest that had supported her back.

His face that had been close enough for his breath to touch her.

The deep green eyes that had fully reflected her frightened face.

“Oh my…”

Alicia covered her face with both hands as she recalled the fact that she had moved quite a distance in what seemed like being embraced by Killian.

Alicia’s face, visible between her thin white fingers, was bright red.

Not just her face.

Her whole body was flushed red to the point of sweating.

‘Su-surely no one saw, right?’

It would be stranger if no one had watched, given how noisily she had appeared.

But Alicia, unable to accept this fact at face value, raised her voice to call in Amy, who was waiting outside the tent.

“Amy!”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“It was probably only a few minutes so it’s unlikely, but a-are there any strange rumors going around the hunting grounds?”

“By strange rumors, you mean…”

Amy, looking at Alicia’s bright red face, sighed without finishing her sentence.

It was certain that there was a problem, and a serious one at that, for Alicia herself.

“Amy?”

She didn’t want to hear it, but she had to.

She needed to know the situation properly in order to deal with it.

Perhaps sensing Alicia’s resolve, or lack thereof, Amy sighed deeply once again and delivered the news that Alicia both wanted and didn’t want to know.

“They say that Your Highness Alicia and Duke Diaz will soon hold an engagement ceremony.”

“…What?”

“They say that Duke Diaz, reflecting on the past after hearing Your Highness’s declaration on the first day of the banquet, begged Your Highness and obtained the engagement.”

“Who… who did what?”

“They also say that the Duke will soon present the victory flag from this hunting competition to Your Highness, as the win was for Alicia.”

“…To whom?”

“To Your Highness Alicia.”

“…”

“Your Highness.”

“…Yes?”

“Whatever Your Highness’s plan was… to borrow Mina’s words…”

“To borrow her words?”

“You’re doomed.”

Exhaling a long sigh for the third time already, Amy’s words “You’re doomed” felt like an arrow piercing Alicia’s chest.

“D-doomed…”

“Yes, you’re doomed. Moreover, Mina heard an even worse rumor. Would you like to hear that too? For reference, Mina, who heard it, was beating her chest saying it was unfair.”

“Mina was beating her chest…”

“Yes, and it was Mina of all people. Haah…”

To Alicia, Amy had always been ‘an adult with answers’.

From childhood until now, Amy had always answered whatever Alicia was curious about, but this time, even Amy was wearing a face that said she didn’t know what to do, and was sighing repeatedly.

Finding that appearance awkward and frightening, Alicia finally turned her gaze away.

It was partly because she couldn’t think of anything else due to her worry about Adrian, but she thought there wouldn’t be a big problem because it was Killian who had supported her.

Killian didn’t like her, and everyone knew that fact well.

So she thought that even if someone had seen the two of them earlier, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

Even if rumors spread, she thought it would end with something like Alicia not being able to let go of her attachment to Killian…

“Why, why did things turn out like this?”

“I don’t know either… How did things end up like this?”

The noble princess of Eregron and her head maid simultaneously sighed and lifted their heads.

Instead of the blue sky that should have been visible if they were outside the tent, the closed ceiling of the tent entered the eyes of the two.

Would it feel exactly like this if they were surrounded by the strange rumors that must be spreading outside the tent?

Alicia squeezed her eyes shut while letting out a long sigh that had become familiar after her regression.