“You, what is your identity?”

Placing his hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist, Kasa questioned.

Even with the unspoken threat that he could slit the man’s throat in an instant depending on the answer, the man smiled as if it was nothing and bowed his head as he spoke.

“I will stand right here without moving an inch. Just relay my words to Her Highness.”

“……”

“Would you feel more at ease if I stand like this with both hands raised?”

“What errand is it?”

“It must be conveyed only to Her Highness Alicia. I have no choice in this matter even if it costs me my neck, so please understand.”

Kasa, who had been glaring at the man who indicated he would not resist by raising both hands, pondered for a moment on how to handle this situation.

By principle, this man should be restrained and interrogated, but the problem was that this place was too public.

The princess’s current journey was top secret.

The nobles in the capital believed the princess was confined within the imperial palace and not participating in any external events.

They had concealed this outing by utilizing the rumors spread here and there, so they could not cause unnecessary disturbance here and disrupt the matter.

Perhaps he read the hesitation in Kasa’s eyes?

The man smiled with an exaggerated expression and took a step back.

His hands were still raised above his head.

“I really won’t do anything. I’ll just convey the message and a single letter, then immediately withdraw.”

“…Step back a bit more and wait.”

“Yes! Thank you.”

Leaving a hand signal to his colleagues hidden in preparation for any unexpected situation to keep an eye on the man, Kasa carefully backed away and approached Alicia.

Alicia, who had been watching the two since the moment the man appeared, looked at Kasa’s face with eyes sparkling with curiosity.

“What’s the matter?”

“He says he has something to convey to Your Highness.”

“To me?”

“Yes. He claims to have brought a letter sent by ‘J’… Do you know him?”

At Kasa’s words, Alicia widened her eyes and turned her gaze towards the man standing with both hands raised in the distance.

Even from afar, she could see his face grinning as if something good had happened.

“I don’t know that man, but I know J. The letter he has to convey to me?”

“He says he will deliver it personally along with the message.”

“Bring him here.”

“It’s dangerous, Your Highness.”

“Sir Kasa will protect me by my side.”

“That’s true, but……”

“I can tell you to bring him because I trust you.”

“…Yes, I understand.”

With a slightly proud expression despite the worry spreading, Kasa bowed his head and turned around.

His expression had already hardened.

“Follow me. If you try anything, I will behead you.”

“Don’t worry.”

The man who followed Kasa and approached Alicia bowed deeply in front of her and introduced himself as ‘Kay’.

“I heard you have a letter to deliver to me?”

“Yes, Your Highness. And J also told me to convey this message.”

“What is it?”

“He said he changed the method because you would dislike rumors. That’s what he told me to say.”

“What does that…?”

“I don’t know. I’m just an errand runner. And the letter…”

As the man reached into his bosom, Kasa quickly approached and pointed a dagger at his throat.

“I, I’m just trying to take out the letter.”

“Move slowly. If what comes out of that bosom isn’t a letter, I won’t forgive you.”

The man swallowed dryly at Kasa’s menacing threat and took out the letter with a very slow motion.

Kasa, confirming the seal engraved with the alphabet ‘J’, snatched it and examined it back and forth before handing it to Alicia.

“I, I’ve finished what I had to do, so I’ll be going.”

“Your Highness, what should we do?”

“Tell J that I received it well.”

“Then, take care!”

The man, who had been stepping back while watching Kasa’s reaction, quickly turned his body and hid among the people.

The knights hidden nearby would keep an eye on him until he left the village.

Kasa, confirming that a few of his colleagues had disappeared following the man, turned his eyes towards Alicia.

Alicia, who had been tapping the palm of her hand with the corner of the letter as if thinking about something, widened her eyes greatly with an ‘Ah!’ sound as if she had realized something.

“Your Highness?”

“It’s nothing.”

She thought there might be a hidden meaning in the verbally conveyed message, but it meant that Reilly had sent a subordinate to deliver the letter because meeting alone with him outside the imperial palace could lead to unnecessary rumors.

It was quite burdensome to face him in person after receiving a sudden proposal from Reilly, so the timing was good.

‘He couldn’t have noticed and changed the method, right?’

Such doubts arose because the other party was the information guild master, but even J wouldn’t be able to know that much.

Alicia, who had organized her thoughts that way, put the letter into her bosom and stood up from her seat.

She was curious about the content of the letter, but she couldn’t check it right away in this place.

“Shall we return?”

“Yes. There are too many people, so I’m tired.”

“I will escort you.”

Kasa, answering like an excellent escort knight, quickly erased such questions from his mind.

The only thing important to him was Alicia’s safety.

It was Kasa who once again engraved what he had to do in his mind.

Alicia, who had retraced the path she had come with Kasa and returned to the inn, went back to her room, locked the door, and opened the letter sent by J.

“This time it’s a story I know.”

The beginning of the letter was news that a monster’s nest, which could only be found in the northern Monster’s Forest not far from the capital, had been discovered.

J, who knew that she was already aware of this, briefly mentioned it and confirmed Alicia’s safety.

The rest of the content was about the newly discovered locations of variants.

Most of them were still far from the capital.

With this much distance, they would be able to come up with countermeasures sufficiently before monsters appeared in the capital.

And at the end of the letter, when Alicia saw what was written there, she couldn’t help but tilt her head.

“Earl Ayan Findley has disappeared?”

She was told that surveillance personnel were assigned to him, but did he disappear after deceiving all of their eyes?

The possibilities Alicia could think of were two.

Either he noticed the watchful eyes, or he had a way to move covertly.

Whichever was the correct answer, one thing was certain: Ayan Findley was scheming something while avoiding people’s eyes.

And that ‘something’ would definitely not be good for Killian.

Alicia, who had carefully reread the letter that ended with the promise to definitely confirm Earl Findley’s whereabouts, pondered for a moment and then folded the letter and put it back into her bosom.

By principle, she should have read it here and burned it immediately, but she thought she should share this information with Reilly as well.

“I can just tell the viscount to burn it.”

She had no intention of meeting Reilly alone and having a long conversation, and as J was worried, unnecessary rumors could spread, so she planned to hand over the entire letter and end the content sharing.

If he said he wanted to discuss something related to this, she was going to avoid the situation by saying it was already known.

“But how do I deliver this?”

Kasa was not an option.

She was the one who received this letter.

If she delivered this letter through Kasa, it could lead to misunderstandings that Alicia and Reilly were up to something.

Even though she was her escort knight, she belonged to the Emperor’s Imperial Guard.

Alicia did not want to create a situation where she might have unnecessary misunderstandings.

As for delivering the letter through Marisa… Sorry, but she lacked trust in her.

Of course, she knew how diligent and loyal of a lady-in-waiting she was.

There was no reason not to trust her, who had recently helped her outing and even fell out of Amy’s favor.

However, the time Alicia had spent with Marisa was too short.

The imperial family learns to suspect before learning to trust.

Moreover, having experienced betrayal several times by those she trusted after ascending to the position of emperor, she did not give complete trust even to her own people.

The only exceptions were her family, Amy, and Mina.

Unable to entrust it to either Kasa or Marisa, she had no choice but to hand it over to Reilly directly.

“Which way was Reilly’s room again?”

Taking advantage of the brief moment when Kasa left the front of the door, Alicia, who had escaped from her room, was wandering around the corridor on the second floor of the inn, trying to find the room where Reilly was staying.

With the intention of not running into him, she had moved without looking back as soon as her room was decided, and it was a misstep that she had not checked his room.

If an employee of the inn passed by, she could ask and find out…

Unaware of the fact that when renting the inn, they had given extra money on the condition that no one other than their party would be allowed to go up to the second floor, Alicia let out a long sigh at the fact that no one was passing through the corridor.

At this rate, she would have to go around knocking on doors one by one to find the room.

Should she secretly give it to him later when leaving the inn?

She had that thought for a moment, but she wasn’t confident in delivering the letter to Reilly while avoiding the eyes of her entourage.

“What should I do?”

It was the moment when Alicia was pondering to find another way.

Startled by the sensation of someone poking her back, Alicia, who had swallowed a scream and jumped, took a step back to create some distance.

“Ah, did I startle you?”

When she turned her head back, Reilly was standing there.

“Y-you startled me.”

“I apologize. I thought I was walking loudly enough, but you didn’t notice…”

He was wiping his wet hair with a towel hung around his neck as if he had just washed up, and he scratched his cheek in embarrassment as he saw Alicia backing away in shock.

Taking a deep breath to calm her startled heart, Alicia looked at him.

If only he hadn’t proposed to her like a madman, they might have been able to become friends.

As Alicia let out a long sigh recalling the proposal that day, Reilly, who had been watching her, opened his mouth.

“Could it be that you were looking for me?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Ah! Are you going to prepare now?”

“No!”

They say it’s best to avoid a madman.

Alicia let out a long sigh at his brazen words.