No one had the guts to stand up and watch a military officer suddenly appear and shoot.
Everyone, noble and commoner alike, lay face down on the carpeted floor. They trembled as they watched dozens of combat boots striking recklessly before their eyes.
The armed men who had taken control of the villa in an instant stopped at their respective positions and loaded their muskets. Walter, who had seen this, warned the crowd.
“As of now, this place is under military control. Do not move recklessly until further instructions are given. If you show any suspicious movements, you will be considered an accomplice in terrorism on the spot.”
He spoke without hesitation as he walked towards Elizabeth and Hermia.
“This is a unit directive to protect civilians from unspecified crimes. Please cooperate.”
It was a dry tone devoid of emotion, but when his gaze fell on Hermia, there was a very short gap.
Hermia, who had been covering her ears and lowering her head in surprise at the sound of the gunshot, slowly raised her head.
The shadow cast before me stood still in one place without moving.
“… … .”
He looked up at Walter with a blank face, and his expression was not good.
Walter’s gaze shifted sequentially from his own face to his swollen wrists, then to the guards lying nearby.
“You there. Get up.”
“yep!”
Walter’s toes touched his elbow and he jumped up.
The royal guard was basically an army unit. Moreover, the difference between Walter, the regimental commander, and him, a private, was vast, so it was only natural that his reaction speed was lightning fast.
“Original location.”
“Yes, yep!”
The guard immediately fell to the ground like a well-trained hunting dog. Walter stood up for a moment, and after checking the rank and family name embroidered on the uniform, he turned around without hesitation.
Hermia’s eyes slowly followed Walter’s back. He was leaving me behind and heading towards Elizabeth.
‘Well… I guess that’s natural since she’s a princess.’
I understood it in my head, but I felt a bit uneasy.
“Are you okay?”
“Sir Walter! Sir, how come you are here… … .”
Elizabeth, surrounded by soldiers, pushed them away and pretended to greet them cheerfully, but then stopped.
“… Are you really here because of Kyung’s fiancée? Bringing a bunch of subordinates with you?”
He kept his face indifferent to the sharp words spoken out of jealousy.
Elizabeth didn’t like Walter’s constant expression on her face. He always answered with the same polite attitude as usual.
His conviction that he would marry me after divorcing his illegitimate child was actually arrogance born of power, not love. I just turned a blind eye to it because I didn’t want to admit it.
“I was standing guard outside at the request of the Four Princes. Then I heard something I couldn’t ignore.”
“Gerard called you? Wasn’t you on vacation right now?”
“If there is a separate request, we may temporarily return. Where is the terrorist?”
Elizabeth was taken aback when he, who had been speaking calmly, asked her a question in return.
This was the first time Walter, who had known her since childhood, had asked her something. Although it was a question that didn’t even have the ‘ro’ in it…
He was urging an answer with cold eyes.
“Did you see the terrorist in person? He was yelling for you to arrest him.”
Elizabeth pointed at Hermia this time with a look of disbelief.
“There he is. The criminal who not only dared to confront me, but also threatened me.”
“… … .”
“Why are you just sitting there? Shouldn’t you catch her and hand her over to the police? Surely you’re not trying to cover her up by saying she’s your fiancée?”
She smiled crookedly, as if she had caught the right guy. Walter couldn’t marry a woman who had gone to prison, so whether he liked it or not, he would have to choose her.
“This is not a miracle, but a serious crime that even the late Duke Leonard could not cover up… … .”
“The suspect will be transferred to the military.”
“What did you say?”
Elizabeth jumped up. If she wasn’t going to hand him over to the royal police but instead to the military, wouldn’t that mean she was going to take him herself?
“Even if he’s my fiancé, that’s unfair… …!”
“Terrorist crimes committed in the Kingdom are subject to military law, not the police.”
“What kind of nonsense is that… … .”
“I’m just trying to handle it according to the rules. Do you have any other questions?”
“… … .”
Walter, who had been so disappointingly indifferent, showed his first emotion toward me was ‘annoyance’. Elizabeth had no idea whether she should be happy or sad about this.
He cut off the princess’s words three times in a row, and without waiting for her next words, he turned around sharply. Then he walked towards Hermia and calmly reported.
“I need you to accompany me for the investigation.”
“Yes, I will go with you right away.”
She answered without a moment’s hesitation, and Walter nodded slightly and gave instructions to his subordinate.
“Take care of the situation and return to your unit.”
Elizabeth stood dumbfounded, watching the whole scene.
Something was seriously wrong. But once he had said the word ‘terror’, Walter had no words to say in rebuttal.
The suspect was leaving the villa without even being arrested. As he was leaving, he suddenly said, “What?” to the noble ladies he met and then ran away.
* * *
Outside the villa, there was a line of military carriages, larger and more crude than the Duke’s carriages.
It looked similar to a wagon, but the exterior, engraved with the lion emblem symbolizing the army, was quite menacing. There were six horses attached to the shaft.
Walter lifted the stiff tent that had been set up in place of a door and held out his palm as if to invite them in. Hermia stepped onto the small step and Walter climbed right into the car.
The interior, which was completely covered with a tent and had no windows, was lit by lamps hanging from the ceiling.
She sat on a long, hard chair and looked around the dark carriage. It was a bleak, unadorned landscape.
“We will move to the Duke’s Castle.”
Walter, sitting next to her rather than across from her, said:
“Am I going to jail?”
Hermia asked, feeling uneasy later on. The result of speaking ill of the royal family was certain to be imprisonment, no matter what the crime.
“I didn’t really mean to do anything to the princess, but she insulted my mother first. I got so angry that I couldn’t help but… … .”
“I’m not going to jail. I’m like… … .”
A shadow fell over his once stern face. He lowered his head mid-speaking and suddenly his expression changed.
“I wouldn’t put it that way… … .”
“… … ?”
What the heck? Why are you suddenly so scary?
Walter suddenly let out a series of short gasps as if he had been kicked in the stomach.
“Are you okay? What’s wrong? Where does it hurt?”
The man, who had been fine until just a few seconds ago, was now sweating, perhaps suffering from motion sickness on a carriage that hadn’t even started yet.
Suddenly, he jumped up with a face even more surprised than himself.
“Ha. What the hell is this, something is wrong… … .”
“What, what is it?”
He turned his back to me and headed toward the entrance, roughly opening the tent. Then, upon seeing the figure that appeared, he let out another deep breath.
“Oh. Is that the instinct of an animal? It even picks up on the sounds outside.”
“…Gerard.”
“Get out of the way. I’ll come with you. I can’t miss this fun spectacle.”
Gerard pushed Walter, who was catching his breath, and climbed into the carriage. He spoke cheerfully to Hermia, who was sitting there blankly.
“Your curse seems quite dangerous. You turned into a terrorist in an instant. Isn’t that right?”
“I’m really not going to jail?”
Hermia, who had not heard a proper answer earlier, asked Gerard this time.
He shook his head as if it was no big deal.
“Don’t worry. The colonel over there will make it clear with a ‘not guilty’ verdict.”
“Will the princess stay still? She’s glaring at me as if she’s going to kill me.”
“Then what… should I die?”
“Stop joking! I’m serious. If it weren’t for the prince, I would have hit him already.”
He looked at my tightly clenched fists over my knees, said, “Eek,” and sat down across from me with an exaggerated gesture.
“Don’t worry, Liz. I found a heartfelt love letter that she had hidden in a secret room. If I showed it to her, she’d probably faint.”
He said to the person in the letter, “I will threaten my younger brother so casually.”
“What are you doing there, Colonel? Aren’t you going?”
Then Walter returned to his original position with a stern face.
It looked like it was going to collapse at any moment, but it looks fine again. What was that just now?
Hermia nodded without thinking too much.
“Anyway, thank you for your help. If it weren’t for you, Duke, I would have died without even being able to clear my name.”
“Me? Aren’t you more grateful to me? I’m the one who called Walter here today.”
“…Thank you for that too.”
For some reason, he was the kind of person who didn’t want to say thank you even when he was grateful. I instinctively thought that it would be best to avoid being indebted to the prince as much as possible.
A carriage carrying only three people inside the spacious interior began to move slowly. Soon, the vibration of dozens of horseshoes stuck in the horses’ hooves noisily hitting the ground could be felt.
“How long do I have to stay in the duke’s castle?”
Hermia, who had been absorbed in thought for a moment in the rocking carriage, asked Walter.
Even if he were to be found innocent, terrorist acts were a very sensitive issue in the kingdom. This was because spies and terrorists were occasionally sent from Eastern Empires that were eyeing the kingdom.
That’s why the princess overreacted to the act of flipping the table and made a fuss, calling it terrorism.
In that kind of atmosphere, since Walter had said that he would investigate the charges himself, it seemed unreasonable to release him the next day.
Hermia folded her arms and began to think.
‘I should be back before the holiday season starts.’
Before the real heat sets in, when the social season ends, the capital’s nobles begin to leave one by one to seek out their estates or resorts in the provinces to spend the summer.
It wasn’t much different from Bansengado.
The Countess in particular had a tendency to hang out in fancy resorts, so that when she returned she could show off to other noble ladies and be the envy of them.
The more servants you bring in, the more money it costs, so I vaguely recalled the past when I followed the count and his wife around for three months every year to do trivial things for them.
Just wait and see. Should I just stay stuck in the duke’s house like this?
Hermia had a flash of thought.
‘Isn’t this rather a good opportunity to avoid hard labor?’
If only I could pretend to be investigated until the couple leaves and then come back and enjoy the freedom of an empty mansion… … .
Will the Duke grant his permission? Walter answered the question from earlier as he glanced around, thinking about how to bring it up.
“First, I’ll go and check the injured area. After I finish the treatment, I’ll set a suitable date… … .”
“Are you hurt, Your Majesty?”
“I’m talking about Miss Hermia’s injuries, not mine.”
She immediately made a face that said she didn’t understand English.
“I’m okay… … ?”
“It’s not okay. Your whole body will hurt by tomorrow morning.”
What are you talking about? I still looked at him with a puzzled expression, but he remained unmoved.
Gerard’s expression, as he silently watched the two people, suddenly became subtle.