Chapter 32
I heard Hawick shouting from downstairs.
“An injured person?!”
Given the timing, if anyone had been hurt, it could only be Lamia.
‘She must have been targeted while pretending to be me!’
Guilt and worry surged within me, and tears welled up in my eyes.
I hadn’t known Lamia long, but her cheerful conversations, her warm attentiveness, and the kind hand that had comforted me during my panic had left a deep impression in my heart.
‘I wanted to make sure she escaped safely!’
Worried that she might be seriously injured, I pushed past Callias standing at the door.
“I have to see if my maid is alright.”
But Callias didn’t budge.
“There may still be remnants of the attackers around. It would be best if you stayed somewhere safe.”
“She was hurt because of me!”
“Your Highness’s safety is more important.”
“Would you also turn your back if one of your own subordinates were hurt, Marquis?”
“That’s…”
I looked up at Callias pleadingly.
He let out a small sigh.
“Then please accompany me.”
“Yes, I will!”
That wasn’t a difficult condition at all.
I quickly linked my arms with his.
His arm was high, thick, and solid.
So I clasped it with both of my hands.
“Let’s go quickly!”
“Ah…? Ah, yes.”
He just stared at me silently, so I tugged on his arm to hurry him along. Only then did he open the door and step outside.
But my body couldn’t keep up with my anxious mind.
“Ah—wait, just a moment.”
After just a few steps, I had to stop him.
His strides were so long that even if I half-ran, I couldn’t keep up.
It was quite an awkward situation.
When I had walked arm-in-arm with Andrea or Viscount Pelsus before, I had never needed to adjust my pace.
Not because they were especially considerate, but because men in Arental naturally slowed down when walking with women—it was ingrained etiquette.
But it seemed that wasn’t the case with Callias.
“I think I’m going to trip.”
“My apologies.”
After that, Callias tried to match my pace. But since we were both adjusting for each other, we ended up moving awkwardly and out of sync.
‘Maybe in Ronheim, there’s no etiquette for couples or family members to walk arm-in-arm?’
The thought came to me belatedly. But even so, it would feel weird to unlink now, so I decided to just act clueless.
In Arental, pretending not to notice was sometimes considered a proper response to avoid awkwardness.
Callias kept slowing down too much, so I’d have to pull him forward. Then he’d speed up, and I’d get dragged along. This repeated several times.
That’s how we made our clumsy way to my room.
“Huh? Your Highness…?”
The maids looked confused as they saw me arriving arm-in-arm with Callias.
I passed them and went straight into the room.
“Lamia!”
Lamia, bloodied, was sitting on the floor. Thankfully, she hadn’t lost consciousness and was talking with Hawick.
Shocked by the sight, I burst past Callias, tears brimming, and rushed to her.
“What happened? Are you hurt badly? Where’s the doctor? Hey! Why hasn’t anyone brought a doctor?!”
“Ah, Your Highness!”
Lamia tried to calm me down.
“I’m alright!”
“You’ve lost so much blood! How can you be alright?!”
Her hands were covered in blood.
But then Lamia chuckled in that state.
“Oh, this isn’t my blood.”
“What?”
Hawick nodded.
“She’s not injured. I was just confirming that now.”
Lamia whispered to me,
“I was lying in bed like you told me, pretending to sleep, and some guy crept in thinking I was out cold. So I stabbed him with a knife from the fruit tray!”
She still had the knife in her hand and waved it threateningly.
“Stab! Stab! I poked some holes in him!”
“I’ll take that now, thank you very much.”
Hawick quickly took the knife away from her.
My eyes widened.
“But you screamed?”
“Oh, the guy tried to run, so I yelled to alert the knights.”
I was impressed by her quick thinking.
How had she managed to think of grabbing a knife to protect herself in that moment?
‘No wonder she didn’t get caught back at the palace.’
In any case, it was a relief.
Lamia leaned close to my face.
“Your Highness… you cried?”
“I was worried something might’ve happened to you because of me.”
“You cried… because you were worried about me?”
Her eyes went wide.
Feeling awkward under her gaze, I turned my head away, acting indifferent.
“Tears can come out when you’re worried.”
“You must’ve been really worried, huh?”
She teasingly elbowed my side.
I gave her a light smack in return.
Even if she wasn’t a formally trained maid, how could she act like this with a princess? I was flabbergasted.
“What kind of rude behavior is that?”
Honestly, even the rude actions of the palace maids had always been absurd.
But those kinds of disrespect felt familiar, while Lamia’s teasing and friendliness were foreign—making them harder to accept.
Not that she cared. Lamia just laughed.
* * *
In the north, stables were often built connected to kitchens to keep horses warm in the cold.
Callias, led by the innkeeper, headed toward the stable through the kitchen.
There was an external path for horses, but the kitchen route was closer and more convenient.
The innkeeper cleared out everyone working in the kitchen.
Callias walked with Hawick to the far end of the stable.
Two subordinates were torturing the intruder who had broken into Chloe’s room.
As Chloe had described, the man had unusually shaped eyebrows and was now bleeding and groaning on the hay.
“What did he say?”
At Callias’s question, the subordinates shook their heads.
“He refuses to talk.”
“That’s enough. I’ll handle it now.”
The subordinates dropped their clubs and stepped back.
Callias approached the intruder with an indifferent expression.
“Ughhh…”
The man groaned in pain, glaring at Callias.
Callias casually tossed something in front of his face.
“Look.”
The intruder weakly glanced down—and his eyes flew wide open.
“……!”
It was a freshly severed finger.
A thick ring was still on it.
That finger had just come into Callias’s possession through certain channels.
“Do you recognize it?”
“Ugh…”
The intruder’s eyes trembled.
He shook his head, but Callias caught the flicker of panic on his face.
Callias reached a quick conclusion.
“So your backer is the same as the others.”
He didn’t ask who the backer was.
He only needed to confirm whether this man worked for the same faction as the assassins who had previously come for him.
Having confirmed that, Callias turned and exited the stable without another word.
Behind him, Hawick swung his sword and ended the man’s life.
* * *
Callias returned upstairs in light steps and found Chloe pacing the hallway.
She was being protected by his men.
“Your Highness.”
“Marquis!”
“Why are you out here?”
“There’s something you should know—about the intruder who escaped earlier. I meant to tell you right away, but you disappeared while I was talking to Lamia.”
Chloe stomped her feet nervously.
“That man is one of Viscount Pelsus’s subordinates! I know because…”
She trailed off, struggling to explain.
Callias saved her the trouble.
“I already know.”
“What? You know?”
“Yes. Viscount Pelsus was nearby, waiting for that man.”
“You… met him?”
Callias noticed Chloe trembling.
‘Wasn’t he her fiancé? Did he do something to her?’
His gaze darkened.
‘If I had known, I wouldn’t have let him go so easily.’
He tried to reassure her.
“I didn’t meet him myself. My…”
He hesitated, then continued,
“…my subordinates did.”
Callias recalled how, before returning to the inn, he had sent the snow cats to chase the surviving assassin.
‘They’re more like friends than subordinates, really.’
Chloe quickly asked,
“What did Viscount Pelsus say? Was he being shameless again?”
Callias smiled calmly.
“He admitted his wrongdoings and accepted the consequences. Then he left in a hurry.”
“Really…? He just left?”
His smile deepened.
“Yes. He deeply repented. I doubt he’ll ever return.”
He remembered what he had found at his bedroom window just before.
A dried fish had been left there. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared—replaced by a severed finger.
A finger wearing the crest ring of House Pelsus.
The snow cats had followed the assassin, found his backer—Viscount Pelsus—and took him down, returning with proof and claiming their reward.
“He returned to where he came from.”
From a place older than time itself.
“Via teleportation circle?”
He nodded nonchalantly.
“Well… let’s say he vanished like magic.”
It wasn’t even a lie.
