TBFP 20

Chapter : 20

“Eek!”

Emma let out a scream.

Though only her arm was grabbed, her scream was as loud as if she’d been stabbed.

“What is this sudden outrage? How dare you…!”

As she was being dragged away by the servants, Emma struggled, abandoning all pretense of noble dignity, but the servants showed no reaction.

They said nothing as they took her to the fortress walls surrounding the main castle.

Then they left her in one of the quarters regularly spaced along the base of the wall.

“Open up! Open this door!”

No matter how much she pounded, the closed door wouldn’t budge.

Emma looked around the room anxiously. It was an excessively ordinary room.

It seemed to be a room where soldiers on duty stayed, with minimal furniture. A lived-in bed, one table, and two chairs.

Though small, it was clean, with a single window. There was nothing that felt dangerous or gloomy about it.

In other words, it was neither a t*rture chamber nor a prison.

Emma realized this and sank into a chair.

After sitting there for a while trying to calm her racing heart, a man with tanned skin entered through the door.

“Hello.”

It was the Grand Duke’s aide whom she had seen several times before.

Seeing the familiar face, Emma felt both relief and anxiety. It meant this could be the Grand Duke’s will that brought her here.

The man spoke casually, as if meeting Emma in the middle of a banquet hall.

“I meant to come earlier, but it’s already noon. Though it’s summer, I wonder why the days feel so short.”

After briefly checking his pocket watch, the man handed Emma a leather bag.

She took it reflexively; it was heavy with its contents.

“I’ve packed some basic provisions, spare clothes, and travel money.”

“Why…”

“It seems it’s time for you to return to the Empire. The coachmen and carriage you brought are waiting outside.”

The man spoke as if such arrangements had already been discussed between them previously.

Emma was too bewildered to speak.

“You should depart soon if you want to avoid spending the night on the road. Basilinte territory has many uninhabited wastelands.”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

Yen left without responding to her sharp question.

“I’m His Highness’s nanny. It’s only natural that I stay where he is, so suddenly what…”

Emma followed after Yen. Through the door that had been so firmly closed but was now wide open, there really was a carriage waiting.

“Have a safe journey.”

“What, hey! Let go! Where…”

The coachmen she had brought from the Empire lifted her into the carriage. Resistance was futile.

Yen turned away after watching the quickly departing carriage.

A soldier asked.

“When should we deal with her?”

“Why bother? It’ll take care of itself. His Grace’s orders.”

The prince’s entourage had entered this land as part of the Grand Duke of Basilinte’s group.

So the prince’s people couldn’t have known how much this land rejected outsiders.

In Basilinte, outsiders who weren’t guests were treated as enemies.

And to them, enemies weren’t considered human.

“I wonder how many days it’ll take for her to be hunted down.”

“Can we place bets?”

Yen nodded at the soldiers’ question.

One reason the Empire called Basilinte’s people barbarians was that those who entered their land never escaped.

Whatever the Emperor had ordered the prince’s entourage to do, perhaps he knew they would never return.

That’s the kind of land this was.

“I bet three days.”

Yen tossed a silver coin to the soldier, checked his pocket watch once more, and hurried back to the office. Dealing with that woman had been quite troublesome in his busy schedule.

Well, anyway, Yen agreed with the Grand Duke that there was no need to tell the young prince how his nanny would be dealt with.

Thanks to handling things a bit more troublesomely, the people in the castle, including the Grand Duke of Basilinte, could tell the prince that ‘the nanny left properly on her own two feet in a carriage.’

That wasn’t a lie but the truth.

Even though they did so knowing what would happen to that woman after leaving the castle.

“Your Grace, the prince’s nanny has departed.”

Upon Yen’s report in the office, the Grand Duke muttered.

“Tell him at lunch then.”

“Please mention that we gave her plenty of travel money.”

Neither Yen nor the Grand Duke added that she wouldn’t have a chance to use it, as they both knew this fact.

The Grand Duke nodded.

When this story would be told at lunch, the prince would undoubtedly look at the Grand Duke with admiration.

The Grand Duke, who had never possessed a working conscience, would shamelessly bask in the prince’s adoring gaze that saw him as ‘the kind, honest, and wonderful Grace.’

And similar looks would probably be directed at Yen, who had personally seen the nanny off.

In fact, the people of Basilinte secretly enjoyed the prince’s admiring and appreciative gazes. Most of them didn’t even realize they were enjoying it.

You could tell just by how the rough-speaking people would suddenly go quiet when the prince passed by.

‘The prince probably thinks Basilinte people are just taciturn.’

Of course, Yen was fully aware that he was among those who enjoyed receiving such admiring looks from the prince.

But he didn’t think it was a problem.

The prince was clearly Basilinte’s property.

Not just an outsider, but a child brought here with proper payment.

“Should you really tell me all of that?”

The prince would sometimes say that while fidgeting nervously.

As if to say, shouldn’t such confidential matters be kept from him?

Eyes that interpreted Basilinte people’s honesty as some kind of simplicity.

‘Though I’m also at fault for not correcting that misunderstanding while knowing about it.’

They didn’t hide things or put on pretenses because they didn’t need to. Because it wasn’t dangerous.

Though called a Grand Duke, he was effectively the king of Basilinte, and in this land, there was nothing he needed to hide.

After all, once someone entered this land, both their life and death were in his hands.

***

Chamuka was visible walking in the corridor leading to the dining hall.

Leticia slowly approached him.

She thought she might not be able to catch up given Chamuka’s walking pace, but he had already slowed down and even turned towards her.

“…? Hello, Lord Chamuka.”

Thinking he might have something to say, she greeted him, and Chamuka quietly looked at her.

Leticia, now accustomed to this, waited while receiving his gaze.

The people of Basilinte were typically of few words, and would slowly state their business only after quietly observing her.

“I told you about the room, why didn’t you come?”

He seemed to be talking about the room he had told her about because of Tan.

But since then, Leticia had always blocked her door firmly with chairs and such when sleeping, so Tan never came in.

Even when she checked in front of the door early in the morning just in case, Tan wasn’t there.

“There hasn’t been any need to bring Tan at night.”

“I see.”

Chamuka nodded. And then quietly looked at her.

“…”

“…”

Leticia fell into familiar confusion.

Did that mean he had been waiting for her to come? Or was he just curious why she hadn’t come?

While looking at Chamuka’s expressionless face, which was less rigid than the Grand Duke’s, she asked without thinking.

“Were you waiting for me to come?”