Chapter 165

When the clear golden liquid entered the teacup, a fragrant and sweet aroma wafted through the air.

Though Arndt eyed the teacup with suspicion, Verde brazenly stirred it and handed it to Arenheit.

"Down it in one go. After drinking this, Your Grace will be bursting with energy and able to run around."

"I wasn't hoping for that much, but thank you anyway."

"Your Grace, will you be alright? Wouldn't you feel more at ease if we sent it to another physician for cross-verification?"

Arndt asked worriedly.

His opinion was reasonable, but Arenheit himself had no such inclination.

"It's fine. I've heard enough explanation from Verde. It's not like I'll be drinking it often anyway."

"Even so, such a suspicious drug..."

"Suspicious! This is a clean drug whose effects I've fully explained to His Grace, and you call it suspicious! Take that back!"

"Do you wish to be billed for the room you blew up, Physician Verde?"

Verde resolutely turned away from Arndt and looked at Arenheit.

"Anyway, Your Grace. As I told you earlier, you shouldn't drink it often. You know that, right? You do remember, correct?"

"Yes. I already told you I know. I should leave at least a week between doses, right?"

"If you don't leave that much time, Your Grace's body won't be able to handle it. Please remember that. And make sure to take the recovery medicine I gave you separately. Take them together! The recovery medicine-"

"The recovery medicine is to be taken three times a day, morning, noon, and evening. I'm telling you I know. Both of you go and prepare now. It's not like we're going up to the capital for the first or second time."

Arndt left with a displeased expression after telling some of the employed staff a few precautions about Arenheit's attire.

Verde was dragged away by Arndt, and eventually only Arenheit and three or four staff members remained in the bedroom.

Exactly two weeks before the date he had promised to visit the royal palace.

Originally, due to his weak physical condition, he should have departed as early as possible,

But thanks to the tonic invented by Verde, he was able to stay at the castle a little longer.

Even as the employed staff undressed him from his nightwear and helped him put on the undershirt, the snowman kept staring intently at him.

"What?"

"Worshipper, reckless. Feel worshipper's body."

"This was the best I could do. There's no one else to move for me. Leandros is somewhere else, you know."

"All humans like this?"

"Probably."

After passing the third iteration, he was just getting used to having others dress him.

Lifting his leg when told to, bowing his head when asked.

If he ended up going back to Korea like this, would he forget how to dress himself?

The luxurious dressing service ended with tidying his shortened hair and tying it with a black ribbon.

As a light, thick cloak was draped over his shoulders, he truly felt like a proper duke.

Not a fake who had taken over Arenheit's body, but a real duke who had been in this position from the beginning.

After gathering the snowman and leaving the room, he saw employed staff bustling about busily.

Leaving behind this now-familiar scene, he went out to the inner courtyard and boarded the waiting carriage.

As he opened the window and placed the snowman on the windowsill, Arndt lightly knocked on the carriage door.

"Your Grace. I've tied up the horses in advance, but might that be uncomfortable for you? I remember you preferred different horses, so I'm asking."

"Different horses... Ah."

The necklace he had been wearing since leaving Glico suddenly felt novel.

"It would be troublesome, so let's go as is. Any letters from Leandros's party?"

"I've replied asking them to send letters to the townhouse in the capital for the time being. You should be able to receive them when you arrive."

"Thank you."

Currently, Leandros's party had left Valentine and was heading towards Martang, their fourth target.

Externally, Valentine's blockade was known to have not yet been lifted.

Even the guards protecting the city walls probably didn't know what was happening inside.

It would be good if the secret could remain hidden for as long as possible.

With a complicated mind, Arenheit leaned his head against the carriage wall and closed his eyes.

From outside, he could hear Arndt's voice announcing departure, and the carriage slowly began to move.

* * *

"Senior. May I ask you one thing? Does Your Grace, that is, your lord, really dislike His Highness the Crown Prince?"

-Try to treat him well. He'll be a great help later. Besides, his skills aren't bad either. Can you do that?

He needed to endure. He had to endure. This was what His Grace had ordered.

The three of them were riding horses they had quietly appropriated from Valentine, which had lost its owner.

Though the three horses galloped lightly, making hoof sounds, even that couldn't bury Russel's bombardment of questions.

Leandros had been taking deep breaths, consciously or unconsciously, for several hours.

He strongly disliked this type of person.

Chatty, pretending to be friendly, and casually stirring up important matters.

The reason he particularly disliked Russel Nabilov was that he could sense these questions stemmed not from malice but from pure curiosity.

In other words, he was a naive man with a garden of flowers blooming in his head.

When Leandros didn't respond at all, Amelia let out a small sigh.

"S-Sir Nabilov."

"Please call me Sir Russel, my lady."

"A-alright. Sir Russel. U-um, that part might be b-better not to ask about or talk about c-casually."

"What? Why?"

"Y-you must have heard about the n-near extermination of the Hartmann family."

"Yes, I have heard. It's easy to simply hate others. However, investigating the Crown Prince's background as you are now is difficult. I'm just curious about His Grace's intentions, my lady. Besides..."

Russel glanced sideways at Leandros.

"I don't think it's just a coincidence that His Grace sent a request to the Central Temple. If I'm to be of help to the senior, shouldn't I also know the details?"

Amelia hesitated.

Russel's logic wasn't wrong. Once he had joined to repay a debt, he too would be involved in whatever happened next.

Moreover, Arenheit seemed to trust him.

Though she wasn't sure why... Perhaps he had collected information from somewhere?

Amelia carefully considered each word as she chose them.

"His G-Grace simply wants to r-reclaim the territories that Hartmann once h-held."

"Ah, I see?"

"His H-Highness Crown Prince Yurik said he w-would actively consider r-returning them if the hearts of the t-territory residents were turned. But as you s-saw in Valentine, not a single v-village was n-normal."

"What do you mean by not normal?"

"There were d-demonic beasts, or v-villagers were becoming demonic b-beasts, things like that."

"Why didn't such incidents leak outside? Even with Valentine, aside from the blockade, it didn't spread much, did it?"

"In some v-villages, travelers were m-made sacrifices. In other v-villages, they tried to i-isolate outsiders from such i-incidents. Valentine's blockade m-measure wasn't much d-different."

Russel rolled his eyes thoughtfully.

"I'd like to hear more details about those incidents, my lady."

"B-but."

"Valentine was a city occupied by heretics, wasn't it? When Sir Leandros interrogated the heretics, it seemed like he already had some suspicions, which made me curious. You must have experienced a series of incidents related to heretics in various cities, not just Valentine."

"I w-won't deny that."

"And in the conversations between His Grace and the lady, there was an underlying assumption that these were connected to His Highness the Crown Prince. ...It's not just because the Hartmann ducal family had their territories taken and not returned, is it? I thought there might be a more fundamental reason."

It was a sharp observation.

The reason he had been quiet until now wasn't because he couldn't find what to say, but because he had been inferring his own answers.

As Amelia was about to speak, Leandros answered first.

"You don't know everything that happened within the ducal family."

"Pardon?"

"And since you said you would repay me a debt, you're not essentially offering your loyalty to His Grace."

"Well, it was Sir Leandros who saved me!"

"Then there's no reason for you to be interested in His Grace. Neither I nor Miss Amelia have any obligation to tell you what we share with His Grace."

"But I want to know at least Sir Leandros's circumstances. Is that too much to ask?"

"I can assure you, it is."

As if he would share such things.

Leandros scoffed inwardly.

The revenge of an escort knight who had lost his lord overnight and a young duke who had lost his entire family were quite similar.

A goal that was so far away. A long-cherished wish that might not be achieved even in a lifetime.

Of course, they could have lived pretending not to notice the hatred boiling inside.

If they had lived quietly, they could have maintained at least an impoverished but peaceful daily life.

But having turned their backs on such a life together, Leandros didn't want to add any unstable elements to Arenheit's path.

Like leaking even one more word to this mentally deficient blond fellow.

"It would surely be useless information for repaying your debt to me."

"-That might not be the case!"

Russel, for his part, was getting quite irritated.

He was curious about how Leandros had come to Valentine. How he had arrived so precisely to rescue those in distress.

And he also wanted to know the meaning of the words "Hero of Gallo" he had heard once or twice.

Where he had learned that black sword from, whether he had received separate sword training. Why, with a title and excellent swordsmanship, he was volunteering to guard a ducal family known to have fallen.

Russel had never known the emotion of competitiveness until now.

He had only wanted to help weak people who needed assistance and to be satisfied with the admiring looks and goodwill they sent his way.

But when he closed his eyes and opened them again, he was told that the one who had saved him had already dealt with all the heretics.

And what about the half-destroyed mansion of the Valentine city lord?

He couldn't even imagine what kind of battle had taken place. Could he have survived such a large-scale battle?

It was the first time he had felt this mix of defeat, jealousy, admiration, and longing.

Russel wanted to persistently dig into the subject he had become interested in for the first time in his life.

How could he get to know Leandros bit by bit?

As he was racking his brains, thinking with all his might, Russel suddenly noticed Leandros and Amelia pulling on their reins.

"Is something happening ahead?"

"Demonic beasts."

The three looked down from a high hill.

The village, with a narrow path leading to it and a forest occupying one side, appeared peaceful at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it was not at all.

The large village was surrounded by log walls.

Faint smoke was rising from nearby, and amidst it, people's shouts could be faintly heard.

What was even more serious was that packs of black wolves were charging at the log walls.

The wolves were all large in size and were running on their hind legs only.

As the manes on their beast-like curved backs fluttered, they made sounds between the barking of excited canines and human jeers.

Russel muttered uneasily.

"Medium-sized demonic beasts. I don't know their name, but they seem to have a habit of acting in groups. I don't understand why they're doing this when it's not even the breeding season for demonic beasts."

"They seem to have been in this fight for a long time. Those walls weren't built overnight."

The wolves crashed into the thick walls again and again.

From inside the walls, people poured something hot, and though the wolves that were directly hit retreated with their tails tucked, they were still numerically superior.

Medium-sized demonic beasts.

In Leandros's hand was already a cold, translucent frost sword.

"Let's make a bet."

"What kind of bet do you mean?"

"If you kill more demonic beasts than me, I'll tell you what you want to know. But if I kill more, you'll keep your mouth shut forever."

"...Sir Leandros, are you aware that the Holy Knight Order specializes in hunting demonic beasts?"

"Do I also need to tell you that the Hartmann ducal family once owned the Dikenter Mountains?"

"Are you serious, Sir?"

"I also accept declarations of surrender."

"Ha!"

Russel burst into laughter.

He couldn't let such a freely given opportunity pass by.

Russel caught the scabbard Leandros threw to him, in place of the weapon he had lost.

"You shouldn't go back on your word."

"Look who's talking."

As soon as the words ended, two horses kicked off and soared into the air.

Watching the scene, Amelia sincerely wished that Duke Arenheit were here.