For a moment, the place felt like a desert. No, it felt like a great hall. It was as though she were wandering somewhere in the past.
Confusion flickered in those razor-sharp eyes that had once been so fierce.
His blood-red eyes were still the same.
But now, he seemed somewhat surprised. Only then did Rachel slowly become aware of reality. Beside her, Becky was calling out to her in alarm, while Sir Hoffman was doing the same from in front of her.
“My lady? What’s wrong all of a sudden? Are you feeling unwell?”
“Slowly. Try to breathe.”
“Haaah.”
Rachel, who had unknowingly been holding her breath, hurriedly drew in a breath.
She had thought she was fine.
But now that she thought about it, it seemed that returning to the past hadn’t completely healed her after all.
Sir Hoffman, who had been watching her worriedly, quietly asked,
“Shall we turn the carriage around?”
His intuition was truly as sharp as an ability. She had never known this about him in the past.
Rachel smiled and reassured the worried knights and Becky.
“I’m fine. I think I just got a little carsick. I’ll be fine if I leave the window open.”
“……”
“Don’t worry, Becky.”
Her insides were a complete mess, but it wasn’t unbearable.
Besides, she absolutely couldn’t turn back today.
She had to discuss the compensation she would receive and the matter of breaking off the engagement.
If she returned now, there was a chance things would proceed differently from what she had planned.
Sir Hoffman, who had been quietly observing her, nodded.
“All right. I understand for now. The national trade procession seems to have almost passed, so we’ll start the carriage slowly. You agree, Sir?”
“Of course, Sir Hoffman. We’ll depart now.”
The Valencia knight signaled the coachman. The carriage began to move slowly.
Rachel could feel someone’s gaze from outside, a gaze she was almost certain she knew the owner of.
But she absolutely refused to look in that direction.
Only after the gaze disappeared did she finally feel a little more at ease. She was still inside the Valencia family’s carriage, but after everything she had just experienced, something like this no longer seemed like a big deal.
Seeing that her complexion had improved considerably, Becky added worriedly,
“Please tell me immediately if you start feeling unwell again, my lady.”
“I’m fine now. I guess I just wasn’t used to the carriage.”
“Hmm, that could be it. Next time, you should ride our family’s carriage instead, my lady.”
Rachel smiled silently as she gazed at the Valencia estate growing closer.
Even after thinking it over again, she felt that once this incident was resolved, it would be best to never look in the direction of the Valencia family again.
Meanwhile, Mercenary King Nathan was rubbing his startled face as he watched the carriage disappear into the distance.
That pale face remained vivid in his mind.
Since entering the capital, he had sensed persistent gazes following him, and when he tried to warn her because they felt similar—
He had unintentionally taken out his frustration on the wrong person.
“……”
Which family’s young lady was she again?
Just as he recalled the emblem carved onto the carriage, a shout came from ahead.
“What’s the matter, Mercenary King?”
It was Marquis Marapo, the leader of the national trade procession and the person Nathan was assigned to protect.
“Nothing.”
Nathan immediately turned his horse around and returned to the marquis’s side, committing the emblem he had just seen to memory.
A golden ring with a dragon coiled inside it.
No wonder it looked familiar.
It was the crest of the Valencia family, one of the Four Great Ducal Houses.
‘Was she the daughter of the Valencia family?’
Of course, she wasn’t.
But Nathan, who had no interest in the world of nobles, had no way of knowing whether the Valencia family even had a daughter.
He wondered if he should apologize to her if he got the chance.
At first, she stared at him persistently.
But after their eyes met, the light in those sky-blue eyes had gradually seemed to fade, leaving her looking strangely dazed.
Normally, he wouldn’t have given something like that much thought.
“……”
But this time, for some reason, it bothered him.
While he was lost in his thoughts, the national trade procession had already arrived at the Imperial Palace.
After barely managing to shake off Marquis Marapo, who persistently tried to drag him along to meet the Emperor, Nathan had just left the palace when—
“Captain.”
“Vale?”
Nathan’s eyes lit up when he spotted his vice-captain in such an unexpected place.
There had been nothing unusual in the report he received a few days ago.
Several other members of the unit were also waiting a little farther away.
“What’s going on?”
Vale approached him and whispered in a low voice.
“It seems someone is digging into the Captain’s background.”
“……”
Whoosh—
The energy released from the tips of Nathan’s feet spread around them, forming a barrier.
The gazes of passersby and the surrounding noise abruptly ceased, as though they had been cut off with a blade.
“Tell me more.”
Vale, already accustomed to phenomena like this, naturally continued his report.
“Unknown people visited the Captain’s house in Bernoulli Castle. They asked around in several places and eventually took away the midwife who helped with your mother’s childbirth.”
“……The midwife?”
A midwife?
Ever since he had become the Mercenary King, many nobles and nations had attempted to investigate his background.
But this was the first time someone had investigated his mother and even gone as far as taking away the midwife who had assisted with his birth.
Nathan suddenly remembered the gazes he had sensed since entering the capital.
Those gazes were still following him persistently from a distance.
‘Perhaps this is for the best.’
He immediately withdrew the barrier and handed the reins over. Vale looked at him with a bewildered expression.
“Captain?”
“Go on ahead. I have somewhere I need to stop by.”
“Right now?”
Nathan immediately expanded his aura and even used his ability to search for the people hiding nearby.
They weren’t far.
And among them, the one who appeared to be the leader—
‘There.’
Only about two hundred meters away.
After pinpointing exactly where the shadow was hiding, Nathan adjusted his leather gloves.
They had been getting on his nerves for a while now.
A gaze that followed him without ever coming closer or farther away.
He had left them alone for the time being because of his escort mission, but he wasn’t someone who normally allowed such things to continue unchecked.
In the first place, it was because of those people that he had made a mistake with that young lady.
Just as he was about to push off the ground, someone suddenly appeared in front of him and blocked his way.
“Are you the Mercenary King, Lord Nathan?”
“……”
A golden ring with a dragon coiled inside it.
The people wearing the emblem he had been seeing so often today approached and bowed.
“Greetings, Mercenary King. My name is Gix Emello, an aide to the Duke of Valencia. Do you have a moment?”
Nathan stared at them for a moment before relaxing his body.
“What is this about?”
“His Grace, the Duke of Valencia, has something urgent to discuss with you. Would you be willing to accompany us for a moment?”
“If it isn’t urgent, I would prefer to do it another time.”
For a moment, the young lady’s face came to mind, but he pushed it aside.
If she herself had come, things might have been different.
But for now, dealing with the people whose surveillance had kept him on edge took priority.
The aide, who had been quietly observing Nathan, whispered,
“It concerns your mother. It is truly important. Would you still be unable to come?”
“……!”
Nathan stopped moving for a moment.
Then he silently looked down at them.
After meeting that gaze, the aide strangely felt a cold sweat run down his spine.
A gaze so chilling that it seemed to press down upon his entire body.
Nathan continued staring at him in silence.
Only after confirming that the man had no intention of insulting or threatening him did the aide finally nod.
The ominous pressure had already disappeared.
“All right. I’ll hear you out.”
“……Thank you.”
The aide bowed deeply.
Nathan took the reins back from Vale.
Vale glanced cautiously at the Valencia representatives before whispering,
“If there’s any trouble, blow the whistle immediately, Captain. All right?”
Nathan gave a small chuckle.
For a swordsman who had already reached such a level to be put in danger, it would take an army on a national scale.
And if an army that large were moving, there was no way he wouldn’t know about it.
Besides, he had a vague idea of what might be happening.
“You go on ahead.”
“Understood.”
Vale and the other members of the unit departed.
Unlike the gaze he gave his own people, Nathan now turned a cold, distant gaze toward the Valencia aide.
“Let’s go.”
“……This way, please.”
The aide led the way.
Their destination was the Valencia Duke’s residence in the inner capital.
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