"The kid was very smart, as you've said. He could even memorise the entire road."
Lalisa smiled quietly at Paul's visibly agitated appearance.
It's been around an hour since Jan escaped from this place.
By now, he should have appeared with the Duke as she'd expected, but given that there's still no signs of them, it seems like something has happened.
"It's alright."
But even if Jan hasn't arrived at the ducal castle yet, and even if he hadn't met the duke, it was fine.
After all, the duke will find her eventually.
"T, t-that can't be..."
Paul tried to deny the reality that was right before his eyes, but it didn't work.
He, who was unwilling to continue speaking, shook his head while his chin trembled mercilessly.
In fact, from the moment he heard that the duchy's knights were searching the inns and the area they were staying at, he had a hunch.
He wasn't entirely sure, but it seemed like something had gone wrong.
"You, you..."
A mouse that was forced into a corner would bite a cat.
Without a place to direct Paul's anger, it turned towards the duchess before him.
"Yes, from the very beginning, it was all because of you."
Everything, from being fired from his job, which he was doing just fine in, to losing an arm.
"If it weren't for you, there's no reason that I would be doing this."
There were times that he'd even felt proud and thought of it as an important task.
Lalisa stared at him silently.
"...Don't look at me like that."
Paul became agitated by her gaze, which seemed to be looking at him with pity.
That lowly barbarian lass looked at him with that same gaze as she did during their first meeting.
No, she wasn't the only one that looked at him with a pitying gaze.
So did Sir Nate, so did the Duke of Esbaden, so did his new master.
He was willing to do all kinds of dirty work, but they'd treated him as an unsightly and lowly person.
Yes, in the end, they were the same kind of people.
"D*mn it! Go and di-!"
Just as Paul's eyes became confused, and was about to swing the mace at Lalisa.
"Geughhh!"
With a strange cry, the weapon in Paul's hand fell.
It was because a huge arrow pierced through his knee.
"Ack, arghh!"
Paul grabbed his knee and screamed.
"I was aiming for your head, but I missed."
Lalisa's expression brightened at the voice that she found extremely welcoming.
"Jungkook!"
The Duke, Jungkook, stood in the middle of the side path towards the forest
With a rather fierce look.
* * *
"Catch all those present and drag them here. Check if the goods are here too."
"Yes, my Lord."
After giving orders to James and the accompanying knights, Jungkook walked over unhesitatingly.
He approached Lalisa with an indignant look on his face.
"Oh, about that..."
Lalisa tried to come up with an excuse to placate him, but it was to no avail.
"Have you gone out of your mind!"
Jungkook grabbed her arms tightly and chided her.
"Didn't I tell you to wait for me! Why the hell did you act like that!"
He had an ominous feeling from the moment the drug distributor that should've appeared didn't appear, and the person that said she'd wait for him obediently wasn't at the promised location.
His heart sank when the assigned escort knight was discovered in a remote alley with a wound on the back of his head.
When he spotted the dagger that Lalisa seemed to have used before in the alley, his vision spun for a moment.
When he couldn't find any traces of Lalisa even after searching through the streets that were filled with countless people, his hands and feet turned cold.
Then, when a small child that seemed to be a beggar appeared and told him about her whereabouts, he became furious.
When he discovered that the amount of money in the bag the child gave him was the same as the prize money he'd won at the arm wrestling competition, he was rendered speechless.
"A stranger asked you for help, so you followed him without any doubt, and was abducted in order to save that child, but what if something happened to you?"
"...When a child asks for help, I can't not help."
Lalisa said what she had to say with a rather dejected face.
"And Paul used the child in order to kill me. I can't let a child die because of me."
"What..."
"Also, I can't turn a blind eye when I'm aware that Paul was the distributor of the Devil's Nap."
After listening to her reply, Jungkook took a deep breath to calm his anger.
"Alright, fine. Then, ignoring that."
He asked back in a tone that's calmer than before.
"Then you could have escaped with the kid that you'd saved. Why did you have to fight with them?"
"That's..."
Lalisa replied matter-of-factly.
"I was afraid that they'd run off."
"What?"
Paul and his subordinates were already aware that the duke was searching for them when they were in the castle. .
Even if the transaction date was delayed and they'd remain in their hideout until then, they would have left the Esbaden territory immediately if Lalisa had fled with the kid.
"If I ran away, these guys would have packed up and escaped immediately. Can they remain in place when the location of the hideout was discovered, and the fact that they abducted the Duchess was also exposed?"
"So you mean that..."
Jungkook's head tilted stiffly.
"Do you mean that you acted so recklessly in order to buy time to catch them?"
"Well, it doesn't seem to be that reckless. You're also aware of my capabilities..."
"Yes, I know. My wife is stronger than most knights."
Jungkook enunciated his words one by one through gritted teeth.
"But you weren't alone in Tochern. Aside from me, there were others with you."
No matter how strong someone was, they must fight for their life when fighting alone.
"I told you not to do anything that'll make me worried. But you almost died today."
Jungkook's voice became smaller and trembled like it was about to break.
"I kept wondering if something happened to you, and I was so..."
He choked up and was unable to speak easily.
After realising each other's feelings, he became afraid that he'd lose another precious person again.
In that short period of time, he had to experience the terrible feeling of stepping in between reality and hell over and over again.
Numerous emotions flashed across the beautiful face that rarely expressed any emotion.
"...I'm sorry."
Lalisa apologised quietly.
How anxious he must have been, for cold sweat to be dripping down his forehead.
However, Jungkook glared at her fiercely like he was still angry.
"Even so, Jungkook."
Lalisa raised her eyebrows and looked up at the duke.
"If you were in a similar situation, you would have done the same thing."
"No, if it were me, I wouldn't have followed him into the alley. Even if I followed him in, I would have killed everyone in the alley."
"I don't think so."
"...What?"
Lalisa narrowed her eyes and raised an eyebrow.
"Someone that saved the escort of the person he hated the most from a monster wouldn't do that."
"You..."
To think that she still cracked a joke like that in the current situation.
Dumbfounded by her words, Jungkook could only quirk a corner of his lip before letting out a sigh.
"I can't win against you with words."
"Anyways, everything is fine because I'm alright. So don't get angry and help me."
The duke's face became distorted again when she asked him to help her.
"Are you hurt?"
"I think I sprained my ankle a little when I fell off the roof. It doesn't hurt that much..."
Lalisa screamed as her body suddenly rose into the air while speaking.
"Ack, what are you doing? You could have just supported me..."
"Be quiet. I'll be really angry if you open your mouth one more time."
Jungkook held his wife in his arms.
"It's not like I'm a child."
She wasn't seriously injured, but she felt rather embarrassed to be lifted up like she was a child when she got hurt.
'You're the one that told me to behave like a duchess, but you're doing everything in your way.'
Lalisa lowered her gaze to avoid the gazes of the knights that were directed towards her.
She felt blood rising up to her face for no particular reason.
"We've located everything, my lord."
At that moment, James pretended to be tactless and approached the Duke, giving him a report.
The Devil's Nap, which was hidden in the gang's wagon, was neatly arranged in a large wooden box.
The drug was contained within glass bottles the size of a middle finger, and there were 300 bottles in total.
Even if all the vassals of Esbaden bought one, it was sufficient enough.
"I also found a book accounting their transactions."
The duke's eyes shone sharply when James opened the book.
There were many familiar names, including Countess Jive, but there were also quite a number of unexpected names.
'Interesting.'
All the people that bought the Devil's Nap were vassals under the high ranking aristocrats that supported the First Princess.
It was as though someone had only sold them the drug on purpose.
Jungkook's eyes shone briefly and quickly returned to their original state.
"Good job. Set off after cleaning up this place."
He was about to walk away, but stopped and turned his head around.
"James, break that b*stard's ankle first, before dragging him to the castle."
Jungkook looked at the groaning Paul, who had an arrow through his knee, like he was looking at an insect.
"As someone that couldn't come to his senses after an arm was chopped off, ruining his knee probably isn't enough."
He ignored Paul, who was yelling and making a huge fuss, and moved away.
Before they knew it, the morning sun rose above their heads.
* * *
Clang-!
Shards of glass scattered all over a room that was decked in gold ornaments.
"How much did that amount to!"
"Please calm down, Your Highness."
An escort knight was unable to withstand his master's anger, and tried to dissuade his master from throwing all kinds of utensils calmly.
"Calm? Do I look like I can calm down right now? If the Duke of Esbaden knows that I was the one behind it, it's over!"
The fourth prince, Justin, shouted with a face that's as red as his scarlet hair.
"Even so, please don't worry too much. In any case, haven't we already gotten rid of the evidence that we're the ones that handed the drugs over? Sir Nate will take care of the rest..."
"Hah, Nate! Don't you know that the duke gave that old man a blow not too long ago?"
He'd managed to save the wizard after much difficulty, but instead of getting rid of the Duke, he just lost a limb of his own.
"Come to think of it, that single armed guy was also introduced by Nate. If I knew this would happen, I wouldn't have joined hands with that guy."
Justin sank down on the sofa after making a big fuss about it.
"...Come to think of it, the Duke said that he was going to attend the upcoming hunting competition."
After taking in deep breaths for a long while, he turned his head towards the knight like he'd thought of something.
"Hey, which tribe of Bashal did you say the Duchess was from?"
Before he knew it, a sinister gleam began emanating from the fourth prince's brown eyes.
* * *