I looked at him, putting my hand on my forehead. I couldn’t understand what he was talking about because I felt a bit woozy. Obviously, I heard him talking to me, but could not understand exactly what it meant.

“… Sein.”

“Why are you trying to fight with your back to the wall all the time? It seems you are always driving yourself into an extreme situation. Don’t you know that?”

“Hey, Sein.”

“You are scared about it, too.”

“Sein…”

“Standing at the edge of a cliff, you’re actually scared about it, right? But why are you driving yourself into a corner like that?”

I took a deep sigh. I wanted to tell him to talk about it later.

But Carsein kept talking, ignoring my repeated calling of his name.

“Don’t think there’s no place to go. I’ll pull you up. I’ll hold your hand for you to come back. Got it, Tia? ”

“Whew…”

“Don’t make any excuses by citing my father. When I said that I would move out, I already gave up the idea of following his political line.”

“…Ugh? Wait a minute.”

When he mentioned he would move out, I came to my senses suddenly. I was wondering what he kept babbling on, and he was repeating what he had told me the other day.

“Hey, you already told me about it the other day, right?”

“Yes, but as I told you a moment ago, I can’t watch you being ridiculed anymore.”

“…Sein, you are one of the two most precious men to me. So, I don’t want to sacrifice you because of me. ”

“I’m not sacrificing for you. I told you that’s what I want.”

I sighed deeply. In fact, I didn’t hate it when he offered to help. Had he not been precious to me, I might have accepted his offer selfishly when he first mentioned it. Why did I reject it when he was determined to help me even at the risk of turning against his own family? Why did I refuse it when he said he would absolutely support me in a situation where I need an ally so badly?

But I could not accept his offer. Then, and now.

“Are you serious? I know you hate politics and complicated things like that. You said you wanted to practice your sword and help your family’s work even if you moved out. Then, are you going to enter the political world? Why? Because you are suddenly interested? ”

“… ”

“That’s not what you want, Sein. So let’s stop talking about it. I can’t just watch you sacrifice yourself for a little help.

“…A little help. Didn’t I give you any big help?”

I flinched at his trembling voice, but I kept silent, turning away from him. I was sorry for offending him, but it was better than me watching him regret his decision later.

How much time passed?

When I agonized about what to do in awkward silence, I heard someone calling me from a distance. It seemed that a servant came to look for me because I was away for too long.

“… Let me go back first.”

When I said that hesitantly, Carsein stepped sideways silently. I was bothered by that, but I walked away, ignoring him.

I smelled earthy scent in the breeze. When I shook off my complicated thoughts, breathing in the fresh air as much as I could, I suddenly smelled a fragrant scent tickling the tip of my nose. Obviously, it was a familiar scent to me, but I could not find the owner of the fragrance when I looked around. Was it because of my mood?’

I felt a bit uncomfortable to think like that, but I didn’t have time to delay anymore.

After a long sigh, I hurriedly walked back with the servant.

“The weather is very nice.”

“Yes, it is, Lady Monique. It ‘s very suitable for hunting. ”

Fortunately, the next day, the sky was very clear in the morning. When I looked up at the clear sky, a smile came to my lips.

‘Okay, what I can focus on for now is to achieve good results.’

Because of the emperor’s sudden appearance, the original purpose of this hunting event was a little faded, but today the hunting contest was intended to prove my competence as the successor of my family. So, I had to achieve good results by all means.

“Are you all right?”

“Ah, yes. I’m okay.”

“By the way, these are the guys who poisoned you, right? How fortunate it is your poisoning was found early! You might have been very dangerous.”

I gratefully bowed to the platinum blonde young man who spoke to me with an excited voice.

By nature this kind of hunting event usually had unexpected accidents, so I double checked the weapons and the horse before I left. As a result, I found something strange. Obviously, everything was okay when I checked at dawn, but when I double checked, I found the reins and the saddle straps cut in half.

Left as they were, I could have lost my life. In fact, there were more than ten nobles who died every year after being thrown from horses. If I had gone hunting on horseback like that, I would certainly have fallen from the horse before I could say boo, and in that case, I would have died.

“I think you must search the criminal of this incident and have him pay for the price of his crime.”

“Of course.”

As I turned my gaze like Marquis Enesil, I saw the son of Marquis Mirwa chatting with some members of the noble faction including Sir Hoten.

‘Do they also suspect their own members?’

There was a high probability that the poisoning incident was the act of the noble faction, but I could not be sure like before because it might have been committed by someone from the pro-emperor faction who was dissatisfied with our family’s actions these days.

Of course, that was unlikely. Those who Carsein scolded harshly the other day could have gotten involved, but most of the pro-emperor faction were trying hard to mend fences with our family since yesterday. It seemed that the emperor’s attendance at my coming-of-age ceremony deeply influenced their attitude.

“By the way, are you confident? I’m far from being a hunter. ”

“Well, I’m not skilled either… Ah, the flag is up now. The contest has just started.”

“I see. Then I hope you can achieve good results. ”

With a pleasant smile, Marquis Enesil went into the woods with his servants. After watching him for a moment, I also dug my spurs with the men around me.

“Sir Monique, you are quite good at hunting today.”

“Thank you for the compliment. I think I’m lucky today. ”

‘Is this the fifth deer?’

I smiled up at Sir Ryan who was laughing at me. Watching the servants dragging the fallen deer, I checked the bow for a while, when I heard something moving among the grass. It seemed that the imperial hunting ground had plenty of game because it had not used for several years.

“What is it this time? Oh my…!”

“Bear?”

“Why don’t you step back before shooting an arrow?”

“I think so.”

It was a big bear that appeared through the bush. Even after seeing a large number of people, the bear was approaching slowly. Everyone stepped back a little according to Sir Freia’s advice. It could be dangerous if we didn’t kill it at one go.

After taking a deep breath, I aimed my bow at the bear’s heart. When I was exchanging eyes with other knights to shoot an arrow at the same time, I saw a single arrow flying towards the bear. It was shot by Sir Spear.

“Sir Spear, you idiot!”

“Oh, everyone disperse!”

The wounded bear began to charge toward us, growling. Everyone dispersed in every direction to avoid the roaring bear, shooting arrows.

However, it wasn’t difficult to accurately aim at the bear on the rampage.

When his horse began to foam at the mouth, Sir Ryan, who was shooting arrows, shouted as if it was impossible to knock down the bear.

“Sir Monique, get out of here safely!”

“What about others?”

“We’re going to follow suit. Come on! ”

“Okay. I hope everyone is safe. ”

I hurriedly turned the head of my horse and left with my two servants. In a situation like this, it was the best policy to get out without any hesitation.

What the hell is this anyway? A bear on rampage!

In order to get out of there safely I rode the horse far away before stopping. When I turned back to give the next instructions to the two servants, I was stunned to see one of them bleeding from his shoulder.