“Peaceful, fun-time. I wish you.”
Leone ended the greeting in a friendly voice. She instinctively realized that he was addressing her. She thought Leone wouldn’t recognize her… How did he know that all at once? Was the disguise bad? Or…
“Excuse me.”
It was hot for no reason, so while she was fanning her hands, someone suddenly started talking to her. They couldn’t openly surround her, so the knights, who were pretending to be imperial servants like her, stood side by side against the wall and glared at the target with wary eyes.
“Would you like some?”
What was presented to her was wine. She looked up. It was an unknown face. It was a face she didn’t know, but she knew what the situation was like. The flushed face immediately subsided. She checked the banquet hall.
‘The Archduke hasn’t come yet.’
“No, there is someone who went to get it.”
Still, she adamantly refused. The attendant who served her the wine hesitated, then grabbed the glass again and turned around.
“His Excellency, what are you doing at the imperial banquet?”
Then, once again, people were agitated. Snow rolled quickly. Leone was still on stage. And Adler was next to him. Looking towards the entrance of the banquet hall, she saw a large old man entering with an upright gait. The main character of today’s welcome ceremony was a confident attitude that seemed to say that he was himself.
‘He came late on purpose. That old man.’
He was an old man who really liked attention.
“You didn’t eat it. It tastes pretty good.”
Right, someone else spoke up.
“Oh, wait-”
She left right away without answering. She didn’t know exactly what he’s trying to do, but she decided to avoid everyone who spoke to her. The knights also followed her. And as soon as she moved, the eyes of several servants followed her. A few of them approached her in an instant and suggested this and that to her. The sounds passed through her ears. She felt that all these people were looking at her and approaching her. A forced smile, a blind gaze on his hardened face. It gave me goosebumps. Fortunately, the knights moved naturally and blocked it, so there was nothing dangerous.
‘Oh wow, really…’
No matter how you think about it, the Archduke was a person who really liked to compete with each other from one to ten. She thought the Archduke would recognize her, but this much. Is the real disguise good?
“Trixie. Be careful.”
One knight pulled her by the hook. She told them not to surround her so as not to be noticed, but before she knew it, they surrounded her as if they were protecting her.
‘Hmm. It’s not that I have good eyesight, but that’s what it looks like.’
She realized it wasn’t a disguise problem. But where in the world was the lady-in-waiting accompanied by four attendants? But she couldn’t help but accompany the knights. She was well aware of the Archduke’s cruel disposition.
“I think you can be less vigilant. Now, we look very suspicious, so I think we will stand out more…”
Still, it was a little like saying, ‘Come this way’.
After calmly admonishing her, the knights quickly moved away from her. Afterwards, the knight who went to get the wine returned. However, after receiving the glass, there was no time to rest peacefully. She quenched her thirst by pouring the wine at once.
“Would you like some more?”
“Ah, over there. Trixie… Right? His Highness the Prince was looking for you. Go out into the hallway.”
“Where have you seen me before?”
He was not even crazy If she didn’t know in advance, she thought it would have taken at least one. Of course, as she passed a few people without answering, most of them approached her with a reasonable amount of time. They spat out only lines that seemed sloppy but were strangely overlooked.
‘Okay. I can understand why the Grand Duke appeared at the banquet hall with such a carefree face.’
If you bought a lot of people this far, you will think that one thing will succeed. The number of people was so enormous that she laughed out loud. The Emperor seemed to have such terrible power that he couldn’t even afford to manage his own people, and the Archduke seemed to have a lot of money and a lot of power. The people the Archduke bought were half of the attendants assigned to the banquet hall, several lower nobles, and some of the servants belonging to those nobles.
All that many people came out from under the water and were aiming for Leone.
And the Verbena Guildmaster said that the orders they received were…
‘Do harm by all means to Beatrice Giuseppe. The bigger the better. At the very least, it should have a scar that can be seen at a glance from a distance.’
It was towards her. They approached covertly to get them back. Of course, through the Verbena Guild without revealing who they were. She tried to recapture the whole thing, but… Leone objected, saying that he would revise the plan again. The reason was that there were too many people, so there were too many variables. No matter how much money they gave, no one would be able to betray the Archduke, and in the end, their attempts to recruit them would reach the Archduke’s ears. It was a fair story. Even though they didn’t mention their names, the Archduke was someone who thought of many cases, so he was someone who could infer from Verbena’s name. As a result, there was no choice but to say, ‘Let’s avoid it on our own’, but there was only a mana operation left.
“The wine is really good.”
“…”
“Yes?”
She was tired all of sudden from malicious gazes to mechanically approaching people. The tension of others clung to her whole body. As if standing on a thorny road, her nerves became sharper.
“Eat it, eat it!”
It seemed like everyone gave up moderately and went back and was aiming for a second attempt, but all of a sudden. What kind of persistent bullshit was this?
“In that mouth, this…!”
“I don’t like it.”
The rising voice seemed maniacal and felt a bit bizarre. The knights next to her sneakily stood between the woman and her to block them. The woman pouring wine on her was skinny to the point of hollowing out her cheeks, and her eyes were unfocused. She looked precarious, like someone standing on the edge of a precipice.
‘There were quite a few people who were caught with weaknesses.’
The nameless pyramid-structured group owned by the Archduke was also an assembly of the Archduke’s wealth and power, but was being operated by holding many people’s unhappiness and greed hostage. Vicious blackmailers were attached to those who were bought by the Archduke. Rather than buying, she thought he was struggling to survive.
She felt sorry for him.
“…sorry. Please return to your seat.”
She just had to apologize. She didn’t know what the story was, but something was too… It wasn’t a huge fuss. The nobles were basically busy chatting and playing among themselves, and the sound of magnificent music filled the banquet hall, so not much attention was drawn. It would be noticeable to those who observe closely. The knights next to her pushed away the glass of wine, which must have been strong, with subtle force. As if the strength of the knights was considerable, the woman was pushed back one step at a time. At one point, she turned around as if she had given up. And it was an instant. She had seen it. The woman who was turning around deliberately fell. She pretended it was a mistake and she looked like she wasn’t even acting. The wine was about to be poured on her. It was at the exact angle that she would be poured out and even the glass would be thrown at her.
“Be careful.”
At that time, someone grabbed the attendant’s hand. The wine was only slightly scattered in the air, but it remained intact in the glass.
“…thank you.”
This time it was a familiar face.
“Nothing. It was just by accident.”
Leone gave up on recruiting that many people, but tried to negotiate with some of the lower nobles who were bought by the Archduke. Unlike the attendants, who were few in number, and whose livelihood or life were immediately taken away, the lower nobles were dissatisfied with their titles, and were driven mad by money and power and tried to fulfill the Archduke’s orders. Catching them wasn’t too difficult. Not only did he have a lot of money, but he also had the existence of the prince, Leone.
The nobles shamelessly flinched when Leone first rhymed, “You, the Archduke’s order,” but soon the list of rewards that followed gradually lowered their tail.
‘After the welcome ceremony, his strength will definitely grow. The Archduke- Those who received his protection. If you carelessly touch them – make them notice. I mean. So, help. me.’
The imperial authority has weakened because there was no successor. The more he boasts about his successor’s reputation, the more precarious his position as Archduke would be. Leone attacked up to that point and made the nobles on his side in a pretty elegant way.
“Oh, you… How beautiful.”
It was a line she already knew, because he had kissed her beforehand. The man in front, whose name she didn’t remember, was a baron. Looking at the baron with a gruff expression, she suppressed the ridicule that erupted. She shouldn’t laugh. In the first place, it seemed that the Archduke did not expect anything from so many attendants. Seeing how someone with a low status could treat her arbitrarily, and how the knights planned a detailed strategy for nobles who were difficult to treat carelessly. According to the guild leader’s investigation, the Archduke gave this man an order to help her if she was in danger, and right after she lowered her guard, he was forced to drag her, whether he refused or not, and something like that.
“Ha ha ha. You must have very good eyesight.”
“Vision? I have a good eye for women.”
Everyone was aiming only for Beatrice Giuseppe, but it was a bit difficult to understand the Archduke, who gave out a bizarre order that said, ‘You can hurt her’ or ‘Take her by force’, not kidnapping or anything. Was she the only one aiming at the prince’s welcome ceremony?
However, when she met the nobles and saw Leone, who was more sensitive to his anger as she listened to the details of the operation, she realized that what the Archduke was aiming for was ‘Leone’s angry beast aspect for attacking me’.
‘Archduke. It’s unexpectedly emotional.’
The content that the strategy he set up after realizing that she was precious to Leone hurted her and stimulated Leone… Of course, it was a simple method. She was weak, so she was easy to approach, and easy to kidnap. Even if someone aimed at Leone, Leone might not respond much, so it’s better to aim at her. She was the one and only family to Leone, and he always tried to protect her. If you think about it that way, it was pretty to the core.
“Come with me. The name?”
After hearing all of this, Leone did not tell the newly acquired nobles any other way. He just said, ‘Do everything the Archduke has instructed.’
