“Bad luck. Count Dynyak, this place will be your grave.”

“What.”

“…… What?”

The man at the front said something like a riddle, and both Camille and Devonne reacted.

He knew Count Dynyak. On top of that, his words implied that even Dynyak dying in this commotion was acceptable. But ordinarily, people avoided touching the Blandel Marquisate and moved around it carefully. Something felt wrong. Were they not only targeting the ducal household, but threatening connected families as well? Why?

“……”

I looked around, trying to memorize the man’s words and their appearances. That was when Camille called to me in a very low voice.

“My lady.”

“Yes?!”

“Run. Can you ride a horse?”

Camille was looking at me with his pistol loaded. I nodded firmly.

“Good. While this knight and I buy time, ride to the ducal castle as fast as you can and report the attack.”

“I can’t just escape alone—!”

“Do it for efficiency!”

I was about to say something when the men came charging at us. Their movements were coordinated, their attack fast. They were clearly trained.

You could tell just from watching some of the ducal soldiers already beginning to falter.

Through the noise and chaos, Devonne and Camille moved in every direction. And between it all, the loud crack of gunfire.

Should I really ride off alone? I was turning my head frantically when it happened.

“Ugh!”

I saw Devonne struggling between two men. At this rate…… at this rate, perhaps…… My fists clenched tight. In that moment, my eyes landed on a shovel in the hand of a fallen man.

What followed was entirely instinctive. Possessed by something, I ran toward it and swung the shovel handle with full force.

Thwack! A strong vibration shot through my palms. And right before my eyes, the man crumpled to the ground. In the gap as he fell, I caught sight of Devonne staring at me with wide, startled eyes, and another assassin beyond her.

“…… Th, that—”

The moment I realized what I had done, I froze with the shovel handle still in my grip. My reason was telling me to run, but I couldn’t move. At the same time, the remaining assassin’s face twisted with fury.

“This woman, she’s rushing her own end!”

The man shouted at me and swung his weapon at me hard. In that instant, everything in my vision slowed dramatically. I tried to look around. I could see Camille shouting at me. And Devonne too.

I could see everything, but I couldn’t move. Only then did I understand. When you’re too frightened, you freeze in place.

The moment the sharp pitchfork swung toward me, I gripped the shovel handle with both hands and squeezed my eyes shut.

Bang.

A gunshot rang out. A man with the build of a bear was riding a black horse equally the size of a bear, a long rifle aimed in this direction.

It was Rubenstein.

Without slowing down, he came charging forward, firing his rifle in a frenzy. The speed looked almost random, but every shot he fired sent the assassins around him crashing to the ground.

Thank goodness. I’m alive.

The moment I confirmed it was Rubenstein, I sank to the ground right where I stood.

“Elaine…… Elaine!”

Someone was calling my name desperately, but I fell backward where I was. My hands and feet had no strength left. My eyelids were heavy, and consciousness slipped away.

“…… Are you hurt?”

“……”

“We’ll return to the ducal castle immediately.”

A familiar voice drifted near my ear. And the sensation of being pulled into a firm, full embrace.

“Did I not say I would be watching you, wife.”

His warning that wasn’t quite a warning was the last thing I heard before I lost consciousness entirely.

❀❀❀

When I opened my eyes, it was a familiar ceiling. I sat up the moment my eyes opened and ran my hands over my body. I was intact. There were new bruises here and there from who knew what, but I was all right.

“It wasn’t a dream. I’m not actually dead……”

“No, my lady.”

“……!”

I turned in surprise, and Melly was there with tears in her eyes. A basin with a wet cloth floating in it sat beside her. She had apparently been nursing me while I was unconscious.

“Melly!”

“Yes, I’m here.”

“Is, is the duke all right?”

“Not a hair out of place. They say he came back holding you in his arms.”

“Thank goodness……!”

Hearing that Rubenstein was safe, I pressed a hand to my chest in relief. And from Melly’s expression, it seemed no one else had been seriously hurt either.

Thank goodness. If even one person had been hurt, I didn’t think I could have borne it.

That was when it happened.

“What’s there to be thankful for?”

“Why? No one was seriously hurt.”

“No one seriously hurt? You’re right here, my lady.”

“What…… oh.”

“Are you really serious right now?”

Melly’s voice wavered.

“What is all this…… why do you keep collapsing like this, my lady……”

“I know……”

“And now an outside attack on top of it all……”

With me sitting there awkwardly before her, Melly went on for quite a while after that, talking mostly about the identities of the attackers.

“The head of the third floor said he overheard the retainers in a meeting.”

Melly whispered.

“They think it was a crime targeting Count Dynyak, who was with you, my lady.”

“……”

I had been thinking the same thing. Piecing together what the men who attacked us had said, they hadn’t come to pick a fight about the factory site.

“But apparently it looks like they were trying to pin it on the ducal household, as though the duke had deliberately let Count Dynyak die. The assassins being interrogated right now were wearing the crests of stripped nobles.”

“…… Right.”

I pressed a hand to my lips and drew in a sharp breath. Just as I had thought, they really had been professional assassins.

“It seems to be from the Geut family. I heard an interrogation will be conducted.”

“Count Geut, right. I saw it too. From the very first moment they faced our side, they all wore their family crests openly.”

No. That couldn’t be right. I frowned and shook my head.

“No, I think……”

“You think it’s not them?”

“Right, of course they were wearing Geut’s crest, and they even directly said ‘Geut’ had commissioned them…… but that’s exactly what made it suspicious.”

I furrowed my brow.

“My guess is it’s either Tito Tymveck’s remnants, or a third party.”

“A third party?”

“There must be a faction that wants the ducal household gone.”

“……”

“And targeting Count Dynyak is suspicious too.”

Count Dynyak. Count Dynyak was the man who would one day become the next Marquis Blandel. And the Blandel Marquisate was one of the most prominent families among the central nobles in the capital. That meant they held even more power than Tito Tymveck, who had been close to the Emperor. If Count Dynyak had not survived, it was horrifying to think how far the situation might have spiraled.

“But who on earth could it be.”

“Pardon? Who do you mean?”

“I was thinking about who might be behind the attack.”

I traced back through it slowly.

There were two possibilities.

First. If those who attacked us were Tito Tymveck’s remnants.

That might not actually be the worst outcome. It would mean their power was stronger than expected. I had assumed their influence would naturally weaken after Tito Tymveck’s death, and realizing that was complacency on our part.

But if it was a third party, the situation was entirely different. Another faction targeting the ducal household had picked this fight at the very moment the duke returned and was trying to reorganize the duchy’s power.

But was there a third party I, having guarded the North all this time, didn’t know about?

On top of that, the duke was currently the most prominent figure in the Empire as a war hero. For someone to pick a direct fight with him despite that meant they were a powerful force.

It was the most frightening possibility.

Even having thought of it myself, I was frightened. I bit my lip, pale, then released it.