***

It was a dawn walk.

That was the excuse Leticia came up with.

In truth, she hadn’t slept a wink, but pretending she had risen early, she left her room and quickly crossed the garden.

She encountered maids heading to work at dawn but exchanged casual eye greetings as if she were genuinely out for a walk.

Then, Leticia passed through the garden and headed toward the outskirts of the castle.

She encountered patrolling soldiers a couple of times.

“Are you perhaps lost?”

When she answered that she was just taking a walk, the soldiers withdrew without comment, despite the bleak outskirts being an odd place for a stroll.

From this, Leticia found some reason for reassurance.

Since the soldiers weren’t particularly wary of her heading toward the outskirts, perhaps there really was nothing there. Perhaps she had misperceived the magical power. That kind of reassurance.

Nevertheless, Leticia didn’t stop walking.

She wanted to confirm with her own eyes.

After walking for quite some time, she stood before a warehouse on the castle’s outskirts.

Similar warehouses were scattered around, but Leticia opened the door of this particular one without hesitation. It was the place where she had sensed magical power from the forest.

Creeeeak.

An unguarded warehouse entrance, the sound of a rusty door, and inside, piles of rusty spears with not a person in sight.

No matter how hard she looked, there wasn’t even a shadow of a person. Just a warehouse storing old weap*ns.

Moreover, the magical power Leticia had felt from the forest couldn’t be sensed at all now that she had arrived and looked around.

“Was it my imagination…?”

Leticia entered with relief.

But after taking exactly three steps, she must have accidentally disturbed something because a pile of rusty spears collapsed with a rumble.

As she stood frozen in surprise at the loud noise, someone grabbed her shoulder from behind.

“Leti?”

“Aaah!”

Already tense, she jumped at the sudden contact.

When she turned around with wide eyes, Chamuka also seemed startled, standing frozen with enlarged eyes.

“Chamuka?”

“Did I scare you? Sorry. I just saw you and…”

“No, it’s, it’s fine.”

Reflexively responding that it was okay to Chamuka’s apology, Leticia suddenly paused.

“…But what are you doing here?”

“I should ask you the same. I was heading toward the castle gate when I saw you and followed. Leti, what are you doing in a place like this?”

“Just walking and…”

Even to Leticia, it wasn’t a particularly convincing answer.

Chamuka seemed to think the same, as he asked her.

“Walking all the way into this warehouse?”

“Is that not allowed?”

“There’s nothing wrong with it, but… Are you done with your walk? If so, let’s leave together.”

“Ah, I’m not done yet…”

Chamuka stared at Leticia with his usual expressionless face.

In his gaze, which seemed not to understand Leticia’s behavior, there was no hint of trying to hide anything.

‘Was it really my imagination? Is there really nothing hidden here?’

“Then I’ll wait until you’re done. Be careful not to breathe in too much dust.”

Chamuka’s tone, lacking inflection, was also the same as usual.

In the end, Leticia’s thoughts leaned toward the conclusion that she had been mistaken.

She shook her head and approached Chamuka.

“No, let’s just leave now. On second thought, I don’t think I need to walk anymore…”

Suddenly, Leticia’s words stopped abruptly.

Her gaze was fixed on Chamuka’s shoes.

The problem wasn’t that he was wearing dress shoes rather than the leather shoes he wore for training. The problem was that the soles of the shoes were completely worn down.

As if he had been running at full speed in shoes that should have been treated with care.

“…Did you run all the way here?”

“Leti.”

“Is there something you need to hide here?”

For the first time, Chamuka’s gaze wavered.

Leticia took a step back.

Rumble, the rusty spears poured down.

With each step backward, with each step deeper into the warehouse.

As if warning the outside world, harsh noise echoed loudly.

The fact that she couldn’t sense any magical power now felt more like evidence.

“Don’t come closer.”

Leticia murmured quietly to Chamuka, who was trying to approach her.

Her heart was pounding ominously. With a pale face, Leticia gathered her magical power.

When she found nothing despite thoroughly searching the warehouse, instead of retreating, she struck the floor with her magic.

“Leti!”

The floor caved in. As if there was an underground level.

Leticia ignored the voice calling her and fell into the underground.

And there she could smell the pungent odor of blood and see dying magicians.

It was a horrific scene that she feared would haunt her dreams.

***

“You can tell me everything, Leti. So just cool your head here alone for now and come back later. Don’t think about anything. I’ll come get you tomorrow.”

After witnessing the underground chamber, Leticia ran away, and Chamuka followed her urgently.

He barely managed to persuade Leticia, who refused to return to the Grand Duke’s castle, to stay at the nearest inn outside the castle, and he stood guard in front of it for quite some time.

However, when Leticia said from inside the room that she wanted to be alone for a while and asked him to leave, Chamuka had no choice but to depart from the door.

Leticia ignored the words Chamuka had left behind and pulled the blanket over her head as she lay on the inn’s bed.

Her mind was filled only with thoughts that it was her fault.

If only she hadn’t been caught extracting her blood.

No, even if she had been caught extracting blood, she should have insisted on continuing to use her own blood.

Then, her master and others wouldn’t have resorted to such measures.

Just to save a little of her blood, such, such…

“Your Highness.”

There was a knock at the door from outside.

Leticia emerged absently from the blanket she had pulled over herself, and realized that the sunset was already visible outside the window.

What had she been doing since dawn, when she witnessed that terrible underground chamber, for it to be evening already?

“Your Highness, I’m coming in.”

The door opened and Aina entered the room.

The sight of her carrying food was familiar. As if they were still in the castle.

Leticia asked Aina as she set the tray down on the table.

“…How did you get here?”

“It’s not just me. The knights have occupied this entire inn, and the castle’s head chef is in the kitchen. The head maid is on the second floor, and Lord Chamuka is on the first floor.”

Aina added, as if it were obvious.

“Even if you said you wanted to be alone, they wouldn’t really leave Your Highness alone.”

“…I want to be alone, at least in my room. Please leave.”

“After you eat something. If Your Highness doesn’t eat anything, the head maid will stab me, and Lord Chamuka will bury me.”

When Leticia didn’t respond, Aina opened her mouth in what appeared to be an attempt to comfort her.

“Still, there are fewer watchful eyes compared to the castle. Fewer knights surrounding us…”

“That’s enough, please leave-“

“…Few enough that Your Highness could escape if you wanted to.”

Leticia was exasperated by the secretly whispered words. Enough to bring her back from her shocked, dazed state.

“Don’t say strange things and leave. I want to rest.”

While Leticia was shocked that Basilinte was committing such atrocities, the largest part of that shock was guilt that it was her fault, not fear that she should escape from a place committing such horrible acts.

Of course, she wasn’t without fear, but…

After all, wasn’t everything done to prevent Leticia from extracting more blood?

“Oh, really. There’s something about Your Highness that doesn’t move according to my thoughts.”

Aina let out a deep sigh. Then, meeting Leticia’s eyes, she asked.

“Then I’ll be honest, Your Highness. Will you help me after leaving this place?”