“That’s why I took the liberty of asking for your help. Alerting the royal guards would be…… a little complicated.”

“……Is the target Prince Kalintz?”

Blair nodded without a word. Rashid was quiet for a moment, then asked in a low voice,

“Was he armed?”

“He had a small dagger.”

At that, Rashid came to Blair’s side as she searched for traces and placed a steady hand on her shoulder.

“That makes this genuinely dangerous. I’ll do the searching, so stay close.”

Rashid’s grey eyes had sharpened to a fine edge, and Blair swallowed and pointed toward the undergrowth.

“The grass is trampled over there. A normal person wouldn’t head somewhere with no path.”

“You have sharp eyes.”

Rashid looked at Blair with a mildly surprised expression, then walked toward the undergrowth she had indicated.

Sure enough, the dense growth had been pushed through in a rough, haphazard way, as though someone had passed through not long ago.

It was dark and difficult to see, but Rashid followed the trail ahead with practiced ease.

She was thinking how glad she was to have brought him along when a rustling sound came from the right.

“Over there!”

The moment Blair cried out, a dark figure burst from the undergrowth and began moving fast.

“Stop!”

Blair ran after Rashid, who had already taken off a step ahead.

But running in a dress and heeled shoes took twice the effort for half the speed. The hem kept catching on the undergrowth, making it even harder to keep up.

“Your Grace Remarque! Leave me and go catch him!”

“I can’t do that. We don’t know how many assassins there are.”

Blair hadn’t thought of that. Frantic, she tore her skirt free from a branch and ran again. But the grey mask had already pulled further ahead.

At this rate, she was going to lose him. Blair stopped running and pulled off one of her shoes.

“What are you—?”

Rashid asked, caught off guard by the sudden action. But Blair had no time to answer.

“Your Grace, step aside for a moment!”

Before the words were even finished, the glass-worked shoe caught the moonlight and flew through the air. It spun rapidly and then landed with a dull thud.

“Ugh……!”

A thin cry came from somewhere ahead.

Blair ran before the moment could slip away. The twigs underfoot were just beginning to sting when her body lifted off the ground.

“Thorns can cause a rash if they get you.”

Rashid scooped her up and ran at speed.

Blair thought briefly that if he was going to be this fast, she should have asked him to carry her from the start, but then reminded herself she had already imposed on the young duke of the Armos Islands quite enough and shook the thought away.

When they reached the spot where the shoe had landed, Rashid set Blair down carefully and murmured,

“It’s a dead end.”

Blair retrieved her shoe and put it back on, then looked around. Just as Rashid said, there was nothing to see but a high stone wall.

“That can’t be right. Where did he go?”

“Indeed. There’s no path here, and that must have…… hurt quite a bit.”

Rashid glanced at the faint reddish smear on the heel of Blair’s shoe as he spoke.

“Oh? What’s that?”

Blair noticed something glinting on the ground and went toward it.

A small dagger.

“Dropped it in a hurry. From cutting through these.”

Rashid picked up the vine cuttings scattered across the ground.

“This…!”

Blair looked at the wall covered in a tangle of vines and murmured.

Behind the roughly hacked-away growth, there was a gap just large enough for a person to squeeze through.

“It seems assassination was never the purpose.”

Rashid turned the dagger the grey mask had left behind over in his hands.

“The handle is weak, and the blade is too short. It’s not suited for killing.”

“So the dagger was always meant for cutting those vines. Coming this way wasn’t about running from us either. He came here from the start, looking for this gap.”

It had struck her as odd. If the target was Kalintz, a secluded corner like this made no sense. Somewhere near the lake or the fountain would have been far more suitable.

“Still, it’s suspicious. Hiding a dagger, slipping out of the palace through a secret passage.”

“……”

Was this person connected to Duke Brienne. Losing them was frustrating in every way, but following an unknown person beyond the palace walls would have been reckless and foolish.

“Oh, speaking of which.”

Blair turned over something that had been nagging at her.

“Wasn’t the voice rather thin?”

The cry of pain after being hit by the shoe had been quite slight. And on top of that—

“This gap…… even for a slight build, a man couldn’t pass through easily.”

Blair had used the back passage at the Eiron palace often enough to know at a glance. The opening the grey mask had gone through was barely wide enough for a slender woman.

Just then, a quiet laugh came from beside her.

“Why are you laughing?”

Blair looked at Rashid with a mildly baffled expression, wondering what there was to find amusing.

He had already removed his mask and was showing his face.

“Ah, I apologize if it seemed rude. It’s just that you seem rather out of the ordinary.”

“Pardon?”

“Most people in a situation like this wouldn’t calmly analyze the size of a gap in the wall. And well…… you throw a shoe very well.”

Blair felt a small, guilty pang at that.

“That was…… I acted without thinking in the moment.”

“I meant it as a compliment.”

A gentle smile settled on Rashid’s lips. Blair thought again that Selina would have absolutely loved this face.

“To answer your earlier question, the suspicious person was almost certainly a woman. You can tell from the way she moved. This dagger was also made for a woman or a child to use.”

Rashid held up the dagger as he spoke.

Who had disguised herself as a man and slipped out of the palace in secret. It was a relief that she had not been there to assassinate Kalintz, and yet a different unease settled in.

“In any case, thank you very much, Your Grace Remarque.”

Blair removed her cumbersome mask as she spoke.

“It was an unreasonable thing to ask. I imposed on you in my panic. I’m sorry.”

Blair bowed her head and expressed her gratitude sincerely. But Rashid’s response was unexpected.

“I rather enjoyed it.”

“Pardon?”

“It was quite thrilling. I didn’t expect to be part of a chase like that in Valia.”

“……You’re not entirely ordinary yourself, Your Grace.”

At that, Rashid said is that so and laughed aloud again. He really was a peculiar person.

“If you truly wish to express your gratitude, would you answer a question of mine.”

“Oh…… right now?”

It was an abrupt request, and Blair was caught off guard, but she nodded.

“I don’t see why not. Compared to the help you gave me, that’s nothing.”

But Blair regretted saying it almost immediately. What came out of Rashid’s mouth was a question she could never have imagined.

“Pardon? What did you just……”

“I asked whether you and Prince Kalintz are in a contract marriage.”

Rashid’s grey eyes asked it plainly, and Blair felt the inside of her own head being covered over in grey storm clouds.

What do I say to this. No, more than that, how does he know. Her thoughts spun wildly.

“I…… don’t know what you mean by that. How, or rather, why you would think such a thing, I have absolutely no……”

She had never imagined it, not even in a dream. That the young duke of the Armos Islands would be the one to ask about the secret she and Kalintz shared.

“It wasn’t intentional, but I overheard the two of you talking on the terrace earlier.”

“……!”

The terrace. That was when she had been with Kalintz, trying to eavesdrop on Count Roman’s conversation. When she had let something slip and the two of them had argued about the night before.

“How long were you…… how much did you hear…… haah.”

Blair’s head swam and she let out a long, stricken breath.

“I had stepped out to the terrace above to rest and heard your voice. You were saying something about a two-year contract marriage.”

“……”

“I turned and left immediately, so I didn’t hear anything else. I drew the curtain and stood nearby so no one else would come out to the terrace, so you needn’t worry about that.”

Should she be grateful for that. Blair had no idea what to say and simply let out a long sigh.

“……So. You heard all of that, and you’re asking again anyway. Why?”

Blair asked, her gaze guarded. Was he planning to use this as leverage.

“I’m not here to threaten you, so there’s no need to be so wary.”

Rashid said it with a faint smile, and Blair cleared her throat, feeling her expression had been too obvious.

Then Rashid spoke in a serious voice.

“I simply wanted to confirm once more. Whether there is a chance for me.”

❀❀❀

Tilda was nearly out of breath trying to keep up.