She grabbed Lady Miller’s shoulder on reflex.

“Ugh……!”

Lady Miller’s face twisted and a pained sound escaped her. Blair pulled her hand away quickly.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Are you all right?”

“……I’m fine.”

But she was clearly not fine at all.

“……Lady Miller, are you hurt somewhere? Your color isn’t good.”

“I’m all right. I was just startled.”

A pale face and finely trembling hands. Cold sweat beading at her brow.

It seemed like more than being startled. Something was off, and Blair’s green eyes grew thoughtful.

❀❀❀

When the time came, a knight under Kalintz’s command arrived to escort Blair.

“His Highness the Prince has already departed for the hunting grounds.”

There was an inexplicable tension on the knight’s face as he said it.

“Sir Werner usually comes to escort us at times like this. That’s unusual.”

“……He must be busy. Preparing for the hunting competition.”

Blair murmured quietly at Tilda’s remark and followed the knight out. With Duke Brienne’s threat bearing down on them, there would be much to prepare.

The anger she had felt toward Kalintz had been pushed to a corner somewhere, replaced by worry and unease that filled her completely.

Lady Miller stepped forward then and spoke quietly.

“I’ll go ahead and secure a spot in that tent.”

“……”

Blair nodded without a word and studied Lady Miller’s complexion. The face that was always calm and composed looked subtly different today.

She said she twisted her ankle and had to be helped.

Of course, falling on a staircase could mean injuring a shoulder too. She could have hit the railing. But if that were the case, why hide the injury at all.

A slight, slender woman in men’s clothing. Blair thought of the silhouette of the suspicious figure from the masquerade and let her gaze pass over Lady Miller.

She was about to grow more suspicious at the way Lady Miller pretended not to notice the scrutiny, when—

“Wow…… there are so many people participating in the hunting competition.”

Tilda said it in surprise.

Indeed, the crowd was nearly as large as the masquerade. In terms of sheer numbers, it was actually larger.

“Hunters, beaters, and knights all accompany their nobles, so the headcount per person grows quite large.”

Blair turned at the familiar voice from behind. Ernst, dressed in light armor, gave a respectful bow.

“This way, please.”

Sharper than usual, Ernst led them in silence toward the tent.

They arrived shortly at the area where Kalintz and the Eiron knights had gathered.

Kalintz wore tough black-tanned leather armor with metal guards at his elbows, shoulders, and wrists.

It was a different look from usual, but as always, it was the kind of sight that made it hard to look away.

“You’re here.”

Kalintz greeted her briefly with an impassive face. Unlike the others, he seemed entirely unbothered.

“Shouldn’t you be a little more on edge. We don’t know what might happen.”

Blair pressed down her anxiety and murmured.

“I’m used to this sort of thing.”

It was a remark only someone who had faced threats to his life countless times could make. Feeling a fresh surge of anger toward Duke Brienne, Blair looked over the other knights.

Strangely, they were all dressed identically. Not just the color of the armor, but the hooded cloaks and the placement of the insignia pinned to each shoulder. Kalintz, Ernst, and every knight among them looked exactly the same.

“……A disguise tactic.”

Kalintz nodded without a word and let his gaze travel slowly over Blair’s outfit.

“You came quite prepared. Like you’re planning to join the hunt yourself.”

The cutting tone, as though drawing a line, made Blair’s brow twitch.

“There’s nothing wrong with being prepared. It is a hunting competition, after all.”

“When I said to stop concerning yourself with this, I meant it.”

Kalintz dropped his voice even lower.

“Don’t even think about entering the hunting grounds. And don’t go chasing after anyone like you did at the masquerade. Rashid is participating in the hunt today, so there won’t be a knight to watch over you.”

“……Ha. Anyone listening would think I was some kind of moth flying into a flame. Do you have to put it like that when I was only acting out of concern?”

“I’m telling you not to do anything unnecessary.”

Blair felt a strong urge, one she hadn’t felt in a long time, to clap a hand over Kalintz’s mouth.

“Oh, of course. But then shouldn’t you stop concerning yourself with me too?”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what.”

At the stubborn retort, Kalintz let out a short, disbelieving laugh and simply turned away.

Ernst, watching from a distance, shook his head with a deep sigh.

A short while later, Grand Duke Clovitz arrived at the hunting grounds with a grand procession. He appeared ready to begin the opening remarks immediately.

Blair walked with Kalintz toward the platform. An uncomfortable silence stretched between them the whole way, and neither spoke first.

While Grand Duke Clovitz delivered his formal opening address, Blair scanned the surroundings carefully. Duke Brienne was dressed for the hunt and had his own knights in attendance, so he was apparently participating.

……They look like ordinary knights.

They did not look like assassins waiting to make a quiet move on someone’s life. Then again, they were knights with titles, and they would not strike down their own country’s prince.

Duke Brienne was not the type to use such an obvious method.

Blair swallowed and shifted her gaze. Looking for Count Roman, she raised her eyebrows at what she saw.

What. He’s not participating in the hunt?

Count Roman was dressed in elaborate everyday clothes, not hunting attire. Given that Valian nobles, particularly those connected to the royal household, almost universally participated in the hunt, it was very strange.

“Do I need to tell you again to stop looking.”

Kalintz’s quiet warning came from beside her.

“I didn’t realize you were such an attentive person, Your Highness. Keeping such close watch over even where my eyes go.”

“Ha, Blair. Do you really not know why I’m doing this? This time it’s genuinely dangerous.”

“Who’s stopping you? For someone with nothing but ‘fleeting feelings,’ you do seem rather overly concerned.”

The words, loaded with everything she had been holding back, made Kalintz let out a long breath and close his mouth.

At last the opening address ended, and the long call of a bugle rang out across the grounds. The signal for the hunting competition to begin.

Kalintz took the reins of a sleek black horse from Ernst.

“This will do.”

“It’s not Nox, but it’s said to be quite a fine horse. Ariela found it, so it should be reliable.”

Kalintz nodded and said shortly to the knights,

“Move out.”

The knights mounted in unison. Kalintz turned to put his foot in the stirrup. Blair walked slowly toward him.

Sensing her approach with uncanny awareness, Kalintz turned and looked at her with a steady gaze. The look in his eyes asked what she wanted to say.

“Don’t get hurt.”

Blair’s voice was softer than before. It was what she had wanted to say from the moment she first saw him. Though her petty pride had kept steering her words the wrong way.

“My answer. You haven’t heard it yet.”

“……That’s already—”

“Not from my own mouth, directly to you.”

Kalintz frowned as though he didn’t see the difference. Blair pursed her lips and muttered stubbornly.

“And you didn’t even hear it properly.”

“What?”

“Anyway, come back and we’ll talk. I have something I need to say.”

His gaze bore into her. After a brief silence, he answered quietly.

“I won’t die in a place like this. So you too—!”

Kalintz stopped mid-sentence at the warmth against his cheek.

“I’ll be waiting, Kalintz.”

Blair pressed her hand gently to his cheek as she spoke.

His eyes wavered deeply. Then he clenched his jaw, as though holding something back.

He held her gaze for a moment longer, and his lips parted as if he were about to say something, but in the end he said nothing.

Instead, he gripped her hand briefly and firmly, then let go, and mounted the saddle in one clean motion.

Blair watched the retreating figures of Kalintz and the knights for a long time.

The clouds pressing low overhead gave her an uneasy feeling, but she shook her head again and again, trying to push the anxiety away.

❀❀❀

“And here you are doing exactly this, after making me hold my tongue so tightly. Telling me not to say a word, not to tell Her Highness anything.”

Ernst grumbled with the air of someone deeply wronged as he rode slowly along the uneven forest path.

“Nothing has changed, Ernst.”

“Then what was it I just witnessed. The two of you were practically dripping with—”

“Quiet. Keep your voice down.”

Ernst was about to protest that he was being silenced again when he caught the rigid set of Kalintz’s face and quickly closed his mouth, listening.

From somewhere in the distance came the faint sound of animals crying out. A sound full of pain.

“It’s too early for the hunt to have started.”

Ernst tilted his head and murmured. Kalintz, who had been staring silently into the forest, said quietly,

“It seems the duke did release something in these woods.”