But Yolly didn’t know the direction of Saena’s speculations as she fretted over someone who needed no concern and pushed herself forward. Resigned, he simply shook his head slightly and gestured in the direction with an attitude that said, ‘Fine, do what you want.’

—Sigh. That way.

Saena quickly ran in the direction Yolly indicated. After some distance, voices came from beyond the bushes.

“…It was a trap! D*mn it!”

“Please surrender quietly.”

“After I came all this way!”

Hearing the voice confirmed it really was the prince.

Saena strained her eyes trying to assess the situation through the darkness that had settled.

Though she couldn’t see clearly with only the moonlight, there seemed to be a small clearing beyond the bushes. The prince and Constantine had already met and were facing off there. And whether due to the darkness or because they were hiding, Saena could only see the prince alone.

‘Then what about his subordinates? Are they hiding? Will they suddenly rush out all at once?’

Suddenly all the shaking leaves in the dim light looked like enemy soldiers.

Saena gulped.

‘Still… I have to warn him.’

She needed to warn Constantine. But thinking that enemies might be hiding somewhere nearby made it impossible to move carelessly.

So she moved slowly. She planned to get as close to the clearing beyond the bushes as possible before calling out.

—Wait, there’s someone ahead.

‘…What?!’

As soon as the words finished, someone jumped out in front of her.

For a moment Saena almost burst out screaming.

“Madam.”

She barely managed to swallow her scream as the other person called her ‘Madam’ in a hushed voice.

“…Commander?”

The person who suddenly appeared was Commander Wesley.

“Whew, Madam, why are you here…”

Not only was Saena surprised, but he was even more surprised by the sudden intrusion. The commander pushed Saena behind a large tree to hide her while checking the clearing.

“Commander, why are you here?”

“We were monitoring because there were intruders in the castle.”

—Ah. So those multiple people weren’t the prince’s subordinates but our knights?

Yolly muttered, finally understanding the situation accurately.

The Kramer Knights had been on stakeout duty, tense from the Duke’s order to enter emergency status since the prince seemed to be nearby.

Then they actually detected someone infiltrating the castle grounds.

Commander Wesley ordered the knights to watch first without immediately capturing the intruder. They planned to maintain their concealment and only monitor unless the target tried to cause harm or escape.

This was because they didn’t know what strange items the prince might have, and the Duke who wanted to personally corner and deal with him had ordered so earlier.

Meanwhile, Duke Kramer had returned, following the tracking traces, while the knights were organizing a proper net to assist their master.

But suddenly the Duchess appeared. The startled Commander Wesley had reflexively revealed himself.

He was so surprised that despite being quite composed normally, his heart seemed to flutter. This was because he knew better than anyone how extremely concerned his master was about the Duchess’s wellbeing.

“It’s dangerous inside here. I’ll guide you out.”

“N-no! No!”

But Commander Wesley turned his head following the Duchess’s gaze as she suddenly started shouting.

Saena had peeked her head out from behind the tree to check the clearing situation and saw the prince taking out a bead from his chest.

To think there was another bead! Just how many did he bring!

“A demonic beast is coming out!”

Crack–!

But she couldn’t stop it. An ominous sound hit the ground.

As soon as the bead broke, the prince turned and ran away. He seemed to plan on escaping while Constantine dealt with the unsealed demonic beast.

And if the demonic beast could seriously harm or even kill Constantine, all the better. That was probably his thinking.

But the problem was…

‘Why are you coming this way!’

Unfortunately, the direction the prince was fleeing was toward where Saena was.

In the end, Commander Wesley had to step in.

“What the– Get out of my way right now!”

“I cannot let you pass.”

“How dare you block my path!”

“You can’t escape anyway. Give up.”

Wesley signaled to release the knights’ concealment. It was already meaningless to maintain at this point. One by one figures revealed themselves from the darkness. The number of knights appearing was not small.

Realizing he was surrounded, the prince shouted urgently.

“Move aside! A mere knight dares…”

The prince put his hand in his chest again with an expression of uncontrollable anger. Seeing this, Saena’s body automatically tensed.

Just how many beads did he bring!

If a demonic beast appeared at their feet, Saena would be of no help at all. Should she run away, what should she do? As she peeked at the prince from behind the tree while worrying, she froze.

Because what the prince took out wasn’t glass beads.

Several small glass vials in his hand.

What could those be? Given that the prince took them out in this situation, they couldn’t be anything good…

“You’ll regret it if you don’t move aside right now.”

The prince glanced back at Constantine fighting the demonic beast and warned. He seemed somewhat anxious.

As Saena swallowed dryly at the weapon of unknown identity, the prince opened one vial and threw it toward Wesley.

Wesley reflexively tried to dodge but realized Saena was hiding behind him and instead tried to knock it far away with the flat of his sword. No matter what came out of it, he wanted it to emerge from a distance.

However, making such calculations proved futile as the glass vial burst with a ‘pung–’ sound as soon as it hit the sword’s surface.

“—Huk.”

From where the vial burst, something like hazy mist rose up and enveloped Wesley.

—It’s poison.

“Po-poison…? Huh, Madam… get away…”

Yolly and Wesley spoke almost simultaneously.

The poison mist swelled and spread in all directions. Eventually reaching near Saena, she had no choice but to reveal herself from behind the tree to avoid it.

“…Madam?”

“Saya!”

At that moment, even Constantine called out to her loudly.

He seemed to have noticed her presence while watching the movements on this side.

Though he couldn’t leave while dealing with the demonic beast, that single word contained his urgency and impatience to come to her side immediately, or perhaps questioning why she was here.

Finally, the prince asked in disbelief.

“You, you’re alive?!”

“……”

Saena slowly pushed back her hood and stared at the prince.

Then, reaching her hand toward Wesley, she quietly murmured.

“—Purify.”

Whoosh–

A transparent light briefly enveloped the surroundings and swallowed the black mist. Wesley’s breath, which had been gasping from poisoning symptoms while turning black, stabilized, and he collapsed unconscious. It was the aftermath of recovery.

“Take the Commander.”

A knight quickly carried Commander Wesley on his back and disappeared.

“Th-this can’t be…!”

The prince shook his head looking for the vanished poison mist with bulging eyes. His expression showed utter disbelief.

“As you can see, I’m quite alive.”

Saena answered mockingly while tilting her head.

“You, how dare you use that tone?”

“What’s wrong with my tone?”

“How dare you speak informally to imperial family?!”

“Where is there any imperial family here?”

“You, you…!”

The prince trembled.

Saena deliberately spoke informally to provoke him and induce mistakes. Of course, she also just didn’t want to use honorifics with him.

“Your face would look so pretty with holes in it. I’ll kill you miserably!”

The prince threw another vial with bloodshot eyes.

It seemed he had concluded that the earlier disappearance of the poison mist was a coincidence.

“Purify.”

But when the poison mist disappeared again, a strange expression appeared on the prince’s face.

He seemed to have thought of the answer, but it was an expression that said such an answer couldn’t possibly be right.

“N-no way, are you the new…”

The prince stopped speaking as if it couldn’t be, and broke another vial.

“No! It can’t be! Die! Just die!”

The poison liquid scattered like a tantrum formed poison mist everywhere.

To show physical evidence to the utterly disbelieving prince, Saena summoned Yolly. The fluttering of Yolly’s wings pushed the poison mist toward the prince.

“Ahhh!”

He hurriedly dodged.

Yolly flapped his wings a few more times as if it was nothing.

The prince rolled on the ground, terrified of the creeping poison mist. Following the trajectory of the poison mist chasing the prince, the grass below could be seen dissolving with a hissing sound.

The prince panicked even more and scrambled away, moving his limbs like he was crawling.

“How did you carry something you’re so afraid of so preciously in your chest?”

“St-stop this immediately! Threatening the imperial family is treason!”

To think he threw it at others without hesitation but trembled when even a speck touched him.

Saena opened her mouth while looking at the prince, who had become like a beggar after rolling on the ground several times, with contempt.

“Yolly.”

Clear urgency showed on Constantine who was fighting the demonic beast.

It would be better to lighten his burden a bit at this point, lest he get hurt by rushing too much due to worry about her.

Saena added with a grin.

“Strike him.”

Thwack–!

Yolly’s hind leg swiftly flew and swept across the prince’s head. As his body floated up, another hind leg struck him.

“Kheuk!”

With a thud, the man’s body fell ungracefully and didn’t move.

—Even if I’m not a combat type, I can handle this kind of fool easily.

Yolly laughed, relieved.

Compared to how mysteriously he had been escaping until now, it was an almost anticlimactic ending.