The king was well aware, despite all the rumors swirling around Andrea, that his son had never truly been in love.

The world wrapped itself around Andrea, but he always slipped free of it without being pulled under. That quality was what the king trusted most in him.

And now it felt as though a new spring had come back to him, and energy surged through his entire body.

He made a mental note to have the chief chamberlain prepare a generous supply of invigorating tonics.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Tents were pitched by family in the clearing before the hunting forest, and the competition began in earnest.

The participants disappeared into the trees, some on foot and some on horseback, each carrying a hunting rifle and a pistol.

Before long, game began to accumulate. Most of it was being carried in on the shoulders of Andrea’s attendants.

“As expected, our Highness.”

Riley cringed at the sight of the bleeding deer and boar the attendants hauled in over their shoulders, but come evening, when she was handed a plate of golden, glistening meat and sat on a tree stump to eat, she was perfectly happy.

It felt like a picnic.

But perhaps she had been too happy.

If the n*de portrait incident had been her first great calamity, the second arrived on the second day of the Hunt.

Early that morning, while tidying Andrea’s tent, Riley found something that had fallen onto his camp bed.

A single leather shooting glove.

“Oh no.”

She grabbed it and ran outside, but Andrea, his guards, and his attendants had already vanished into the forest.

She looked around in every direction for someone to pass it to, but everyone who was going had already gone.

Only clusters of noble ladies holding tea parties and music gatherings were visible anywhere.

Hmm…… what do I do? Surely he hasn’t gone far yet?

If she went now, could she catch up?

Riley thought of the map Andrea had been studying the night before.

He had been pressing his finger to certain points on it, appearing to predict where Prillela would be hidden.

The hiding place was apparently chosen by the queen so that the male participants would not know it in advance.

Riley ran back to the tent and found the map.

Sure enough, there were triangular marks at the predicted locations.

She recalled Andrea murmuring to Alfonso the night before that he would start with the closest predicted point.

That would be the valley over here, then.

Thinking Andrea could not have gone deep yet, Riley ran into the forest.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The hunting grounds were divided into zones assigned to each participant, so routes did not dangerously overlap.

No one from outside a group would simply come charging into another zone uninvited.

Andrea hit every wild animal he spotted.

Bang!

Faint gunshots and shouts rang out from various directions, suggesting everyone was pushing harder than usual for the win.

“Can’t afford to lose.”

A sharpshooter even during his time in the military, Andrea brought down every large animal, the kind that scored high, without exception.

He steered his horse with practiced skill through the rustling undergrowth, and the attendants following behind gathered everything that fell.

Satisfied that he had already built a score no competitor could match, Andrea wheeled his horse and moved toward the place where Prillela, meaning Lady Talbot, was likely to be.

Everything was proceeding exactly as planned.

While he had been focused on the hunt, the king had long since set out to find Lady Talbot alone, just as Andrea had suggested.

It was against the rules, but the two of them had quietly become a team.

Andrea would build the hunting score, and in the meantime the king would secure Prillela, who was as good as the winning trophy.

Once the king rescued Prillela and claimed the overall victory, he would be able to display the heroic, leading-man image he craved.

Andrea was certain that what the king and Lady Talbot had in common was vanity, bravado, and the desire to be seen.

With both of them so clear about what they wanted, playing matchmaker was easy enough.

Either way, give them a romantic narrative away from the queen’s eyes, and the two of them would fall for each other quickly.

The king’s recent expression already told the story. He could not control where his gaze went, like a man caught in the first flush of infatuation.

Lady Talbot was the same. The seductive looks she had been directing at Andrea until recently were now aimed at the king, and she only pulled them back reluctantly when the queen appeared.

The two of them were practically kissing each other with their eyes across empty air.

“How easy.”

Andrea moved without hesitation, intent on raising the curtain on the long-awaited finale today.

He had a rough sense of where to go.

He stopped bothering with game entirely and rode hard, sweeping the area efficiently, until he finally spotted Lady Talbot tied to the trunk of a great oak tree with a vine rope.

But the king had already reached her first, exactly as planned.

Andrea steadied his breathing, quietly stroked his warhorse’s neck, and slipped behind a tree trunk.

He intended to watch and see how his father handled it.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The king untied the silk handkerchief binding Lady Talbot’s wrists and raised one hand.

The guards waiting nearby withdrew in an instant, and the surrounding forest went quiet.

Theatrical as the event was, Lady Talbot had apparently been frightened waiting with her eyes and arms bound, and she was trembling pitifully.

The king cupped her face in both hands, met her eyes, and murmured something soothing.

Blinking back tears, she let herself be drawn naturally against his chest.

She seemed to be whimpering about how frightened she had been, how long she had waited, how she thought everyone had forgotten her and gone, how she had not expected to be left waiting somewhere this deep in the forest.

The king pulled her firmly against him and began pressing kisses to the top of her head and her brow.

Hidden among the dense leaves, Andrea’s lips slowly curved.

Was he finally going to be able to replace his stepmother?

Lady Talbot lifted her head and looked up at the king with glistening eyes.

The gaze looked innocent at a glance, but Andrea could see the boldness and ambition underneath. Moved, the king’s broad chest heaved several times with visible emotion, and then he bowed his head and began kissing her.

The heat of two people giving themselves over to a forbidden desire deep in the lush forest seemed to reach even where Andrea stood.

Their movements grew urgent, heads tilting as their kiss deepened.

The king pressed Lady Talbot against the oak trunk with the force of a man asserting his long-dormant masculinity, and began trailing his mouth along the skin of her neck.

Then she resisted, just slightly.

“Your, Your Majesty…… you mustn’t leave marks…… ah…… the queen will…… mmh……”

She had been on the receiving end of the queen’s sharp glares throughout the Rose Ball and seemed to have that on her mind, and the king murmured with bold assurance.

“We will find a way. A way for us to be together……”

“Hmm……”

Listening to Lady Talbot’s coy little whimpers, Andrea felt a surge of triumph.

“This will be over within the week.”

The two of them were responding more intensely than he had expected. The atmosphere suggested they might not even wait until they returned to the palace, settling things right here in a nearby tent.

“Enjoy yourselves to your hearts’ content. This devoted son has laid the whole stage for you.”

Andrea hummed quietly to himself and turned to leave. He intended to give the two of them plenty of space.

But then. The tall grass came rustling and something came charging straight at him.

Andrea drew his silver pistol and took aim in one motion.

The moment something burst through the undergrowth, he pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang!

The gunshot shattered the quiet of the forest.

But the next moment, Andrea pushed the grass aside and found what had fallen, and he went completely still.

Shot and bleeding on the ground was Raul.