“Ye—pardon?”

Gareth’s voice rose defensively, as though he felt guilty about the accusation.

Everyone turned towards the man who had spoken in such a stern and reproachful tone: Ellot Baren.

He was the elderly knight captain who was leading the escort to Oult.

He was also the man who had fidgeted helplessly earlier when the maids had refused to help the Princess Consort change.

The deep furrows between his brows became even more pronounced as he slowly rose to his feet.

He approached Gareth and silently took the ladle from her hand, stirring the contents of the pot.

The moment the chunks of meat that she had carefully hidden at the bottom floated to the surface, his gaze turned cold and piercing.

“Hah!”

After looking down at Gareth with contempt, Ellot turned and approached Mokyeong.

“Excuse me, Your Highness.”

He gave a brief bow before looking inside her bowl, and his brow furrowed once again.

It contained nothing but thin, watery stew without a single solid ingredient.

“You insolent…….”

Clenching his teeth, he whipped around toward Gareth. His expression had grown even more severe than before.

“You carefully hid all the meat at the bottom, then served nothing but watery broth to your own mistress! Where did you learn to treat your superiors with such disrespect?”

Interest flickered through Mokyeong’s eyes.

She had wondered how a man like him had ended up as the knight captain of the delegation to Oult. It seemed his rigid, uncompromising nature had caused him to fall out of favor with those around him.

“N-No, I merely happened to serve her first…….”

“I have no need for excuses. You will receive no meals today. Brandon, you will take over serving the food.”

“What?!”

Brandon looked back and forth between Ellot and Gareth. When his superior’s piercing gaze shifted toward him, he quickly bowed his head.

“……Yes.”

Gareth stared blankly at the ladle that had been taken from her.

Her lips quivered and her body trembled, but she did not dare voice a single objection in Ellot’s presence.

A short while later, Mokyeong’s bowl was returned, now heaped with the meat Gareth had hidden.

Before lifting her spoon, Mokyeong glanced briefly towards Ellot.

He had already returned to his seat.

He showed no pride in having stepped forward to right an injustice against the Princess Consort, nor did he look towards Mokyeong to gauge her reaction.

He merely sat with his back perfectly straight and ate his stew in silence.

Despite his advanced age, he carried himself with remarkable dignity.

Mokyeong watched him for a moment before silently averting her gaze.

When she finally raised the spoon to her lips, the rabbit meat, caught the previous night, tasted surprisingly delicious.

***

“—Hurry…… before it gets light…… we have to…….”

That night—

Mokyeong’s eyes flew open at the sound of hushed whispering.

When she listened carefully, she recognized the voice of Gareth, the woman she had marked as suspicious.

‘It seems they are finally beginning.’

Mokyeong slightly lifted the curtain covering the carriage window and peered outside.

She intended to watch and see how they would cause trouble—and conveniently help her in the process.

When she focused her eyesight, the pitch-black night gradually revealed its shapes, as though covered by a thin wash of pigment.

Gareth stealthily rose and picked up a leather container beside the carriage.

‘She intends to start a fire so no one will know who died and who escaped.’

When Gareth removed the cork, the scent of oil was carried on the breeze towards Mokyeong.

She moved among the sleeping people, spilling oil near their feet.

She was particularly thorough around the Princess Consort’s carriage.

Meanwhile, some distance away, Brandon was gathering valuables from the luggage carriage.

Someone must have mixed a sleeping drug into the drinking water because, despite the two of them moving about busily, no one awoke.

After loading the belongings onto a horse they had prepared in advance, Brandon quietly called for Gareth.

‘They are remarkably efficient.’

Gareth was shaking the leather container to empty every last drop of oil when she suddenly stopped.

“No…… what could possibly be so valuable that she sleeps while clutching it?”

Even as MacGilton slept curled up on the ground, she tightly embraced the bag she had carried on her back throughout the day.

Gareth stared down at it with displeasure before slowly reaching out.

“What are you doing, Gareth? We have to leave now.”

“Shh. Wait, Brandon. Let us take this too. I am simply too curious.”

Gareth whispered to the urging Brandon as she gradually tugged the bag free.

“No! This belongs to me!”

MacGilton, who had appeared completely unconscious, suddenly opened her eyes and shrieked.

Startled, Gareth yanked hard on the bag she had been carefully extracting.

“No, no…… Let go! Who is it? Who is touching my bag…… Gareth?”

Still clutching the bag with both arms, MacGilton sprang to her feet.

It seemed even a sleeping drug was no match for her obsession with money.

“What are you……? Did you just touch my bag? You crazy b*tch!”

“Be quiet! Quiet!”

Gritting her teeth, Gareth reached out to cover MacGilton’s mouth, but MacGilton sank her teeth into her hand.

“Argh! You insane……!”

“Shut up! Let go! I said let go!”

The two became entangled and rolled across the ground.

At the pounding noise, one of the sleeping knights groaned and shifted.

“Brandon!”

At Gareth’s urgent cry, Brandon rushed out of the darkness.

He hesitated only briefly.

Thud!

“Aaagh!”

His foot slammed into MacGilton’s side.

As MacGilton screamed and tumbled across the ground, the bag she had been clutching flew from her arms and landed inside the campfire.

“No! My bag!”

The firewood collapsed beneath the bag, scattering embers in all directions.

Frantically, MacGilton crawled towards the campfire. In a desperate attempt to retrieve the bag, she swept her hands towards the flames, scattering the embers even further with every movement.

The oil-soaked ground caught fire instantly.

The flames spread rapidly towards the Princess Consort’s carriage, the surrounding trees, and the tents.

Feeding on the dry air, the fire swelled as though it had been waiting for this moment.

“Brandon! Let us go—hurry!”

Once Gareth had confirmed that the flames were spreading, he took Brandon’s hand and they ran into the darkness, not looking back.

Meanwhile, MacGilton’s oil-soaked bag was blazing fiercely.

Realizing that it was beyond saving, MacGilton flew into a frenzy and charged after the fleeing couple, roaring in the direction they had disappeared in.

“Stop right there, you thieving bastards!”

The commotion began awakening the knights and maids who had been sleeping soundly, oblivious to everything.

“Ugh…… What is……? Gasp! F-Fire! There is a fire!”

Cayeman and Ruger sprang to their feet and looked around at the chaos. Without another thought, they seized their belongings and fled.

The moment one knight regained his senses and grasped the situation, he hurried toward his superior.

“C-Captain! Please wake up!”

“Ugh…… What is all this commotion……?”

“The fire is spreading!”

Ellot staggered to his feet.

His eyes remained clouded because the sleeping drug had not fully worn off. However, the instant he saw the Princess Consort’s carriage engulfed in flames, his expression hardened.

“……Her Highness! The Princess Consort is still inside the carriage!”

Ellot charged toward the flames on unsteady legs.

“Captain, it is dangerous! You must escape—!”

Another knight rushed forward to seize his arm, but Ellot violently shook him off.

“My duty is to protect Her Highness! I cannot flee and leave her behind!”

Before Ellot had finished shouting, the flames surged suddenly and engulfed the knight’s cloak.

The man let out an agonized scream as he fell and rolled across the ground.

Ellot’s face instantly turned deathly pale.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t afraid.

Nevertheless, he clenched his teeth, turned around, and faced the flames once more.

“Do not flee! We must protect Her Highness!”

Then he squeezed his eyes shut and jumped into the flames.

Perched on a tree branch, Mokyeong watched the scene unfold, before finally pressing a hand to her forehead.

‘Good grief.’

Gareth’s response when he tampered with the meat revealed that he was an inflexible man. Nevertheless, Mokyeong had never imagined that he would sacrifice his life to rescue a forgotten princess consort.

She tapped the branch beneath her with her fingertips.

Her original plan had been simple.

She would observe the situation, pretend to be the sole survivor by the narrowest of margins, and then seek help from the nearby lord to continue her journey to Oult.

This would enable her to evade the Empress’s maids’ surveillance and dispose of them naturally. She therefore considered the incident a fortunate opportunity.

Yet that one elderly knight was making her plan exceedingly difficult.

“My duty is to protect Her Highness! I cannot flee and leave her behind!”

The words she had heard earlier continued to echo in Mokyeong’s ears.

In the end, she lowered her head and released a deep sigh.

There was a saying she had heard countless times within the Tang Clan.

‘Repay kindness twofold and vengeance tenfold.’

The small amount of meat that the man had found for her could hardly be considered an act of gratitude.

However, she would never have forgiven herself if she had turned him away after seeing him risk his life to save her.

She did not deliberate for long.

Taking a deep breath, she rose to her feet on the tree branch.