As soon as the Gilian army moved, Ryan sent that information to the capital through Philip’s letter. The movements of the Gilian army would then be relayed to Albion through others.

‘But that’s too late.’

No matter how quickly they sent it from here, the Gilian army would reach Albion first. Once ships departed from here, they could reach Albion within three hours.

Still, hoping to reduce casualties even slightly, he sent information about their destination and numbers.

Watching the Gilian army depart, Ryan was dumbfounded.

He had tried everything to prevent the Gilian army from leaving. But the efforts to persuade the Gilian royal court from the capital had failed, and the assembled troops had boarded the warships without dispersing.

‘Albion was preparing too, but…’

With the announcement of the armistice agreement, all of Albion’s military personnel except for the regular army had returned to their hometowns.

Gathering them back would naturally take time.

Even if they were gathered, deploying them immediately into battle was problematic.

Above all, the biggest issue with reassembling troops was that word would spread.

‘The royal court wants to handle this matter quietly if possible…’

So they were trying to stop the surprise attack with minimal forces.

Ryan deeply sympathized with the royal court’s thinking.

What would have happened if they had started large-scale recruitment again to stop Gilia? Surely the newspapers and magazines would have run breaking news that Gilia had broken the armistice agreement, and that news would spread throughout Albion in an instant.

Although they had won, the scars of war remained with everyone. There were still too many people who had lost family and property during the ongoing war to even count.

And they wanted revenge, not reparations.

It would take a long time for their anger to subside, but if they learned that war had broken out again in the midst of all this, that anger would undoubtedly flare up uncontrollably.

‘It’s not good for anyone!’

Not for Albion. Not for Gilia.

‘Both are just consuming their future.’

It had to stop now. Otherwise, there would be nothing left for the future. They had to prevent any further waste of the future.

“Phew…”

Returning to the temporary trench on the hill, Ryan pulled out a canteen he had hidden in the corner with a long sigh of relief.

When he opened the lid, the deep aroma of whiskey rose up. It was premium whiskey that Philip had brought when he came here.

Taking a sip, the deep flavor and warm sensation spread slowly through his body, gradually calming his rough breathing.

‘Is this the end of it now?’

He couldn’t describe his relief when he saw the defeated Gilian army returning. Even more so after learning they had come back in a hurry without launching a proper attack.

The Albion royal court would downplay this incident as a small clash resulting from a misunderstanding.

Meanwhile, the Gilian royal court wouldn’t be able to say a word. Of course, those who participated in this operation might talk about it, but their stories wouldn’t appear in any newspaper and would eventually be treated as the boasting of war-weary soldiers.

‘Now I can go back!’

This was Gilia’s last struggle. It had ended in futile effort, so they no longer had the strength to attack.

“Snow… it hasn’t fallen yet, has it?”

When Ryan fell asleep, he always had the same dream.

A dream of returning to Albion and heading to Feltham.

In the dream, he kept looking at the sky. It was a sky full of dark clouds that seemed ready to snow at any moment.

The promise to return before the first snow kept coming to mind, and he urged his horse to hurry. But the horse wouldn’t move, and in his impatience, he finally dismounted and ran toward Feltham.

Constantly looking up at the sky.

And then he would wake up when he was gasping for breath.

‘When I return…’

Ryan imagined Eloise in his mind, glaring at him with raised eyebrows and crossed arms.

She would be terribly angry. She might close the door, saying she couldn’t stand the sight of him and didn’t want to speak another word to someone who lied like him.

Absurdly, Ryan was desperate to see even that expression.

Gulping down the remaining whiskey, he thought of Eloise in his mind.

Unconsciously, the corners of his mouth turned up in a grin. If Philip had still been here, he would have told him to stop that unpleasant smile, as it was so clear even in the darkness.

Just then, he heard footsteps approaching.

This was a perfectly made hideout in the bushes that no one else approached. Moreover, in this chaos where everyone was fleeing as soon as they reached the beach, there was only one person who would look for such a place on the hill.

“Philip? You’re back early.”

He had thought Philip would arrive at dawn at the earliest, since he had rushed to send a telegram to the capital, but it seemed he had returned earlier than expected.

Thinking this, Ryan was about to stand up when he saw something glinting before his eyes.

The moment he saw it, Ryan instinctively rolled to the side. Simultaneously, the glinting object made a loud noise and sparked.

Bang!

At the deafening gunshot, Ryan’s body didn’t hesitate to roll down again and tackle the person with the gun.

With a curse, another gunshot rang out, but it was directed at the dark sky where Ryan no longer was.

Thud! Thud!

In the darkness, two figures wrestled chaotically, entangled in a frenzy. After a brawl where it was impossible to tell who was being hit by the flying fists, Ryan was able to capture and bind the attacker.

Using clothes as rope to tie him securely, he pressed on the groaning opponent’s neck.

“Who are you?”

“Ugh…”

When there was no answer, he pulled out the dagger he had hidden. Then he took out a trench lighter from his pocket, held it to the person’s face, and lit it.

Click. With the sound of the flint turning, a small flame was lit, revealing the captive’s appearance.

At that moment, Ryan’s expression hardened.

At first, he had thought it might be one of the defeated soldiers approaching. But seeing the relatively neat appearance now, the attacker was not someone who had gone to Albion by ship.

“What’s this? How did you find this place? More importantly, why did you target me?”

At Ryan’s question, the man smirked. Realizing he had no intention of answering willingly, Ryan readjusted his grip on the dagger.

One reason he had been highly regarded as a soldier was his ability to discard his humanity depending on the situation.

Just as he was about to place the dagger against the attacker’s body, gauging where it would hurt the most—

“Die! Ryan Wilgrave!”

The attacker shouted this while curling his body. Not understanding what he was trying to do, Ryan lit the lighter again and saw that he had a small safety pin in his mouth.

***

“…!”

The moment her mouth was covered, Eloise held her breath. The person seemed satisfied with her reaction. In that instant, Eloise bit down on the hand covering her mouth with all her strength.

“Ugh…!”

Was he trained? Instead of a scream, only a small groan came from behind Eloise.

When the hand still wouldn’t release her mouth, Eloise lifted her foot and tried to stomp on whoever was behind her with all her might.

Then an urgent voice was heard.

“Please, be quiet. Eloise.”

It was a familiar voice. At his words, Eloise slowly lowered the foot she had raised and gradually removed his hand.

When she turned around, she saw Richard looking at her with the most resentful eyes in the world.

He shook his hand, which now bore red teeth marks that looked like they might start bleeding at any moment, then put his finger to his lips.

Eloise nodded and kept her mouth shut as he instructed. Richard then led her quickly deeper into the alley.

They hid behind an area overgrown with climbing roses.

Not long after the two had hidden there, someone passed by the entrance to the alley. The person looked around as if searching for something, then moved on and disappeared.

Only after he had vanished and quite some time had passed did Richard exhale and say quietly:

“My goodness, were you planning to bite my finger off?”

“If Richard hadn’t covered my mouth, that wouldn’t have happened. More importantly, was that man following you just now?”

“Yes, that’s why I tried to lead you away as quietly as possible… but I should never use this method again. If I had been a little late, my knee would have been shattered too.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“Does this look like exaggeration to you?”

“Enough. Just take this instead.”

“What is this?”

“What do you think?”

Eloise took out the code book from inside and placed it in Richard’s hand.

“Evidence of Lady Sinclair’s treason.”

At the mention of Sinclair’s name, Richard sighed.

“I actually have something to ask you about her.”

“A request?”

When Eloise asked, Richard replied with the most troubled expression in the world:

“Well… the Army Headquarters has asked me to tell you to stay in that house a little longer.”

At his words, Eloise’s mouth fell open in shock.

They wanted her to go back to the house she had just escaped from?