Episode 63
Translator : Missme Editor : Aru
âIs he a servant?
He didnât ride a horse and it seemed like he wasnât holding a bow so he wasnât a participant for the hunting competition.
And most of all, he was incredibly small and thin to be considered as an adult man.
A boy in his mid-twenties?
âBut I heard that a servant who will help with the competition is waiting in the forest early on.â
I canât believe heâs just going in now. Is he a tardy? He was too late. There was always a tardy person, regardless of the time and place.
I was thinking so and soon noticed something strange.
âBut it feels familiar.â
Itâs too familiar to look at for a moment. Just a glimpse of it is enough to attract my nerves suddenly.
âBut where did I see it?â
And I soon realized why.
The hair colour.
The hair colour that I just saw was red. Itâs not just red. Itâs a vague red colour with subtle energy as if it failed to dye. I saw the same colour as that only a few days ago.
Irene!
The cherry tomatoes in my hand-rolled down. My mouth is wide open.
Come to think of it, the shape and length are just right. No doubt that was the wig she dropped on the day I found and helped Irene in the market alley.
âThere canât be another red-like colour like that, not that failing red.â
I thought about it that way while I saw her back without fail.
âWhy is she going into the hunting ground?â
Wait a minute. Itâs too early to be sure. I think itâs probabilistically rare, but maybe what I saw was just a coincidence.
âMy lady? Where are you going?â
I left Sir Daveryâs mysterious voice behind and held on to the nearest imperial official.
A middle-aged man dressed as a servant turned his head at my call.
âWhat can I help you, miss?â
âI want to ask you something. Is there a servant with red hair who was mobilized for todayâs hunting competition? Heâs a little short and dull, around this height andâ¦â¦..â
âThereâs no one like that, miss.â
âAre you sure?â
âNot only among the number of servants mobilized today, but even if I search all the imperial servants, there are no servants with that characteristic.â
The servant was adamant that he remembered all the colours of the servantsâ hair. Well, thatâs understandable. Red is not a hair colour that can be easily seen anywhere.
Even for me, the memory of finding a similar person with me at a meeting or outside could be counted by one hand.
âWhatâs wrong? Any problems?â
ââ¦â¦no, nothing.â
I shook my head at the servant and withdrew.
âIt was a big deal.â
This doubled the probability that the person I saw was Irene.
âWhat do I do with this?â
It seemed to me that I was the only one who saw Irene sneaking into this forest, who was believed to be close to certainty, given the appearance of the servant and the reactions around.
âor were they seeing her sneaking in but didnât pay attention?â
Well, if I didnât know the possibility of that servant being Irene, I wouldnât have paid attention like this.
âWhat should I really do?â
âIs there something wrong, my lady?â
Then Sir Davery, who followed me, asked me.
ââ¦Sir Davery.â
âYes?â
âA forest is usually dangerous, right? If itâs a forest where all kinds of animals, including beasts, run around, what do you think is the probability that a powerless girl would die a violent death if she went in alone?â
âDo you want to enter the hunting ground?â
I donât know why Irene went into the forest dressed as a man.
But I knew one thing exactly.
A hunting forest which will be filled with arrow showering was a dangerous enough place for a young girl.
Nothing could have happened if luck followed, but on the contrary, Irene could have been seriously injured or worse without a little luck.
I opened my mouth after a long thought.
âIf I want to, can I go in?â
***
I had three options when I noticed Ireneâs infiltration into the hunting ground.
One. Just pretend like I didnât know.
âThis option was eliminated immediately without even thinking about it.â
Because I am not confident that I wonât stay up all night with a guilty conscience if something happened to Irene.
Two, notify the imperial officials.
âThat way theyâll rescue Irene on their ownâ¦.â
But instead, things will get bigger.
It was like letting the neighbourhood know that Irene had planned to sneak into the hunting ground.
It was possible that the hunting competition itself would be stopped because of Ireneâs rescue.
The crime of ruining the important events of the imperial family was probably greater than I can roughly imagine.
So lastly, three.
âI go into the woods myself and find Irene, who is not yet far away, and drag her out in secret.â
It was the most cumbersome and annoying way for me, but at the same time, it was the only way to resolve the situation quietly and peacefully without any commotion.
Of course, I wasnât confident that Iâd beat the beasts in the forest.
âBecause Sir Davery will take care of it.â
To be honest, I only trusted this person. With such thought, I glanced down at Sir Davery, who walked side by side with me.
I was now riding a horse and moving into the forest.
I opened my mouth when I saw his short, neat blond hair.
âThank you, Sir. Thanks to you, I entered the hunting ground like this.â
âNo. Itâs nothing, my lady.â
Sir Davery shook his head at a glance.
âIt was more thanks to your acting skills than to me, my lady.â
â..â¦.â
âThat was too perfect.â
ââ¦â¦Thank that tooân/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
How I and Sir Davery were able to enter the forest here now, the sequence of processes was as follows:
When I briefly explained the situation and asked if there was any way to get into the hunting ground, Sir Davery immediately told me to trust him and took me quietly to the entrance to the hunting ground.
And then he told the guy who was guarding the entranceâ
âThis matter is really urgent. Iâll just leave the news to the person inside. Itâll only take a moment.â
âThere were already people whose job for that.â¦â¦.â
âItâs an urgent and serious matter that I can tell to no one! Donât you see My Lady here wiping away all these sorrowful tears?â
ââ¦hahhhhhhhhhh.â
âIf the person inside doesnât get the news on time and things go wrong, will you take responsibility for it? If this fragile lady canât overcome her grief and anxiety then falls down, will you be responsible for that, too?â
ââ¦â¦you really have to come out right after delivering the news.â
âThank you. I hope youâll get a promotion in the future.â
That was what happened.
Sir Davery even got a horse from him after saying he had to move quickly to that situation.
âHe was really stubborn.â
Anyway, it was amazing that it had worked.
Suddenly, when I recalled the tearful act of a while ago, which I had to urgently make to keep the rhythm, I made a sound of groaning.
âYou should tell me in advance.â
âIsnât it really urgent?â
âThatâs true, butâ¦..â
No, but he couldâve told me a few warnings. Now that I think about it, itâs hard to say that he has no intention of making fun of me.
âBut itâs true that we got here safely anyway.â
Well, thatâs good. Iâve decided to overlook the trivial past.
âBy the way, the forest is not as thick as I thought.â
âItâs a hunting ground.â
I looked around, riding at Sir Daveryâs pace.
The forest was wide, but not as thick as I imagined.
âIt would be difficult if the trees block the view too much.â
âWell, thatâs true.â
The trees that created the forest were large and high enough to cover the sky, but the number was not very large, so there was not much feeling of a dense obstruction of vision.
âGood for us.â
At this rate, it would not be as difficult to find Irene as I thought. That red hair stands out.
âI wish I could find her and bring her out before I bump into the participants.â
At this point, the participants will aim at prey with a bow and shooting arrows. And it was a scene I didnât want to see.
âThe animals must have been driven inside the forest, so itâs probably okay to be here here for some time.â
But, how far did Irene go?
But she couldnât have gone far without a horse since I chased her quite early.
I was lucky to have Sir Davery read my mind.
âShall we speed up the movement?â
âItâs good if we do.â
It was only a short time after speeding up the forest.
I finally found a familiar hair colour, followed by a few rabbits and a roe deer that seemed to live because the participants were so insignificant that they were just passing by.
I cried out at once.
âAy⦠B, C, D, anyway, hey you over there!â
Unknowingly, I tried to call out her name, but I hurriedly turned around on the way, wondering who would hear it.
Irene, who was peeping her red hair through the trees in front of her, looked this way and her eyes were wide open.
âThatâs really Irene.â
After checking her face, there was no more doubt.
Irene met my eyes and was so surprised as if she saw a ghost, and turned around and ran away.
âWhere are you running away!â
A useless act. No matter how quick you try to run away, now you are a flea. Why? Because Iâm riding a horse.
Horseback riding was one of the essential cultures that all aristocrats learned at a young age.
And once you get the hang of it, itâs like a bike to you.
I made the most of my old memories and quickly overtook Irene by skill.
Then I pulled the reins, stopped the horse quickly, and jumped in front of Irene.
âI think I just drove the horse really well.â
âââââ