Episode 63
Translator : Missme Editor : Aru

‘Is he a servant?

He didn’t ride a horse and it seemed like he wasn’t holding a bow so he wasn’t 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?

‘But I heard that a servant who will help with the competition is waiting in the forest early on.’

I can’t believe he’s 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.

‘But it feels familiar.’

It’s too familiar to look at for a moment. Just a glimpse of it is enough to attract my nerves suddenly.

‘But where did I see it?’

And I soon realized why.

The hair colour.

The hair colour that I just saw was red. It’s not just red. It’s 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.

‘There can’t be another red-like colour like that, not that failing red.’

I thought about it that way while I saw her back without fail.

‘Why is she going into the hunting ground?’

Wait a minute. It’s too early to be sure. I think it’s probabilistically rare, but maybe what I saw was just a coincidence.

“My lady? Where are you going?”

I left Sir Davery’s 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.

“What can I help you, miss?”

“I want to ask you something. Is there a servant with red hair who was mobilized for today’s hunting competition? He’s a little short and dull, around this height and……..”

“There’s no one like that, miss.”

“Are you sure?”

“Not only among the number of servants mobilized today, but even if I search all the imperial servants, there are no servants with that characteristic.”

The servant was adamant that he remembered all the colours of the servants’ hair. Well, that’s 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.

“What’s wrong? Any problems?”

“……no, nothing.”

I shook my head at the servant and withdrew.

‘It was a big deal.’

This doubled the probability that the person I saw was Irene.

‘What do I do with this?’

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.

‘or were they seeing her sneaking in but didn’t pay attention?’

Well, if I didn’t know the possibility of that servant being Irene, I wouldn’t have paid attention like this.

‘What should I really do?’

“Is there something wrong, my lady?”

Then Sir Davery, who followed me, asked me.

“…Sir Davery.”

“Yes?”

“A forest is usually dangerous, right? If it’s 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?”

“Do you want to enter the hunting ground?”

I don’t 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.

“If I want to, can I go in?”

***

I had three options when I noticed Irene’s infiltration into the hunting ground.

One. Just pretend like I didn’t know.

‘This option was eliminated immediately without even thinking about it.’

Because I am not confident that I won’t stay up all night with a guilty conscience if something happened to Irene.

Two, notify the imperial officials.

‘That way they’ll rescue Irene on their own….’

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 Irene’s rescue.

The crime of ruining the important events of the imperial family was probably greater than I can roughly imagine.

So lastly, three.

‘I go into the woods myself and find Irene, who is not yet far away, and drag her out in secret.’

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 wasn’t confident that I’d beat the beasts in the forest.

‘Because Sir Davery will take care of it.’

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.

“Thank you, Sir. Thanks to you, I entered the hunting ground like this.”

“No. It’s nothing, my lady.”

Sir Davery shook his head at a glance.

“It was more thanks to your acting skills than to me, my lady.”

“..….”

“That was too perfect.”

“……Thank that too”

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 entrance–

‘This matter is really urgent. I’ll just leave the news to the person inside. It’ll only take a moment.’

‘There were already people whose job for that.…….’

‘It’s an urgent and serious matter that I can tell to no one! Don’t you see My Lady here wiping away all these sorrowful tears?’

“…hahhhhhhhhhh.”

‘If the person inside doesn’t get the news on time and things go wrong, will you take responsibility for it? If this fragile lady can’t overcome her grief and anxiety then falls down, will you be responsible for that, too?’

‘……you really have to come out right after delivering the news.’

‘Thank you. I hope you’ll get a promotion in the future.’

That was what happened.

Sir Davery even got a horse from him after saying he had to move quickly to that situation.

‘He was really stubborn.’

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.

“You should tell me in advance.”

“Isn’t it really urgent?”

“That’s true, but…..”

No, but he could’ve told me a few warnings. Now that I think about it, it’s hard to say that he has no intention of making fun of me.

‘But it’s true that we got here safely anyway.’

Well, that’s good. I’ve decided to overlook the trivial past.

“By the way, the forest is not as thick as I thought.”

“It’s a hunting ground.”

I looked around, riding at Sir Davery’s pace.

The forest was wide, but not as thick as I imagined.

“It would be difficult if the trees block the view too much.”

“Well, that’s true.”

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.

‘Good for us.’

At this rate, it would not be as difficult to find Irene as I thought. That red hair stands out.

‘I wish I could find her and bring her out before I bump into the participants.’

At this point, the participants will aim at prey with a bow and shooting arrows. And it was a scene I didn’t want to see.

‘The animals must have been driven inside the forest, so it’s probably okay to be here here for some time.’

But, how far did Irene go?

But she couldn’t have gone far without a horse since I chased her quite early.

I was lucky to have Sir Davery read my mind.

“Shall we speed up the movement?”

“It’s good if we do.”

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.

“Ay… B, C, D, anyway, hey you over there!”

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.

‘That’s really Irene.’

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.

“Where are you running away!”

A useless act. No matter how quick you try to run away, now you are a flea. Why? Because I’m 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, it’s 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.

‘I think I just drove the horse really well.’