episode_0037

“Commander, do you have any other business?”

Christie looked down at Sir Dice, her heels pressed together, her hands behind her back, her head still, and her gaze lowered.

“Well, it’s not really like that⋯.”

Sir Dice, who trembled under the unpleasant gaze that seemed to pierce through his very soul, tried to turn his head away and muttered.

Christie turned toward the table with the food on it, the corners of her lips raised as she watched Sir Dice’s reaction. Then she picked up the cutlery and began to transfer the meat dish in question into a small bowl.

“Oh my, I’m hungry. It’s such a fancy banquet, but work keeps going on, so I don’t have time to eat.”

“What are you doing, Juaron?⋯Hey, don’t you have any manners? In this place where there are so many superiors, you’re the first to touch the main dish⋯!”

Sir Dice is startled by Christie’s sudden actions, and Christie, convinced of something in her fuss, turns her head away, her expression disappearing from her face.

“⋯I didn’t know you were so sincere about manners and etiquette, Dice.”

“Ugh… Have you forgotten that I am the chief of the city? The hierarchy must be maintained no matter how trivial the details are!”

Dice, worried that unnecessary attention would be drawn, spoke in a low voice. He felt cold sweat running down his back.

Then, Christie twitches her facial muscles and, in front of Sir Dice, slowly changes her mask from an eerie blank expression to a plausible, humane smile. Sir Dice involuntarily lets out a groan at the bizarre sight.

“Where the hell have you been, Ferrell? You told me to follow you.”

The one who placed a hand on the trembling Lord Dice’s shoulder was none other than the Crown Prince.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince⋯⋯?”

“There was Juaron too? If you look closely, they’re often together.”

“Are you enjoying the banquet to the fullest? Your Highness. Oh, by the way. The main dish smells so delicious. Would you like to try some?”

Christie smiled and handed the plate of meat to the crown prince. Sir Dice froze in place at the sight.

“My favorite! I want to eat it. Thank you, Juaron!”

The crown prince, who had no idea what Dice was thinking, accepted the plate with sparkling eyes.

“Why are you like that? Even if you are the commander, how can you be higher than the crown prince, who is of royal blood? Isn’t that the law that the chief chamberlain spoke of?”

Christie continues speaking quietly, staring at the thoughtful Lord Dice.

“No way!”

Dice shouted, grabbing the Crown Prince’s wrist as he brought the meat to his mouth.

“Surprise. Ferrel???”

“Oh my, I tried to continue the conversation quietly, but… Isn’t this the only way to attract attention?”

As Christie said, the atmosphere in the banquet hall suddenly became tense due to the loud noise that suddenly erupted, and people began to look in that direction.

“Ugh…, this is so…⋯⋯⋯. How on earth…”

Sir Dice, his face flushed with rage, glared at the hated soldier as if he were going to kill him and spat out words.

“Uh-huh-huh, you didn’t think we wouldn’t be aware of it, did you? There are people who would kill you even if it meant putting poison in your food. ”

Her face, as she spoke with her eyes wide open and smiling, was utterly eerie. At least in the eyes of Sir Dice.

“At first, it was just a test drive. You caught me off guard. Your Majesty, Lord Ferrel Dice.”

He bent down to be at Dice’s eye level and added in a whisper. A drop of saliva escaped his lips due to the sticky L pronunciation and landed on Dice’s forehead.

“Ughh …

“Perel? Why on earth are you doing that? Perel!”

The crown prince, who was checking to see if his shoes had gotten dirty from the meat dish that had spilled on the floor, grabbed Ferrel’s sleeve and asked.

“⋯Arshul Royal Family, forever!”

Dice wasn’t exactly athletic, but it made physical sense that it would take a shorter person more time to reach something off the floor. Before Christie could react, she had picked up the meat dish that was lying on the marble floor of the banquet hall and stuffed it into her mouth.

“⋯⋯!”

“⋯⋯⋯Gulp.”

A triumphant smile and eyes shaking with fear of death meet Christie’s startled face.

“⋯Your loyalty was true, Sir Dice. Before you close your eyes, I would like to inform you of something you may have wondered about. ”

Sir Dice, whose temples were throbbing and he was beginning to feel dizzy, perhaps because too much blood was rushing to his head or because the poison was spreading throughout his body, could only see Christie’s lips moving unsteadily.

“First of all, if you were curious about the commander’s whereabouts, it’s just that he left because he ate too much appetizer and got a stomachache. He’s not in a state of health to eat regular food.”

“What⋯⋯? What is that⋯.”

“Second, if I had tried to do it the way you did, I would have chosen alcohol or soup over this fatty meat dish for the same reason I just mentioned. Even if I hadn’t insisted on the appetizers, Commander, you probably wouldn’t have eaten them.”

“Keluk⋯! Ugh⋯⋯.”

Sir Dice coughs as he feels like he is out of breath.

“Ah, of course I didn’t do that to interfere with your plans. I had my own circumstances that required the commander to leave early. Oh, I almost forgot about that because chatting with you was so much fun. I have to go quickly.”

“I will answer the remaining questions later. I said before I close my eyes, but at least you won’t be bleeding and leaving here. Please understand that I mean before I disappear like the dew on the execution ground.”

Christie turned her back on Sir Dice, who was making a puzzled expression, and started to stride out of the banquet hall. Then, just before she was about to walk into the hallway, Christie stopped abruptly and took out a cloth bag from her bosom that looked all too familiar to Sir Dice, shaking it, and added:

“Just adding a little more salt won’t kill you right away.”

Judging by her acting skills, which were like a thousand masks, and her actions, which were so thorough that one could even call them perverted, it would not have been difficult for her to search through the belongings of the drunken chef whose plot had been discovered in advance and swap the contents with a cloth bag with a different one.

But if we ask whether this action was truly motivated by Christie’s loyalty, that too is unreasonable. Christie may have simply wanted the situation to be a little less chaotic, or she may have been worried that the man she was meeting was in the midst of grief over the loss of his wife and would not be in the mood to do something like that.

“Have you been waiting long? My love.”

“Oh my gosh… The moonlight is so bright tonight…”

“Hahaha, ma’am. While you’re saying that, aren’t you undoing my buckle without permission?”

“You made me like this⋯”

Not all branches burn as intensely as matches with a slight stimulus. The question of who created whom first and how is a minor matter that is only a few steps away from the fundamental cause. As Hesset said, on an unusually bright moonlit night, the scent of the evening primroses in the garden behind the conference hall began to be covered by other flower scents.

“Ahhhh! Ferrel! Let go of this! Where are you taking me!”

“Shit…, shit! Stop talking and come with me! My life is at stake! Ugh…”

Sir Dice was running out of the castle, holding onto the Crown Prince’s wrist, barely able to keep his mind from being consumed by a sense of defeat and a deep-seated rage.

If there were no instructions by the appointed time, the waiting subordinates would surely realize that the operation had failed and would each seek their own way out. Therefore, now was the time for him to desperately run for the safety of himself, the crown prince, and the country.

Amel Arsul, named after the 4th King Arsul, who laid the foundation for the rule of law that effectively governed the vast territory, and also known as the Holy King Amel, in the midst of her strange childhood, this girl was being led by the flow of the world as she always had without knowing why. The adults in the palace who had loved her without anyone telling her why had disappeared without a trace, and it was difficult for her to even face her mother and father who had given birth to her anymore.

“Get on board! There’s no time!”

“Can you come back again, Ferrel?”

The boatman, with his eyes tightly bandaged, began to fumble for the ropes that tied the boat together, and as always, Sir Dice simply lowered his head and avoided eye contact with the child who calmly asked him about his fate in a resigned tone.

Her short and tragic life story, which can only be explained as a punishment for having had everything since birth or as a trick of the god of fate who loves to play terrible pranks, begins like this.

It could not be said that the god of fate had innumerable arms, nor that his or her hand was always extended to one place at any one time.

Uriel, who had a stomachache after eating a lot of appetizers that didn’t even agree with her stomach, was walking down the hallway of the palace after her stomach calmed down, and she suddenly noticed a small silhouette moving outside the window, whether it was because she had a vague sense of unease that day or if it was just a coincidence.