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*SIGH*
Rashid’s head turned at the clumsy appearance. As he looked down at the owner, his eyes burned with fire. At this rate, one person or animal will die before this day ends.
“Tennon, get my horse right now.”
“Are you going to find her yourself?”
“

.”
It was a meaningless question. Tenon gulped at Rashid’s cold gaze when he stared back at him. Peyton also realized that he could no longer tell Rashid the same words. The Emperor had already thrown away all consequences when he made that face.
“Get out of my way if you don’t like it. I’ll be back.”
“Brother! Don’t be like this. Please, just one more time——-”
“QUACK! QUACK!”
Suddenly, a mallard sprang up and cried, and the heads of the three brothers turned at once. Rashid’s eyes, as he guessed what, were the first to head down the road toward Duke Evendell’s mansion.
“

.”
Apparently, there was a slight sound of footsteps. When the main character appeared, even the heads of the princes headed there at once.
“B-Brother. The Duchess———”
“Get out of the way.”
This time, it went without saying that he pushed him with his own arm first. Ugh. Tenon held his chest and inhaled from the shock.He admitted he was intense but he had never seen his brother act like this before. If he faced the Duchess in that state——-The mere thought of it gave him chills. Whoever would die in the end, he tried to follow the Emperor urgently, hoping to stop him for now.
“Your Majesty, please speak

.”
“Tenon!”
This time Peyton took him by the arm. Tenon’s eyes widened as if saying, ‘Shouldn’t we stop him for now?’ but Peyton shook his head still.
“

.”
Peyton didn’t mean that he had an idea. However, no matter how much they tried to catch him, they knew there was no way to stop Rashid. No matter what kind of explanation they could come up with. No matter what they do. No matter who the other person was.
◇ ◆ ◇
“Are you sleeping?”
Haniel, who was asleep, was seduced in her arms. As a temporary measure, she ripped off the hem of the dress and wrapped it like a bag, but the little princess kept shaking, perhaps because of the shock of losing her mother.
“We’re almost there. It’s alright because we’re back at home.”
Seeing the sleeping child, she felt even more anxious so she deliberately talked louder. She talked like this all the way through the forest about how much her mother sought after her, waited, and missed her as they followed the migratory birds on the shortcut. How much her mother sought, how much she waited, and how much she missed.
“Ouch!”
She felt a sharp pain on the soles of her feet. Whether it was because of a stone or a protruding branch, she had no idea. Come to think of it. She even lost her shoes. A silly laugh bubbling from her throat came to a step late. When Haniel got lost, all of her frozen senses seemed to return to their original places one by one. However, she didn’t know why she thought of the purple shoes she had picked out herself and never even tried on, rather than the old ones she always wore.
“

.”
He must be very angry. She didn’t know what to ask but she became more anxious as she got closer to home. There’s nothing more to talk about. She could clearly see that Rashid wasn’t an ordinary person. He was a hot-tempered, completely self-centered man who lived alone in his own world.  It was strange how a man like that had put up with her so far.
*SIGH*
She had no idea what to say. She thought she had a lot to say, but she didn’t even know what to say first.
‘I’m fine.’
The words she whispered to Haniel all the way here were actually the same as the words she had told herself. Still, she should apologize to him first.
He was already gone today, so if she visited him tomorrow—————
“Oh.”
As soon as she saw the man standing at the edge of the trail towards the mansion, her feet stopped. Her blank eyes and hardened lips stopped together. She didn’t know what expression to make, so she just looked at him. Nevertheless, she recognized him at once by just the dim shading.
“Your Majesty?”
“

.”
His footsteps approaching her sounded louder than ever. The sound of the sword on Haniel’s waist, which she was so afraid of, didn’t disappear. It seemed light to say sorry to the Emperor who was forced to go to the city.  Until his shoes came right in front of his eyes, all she could do was force them not to fall.
“

.”
As he stood there, Rashid’s red eyes skimmed her down.