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Chapter 19: You May Enter As You Please, But Leaving Is A Different Story
The man’s head was shoved into the ground, so it was difficult to see his face properly. The horseman, who had come around the side of the carriage, bowed his head to me in a hurry before responding to my muttered words.
“This is the first time I’m experiencing this, too.”
Letting out a laugh, I squinted my eyes at the man from afar.
From this distance, it seemed like he wasn’t bleeding anywhere, and his clothes were clean as well. It didn’t appear as though he’d been hit or stomped on by someone.
So why was he on the ground here?
“…Is he pretending to be unconscious?”
With a suspicious expression, I gestured to the boy with a slight nod of my chin. As I did so, Rebecca got down from the carriage before covering her mouth in surprise.
“Heok! No way! Who would pretend to be collapsed in a place like this? This is an area outsiders are forbidden from entering!”
Was that so? But still, the situation was too unbelievable. After observing the man a bit longer, I turned my head and spoke to the horseman.
“Call an officer and help him get home safe. I think today isn’t good after all, let’s go back for now.”
Although I felt sorry for the man, I didn’t want to get swept up in something unnecessary. I was busy enough with my own work.
Giving the horseman the signal to return, I began to board the carriage again. As I was about to step inside, Rebecca put on a resolute expression and spoke.
“It’s pitiful to leave him like that, I’ll go a little closer and see if he’s hurt!”
“It’s fine. We can just call an officer to help him.”
“But still, he might be in critical condition right now. What will we do if something bad happens because he receives first aid too late? I’ll go check!”
Rebecca clenched both of her fists tightly. However, unlike her brave words, her hands were shaking.
Grabbing Rebecca’s hands, I stopped her from walking and shook my head.
“No, it’s best to wait for the officers. Rebecca, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go yourself. He might be a bandit.”
“A-A bandit?”
“Yes. Recently, I’ve heard of people who pretend to be collapsed, and when someone gets close, they take them captive and steal the valuables from their carriage.”
At my words, Rebecca’s eyes widened tremendously. Looking back and forth between the man and I with shocked eyes, Rebecca replied with a small voice.
“B-But how would a bandit dare to come on the parade path? When it’d be so easy to be caught!”
“That may be the case, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful. Not to mention…”
“Not to mention?”
“It’s suspicious that an outsider came in and has collapsed here so blatantly.”
After watching the blonde man with narrowed eyes, I took a step back.
“So let’s just report it. The officers will take care of the rest.”
It was right when I was about to tell the horseman to turn the carriage around once more, having comforted Rebecca.
“Ugh…”
As if begging for us not to leave him like this, the man let out a repressed grunt. Surprised, I stared at him with suspicious eyes; but there was only the sound of his heavy breathing, with no attempts to move.
‘As expected, it’s strange.’
It’d be best to leave quickly before I got swept up in something annoying.
“Let’s turn the carriage around and go back. And on the way back, let’s report to the officers that someone’s collapsed here.”
After letting the horseman know, I tried to board the carriage once more. However, the horseman chased me in a hurry, awkwardly calling after me.
“Um… Your Highness.”
What was it this time?
“As this is a one-way path for the parade, I cannot turn the carriage around.”
“What?”
“If we want to go back, we have to follow the route until we loop around.”
What? What had he just said?!
“Since the carriage can only go forward… If we want to go forward, we have to deal with the person on the ground.”
In other words, that meant we had to either run that person over or move him aside ourselves, right?
I stared at the man in frustration before letting out a light sigh. Then, I turned to the horseman with a pitiful expression.
“Then we have no choice.”
“Pardon?”
“Move that aside.”
The horseman, surprised at my command, widened his eyes. Then, he pointed at the fainted man with a trembling hand.
As if asking, ‘are you talking about him?’
“You’re the one who said the carriage can only go forward, and not backwards.”
“C-Correct.”
“Then we’ll have to move that person aside. We can’t exactly run him over with the carriage.”
And since it wasn’t like Rebecca or I could move him ourselves, although I felt bad, there was no choice but for the horseman to do it himself.
“Y-You’re saying to just move him to the side of the road?”
“Yes…? Would you rather run him over?”
“No! How could I! That’s murder!”
At my question, Rebecca hurriedly shook her head. I repeated, “then there’s no choice but to move him,” and gestured at the boy with my chin.
“U-U-Understood.”
In the end, the horseman approached the blonde man slowly with a dissatisfied frown.
Draaaag.
The wind blew lightly as the traces of the boy—no, man—being dragged were carved onto the dirt path. As soon as his body was moved, his face, which had been practically cemented into the ground, was revealed.
He was a pretty good-looking man. It was even more suspicious that he was attractive. To think that such a fine-looking man would collapse on the street. My disbelief slowly grew.
“Since the path is now open, let’s hurry and leave.”
As I said this, the horseman carefully put him down.
And at that moment.
As if he had been waiting for this moment, the man’s eyes opened.
“Aaaaack!”
Blue eyes that were cool like a clear lake, yet deep like an ocean, startled the horseman and caused him to scream loudly before falling backwards.
“W-Where…”
The man, who was breathing irregularly, sat up while looking at his surroundings. Then, after his gaze found me, he flashed a bright smile.
“So you’re the one who saved me.”
No, I was just about to abandon you on the side of the road before leaving, actually.
Seeing how he was speaking such nonsense as soon as he got up, he must have been crazy.
“I distinctly remember that I collapsed in the center of the road.”
So you do know what an inconvenience you’ve been.
“You moved me aside in case I might get hurt.”
No, I just removed you from my path.
“How kind of you.”
With a touched expression, the blonde man stood up. He rose so normally that it made me even more skeptical that he’d been unconscious.
“I truly don’t know how to repay this favor.”
The blonde man, now standing, brushed off his dust-covered clothes with his hands. Then, he passed by the horseman, who was sitting on his butt, and stopped in front of me.
“As you can see, I have nothing on me, so I can’t give you anything right now. If you let me know your name, I will definitely remember and repay you.”
Upon inspection, his two legs and two arms were fine. His handsome face, too, had no trace of being hit and was shining.
No matter how much I looked, he didn’t seem like the type of person to get beaten up by someone. Looking at the blonde man with narrowed eyes, I asked him a question.
“Why were you collapsed out here?”
“I came to watch the festival but got dizzy because there were so many people. I tried to find somewhere less crowded, and at that moment I lost consciousness.”
Almost like he’d been waiting for me to ask this question, the man answered readily and with a cryptic smile.
Judging by his manner of speech and the clothes he was wearing, he wasn’t a commoner. However, he was too polite to be a merchant.
‘Is he a noble?’
However, no matter how much I stared, his was a face I’d never seen before.
Seeing that I had no reply, the blonde man continued smiling and asked again.
“May I know your name?”
“It wasn’t my intention to save you, so there’s no need for you to repay me.”
And because of that, there was no need to give him my name.
I gave him a tight-lipped smile with the intent to end the conversation there. I then spoke to the still-surprised horseman, who had remained on the ground.
“Let us take our leave. You’re not planning on spending the night here, are you?”
The horseman, who had been dazed as if he’d seen a ghost, jumped up and brushed off his pants. He ran over and comforted the horses, who were surprised by the sudden stop, and checked the carriage for damage.
After confirming that the horseman was looking over the carriage diligently, I turned. Rebecca was rooted to the spot; she must have been shocked by the horseman’s scream earlier.
“Are you okay? Were you surprised?”
“A-A little bit.”
Rebecca put a hand on her chest and took deep breaths.
Rebecca was getting surprised often these days because of me. I felt a little apologetic toward her.
“Let’s board the carriage and rest a bit.”
I grabbed Rebecca’s hand and was about to get on the carriage when the blonde man moved faster than the wind. Before I could blink, he appeared in front and blocked my path.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable just seeing you off like this.”
He moved so fast in such a short amount of time that it was suspicious. He had almost certainly received training before.
“Even if you leave, please let me know your name…”
“Get out of my way right now.”
Rebecca was stunned and was in this condition because of you!
“I have no intention to harass the savior of my life. I’m just so thankful I want to repay…”
“And you think that blocking someone’s path is repaying them?”
The man tightened his lips at my sharp voice. However, he still showed no signs of getting out of my way.
“Should I report to the guards that you came into an area that is forbidden to outsiders and are now blocking my path?”
“This is a place that outsiders can’t enter? How surprising.”
Unlike his words, the man maintained his calm smile. At his reaction, I couldn’t help but frown.
“This is the parade path. There should have been guards out front.”
“No, when I came in, there was no one guarding it. If there was, I wouldn’t have been able to come in.”
That was true. Just how did this person get here, then?
Rebecca must have relaxed after observing him, because at this point she chimed in.
“He must have been lucky and came in when the guards were rotating shifts, so they missed him.”
Lucky? I laughed at Rebecca’s words, dumbfounded.
“I don’t know if you can call this lucky or unlucky… Anyway, Rebecca, are you a little better now? You seemed pretty shocked earlier.”
“Yes, yes. I’m fine now. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
When I called Rebecca’s name, the man who had been smiling toward me turned his gaze to her instead.
“Rebecca?”
The man called her name.
“Rebecca Knights?”
Rebecca flinched; she must have been surprised that the handsome blonde man even knew her family.
“Do you know me?”
“I was unsure earlier, but it really is you. Can’t you tell? It’s me.”
The handsome blonde man smiled again. Rebecca glanced at me while shaking her head that she didn’t know who this person was.
“It seems you don’t remember me. Well, a lot of time has passed. Plus, I did leave for another country to study.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s me, Adeus Fotchen.”
Rebecca blinked, calling the handsome blonde man’s name with some awkwardness.
“A-Adeus… Fotchen?”
“Yes. Did you really forget?”
The handsome blonde man’s eyes wrinkled as he smiled gracefully.
“Your childhood friend.”