“The procession is earlier than I thought.”

“You’ve been arguing since morning?”

Olivia approached me with her black hair up and her ruby eyes glistening. She was my childhood friend and my adversary in the academy, and someone who knew me perhaps even better than Violetta.

Olivia, an illegitimate child of a small viscount, actually was not eligible to enter the royal office. However, she easily crushed everyone else thanks to her natural genius, which was none other than her extraordinary skill in alchemy.

Unlike wizards, alchemy is not achieved by mere magic. Olivia solved the complex alchemy in seconds, reassembled them in seconds, and created new ones in seconds, earning everyone’s admiration.

In terms of memory and counting, there was no one to catch up her, so I’ve been quite fond of her abilities since the academy days. I was quite tolerant to her that I would regard her as a cutie in everything, and Olivia, too, was highly tolerant of my personality.

I am weak against genius. She is also weak against those who are capable. And we were weak against a delicate person. The last is the past tense. Judging from my experience with Isabelle, we realized that someone wasn’t emotionally weak just because she looked delicate. In any case, taking away a friend’s lover is not something that can be done by ordinary mental strength.

“Here.”

“What is it?”

“Don’t you know when you see it?”

What Olivia gave me was a long, thin dagger. It was small and thin, but it was narrower than the transition, so I thought she had handed me a knife to cut the fruit.

“Are you asking me to cut apples?”

Of course, it was a joke.

“Are you crazy?”

In response to Olivia’s reaction, I swung the short dagger and put it in my arms. Olivia looked at my hand and opened her mouth.

“You’d better not use it to cut yourself, I don’t have the medicine.”

“What are you talking about?”

It was just a small dagger. There’s no medicine if I use it to cut myself. What kind of horrible sorcery she put on this?

“I’ve tried a technique that makes a wound won’t be able to heal. Once you get cut by it, you will slowly bleed to death. With excessive bleeding.”

“Ugh … Uuhh—”

I looked at her with an expression of horror.  Why give me something so terrifying? Did you mean that I just put something in my arms that can get me stabbed to death?

It was so lucky that I didn’t have another dagger, otherwise I would have thrown it away. What a horrible dagger. It wasn’t something to be sneezed at for being small. If Olivia’s words were true, there would be no crueler death than this. I was certain.

I was imagining myself dying because I accidentaly cut myself with it, and I hit my head. Oh, I’m scared. Let’s not do this.

“You really don’t even have any medicine?”

“There is.”

“Then you should have told me right away!”

“But it’s the only one. It’s similar to nothing. Do you want it?”

“Give it to me quickly!”

Looking at my disgust, Olivia wore a sarcastic look. Looking at my hateful expression, Olivia put a sneer on my mouth. Soon after, she took a small pendant out of her arms and held it in my hand.

“Just apply a little bit and the small wound will heal. But I’m not sure about the big wound.”

Uh, yes, I understand.

Then she said goodbye to me. I saw her off with a bewildering expression, staring at her back as she walked away.  I still had a hard time judging whether Olivia was my ally or my enemy. It was genuine.

“The esteemed daughter of Duke Dirnant?”

“Yes, yes?”

I was startled at the sound of someone calling me. Then, the face that suddenly called me was strangely familiar, so I wandered in my head for a moment.

“I’m James Diel, the deputy commander of the Fourth Knights Order who will be in charge of your escort.”

“Oh my.”

I smiled brightly. The Fourth Knights Order, no wonder I thought he was a familiar face.

“We met a few days ago. Are you going to be my escort now?”

The knight in front of me was none other than the one who brought me in when I visited Elliott two weeks ago, the man who said ‘Please wait a minute‘. He was the deputy commander of the Fourth Knights, and Elliot was a part of the Fourth Knights Order.

Oh my gosh, this is a coincidence. Such a beggarly coincidence.

Since the Fourth Knights Order was in charge of a lot of external affairs, they were often took the position of royal guards or escorting nobles in important posts. So it wasn’t unusual for him to take over this job, but….

“Please take care of me.”

“It’s an honor to escort Your Ladyship.”

I responded with a cordial smile for his polite manners. Aside from being upset, it was because of my principle that my private life should not interfere with public affairs in this situation. Furthermore, I was the only one who was angry and struggling with the betrayal.

Fortunately, unlike my concerns, Elliot stayed out of my sight after that. I don’t know if they intentionally placed him somewhere else for my sake, or if he was avoiding me, but it was honestly comfortable for me because he became invisible.

After reviewing the documents I brought in the rattling carriage, I headed to Sorrell, where I could whisper Elliot’s name a hundred times and it won’t mean anything.

***

“Now if we follow this road, we’ll be able to reach Sorrell’s base this evening.”

I opened my eyes when I heard a sound in my side, where I nodded my head in a pile of paper. It was the sound from outside the carriage. I soon realized, even in daydreaming, that it was Sir Diel’s voice.

“Umh … I can’t eat more….” Celine, who was talking in her sleep opposite me, had a happy expression on her face. I don’t have any idea what she dreamed of eating.  I was wondering if I should wake her up, but suddenly I realized what she had been going through with me the last few days and decided to leave her alone.

My nearly five-day journey left me with a feeling of exhaustion. I spent my days in the only dress I had set aside for replacemen without even touching a few suits that I brought because it was for the negotiations. At the end, it was a waste of time to remove makeup, so I hid the cosmetics deep inside the bag. I bet the ladies of society would probably faint when they saw me.

However, it would have been harder when we arrived at Sorrell’s base, it would not have been less difficult.

Just after noon, the sun began to settle down, but the scenery beneath it was desolate. That’s probably one of the reasons for the knights to choose this place as a war zone, but I felt bitter for a moment at the sight that contrasted sharply with the bustling capital.

I looked at the papers piled up next to me and leaned my head for a while, but soon after, I closed my eyes again when the tiredness of being unable to sleep for two days hit my body.

After some time, Celine shook me to wake me up.

“Lady Scarlett. We’re here. We’ll be stationed in ten minutes.”

I felt a certain resolve in the way of her hand that shook me up. I shook my head hard to ward off the drowsiness, looking at her in a hazy state.

“Is it evening already?”

“Yes.”

As if to prove this, sunset light poured out across the lifted curtain. As I glanced at the light that was coloring my dress, I raised my head.

“How’s my hair now?”

“It’s a mess.”

I sighed at Celine’s honest answer. Even if I couldn’t do anything with a crumpled dress, I didn’t want to greet the people I saw for the first time like this. At least, I must look like a human being. After the war, I was a fan of the knights who were looking like normal people. How can an aristocrat meet the glorious knights of the kingdom with an appearance like this?

As I grabbed the string that secured my head and unwrapped it, I felt my hair swayed down to my waist. roughly brushed my head with my hand, grabbed the side hair slightly, and then grabbed the back hair loosely and fixed it firmly behind the head. I felt the slapping sensation at my waist.

“Now?”

“It’s better. You look pretty.”

I laughed at Celine’s refreshing reply. Thank you for saying that my face looks pretty even without makeup.

When I came to my senses and looked out the window, the scenery outside the window had changed.

Instead of the scenery I had just seen before, I began to see the low light and….

“I think we’ve arrived.”

Soon the carriage stopped.

“We’ve arrived.”

When I heard the knight’s voice outside, I immediately replied with a yes. Soon, Sir Diel opened the carriage door. I roughly arranged the crumpled dress and raised my legs to get off the carriage. Maybe because I sat down for a long time, my hips were stiff.

As I was about to frown according to my instinct, I immediately felt that there were many eyes around me and immediately relaxed my facial expression.

There was a line of people dressed neatly in military uniforms. The carriage I sat in was halfway through our procession. I was the first to light the ground in our procession.

There were countless people standing around. There were no familiar faces, but the appearance in military uniforms showed that they were the heroes who made the greatest contribution to this war. I opened my eyes as wide as I could so I wouldn’t be caught sleeping, and I followed Sir Diel’s escort.

And soon, I could see the man standing in front.

Black hair that does not allow even a bit of other color under the subdued sunset light, dark reddish-brown eyes that looks deep, firmly closed lips, knightly sturdy shoulders, and a height that seems to be one span taller than me. It was the appearance of a knight that was drawn hundreds of times in romance novels that I read when I was young.

“Scarlett, he’s really cool.”

Yes, he looks cool to me as well.

Isabelle’s flushed cheeks and joyful voice came to my mind, and I agreed to her words for the first time.

“I am Khalid Prodiad, the Commander-in-chief of this war.”

To his voice that fell sharply with moderation, I replied with a bright smile.

“I am the Royal Diplomat, Scarlett Dirnant.”