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Translator: FusionX

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“I have a slightly strange feeling.”

There were times when intuition made people feel uneasy.

Suddenly arising when one had no thoughts, it often manipulated people’s emotions for no reason.

It couldn’t be.

At least, as far as she knew, such uneasiness shouldn’t arise.

Adele rubbed her forehead and frowned.

It had been nearly a month since she returned to the north, and the cold surrounding her was also becoming fierce.

It meant that winter was coming again, but unlike usual, she was a bit glad to hear this news.

Because a guest would come this winter, unlike other winters.

Since he said he would come to her, he would come.

If he didn’t come? She was thinking of using slightly rough methods.

Looting was a good culture in the north.

Would it be a problem to loot a man from the Taylor ducal family?

Recently, there had been rumors that he was saying he would become the family head, but none of that mattered to Adele.

She only thought about whether Robert would keep his promise, and the head of the Taylors was someone she didn’t meet often anyway.

But it was certain that this strange feeling that had recently arisen was disrupting Adele’s peace.

Seeing Adele like that, Lothos muttered cautiously.

“Are you jealous?”

“…Have you gone crazy? Jealousy? For what reason would I…”

“No, it just looks like you’re anxious that the man you like will meet another woman. That man named Robert, he didn’t seem to have many women around him though.”

“I know that too. And I’ve never worried about such things.”

Adele answered with a frown.

Why would she be jealous?

In the first place, they weren’t in a relationship to harbor such feelings, and the feeling she had now was slightly different from that.

This strange feeling of something she had claimed in advance being tainted… How should she describe this feeling?

As Adele clicked her tongue slightly and glared at Lothos, Lothos bowed his head and closed his mouth.

Come to think of it, it was a bit irritating for no reason.

She didn’t ask further because he said it was a secret, and she didn’t say anything about the realm he had been hiding.

She, the Grand Duchess of the North, if it were someone else, they would have trembled just hearing the name Adele Igrit.

She didn’t like this situation where she had given the upper hand to a mere man like this.

Of course, it wasn’t that she disliked Robert himself, but it was true that the situation was a bit irksome.

But there was nothing she could say either way.

What could she say to the man who would be staying near the capital around this time?

Contacting him first felt like losing, but she couldn’t just wait quietly until winter came either.

“…Come to think of it, didn’t he say he was acquainted with the saint?”

Adriana, she thought it was quite remarkable that he was well acquainted with that pure woman.

Based on what he said, it didn’t seem like they had just met eyes, and there was probably a personal friendship.

She was a woman who stood on the opposite side of herself.

She, who had led a mercenary group since childhood, and Adriana, who had led the church.

Wasn’t the difference in their nature stark?

This uneasy feeling was especially frequent when she thought of the saint, so Adele was particularly suspicious of the saint.

Given her personality, it didn’t seem like she would do anything, but her intuition had rarely been wrong.

Around the time Adele was lost in thought, Lothos suddenly opened his mouth.

“There’s something I heard, but I’m not sure if it’s true. It’s about Lord Robert Taylor.”

“Don’t beat around the bush and tell me quickly. Is there something else I don’t know?”

“There are rumors that he will go to the south with the saint. This winter.”

For a moment, Adele’s body stiffened, and Lothos swallowed dryly as he watched her.

How long had it been since he saw her so flustered?

But knowing that the reaction that would come next would not be kind, Lothos coughed and backed away slightly.

Maintaining a safe distance was important in any situation.

Especially when near Adele, who would ‘soon’ be angry.

“…Haha, going to the south, he says.”

Adele slowly wiped her face as she chuckled.

She didn’t mind him going to the south with the saint. However, the timing was the problem.

Didn’t he say he would come to the north in the winter?

He had said that in front of her, yet he made another promise to go to the south.

“Well, I don’t think the timing will overlap. Since he said it would be after the new year, Lord Taylor will probably come and stay around the end of the year.”

“That’s not what’s important.”

“Then what is important?”

“My mood has turned sour. Very, extremely, terribly so.”

She had intended to make him stay in the north until the end of winter.

Both his ability to handle mana and being with her would allow her to quickly end the sluggish subjugation of the minority tribes.

She had thought of persuading him well and keeping him with her, but the saint had taken the initiative.

Was this the ominous feeling she had been having all this time?

Ha, Adele laughed hollowly and looked at Lothos.

“Find out exactly when he’s going to the south and report it to me.”

“It will be difficult to cancel the schedule. Isn’t it something the church is handling?”

“I have no intention of canceling the schedule. Even I have things I can’t do.”

Then, seeing Adele grinning, Lothos felt the tension rising in his head.

Didn’t she always bring up absurd things when she smiled like that?

As he was anxiously waiting for what she would say, Adele continued.

“But there’s no problem with going together.”

“What?”

“Find out the schedule. I’ll make the judgment. There’s no schedule after the new year anyway.”

If she went and met them in the south by chance, no one could say anything about it.

Adele thought.

Even if she luckily met the saint and Robert in the south, it would not be a situation she had intended.

As Adele stroked the wolf lying beside her, a faint smile soon bloomed on her lips.

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The barrier guarding Arwen’s house had disappeared at some point.

Now that the signboard of a general store was hung again, people occasionally entering and leaving the store could also be seen.

Perhaps she had made up her mind to return to her daily life.

Of course, she wouldn’t be hiding like before, but it was because she had something to do with me.

I was about to enter the way I used to infiltrate before, but I headed back to the main entrance.

I didn’t want to see her faint again from being startled.

If she screamed for no reason, it could lead to unnecessary misunderstandings.

So I knocked on the door and waited for a while, and eventually Arwen peeked her head out.

From the outside, her height was similar to a child who had just started growing.

I had to look down quite a bit to make eye contact with her, and Arwen let out a sigh at that gap.

“You came after all.”

“You told me to come from your side. I had no reason to refuse.”

“Come in. Let’s… talk a bit first.”

The interior had changed a little from before.

This must also be one of her abilities with barriers, but she probably changed the internal environment every day after that.

It was a good habit to always prepare a place to hide.

Especially for her, who was always under the threat of assassination, it was even more so.

Arwen, who created a teacup out of thin air, moved her hand, and the teapot floating around began to fill the cup with tea on its own.

It was an amazing sight no matter when I saw it.

Ordinary wizards couldn’t use mana so flexibly.

So as I examined the tea, Arwen stared at me blankly and added.

“I didn’t put any poison in it, so it’s okay to drink. And someone like you should be able to tell if there’s poison, right?”

“My level of mastery isn’t that high yet, so I have to check it several times. I wasn’t suspecting you. I was just a bit amazed.”

“The person I saw… No, you came to see me because of what you mentioned last time, right? That you would kill the Crown Prince.”

Arwen’s voice was trembling, but it didn’t seem to be out of fear.

Rather, it would be more accurate to say she wanted to confirm if that was really my main purpose.

As I firmly nodded my head, Arwen, who had put down the teacup, quietly looked at me.

“You probably already know, but I originally belonged to ‘Icarus,’ which was in charge of gathering information in the imperial family.”

An intelligence agency that collected information.

Such organizations existed everywhere, but the one she belonged to was a bit closer to the underworld.

If the country ordered it, they would jump in even if it was enemy territory.

It was the perfect place for Arwen, who specialized in illusions and barriers, to be active, and that’s why Arwen had continued to be a part of that intelligence agency.

The story that followed was also similar to what I knew.

And the reason Arwen left Icarus and was being chased by the Crown Prince was the same as what I knew.

“While being a part of Icarus, I carried out various missions. There were simple intelligence missions and information gathering, but among them, there were also assassinations of civilians.”

Arwen’s expression was always dark when she brought up that story.

In terms of Arwen’s personality, she was definitely not someone who could be called evil.

Rather, it was questionable how she belonged to an organization like Icarus to the point where I had doubted her Icarus affiliation before.

Arwen, who had been staring at her clean hands for a moment, rubbed her cheek and continued.

“It wasn’t a pleasant thing to kill someone who had a family. I even killed a mother in front of her daughter once, so at some point, I felt uncomfortable with what I was doing.”

“Is what I’m doing really right?”

“Although it was for the sake of the country, I had my own sense of morality. One of the reasons I continued to work at Icarus in the beginning was that they didn’t cross that line very often. But… Kaitel finally started crossing the line.”

The story she brought up was about an entire village disappearing.

An incident where they tried to erase an entire village on the grounds that a dangerous person was hiding there.

It was not known because it was carried out in secret, but the reason Arwen gave up the job and ran away was precisely that.

“If I hadn’t informed them in advance, hundreds of people would have died just like that. Does that make sense? Hundreds of people died. And seeing him order such a thing without any hesitation, I felt it. The Crown Prince… was no longer the brilliant person he used to be.”

“Are you saying the Crown Prince has changed?”

It was a story Arwen often brought up in previous turns as well.

The story that the Crown Prince’s brilliance had dimmed, that unlike before, he had a glint of madness in his eyes.

Of course, the Crown Prince I had met in person remained the same, so I couldn’t feel any strangeness, but seeing it repeated, I thought there must be something to it.

“First of all, I have something I want to ask you. Why do you want to kill the Crown Prince?”

“The reason…”

I stared at Arwen for a moment. I couldn’t explain about the regression.

I had brought it up once before, but even then, Arwen couldn’t understand what regression was.

The reason I wanted to kill the Crown Prince was simple.

It was because the point where everything in my life had become twisted was when I was falsely accused of treason and died.

Before stopping this regression, I just wanted to destroy the starting point of my regression.

Come to think of it, this was the first time I had said I would kill the Crown Prince first.

I didn’t know what answer would come back. However, the answer that suddenly came to mind was quite vague.

“…Too many people have died.”

Even excluding myself, quite a few of those I considered precious had also died.

Even Adele was killed by the Crown Prince, wasn’t she? I smiled bitterly.

For a moment, my lips trembled as the emotion welled up, then soon tightly closed.

No matter how much I wanted to forget, there were things I couldn’t forget.

Even if I forgot my own death, I couldn’t forget others dying in front of me.

So as I looked at Arwen, she rose her small body and drew letters in the air.

I knew those letters well. Magic that could record and save something.

As I stared at it intently, Arwen answered.

“This is magic that can record and save what I say. What I’m about to tell you now is something I’ve never told anyone before. It’s a fact that I’ve been investigating independently.”

I had no memory of hearing such words before.

This was exactly the 10th time I had met her, but Arwen had not given me much information.

She always gave information only about what I had requested, and only after I paid the corresponding price.

“Independently?”

“The reason the Crown Prince is trying to kill me is simple. It’s not only because I ran away from Icarus, but also because I know something I shouldn’t know.”

As I narrowed my eyes at the story I was hearing for the first time, Arwen continued with a rather serious expression.

“By any chance, do you know about the Dead Dragon?”

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