“Stealing is bad, but they only stole as much as they were owed. Everyone did things because they needed money.”
As Rieta muttered, Agnes stared at her, with strange eyes.
Although, of course, she had to retract her gaze when Rieta glanced back at her.
“What about Agnes?”
“What?”
“The money. Did you get it?”
Agnes’ expression strangely changed at the unexpected question.
In fact, Rieta was simply worried about one thing.
Liz’s mercenaries decided to run away together, but Agnes was the only one left here.
She was also Liz’s mercenary.
“I.”
The moment Agnes was about to answer.
A strong autumn wind blew, and a large boulder from the top of the castle wall fell dangerously down.
“Princess!”
Agnes hastily pulled Rieta back.
Rieta fell on her and the two of them rolled on the floor.
No, it wasn’t two people.
Agnes looked up and saw that Rieta had dragged the maid, pulling her waist.
The fallen stone fell with a loud thump. To where the maid had stood a moment before.
“Hoo…”
Rieta sighed heavily and asked if the maid was unhurt.
“I-I’m fine. Princess, rather than me—!”
When Rieta looked at the direction the very flustered maid had pointed to, blood was flowing from Rieta’s leg.
* * *
Rieta returned to the palace with Agnes’ help.
Rieta’s two maids were confused, disinfected her wounds, and gave it medicine.
Agnes just watched it blankly.
“Is Agnes hurt anywhere?”
“I’m not hurt.”
Agnes answered Rieta’s question firmly. But she kept hiding her left hand behind her back.
After Rieta checked Agnes’ hand through the maids, she asked for it to be treated.
“What? Me, me, treat a mercenary? Me?!”
But the maids seemed to be afraid of Agnes.
“Yes, it’s hard for her to escort me with an injured hand.”
“Anyway, we don’t know if that person is really escorting you. She’re just pretending to be a knight when she’s a mercenary.”
“Honestly… she might be trying to steal.”
Rieta blinked eyes at the unexpected reaction.
It seemed that the maids had a strong repulsion towards the mercenaries. Instead of scolding them, Rieta just stared at them.
The maids hesitated, but eventually came up to Agnes and gruffly applied medicine to her hand.
At the same time, they shot a gaze saying, “It’s expensive!”
After the maids had finished the treatment, they brought Rieta some fruit and bread as snacks.
Rieta was surprised that the concept of ‘snacks’ existed in this Kingdom. There were quite a few times where she couldn’t even have a meal properly in the past.
It looks delicious.
Rieta picked up the bread with nuts. Even though she had eaten a lot, she was hungry again.
The moment the savory bread was about to enter her mouth, there was a rumbling thunder behind Rieta. Of course, it wasn’t from the sky, so she looked around her back.
“…Agnes?”
Rieta looked alternately at Agnes’ belly and at her face.
Her face, which had been flat until now, was mixed with a new look of embarrassment.
It was a brief moment, of course.
“It, it’s not me.”
As Agnes said that, another growl came from her stomach.
The feeling like she was somehow seeing her own childhood made Rieta uncomfortable.
Of course, Agnes was much older than Rieta.
“By any chance, did you not get your meal?”
Rieta asked as she handed over the bread basket.
Of course, there was a rule that the food Rieta left behind was shared among all the people working in the palace.
And Rieta used to return most of her meals intact since she came here.
That was enough for everyone to share.
No way… Maybe the maids didn’t share it equally?
That didn’t sound wrong, as she recalled the maids’ disdain when asked to treat Agnes’ wounds.
But that shouldn’t mean they wouldn’t even give her a meal.
Rieta thought she should apologize for the tyranny, on behalf of the maids.
“I should have paid attention, I’m sorry. I will tell the maids from now on…”
“I don’t belong here.
Agnes answered, cutting off Rieta’s words. While still looking desperately at the bread basket.
“Then, where does Agnes belong?”
“I just follow my client.”
Agnes answered quietly, looking down a little more. For some reason, Rieta was burdened by her gaze.
“Anyway, there’s no way you can do the request properly while you’re hungry. You won’t be able to go see a client every time you’re going to eat.”
Rieta forced the basket into Agnes’ hand.
Still, Agnes ate nothing.
What to do? As Rieta pondered, the newspaper the maid had brought caught her attention.
It was what Rieta had asked for in the morning.
“… Uh, then I should just read the paper.”
Rieta leaned back comfortably in the far corner of the sofa, and opened the newspaper.
She heard the growl a few more times in the meantime, but she pretended not to hear it and turned the paper over.
Want to read more chapters and support us? Please consider becoming a patron to read up to 40 chapters in advance!
