“I saw him sniffing in front of the food stand earlier. I guess he was hungry and ate something.”
His Royal Highness, the one and only Crown Prince of Alfrenheim, was now a pet of an incumbent beggar. Therefore, he was as poor as his master.
‘He must’ve been starving in the closet, so it’s only reasonable to say he was hungry.’
I bought a lot of food to feed him on the way, but it seemed not enough perhaps because he was a man in his prime.
“Find him and feed him some food.”
When I gave Lucas only the few coins I had left, as a showoff, he snorted condescendingly as if he wasn’t a slave.
“Only 10 resos?”
I glared at the slave laughing at my entire fortune.
“Okay. I’m worried that your eyes will fall out, so relax.”
Lucas smiled as if I’m cute, then kissed the top of my head.
“Find Rian first. If he gets lost, it’s going to be hard work again.”
“Yes. I’ll be back, Master.”
The answer was given to me, but Lucas’ yellow eyes weren’t directed at me.
“Is this a new slave?”
Curtis, who received Lucas’ full-body look over, frowned as if he was displeased. The empire was a country that prohibited slave trade, and even though slave trading wasn’t illegal here, Curtis wasn’t even a person worthy to be enslaved.
“You are consistent in this regard, Edith.”
I tilted my head in response to his criticizing word.
“It’s none of your business.”
Whether Edith bought slaves or took concubines to build a mountain was no longer a matter for Curtis to get involved in. When I pointed it out to him, Curtis’ mouth hardened as it went up mockingly.
“…Yes, indeed it isn’t.”
Curtis walked to a secluded corner as he escorted me. I didn’t want to ask him anything, so he didn’t have the right to question me either. In the end, only a low silence subsided.
Curtis, who’d been glancing at me as if he was watching me, slowly spoke to me after we passed three or four mine entrances.
“Your face is emaciated. Where have you been all this time?”
“It’s not something you should be curious about either, Your Highness.”
“Even if I am no longer your knight, I will still be your old friend.”
I frowned at Curtis’ words.
“…I was in Sharma.”
“You’ve gone far.”
Was that why he couldn’t find me?
Curtis murmured quietly as he entered the deserted back road past the luxurious mine entrance, which was lined with flashing luminous lights.
“It would’ve been like this.”
The back road, where the mine entrances that had collapsed or had their gold veins cut off were magically gathered together, was desolate and miserable, but strangely aroused a sense of nostalgia. Seeing the abandoned mine, which once would’ve been crowded with workers coming and going, it felt like I was strolling in an abandoned amusement park.
Feeling a bit nostalgic, I touched the faded sign, and Curtis who had touched one of the entrances with his fingertips, spoke.
“I told the Marquis not to look for you.”
That was a bit of a surprise.
Curtis regarded the Marquis Abina to be his benefactor. Even if the marquis would have a terrible illness that needed a transplant, and wanted me to donate an organ, he was threatened not to approach me anymore.
“Why? It must have been hard to persuade him.”
“The Marquis, even if there was a misunderstanding, has no right to meet you. Even if he wants to apologize, you don’t have to go and meet him if you don’t want to.”
The Marquis also seemed to explain the situation cleverly to Curtis. Still, he kept the Marquis from approaching me.
“Also, because you want to get out of Abina.”
It was a good thing for me if the Marquis gave up on chasing me. No matter how much he was falling, the Marquis of Abina was one of the high-ranking aristocrats of the empire, and a person I found difficult to deal with.
“Thank you.”
As I expressed my gratitude, Curtis’ eyes widened.
“By any chance…”
He pressed his lips neatly because he hated words, but he was a man who looked like a pure child.
“If you change your mind, go to Caballero right now-”
“Curtis!”
It wasn’t me who interrupted Curtis by shouting his name.
“There’s Young Lady Abina, too?”
He glanced at Jian’s slender face and nodded.
“Long time no see! How have you been?”
I was taken aback by Jian’s lively smile and welcoming attitude, as if she’d forgotten what I did to her.
‘She’s so shameless that she sends people flying to Sharma.’
Thanks to this, I wasn’t captured by the Marquis, but I had to suffer all the hardships in a foreign land.
“Yes, thanks to you.”
“Are you here to see our engagement ceremony?”
“…What?”
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