Two years after Serine has been occupied by the Empire of Hortuac.
Even after the two countries merged, Remetron, the northernmost region, has long been the residence of the Duke of Caspian.
The North was a cold and rough land where sinners flocked.
Kalad who has himself wrapped in thick fur was patrolling along the walls for a while.
Then, there was a disturbance behind him. Kalad lifted a stiff face that looked like it had been carved out of ice. The servant who normally does not disturb him unless something special occurred was approaching. It was the deputy chief, Chet.
Kalad asked lightly.
“Did the northern men turn themselves in?”
“No.”
“Are they beasts?”
“No.”
“Then, the soldiers got into an accident.”
“Not that either.”
What happens in the frozen northern lands was bound to be the same every day.
What else is going to happen except these?
As Kalad looked at him with questioning eyes, Chet scratched his head.
“……That, your grace. There’s a guest.”
“Guest?”
Kalad raised his head.
The black hair that was raised and the black eyes seen under the beaked eyebrows were beautiful.
Kalad wasn’t the type to wait long for words. He didn’t make a big reaction or raise his voice, but just by looking at him, the deputy chief sweated out already, so he took out his handkerchief. Only after wiping the sweat off his forehead did Chet bring up the report.
“So…… A woman came to the castle by herself…… Asked me to convey that the lion came to the wolf for a proposal…… She said you’d know what it meant.”
“The lion asking the wolf for a proposal?”
As Kalad mumbled, Chet also shuts his mouth and thought of how seriously strange the words that came out of his mouth.
It was strange word by word.
Lion. Wolf.
It was a forbidden word that was meaningful to Kalad and the deputy chief who are natives of Serine.
The Lion is a symbol of Serine and a symbol of the royal family. Some royal families even say that a lion’s crest appears on their bodies.
And the title Wolf was a nickname for his knights he heard before pretending to surrender to the Hortuac Empire.
All the royalty were trapped in the tower except for one princess, and the only princess left was stupid and timid.
Besides, anyone who knows the relationship between the royal family and the Caspian family wouldn’t do such a thing.
Apparently, even though Kalad’s predecessor repeatedly said that the defense forces should be increased in preparation for the invasion of the empire, the royal family who was busy playing around believing only in the country’s resources did not even listen.
What about when the war broke out?
The royal families, who believed only in the wide river between the Empire and Serine, had been stretched thin and were in a hurry to escape.
He didn’t wanna see them. They are blasphemous, but he wants to hold them accountable for their lives.
Even if the country was reclaimed, there was no hope for Serine in the future if the royal family continued to rule the country.
But who’s impersonating such idiots?
Maybe the Empire was messing with him to test his loyalty?
In return for guarding these rough grounds and recruiting troops whenever necessary, he maintained his status as a duke even after Serine became a colony. However, there were many occasions where he had to be put to the test of the empire.
Kalad frowned deeply as he held the handle of the sword.
However much he was bowing down to the Hortuac Empire, pretending that he is giving them his absolute allegiance, he wasn’t that devoted to it to get trifled by some insignificant beings.
“I’ll go myself.”
Kalad raised his body.
The place where the guest was waiting was the drawing room.
The guest seemed to have been brought into the drawing room because they could not be imprisoned.
When I heard the message, I thought it might be a group of people who had intended to do something, but there was only a shabby woman sitting in the drawing room.
His eyes were frowned upon.
The hair that originally seemed to have been blond, was covered in dust and tangled up in a mess, so it was tacky. The whole body was covered with wounds as if it had been scratched by a branch. There even signs of hardened blood scabs on her arm, which seemed like it came from an animal attack. And her muddy bare feet were also covered in wounds.
However, the blue eyes staring at the floor was strangely shiny and bright.
Kalad Caspian frowned more deeply.
I felt like I had seen something strange, but I might be mistaken.
“How did you get here?”
The woman, who hadn’t moved even when a person appeared in front of her, raised her head. With her blue eyes, she calmly looked around the living room.
Even though she was looking around at the people while sitting down, it strangely felt as if she was looking down at them.
She opened her mouth a beat late.
“Even if my name and status mean nothing to you now. Duke, I’m Alusha Trivien. You seem to have been well.”
The eyes of Kalad and Chet met for a moment.
Kalad asked Chet with his eyes, ‘Who is that woman? And why is the Princess’ name coming out of her mouth?’ And Chet just shook his head.
Both of them have seen Princess Alusha Trivien, but well, does the hair and eye color even look similar?
Alusha Trivien was famous for her beauty, but she was timid. No, being timid is an understatement. The Princess was indescribably weak. She could not speak to anyone other than those she knew.
There was no way she was walking around with dirt on her face like this, and most of all, the Princess finds it difficult even greeting other people. There’s no way she can speak so boldly.
Kalad, whose expression was stiff, questioned sternly.
“It’s not a name that you can easily put in your mouth. I’ll give you a handful of grain, and I’ll let it slide considering your devotion to the name of the old royal family.”
The blonde woman laughed wearily.
It wasn’t just the atmosphere, but the whole face was so pale as if she had not been able to eat and rest for a very long time. She looked like she could pass out at any moment if she let her guard down.
Even with her back sank as if it would break at any moment she still stood up again and asked back.
“Why do you think so? How am I not Alusha?”
There was a strange sense of dignity in the way she spoke.
That tone was definitely the same tone used in Serine’s capital.
But Kalad thought the woman was a fraud.
He thought it was just a lame impersonation.
The last time he saw Princess Alusha was at a banquet hall in honor of the Duke, just before the fall of Serine.
She was hiding behind the 1st Princess’s skirt because she was reluctant to meet other people. So he couldn’t see Princess Alusha’s face properly at all.
Crucially, she was now held hostage by the Emperor of Hortuac who feared that Serine’s people would revolt.
But in this northern end land, farthest from the imperial capital, where the Imperial Palace is, did the Princess appear in her own accord?
It is an impossible story.
Kalad twisted his lips as if to show her that he was not playing around.
“If you were trying to impersonate a princess held in the imperial palace, you should have at least worn something more plausible.”
The blonde woman groped her clothes with her hands without energy. Then tilted her head sharply.
“You need to improve your acting skills to pretend to be a dog of Hortuac. What if you show such hostility in front of the imperial family at the end of every word you say?”
“……What nonsense are you talking about?”
Even though Kalad shot the person with eyes that showed his murderous intent, the woman just smiled grimly.
“What do you mean dress plausibly? This was the best thing to do in order to escape from the Imperial City, Duke.”
“……How is it even possible to escape from the imperial city……”
“I don’t know…… How I even got this second life. It’s exactly the sixth, but……”
Second life? Moreover, the sixth?
Kalad was now starting to get annoyed.
It became clear to him that he was dealing with a lunatic, not just a weird beggar.
If those mysterious blue eyes didn’t draw his attention, he would have thrown her out from the beginning and went back to work.
The blue eyes that looked like mysterious jewels, gave the impression like she was crying all the time even though not even a single drop of tear appeared, caught his attention.
He felt like he was missing something.
“Kalad Caspian, I know what you think. But if you only bequeatg the people, I can convince you to believe me.”
It would be stupid to listen to such a lunatic.
However, Kalad was intrigued by the words, ‘You need to improve your acting skills to pretend to be a dog of Hortuac’.
Even his henchmen thought he had acted well enough not to doubted that he had actually become a person of the emperor. Even the public sentiment reverted and spoke ill of him for becoming the emperor’s dog.
Even if the world criticized him, it didn’t matter to him as long as they could create an opportunity to gather forces and strength in the meantime.
She was the first person to have said such a thing since he became the dog of Hortuac.
Kalad thought there might be a reason as to why she was talking such audacious things that would not be strange if she got her neck blown off because of it.
“Okay, step back for a minute.”
The deputy chief Chet looked up at him in surprise.
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