Douglas lowered his voice in case anyone heard. As if confirming the news the messenger had brought, he asked again. “How could that happen…!”
“Aloken.”
When everyone was in shock, the black-haired woman standing in the corner also slowly opened her mouth. “What do you mean Aloken is dead?”
The duke’s uncle recognized that she was Aloken’s fiancée and made a perplexed expression. Douglas didn’t seem to want anyone to know about his nephew’s affair, but the messenger thought differently.
“I was caught in front of the nobles from the hunting ground anyway. It’s pointless to shut people’s mouths now.”
“…”
“Besides, she’s Aloken’s wife-to-be, so I must inform her.”
The messenger began to explain carefully.
Today was the day Crown Prince Balmong opened his hunting ground to nobles. But now the hunting ground has turned upside down. Because Aloken, who participated in the hunt, disappeared without a trace. It was around noon when people noticed his disappearance. When he didn’t come back at mealtime, the knights, who found this strange, went out to the mountain, and soon they found a body with a ruined face by the river.
“The hunting ground is the mountains. There are still many areas that haven’t been searched, right?”
“But the duke is not someone who has gone hunting only once or twice…”
“It’s strange from where he was found. The cliff by the water was steep terrain, and the short-faced fox inhabited it, blocking the road. It’s a place away from the crown prince’s hunting ground.”
“Did he really get attacked by the fox?”
“His wounds are so severe that I can’t recognize it…”
The people related to Duke Jalier exchanged a few more words with hard faces. Not long after, Aloken’s uncle apologized to Iva Maquil and hurriedly left the banquet. There was nothing good if the position of the head of the family was vacant for a long time.
“How could he have suffered something like this? You must have got something wrong!”
As the nobles who heard the news scattered, the other nobles in the banquet hall gradually felt that the situation was unusual. The surroundings became noisy. Only one woman remained silent.
“…”
Fanora stood blankly with her pupils dilated. Her mind wasn’t organized in the sudden situation. After a while, she asked the same question as everyone else. “Are you sure he’s dead?”
The messenger was annoyed by the fact she asked the same question over and over again. But he couldn’t be harsh as the person who asked it was the woman who had lost her fiancé.
“It was already late when I found him.”
“I can’t believe… No. I-I’m going to the hunting ground right away.”
It would take three hours to reach the hunting ground from here, even if the messenger ran to his death, but she was ready to borrow a horse and run there. However, the situation didn’t go well.
“Even if Lady goes there, you won’t be able to see your fiancé. The hunting ground is sealed off now.”
At this moment, the guards standing behind Fanora exchanged glances with each other. In particular, their attention was focused on the butler of Aloken, the highest position among them.
“W-where are you going?”
“…”
“Butler?”
When Fanora turned around again, they too had already made up their mind.
In the event that the duke is found dead, there are other things to take precedence over keeping her under surveillance. So, the servants who had been attached to watch her also quickly disappeared.
When Panora turned around again, they had already decided to take action.
If the duke is found dead, there is a priority over keeping an eye on her. So the servants who had been attached as surveillance disappeared with busy steps.
“…”
Fanora turned pale and was left alone in the corner of the banquet hall. Then Madam Maquil and Carl Andras came to her side.
“Are you okay? What on earth is this uproar about…”
“I-I’m really sorry for causing a fuss at the banquet. And don’t worry. It is something that still needs to be confirmed.”
“Lady Fanora…”
While Countess Maquil went back to tidy up the atmosphere of the banquet hall, Carl took care of her from the side.
“I think your mouth is dry. Would you like some of this?”
“Ah, yes.”
Fanora sipped with the water he had brought her in her hand. She was still dumbfounded. Everything seemed to be a lie, so the seriousness of the issue wasn’t well understood.
Is he trying to see how I would behave in a situation like this?
It was by the time she was lost in her thoughts, frowning her brows, Carl, who was standing close to her, opened his mouth. His tone was the same as usual. “By the way, I heard it earlier, and it’s scary. To become a corpse in a hunting ground.”
“…”
“No matter how you look at it, I think it’s because of the fox. It’s nothing else but the short-faced fox on that mountain.”
“Is that fox so ferocious…?”
“It’s very big. If possible, you shouldn’t meet it alone.”
As he continued to talk to her, her trembling stopped before she knew it.
Fanora decided to take a more sincere attitude. For now, he will wait until the truth is revealed.
“I see.”
Now that she had more time, her narrowed field of vision has returned.
When she finished drinking the water, Carl held out his hand to take the empty glass, but Fanora looked at his palm and said, “Carl, didn’t you wear gloves today?”
“Pardon?”
“Black leather gloves.”
What followed was a casual conversation.
“I must have left it when I was doing my business earlier.”
“Aha, I see.”
* * *
It was a few days later. She confirmed that the news about Aloken’s death was true as she looked at his corpse.
Before the funeral, Fanora was able to say her final goodbyes to him as her fiancé. And Fanora identified the figure lying in the coffin in front of the royal knights.
“…!”
His face was severely scarred, but she could recognize it at once. This must have been Duke Jalier himself.
He was definitely alive until that morning.
His death, which she had imagined countless times, came.
Fanora couldn’t close her mouth in amazement, then slowly reached out and grabbed her fiancé’s hand in the coffin. She couldn’t feel his body temperature.
“Aloken.”
She didn’t do anything. When she asked Carl, he said he didn’t know. So, did Aloken really die as a punishment?
“It’s not good to say next to a corpse for a long time.”
“I will take you outside, Lady Celsius.”
Fanora still looked puzzled. The nearby knights guessed that the reason she was lost was because she was heartbroken over the death of her fiancé.
“Then what will happen now?”
She eventually came out of her mortuary, supported by knights.
Several nobles were standing in the hallway who had visited to confirm Aloken’s death. Still, they had no time to pay attention to them. Even if Aloken had died, there were still concerns. Because there are still people who know that Fanora is a killer.
Where’s the butler, who’s Aloken’s right hand?
However, the problem was soon resolved.
It was after Aloken’s death was confirmed.
Nonsense.
Duke Jalier’s family was literally in chaos. When the man who played the central role disappeared, numerous characters aiming for the duke’s family started a power struggle. To make matters worse, the demeaning business practices of Aloken began to be exposed. He somehow hid his evil deeds with his power when he was alive. Still, when he died, the situation escalated out of control.
So vain…
The butler, who became his right hand and helped him with all sorts of things, also didn’t end well. Fanora belatedly sought to silence him, but he had already been assassinated when she found him. Did he die because they held grudges against him? Or did he know too much that he died?
As soon as the butler heard of Aloken’s death, he burned down his owner’s office, which had evidence of evil deeds, and tried to escape. There was a high possibility that the materials that were intended to blackmail Fanora were also burned at the same time.
Since then, no one has threatened her.
There’s no way Mother Goddess would help an ugly person like me.
The whole situation went in her favor. Of course, this wasn’t luck. It was obviously a fortune made by human hands.
“…”
However, Fanora had no choice but to know this. Because this incident was triggered while she was drinking her tea. To be more precise…
* * *
21 days. 11:20 A.M. Altum Mountain Hunting Ground.
By the time Fanora Celsius watched the champagne popping at the birthday banquet of Countess Maquil.
“I was wondering how many precious foxes there were, but there’s nothing special in crown prince’s hunting ground.”
It was the time when Aloken Jalier was still alive. At that time, he wandered around the hunting ground indifferently as if he didn’t know his future. However, hunting in the mountains wasn’t the right choice because there were often assassination threats under the guise of mistakes, so going alone wasn’t the right choice.
“…”
So today he definitely brought knights…
“They’re missing.”
As he focused only on his prey, the knights who followed Aloken fell out. It wasn’t just a day or two.
Aloken clicked his tongue and got out of the saddle. He was thinking of taking a break for a while.
“!”
But at that moment. The nearby bushes rustled suddenly. He aimed his loaded crossbow straight at the sound.
“Huh?”
Aloken lowered the crossbow’s head only after confirming who appeared.
“Sir Carl.”
“Are you alone? Do you leave your servants behind again?”
“I thought you had broken your promise because I couldn’t see you from the entrance. When did you come?”
Carl, who appeared in the hunting ground, hesitantly came out of the bush. He was wearing only one light brown coat. It would be cold to dress like that on a snowy mountain.
“I came late.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ah, I brought a young horse that was less long, and it ran away when it heard the gunshot. All my things are in the saddle…”
“So you’re empty-handed. What would you do if you ran into a fox while wandering around the mountains without a weapon?”
Aloken wasn’t at all surprised by his appearance. Because they promised to meet here a few days ago.
“Anyway, thanks to you, I can climb this precious mountain. Thank you. The crown prince hates me because I made a mistake before.”
“It was really hard. It’s to the point my forehead is worn out, and I can only do this for once. You don’t know how many times I bowed my head in front of my brother.”
“I should be grateful that even such an attempt is possible. How lucky is that your sibling is close to the first prince.”
Carl had proposed to Aloken a while ago. He would help him get permission to enter the hunting ground where important members of the imperial family gather. Instead, could he soften the order not to approach Fanora?
In response, Aloken answered that he would reconsider it if he liked the hunting ground, so let’s meet at the hunting ground first. Of course, Aloken had no intention of accepting Carl’s request in the first place.
“But… When I got here, there were no rare foxes, and the sparsely piled snow made the scenery unappealing. Hmm, what should I do about this?”
Douglas lowered his voice in case anyone heard. As if confirming the news the messenger had brought, he asked again. “How could that happen…!”
“Aloken.”
When everyone was in shock, the black-haired woman standing in the corner also slowly opened her mouth. “What do you mean Aloken is dead?”
The duke’s uncle recognized that she was Aloken’s fiancée and made a perplexed expression. Douglas didn’t seem to want anyone to know about his nephew’s affair, but the messenger thought differently.
“I was caught in front of the nobles from the hunting ground anyway. It’s pointless to shut people’s mouths now.”
“…”
“Besides, she’s Aloken’s wife-to-be, so I must inform her.”
The messenger began to explain carefully.
Today was the day Crown Prince Balmong opened his hunting ground to nobles. But now the hunting ground has turned upside down. Because Aloken, who participated in the hunt, disappeared without a trace. It was around noon when people noticed his disappearance. When he didn’t come back at mealtime, the knights, who found this strange, went out to the mountain, and soon they found a body with a ruined face by the river.
“The hunting ground is the mountains. There are still many areas that haven’t been searched, right?”
“But the duke is not someone who has gone hunting only once or twice…”
“It’s strange from where he was found. The cliff by the water was steep terrain, and the short-faced fox inhabited it, blocking the road. It’s a place away from the crown prince’s hunting ground.”
“Did he really get attacked by the fox?”
“His wounds are so severe that I can’t recognize it…”
The people related to Duke Jalier exchanged a few more words with hard faces. Not long after, Aloken’s uncle apologized to Iva Maquil and hurriedly left the banquet. There was nothing good if the position of the head of the family was vacant for a long time.
“How could he have suffered something like this? You must have got something wrong!”
As the nobles who heard the news scattered, the other nobles in the banquet hall gradually felt that the situation was unusual. The surroundings became noisy. Only one woman remained silent.
“…”
Fanora stood blankly with her pupils dilated. Her mind wasn’t organized in the sudden situation. After a while, she asked the same question as everyone else. “Are you sure he’s dead?”
The messenger was annoyed by the fact she asked the same question over and over again. But he couldn’t be harsh as the person who asked it was the woman who had lost her fiancé.
“It was already late when I found him.”
“I can’t believe… No. I-I’m going to the hunting ground right away.”
It would take three hours to reach the hunting ground from here, even if the messenger ran to his death, but she was ready to borrow a horse and run there. However, the situation didn’t go well.
“Even if Lady goes there, you won’t be able to see your fiancé. The hunting ground is sealed off now.”
At this moment, the guards standing behind Fanora exchanged glances with each other. In particular, their attention was focused on the butler of Aloken, the highest position among them.
“W-where are you going?”
“…”
“Butler?”
When Fanora turned around again, they too had already made up their mind.
In the event that the duke is found dead, there are other things to take precedence over keeping her under surveillance. So, the servants who had been attached to watch her also quickly disappeared.
When Panora turned around again, they had already decided to take action.
If the duke is found dead, there is a priority over keeping an eye on her. So the servants who had been attached as surveillance disappeared with busy steps.
“…”
Fanora turned pale and was left alone in the corner of the banquet hall. Then Madam Maquil and Carl Andras came to her side.
“Are you okay? What on earth is this uproar about…”
“I-I’m really sorry for causing a fuss at the banquet. And don’t worry. It is something that still needs to be confirmed.”
“Lady Fanora…”
While Countess Maquil went back to tidy up the atmosphere of the banquet hall, Carl took care of her from the side.
“I think your mouth is dry. Would you like some of this?”
“Ah, yes.”
Fanora sipped with the water he had brought her in her hand. She was still dumbfounded. Everything seemed to be a lie, so the seriousness of the issue wasn’t well understood.
Is he trying to see how I would behave in a situation like this?
It was by the time she was lost in her thoughts, frowning her brows, Carl, who was standing close to her, opened his mouth. His tone was the same as usual. “By the way, I heard it earlier, and it’s scary. To become a corpse in a hunting ground.”
“…”
“No matter how you look at it, I think it’s because of the fox. It’s nothing else but the short-faced fox on that mountain.”
“Is that fox so ferocious…?”
“It’s very big. If possible, you shouldn’t meet it alone.”
As he continued to talk to her, her trembling stopped before she knew it.
Fanora decided to take a more sincere attitude. For now, he will wait until the truth is revealed.
“I see.”
Now that she had more time, her narrowed field of vision has returned.
When she finished drinking the water, Carl held out his hand to take the empty glass, but Fanora looked at his palm and said, “Carl, didn’t you wear gloves today?”
“Pardon?”
“Black leather gloves.”
What followed was a casual conversation.
“I must have left it when I was doing my business earlier.”
“Aha, I see.”
* * *
It was a few days later. She confirmed that the news about Aloken’s death was true as she looked at his corpse.
Before the funeral, Fanora was able to say her final goodbyes to him as her fiancé. And Fanora identified the figure lying in the coffin in front of the royal knights.
“…!”
His face was severely scarred, but she could recognize it at once. This must have been Duke Jalier himself.
He was definitely alive until that morning.
His death, which she had imagined countless times, came.
Fanora couldn’t close her mouth in amazement, then slowly reached out and grabbed her fiancé’s hand in the coffin. She couldn’t feel his body temperature.
“Aloken.”
She didn’t do anything. When she asked Carl, he said he didn’t know. So, did Aloken really die as a punishment?
“It’s not good to say next to a corpse for a long time.”
“I will take you outside, Lady Celsius.”
Fanora still looked puzzled. The nearby knights guessed that the reason she was lost was because she was heartbroken over the death of her fiancé.
“Then what will happen now?”
She eventually came out of her mortuary, supported by knights.
Several nobles were standing in the hallway who had visited to confirm Aloken’s death. Still, they had no time to pay attention to them. Even if Aloken had died, there were still concerns. Because there are still people who know that Fanora is a killer.
Where’s the butler, who’s Aloken’s right hand?
However, the problem was soon resolved.
It was after Aloken’s death was confirmed.
Nonsense.
Duke Jalier’s family was literally in chaos. When the man who played the central role disappeared, numerous characters aiming for the duke’s family started a power struggle. To make matters worse, the demeaning business practices of Aloken began to be exposed. He somehow hid his evil deeds with his power when he was alive. Still, when he died, the situation escalated out of control.
So vain…
The butler, who became his right hand and helped him with all sorts of things, also didn’t end well. Fanora belatedly sought to silence him, but he had already been assassinated when she found him. Did he die because they held grudges against him? Or did he know too much that he died?
As soon as the butler heard of Aloken’s death, he burned down his owner’s office, which had evidence of evil deeds, and tried to escape. There was a high possibility that the materials that were intended to blackmail Fanora were also burned at the same time.
Since then, no one has threatened her.
There’s no way Mother Goddess would help an ugly person like me.
The whole situation went in her favor. Of course, this wasn’t luck. It was obviously a fortune made by human hands.
“…”
However, Fanora had no choice but to know this. Because this incident was triggered while she was drinking her tea. To be more precise…
* * *
21 days. 11:20 A.M. Altum Mountain Hunting Ground.
By the time Fanora Celsius watched the champagne popping at the birthday banquet of Countess Maquil.
“I was wondering how many precious foxes there were, but there’s nothing special in crown prince’s hunting ground.”
It was the time when Aloken Jalier was still alive. At that time, he wandered around the hunting ground indifferently as if he didn’t know his future. However, hunting in the mountains wasn’t the right choice because there were often assassination threats under the guise of mistakes, so going alone wasn’t the right choice.
“…”
So today he definitely brought knights…
“They’re missing.”
As he focused only on his prey, the knights who followed Aloken fell out. It wasn’t just a day or two.
Aloken clicked his tongue and got out of the saddle. He was thinking of taking a break for a while.
“!”
But at that moment. The nearby bushes rustled suddenly. He aimed his loaded crossbow straight at the sound.
“Huh?”
Aloken lowered the crossbow’s head only after confirming who appeared.
“Sir Carl.”
“Are you alone? Do you leave your servants behind again?”
“I thought you had broken your promise because I couldn’t see you from the entrance. When did you come?”
Carl, who appeared in the hunting ground, hesitantly came out of the bush. He was wearing only one light brown coat. It would be cold to dress like that on a snowy mountain.
“I came late.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ah, I brought a young horse that was less long, and it ran away when it heard the gunshot. All my things are in the saddle…”
“So you’re empty-handed. What would you do if you ran into a fox while wandering around the mountains without a weapon?”
Aloken wasn’t at all surprised by his appearance. Because they promised to meet here a few days ago.
“Anyway, thanks to you, I can climb this precious mountain. Thank you. The crown prince hates me because I made a mistake before.”
“It was really hard. It’s to the point my forehead is worn out, and I can only do this for once. You don’t know how many times I bowed my head in front of my brother.”
“I should be grateful that even such an attempt is possible. How lucky is that your sibling is close to the first prince.”
Carl had proposed to Aloken a while ago. He would help him get permission to enter the hunting ground where important members of the imperial family gather. Instead, could he soften the order not to approach Fanora?
In response, Aloken answered that he would reconsider it if he liked the hunting ground, so let’s meet at the hunting ground first. Of course, Aloken had no intention of accepting Carl’s request in the first place.
“But… When I got here, there were no rare foxes, and the sparsely piled snow made the scenery unappealing. Hmm, what should I do about this?”
