Chapter 239
This was the best Merrick could do: to place Roseline by Valen’s side.
The Grand Duke, who cared for his lover to an extreme degree, would not deliberately create a dangerous situation if Roseline was in the same space. Furthermore, since the knights assigned to guard her would move with Roseline, it would be much easier to stop them.
Merrick was prepared to accept any punishment, so long as the disturbance was safely quelled. But for that, Roseline’s decision had to come first, and the odds were fifty-fifty. No, the likelihood of a negative answer was higher. Even if she agreed, it was obvious questions like ‘Why?’ would pour out, so he had cleared the surroundings as well.
“Yes.”
But, to his surprise, after staring at Merrick for a moment, Roseline nodded readily.
“…I must have misheard. Did you just say ‘yes’?”
“Yes. You’re telling me to go and tattle, aren’t you?”
“……”
“Let’s go.”
“My apologies, young lady. And thank you. I will not forget what you did today.”
Merrick bowed his head deeply. It was a bow filled with gratitude welling up from within, not a simple formality. It seemed excessive for someone who had merely urged her to tattle. It meant the situation was extremely serious.
The path to the command tent was unusually quiet. Usually, there were more guards near the healing center, but since this was a military camp, it was normal to see soldiers everywhere you turned. For some reason, the area around the command tent was just still. As if it had been intentionally emptied.
“Why is there no one here?”
Roseline, looking around, asked Merrick, who was walking ahead.
“They are at the training grounds.”
“What about the guards?”
“They are changing shifts.”
Her mind raced. There was no scheduled battle, so why gather at the training grounds? Furthermore, she had never seen shift changes like this since joining the front.
Amidst all forces gathered at the training grounds due to a sudden drill, the prisoners abruptly requested a medic, and the area around the central command tent where the Grand Duke resided happened to be emptied due to a guard shift change. It was a designed coincidence. To lure those who might be prisoners or assassins towards Valen.
Then what was Mür’s role?
A scene she had never witnessed vividly painted itself in her mind: Mür, under the pretext of healing, unshackling the imprisoned prisoners. It was the worst-case scenario, but there was no other way to explain Mür’s volunteering or his somewhat excited reaction. He’s really something else.
The task Merrick had entrusted to her wasn’t just tattling. It was to get Valen to a safe place. That was Roseline’s role. Her heart grew urgent.
“Roseline?”
Valen, who was putting on his arm guards, looked back towards the tent entrance. His gaze, which had brushed past Roseline hurriedly entering, turned towards Merrick standing behind her and cooled rapidly. His expression, initially slack with surprise, also hardened swiftly. Valen tightened the strap of his guard, gritting his teeth. A thick tendon bulged on his smooth jawline.
“If this is your doing, Knight, you’d best be prepared.”
“My apologies, Your Highness.”
“I asked to come.”
Roseline hurriedly approached him. Valen rubbed his eyes roughly and looked down at Roseline standing before him. The anger in his eyes had receded, replaced by fleeting emotions like worry, unease, and concern. Roseline was no different.
“Ever since I saw the prisoners yesterday, things felt strange. And then Sir Mür suddenly volunteered to treat them. I was going to follow Sir Mür, but I came to you instead.”
She had a lot to say. Since all of this was likely happening under Valen’s plan, she wanted to ask what on earth he was thinking and what his goal was. He was a man who excelled excessively at his official duties, so he surely had his reasons, but the risks were too high.
“You wouldn’t come when I called you.”
He reached out, speaking to soothe the restless Roseline. Then, he cupped her cheeks in his hands and applied a slight pressure; the soft texture of her skin and her warm body temperature filled his palms.
“You call for me every hour. How could I possibly come each time?”
Her pronunciation was muffled because her jaw was being squished. Valen gave a small laugh and quietly gazed at the face captured in his hands, calculating the remaining time. Elite soldiers were waiting in the tent next door. Since there were also knights assigned to Roseline’s guard, one option was to assign a few more elites and send her back to the healing center.
“Let’s go. You can’t stay here right now. You know that.”
Her mind was too frantic to simply stand still and receive his gaze, so Roseline removed his hands. Instead, she grabbed his arm. She tried to act composed, but she couldn’t hide her trembling hand. The vivid image of the prisoners she saw yesterday charging into the tent with a terrifying force came to mind.
However, Roseline’s agitation only made Valen more resolute. His decision hardened, and he slowly pried off the small hands gripping his arm.
“I don’t think so.”
“Your Highness.”
“The one who shouldn’t be here is you, Roseline.”
“Are you insane? Put yourself in my shoes. If enemies were swarming toward where I was, would you just stand back and watch?”
Just as Roseline was tapping her chest in frustration—
“Take cover, Your Highness!”
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