Chapter 22
‘Still, he said his name’s Hunter.’
“Yes, Hunter… Ah, no, M-Mr. Hunter.”
Prina softly pronounced his name in her mouth, blinking slowly.
“Are you feeling alright?”
“Thanks to you, I’m fine now. Thank you.”
“I was worried since you were shivering from being soaked. I’m glad.”
So he had washed and changed her clothes. What she had only vaguely suspected was now certain from his words.
She was embarrassed to have entrusted her body to a man she didn’t know, but she realized it wasn’t something to think about in only that way. Prina herself had often brought back injured or weak animals from the secret forest to treat and care for them.
‘Come to think of it, Lucky was the same.’
Looking at Lucky eating in the corner, Prina realized once more. Back then, she’d been in the same situation as Lucky. It was Hunter who took her in and let her live.
Having never experienced being cared for by anyone, even realizing it left her bewildered, but there was a warmth spreading in her heart. He was a kind person. Prina looked at him in silence.
“The forest is crawling with armed knights. What do you plan to do now?”
Pulled from her thoughts by his low voice, Prina realized she was meeting his gaze.
“…Knights?”
“They seem to be from the palace. Probably because that knight died.”
Having returned from an outing, Hunter informed Prina about what was happening around them.
“So, do you have a plan?”
He asked if she had any measures in mind, but honestly, she felt at a loss.
“A princess like you has no place in the palace.”
“It’s time for you to die. By order of the royal family.”
The words Sir Arthur had said before he tried to kill her came vividly to mind.
The Mother Superior had told her the palace was calling her back, but in reality, it might have all been a ploy to quietly get rid of an unwanted child. Was it because an ill-omened child like her had managed to survive safely to the age of twenty? At the monastery, everyone had said someone like her couldn’t possibly be of royal blood. But she still didn’t know the exact reason.
Since Sir Arthur had died and couldn’t return, Prina was now considered missing to them. That meant the knights combing the forest were probably searching for her to kill her.
Then what should she do? Was there any way to avoid the knights? It was too dangerous to just leave the mansion in this situation.
‘If that’s the case…’
Prina raised her gaze to Hunter.
“…Could I stay here? At least until the search calms down. If I go out now… the knights will kill me. That knight who died tried to kill me, too.”
Prina spoke to him as if clinging to the edge of a cliff. Yet even as she pleaded, Hunter gave no reply. He just looked at her wordlessly as she pleaded.
Could he be about to refuse?
Well, it was true. She’d already received so much kindness, but now she was asking to stay here even longer. Even she thought it was shameless.
But if not here, she had nowhere else to go. She hadn’t even been able to evade a single knight, let alone all of them.
She felt she could understand how a rabbit must feel after losing its burrow. Anxiety rushed in.
“…Mr. Hunter. Please, I beg you. If you just let me stay here, I’ll do anything.”
“Really, anything?”
Hunter propped his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand, looking at her at an angle.
He seemed to have some interest in her naïve offer. Prina’s eyes shone as she quickly added,
“Yes. I’m good at cleaning, and I can do laundry. I’m not very good at cooking since I haven’t tried much, but… I’ll do my best. And anything else you ask me to do, Mr. Hunter…”
“You really have no fear.”
For a moment, a smile that was half a scoff flickered at his lips.
“Are you naïve, or just reckless?”
“…Pardon?”
“What makes you so sure of what I might ask you to do?”
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