Chapter 21

Anasha hurriedly moved away from the pillar to avoid it, but she didn’t completely dodge as her cheek stung. The black cloth wrapped below her eyes was torn lengthwise.

Meanwhile, the unidentified masked person who had come down was already approaching the princess. Anasha immediately drew the small dagger she had strapped to her back. The moment she blocked the princess’s path, the masked person rushed toward her.

“Ugh, run away!”

The weight of the colliding dagger made her wrist throb. But she couldn’t back down for fear the sword would reach the princess.

Her sharp sense of smell screamed that the opponent before her was dangerous. The dagger positioned in front of her reeked of thick blood, having been stained with who knows how much of it.

As the frozen princess began to flee toward the ballroom, Anasha quickly deflected the dagger and lowered her upper body. She immediately attempted an attack at the suddenly shortened distance, but the assassin easily parried her attacks.

While the sharp sound of collision kept ringing out, Anasha moved her other hand behind her. Then she gripped another hidden dagger and stabbed toward the assassin.

The assassin, who hadn’t expected her to attack with both hands, changed the direction of his hand to deflect it. Anasha quickly moved the opposite dagger and embedded it in the assassin’s forearm.

Despite digging in quite deeply and surely causing considerable pain, the assassin faced Anasha’s attack head-on without even a moment’s hesitation. Rather, he swung his dagger forcefully to widen the gap between himself and Anasha.

He pulled out the dagger stuck in his forearm. As if not willing to give even that momentary opening, Anasha lunged at him, and thick drops of blood splattered onto her face. He had immediately swung the extracted dagger.

It was when Anasha tried to retreat, not expecting a counterattack from the injured arm. The assassin threw the dagger he was holding in his other hand. As Anasha twisted her body to the left to avoid it, a huge hand grabbed her left wrist as if snatching it.

And before she could pull her hand away, he twisted it backward.

“Aagh!!”

Anasha had to scream at the tremendous pain. She couldn’t help but drop her dagger due to the extreme agony that could have made her lose consciousness.

But even in that brief moment, Anasha caught the falling dagger with her right hand. She swung it toward the masked face, but he easily avoided it by tilting his head and twisted her wrist even harder.

The assassin grabbed Anasha’s head and threw her down. As he mounted her body and was about to drive the dagger into her shoulder, Anasha kicked him in the abdomen.

The assassin’s body momentarily flinched at the sudden impact, but only briefly.

“……Good attempt, but too weak.”

A rough voice flowed from behind the mask. The assassin placed his dagger against Anasha’s neck.

Anasha glared at the black mask through her blurry vision, wet with tears. With that grip strength, he could cut her throat without much effort. However, the man didn’t kill her, as if giving her time for more resistance.

This made Anasha even more frustrated. She was furious that no matter how hard she struggled, she was no match for him, losing due to the difference in strength.

That’s when it happened. She sensed someone rapidly approaching from an unseen distance. The assassin, seemingly having sensed the presence just as she had, hurriedly got up, and Anasha grabbed his ankle.

The assassin’s gaze lingered on Anasha for a moment. He lightly shook off her grasp and disappeared, leaving the dagger by her head.

⁕⁕⁕

Returning to the ballroom, Rihirt first looked for a drink for Anasha. For her who liked sweet things, he even picked up a plate with small desserts before quickly leaving the hall.

Though he was a duke volunteering as a servant, he didn’t feel bad at all. Rather, Rihirt was struggling to suppress his excited feelings.

The alcohol he had consumed was just a few cocktails. Although he rarely got drunk even from strong liquor, Rihirt thought he might be intoxicated. Otherwise, he couldn’t explain why his heart was racing or why his steps were gradually quickening.

He took a deep breath to calm his heart. The dark corridor bathed in calm moonlight seemed endlessly long. He was walking toward where she was, trying hard to remain composed.

He paused briefly when he noticed someone coming from the opposite corridor. The person who eventually appeared was someone he knew. The princess, with a surprised face, quickly approached him.

As Rihirt bowed slightly and was about to pass her, a trembling hand stopped him.

“There’s an assassin in the corridor.”

At those words, Rihirt’s eyes turned to the princess.

“Someone tried to harm me… but a person dressed in black stopped them……”

She continued saying she barely managed to escape thanks to that person, but he couldn’t hear anything after that. After hearing “person dressed in black,” all other sounds seemed blocked out.

Rihirt threw what he was holding onto the floor and ran. As he headed toward the place where he had parted from her, he felt strangely anxious. He ran without caring about his formal attire or disheveled hair, and there she was.

When he saw her collapsed on the dark corridor, Rihirt couldn’t say anything. His heart, which had been pounding with anxiety, seemed to stop instantly.

A dagger stained with red blood had fallen by her head. Her hands and face were also covered in blood, suggesting she had sustained severe injuries.

“……Commander.”

At that moment, she turned her head and looked up at him. When he met those eyes blurred with tears, Rihirt felt as if all the blood had drained from his body. After a moment of being unable to respond, he acted calmly.

Rihirt approached her side and bent down. After covering her with his outer coat, he lifted her into his arms. Then he quickly began to leave that place.

“Please endure the pain a little longer. Just a little……”

“More importantly, the assassin, he probably hasn’t gone far yet.”

Anasha, who was about to say they should pursue the assassin first, quietly closed her mouth at his expression. His furrowed brow and tightly closed lips looked as if he were in pain himself.

From the beginning, he seemed unable to hear anything. As Anasha gave up and entrusted herself to him, some guards passing through a nearby corridor recognized him first and stopped.

“Where is the imperial infirmary?”

As if their salutes didn’t even register, Rihirt got straight to the point.

“You need to go to the main palace. I will guide you.”

“An assassin is hiding in the hall.”

“…Is that true?”

“I won’t say more. Quickly inform the Imperial Guard of this fact and tell them to surround the building.”

“Yes. Understood.”

One knight with a stern face answered as their eyes met. Leaving them behind, Rihirt immediately headed to the infirmary, guided by the knight.

Though the main palace was some distance away, they were able to reach it in the shortest possible time. Although he didn’t verbally rush them, anyone would hurry with such an ominous-looking duke standing behind them.

Anasha was laid on a cot in the infirmary. He placed her down so carefully that not even a sound was made. An elderly imperial physician approached and removed the coat covering her to examine her condition, revealing her blood-soaked appearance.

“Um, this blood… it’s not mine.”

Anasha answered in a small voice due to the serious atmosphere. Just as Rihirt’s expression began to relax slightly, Anasha continued.

“But my hand……”

Anasha showed her left hand, whimpering. The trembling hand was smeared with blood, making an accurate diagnosis difficult, but it was clearly in serious condition. The imperial physician began wiping away the blood with a wet cloth.

“Ugh…, uuu.”

“Tsk tsk, how did this happen……”

The condition of her left hand revealed under the bright light was more serious than expected. Her wrist was swollen and trembling with pain, having been twisted severely.

“It seems the wrist bone is completely broken. From the looks of it, it was twisted multiple times.”

Seeing how she was in too much pain even from the slightest touch, the physician felt he couldn’t proceed with treatment immediately. He also couldn’t because of the man who glared at him fiercely whenever the woman let out a painful moan.

“I’m sorry, but would you please sit down.”

At the imperial physician’s words, Rihirt remained silent for a moment before sitting in a chair beside the bed. Meanwhile, the physician brought dried sleep herb. It was an herb with the effect of inducing immediate sleep, prescribed to patients experiencing extreme pain.

After having her chew the sleep herb, Anasha soon fell into a deep sleep. Her closed eyes were soaked with tears.

During the treatment, Rihirt couldn’t take his eyes off her sleeping face. He could hardly believe this was the same face that always smiled brightly.

He had seen blood countless times in his life. There were times when he had traversed battlefields covered in blood, yet the moment he saw the blood spread across her face, he couldn’t do anything.

Rihirt realized for the first time that something familiar could feel frightening. Simply because that blood might be hers.

His eyes looking down at her were deeply sunken. By now, melancholy had settled in his blue eyes. Meanwhile, the imperial physician finished the treatment by splinting her wrist and wrapping it with bandages.

“Make sure she doesn’t use her left hand at all for at least a month.”

“Thank you for the treatment.”

Rihirt answered in a low voice after hearing the physician’s caution. Then he covered her sleeping body with his outer coat again and lifted her into his arms. His manner was so careful that the imperial physician simply assumed they must be secret lovers.