“Your grace!”

“You don’t actually think this woman will be a threat to me, do you? Back off.”

He was right.

In terms of the Empire’s military forces, it was hard to find someone who could rival the Duke of Caspian.

However, Chet was surprised because he had rarely been bequeathed even by him.

But he could not disobey the Duke’s words.

“Okay.”

Under the command of the deputy chief Chet, all the maids, and servants who were present at the place quietly stepped out of the door.

In the meantime, Kalad didn’t take his eyes off the woman.

In his sight was the sullen and unsightly woman who was not complaining about pain even with her feet full of wounds.

Now it’s time to figure out what this is about.

When the several layers of tightly soundproofed doors were closed, the drawing room became quiet, like a secluded island.

Kalad spoke first.

“I’m gonna say it again. What kind of purpose have you come to me?”

The woman slowly blinked her eyes several times.

It was nothing special, but there was a corner that caught his attention, like a newly born butterfly.

The clear deep blue eyes looked at him.

Then she swept up her flowing bangs.

“I’m sorry. The formalities are messed up. I know that I should have brought something to prove my identity, but I wasn’t in a position to do that. I…… I am not originally a talker, so I don’t know how to…… I understand that you’re suspicious of me. I won’t even be angry at you for speaking informally to the royal family.”

Kalad seemed to understand what she was talking about.

“Is that what you wanted to talk about, still claiming to be the princess? It’s not a plausible story.”

The woman replied calmly.

“What I just wanted to say was that in 3 years the Duke of Kalad’s independence movement, or rebellion, I don’t know what to call it…… Will be a failure.”

Kalad Caspian’s face hardened.

How does she know that I’m plotting a rebellion and that I’m planning to aim after three years from now?

The woman in front of him was alone, and she didn’t look like she knew any fighting skill. Otherwise, he might have pulled out his sword without realizing it.

Kalad, who had been acting as if he were dealing with a troublesome bum until now, raised his body from the chair. His eyes flashed with a grim expression. In fact, so grim that pretty much any normal person would break to their knees in front of him automatically.

“How far do you know? Who told you about it?”

However, the woman standing in front of Kalad only wiped her face as if she were tired, rather than scared.

“I don’t know where to start or how to persuade you. All I want is for the Duke to succeed. But…… I want you to trust me. I’ll tell you three events that will happen in the next week. If it fits, you’ll believe me even if you don’t want to.”

However she did not answer his question, it was still a good answer.

“What does that mean?”

“It would be better to tell you something at a level where humans cannot intervene in…… Within a week, the Galen volcano will erupt.”

“Are you a prophet?”

It’s ridiculous to say that there will be an explosion in Galen.

Galen is not too far from Remetron, the land of Kalad.

It’s a part of the Hortuac territory and is thought to be in the heart of the vast mountains. It has been a long time since it became a dormant volcano, so it is now full of tourists.

Even if there is smoke being emitted from time to time, it is widely believed that the volcano will not erupt again.

It would be nice if it exploded as it is in the territory of Hortuac.

“Pseudo-prophet or whatever, you say whatever you want.”

However, the woman with a faded gold hair standing in front of her didn’t respond.

“And secondly, the Imperial edict will be proclaimed. Well, I don’t know exactly when the edict gets here, but I think it’ll be a day or two from the day the volcano erupts.”

“……An Imperial edict, how can you say such ambiguous words? The emperor’s edict comes from time to time.”

“Unlike before, it will be a policy of appeasement for those who are from Serine, so there will be a distinction. It’s about being coerced to believe in the Saibana religion.”

Kalad kicked his tongue. The mad emperor only knows how to take Serine’s people and use them as shields in all kinds of wars, use them as labor, whipping, and taxes. But an appeasement policy? Not a chance.

Kalad is now in a daze, and he wondered further she would go, so he let her talk more.

“And thirdly, the food warehouse in Remetron will be on fire at night when the volcano erupts. Perhaps, the trick is to be wary about securing supplies on a certain basis, but I don’t know the exact cause. It’s a big fire that started in a food warehouse and spread to the mountains around here. You’re going to suffer a lot of damage. It’s a famous case, so it spreads to the point where I even know it.”

“……I don’t know what this is all about. Anyway, you’d have expected that you wouldn’t be able to go back freely, right?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“Do as you please.”

“So what do you want?”

“I’m asking you to cooperate in revenge for my dead child, but…… I think we should talk about it next time. To persuade the stubborn duke, we’ll have to wait a little while.”

Child? Dead?

The woman wore the usual hairstyles of young ladies. However she doesn’t look too young, so even if she had a child, there was nothing strange about it.

Kalad who was lost in thought unknowingly tried to find out the truth behind the woman’s words, he looked up at her as he realized.

She is a crazy woman who talks about predictions and claimed to have turned back time. Pretending to be the princess is less crazy than that.

As he tried to shake his head to erase off the strange thoughts, the woman who was trying to get her body straight in front of him fell like a heap of straw.

After that, the woman slept for three days and nights.

She knew his treason plan very specifically– whatever happens–he couldn’t just let the woman go like this.

It wouldn’t matter if he kept her in prison, but it would catch a lot of attention.

Since it would only start strange rumors, the number of people in contact with the woman was kept to a minimum and she was placed in the guest room.

The diagnosis of the doctor on the day she collapsed added to his conviction in the thought of her being a lunatic.

“How is she?”

“It seems that she haven’t slept for several days, and haven’t eaten yet, but…… I don’t think there’s any more problem, but where did she walk barefoot like this? There’s a scratch all over. This…… I’ll take care of it, but keep applying ointment so it won’t get infected.”

Kalad tilted his head.

I don’t think there’s any more problem……

“I heard she had a child? Is that true?”

The doctor looked confused.

But Ali, a priest who accompanied him, shook his head.

“When a woman has a child, her energy changes. However, she doesn’t show such signs. It’s clear that she has never even had a fetus in her stomach. Is she important to you?”

“It’s not like that. She’s just a worker at my castle, but she’s gone mad all of a sudden and started talking nonsense.”

“Oh…… Don’t be so hard on her.”

“Okay.”

Whether it’s true or not, there’s nothing good about knowing what’s useless.

Kalad, who made the people leave with a general excuse, looked down at her for a long time. She made groaning noises frequently as if she were having a bad dream, and her fever was boiling.

Really, do we have to find out if the princess disappeared from the Imperial Palace?

Such question ran over his head for one second and then disappeared.

That’s just ridiculous.

Kalad had seen Princess Alusha a few times.

The princess, who was always hiding behind other people, was as beautiful as a silver cherry blossom. She was dazzlingly beautiful, tender, and delicate. He can’t help but sigh.

For more than twenty years, she was always so soft and sensitive that she couldn’t properly mix words with others, so he thought that she would never lead the royal family.

She was also very timid that her face would turn white when she sees other people.

A person’s personality isn’t being arbitrarily made.

But doesn’t she have a dignity that fits her position?

If Princess Bianca is a problem because she doesn’t give up too easily, then the problem with Princess Alusha is that she didn’t like being on her own feet. How precarious this country is between the Hortuarc Empire and the Conrada Empire.

To be honest, the disgustingly good fortune-telling was remembered only contemptuously even now.

Kalad pressed his eyes shut to shake off the afterimage.

Although she was only a princess who had the faint impression of a piece of sunlight, it was heartbreaking to think that she was being held hostage by the emperor.

Even if you think about it thoroughly, you can’t expect Princess Alusha to have a back to work for the country.

If she could speak as much as the woman in front of him, he would have nothing more to ask if this woman was really the princess.

But it was impossible to think that the princess would escape the imperial palace by herself.

Kalad sighed and went back to his office.