Gambling with double and triple locks may not be gambling in a way. But what if that was the worst case scenario. I called the knight right in front of me. He listened to me.

“I want to check Ersia’s condition.”

The knight seemed embarrassed for a moment, but then nodded. Even in this situation, a good sister who thinks of her sibling must be in pretty good shape. But there was something else I wanted. What kind of reaction was Ercia showing, I wanted to know that. As if trying to check Ersia’s condition, the knight exchanged hand signals with the knight on the other side, then quietly opened his mouth.

“Fortunately, no one was hurt.”

“Were you anxious?”

“I think you did. I was told that you were in a panic state.”

In panic, I bit my lip lightly. Several assumptions passed through my head. I turned my gaze and checked the path under the stairs. Where did she come from?

“These are people who inherited the lineage of the Ajstain family. One of them is the next daughter, Lawrence Ajstain’s daughter! Trying to harm her is to threaten the entire Ajstein family. Appearance If you don’t reveal your true self and ask for forgiveness, that life will disappear in an ugly ending!”

The voice of the knight commander was heard again. He raised his head and looked at him. The way he stood tall was dignified. He was wearing heavy plate mail and it would be even harder because it was raining, but he moved his steps as if nothing had happened.

“Miss…”

A maid who came up with the knights to protect me clung to my side, trembling. What was his name?

“Okay, it’s okay. I-I’ll protect you!”

Trembling, wondering who was protecting whom, he sighed and looked around. There was no reaction and no change. Judging from the fact that they didn’t even try to attack again, it seemed that they were probably waiting for the right timing.

“It’s raining hard.”

The rain lasted longer than expected. I couldn’t believe it’s suddenly raining heavily in winter. I drew my tongue to my lips. The damp sunshine approached me unpleasantly. If I waited too long, it could be dangerous. It was a gamble. A gamble with my life, I wanted to get a lot out of this gamble. However, if this condition persisted, my gamble was likely to fail. If so, what was the cost? ‘It must be life.’

It’s a life I thought I’d lost once anyway. It was not a waste to lose one more time. The only regret was missing the opportunity to take revenge. This gamble was simple. I informed in advance where I was heading and found out those who were targeting me. In the process, he interrogates the captives to attack Beralt in reverse and obtains a means to check Ersia. He risked his life, but the last bastion to save his life had already been thrown.

‘Ian…’

Where was he? Where was the person from me? I thought that I would no longer believe in the existence of a human regardless of gender, but my nature did not change so easily. Even though I was betrayed and hurt, the thought that he might be someone I could trust at least once always followed me around. He stuck with me to the end no matter how hard I tried to pull him off. He screamed inside that he shouldn’t trust people, but a small piece of emotion was directed at him. So I had no choice but to trust him and gamble. He said he would protect me and I said I would protect him too.

I took out a piece of paper from my pocket. The paper that the mysterious bird brought this morning contained a simple sentence.

Don’t die.

I was confident that I would not die, but I was not confident that I would fully capture the authors after that. A low sigh came out. Ian and I stood back to back. There may be something beyond the paper of the contract. But not yet. I couldn’t be sure of the feeling of love. If it’s just a feeling, that’s good enough. I laughed. It’s not that I was thinking about how to get through this situation, but I was thinking of a man in the middle of the day. I wondered if I was a woman who could reveal a man like this, and I laughed out loud.

“Miss?”

I stared blankly at the maid looking at me. It looked young. She must be about fifteen.

“What is your name?”

“…Y-Yuli.”

“How old are you?”

“W… fourteen.”

“Are you an orphan too? Is that why you were hired?”

“Yes? Oh, yes. Thanks to the lady, I can work in the castle.”

“How long have you been working?”

“I’ve been working since I was little.”

She lowered her eyes slightly and looked over the maid’s shoulder. I couldn’t tell if the shivering was scary or cold. Most likely both. I felt it when I saw Yuli. Even such a young child was looking at me next to me. I had to survive. The silence lengthened. Naturally, the waiting time got longer, and I didn’t know how long it had passed, whether it was 10 minutes or 20 minutes. All I could feel was my body getting heavier and getting colder. The knight commander looked around and then returned and clicked his tongue.

“It seems that he has no intention of showing himself. If we attack again, we’ll be able to figure out the location, but we’re not rushing into attacking as if the other side knows what we’re thinking.”

“It must mean there is a goal.”

That target must be me, and the knight commander looked at me with a puzzled expression. I smiled.

“How much time has passed?”

“Probably 30 minutes has passed. But it’s winter and it’s raining, so if a little more time passes, darkness will come in an instant. “

“So what?”

“…It’s best to go down the stairs and get out of this area as quickly as possible, but it’s raining so I can’t run down the mountain road quickly.”

“Does this mean that the front and back are blocked?”

The knight commander nodded with a puzzled face. It’s the worst. I had been carrying the worst possibility on my back, but the situation was going this bad. I bit my lip and looked around. Since the knights were also human, their bodies were wet and shivering from the cold. The longer it is, the more dangerous it is to be attacked. It was clear what would happen. I rolled my eyes and looked at the young maid. I needed to take responsibility for the situation caused by my impatience to get things done quickly. That was the most important virtue I learned for the Ajstain family. I closed my eyes. His face brightened slightly. Where was he?

“…Know the location well.”

“Miss?”

I took a deep breath. Once, twice, I smiled at the knight commander who was staring at me in bewilderment, then pushed him lightly. I moved my steps to his vacant seat, which had been pushed back a couple of steps. The sound of footsteps stepping on the ground and the sound of raindrops chilled as if playing my funeral song. I opened my eyes.

“Miss”

The knight commander, taken aback by my sudden action, called me and ran. I also started moving my feet quickly. As I stepped on the puddle of muddy water on the ground, fragments of water droplets jumped out. I hadn’t even run a few steps, but my heart was already pounding. I wonder if it’s heartbreaking?

My chest got rough. The cold air seemed to open my lungs. Pain and death. The moment the two words stuck in my head, I heard the sound of a pagong separating the sound of rain once again. At that moment, he threw himself to the ground and covered his head with both hands. From behind, I heard the urgent voice of the knight commander and the movement of the knights running toward the enemy whose location was identified. I was the bait And he was the one who made this gambling board.

* * *

The attire of the knights crossing the forest was light. However, unlike the clothes, the hearts of the party were heavy. The knights were worried that a sudden convocation order from the Grand Duke of Berdian might have caused something serious. In fact, Ian’s expression was very heavy. To borrow the words of a certain knight, he wiped his armor and sword to a shine and dried them in the sun, and immediately after that, it rained and said that the face of a swordsman whose work in front had become a fuss. In fact, it was hard to find a single smile on Ian’s face. However, the preparation itself did not take that long, and the items needed for preparation were extremely few. The command was simple. He should have enough stamina to not get tired even after riding a horse and sprinting for three days. That was it.

Oria, the leader of the female knights of the Principality of Berdian, was taken aback by the unusual order she received for the first time in her life. Although her master often shows off her lighthearted side, she never pranks her on major operations. That’s why she put her worries behind and accepted her order. That’s how the entirety of the knights, forty people, departed from the castle at Ian’s order before the contract date. I wondered where they were going, but Ian just stood in front of them and drove the horse silently. She ran for four hours and took 30-minute breaks to soothe her horse. At night, after resting for a very short time in a nearby manor, they rode their horses again and moved without hesitation. By the time the second and third days had passed, some of the knights were quite tired. Even for a knight, it was not easy to drive a horse and run without thinking. Physical strength is also physical strength, but the problem was the sudden rain. Even if you’re fine as a person, once you start to recognize fatigue, it’s a law that suddenly becomes difficult. Oria needs a little break, she urged Ian, but he only shook her head.

“She might be late.”

Even taking her brief break, he looked very nervous. Biting her lip and spinning her in place, she seemed to be thinking hard about something. Even then, she stared into the distance and opened her eyes in amazement. His eccentric master suddenly wanted to do something about her, but Oria and her knights silently followed his back. Early morning rain started to obscure the view. Her horses were too tired to listen to her commands, and to make matters worse, her path was not clear as she rode the slopes of the mountains to take shortcuts. In the end, the party had no choice but to move with simple luggage while tying their horses nearby. Oria, who placed the struggling knights a little behind and checked Ian’s condition while arranging his stamina, was a splendid knight.

“Oria, come here.”

Ian called him as she climbed the mountain slope and reached the plain. He had a very worried face. Approaching Ian, Oria pressed down her slightly rough chest and opened her mouth in a calm tone.

“Yes, Grand Duke.”

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