RAMHM Chapter 45

As If to Kiss

The office without its superior present was peaceful beyond measure. For once, with Rhodness—who typically spent every night in the office—absent, Neil hurried to throw open the windows and bask in the morning sunlight. Ah. When was the last time he'd greeted such beautiful morning light alone?

Every day had been about clearing away liquor bottles, filling the cabinets with new alcohol instead of documents that needed processing from dawn onward—as those memories came flooding back one after another, he felt moved almost to tears.

"That's right, this is what an office should be."

Slightly chilly but refreshing morning air flooded the office, and he felt as if he could fly. Leaving the masterless office behind with a cheerful tune, Neil sat in the reception room enjoying his leisure, dreaming sweet dreams that every morning could begin this way. Slam! Until his lord, who really should have arrived a bit more leisurely, returned.

Neil, who had been sprawled on the sofa crunching cookies, scrambled at Rhodness's sudden appearance to clean up what he'd been eating and stood to salute. The words "what are you leisurely stuffing your face with" should have come, but when Neil stole a glance, Rhodness seemed somehow absent, lost.

'Phew.'

Naturally calling the attendant outside to dispose of the teacup he'd been drinking from, Neil brushed the cookie crumbs from the corners of his mouth and approached the blankly standing Rhodness.

"You've arrived, Your Highness. You seem to have slept properly in your chambers today."

"Your Highness?"

Vincento, who had entered at some point with an armful of work, also approached them with a salute. Rhodness, standing in the middle of the reception room staring into empty space, looked them over and suddenly crumpled his expression.

"Neil."

"Yes!"

"What happened to the things you took last time?"

"Pardon? What things?"

"The things Adr—Count Acacia's wife sent me."

Where else would they be but in his belly?

"Why do you ask?"

Neil replied hastily to Rhodness, who was scanning him with contempt.

"Hand them all over."

"Good heavens, Your Highness. How can you ask for what I ate up completely the moment I received them? You don't even like sweets, do you? Should I cut open my belly and bring them out?"

"Neil!"

Since he'd just finished eating the last remaining cookie quite thoroughly, his words grew unnecessarily long. Vincento called out as if to stop Neil, who was making excuses, but it was useless.

"Follow me to the office. I'll have to cut open your belly and take them."

Rhodness's face looked serious, as if he meant it.

"Y-Your Highness!"

"Vincen, Vincento! Say something to him!"

"Your Highness! I still have pudding left!"

When Vincento shouted urgently, Rhodness, who had been leading the way to the office with the momentum of drawing his sword, stopped dead.

"Right now. Bring it all."

"You should have said earlier that you liked sweets. Really, Your Highness always trying to act cool... I'll shut up and bring it!"

Before Rhodness's hand could reach the sword hilt, Neil, who had been grumbling, ran off hurriedly toward the adjutants' office.

Rhodness's face, lined with irritation, looked several times more tired than usual, but strangely also looked the best he'd been these past few days. When Rhodness leaned against his office desk and rang the bell carelessly, an attendant immediately burst in.

"Bring water for washing."

"Yes!"

Washing up early in the morning—from someone who'd been living like a wreck. Vincento's eyes widened in surprise at this fastidious behavior from his lord, which he hadn't seen in ages.

"Your Highness...!"

Then he gasped and approached, shocked at Rhodness's throat as he unbuttoned his shirt with one hand—click, click. A badly injured throat at first glance. A wound as if slashed by a sharp blade. He'd bled so much that the shirtfront hidden inside his jacket was soaked through with blood.

Rhodness kept his mouth firmly closed and buried his face in the golden basin the attendant had brought in the meantime. Vincento, who had hurriedly fetched the first aid kit, was stamping his feet in front of him. It was because his heart had grown urgent—the wound looked fatal at a glance.

"Why are you making such a fuss?"

"Your Highness! What on earth happened? Were you ambushed? Who dared so recklessly to attack Your Highness's throat...!"

"I did it."

"!"

For such a chilling statement, Rhodness spoke far too calmly as he wiped his face with the dry towel he'd received from the attendant. The face that had finished washing cleanly shone like porcelain in the morning sunlight.

"Don't worry, I tried to die but failed."

"Your Highness!"

Rhodness casually removed his jacket and shirt, and with the help of the perceptive attendant who had brought new clothes, changed out of the garments stained dark red with blood. When the wound he'd hoped against hope wasn't there appeared nakedly, Vincento, his face hardened stiff, hurried to where Rhodness had sunken into the sofa.

"The bleeding seems mostly stopped but it's gaped wide. You need treatment."

"Such a fuss. You know this much won't kill me."

"A normal human would lose consciousness from that much."

The amount of blood on the clothing the attendant had taken away was not ordinary. When Rhodness sighed deeply and stretched his body long across the sofa, Vincento began taking medicine from the first aid kit and laying it out on the table.

Rhodness, pretending not to see that scene, rested his head on the sofa's armrest and covered his eyes with his arm. When he closed his eyes, the events from just moments ago rose vividly before him.

"Vincento."

"Yes."

Vincento, quietly disinfecting the wound and applying medicine, was clicking his tongue at his lord, who didn't flinch even when strong medicine was applied.

"This right now, reality... is it?"

"Yes, Your Highness's blood is very visible. It's remarkable that you walked here."

Vincento answered, watching his lord, who for once was present with a sound mind but immediately started talking nonsense. Just then Neil knocked on the office door and immediately burst in.

"Your Highness, I've brought it."

"Shut your mouth and put it all on the desk."

"Just in case, I brought the flower basket back too, but surely you don't need this as well?"

"Don't make me say the same thing twice."

As Rhodness continued lying with his eyes covered, Neil openly pouted. Vincento, while moving his hands busily, saw this and gave a reproving look.

"Oh, right. And I heard on the way that Count Acacia's wife..."

Ah, right—he'd said to ignore all news about that lady.

"It's nothing."

When Neil, who had placed the packages on the desk, quickly corrected himself, Rhodness removed the arm covering his eyes.

"What is it?"

"It's a report from someone we sent to observe movements there. But since it's news about that lady... you said to ignore all news coming from that direction..."

"What have I been doing not cutting this one down, Vincento?"

"My apologies."

No, why this time! I did what you asked! With an aggrieved expression, Neil looked between the two and delivered the message with slight sullenness, as if resigned.

"That lady went out alone without an escort."

"What?"

Rhodness immediately bolted upright.

"Your Highness! The treatment isn't finished yet!"

"Why are you only telling me this now?"

Rhodness, turned deathly pale, spat out a low curse and immediately kicked open the office door and ran out. He was too fast—there was no gap to say anything more.

"What, what is this? Vincento, His Highness is a bit different this time... has he gone mad?"

"Neil!"

When the stunned Neil pointed at his own head, Vincento stopped him.

"Why would he go out personally at news that she went out without an escort? He'd clearly refused everything, saying he wouldn't observe that side personally anymore, so why on earth..."

Neil, who had been contemplating seriously, immediately slapped his knee—thwack!

"....To personally take care of her when there's no escort?"

I was sitting at a café terrace nearby, waiting for Annie. Annie emerged from the telegram office directly visible from the terrace with quite a resolute expression. I immediately stormed into the telegram office.

"Here. There's a letter mistakenly sent by a maid's error, so bring out the letters being sent right now immediately!"

The entrance staff member, whose face was bewildered by my sudden entry, soon looked at the Grand Ducal Estate's carriage I was pointing to and approached in a panic.

"To make me suffer like this by not handling work properly."

"M-Madam! What brings you here?"

"The maid who just came to send a letter got the errand wrong. It's a matter related to the Imperial Family, so I've come personally."

I showed the Grand Ducal Estate administrator's authorization document I'd brought along. Seeing Her Majesty the Empress's seal, the staff member, his face turned blue, held out the pile of letters to me. I discovered one letter at the very top of the pile that was clearly being sent by Annie.

"...I've confirmed it. I seem to have made a mistake."

"Pardon?"

I leaned close to the staff member's ear and whispered.

"It's the Imperial Family's will. You didn't see me today. Understand?"

The staff member, who had only been blinking his large eyes, nodded with a resolute face. And at my whisper to continue his work, he shouted to the other staff members to continue their work like a knight who had received an important mission. I stared at that sight for a moment before quietly exiting the telegram office.

"Ha."

The reason I recognized Annie's letter among the similarly-looking envelopes was simple.

"This really has become impossible to just let go."

Because the seal in wax closing the envelope was the seal of the 'Grand Duchess.' To retrieve a letter from the telegram office, one must have the same seal as that seal. To do that, I had to leave a record of my identity.

'She was using my seal? How dare she?'

Moreover, the addressee of that letter was Doris's father, Duke Castagna.

After organizing my thoughts for a while at the telegram office entrance, I left the building.

"Madam—"

"!"

"You'll need to come with us."

Several men in pitch-black clothing surrounded me like a massive wall.

"What is this?"

I quickly surveyed the surroundings. Because I was aware that the capital's security wasn't what it used to be these days, I had quietly ordered several knights from the Count's estate to follow me.

"When human trafficking is so common these days, you mustn't let your guard down just because it's broad daylight."

One of the masked men giggling approached closer. I'd heard that after the missing women incident, copycat crimes had been occurring in succession, but was it serious enough to kidnap a noblewoman in broad daylight on the street like this? I was watching for the timing to signal the knights who would be hiding.

"What a windfall this is."

"A beautiful noblewoman all alone and lonel—AHHHHHHH!!"

"Wh-what!"

A brilliantly sharp blade suddenly protruded from behind through the throat of the man who had approached abruptly to grab my wrist.

'Rhodness!'

Hadn't he returned to the palace?

"AHHHHHHHHH!"

In an instant the positions of the man and Rhodness switched, and before me I could see only his broad back. The things the men had been wearing at their waists all fell—thunk, thunk—cleanly severed. People passing on the street also screamed and withdrew from the vicinity, sensing the strange energy.

"I-It's the capital guard!"

"Damn it!"

"...Oh no."

While they, stripped even of their trousers, floundered and couldn't escape, Rhodness kicked several of them aside and gripped my wrist tightly.

"Rhodne—"

"Shh."

Rhodness, anticipating that the moment he subjugated the gathering capital guard with his status it would reach His Majesty the Emperor's ears and become troublesome, quickened his steps.

"Catch them! Catch them!"

"Catch the escaping people too!"

Finding myself suddenly in a fugitive's position, I ran together as Rhodness led. But even that didn't last long. Neither Rhodness, who had known only the inside of the Imperial Palace or the Academy or battlefields his entire life, nor I, who had been too ill to have time to tour the capital, knew the way well.

Rhodness immediately led me toward a secluded alley. And immediately flipped his red cloak to show the dark blue lining and draped it over me.

"They went this way. This way!"

"No, they might have gone that way!"

Wrapped up like a child and held in Rhodness's embrace, I stood clutching my pounding heart. The closer the footsteps drew, the more closely we pressed together. I pulled at Rhodness's jacket.

"Adrienne?"

I removed Rhodness's cloak and instead draped it back over him. Because the conspicuous hair color wasn't mine—it was Rhodness's. And leaning against the solid wall, I wrapped both arms around Rhodness's throat, his head covered by the cloak, and pulled him down slightly.

"There's a person's shadow there!"

"Check it properly!"

The closer the footsteps drew, the more I pulled Rhodness's throat down. Rhodness's wide eyes were shaking violently.

I leaned in close as if to kiss him and whispered low.

"...Use me, Your Highness."

Nose and nose brushed briefly, and our lips came close as if about to touch. His hot, fragrant breath clung temptingly to my lips.