Their voices grew fainter and farther away.

Killian had to endure the weight of death that kept him concealed for two days…

----

"Here it is! Here's the Empress's carriage!"

In the hot early summer, all kinds of bugs were swarming around the bodies of knights already decayed.

The chief of the Royal Guard, Louis Gabriel Valerian, had set out immediately at the Emperor's command, moaned without knowing himself as soon as he arrived near the Empress's carriage, which had turned red with knights' blood. The images of dead knights surrounding the carriage showed how desperate their resistance was.

Count Louis Valerian crossed himself and stood in front of the carriage, its interior showing with door off. Inside the carriage was the body of the Empress, who was lying on her stomach, wrapped around a dead maid.

"Did you find the body of Prince Killian?

Count Valerian nervously glanced around the body of the Empress and shouted, "Not around the carriage!"

Count Valerian made an embarra.s.sed look at the report of his subordinate.

After the Empress' group did not show up at the border, a magic message was sent from the Imperial Castle in Austern. Claudio, the Emperor who had been anxious about Killian accompanying her, urgently sent a group of knights, led by Count Valerian, the Empress's cousin. As his premonition suggested, a pile of bodies was found in the woods leading to the border.

Due to the broken Magic Square, the road to the border was lined with merchants and travelers, but this was a deserted road. It seemed that the Empress's band had the knights enter a path where people would not go, to avoid mountain animals and bandits. Or there was a possibility that someone had deliberately led them this way.

Count Valerian, carefully examined the bodies after reciting the words of apology, thinking that the reason the two women fell down and died was to protect the Prince. They had barely moved away the rigid body of the maid, but the body of the Prince they had expected was not found.

"They didn't kidnap His Highness, did they?" one of the knights asked, rummaging through the bodies of the knights again.

"Once, take care of the body of the Empress politely. I can't let her stay here," Louis ordered, looking sadly at Cordelia, his maternal cousin.

The knights knelt in front of the Empress's body in courtesy, and carefully pulled the body out of the carriage.

"Oh, my G.o.d, Your Excellency. Look here!" The knight who was carefully lifting the body of the Empress exclaimed in surprise. Looking hastily into the carriage at his cry, Valerian found Killian crouching on the floor, unconscious.

"Your Highness, Killian…" Surprised, Louis hastened to hug the little Killian.

"The Empress must have hidden His Highness in her dress. That's why she died lying on her stomach…"

The knight murmured, feeling sorry for that. Louis stared into the small face covered with tears and wrapped him in his cloak.

"The first division will take the body of the Empress with me and return to the Imperial Castle first. I want the rest of you to collect the knights' bodies and come back."

Louis rushed back to the village near the border, carrying the stunned Prince. After seizing the inn and hiding the Prince completely in case of a possible danger, he ordered knights to fetch a doctor.

--

The young doctor who was dragged into the inn by the knights who had ridden in all of a sudden carefully examined the sleeping boy. "He just fell asleep. There's nothing wrong, so don't worry," the young doctor spoke, and watched Louis gasping for relief when he said nothing was wrong.

"I think you'd better get out of town right away."

Louie drew his sword with a nervous face at the significant words of the young doctor. "Do you know anything?"

Dr. Paulo grabbed his examination bag, pus.h.i.+ng back the sharp sword hanging in front of his neck.

"No matter how peaceful it is, but people living in the border towns have no choice but to be sensitive to changes in their surroundings. A few days before the Empress' procession pa.s.sed, suspicious people began to enter the village. They haven't left town yet. I don't know the details, but if you don't want to get involved in dangerous things, you'd better get out of town at dawn."

At the end of the remark, the young doctor left the room. He wanted to dig into the suspicious people who were left in the village, but as the doctor said, the first thing he had to do was to return to the Imperial Castle safely.

Louis looked back at the sleeping Killian and ordered the knights standing guard outside the room to call in the deputy chief.

Tamot, the deputy chief of the Imperial Guard, came into the room. "Did you call me?"

"Some suspicious people have been in town for a few days."

"Suspicious people? We've looked into it all before, but nothing unusual."

"It's hard for us outsiders to distinguish between village people and non-towners. As soon as the Prince wakes up, I will take Henry and Vale and set out for the Imperial Castle immediately. You take the Empress and do the rest of the work and lead the rest of the men back."

"Won't it be dangerous?"