Zone 2 of the forest, Rilke headed to the right, and we headed to a spot slightly to the left of the forest.
Many people were already hunting. In the distance, I could see people driving their horses following the barking of hunting dogs.
“It looks like a group has already swept through. Will there be any animals?”
Sir Lifros asked playfully. I also answered playfully.
“Of course. It’d be terrible if there aren’t any today, right? We even made a bet.”
“Oh my, what an anxious feeling.”
Even as he said that, Sir Lifros had already dashed like the wind and snatched up a rabbit. Holding the comically struggling rabbit that had its scruff grabbed and was kicking wildly, Sir Lifros said.
“Wow. It’d be really hard to catch them without injuries. The Yorick household knights must be having quite a hard time.”
The assistant hunters following behind us took over the rabbit.
While one hunter skillfully held the rabbit in their arms, a deer appeared. It was a fallow deer with white spots dotting its back.
“Why is our luck suddenly so good?”
Sighing, Sir Lifros rushed at it. The startled deer looked this way and ran away, but I couldn’t just stand there in a daze, so I also started running to help.
The deer blocked by a tree changed direction. Sir Lifros was already nimbly positioned there, and the deer sharply changed direction again.
It was the moment I threw my body with all my might and embraced the neck of the flailing deer.
“Hey! Over there!”
Sometimes intended things happen at unintended moments.
“Gentlemen, please catch that person!”
I looked that way while holding down the deer. A group of people were urgently chasing someone, and that someone was getting closer to this side. Our eyes met and that person hesitated and stopped.
It was Baron Moss.
“Eek—! ……!”
He tried to flee but was slower than even the deer.
I let go of the beast and rushed at Baron Moss. Sir Lifros, who had been hidden by a tree while blocking the deer’s escape route, also joined in.
“Let go!” the Baron shouted. “You idiots!” I kicked his flailing legs. He fell onto the grass. A short scream rang out and I succeeded in pinning the Baron down. I could see the freed deer running far away.
“Th-thank you!”
One of the people who had been chasing Baron Moss was Lucia’s boyfriend.
“Gentlemen. Could you help us a little more? The criminal is being too uncooperative. My colleague will bring the binding rope.”
The Imperial knight seemed to recognize Sir Lifros and was cautious, but still wanted to be faithful to his duty. We gladly agreed to do so.
While the Baron, whose upper body was crushed, made deflating sounds, other knights arrived.
“Baron Moss, you not only fall under the emergency decree’s persons of interest, but you’ve also committed the crime of obstruction of enforcement. You’ll be taken in under arrest.”
The Imperial knight at the forefront took out his badge of office from his chest and notified him.
“What! I haven’t violated any law!”
Baron Moss refuted while pressed firmly to the ground.
Until now, Baron Moss had been quiet like mushrooms growing in the shade.
On the first day of the hunting festival that I could see, and even during the times Sir Lifros observed alone. He had held his breath and shown no particular movement.
‘He’s conscious of me and you.’ Sir Lifros had said that. I thought the same.
Especially, Baron Moss would have been conscious of Sir Lifros. We established countermeasures against him.
‘From now on, I’ll ask my friend. So that bastard will let his guard down and show his tail.’
Sir Lifros had said.
‘What about Lucia’s safety?’
‘It’s fine. The friend I’m asking is also skilled. Moreover, if he’s a person of the disposition you mentioned, I think waiting with hands folded for him to target Lucia like this would be much more dangerous.’
Therefore, Sir Lifros would send repulsive glances to Baron Moss, then show signs of losing interest when he didn’t do anything, and secretly exchanged roles with his close friend.
And today.
I could instinctively tell we had caught our prey at an unexpected moment.
Sir Lifros gestured to one side with a brightened face. One of the people panting behind the Imperial knight greeted Sir Lifros. It must be his close friend who had helped.
“Baron Moss, currently in the Empire, legislation regarding heretical inspections has been activated.”
“I am not, not a heretic!”
Baron Moss became polite.
“No heretic says they are a heretic. They believe in heresy because they think it’s orthodox.”
The knight who caught his breath calmly continued.
“As it happens, we received an anonymous report and have been watching you, Baron. You’ve been wearing clothes with the Hyeon Church emblem for the past several days.”
“…Th-that, I just, it seemed to be a trendy pattern these days.”
“We don’t take people in just for using the Hyeon Church emblem. You, sir, have been reported multiple times for suspicious behavior without concentrating on the hunting competition for several days.”
The knight answered indifferently that if he was curious, he could show him the report log records. Gradually, the strength left Baron Moss’s body.
“Lucia Lifros too! She, she was wearing the same clothes as me!”
At his last struggle, the knight’s face became even colder.
And Baron Moss was laughing, ha, haha. His eyes and twisted eye corners seemed to show he knew about Lucia and the knight’s relationship, which made me feel worse.
“The Lifros household has already been, investigated.”
“……Wh-what,”
“By the way, the reason you were reported is because you acted suspiciously near the noble young ladies’ barracks. For such a person to specifically point out and try to trouble one young lady makes you even more suspicious. I’ll apply for additional punishment at the investigator’s discretion.”
Baron Moss completely stiffened.
“Please cooperate with the home search.”
* * *
“Only this much……”
Rilke, whose appearance was a mess, inhaled.
“You couldn’t catch anything?”
That child pointed at the rabbit Sir Lifros was holding. The large chestnut-colored wild rabbit had somehow become friendly with Leon through a few leaves and was being held docilely.
“We really, went through all sorts of hardships……”
“We got caught up in an incident, so it couldn’t be helped.”
I shrugged my shoulders. Since there were many witnesses, if Rilke was interested, he could hear about the incident that happened to us today. We were lucky.
Anyway, I had planned to lose the bet from the beginning.
I looked over Rilke and the Grand Duke household knight beside him and offered words of comfort.
“You must have really had a hard time.”
Even we who had a scuffle with Baron Moss weren’t like that. I expected it, but it was quite a sight.
“……”
Behind Rilke, who was covered in dirt as if he had participated in hunting, another knight was sweating profusely. Kyueee— a fox in his arms was causing a ruckus. The fox with its two legs tied kept gagging and twisting its body, and behind it another knight holding a kicking rabbit, and behind that another rabbit, a raccoon trying to scratch, then another rabbit, and a really huge rabbit could be seen.
People gathered at the rare spectacle.
“Anyway, it’s the Yorick household’s victory, right?”
Rilke slowly swept up his completely tangled long golden hair. Whether scratched by the raccoon, narrow-spaced nail marks remained on his pearl-like smooth cheeks.
“…! What are you doing, Joachim!”
“You won anyway.”
I was in the middle of receiving the raccoon and rabbits from the Grand Duke household knights and putting them down.
“It’s definitely your victory, Rilke. Our bet conditions were a bit unusual, right? Isn’t it better to release them again?”
“No—”
“You also said it hurts your heart when animals die. But you can’t raise the caught wild animals at the Duke Yorick’s residence either.”
When I raised my head after returning even the struggling fox back to the forest with Sir Lifros’s help, Rilke had already finished managing his expression.
“Yes, Joachim. Thanks to you, I’m happy to have learned such a… refreshing way of hunting.”
Rilke smiled weakly with his scratched cheek as if truly happy.
“Can I receive compensation now without feeling sorry?”
“Sure. Name the servant you want.”
While hesitating, as expected, Rilke naturally mentioned one name.
“Surprised?”
Rilke smiled shyly, saying it would be unexpected.
After returning from the hunting grounds, I told Mikhail about what happened today.
“As expected, he asked me to give him Ethan.”
The bet was just an excuse.
I also conveyed the story that the trial between Rilke and the Meyer household was still on people’s lips. Mikhail said that was good.
“Why is Rilke doing this.”
Mikhail spouted out anything.
“Killing me.”
Spouting out anything was actually a very good method. Whether real or not, it seemed like thoughts were being organized.
“Didn’t he also make me take medicine. Or is he trying to get revenge on me?”
I shook my head. Using his hand on Mikhail felt like a process toward a bigger goal. Mikhail also agreed.
“Bringing down the Meyer household.”
Since we hadn’t started intending to reach a conclusion anyway, we decided to stop there.
“But that child must know I caught the disease.”
Mikhail pulled his long sleeves to cover the fading spots.
“If he knows I’ve recovered, he’ll be on guard.”
“Don’t go out for a while, saying you’re sick.”
‘Surprised?’
I recalled Rilke speaking happily today.
While investigating Ethan in a different way following Mikhail’s recommendation, I was truly surprised.
To think you, Rilke, are that ‘witch.’
