Chapter 70

Chapter 70

While waiting for Hert to return, Tessa practiced writing her letter to Janet.

It felt as if she wouldn’t be able to endure not doing anything. She was worried about what would happen to Hert.

Fortunately, the fortress was quiet, and Tessa was soon able to concentrate on writing the letter.

Shiik, shiik, Now accustomed to handling the quill’s tip, Tessa wrote one letter at a time with a neater handwriting than before. As the sheets of paper piled up, the contents of the letters that were chaotic began to be organized little by little. However, she had yet to decide how she’d start her letter.

‘Is Dear Janet good enough… or would it be better to say, Dear my good and caring friend…’

In the end, Tessa was unable to make a decision again, and so she settled for consulting the Marchioness, who she would meet tomorrow. The Marchioness must have written many letters, so she may be able to give Tessa a suitable salutation for this letter.

Tessa left the beginning blank, and she skimmed through the letter she had written. And then she rubbed her lips.

‘…As expected, I think determining respectful and casual tones is the most confusing part.’

Even after she wrote it, it was difficult to distinguish whether it was written in a respectful or a casual manner. It was fortunate that this was just a draft. If she had been sent this to her straight away without making a draft first, Janet would have received a strange letter with a vague mix of respectful and casual tones. She may have started the letter in casual words.

“Would you like me to burn all these, Madam?”

Mani, who came next to her, asked, pointing to the papers piled up on the desk. Oh, thank you. When Tessa collected the papers and handed them over, Mani took the papers familiarly and used them as kindling for the fire.

Tessa stared at the papers going ablaze, then grabbed the quill again. She was going to continue her practice.

“Excuse me, Madam… I have urgent business to attend to, so would it be alright for me to leave for a moment?”

Mani brought the tea to Tessa, who was holding the paper and asked quietly. As Mani said it was urgent, Tessa nodded her head willingly.

Come to think of it, Mani was leaving her place more and more frequently. She also showed a hint of nervousness from time to time.

Because of this, Tessa was worried that something had happened to her, but she resisted the urge to ask. She didn’t want to be meddlesome. She knew that she wasn’t capable of helping anyone in the first place, and she knew that there were some people who didn’t want to talk about their personal life.

Mani was also not good at talking to her, so while Tessa thought about it every time, she never asked it out loud.

“Thank you. I will be back soon.”

As Mani left, Tessa remained alone in her room to practice writing her letter. But as the dazzling sunlight fell into her room and casted a shadow, she felt her body weary and her concentration dissipated in an instant.

Tessa nodded off unconsciously, and as she watched the ink from the nib seep into her paper, she slowly drifted off.

Beyond the outer wall of the territory, a battalion of soldiers stood on a wide horizon, forming a line of dots in the far distance.

Hert moved his scope to find the supposed commander of the battalion, but he could hardly find that person. The soldiers just stood there as if they had become wooden dolls. So, it felt like something was off.

“It’s already been half a day since they’ve been standing like that. I don’t know what their intentions are.”

The knight standing next to him frowned and said. His face was quite frustrated because he did not know the intentions of their opponents. It was the same with Hert, so Hert took his eyes off the scope and spoke back.

“It’s a battalion made up of mercenaries. It’s not an official army. And the damndest thing is that the commander is nowhere to be seen.”

It has been quite some time since the reconnaissance team reported that a suspicious army appeared outside the territory and was waiting around the outer wall. Hert looked at his opponents, who had been immobile for hours, with displeasure.

‘An army like this is too small to reclaim the territory. They wouldn’t even be able to penetrate the outer wall. What is their purpose?’

There was nothing he could not deal with, but it was an army that he did not need to deal with. The land they were standing on was not a Jutert estate, and they showed no intention of attacking.

What bothered him was that they suddenly appeared, and that they didn’t seem to want to attack, but they also didn’t seem to want to communicate.

As if their only purpose was to stay in their place.

‘There is no flag to represent the owner of the army. Yet it’s not even a sloppy army made up of a bunch of hooligans. Those are clearly trained mercenaries.’

Hert licked his lower lip as he recalled the armor and weapons the men were equipped with. In any case, it was clear that it was an unpleasant situation.

Because of this, Hert could not easily leave the outer wall. Anyway, if the opposing soldiers moved, his men would need a commander who could give them orders from here immediately.

‘For now, I think it might be the Marquis’ opposing force…’

As Hert speculation, this could have been a warning if this was an army sent by Marquis Borwens’ opposing forces. It’s telling her that they are still watching.

But even so, it was surprising. For warning, the spies they send out from time to time were enough. Do they have to use force in this way? It was inefficient in many ways.

‘Obviously there is another purpose.’

The problem is that he doesn’t know its purpose.

‘…You’ve been abandoned.’

‘Stupid…….’

‘Tessa!’

“Huuk!”

Tessa, who had fallen asleep, quickly raised her head as she gasped loudly. She seems to have experienced something in the dream, but nothing came to mind.

She looked around the room, wiping the sweat from her forehead. The darkened room was strangely quiet, not even a voice was heard.

“Mani…?”

Tessa stood up. Even if the guards were waiting outside the room, the maids who should have woken her up at this point were nowhere to be seen. She looked at the clock and saw that time had passed and it was evening.

‘And Hert hasn’t come yet…’

She was approaching the door. Suddenly the door swung open, revealing Mani, who Tessa had been looking for. Mani was gasping for breath, and she quickly approached Tessa.

“Ma, Madam, something has happened.”

“…Mani, what’s going on…?”

Tessa asked, unknowingly, backing away from Mani, as her busy eyes looked around the room. Mani seemed relieved that Tessa was alone, but she spoke hastily, gathering back her expression.

“They said His Excellency was seriously injured. I think you should go quickly.”

“What…?”

Tessa’s face quickly turned blue after hearing that Hert was injured. Her heart started beating loudly. In her head, she could easily picture Hert, who could not open his eyes, his blood flowing. Tessa easily panicked and was at a loss for what to do.

“That, what…”

“Follow me quickly. I’ll guide you there. Everyone has gathered.”

Mani grabbed Tessa’s wrist and headed for Hert’s room that was connected to this room instead of the door leading out the hallway. She then led Tessa from there to a secret passage hidden within the wall.

But Tessa, so distracted by the fact that Hert had been injured, had no time to even realize that it was a secret passage.

But as she seldom saw an exit, and as the unknown road continued to follow, Tessa felt something strange. Where is this place? Where is Mani taking me?

There weren’t just one or two things that were questionable and puzzling, but Tessa was determined to follow Mani for the time being. Mani had no reason to lie to her and was not someone to harm her. She must be misunderstanding…. Tessa struggled to shake off her doubts and make her way to the exit at the end of the long passage.

“Mani, wait a minute…”

However, as Mani continued to go to the dark places, Tessa had to let her doubts come out of her mouth. She didn’t know the inner structure of the castle, but she knew that this gloomy place was behind the castle.

Is Hert really in a place like this? On a deserted street with no one in sight, Tessa looked at Mani with a confused look.

“It’s here… right?”

“That’s right, Madam. Come quickly. We have to hurry!”

“However…”

“Madam, please. Hurry up!”

Mani forcibly pulled Tessa who was hesitating and dragged her forward. Tessa wanted to get out of this place, but Mani’s strong grasp wouldn’t let her go.

It, it hurts, Mani… My hand… Tessa, who was trying her best to somehow get her wrists out, suddenly panicked when Mani’s hands trembled.

Looking back, her escort knights were nowhere to be seen. If it was true that Hert was injured, they would have been the first to reach her. But it was Mani who had come to pick her up, and she was now forcing Tessa to a place she did not know.

Tessa shook her head softly.

“Mani, it’s strange…”

At that moment. As they got closer to the back door, Mani, who had been urging her as she continued to grab her wrist, stopped. Tessa, who had nearly shoved her nose into Mani’s back, called in a trembling voice.

“Mani…?”

“…I’m sorry, Madam.”

“…Wh, what…”

“I had no choice. I’m really sorry…”

With unknown words, Mani apologized and turned to Tessa. Mani’s face was as white as a blank sheet of paper. She said in a loud voice, giving more strength to her hand that was holding Tessa’s wrist.

“I brought the Madam as you wished. The money is ready too.”

“Mani, what is this…”

“…….”

“Mani…”

Tessa froze as she heard several footsteps coming in from behind her.

She didn’t understand what was happening to her right now. What in the world was going on? Why was Mani apologizing to her? And the people coming from behind…

Tessa’s question couldn’t continue. It was because a hand suddenly appeared from behind her and covered her mouth and nose with a piece of cloth.

She swallowed up the scream she couldn’t utter, and felt her vision flashing.

It was pure darkness.

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