Chapter 1.4

At that moment, the eyes of the people who appeared in the smoke turned to her.

‘Shit. I guess my voice was too loud.’ She thought, quickly letting go of Mrs Sipper’s hand to get away.

“Are you okay, madam?”

Her sleeves were all wrinkled from the man pushing so hard. Mrs Sipper nodded her head blankly at her question, then looked back at the retreating people with a wink.

Everyone was back toward the wall and the entrance. Perhaps some had already gone out since the door was open.

“Who are you! Reveal your identity!”

It was the brave cry of Sir Escalet that stopped the people who were worried about whether they had to run out of the martial arts president. When his question suddenly turned to the people who appeared, the people who slowed down began to retire.

“Who is that person?”

Mrs Sipper whispered to her. She was curious about that too. She looked at the outfits of the people who suddenly appeared.

“He looks like a mercenary.”

To be honest, he seemed like a dirty mercenary.

Perhaps the costume looked dirty because of something on their bodies. For reference, that was not water.

She had seen soldiers training on a rainy day before, and although they looked a bit distressed, they weren’t stained that bad.

However, the weapon he was holding was definitely that of a mercenary. Quite a few had swords, but many also had spears and clubs. Sometimes there were people with weapons that I couldn’t figure out how to use.

“A mercenary?”

Mrs. Sipper asked with a horror look. That was the ballroom of the royal palace after all so all space-traveling magic was blocked there. So everyone thought that event was caused by the king himself.

Even Sir Escalee seemed to think so. He looked for a moment at the people who appeared in the middle of the hall, then he asked.

“Is it the Templars? Where do you belong?”

Then, the people who suddenly appeared looked at one place all at once. There was a terrifying looking helmet.

The problem was that the helmet contained a human head.

“I remember it was polite to introduce yourself first when confirming someone’s affiliation.”

Before long, the head inside the helmet spoke a little slowly in a low voice. She didn’t know if that head was a living person or not.

She thought, estimating how tall the man in the scary-looking helmet was, he was about a head taller than the average male.

In addition, the man’s helmet had two long horns on it, making the man look even taller. Sir Escolee seemed to be taken aback for a moment at his words, and then he said politely.

“I am Roin Escalee, the leader of the Black Wolf Knights. What is your name?”

“Sir Escalee.”

She was staring at Sir Escale, so she couldn’t see the man’s face. But the helmet he was wearing and his large stature and body felt quite daunting.

She noticed Mrs Sipper holding her hand and trembling slightly, and turned her head. It was natural to be scared. She was scared too.

Her heart was mixed with the belief that it was an event prepared by His Highness the King and the fear that those people might be intruders. If it were the latter, it would be wiser to run away immediately.

Because she didn’t know what purpose the unknown man came there for, and how he came there.

“Elliot Burns.”

Then, the big man in the helmet opened his mouth again. With his heavy tone and voice, it took her a moment to realize that the words he spoke were his name.

Elliott Burns. There was no aristocrat named Burns. If so, it means that the man was a commoner. The ballroom started to get noisy again.

And the man who introduced himself as Elliott Burns slowly looked around the ballroom.

The moment his blue eyes turned towards her, she froze as if she had been struck by lightning. It was a familiar face. It was a face she had never seen before, but she knew.

She knew his face. No, she knew him. The killer who appeared in her dreams last night and a few days ago, the same man that killed her family in those dreams.

Dark eyebrows and a chiseled chin. A large man with cold blue eyes and jet-black hair.

“Lady Biscon?”

Her heart started beating like crazy. Her body froze with fear, so she did not hear the call of Mrs. Sipper, who stood right next to her.

“Lady Biscon, are you okay?”

She barely understood Mrs Sipper’s words as she waved and whispered while holding her hand. She startled and turned her head, and Mrs. Sipper pulled her back and whispered,

“Come this way. That man is looking this way.”

It was then that she realized that Burns and she had been gazing at each other for quite some time, with their eyes locked. And the moment she realized that, she felt the taste of iron in her mouth.

That was a dream… It was a dream. They had never actually met, and they were seeing each other for the first time that day.

‘Is it?’ In panic, she wondered if she had ever met Elliot Burns.

‘We had never met, we don’t know each other.’

Then why did she dream of that man? A dream in which that man killed her family?

“I have a message to deliver to His Highness the King.”

As she rummaged through her head in terror, Burns’ gaze passed her slowly. She realized she was holding her breath only when he took his eyes off her.

‘Oh My God.’

She thought maybe she was crazy. Does it make sense to see a man one has never seen in their dreams and be terrified?

“His Highness the King?”

She could see Sir Escalee’s face contort at Burns’ words. After taking a breather, she began to wonder where Julia was.

Sir Escolee loved his only daughter very much. There was no way he would leave Julia alone and go out against unknown people.

After putting her tiptoe on and checking the people gathered behind Sir Escalee, she was able to find Julia among the crowd. And who did Sir Escale ask for Julia?

“Ugh.”

Unknowingly, a moan came out.

Julia stood next to her mother and Oliver stood in front of them as if trying to protect the two of them.

When she saw it, fear began to creep in again. She was so afraid that she couldn’t think properly.

In the dream, the man, Elliot Burns, knocked down the servants who stood in his way and hurt her mother and brother. What if it was not a dream?

An absurd, irrational fear crept into her head. Reflexively, she tried to run in front of them, but was stopped by Mrs. Sipper, who was holding her hand.

‘Uh, what do you do? Mother and Oliver stand just off the back of Sir Escalé. What if that guy was sweeping the ballroom like before? No, what if he attacks mother and Oliver while looking at Sir Escalee?’

Once again, the last dream overlapped in her head. The fearsome Elliot Burns, who defeated the servants who stopped him and made his way to Oliver and her mother without hesitation.

“I have brought a message from Daaribhorn.”

The moment Elliot Burns said that, a moan of ‘Ouch’ resounded throughout the ballroom. Daaribhorn? She frowned at the first name she had heard since taking history lessons with her tutor.

“Daaribhorn? You mean the dragon?”

Sir Escalee also had an expression of disbelief. She quickly switched between her mother and Burns. 

‘What do we do? What do we do?’

His appearance now was a little different from the one she had seen in her dream. Besides, there were Sir Escalee and other knights.

But that didn’t make it secure. It was because all the servants who stood in the way of the man in the dream felt like fallen leaves blown away by the wind.

But what if it was like a precognitive dream?

‘Eugenie Biscon! You’re an intellectual with common sense and you know that’s nonsense, right?’

Two parts in her head started fighting. The part that insisted that her dream might be a precognitive dream and the part that insisted that precognitive dreams were nonsense.

At that time, Burns’ gaze turned to Sir Escalee’s back. No. She opened her mouth unconsciously.

“Mr. Burns.”

In an instant, silence fell in the ballroom. The people who whispered quietly, and the footsteps of those who quietly retreated, all stopped.

And Burns’ gaze, which had been directed at her mother and Oliver, turned to her.

Her heart started beating like crazy again. She saw him approaching her and started taking deep breaths. Surprisingly, Elliott Burns approached her confidently and without hesitation.

“Noble Lady Biscon.”

The moment he opened his mouth, she couldn’t believe my ears. He did know her.

Elliot Burns knew her name. He even mocked her. She remembered her dream again. She opened her eyes wide and looked at him, then looked around in a strange mood.

Before she knew it, the people around her had retreated far away. Between being relieved or scared, she decided to be relieved after seeing people withdrawing from her.

‘I’m afraid I won’t be able to eat any more anyway.’

“Do I know you?”

He looked crazy. Or maybe she was too scared to calm down. When her sense of humor returned, she asked with a frown.

They’d seen each other for the first time at that moment, and there was no way he knew her name. So there was no reason to ridicule her as a noble lady.

At her question, Elliott Burns stared blankly at her for a moment. Then he said quietly.

“No, you do not.”

That was a polite answer. Not only in her dreams, but also the behavior he showed to Sir Escalee earlier were suspicious.

When she saw Burns answer politely and calmly, which was the complete opposite of how he dealt with Sir Escalee, she had another impression of him.

He was a strange man. His blue eyes stared at her as if they were looking right through her.

“Then why… ”

She wanted to ask why he was looking at him with those eyes. It was a strange gaze. A gaze that somehow made her feel uncomfortable.

“What did you say, my lady?”

But Burns seems to have misunderstood her question. He replied as if he had heard her why, and then she remembered that she had asked him a question.

‘Shit.’ She only talked to protect her mother and brother from his gaze. She tried not to look for her mother among the people behind his back. That man should not see her mother and brother.

“If you want to have an audience with Your Highness… ”

She put her hand in her bosom, trying not to tremble. Ann always puts her handkerchief there. She held out a handkerchief to Burns, looking him straight in the eye so he wouldn’t look back.

“… You’d better wipe your face.”