CH 136

“Do you remember me? I was in the same class as the Grand Prince in the Academy and always sat in the front…”

“To the point.”

“Please take this!”

The Lady reached out a little more towards Lloyd. Some of the ladies, who were encouraged by her actions, also offered him gifts.

One of Lloyd’s eyebrows soared into the sky, and then returned to its position.

“I got a wife four years ago. If you’re that dull towards rumors, then why don’t you just give up socializing?”

Even with the cold words that showed no leeway, the ladies only looked at Lloyd and their face was blushing.

“It’s not like that! Actually, I’ve been watching you two closely, but it seems that the Grand Princess didn’t prepare anything.”

“Therefore.”

“You need at least one magic to protect your body. So, in a sense of ‘friendly’…”

The fact that an unmarried lady gave a present on the day of the hunting contest was nothing more than a confession. However, handing over artifacts containing protection magic in the sense that the wearer would return safely without getting hurt was done among family and close friends.

The ladies used that as an excuse.

‘Are you crazy?’

Vincent, who watched the scene, was astonished. In his eyes, all the ladies looked like they were excited to die.

Just as expected. Lloyd, who understood the ladies’ intentions, raised the corners of his lips at a strange angle.

“Ah, I don’t think you know what happened to the Leshan family.”

“……yes?”

It was when the Lady, who was at the forefront, asked. Lloyd leaned back and tapped the tip of the bracelet the Lady was holding with his finger.

Just that.

The artifact cracked, and then the jewel suddenly became hard and broken.

“Kyaak!”

The Lady screamed and suddenly took a step backwards. The protection magic engraved on the artifact responds to Lloyd’s ‘God’s malice’ and exceeds its limit. It couldn’t stand it and exploded.

“I’m not the one who needs the protection side.”

Rather, people would have to protect themselves from Lloyd.

“Lady, protect yourself. If you don’t want to get hurt.”

His hand that touched the artifact pointed straight to the ladies. The gaze, which showed no emotion, seemed to be telling them to stop it right away if they didn’t want themselves to explode like the artifact.

“Gasp, gasp…”

Pale, they ran away, unable to speak properly. Even those who watched the scene with interest turned their heads desperately, as if they had seen something they would never see.

It was because Lloyd, who had been silent, suddenly showed a ferocious look like never before.

His mood seemed quite bad. Even if they made eye contact, it seemed that he would burst.

At that time,

– Why are you mad?

Aria returned with an assigned white horse and two more horses for Lloyd and Vincent. Then Lloyd blinked slowly and answered without hesitation.

“I missed you.”

The momentum that seemed to explode at any moment had disappeared like melting snow.

– ……It hasn’t been 10 minutes?

Aria replied as if it was ridiculous. But it was a pleasant thing to hear, so she smiled bashfully with her cheeks blushing slightly.

“Sister-in-law, did you see it?”

– What?

“My popularity!”

Aria only tilted her head. Because of Lloyd’s behavior, even the ladies around Vincent had all disappeared.

“Whoo, it’s over…”

As Vincent let out a self-sneering sigh, Aria tapped his shoulder a couple of times as if comforting him.

At that moment, Aria’s vision found the ladies running away.

All of them looked like they had dressed up in the same way as they did at the ballroom. The dress with lace fluttering with every step they took and the parasol in their hand seemed far appropriate for hunting.

‘Am I the only one who participates in the hunting contest among women?’

Aria looked down at the hunting clothes that Marronnier had chosen for a moment.

In fact, the ‘Queen of Spring Flowers’ elected in this hunting contest was chosen by the woman who received the most attention regardless of her hunting skills. The ladies gave gifts they had prepared to the lords, and the lords sacrificed the prey they hunted.

‘Perhaps Marronnier didn’t know.’

As a native of Grand Duchy Valentine, Marronnier would have never left the estate much. She must have been unaware of the culture of the capital city.

‘I mean, with a husband, I couldn’t have been chosen in the first place.’

Still, Marronnier with high expectations was cute, so Aria didn’t tell her the truth in order to protect her innocence. When Aria swallowed her sorry feelings and was about to arrive at the entrance of the hunting grounds with the two men.

“Wh, what?”

The Princess’s black horse came to Aria’s side, and cried briefly.

“Hmm, strange. He’s a picky guy who doesn’t even care about anyone other than me…”

Natalie coughed and asked as if she didn’t know that she would ever run into Aria like this.

“Is the Grand Princess also attending the hunting contest? What a surprise.”

Aria looked at Natalie. She was wearing a colorfully designed hunting suit that was tailored to her body. It matches her very well.

‘The Princess is also participating.’

Aria nodded her head.

– I’m not going to hunt.

“You’re attending a hunting contest, but you’re not going to hunt, what’s that?”

– Because I like nature. I want to take this opportunity to explore the imperial hunting grounds.

Aria looked around with a troubled expression. She wasn’t quite wrong, as she was planning to explore the surroundings in search of Viscount Tien’s traces. And she actually likes nature.

– I don’t like killing for play.

“That… you’re really like a deer.”

– Yes?

Natalie mumbled as if convinced to herself, drove her horse and disappeared. From the moment the Princess appeared, Lloyd, who had been staring in silence, murmured.

“…deer?”

It was a name that could never be spoken of without an explicit favor. In an instant, Lloyd’s mood turned harsh.

It was when he was openly expressing his displeasure.

“I didn’t know that the opportunity would come to see the Grand Prince’s skills myself.”

“It’s an honor. I’ll try my best too.”

A group of lords, who had been staring at Lloyd for a long time, whispered.

“Who knows. Some of us might tarnish the Grand Prince’s reputation.”

“In fact, it could have been just rumors.”

“At least, there is a strong possibility that he has become weaker than he was before. So, isn’t that why he received a medal bill from His Majesty?”

“Hahaha! Isn’t that a bit too straight forward?”

It was such a secretive voice that only Aria’s ears could hear it like at the banquet.

‘They don’t have the courage to speak in front of him.’

They’re doing that in Lloyd’s presence to look strong. Rather, she wondered if they know it doesn’t make them look good…….

‘Can Lloyd hear this?’

In fact, maybe he had been listening to it from the beginning. Even in his last life, Lloyd didn’t care what others said. But even if Lloyd treated them like a nuisance, Aria couldn’t stand it any longer.

– Please do it moderately.

So she had no choice but to step forward. The lords were startled by the message that echoed in their heads directly from her, and looked back at Aria.

They pointed their fingers at themselves to see if she was talking to them.

– I’m talking to the lords over there.

Don’t say anything that you cannot say in front of the person. But, for those who like to talk, they haven’t experienced something like this once or twice?

The lords seemed surprised that Aria listened to them talking amongst themselves, but they exchanged glances and evaded it.

“Well I don’t know what you are talking about…”

“We talked about the honor of being able to confirm the Grand Prince’s reputation in person.”

“Is there any problem with that?”

Aria’s eyebrows rose for a moment, then went down.

It was the expression she learned from Lloyd. She pulled an arrow from the quiver on her back. She then hung the arrow in the bow she had brought.

“Excuse me, Grand Princess?”

‘No way…….’

All the Lords who were making expressions like that became hesitant. Aria was aiming the bow precisely over the forehead of a Lord, who blabbered the most

“Gasp!”

“No, are you crazy?!”

“You, you, you’re aiming your bow at a person!”

Who doesn’t know that? She smiled brightly at the Lord, whose body was trembling.

Petals falling from the tree fluttered like embroidery behind her back. She was like the goddess of the moon in the legend, who was said to enjoy hunting and hiding among humans.

– If you keep shaking, the arrow will miss.

Far from retreating the arrow, Aria pulled the bowstring tighter.

‘Re, really? Are you really going to shoot?’

In the unbelievable situation, for a moment, his head was dyed pure white. He thought it was just a joke, considering it was Valentine. But the moment Aria’s eyes met his, he had no choice but to grasp reality.

This was no joke. Those were the eyes that were seriously aiming for prey.

Fwoosh-!

Aria let the bow go with a cold face.

The Lord closed his eyes tightly without realizing it and sat down on the spot. His lower body got wet. But the pain he had been waiting for did not come. He lifted his eyelids slowly, feeling the cold sweat running down his back.

“……”

What, what.

He looked around. It was because the arrow was nowhere to be seen.

After staring blankly for a while, the Lord noticed that the arrow had fallen right under Aria’s feet.

– Oh, my God. I missed.

“……”

– A squirrel was passing behind the Lord’s back.

Aria shrugged her shoulders as if regretfully.

– My skills are low, so the arrow can only go this far.

No matter how inexperienced she was , the arrow will not fall down on the spot. Unless she just let the arrow go in the first place and didn’t let go of the bowstring.

‘You’re trying to ridicule me from the beginning…… !’

The Lord’s face turned pale.

“Even if you’re Valentine, what kind of absurd tyranny is this! This is, it’s impossible. I’ll bring it to trial right now…!”

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

Then Lloyd came over to Aria’s side and looked at her hand as carefully as if he was handling glass. He was ridiculously overprotective.

It was at the moment when the Lord, who was more emotionally hurt by getting treated like something invisible, was about to explode.

“Where does this smell come from?”

The Princess, who had been watching them from afar, pulled her horse to them and shed a scornful laugh.

“…Ugh!”

Unable to keep his position due to shame, the Lord got up and ran away.