Chapter 50.5

In short, it was a natural part of social interaction and diplomacy, but they wouldn't actually visit for the pre-ceremony celebration.

"What you're hiding then, I'll put aside for now. Did you hear back from them?"

"Additional letters arrived from there before we could respond. They said they wouldn't wait for a reply from the country and leave to congratulate us as soon as possible."

"... Which means they took a hard line before we said no."

She didn't know how to describe it, but she has a bad feeling about this.

"Who wrote you the letter?"

"Don't you have any idea?"

He was right. She had a vague idea when Arnold called Count Rovine, the protector of the northern territory.

"Immediately after I received the letter, I sent out a scout to the northern port city of Siutena. It was only a week ago that I received word of ships' arrival. From there, I calculated the speed of the carriage, the time of rest, and the lodging in the towns along the way. After calculating things like lodging in towns along the way, I figured it would be this time of day."

The merchant at the stall said that the merchandise they were trading today arrived in Siutena a week ago on a ship.

As Arnold thought, the goods and ships that arrived in the port city had reached the Imperial City this morning.

Food carriages would also be in a hurry, but if it was a carriage carrying royalty, it would be a bit slower.

With that in mind, it would be reasonable for them to be this late.

"Wa~"

Arnold reached out towards Rishe and pulled the hood of her robe over her head.

She was taken aback, but she could tell at once that it was to hide her hair color.

When she looked up, his gaze was directed out of the Great Gate and onto the carriage road that stretched out into the plains.

Rishe followed suit and also looked into the distance of the carriage road.

That's...

— She recognized the carriage at once.

Trips to Koyor, the snowy kingdom, were taken to and from the port town of Siutena.

The design of that carriage was undoubtedly Koyor's.

If there was a suspicious visit from the Koyor Kingdom, the best person to be on the lookout for it would be Rovine, who had been keeping an eye on the countries across the sea for years.

That was why Arnold called Rovine. In order to keep the royalty coming from the Koyor Kingdom in check without any diplomatic disturbances.

And there was only one person in the Koyor Kingdom whose name was listed as an attendee at the wedding ceremony.

"Wertsner, I want to protect my country"

The voice of a young man flashed back to her mind.

"I will spare nothing to achieve this... That's probably the greatest duty I've ever had, having escaped death."

Prince Kyle...

The sickly and responsible First Prince of the snowy land of Koyor.

It was the name of a certain young man that Rishe had taken care of in her life as a pharmacist.