Richard tests the princess.

She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. Having rushed over from the battlefield, the toes of the man’s shoes were worn-out and his uniform was dull, but even without acting exceptional, he appeared disciplined and noble.

He lowered his dark eyelashes and closed his eyes as he gave a deep long sigh. “Your servant Richard Von Cobalt, reporting that I have carried out all orders and returned.”

For some reason, his response touched her. Maybe because it was the response of a man who had returned from far away. Returning from a journey that was meant to result in his ****, he was so upright and unshakeable.

The anguish and grief that had piled up over the years spread out slowly. Though it was soon put in order. Even during this, the man was polite and calm.

Although the words may have seemed dry to some, they felt genuine to her. He was simple. Although his face showed a bit of age and hardship. she could believe it. No, in actuality, she couldn’t believe it. The fact that he didn’t resent her, the ‘princess’, even the slightest bit was a lie she told herself.

His wordless gaze brushed past her skin. Even this quiet concern seemed separated from reality as she relaxed back in the throne now appearing as someone else to the seat of power, if only to hide her fear.

Richard refused to give the princess the satisfaction of seeing him bury his head in his hand and looked to the court to be distracted, a decision he’d soon regret as he went through the many faces he spied a pair of fiery crimson eyes staring back at him.

“Richard…” Calling his name to get his attention she followed where he was looking and saw Mina along with the other maids stationed at the side of the throne room. “Is there a problem?”

“No…” His voice edged on surprise. “You didn’t?”

“I didn’t what?”

“Nothing.”

‘Now you act coy!? Ask me what you really wanted to ask me, you want to know why I didn’t execute her yet, right just spit it out?!’

He spoke. “There is a rebel in this palace.”

‘Huh? Well, that was unexpected.’

“What?” As though he really thought she hadn’t heard him, he repeated himself to a fault.

“There is a rebel in this palace. We must root them out.”

“Wait, what…….”

Richard addresses the court. “Will you leave this to me?”

“……What are you going to do?”

“There is a rebel in the palace. Will you permit me to root them out.” He must have really thought she was an idiot because he had just repeated the same words for the third time.

She had opened her mouth to say something when she met his eyes. Swept away by an indescribable feeling, she ended up murmuring. “……If you want, fine.”

After that, things proceeded at lightning speed. As though he had been planning this for a long time, he gathered all of the maids already in the throne room. Then he instructed the soldiers to search the servants’ quarters. Resting her chin in her hand, she was waiting to see what all of this was about while sitting back in a chair at the end of the hall.

Richard was prudent but merciless. He took something out and clutched it. Suspecting what it was, she lowered the hand away from her chin and straightened her upper body. One by one, Richard began comparing the handwritten papers taken from the servants’ quarters to it. “…..What is that?”

“There is someone who leaked Your Highness’s personal information to me. This is evidence of that.” It was a letter. And she was pretty sure she knew what it was. It took literally no time for Richard to swiftly find the matching handwriting, and for Mina to be found from among the maids and dragged out in front of him, where she even fell. Literally.

“R-Richard?”

Mina looked up at him with an expression that said she couldn’t begin to understand the situation.

But Richard only glanced at Mina with a cool expression and all the emotion of hearing someone call out his name before turning to face the princess.

In his hand was the evidence. Mina’s letters, which she had probably spent a good deal of time and effort in writing, were being treated like ‘Exhibit A’.

“She continuously approached me, Your Highness’s concubine, attempted to push me in a direction that would harm Your Highness, and leaked Your Highness’s information to me therefore-.”

“You! You asked me for it!”

“I believe it is right to permanently expel her from the palace.”

But he finished without budging an inch.

She opened her mouth then closed it again. She couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It was an opportunity to get Mina out of her sight.

‘Was that a wise decision? It would be easier to handle things when they happened if I kept her close by.’

Reading my indecision, Richard looked to the princess.

“……I need time.”

“You’ve never needed time to make this decision before.”

“…….”

“What are you worried about?”

At those words, she reflexively gripped the armrests.

“What are you afraid of?”

“……”

He placed a hand on his chest and bowed his head.

“……What will you do?”

“I will do it.”

“……What will you do?”

“Everything that is troubling you, shaking your composure. Whatever it is, even if it goes against the right path, please eliminate everything. I will handle it all.”

“…….”

“I will do everything.”

She couldn’t believe it. She knew they were words she couldn’t believe.

‘This son of a bitch he’s testing me…’

The questions he had asked in the beginning changed and came back to her once again. She saw Mina’s hopeless and furious face. Strangely enough, she felt peaceful.