Blair was standing on the outside of the balcony railing. Precariously, as if she might fall at any moment.
Blair also seemed quite flustered, as if she hadn't expected Lina to enter the room.
Lina took advantage of that moment to rush over and roughly grab Blair's waist.
"No! You can't!"
"Lina, wait! You misunderstand. First, let go of this..."
"No! I won't let go! If Your Highness is going to die, I'll die with you!"
"That's not what..."
"I don't want to! I won't listen to anything you say until you come back over here! Hurry and come inside!"
Finally, Lina began to sob while holding onto Blair. Even so, she clung to Blair tenaciously and pulled her in, as if reeling in a big catch.
"How could you try to leave me behind and go somewhere alone! Absolutely not! If you're going to have such bad thoughts, kill me first before you go!"
"That's not what I was doing. From just the second floor, what..."
But Lina, sniffling with tears and snot, didn't seem to hear those words. Blair had to endure receiving her tears while being held tightly.
Only after a long while did Lina finally calm down and ask Blair.
"But why did you have such thoughts...?"
Her voice was still nasally from crying.
Blair scratched her cheek sheepishly as she explained.
"It's not what you're thinking. I was trying to sneak out because I had somewhere to go."
Hearing Blair's words, Lina finally noticed the cloth tied to the balcony railing. It was a rope skillfully made from the bedding in the room.
Lina was aghast.
"Oh, no. How reckless! What if you fell and got hurt?"
"It's only the second floor. There are bushes below."
Blair was proud, as if she had made her own meticulous plan, but Lina, who had watched over Blair for a long time, knew better.
Her lovely princess, despite her gentle appearance, would occasionally do reckless things.
Lina sighed, touching her forehead, then suddenly remembered something and asked.
"By the way, where were you trying to go in the middle of the night...?"
Instead of answering Lina's question, Blair just smiled brightly. It was a dazzlingly beautiful smile, but somehow ominous.
* * *
"This is..."
Lina's eyes widened as she looked out the carriage window.
The place they arrived at after sneaking out of the duke's mansion with Blair was the guild street in the back alley of the capital.
Blair flipped up her robe's hood and opened the carriage door, saying,
"I'll be back soon."
"If you're not out in 30 minutes, I'm really going to come looking for you. I mean it!"
Throughout the carriage ride, Blair had earnestly insisted that Lina couldn't come with her into the guild, so Lina backed down obediently while making threats.
Blair, who got out of the hired carriage, stood in front of a guild building.
Guild Rebellus.
It was an information guild renowned for its unrivaled ability to collect information among the numerous guilds.
Blair took a deep breath and entered the guild building.
At first glance, the interior looked like an ordinary tavern. When Blair entered, the noisy guild suddenly fell silent as if cold water had been poured over it.
They scrutinized the unexpected visitor who didn't fit in with this place.
Although the woman had her face hidden by her robe's hood, the high nose and small reddish lips that were briefly visible were enough to tell she was a beauty.
A well-built middle-aged man who had been eyeing Blair's face slammed down his beer mug with a thud and shouted.
"Hey, who brought their girlfriend to the guild? Confess now."
"Ah, I think she's my girlfriend."
"What are you talking about? She looks like my wife."
The men joked around, each claiming Blair as their woman. Even their snickering laughter sounded frightening to Blair.
For her, who had grown up preciously as a princess, encountering a group of men showing their raw nature was something unfamiliar.
But if she had thought of running away scared from here, she wouldn't have come in the first place.
Blair ignored them and approached the bar located in the center of the guild.
However, the drunk men didn't seem willing to let go of their rare eye candy so easily, and blocked her way.
"Hey, pretty lady. What brings you here?"
"I came to meet the master of this place."
"Our master is too busy to take on trivial tasks. How about talking to us elder brother's instead? We'll do it for you cheap and sure."
"Have a drink with us and tell us slowly. What kind of trouble brought our pretty one to fearlessly visit a place crawling with these dark fellows?"
A man so drunk he could barely aim his own body leaned in close to Blair, putting his arm around her shoulders. The smell of alcohol and unfamiliar warmth that came with him made her skin crawl.
Blair calmly removed the man's arm. Then she placed a ring in his hand and said,
"Go call the master."
"Hah!"
The man, whose face had turned red from the alcohol, burst out laughing as if dumbfounded.
He was quite displeased at being completely ignored and treated like a servant, just given a jewel.
"Who do you think you're treating like a neighborhood mutt! You think everyone wags their tail for money?"
The man raised his voice, spitting as he spoke. His large build and loud voice alone were threatening enough.
But Blair didn't back down.
No, she couldn't back down.
Not when she thought about the future with Asiel that hinged on this guild request.
Blair clenched her instinctively trembling hands to hide them and stood up to the man.
"You've worked in this field for a long time, so you should know better than anyone how to conduct yourselves. How foolish it is to cut open the belly of a goose that lays golden eggs."
The man who met Blair's eyes through the robe hood flinched. From this fragile woman's gaze, he felt a strange pressure that couldn't be defied.
It wasn't just the man who felt it; the guild members watching also sensed the strange atmosphere and exchanged glances with each other.
If nothing else, seeing how confidently the woman was acting, they were certain she must be a high-profile client that absolutely couldn't be let go.
Search "child" at redcatty [.] com to read ahead up to chap 170.