The knights behind her were slowly catching up but were gradually lost in the small-scale forest.
The attendant was right.
Fighting those knights, running away, and crouching down when someone comes close hurt her so much. Keira had to bite her lips in order to stop herself from groaning in pain every time she moved. Keira hated pain but it was times like this when she was forced to endure and can do nothing but bite the bullet.
Keira hid behind the tall trees and slowly made her way to the concubine palace.
Keira was already familiar layout. She spent quite some time in this world in the past and knew an interesting exit path that Adage once showed her. She had already planned on running in this specific direction—to the shabby secret exit in the concubine palace.
While Keira was making her way to the concubine palace, Adage who was in his still in his room leaning on the window reading a leather journal that he recently found in his chambers, saw in the corner of his eye, a small stature running and hopping along the edge of the palace garden’s small forest, trying to make its way to the concubine palace while brushing off the people behind it.
His room had a huge vantage point of the palace garden and through this, Adage was able to see the forest and the front yard of the concubine palace. Adage who quickly determined that this person running away might be Keira left the journal in his room and went out of the terrace to take a closer look.
The outside breeze blew his jet-black hair and his the corners of his black robe danced alongside it. His face remained impassive but his heart was beating out of his chest as he saw the person climb her way to the desolate concubine palace with his keen eyesight.
Adage decided to follow that person and catch her himself. He directly jumped down from the terrace that was located on the third floor. His loose robe made a sound as it fluttered across the wind as jumped down and chased the person down.
When Adage arrived at the concubine palace, he looked around but saw no one in sight. He could not help but feel disappointment hit his heart. He clenched his fist hard, and the wound that had already stopped bleeding earlier bled again.
Adage felt a presence behind him. His eyes glinted with killing intent. Without hesitation, he toppled the person down and pointed a small dagger that he pulled from the inside of his robe to its neck.
“Y—your Majesty, it’s me!” The attendant exclaimed, terrified at the dagger that was small but sharp enough to have already injured him from the light contact.
“Oh.”
Adage withdrew the dagger and his body from his attendant that was currently laying on the ground after being knocked down by him. The attendant quickly rose up still sweating from almost losing his life. The attendant could see the annoyance in His Majesty’s face so it let out a strained cough.
“Your Majesty, the assassin that you asked me to fetch managed to escape and is now being searched by the palace knights. Don’t worry Your Majesty, we would surely catch that small woman as we had already surrounded and locked down the entire palace, making it impossible for her to escape.”
Suddenly, a memory flashed in Adage’s mind.
“By the way Your Majesty, what are you do—”
Sparing no glance at this attendant and not even letting him finish his question, Adage had already walked away and briskly made his way to that place.
“Ah! Your Majesty, please wait!” The attendant called out as he followed Adage further into the empty concubine palace.
When Adage and his attendant arrived at the place, there still wasn’t any trace of anybody around.
The attendant looked at the emperor who was staring at a shrub in the corner of the palace walls. When the attendant looked intently at the shrub, he still could not make out what was special about the shrub that His Majesty was taking special attention to it.
In the eyes of outsiders, the shrub wasn’t out of place, but Adage knew there was a hole behind the huge shrub as this was the place he used to sneak out in when he was still in the concubine palace after his mother died.
Now, looking at the newly visible trace left around the shrub, Adage naturally knew that the person he saw earlier made her way here and escaped through the hole, hidden behind the shrub.
Adage’s eyes darkened as countless thoughts passed through his head. But amongst the overwhelming emotions, excitement was the most prevalent.
‘T…That person earlier must really be Keira, right? That had to be my Keira.’
The fear he felt earlier was momentarily forgotten by the thrill of the thought that he was meeting his Keira again.
‘I can’t believe you’re really back…’
The dazedness he was in for the entire week vanished just like that. His view became clear and the messy thoughts in his head became organized for he had seen the light in the dense fog.
His Keira was back… so it was only right to bring her back home and let her stay by his side where she naturally belongs…
Adage looked at his attendant. The attendant was caught off guard by the cheerful deposition of His Majesty. The attendant had never seen such bright eyes present in the eyes of the emperor that His Majesty’s amethyst eyes were glistening like the ore itself.
Spending as the emperor’s attendant for so long, this was the second time he saw the emperor so expressive. The attendant just kept seeing the different side of the emperor these days. But it still made him happy that His Majesty stopped being dazed and finally have light shone on those eyes. Yet, he could not feel but uncomfortable under that gaze.
‘It’s like a crazed person’s eyes… But HIs Majesty would not go insane out of nowhere…right?”
‘Finally, the emperor would go back to work and not sit in his bedroom and stare at the window all day! I would finally have some workload off my shoulder!’
Adage looked at the shining eyes of his attendant like he was finally free from slavery. Adage didn’t pay any more attention as he began instructing his attendant.
“Send out the knights, including the elite assassins that we have. Use all the necessary manpower to track down and catch that assassin.”
“Ah?” The attendant was dumbstruck. He was just celebrating earlier as he had thought the emperor finally had the motivation to work after gawking at the shrub.
The attendant felt his heart crack. Turns out he had even more work to do, and could not even raise complaints before the emperor added more say.
“Set out a bounty for her. This would be the fastest method to catch her.”
The attendant remarked, “Yes. Having the citizens keep an eye on her would make it extremely easy for us to catch that assassin. But Your Majesty… how much should I put on the bounty?”
Adage raised a finger.
The attendant tilted his head and asked, “100 gold?”
“No.”
The attendant asked again puzzled, “Then 1,000 gold?”
Adage shook his head.
The attendant was getting nervous but still continued to ask, “10,000?”
Adage shook his head again in disapproval.
The attendant widened his eyes in dismay. “Y—Your Majesty… You can’t possibly mean…!”
“Having the citizen’s help is the easiest way, is it not that what you said?”
Adage scoffed at his attendant before walking away, leaving his attendant to process everything in the dreary atmosphere of the concubine palace.
Adage continued to ponder on his thoughts as he steadily made his way back to the palace garden.
‘It’s like the purpose for becoming emperor was for this very moment. I would utilize everything in my hand to have you again. It was even you who taught me to use everything at my disposal to achieve my goal by any means.’
Adage stopped and looked at his bedroom from the palace garden where he was peering through earlier. He looked down at his bloodied hand and a smile creepily formed on his face.
‘Don’t worry Keira… I won’t make the same mistake twice. But… I hope you will forgive me for what I will do this time.’
