Amelie held her breath in the carriage, awaiting Frondier's return.
She swallowed her pounding heart and buried her face in her knees.
As Frondier had read, excitement rather than fear dominated Amelie's emotions.
Amelie didn't know the exact details of the plan's flow. Knowing everything would spoil the fun. The overall scheme was orchestrated by her family, a light amusement for their daughter.
Therefore, even without precise knowledge, Amelie anticipated that the bandit group that had appeared was also a staged performance prepared by her family.
However, a tiny sliver of fear lingered due to the uncertainty, the possibility that they might be real bandits after all. This fear served as fuel, further amplifying her excitement.
Loud noises resonated from beyond the carriage. Listening to them, Amelie's imagination soared, picturing Frondier elegantly defeating their enemies.
What weapon would Frondier use? A sword, perhaps? How skilled was he? He could surely take down mere bandits without a scratch, right? What was the secret technique he used to defeat the Manggot leader?
Until now, she had been a little scared, and more than anything, staying still here gave her the feeling of being a 'protected lady,' preventing her from moving. However, her curiosity about how Frondier fought surpassed that feeling.
Just as Amelie approached the carriage wall and discreetly tried to open the door...
Frondier opened the carriage door and entered before she could.
"Ah! Oh, you're back."
Amelie awkwardly retracted her outstretched hand and spoke. Frondier briefly glanced at her gesture.
A shiver ran down her spine.
Amelie felt an inexplicable chill from the brief glimpse of Frondier's eyes. There was neither murderous intent nor hostility in his gaze. His expression remained the same as before he left the carriage.
Yes, Frondier returned exactly as he had left, without a single change.
'Not even a scratch, not a speck of dust...!'
As Amelie marveled at this fact,
With a short sigh and a smile, Frondier took Amelie's outstretched hand and gently lowered it.
"Don't look. It's not a sight for your eyes, my lady."
"Ah, yes, yes. I'm sorry."
The carriage started moving again after Frondier entered. They both resumed their positions as before the bandits appeared.
As before, Amelie would speak to Frondier, and he would respond appropriately, keeping her spirits high.
Nothing seemed different from before, except...
The temperature in Frondier's eyes had undoubtedly dropped several degrees.
Empress Philly paused while reading a document.
She called the name of the knight guarding her side.
Robert, who had returned to the Imperial Palace after a long time, bowed his head.
"Did Frondier agree to become Lily's knight?"
"Yes, a report has been submitted. It states that he was immediately assigned to the mission today."
Rarely did Philly frown, but she did so at his words.
"Didn't I say that all reports related to Frondier should be delivered directly to me for the time being?"
"...There were so many trivial reports that a mistake was made during the sorting process─"
Philly interrupted him. Robert immediately knelt on one knee.
"Sir Robert has a bad habit. As I mentioned before, please don't try to interpret the 'implications' of my orders."
"I said to deliver 'all' reports to me. Did I say that I would sort them myself, whether they were important or not?"
"No. It was my presumption."
"I'll forgive you this once. It's because I trust Sir Robert. From now on, please deliver all documents and messages related to Frondier to me without fail."
As Robert remained silent, Philly's expression grew more displeased.
"You're not answering. Robert."
"Forgive me, Your Majesty. If Your Majesty takes an interest in a particular individual, it alone will cause unnecessary noise within the Imperial Palace."
Robert wasn't defying Philly's order.
He simply judged the situation to be dangerous.
Frondier's name was already frequently mentioned among people these days. If word got out that Philly was paying attention to his every move, who knows what kind of nonsense those gossipmongers would spread.
"Haah," Philly sighed deeply.
"That's what it was. Sir Robert, I appreciate your loyalty and taciturnity, but it seems you've gone too far. Don't worry about such things."
"...However, Your Majesty."
"I wasn't clear enough. I meant it when I said it was okay. I'm not saying I'll endure it or put up with it, I'm literally saying it's alright."
Confusion spread across Robert's face at Philly's words.
Philly continued, "My interest in all reports related to Frondier isn't solely about him."
Her eyes briefly shifted to the side.
"In time, everyone in the Imperial Palace will understand why."
Bandits weren't the only ones disrupting Amelie's journey.
As the carriage traveled, strange cries echoed repeatedly, and loud noises, likely landslides, came crashing down from the cliffs to the left.
However, except for the initial encounter with the bandits, Frondier didn't leave the carriage. In fact, the carriage didn't even stop.
The sounds would fade away after a while. The strange cries, the landslides, the falling rocks—they were only perceived as sounds, having no impact on the carriage.
If it weren't for those sounds, Amelie would have thought nothing was happening.
At this point, Amelie also realized that the situation was unfolding differently than she had anticipated.
The sounds coming from outside were too ominous for her to simply enjoy them as amusement. Although her fear didn't escalate because the sounds disappeared despite Frondier remaining seated, his lack of reaction was strange in itself.
It was as if he was erasing all the surrounding events.
While Amelie began to observe Frondier cautiously,
'...They knew who I was.'
Frondier was thinking about the fake bandits he had encountered.
Of course, the sounds Amelie heard afterward were exactly as she had guessed. Flying monsters attacked, landslides occurred above, and boulders tumbled down.
However, Frondier had used the Obsidian to block them all beforehand. With his sixth sense, he was able to handle everything from within the carriage.
'They knew who I was and still attacked. Knowing full well they couldn't win.'
Frondier wasn't arrogant about his abilities, but it was true that the attackers were far inferior to him.
If they knew that Frondier was the one who killed the Manggot leader, they should have brought a larger force or stronger individuals, or better yet, not attempted it at all.
'...To understand this situation, they knew I was Amelie's escort, but they couldn't stop the operation.'
In other words, they had to kill Amelie no matter what.
To the enemy, Amelie was either incredibly important or incredibly urgent.
But why Amelie? She wasn't a powerful figure or someone in a high political position. Sure, her family was wealthy, but attacking Frondier for that reason didn't make sense.