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And besides, there might be nobles out there who were in disguise and if they recognized the Marquis here, things would get messed up.
He is on a secret mission that the Emperor entrusted to him and Scarlette wouldn't let his friend's reputation to be tarnished by this situation or by those rotten nobles who wanted to bring him down.
In the first place, it wasn't Scarlette's plan to be friends with the Marquis to begin with.
The man is the revered Marquis and war hero of their Empire, and she didn't want to be involved in some troublesome matters because of her humble origin.
Scarlette never expected that after the Knights Competition three years ago, the Marquis managed to track her and knowing her true identity as the famous SSS-Rank Adventurer.
She remembered from that time, she got invited by the Marquis to his household, and she was about to decline that offer since she didn't want to get involved with the matters of the Marquis.
However, turning him down felt bad at that time since she saw how sincere the Marquis was for inviting her personally, and not coming from one of his servants, like how most of the nobles would do.
Of course, wariness is still present at that time when the Marquis invited her to his household and the crimson-haired woman never expected that upon arriving at the Marquis' household, the one who greeted her weren't the servants of the manor but the Grand Marchioness herself, Marquis Middleton's birth mother.
In all honesty, at that time, Scarlette is a bit uncomfortable because of her humble origin, and the Grand Marchioness, although a former concubine from the Viscount Middleton household but she is still a noblewoman and a respected one since she is the birth mother of the revered Marquis of their Empire.
Scarlette didn't want others to enter into her life as she had enough. She knew that she would be alone for the rest of her life, and she didn't want to have an attachment to anyone else and preferred to be left alone.
At that moment, the crimson-haired woman suddenly remembered the words coming from the Grand Marchioness, and her words still struck through her thoughts from time to time.
« …. "I know that feeling as I can relate it as well, my dear. You choose to close your heart in order to protect yourself. I know it's hard to trust someone, however, I just hope that one day, you open up with those people who tried to connect with you, and also, set yourself free from the pain that you have been carried deep inside you." ….. »
Her words, even though it's not the exact phrase from a [certain someone] that she knew, the crimson-haired woman felt her heart sting in pain upon remembering those words.
She didn't want the Grand Marchioness to be worried for her, so she just accepted the words coming from the esteemed noblewoman.
Also, from that moment, the crimson-haired woman never expected that upon meeting the Marquis, the man immediately offered a friendship out of the blue, much to her dismay.
Scarlette didn't know what that man was thinking about. Offering a friendship to a mere commoner like her? Let alone an adventurer like herself.
She bluntly refused it at first because she thought that it would be a headache for her to be involved with someone like the Marquis.
'I already got myself involved with the royal family, especially to the Emperor himself, which is probably the most troublesome matter that I have experienced in my whole life and adding to the fact that the Marquis wanted to be acquainted with me… Argh!'
In their Empire, they regarded him as one of the war heroes who fought hard on the battlefield and bring honor to their Empire, not only that but his contributions for saving the lives of the Emperor and the Crown Prince solidifies his reputation within the noble society.
If the Marquis offered this friendship to someone else, for sure they would immediately accept it, knowing that being acquainted with the revered Marquis of their Empire would gain them benefits for themselves.
However, as for Scarlette, she wasn't delighted about it, and she politely declined that offer before. The crimson-haired woman thought that he would stop seeing her after she rejects that offer and never bothered her again.
But she made a mistake.
It seems that the Marquis is way too confident in himself.
The Marquis pestered her over and over again whenever he had the chance and the other adventurers who happened to witness that kind of scene seems that they had misunderstood something, and the crimson-haired woman knew that this would get her into more troublesome matters.
Because of the Marquis' action, it didn't take for too long for rumors to be created about them, and it became an open secret within the Empire's noble aristocrats, as well as the royal family itself, especially this had reached within the Emperor's side about them.
For that reason, it became a huge headache for Scarlette's everyday life because of the Marquis.
Since the man takes "no" for an answer then, the crimson-haired woman had no choice but to accept his friendship offer, reluctantly, and that's how their weird friendship starts.
'However, he doesn't know yet from that time about my special relationship to the royal family, but it didn't take that long for him to know about it and the fault lies to the Crown Prince himself.'
Just thinking about those moments from the past, the crimson-haired woman just sighed and then snapped from those thoughts as she watched the on-going battle between Ryan and Fenix.
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At the center where two adventurers were still fighting, Fenix had a hard time keeping his pace on the battle because Ryan kept on attacking him and didn't give Fenix a chance to counterattack.
'Just where the heck this b*stard come from?! He is just a puny E-Ranker, and I'm a B-Ranker! How the hell his fighting abilities so strong that I couldn't counterattack!'
Fenix felt enraged because of Ryan's attack as he couldn't find any blind spot to attack the other man and because of that, his rage doubled and he back away for the meantime.
Ryan, on the other hand, also withdraw when he notices the other person back away and both of them stop their attacks as both were panting heavily because of the intense battle.
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