Eun-woo felt that her heart was feeling bitter then involuntarily clasped both of her hands together, looking at Tashian. Perhaps Tashian felt the gaze from her, so he lowered his gaze and fixed it on her.
"… It's not a big deal so don't make that face."
With that, he raised his hand and put her hair under her ear. She blinked at his words.
Does this man have any radar activated on her emotions?
Eun-woo was a little surprised by his five senses, close to the divine, sensitively capturing even the emotions she was trying to hide. Still, she felt her chest tightening sharply.
But before she could answer him, Ikshid's command came.
"We don't have time anymore. If we don't run and face that damn face right now, he'd pick up on this and turn some of his agendas from this. Making policies from the blood of these thugs can't be left. Put the ladies in the carriage. Duke Verk… you should come with me."
He took off the red cloak he had been wearing like his skin, threw it away, and hurriedly climbed onto his horse.
"Get ready to talk. I'm going to destroy his snakeskin-like white face today!"
As the crown prince's words fell, the guards moved in unison. Some of them came to his side with a small wagon that seemed to have been rescued in a hurry from the nearby area.
Tashian also moved quickly.
He hurriedly wrapped his arms around her shoulders and led her to the front of the carriage. Eun-woo was escorted by him and slowly moved her feet and got inside the carriage. Selena also got into the same wagon with the help of Ikshid's men.
Through the wide open window of the wagon, Eun-woo watched as Tashian gave instructions firmly to his direct subordinate, Sir Ouns.
He was probably asking for him to protect Eun-woo and Selena.
A few steps away from her, looking at his lips telling something firmly with seriousness, Eun-woo felt her heart strangely nervous. Her eyes swept through the tense atmosphere, fierce eyes, tight mouth, and thick eyebrows in a straight line.
Looking at that beautiful face, Eun-woo realized that her heart was beating with an unknown anxiety. Her wrists holding the carriage's window frame were barely numb.
Eun-woo grabbed the door frame and pulled out her body to say something to Tashian. But before she could even open her lips, something sharply flew towards her.
"Ah…!"
Eun-woo instantly grabbed an object the size of a baby's fist that was flying right at her with both of her hands. She looked down at the unknown thing in her hand with her bewildered eyes. It was an old, faded copper coin.
At that time, from afar, Karzxion's loud voice could be heard.
"Your reflexes aren't bad, Miss!"
Karzxion stood quite a few feet away from her chariot she was riding in, waving one of his hands towards her. Eun-Woo looked at him with puzzled eyes.
Tashian, who was in front of her, noticed the commotion he made once again. He licked his lips in frustration and placed his hand on his scabbard. If Sir Ouns had not been quick to stop him, there might have been another fight between the two knights.
"This... what is this..."
Eun-woo muttered while looking at the coin in her hand as she focused all her attention on him, lest Tashian will run towards Karzxion again.
Then Karzxion put his hands to his lips like an innocent boy and shouted out loud.
"That's the price of the favor. Take it!"
Eun-woo frowned at his absurdity.
Does this man see her as an idiot now?
No matter how foolish she was about the market matters, Eun-Woo knew how much money she should have paid for Karzxion's good deeds. It was not worth the price of such a breaking copper coin.
She glanced around at the little copper coin in her palm.
The coins, slightly larger than the coins of Hellasium, were engraved with the shape of a rider on a male horse, symbolizing the official monetary unit of the Mezzolin continent.
Eun-woo spilled the copper coins into her wallet as she glanced at Karzxion, who was still waving his hand towards her carriage, where she was riding.
"I'm sure I'll sew the snout of that noisy drunkard bastard someday.
Suddenly, Tashian was approaching the window of the carriage she was riding in. Once again, he sent a stern look towards Karzxion, who was suddenly heading somewhere.
"Ta… Tashian..."
Either way, Eun-woo pulled her head out as much as possible outside the carriage to see him, who had to leave soon, and called out his name.
"Are you coming back today…?"
She looked at his face and asked cautiously.
She unwittingly brought the anxiety that had been built up inside her out of her mouth, but there was no time for her to feel ashamed. Before she knew it, the driver of the wagon was only waiting for an order before he started going.
Hearing her words, Tashian gave a blank expression for a moment, then quickly grabbed her cheek with his quick hand.
"Of course. The Black Cathedral is located in the opposite direction of the Imperial Castle with the clock tower, but it is in the same Cremons. I will arrive on time."
Immediately after saying that, he added with his solemn expression.
"As soon as you arrive at the castle, treat the wounds on your hands first. All you need to do now is get enough rest."
Eun-woo blushed as he spoke exaggeratedly, like someone who had suffered from big troubles. But she had no intention of voicing the words inside her mind, so she gently nodded her head.
What happened today was surprising enough, but it all worked out. Rather than that, she was grateful that he was so concerned about what had happened to her.
Tashian stared at her like that with his intense eyes, and took his hand off her carriage until she no longer received his gaze and her body twisted in bitterness.
The horse kicked its hooves to the ground with the driver's roaring roar.
As the carriage departed, Eun-woo caught the sight of the two men moving away, with her head still pulled out without thinking of falling from the window.
The dark hem of Tashian's robe, which could only be seen at the edge of the carriage window, fluttered in the wind. Thinking that he looked very tired, Eun-woo felt her heart ache as she looked at him.
Why? Why is her heart disturbed by the sight of him getting smaller in her sight? Does that mean that such a big and strong person can make her this sad?
It didn't make sense.
Eun-woo forced her gaze away from the black troops that covered Tashian's figure.
Unfortunately, she didn't know who was worried about whom.
It was a day which was strange and she encountered a tiring occurrence she never experienced before, so maybe it was the reason why she was more emotional than usual.
Eun-woo comforted herself in that way and buried herself deep in the carriage chair.
If it hadn't been for Selena's question, she might have fallen asleep in the wagon.
"… Eleanor, how are you? Are you okay?"
Eun-woo opened her mouth to answer the question Selena anxiously asked. But what came out wasn't an ok response, but a scream filled with pain.
Due to the sudden commotion, her whole body was complaining of pain she had never experienced before. The two hands that took the broken glass and took pictures of the men's hands were tattered like rags and only blood was in good condition, and the arms and shoulders that were busy throwing heavy wine bottles creaked like doorposts that were not greased in time made a painful sensation.
Eun-woo frowned and barely nodded her head. The tension was relieved, and the cognitive pain seemed to come back to usual.
"Um… I think I should rest in my room for the time being."
"Still, I'm glad you didn't bleed as much as I thought. Just looking at the blood stains on Eleanor's clothes, I thought you were seriously injured, and my heart was pounding…"
Eun-woo smiled at Selena's words. Then suddenly she remembered Tashian, who had a knife stuck in his arm while trying to save her. Her face turned dark.
"Ta, Tashian also needs to heal his wounds… The blood on my clothes is his. He got stabbed in the arm while trying to save me… But without proper bleeding, he was immediately called to the Black Church…"
She tried to explain it calmly, but a voice mixed with weeping came out of nowhere. Then Selena quickly came to Eun-woo's side and wrapped her arms around her shoulder.
"Do not worry. The Duke is a great knight who has successfully fought even worse battles. A wound like that wouldn't harm him."
Her heartbroken words were her purposeful words to appease her.
But at Selena's words, Eun-woo for some reason couldn't hide his heartbreak and shouted.
"N, no….!"
Selena's eyes widened in embarrassment when she did that. However, once Eun-woo opened her mouth, she could hardly close it.
Her cheeks were slowly burning with shame. Eun-woo did not stop her words even though she knew that she might be only spewing gibberish things.
"Tashian… he too… is a sick person when he gets hurt. Absolutely… just because he's bigger or stronger than me… doesn't mean he's not sick at all. He pretends to be fine on the outside, but when he gets to know him, he really is…!"
Eun-woo couldn't continue to speak any more and blurted out the end of her speech.
Thinking of him, she felt dismayed as if he had rubbed a mint leaf on her chest.
Eun-woo stuttered and opened his lips as if squeezing out.
"… He-he's an ordinary person who sleeps at the office desk late nights and practices to the point that white paper turns black to learn how to calculate the iron and gas taxes…"
Eun-woo remembered the handwritten note he had handed down the other day. When she complained that the housekeeping class was difficult, he handed his belongings that he found in his own bedroom. The notes, which were written in clear handwriting, were never the result of one or two nights.
Thinking about that, Eun-woo bit her mouth with a feeling of even more exhaustion.
She herself also held his notebook, and how many nights she spent just to learn everything in it.
During the time when the stars appeared and set in the dark night sky, she remembered the moments when she wrestled with units such as hectares and shillings and squeezed her head to gain more knowledge.
How many mornings she found herself staring at the dawn light leaking through the window with her wide-opened eyes, and the thoughts, 'How long do I have to do this, is it possible to adapt myself here? It was a time that was repeated over and over again.
She used to close her eyes for a moment, taking his notebook as a pillow.
What she then found were the practice sheets that had turned black like coal, on the very back of his notebook.
As she counted the number of pen strokes in the notebook, he must have written over and over again until the paper, which was once white, stained black and tattered like this. She unwittingly raised her tired head and lifted the paper one more time.
"He… said he was given the throne when he was seventeen… Until then, in Genova…"
Eun-woo spoke about his origin, which had never been mentioned between the two of them.
She doesn't know why, but she remembered one day he murmured that he wished that the children of his estate would never go hungry. She also remembered the words that he had said about the life of serfs, which was terribly arduous.
'Maybe he used to starve often when he was young…'
A realization she had never thought of before seemed to strike her in the head.