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“Wasn’t there only supposed to be maids there?”

“That’s what I’m trying to say.”

I found the youngest of the women who were safely rescued a while ago. Fortunately, we found Haina and Thebe among those women. With the help of the patrols, Haina managed to return without any major injuries while Thebe’s arm was seriously injured during the raid and was moved to the cleric’s station.

I wondered how that even happened but I could not think of any possible causes. There were four pairs of eyes facing me with heavy breaths.

Dane. Lord Ray. Penne. Hannah.

“Princess.”

I was the one who secretly brought Ahacia, the princess from the desert, into this room without Penne knowing.

“Please say something…”

As I continued to keep my mouth shut, Penne could no longer hold it in anymore and carefully brought it up.

“Please. Hm?”

“I told you what I saw, Penne.”

Sweeping his face down, he seemed very flustered.

“With all due respect, princess… I understand that the desert delegation has yet to arrive in the Empire but…”

He spoke carefully.

“Maybe she’s a fake?”

“That’s a possibility…”

I swept my hair back.

“Penne. What you’re saying is valid.”

He was right. Who would believe a woman who suddenly proclaimed that she was a desert princess?

Impersonating a noble was definitely a crime here in this world.

Was she a fake? As Penne said, there was still a month before the desert delegation arrived. Besides, they were not just anyone, they were the princess’ envoys.

“Seriously, you mean the person in the other room is really the desert princess?”

“As Penne said, she could be a fake.”

Today marked the month and a half before the Founding Festival. In other words, there was only a month till what was written in my diary would be realised.

… Clearly, whatever I read in the diary did not mention what happened today.

“Let’s just ask her.”

Dane briefly concluded.

“… You’re right. That’s the only way. She’s in that room, right?”

Penne nodded.

“Yes.”

“I’ll be back.”

The door opened.

The woman seemed to turn her head this way. In a dim room, her hair looked dark scarlet.

“I’m heading in.”

Acacia.

I faced the eyes that were the vivid colour of leaves.

“Hello.”

The way she stared at only me with her lips stubbornly pressed together reminded me of a shivering puppy that had lost its way.

“How do you feel?”

“…..”

The desert princess’ hair glittered even in the dark and reminded me of the ends of the sunset. As I stared at her shining hair, I lowered my gaze.

I wondered if my diary would have an answer.

I flipped the book open in front of her. I was only doing it out of frustration. No one would know what I was doing anyways since I was the only person in the room who knew.

Flutter.

With a gust of wind, the pages flipped open. My gaze seemed to be dancing as I followed the letters.

[The 12th day of the month of Helios.

… Out of pure chance… the desert princess…]

Thud.

When I snapped the book shut, goosebumps ran down my skin.

‘It changed?’

It definitely changed.

If there had not been people looking at me right now, I would have shoved my nose into my diary to read it carefully. Damn. Shit. Slowly, I raised my head. Someone had been glaring at me for a while.

“Desert princess.”

“…..”

“I hoped you had enough rest.”

If this meeting had been really a coincidence. If the both of us had really bumped into each other by chance, would this be a variable?

“Stop, won’t you tell me? Why were you there?”

She was real. She had to be. I did not know but this coincidental meeting was an opportunity. If she really was the desert princess Ahacia, I could not miss this chance. Even a mere passing clue was important to me.

“Please tell me.”

In order to catch this opportunity, I had to find evidence that she was real.

“What happened to you?’

She slowly blinked once and then she looked up at me.

“I don’t know. When I opened my eyes, I was there.”

She slowly opened her mouth. Her unique appearance which was foreign in the Empire caught my eyes.

“They. Took it. I have to find it. My. Seshef-Ankh. If I don’t find it…”

“Seshef what?”

I grimaced and called for Penne.

“Seshef-Ankh. In the language of the desert, it refers to a living statue. I think I know what she’s talking about.”

Penne said.

“Are you saying that she wasn’t locked up there alone?”

“I think so.”

When I first saw her, she asked me to find something for her.

“Princess. You weren’t trapped there alone, right?”

Acacia nodded.

“Relax. If they were together in that building, they must be out there somewhere.”

I scratched my head.

“So… they kidnapped someone who didn’t speak their language.”

I was told that the kidnappers caught anyone they could. Anyone could tell that they were desperate enough to catch a woman who was not from the Empire.

‘Come to think of it, they even tried to capture me when I was ‘Ahn’.’

Ahn did not look like someone who was from here.

What were their standards when looking for templars?

It felt like I was walking on a tightrope above water. Everything I was being told was intertwined and I wondered what I needed. Cautiously, I processed through the different possibilities.

“Those guys said. Leave my Sethirna. She might be a candidate.”

“A candidate?”

“I don’t know. It’s a word I’ve never heard.”

Was she talking about templar candidates? Perhaps amidst the princess’ entourage, the woman who was suspected to be a templar candidate was also her aide.

My life had always been like this. My life felt like a building that had been burned down with only its skeleton left. Anyone wandering in would put my life at risk of collapse with any wrong step.

Eventually, it sounded like the desert princess and her maids had been unfortunately kidnapped together.

When I remained silent, thinking it must be his turn now, Penne stepped forward.

“Nice to meet you. Miss. My name is Penne. I take care of the Empire. Pardon me, but are you able to answer my questions now?”

There were no big changes in the princess’ expressions.

“Currently, we have nothing to prove your identity. I apologise if this inevitably turns into an interrogation.”

As I nodded my head to wonder how she was going to take this, she relaxed her lips and accepted. I turned my head to listen to what she has to say.

The diary had already proved it. She was the real princess.

But Penne was still suspicious. He was one of the people in charge of the kidnapping case.

‘I’d rather take him out of this room to convince him that it’s her.’

I left this place to Penne and approached Hannah.

“Hannah. Are you alright?”

“Yes? Yes yes!”

Her trembling blue eyes glanced at me. I wondered why. Hannah seemed more shaken up than Haina and Thebe, whom she was rescued with.

“Princess… I-I’m alright.”

She tried to force herself to smile when she looked at me but she could not hide her trembling hands as she gripped her skirt. I stared at her hands before covering them with my own.

Hannah was wearing a bandage tunic that was wrapped down to her wrist and for some reason her sleeves were cut off at her forearm. As I stared at her sleeves that seemed to have been cut off with some sharp scissors, I noticed strange wounds on her forearm and near her elbow.

‘It looks like an injection wound…’

Hannah’s eyes widened before blinking and covering up her arms that were full of wounds.

“Ah… Those people…”

“Those people did this?”

“Yes. They gave me some weird drugs and the moment I took it, I felt dizzy.”

Hannah looked up before looking at me. As if she had just woken up from sleep, her eyes looked clouded over.

“It was strange. But I’m fine now!”

Was she really alright? Or was she pretending to? I heard that trauma from any accident heals after a very long time.

“Also, princess…”

“Princess. Could you come here for a moment?”

As soon as I was about to speak to her, Penne called for me so Hannah stopped mid-sentence.

“Go and talk to him.”

Hannah nodded. I can hear her out after I get back. I could tell Penne had finished his simple interrogation with the help of Dane. But he looked frustrated for some reason.

“Penne, how did you treat her?”

“We’ll have to conduct an investigation first.”

“An investigation? She’s a princess, though? The women. Can we even investigate nobles from other countries?”

Penne gulped.

“We still don’t know if she’s the real princess.”

It seems like it was impossible for him to determine whether or not she was the real princess through an interrogation. Still, anyone could tell that she was a noble.

“She might not be speaking very well but anyone can tell that she grew up preciously.”

“Yes… I can see that too.”

He had been working with nobles as an official all this time so he should know better than anyone.

‘Also.’

I glanced at Ahacia. When I see her like this, she was not who I imagined at all.

“I think she’s scared…”

She was pretending to be calm but she looked like a child that made a big mistake and had no idea what to do… I had no idea if she really was the one who was going to kill me.

“I’ll bring her back to my palace.”

They might think I was crazy. I was fortunate that Fleon was not amongst the startled faces looking at me now.

I needed information. Someone from the original novel was trying to kill me. The fiancee who confessed her feelings for the Crown Prince. And somehow, the person who was predicted to kill me appeared in front of me. I had to find out anything I could to survive.

The author was quite cold and cut out anything that was not related to Rusbella and Castor from her story like a knife. That was why I did not know what happened to the desert princess in the end.

But my prophetic writings were the truth.

“Let’s bring her back. Her too.”

“No.”

“You cannot.”

I blinked innocently at the two firm faces in front of me. Dane and Penne. I did not think they would agree to it but I had not expected Penne to oppose it so openly.

I couldn’t believe how confident I was being in the same place as the killer who might murder me in the future… Perhaps I should not think about it ordinarily if not I might never understand.

I might not have reached this conclusion easily if I had not wanted to suffer from any more deaths.

But could I help it? To get my hands on my own future, I must step into places where death lurks to move forward.

I have survived in this world so far. And I will continue to do so.

After slightly biting my lips for a moment, I let out a small sigh.

“Is there any other way? I’m not going to leave her here in some shabby inn. Since none of the unmarried men take her in either. So that’s why I’ll take her.”

What would be good? When I turned my head, I made eye contact with Ahacia whose desperate gaze pierced me.

It might seem complicated but the solution may be simple.

“I’ll take you.”