The national anthem began to play. Marah returned from the stage into the tent to applause. She was immediately swarmed by the staff. She was praised and applauded by everyone and was given a bottle of iced tea since she was thirsty. She looked around the tent and when she saw Reyji, she excused herself and came to her. The staff split up and got ready to wait. Marah stood next to Reyji at the counter, drank from the bottle and only then spoke to her.

"I didn't think you'd be here."

~Does it bother her?~ Reyji was irritated. From her behavior and choice of words, it seemed as if she would have preferred it if she had not been here. But from her expression, she was happy about it. She did not want her to be here, but did she not want to show it? Reyji was not sure. As always, she was an unreadable book.

"I had read about your speech in the newspaper and wanted to listen to it."

"It was already in the newspaper? I only announced it this morning."

"It wasn't a full article. It was just a comment on the front page. The full article isn't due until tomorrow."

"Still, so soon? Which newspaper was it?"

"Roseleaf is the name. It's a young newspaper."

"Ahh, it's the one without a conscience that supposedly belongs to me. As if I would have named it like that... Can you take me back to the palace?"

"I can, but how are you planning to get back? I don't think it will be possible through the streets with all these people."

"That's not a problem. I've prepared something."

In that moment, someone burst into the tent. It was the head of the sword department. He looked around, found Marah and pushed several people aside to get to her as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Reyji noticed fresh blood on his shirt and on his gloves. The leather on the knuckles of the gloves was also partially scuffed.

"Ms. Von Rosenberg, Ms. Von Rosenberg, Ms. Von Ro-Sen-Berg, that was truly an indescribable speech." The man applauded eagerly on the palm of his left hand, so that the thick blood splashed from his glove down onto the sleeve of his coat. "You shook my emotions. It was an emotional hurricane. Now I've forgotten what I was going to say." He bowed his head and looked down at the floor in shame. "I'm infinitely sorry. I'll come back when I remember..." Now he noticed the blood on his glove. "Ah! No, I know again!" He saluted tightly with a hooked punch. "I report that I was ambushed and incapacitated without a chance to defend myself. But then I experienced a vision of the future in which I am not with you and was thus able to regain the strength to get back on my feet and I was also able to take the villains into custody at the risk of my life and with the help of various types of self-constructed stone traps."

"First of all, thank you for the kind words about my speech. What have you been able to find out about the attackers?"

"Yes, they are two middle-aged men in tasteless attire. They had handguns and parts of a detonator."

"What else?"

"That's all I could find out. From their body language, they're unwilling to cooperate."

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Marah looked like she was getting a headache.

"Then why is this important to me at all? Take it to Mr. Krüger."

"I just wanted to report it to you because I thought it would be interesting for you. But if you want me to take it to Mr. Krüger, then that's what I'll do. Now that I'm here, is there anything else I can do for you? You had previously indicated that you would like to return to the palace next. Do you need someone to accompany you?"

"No, I don't. If it's nothing else, you can go."

"I see..." The officer looked back and forth between the exit and Marah several times, then hesitantly marched off.

"They're still alive, aren't they?" Marah asked afterwards.

"They are. I would never let them die. I'll nurse them up like their own father, with oatmeal and a rod."

The officer saluted again, then turned on the hook and moved on towards the exit. On the way, he ripped a towel off the arm of a member of staff. When the man tried to complain, he angrily pushed him into a folding table, causing the top to break and the man to crash to the floor along with the make-up. The rest of the staff backed away in shock. The officer did not care. He indifferently wiped off the blood, then threw the towel on the man and finally left the tent.

"He is a lunatic."

"Yes, he is." Marah took a sip from her iced tea, watching the man get up from the table. "He has a personality disorder. He misinterprets a lot and then reacts differently than you'd expect. He takes pills so it doesn't get too bad. He should normally still be in an institution. I'd like to get rid of him, but he has to keep his job for at least two years so that his parents are happy. It's best if you avoid him."

"I'll try."

.../

Reyji was standing outside on a street corner. Marah had sent her ahead to wait for them here. There were hundreds of people on the street in front of Reyji, besieging the tent and waiting for Marah to finally come out. In fact, the crowd was so big that the city guard officers had their hands full trying to maintain the barrier around the passage that Marah wanted to use later to leave the tent. The press people had also repositioned themselves so as not to miss anything.

A few minutes passed without the situation changing much. Reyji smoked a cigarette to pass the time, then she saw a single soldier among all the people trying to cross the passage to the tent. It was a woman. That was immediately recognizable, but there was not much else recognizable about her. She was wearing sunglasses that hid her eyes. She had black, wavy hair that partially hid her face. Her uniform had a flat cap, shirt, pleated skirt, lace-up boots and was in the national colors of green and black. It was all fabric. Some insignia was on her upper arm with a snow monarch underneath. A snow monarch was a bird and the old symbolic animal of the postal service. According to the uniform, she was an officer from the army's intelligence service. The woman had not been here before. She had come from a side street and was now heading for the tent. She was walking and clearly in a hurry. She had a black briefcase in her left hand. None of the officers stopped her. The woman was able to run into the tent unhindered.

Normally, it would not be a good sign if someone walked up to Marah with a briefcase, but in this case, the briefcase was so that the woman would have an excuse to go into the tent and come out again immediately, or rather make it look like she was.

After two minutes, Marah herself came out of the tent. She was wearing the same uniform with the sunglasses, had a wig on and also had the suitcase with her. In this disguise, she was able to walk through the passage completely unnoticed. Reyji knew it was her, but it was impossible to recognize her. She had even adjusted the angle at which her feet hit the ground facing outwards to look like the woman she had just seen. Marah reached Reyji without any problems.

"Do you often do things like this when I'm on vacation?"

"I always do something else."

"What was that about the suitcase? Would a file not have been more credible?"

"The suitcase is unusual, that's why it's credible. I also wanted to scare the reporters. Did you see how they backed away? They know what a suitcase means."

Marah chuckled at her own charade. She liked doing things like that too.

"I'm afraid I couldn't see it from here."

"What a shame."

Marah pressed the suitcase into her hands and took the bottle of iced tea out of it. Apart from that, there was only her handbag in the suitcase.

After Marah had finished her drink, the two of them set off.

.../ End Part