.I looked down at Burrak's smoldering corpse, noticing something that made me chuckle. There, pinned to his chest, was my noble sign. The very same one he'd yanked from me earlier.

"I’ll be taking that back," I muttered, kneeling to retrieve it. But as I reached for it, my eyes drifted to the left and right of his chest. 'Wait, hold on...'

I straightened up, my laughter bubbling up again. This lunatic had 'two more' noble signs strapped to him.

'He’s been collecting them like Pokémon cards,' I thought, shaking my head in disbelief.

Now, to be clear, noble signs aren’t just shiny trinkets you can go around flaunting. They’re symbols of pride, of lineage. If a commoner so much as breathes near one, they could be executed—or worse, have their entire family dragged down with them. Even other nobles don’t go around touching each other's signs like it’s no big deal. Wars have almost started over a careless grab.

And here this guy was, walking around with a collection of noble signs. 'Just what kind of psycho was I fighting?'

I scanned Burrak’s body again, this time more carefully. My sarcastic grin faded slightly as I took in the burn scars, the wild tattoos, the rough, almost primitive garb. Something clicked.

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'Is he from the Forty Tribes?'

I’d only ever read about them in the dusty old history books back in Blackwood’s library. The Forty Tribes were basically a bunch of barbaric clans who refused to bend the knee to the royal house of Regalis. They didn’t even worship Mesra or any of the gods in The Holy Trinity. Just... pure, unadulterated chaos in human form.

'So what the hell is one of them doing here?'

They lived so far from the Regalis Holy Empire, practically at the edge of the world. It wasn’t like they ever came close to this part of Albion. Sure, some of them ended up getting caught by nobles and sold as fancy slaves or strong pets, but that was rare.

'This guy’s a long way from home.'

I couldn’t help but let my thoughts spiral as I stared down at Burrak’s charred remains.

'Why the hell was he after me anyway?'

More importantly, my location was kept secret and detours had been taken away from the main road to rule out anyone targeting me. Someone must have leaked my location, someone who knows it well. There are only a few people who have that kind of information but who?...my grandmother ? no it cant be .

Sure, my grandmother wasn’t exactly the warmest person on the planet, but hiring someone to kill me? No. Even in her twisted way, there was nothing she’d gain from it. She might not be above some... questionable tactics, but this? It didn’t add up. Besides, killing me before the royal party? That would be stupid even by Blackwood standards.

'And that’s what reals it' I thought. 'If I didn’t show up at the princess’s birthday, the Blackwoods would be in a weak position. They have no one else ready to go on such short notice. If we don’t attend, people will start questioning our loyalty to the crown, and trust me, the vultures will swoop in on that “opportunity” like it’s a buffet.'

A rival house, maybe? 'Someone who doesn’t want me to make it to the party...'

I eyed the other two noble signs on Burrak’s body and laughed to myself.

'Well, if someone really doesn’t want a Blackwood at the royal party, I know exactly what I’m going to do.'

Oh, thats gonna be fun.