The fact that the emperor left the forest before the end of the hunt was surprising enough. That his entire shoulder was covered in blood made it much worse though.
It was the most stupid thing to do in that situation, but Blanche couldn't hold herself back. Her body moved on its own as she grabbed her dress to lift the skirt and ran to her lover as fast as she could. Her shoes weren't appropriate for moving this fast, and her legs were shaking, but she didn't stop until she reached Theodore. She barely managed to suppress the impulse to jump into his arms because of his injury, but seemingly, he had read her mind.
Theodore held his arms towards her so that he would have been able to catch her if she had decided to run into him with full force. Luckily, he didn't have to.
Blanche had just run for a short distance, but her heart already felt like it would give up, though she wasn't sure whether that was just the case because she was afraid for her lover. As soon as she had stopped in front of him, she grabbed his arms. “Theo, you're...” She couldn't even finish that one sentence, and it felt like she could barely breathe. She raised her head and stared at him with wide eyes. Then she saw that he was smiling down at her, and her panic died as the horrible images of him lying on the ground bleeding left her mind again.
Theodore allowed her to dig her fingers into his sleeves without pushing her away and replied in a calm voice. “That's not my blood. Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine.”
That only made her stutter more. “I thought, I thought...” Slowly, the rest of the nightmarish scenarios she had come up with faded from her mind as she fought the urge to pull Theodore into a hug. Everyone was watching them already, and her running to him had been worse enough. She had to hold back.
Theodore didn't seem to pay attention to the crowd though. He didn't look away from Blanche once as he slowly bent his arms so that he could grab hers too without having to loosen her hold on him. “Do you want me to console you? I didn't want to ask first, but you might get angry if I just pull you close in front of everyone here.”
Blanche wanted to ignore the others so badly, but she couldn't. She hurriedly shook her head out of fear that she might change her mind otherwise. “I'm fine. I just need a few seconds.” She scanned her lover's whole body, but no part of his uniform appeared to be ripped or looked like he had been injured in any other way. He also didn't act like he was pained, so he had to be telling the truth. She directed her eyes at the bloody spot on his torso that was slowly growing as the liquid drenched the fabric. She was no expert at estimating how much blood an animal had, but this seemed like it was a lot. “This...is so much blood. What happened? What kind of animal is this big?”
Theodore gave her a warm smile like he didn't have a care in the world. “I'll tell you later when we are alone. For now, let's just say that I got too close while killing that animal, so everything came down on my uniform. Say, can I really not hug you?” He was definitely in a far too good mood if he was joking around like this.
“Theo, this isn't funny! If you were in danger at any point or got hurt, we need to get the doctor to check on you.”
The emperor shook his head. “No, I'm unharmed, and anyone with me can confirm that. I did not lose control of the situation for a single moment.”
Blanche looked away from him for the first time and glanced at the people that were accompanying him. That didn't serve to calm her though.
The guards were quietly discussing something with varying levels of concern on their faces. The concubine had never seen Owen's expression change for even a tiny bit, and now he was frowning, which couldn't mean anything good. The worst reaction, however, came from Madeleine. The young woman was standing there and stared at the emperor with terror in her eyes while she was shaking as if something horrible had happened.
Theodore just seemed to notice that too and turned to her. “Are you alright? I can send a servant to take care of you.”
Madeleine shook her head and replied with a stutter. “No, I... I'm fine. This was just...just a bit much.” Just when she finished, more people arrived by their side.
The first person to rush to Madeleine was Briana, who frantically hugged her sister even after she was repeatedly told that everything was alright.
The next people to arrive were the empress and her relatives. Seraphina stepped closer with a concerned look on her face. “What happened?”
Blanche contemplated letting go of her lover to avoid issues now, but she couldn't bring herself to do that. Though, it seemed like she didn't have a say in that matter either way. As soon as she loosened her grip on his arms, her lover tightened his around hers.
Theodore turned to the heroine for a moment and responded with a smile. “I just won the hunting competition.” He focused on his concubine after that one sentence and continued. “Do you want to guess how many points I scored this time? It's more than eight.”
Blanche furrowed her brows. “That's not important right now. You could have gotten hurt and-”
“Thirteen.” That was physically impossible.
The concubine froze in place. “What did you just say?”
Theodore's grin widened. “I counted three times, and I'm sure that I will get thirteen points. Not including the bear since it apparently doesn't count because there isn't a score assigned to it.”
Blanche stood there in silence and stared at her lover in disbelief before she finally pressed out her response. “That can't be true. You didn't...did you?”
That was absolutely impossible. How could a person that had always gotten seven points and was supposed to get eight this time score thirteen points? During half of the time? While being injured? Even if Theodore had been more motivated than usual, such a stark difference was unthinkable. No one had ever gotten such a high score. And since when were there bears in this part of the forest? Normally, the most dangerous animals weren't anywhere close to the glade.
Theodore didn't appear to be baffled by that though. “I didn't cheat if you wanted to ask that. I hunted all animals fairly with my bow. The bodies are being transported by the guards. The only one that is missing is the bear since it was too heavy. You could take a look at the rest if you wished to be sure. I wouldn't recommend that though since animal carcasses are not very pretty. It would be enough for you to ask Owen or one of the guards. They were with me from the beginning to the end and did not interfere in any way once. Naturally, none of them helped me either.”
The people around them, including some nobles who had walked to them by now as well, were as irritated by this as the concubine was. They began to murmur until Owen, who was still a bit shaken, spoke up. “We would never attempt to ignore the rules of this competition. I can confirm that His Majesty was the one that shot all the animals that we brought here.”
Theodore let go of one of Blanche's arms to tap his finger onto her nose. “See? I won fairly, or at least I will win when all the others are back. I only hunted the more dangerous animals too, so you don't have to feel bad for them either. You mentioned that you didn't like endangering innocent animals, so I avoided rabbits and such, even though I met dozens of them.”
That only made all of this even more ridiculous. How could he have scored so high in so little time while also avoiding the animals that he found very often in favor of hunting the rarer ones? Blanche bit her tongue to not blurt out how odd it was for him to act so differently from the novel. In the end, that was confusing but didn't matter. The only thing that was important was the fact that Theodore was alright. He hadn't been hurt, and his old injury also didn't seem to bother him.
Blanche pressed her lips together for a moment to avoid speaking up while the empress was still standing only a few steps away from them. She wasn't able to stop herself for long enough though and just tried to be quiet. “I'm so glad that you are fine. When I saw all of that blood, I thought I was going to die...”
Theodore became serious when she finished. “Don't say things like that. I promised that I would come back safely and offer my victory to you. So, you had no reason to question my return at any time. I had no trouble dealing with any of the things that happened during the hunt. But we should show that to the others too. Let's go back to the venue.”
She nodded and slowly let go of him.
Theodore still teased her. He refused to loosen his hold on her until she attempted to pull away multiple times. This made him pout at her.
Blanche barely managed to refrain from rolling her eyes at that as they moved towards the podium. She tried to slow her pace a few times so that she wasn't closer to Theodore than the empress, which had always been countered by her lover slowing down. So, she resigned and walked beside him until they reached the venue. It felt like the gazes of the spectators were even more piercing before, now that she had accidentally revealed her close relationship to the emperor for the fourth time today.
Blanche didn't care anymore. It wasn't like she could do anything about it now, and she still waited for Theodore to tell her what really happened. Even though he wasn't hurt, she wouldn't allow him to keep quiet. The expressions on the knights' faces had told her enough to know that something unusual had occurred. Apparently, that had been bad enough to make the stoic Owen show emotions and traumatize the normally so confident Madeleine so that she was close to crying. It didn't make any sense for the emperor to be completely calm and give his lover a smile whenever they made eye contact.
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Theodore approached the marquess that would announce the results later and let the man count the carcasses, only to leave without an explanation when the other party's mouth fell open. He came to his lover and put on his grin again before becoming a bit more serious. “Judging by your expression, you are worried about what happened. I'll tell you after I finish one little thing. You can go to our tent already along with the people that were present while I dealt with that issue.”
Blanche halfheartedly nodded and followed the guards to the tent but stayed by the entrance to watch her lover.
The emperor talked to one of the knights for a moment before suddenly taking a detour to the other end of the crowd to speak to Claude and Luciano. Unfortunately, her lover wasn't facing her, so she couldn't see his expression and only the ones of the others. So, Blanche would have to come to a conclusion with that alone. She observed how Theodore put his hands on one shoulder of each man before talking. He could have only said a few sentences, but that was enough for Luciano to stop smiling and for Claude's face to scrunch up.
Then Theodore turned around and left the men behind while they stared at him in disbelief. He reached the tent quickly and greeted his lover with his calming smile. “You were so impatient that you had to wait for me right by the entrance?”
Blanche nodded, which made him pat her head. She let him do that after they had stepped inside since there shouldn't be anyone except for a couple of guards in the tent. However, when she turned around to sit down at the surprisingly big table, she realized that both Seraphina and Madeleine were inside as well. She quickly hid her face and took a seat in hopes of being less visible like that. That was immediately rendered useless by her lover sitting next to her instead of on the chair at the shorter end of the table next to the empress, where the emperor usually sat.
For a few seconds, Theodore remained quiet, even though everyone was already silent to listen to him. Then his expression turned into his usual cold mask, and he began. “All the things I will tell you now are confidential, and no one will utter a single word about this incident to anyone else. I will inform the rest of the royal knights when we are back in the palace, but for now, you will be the only ones knowing the truth. Understood?”
Everyone nodded.
Only then, Theodore continued. “I do not want to hear a single complaint about how what happened would be impossible. The people that were with me can confirm that I am speaking the truth. Despite our heightened security measures, there was an unknown person within the hunting grounds. Apparently, they followed us for quite some time by climbing around in the trees. They wore dark green clothes that blend in with the plants and covered their face with a mask. They were moving around while barely making any noise. This behavior and attire indicate that they were a professional. We have to assume that they worked for someone who had hired them to keep an eye on me.”
The temperature seemed to drop when he explained that, and Blanche began trembling slightly. How could that be? The hunting grounds had been circled by royal guards, and they had searched the area for suspicious individuals for the last week so that no one could lay out traps. The concubine felt dread creeping up her spine when she imagined how skilled a person had to be to bypass all of those experienced men. Had they attempted to hurt Theodore, or had they just watched him to give information to someone? Either one of those options was terrifying.
This hadn't happened in the novel either. Why was so much changing without her direct influence? Her actions couldn't have caused the enemy to send a person to monitor the emperor, right? Maybe her interactions with the Vasquez family had somehow encouraged them to spy on her lover. While Blanche was lost in thoughts and pondered about whether there had been a hint about this in the novel, some of the guards prepared to stand up, most likely to search that suspicious person.
As soon as the emperor lifted his hand, everyone sat down again.
Theodore continued when the murmur died down. “We do not have to find that intruder anymore since they are already dead. I managed to identify them, but unfortunately, the person that sent them is someone I cannot investigate for now. But we can be sure that the intruder will not pose a danger to anyone anymore. That doesn't mean that we can relax though. It appears that we must be even more careful than before to avoid repeating something like this again. That is all I will tell you for now. I will dispatch a group of guards to take care of the body, and the rest of you will continue to protect the guests with even more caution than before. Tell the others to be more careful without letting the nobles hear you and explain that I will give them the reason later. You may leave.”
The knights jumped up at that and rushed out, seemingly eager to fulfill their task. This only left behind Theodore, Seraphina, Owen, Noah and Madeleine as well as Blanche, who felt like she was about to throw up. Her lover was way too calm, so it almost seemed like she was the one taking over his nervousness. Theodore just grabbed her hand underneath the table and squeezed it in an attempt to calm her, which only scared Blanche even more.
All the people inside were completely quiet with the exception of Seraphina consoling Madeleine, who was still shivering a bit but was a little more tranquil now. That tensed the atmosphere even more until it became unbearable.
A few seconds passed in silence, and then the concubine couldn't keep herself from asking. “You spotting that man wasn't all that happened, right? How did that person die?”
Theodore turned to her and made eye contact for a while before replying in a quiet voice. “I killed him.” He paused to read her expression before adding an explanation. “I knew him from before, so even if he hadn't attacked us, I could be sure that he would be a danger later. But he jumped down to kill me, so...”
Blanche squeezed his hand. “You don't have to justify that. I know that you wouldn't just kill someone for no reason.” That just made Theodore tighten his hold on her hand.
Madeleine spoke before he could though. “That... It all happened so quickly. We met accidentally and walked together for a few minutes. His Majesty suddenly stopped and looked up at the trees. He then called out a name without us even noticing anyone. Then he said some other things until that man jumped out of the tree onto His Majesty, but he just...” She had gotten faster and louder with every word, so she cut herself off to calm down a bit before resuming. “His Majesty knew that this was how the man would react. He lifted his sword, and the man just fell onto...” She interrupted herself again, and it sounded like she was choking back a sob. “It hit his neck, and he gurgled, and...His Majesty turned the handle. One second, and it was over.” She lowered her gaze onto the table and stared at it while Seraphina hugged her.
It sounded like Madeleine had recounted the events to get them off her mind rather than to inform the others, but that was understandable. After all, she had just watched someone die in front of her for the first time. Apparently, it hadn't been a peaceful death either. Still, Madeleine looked like she was angry at herself for beginning to cry and pressed her lips together as she fought to keep her composure.
Theodore spoke up after giving the woman a few seconds for herself. “I would like to apologize for making you witness that. I would have postponed luring him out, but I couldn't risk losing that opportunity as that person was very dangerous. Still, it wasn't my intention to kill him. I merely hoped to hurt him enough to immobilize that man so that we could get information out of him. Unfortunately, that did not work out.”
Madeleine weakly nodded. “You told me not to look. It's my fault.” She didn't say more than that as she was most likely too close to crying to speak.
Blanche just tightened her grip around her lover's hand. He was oddly calm after just having killed someone. Had that been the first time that he had taken a life? If so, it was strange for him to accept it without any problems. But on the other hand, the concubine hadn't ever met that intruder while Theodore had known him. Maybe that man had been extremely dangerous so that it had been necessary to get rid of him immediately. If Theodore had been hurt by that person in the past, it was only logical for him not to ponder about the decision of whether to defend himself even if he risked killing the intruder with that.
Despite this, reacting a bit like Madeleine would have made sense. At least for a normal person.
But it seemed like Theodore's childhood had either made him numb to fear or taught him how to hide his emotions. Blanche scanned his face in search of any indications of distress that he might try to veil, but she couldn't find anything.
After a few seconds, Theodore noticed and turned to her to give her a little smile. “I'm fine. The worst thing about this is that I wasn't able to interrogate that person. I would have liked to learn something about the goals of the people he worked for. At least he won't trouble us in the future though, and I sent those people an indirect message as well. I just would have favored it if I had been alone with Owen at that moment, but I can't change that now.” He stared into the distance for a moment before letting out a quiet chuckle. “This situation reawakens old memories. Doesn't it, Owen?”
Owen's expression still hadn't returned to its usual stoic appearance even though he was a bit calmer now, which worried Blanche a bit. He looked at the emperor and replied in an aloof voice. “Somewhat. Back then, Your Majesty did not behead an attacker with a single tilt of the sword.”
Theodore shook his head. “I didn't behead anyone. I merely misjudged the angle at which he would...” He interrupted himself and glanced at Blanche before changing the topic. “Well, in any case. Everything was a little different, but it reminded me of that event anyway. Now we'll just have to wait for the rest of the hunters and go through the victory ceremony, drink a bit with the nobles and then leave.”
Seraphina spoke up immediately after he finished. “Your Majesty, with all due respect. Continuing the festival after there was an attack on you by an intruder would be careless. There might be others here that could endanger the hunters, so we need to prepare. I would argue that it's best-”
“You can argue as much as you want to.” The emperor cut his wife off without even looking at her.
Both the empress and Blanche froze at that unfriendly tone. No matter how much Theodore disagreed, he couldn't just dismiss the empress like that.
Seraphina's glare became icy, and she tensed as she replied. “Your Majesty, this kind of-”
Again, Theodore interrupted her, this time in a calmer voice. “I did not mean to phrase it like this. Today, I noticed a very unpleasant person had followed me for a while without my knowledge, and when I addressed him, he just attempted to kill me. Thus, I'm not in the best condition right now, so do not feel offended. However, I can assure you that my decision is logical. As I already stated, I knew that man. His only intention was to monitor my actions, most likely to get an overview of my abilities with a bow and sword. He always worked alone, and it wouldn't make sense to take more people with you if you have to move silently. So, you can be certain that no one else is here with the goal to hurt anyone.”
Even if that was the case, Blanche understood Seraphina's worries. After all, there had been an assassination attempt just two weeks ago, and now something had occurred again. This made it seem like the emperor was being targeted specifically, so protecting him would be the first logical step.
The empress appeared to be convinced of that as well as she began to speak again. “I accept your apology, Your Majesty, but I still worry. If we won't interrupt the festival, will we at least inform the guests or end the competition earlier? We could use the excuse that Your Majesty has gained so many points that no one will be able to score that high.”
Theodore shook his head. “No matter how good someone was, we never ended it early unless there was an emergency. If we tell the hunters to come back, everyone will be able to guess that something happened. Along with my appearance when I arrived, it would be obvious that I was involved in some fight. I can justify that by saying that that was the bear's blood, but meeting an animal isn't a reason to end the hunt. If we reveal that there was an intruder shortly after the other attack, every person here will panic, and the trust in our security measures and the royal guards will decrease. That might lead to even more attempts to harm the inhabitants of the palace.”
Seraphina didn't seem convinced, but she patiently waited for the emperor to finish.
Theodore paused for a moment before continuing in a perfectly calm voice. “I can guarantee that the man I killed was one of the very few people that would be able to breach our defense system without us noticing it, but no one will believe that. We don't need the uproar that the information about this attack might cause, so I want all of you to keep quiet. We will say that I was attacked by a bear and that I stabbed it while it was standing directly next to me, which would explain the blood. Lady Bellfaux was shocked upon seeing such a huge animal attempting to kill us, and nothing else happened.”
Owen and Blanche simply nodded. Madeleine did the same, but she was still cuddling herself into the blanket that the empress' maid had given her by now.
Seraphina was the only one to open her mouth with a frown, most likely to argue, before reconsidering. She kept quiet for a moment and then shook her head slightly. “I understand. In that case, I will stay here with Lady Bellfaux. May I invite my relatives inside?”
Theodore rose to his feet and replied in an emotionless voice. “You are free to do that. We shall take our leave.” He made eye contact with Blanche, who stood up as well, before walking to the entrance. His lover and Owen followed him.
Blanche stopped when they were about to leave the tent. She examined the emperor's bloody clothes again. “People will worry if you run around like that. Aren't you going to change first?”
Theodore smiled and gently poked her cheek. “That's what I will do now. Originally, I wanted to do it in the royal tent, but it appears that the empress wishes to have her afternoon coffee party here now. So, I will have to go somewhere else. Remember the little tent I showed you? We'll go there.”
Before Blanche could voice her confusion about the fact that she should accompany him, Theodore continued moving, and she hurried to catch up to him. The piercing stares were basically burning in her back, and she glanced over her shoulder, only to meet Henry's gaze. She immediately turned around again and was thankful when Owen coincidentally walked behind her, which shielded her from some of the most persistent spectators. She didn't doubt that the Vasquez family and Sefare were glaring at her too, but she didn't search for them to confirm that.