FTMR 39

Chapter 39

 His Grace the Grand Duke Is a Passionate Collector!

“…Pardon? Collecting?”

At that moment, Anette tilted her head and asked Samuel with a puzzled voice.

“Gasp—did I say that out loud?”

Samuel instantly froze like a block of ice.

“I—I must have misspoke…”

“No, I clearly heard the word ‘collecting,’ though.”

Trying to gather up the words he had spilled in a panic, Samuel’s face turned pale under Anette’s confirmation blow.

“Haha…”

Should I just jump into a lake and die right now?

That might be better than dying by my lord’s hand.

While standing at the edge between life and death, Samuel forced out a hollow laugh as he barely held on to his sanity.

“Um, does His Grace the Grand Duke… have a hobby of collecting things?”

“…!”

Like a beam of salvation, Anette’s cautious voice reached him.

It seemed the innocent princess—his master’s fiancée—had failed to connect the missing handkerchief and the word “collecting.”

Overwhelmed with relief, Samuel looked at Anette with tearful gratitude and nodded fervently.

“Yes! His Grace is an extremely passionate collector! A collector!”

“Oh… What does he usually collect?”

“Eh?”

Samuel felt a sudden jolt of danger and swallowed hard.

If he mentioned handkerchiefs now, it was all over.

“Uh, His Grace collects all kinds of things, really. Hahaha…”

He laughed while answering, assuming Anette would surely press further about what the main collection focus was.

Desperately trying to think of something that would benefit his master’s image…

“I see.”

But Anette simply nodded and went back to searching for her handkerchief.

“……”

Samuel looked at Anette, who seemed indifferent toward Kardien, and—for the first time—felt a flicker of sympathy for his master.

But he didn’t realize something important: Anette’s interest had already shifted from the handkerchief to something else entirely.

“Collecting… So he has a hobby like that.”

Did he collect expensive things like jewels? Or perhaps weapons like rare swords?

No—maybe it was something elegant like fountain pens or rare books?

Anette had been bothered by the fact that, compared to Kardien—who seemed to know her well—she knew almost nothing about him beyond the obvious things like his status and family.

Of course, she did know the tremendous secret of his birth, but surprisingly, discovering this small, mundane detail gave her more joy.

And the reason she didn’t press Samuel further was simple:
She wanted to hear it from Kardien himself.

Of course, at that time, Anette had no idea just how difficult it would be to uncover the truth behind this peculiar obsession.

Camp preparations were completed in no time.

Even Anette—who once prided herself on her outdoor survival skills as the former commander of the Hayworth Royal Knights specializing in beast subjugation—was left speechless by the sheer efficiency of the Grand Duke’s knights.

Sitting in the spot Kardien had prepared for her in front of the campfire, Anette gazed around at the evenly spaced tents and the knights diligently fulfilling their roles, and she felt oddly excited.

Part of it was due to the familiarity of the scene, but also because the Grand Duchy of Harzent lay close to the regions in Hayworth where she had frequently stayed during her beast-hunting days. The proximity brought her a certain psychological comfort.

Her short legs swayed slightly without touching the ground, though she didn’t even realize it as she sank deeper into thought.

Inevitably, memories from those subjugation days came back to her.

To be honest… even though she had been doing beast subjugation for a long time, it always felt like living on the edge every day in poor conditions.

Since many of the magical beasts were nocturnal or highly sensitive to sound, the knights couldn’t even talk loudly, eat freely, or rest comfortably—day or night.

What’s more, near the swamps where beasts resided, ordinary animals were scarce, which made hunting impossible. They had to survive on preserved food like jerky.

Yet, Anette didn’t remember those times as entirely unpleasant. To be honest, there was a strange kind of enjoyment in them.

The Hayworth Royal Knights, unlike the palace-based royal guard—who only admitted high-ranking nobles—accepted even commoners as long as they were skilled.

And because they fought for their lives daily against magical beasts rather than people, the knights tended to be close-knit, ignoring social ranks.

They weren’t as rigid or blindly loyal as the Harzent knights, but Anette held deep affection for the royal knights’ free-spirited camaraderie.

…Of course, she was always left out of that camaraderie.

Lying in her sleeping bag with a small brazier burning inside her personal tent, she used to secretly eavesdrop on her subordinates chatting outside. She had loved the peace of those nights.

Unlike the detached life she led in the separate palace, those moments had made her feel truly alive.

“Hey, did you hear? Our request to increase the squad’s budget got rejected again.”

“What? Are you serious?”

“That’s what the palace guards were saying. The finance department bounced back our budget proposal.”

“Unbelievable. Those lazy bastards earn more than us while doing nothing—what a joke.”

“Even after our commander went to the finance office countless times?”

“Yeah… but you know why it keeps getting rejected. There’s no way they’d approve it.”

Until she overheard that conversation, Anette had believed she was fighting alone to secure more budget.

Hearing her subordinates mention the issue, and realizing they knew the king himself was blocking the request because of her, felt like being doused with ice water in her sleep.

“This is bad. I really need to pay off my debt this month.”

“Sorry, I can’t lend you anything. It’s my daughter’s birthday.”

“I have to pay for my parents’ medicine.”

“I didn’t ask to borrow money… It’s just, if we could sneak out even a little of the beast parts we got this time, I could pay it all off…”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“You’re trying to disgrace us all?”

All beast parts—like hides or claws—recovered from subjugation missions were supposed to be handed over to the royal family.

Smuggling or selling them privately was a serious crime punishable by expulsion from the knight order—and potentially worse.

But hearing her subordinate’s regretful tone, Anette’s mind went blank. She didn’t even catch what was said after that.

As the knight commander and a royal princess, she should’ve scolded him on the spot, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Instead, all she felt was the crushing futility of all the hard work she thought she had done up to that point…

“Princess.”

Just then, Kardien returned to her side, having gone off to get some food.

Lost in thought, Anette was startled by his voice and quickly snapped back to reality.

Though Kardien looked at her with gentle eyes, inwardly, he was nervous.

A few minutes ago, he had been secretly watching her feet swing as she sat happily, smiling quietly to himself.

But her cheerful movement had suddenly stopped.

And when her face fell into shadow as she stared into the flickering fire, Kardien felt his heart sink.

For a moment, her youthful face seemed to reflect her real self.

A look of profound loneliness and vivid sorrow clouded her eyes, and he couldn’t leave her alone like that. So he had rushed back.

Fortunately, the heavy atmosphere lifted the moment he spoke—but still, Kardien’s mouth was dry.

“What were you thinking about?”

“Me? Oh, nothing really…”

Anette had planned to say it was nothing, but under Kardien’s steady gaze, she hesitated and asked instead,

“Are beast parts usually sold at high prices?”

“…What?”

“I heard in the Arkan Empire, mercenaries and beast hunters are allowed to trade beast parts themselves…”

Unlike Hayworth, where individuals were forbidden from such trades and everything was handled and sold through the royal house, Arkan allowed free trade unless you were officially part of a knight order.

Since the Grand Duke owned a beast-hunting order, he’d surely know how the beast parts were handled.

“Hmm… well… If you compare it to the price of weapons made from those parts, I’d say it’s… decent?”

“…?”

Anette tilted her head at his vague answer.

Truthfully, she’d fought magical beasts, but she didn’t know the market value of their parts.

Let alone the price of weapons made from those materials.

So his answer didn’t help her gauge whether they were valuable or not…

Still, Kardien avoided her curious gaze and didn’t offer a clearer answer.

He hadn’t expected her to suddenly ask about beast part prices—and the mention of mercenaries had struck a nerve he wasn’t ready to reveal.