OLOTV 21

Chapter 21

“My mom and dad told me not to talk to the dark lord!”

It was a very straightforward explanation. Was it because children are more honest than adults? Although, it wasn’t like the adults were doing a great job of hiding their hostility towards Keris either.

Hearing the child’s words, I instinctively looked back at Keris. I was worried he might be hurt. Keris was watching the child with his usual expressionless face. The child, who had just made such a bold statement, quickly disappeared.

“Hey, wait a minute!”

Was it really okay for them to be running around like this when it was getting so dark? But the child was already gone, so there was nothing I could do.

“Should we just leave them like that?”

Keris countered with a question of his own.

“Leave what?”

“That child. Is it really okay to leave them alone at this dark hour?”

Keris didn’t seem worried about the child at all.

“If they were born and raised in this territory, they probably know the area well. They should be able to find their way home even after it gets completely dark.”

“Still…”

“Besides, there are no wild beasts around here. Even if we tried to take them home, with that kind of reaction, I doubt they’d follow us.”

Seeing Keris speak so coldly, almost excessively so, I asked blankly.

“Keris, are you… upset by what that child said?”

At my question, Keris replied as if he hadn’t expected such a query at all.

“No. I’m not.”

“Really?”

When I asked playfully, Keris retorted with an exasperated tone.

“Sarina, were you always this mischievous?”

I didn’t know if I was originally mischievous or not. But seeing Keris maintain his poker face constantly made me want to break that expression somehow. It seemed to manifest as teasing.

Anyway, since Keris said he was fine, I didn’t need to worry about the child anymore. We resumed our walk back to the mansion. As the day darkened, I could definitely feel the air around us growing colder. Even though I was fully recovered, perhaps because I’d been seriously ill the day before, I coughed without meaning to.

After I coughed heavily a few times, Keris looked back, then took off the coat he was wearing and draped it over my shoulders. Worried I might look sick, I quickly said.

“I’m fine! It’s just a little cough because it’s cold.”

I really had just coughed; I wasn’t in pain. In response to my reaction, Keris said, as if it were nothing.

“Wear it even if you’re not sick. It’s not good to be exposed to this cold wind, even in perfect health.”

When he put it that way, I had no choice. I gripped the coat tightly with my hand to keep it from slipping off my shoulders. Since Keris was larger than me, the coat enveloped my entire body with room to spare. Realizing that made me feel strangely self-conscious.

In my awkwardness, I ended up making another joke.

“It doesn’t smell.”

“It wasn’t to the point of smelling in the first place.”

I chuckled at Keris’s reaction, but he suddenly frowned and looked back over his shoulder. Had I teased him too much and made him upset?

“Keris, are you upset? I’m sorry if I did.”

Instead of answering, Keris quickly grabbed my hand and pulled me behind a tree to hide. Startled by his sudden action, I tried to ask what was going on, but Keris, somehow sensing it, covered my mouth before I could speak.

Frustrated at not understanding the situation, I didn’t have to wait long to find out why Keris had hidden. With my mouth covered, I looked where Keris was staring. A group of people was passing through the forest.

Even though it was the forest surrounding the territory, it was strange for so many people to be passing through at once. Unless there was a special event, the villagers wouldn’t normally pass through this forest in such a large group.

Perhaps because it was dark and they were in the woods, the group passed by without noticing us. Only after the group had completely passed did Keris remove his hand from my mouth.

Finally, I could ask him properly.

“Who were those people? Why did we suddenly hide?”

But the answer that came from Keris’s mouth was unexpected.

“Not sure.”

His reaction suggested he was seeing them for the first time too. I had naturally assumed Keris knew who they were and that’s why he’d hidden so quickly. But if he didn’t know either…

It was honestly a bit baffling, but Keris immediately explained his reason for hiding.

“But they were all people I’ve never seen in this territory before. It’s strange that I haven’t seen such a large group of people here, not just one or two.”

“Maybe they’re just unfamiliar because you’re always at the imperial palace?”

“Unlikely.”

“Then maybe they’re just nobles visiting the territory? I heard many nobles do that.”

I recalled what the old man I met today had told me: that nobles from other regions often visit because the territory is beautiful. But Keris shook his head at my words.

“If there were such people, I would know. I think I need to follow them. Sarina, you…”

‘I bet he’s going to tell me it’s better for me to go back.’

Anticipating his words, I prepared to obediently return to the mansion. I was worried about Keris, but even if I followed, there was nothing I could do anyway.

But after starting to speak, Keris hesitated to continue.

‘Why isn’t he saying anything…?’

After a moment’s thought, the answer came quickly. Even though I’d been out a few times over the past few days, I still didn’t know the territory’s geography well. If I tried to head back to the mansion alone through these woods, I might get lost. Furthermore, with a suspicious group having entered the territory, staying with Keris might be safer than heading to the mansion alone.

Perhaps Keris had the same thought, as he reluctantly said.

“Stay close to me and don’t wander off.”

“…Okay.”

And so, we began carefully tailing the group. The place we arrived at, following the group, was a single house at the edge of the forest. There were no other houses around, just a farm right next to it.

We had followed the group as quickly as possible, but were they definitely here? What purpose could they have in such a secluded spot? As I looked around, unsure if the unfamiliar group was really here, the door opened and someone came out. Keris and I immediately hid in the bushes.

“Looks like this is the only house around. It’s quite remote. Nothing here but those beasts.”

It seemed we had followed the right group. The people we had seen earlier were coming out of the house. I already had a bad feeling. Why were those people coming out of that house so casually?

A woman in the group, who was carrying a suspicious-looking bundle, spoke while looking around. A man next to her replied.

“If it’s remote, that’s good for us. The other houses were remote too, but there was less to steal from them themselves.”

Steal? Startled by the man’s words, I involuntarily gasped. So that’s what they were—they seemed to be thieves. Keris’s eyes grew sharper as he realized the seriousness of the situation.

Completely unaware of our presence, the thieves continued their conversation.

“Lately, even when we rob houses, there’s nothing of value, but this neighborhood seems prosperous. Not just this house, but the others look well-off too. I’d love to rob more, honestly.”

“If the tail gets too long, you get caught. Let’s stop here for today. By the way, what about those people?”

The woman who spoke looked towards a place where a couple, a man and a woman, were. The problem wasn’t just that they were there. The issue was that their mouths were gagged, preventing them from making a sound, their entire bodies were tightly bound, and they were struggling.