Shadowless Night

While hastily running towards the palace where the delegation was staying, Rosaline ran into Macaron on the wall. Macaron dexterously hung to the running Rosaline’s hair. The gray mouse squeaked behind her earlobe. As it roamed the palace, it said, it saw many men with magical powers in their bodies.

“How many?”

At Macaron’s answer, Rosaline’s severe face turned even more ferocious. An ominous premonition came to mind while watching Haqab’s underlings. ‘Maybe there are more of these people than expected? Are there countless of them?’

Her guess was correct. Macaron had traveled many places with its short legs, and it was astonished. The magic power here was incomparable to the energy it had encountered before. Macaron felt like it was going to be crushed by the enormous amount.

Macaron had met a someone who was born with magical powers. The magical energy possessed by the demon was very similar to the magic possessed by ‘It’. Theirs was moderate and harmonious, the kind of power that never runs so violently that it would tear everything apart.

For a moment, something came to Macaron’s mind. Those ferocious beasts with red eyes who attack everything in front of them: Witches. Can mere human beings control the power that even gigantic beasts can’t handle? Macaron was sure they could never do that. Macaron enhanced its senses and scanned the enormous palace. An aura darker than the night had settled down.

Rosaline untied her hair that had been tied up high. Her long hair fluttered in the wind. She signaled for Macaron to hide within her hair. She buried it inside her hair, making it squeak. Rosaline then hurriedly opened the window in front of her.

Just before the window slammed open, the escort knights had already noticed that there was someone outside the window. With their swords drawn out and vigilant, they saw a familiar face. Rosaline just stared blankly at the tip of their sharp swords.

“What’s wrong?”

The escort knights sighed and were annoyed at her carefree attitude. ‘Why did you have to make a fuss by entering through the window when there’s already an open door?’ It was Rosaline’s face, but there was a possibility that it was a Black Moon assassin wearing someone else’s skin. Just in case, they kept their vigilance towards Rosaline.

Ricardis, who was reading Balta’s Crusade, looked at the confrontation with excitement. ‘If it’s an assassin trying to impersonate a regular escort knight, they’ll never do anything suspicious such as coming through the window. That is 100% Rosaline in every way.’ Ricardis opened his mouth as he read through the passage on Balta’s temple.

“In Balta, they only eat salad for breakfast. Did you know that, Sir Rosaline?”

Of course, it was a lie, but it was a bolt out of the blue for Rosaline, who didn’t know it. Rosaline covered her mouth as she stifled a gasp. ‘H, How… So… Cruel…’ It was a look that seemed to speak these words.

“Is that true, Your Highness? They will truly… only serve us grass?”

As Rosaline spewed some nonsense in shock, Ricardis corrected her in an indifferent voice.

“Salad.”

The escort knights put their swords in their sheaths. ‘She is Rosaline. Everyone can easily understand that she likes food, but her inability to read and interpret the atmosphere… will be difficult to imitate. Who else would be talking about food so carefreely even with sharply forged swords pointing towards them?’ She didn’t even think that the 2nd Prince’s words were testing her.

“We’re not Baltans, and we’re guests, so we’re not going to have only vegetables.”

Ricardis saw the situation had come to an end and resolved the lie. Rosaline smiled softly. It was a smile that was bright enough to outshine the morning sun. While the senior knights were bewildered, Rosaline lightly crossed over the window.

She was immediately called into a corner by Deputy Commander Nathan, who was in the room, and was scolded, “Don’t you know you can’t go in and out through the window, Sir Rosaline?”

She nodded her head several times with dissatisfaction.

“I believe there must be something so serious that you have to rush through the window. Isn’t that right, Sir Rosaline?”

Deputy Commander Nathan put pressure on her. Ricardis also closed his book and looked at her. Rosaline rolled her eyes. Before Prince Diech’s case, she became uneasy because of the strange magical aura felt throughout the palace of Balta. Therefore, she came here to see them.

Calyx told her that she should never tell anyone that she could sense magic. If they thought her to be a demon, she would likely be expelled from the Knights of the White Night. It may also cause various problems. Rosaline began the conversation, filtering out the catchy subjects.

[Reminder: demon in this story refers to people who are born with magic.]

“I went out for a while to find Macaron.”

“Umm… I have no idea what it has to do with it, but continue.”

“Then I went into a flower garden a bit out of the palace.”

“I’m sure you’ve heard me telling you not to act alone.”

Nathan folded his arms and shook his head. Ricardis also leaned on his chin, concentrating on her words.

“I heard the sound of branches breaking behind me, and when I turned around, I saw a man I didn’t know. He called himself Haqab, the first son of Hiksala Adon.”

“What?!”

Ricardis frowned and stood up from his seat. Nathan tried to hide his shock, but his mustache was twitching, revealing his heart. Other senior knights also opened their mouths wide. Why did Haqab come out there all of a sudden?

To be blunt, Nathan expected Rosaline to say useless things and had already finished preparing to scold her. He didn’t expect that Haqab, the name of the most influential figure in Balta, would come out of her mouth. Even if he only said hello, it was never something to be taken lightly.

“What did he say to you?! What did you say to him?!”

Ricardis strode towards her. A chance meeting with Haqab. It was most important to check if there was something wrong with that opportunity. Rosaline rolled her eyes upward for a moment and pondered. She pictured Haqab and the words he had told her.

She opened her mouth.

“‘You have beautiful dark hair.’”

Suddenly, a cold wind swept through the room. Senior Knight Pardict poked his ears. He seemed confused as to whether he had heard correctly. Ricardis furrowed his eyebrows. Nathan coughed a few times, but he regained composure relatively quickly. Rosaline spoke bluntly.

“I thanked him for the compliment, then he said, ‘To think that it’s the prince’s knight… You’ve come a long way.’ Then he asked me, ‘What’s your name?’ and I replied, ‘I am Rosaline Radwiell.’”

“…”

“…”

“Then the prince said, ‘It’s a good family name that sounds strong,’ and, ‘it’s a pretty name’ too, so I thanked him again.”

“… …”

Ricardis groaned deeply. He couldn’t understand what he was hearing now. ‘Why is that bastard Haqab flirting with other people’s knights?’ He reimagined the situation by replacing Rosaline with a man. Although the reason was hard to understand, he might have been simply showing favor for the black hair itself.

“As I was alert, the prince said, ‘I am the first son of Hiksala Adon, Haqab.’ I didn’t think he was a prince until then, but thankfully I wasn’t ever rude to him.”

Rosaline was very proud, even with her expressionless face. Ricardis smirked, feeling exasperated.

“Answering the prince’s introduction, I said, ‘I see Balta’s first son.’”

“… You sure know how to greet the prince.”

Ricardis gave her a compliment that was not really a compliment. However, Rosaline still nodded her head, “I know. Still, I was going to greet him in the Illavenia way, but then the prince came first and kissed me on the cheek…”

“What?!”

“WHAT?!”

‘That crazy guy! What fucking favor for the black hair. Prince Haqab was honestly doing all sorts of tricks on Rosaline.’ Ricardis frowned, and Deputy Commander Nathan broke the composure he had been struggling to maintain. ‘He doesn’t have a woman to touch, so he’s doing it with this little girl!’ Nathan was terribly angry.

Of course, Rosaline was not a child, but to the deputy commander, who had been observing her actions, she felt as young as a child. The atmosphere of the senior knights also became ferocious. ‘How dare Balta’s filthy dog touch our comrades? To a blind kid who doesn’t even recognize that it’s crafty, even!’

Rosaline paused at the unexpected and violent reaction, and a squeak came from the inside of her hair! The cry of the mouse filled with rage sounded out. Rosaline subdued the loud squeaking sound by coughing. ‘What kind of bastard was there in that brief time I was away!’ Macaron was furious.

Rosaline shrugged invisibly. She didn’t know the exact cause of their anger, but they seemed offended by the greeting. The 5th Prince Diech also told the prince that he shouldn’t force the people of Illavenia with Balta’s open-minded customs.

“…”

Rosaline quietly thought about telling them she was about to return Haqab’s greeting in Balta’s way. She didn’t know why, but she felt like she was going to get scolded. It was a moment when the flower called ‘Wit’ bloomed using the sense of crisis as fertilizer.

“What else did that kid do?”

“Nothing else. Prince Diech came and said that Your Highness was calling and told me to go. So I came in a hurry.”