TVRTH [Book 1]

Chapter 32

Revenge, Part II

Translator: Khan

Editor: SootyOwl

The meeting took as long as five hours because of a small boat ride by the lake. Nevertheless, Aria, who had kept her soft expression the whole time, suddenly felt a strange feeling as she climbed onto the carriage, receiving an escort after the meeting had barely ended.

"... Who are you?"

"Yes?"

"That's not the same coachman. Why has the driver changed?"

It was not the driver who had accompanied her when she had left the mansion. It wasn't the face she had seen at a glance during the day. Perhaps not aware of the fact, Jessie's eyes widened.

Aria pulled her feet off the stairs to the carriage and headed around to the driver's seat. With his back bent beside the horse, he did not raise his face, so she stared unspokenly at him.

He was shivering slightly. The escort knights also looked perplexed, as if they had not noticed him.

As the eyes of the three turned to him, the driver flinched once and replied as if he was going to wither away, "Su-suddenly, he said he had a stomach ache, so I'm here to replace him..."

"He had a stomach ache? Suddenly?"

"Yes, yes..."

"The man who had a stomach ache went back to the mansion and traded places with you?"

When she pointed that out sharply, he waved his hand and strongly denied that "Oh, no! I heard it happened after he went home for lunch!"

"... So, you're saying that he went home without my permission. I'm sure he should've eaten the lunch provided by the mansion."

"Well, well, that's... I'm not sure either. I'm just here to pick you up on his behalf because his wife informed the mansion in a hurry..."

The driver's back became damp, and the color of his clothes became darker. The new driver didn't seem to be ill, but he was sweating too much, so she wondered if he was. It was weird. The situation was weird, and the excuses were strange. She couldn't help but wonder.

Aria ordered the two escort knights and Jessie to check the face of the driver. "Make sure he is a driver from the mansion."

"He is. His name is Elect. He's been working in the mansion for over thirty years. He's worked long enough to reach retirement."

"Really?"

When she heard Jessie's words, she slowly revived her memories of the past, and she felt like she had seen him once or twice when she had passed by the stable, although she had never met him in person. Her feeling that something was odd was clouding her memories, so she couldn't remember him.

This ensured his status, so she knew he was not suspicious, but...

"Why didn't either of you report to me first?"

'By the way, why didn't they report it to me?'

Aria was their master now, no matter how urgent or important their affairs were. They should have asked her to be excused. Furthermore, even if they had traded places due to unavoidable circumstances, they should have reported it to Aria before doing it.

If she hadn't had a good eye, she wouldn't have known that the driver had changed and would have entered the carriage. If it hadn't been a driver that had worked in the mansion for thirty years, and it had been an assassin... Aria shook her head faintly at the supposition that she hated to imagine.