I Became the Tyrant's Helper - Chapter 27

Having returned to Sever’s office after the midday meal, Ahel finished her work at the allotted time.

A knight was waiting for her to come out of the office.

Ahel remembered Ray’s words from earlier, when they parted in front of Sever’s office after leaving the garden: “I’ll send a knight to escort you at the end of your work. We’ve already been seen by others as a couple, so the rumors should be spreading as we speak, and I don’t want any unpleasant surprises. Particularly where your safety is concerned.”

He seemed to be preparing for any eventuality. He had many enemies, and now she was his ‘lover’.

Part of her was grateful for the added security, but she couldn’t help but wonder if his motives went beyond just wanting to protect her. Ahel knew that Ray still didn’t completely trust her.

This could be a problem.

She planned to go to Ophelia’s, get out of the carriage, and then go to Pelanders.

However, since the knight was escorting her in her carriage…

I have to get rid of the knight.

After swallowing a sigh of frustration, Ahel approached the knight.

As soon as he saw her, he placed his hand on his chest to salute her.

“How do you do, Madame? I am Nuss, the escort. I have brought your carriage.”

“Thank you, Nuss.”

She followed behind Nuss while he guided her.

The carriage was waiting right outside the entrance of the palace.

Just as she had requested the previous night, the carriage was nondescript looking. Just a regular carriage.

Boarding, she expressed gratitude to Nuss for kindly opening the door before he also boarded the carriage himself. He sat opposite her.

His posture was stiff, and he appeared anxious.

Taking her eyes off him she looked out the window. The view of the Imperial Palace faded away as she thought back on Ray’s last words to her: “Return safely.”

This was the first time someone had ever cared enough to see her off. And he had done so with kind words, and a caring expression on his face.

Return safely…

She had taken those words as: “I’ll be waiting for you.”

She had experienced something similar once. Like a single light illuminating part of a dark, bleak house. The inside filling with warmth, chasing off the cold shadows.

The pages of her life flipping backward. The voice that came when her gaze met his. “You’re back?”

It was a common question, but the moment she heard it, she lost her ability to move like someone who had been struck by lightning.

An unfamiliar and unforgettable sensation washed over her.

Before she knew it, she found herself reliving those moments, when she was standing in front of a wide-open door, shaking her head in surprise.

Memories of the day Ray was in her house began to flash by in her mind, moving as quickly as the passing scenery through the window.

Now is not the time to let emotions overwhelm me.

She needed to keep herself together and figure out how to get rid of Nuss, the escort sitting opposite her.

* * *

The carriage, having left the Imperial Palace, had reached the front of Ophelia’s.

At the same time, it stopped, Ahel grabbed Nuss, who had moved as if he was about to open the door.

“Nuss!”

“Yes, Madame?”

Ahel, nodding at a flustered Nuss, said, “Yes. I have a favor to ask.”

“A favor? What is—”

“Can you let me get off first, then take the carriage to the waiting station and you get off there? This way it will appear that I am alone.”

Not only was Ophelia’s right in the middle of downtown, but it was also frequented by aristocrats. Thankfully, however, there was a separate carriage park not far from the main entrance.

Of course, he did not understand and had a bewildered look on his face.

“I have to look as though I’m not accompanying you? By chance is there a reason for this?”

Having met him in front of her office and then studied him in the carriage, there was something she had realized.

He has remained anxious from the moment we met.

What was the reason for Nuss, a knight of the Imperial Palace, to be so nervous? He must have been told that she was important. That she was Ray’s love interest.

Nuss must have been nervous from the moment he received the order to escort her alone. It must have been a heavy sense of responsibility and burden.

And she needed to take advantage of that fact. So, she decided to speak plainly, and hoped that he took her words at face value.

“Nuss, in the Imperial Palace rumors may have already spread that I am Emperor Ray’s lover, but I don’t believe that those rumors have reached here yet. Once they do, however, people will be curious about my status. It is provocative, after all, to be linked to the emperor.”

Nuss was wide eyed, but nodded along with her words.

She continued, “In that situation if I, a mere commoner, enter with an imperial knight… Well, wouldn’t it be more dangerous to let the whole world know that I am the emperor’s girlfriend?”