But it was a despicable lie.
Gathered there were the Queen Dowager and the high officials of Baldina, along with the captain of the guard.
If the Regent Duke truly wanted to cover for his niece's mistake, he should not have revealed it there, at the very least.
‘Hoakin, are these words of yours truly sincere?’
The Queen Dowager doubted the Regent Duke’s intentions, but she had no way to deny them.
“We searched the entire palace, but we could not find Princess Her Highness Medeia. My apologies, Your Highness.”
Furthermore, the Queen Dowager’s knights, who arrived a step late shortly after, supported the Regent Duke’s testimony.
They handed a purple fan to the Queen Dowager, saying they had found it in the Princess's quarters.
“This... this is the one I gave to Medeia as a gift....”
The Queen Dowager, recognizing the fan, staggered.
‘Medeia, you foolish child. If you were that afraid, you should have come to me! No matter what happened, this grandmother would have protected you. But why—’
Then she realized. She had never once been a complete shield for that child.
And so, Medeia had fled alone.
“Ah....”
“Your Highness!”
At the heart-wrenching regret and guilt, the Queen Dowager’s legs gave way. Lady Pinatelli quickly supported her.
The Queen Dowager did not see the Regent Duke and her own knights exchange glances.
The Regent Duke stepped forward, as if to prove his words were correct.
“In place of King His Majesty, who is ‘not present,’ and Princess Her Highness Medeia, who has ‘fled,’ I will protect this country.”
“How dare you! All you have shown me until now is a pathetic sight of someone worried only for their own safety. Are you not trying to frame Medeia once again?”
Holding the hand of the Queen Dowager, who instead doubted him, the Regent Duke spoke firmly.
“Mother, surely you remember when Kazen invaded Baldina long ago, while Father and Brother had left for the south to resolve the drought? I, though not yet of age, fended them off. I almost had my throat cut by a Kazen blade.”
Though they spoke of friendship and exchange on the surface now, decades ago, Kazen was an explicit enemy of Baldina.
The Regent Duke pulled down his clothes and revealed a faint scar remaining on his shoulder.
“....”
“At that time, I was the same age as Medeia is now. But I did not flee.”
The sturdy knights of the Duke's family standing behind him stood tall, as if to support those words.
“The blood of the Baldina Royal Family flows through me as well. Therefore, I shall set this shaking kingdom right.”
The Regent Duke struck his chest.
The eyes of those looking at him as a savior, moved by his words, made him feel even more elated.
The reactions to the Regent Duke’s words were varied.
While there were those like the Queen Dowager or Monte who could not dispel their suspicion, there were others who, deceived by his lies, praised and cheered for the Regent Duke, saying that the royal blood was indeed different.
Triumphant, the Regent Duke shouted loudly toward the Rebels.
“You wicked traitors, as long as this Claudio is here, you shall never target this Royal Capital! What are you doing?! Raise the flag of the Claudio Duke Family at once!”
“Yes, Your Excellency!”
The thunderous command made him appear as an incomparable hero.
People felt a strange sensation.
The Princess, who had been the kingdom's hero until just recently, had fled, while the Regent Duke, who had been cursed as a villain, remained to protect the country.
Was this why they said one’s true character is revealed in a crisis?
As a national disaster occurred, the Regent Duke’s bold and shamelessly active appearance seemed like an incomparable virtue in the eyes of the people.
Certainly, compared to a Princess who had turned tail and fled in fear.
Caught up in the atmosphere, people momentarily forgot the image of Medeia standing against the Kazen Empire.
“Mother, I will gather the noble ladies and manage the wounded. It is a makeshift measure, but it will be better than having no hands at all.”
Catherine Claudio, the Duchess and wife of the Regent Duke, calmly suggested a way to support the soldiers from behind.
“Grandmother, please allow me to go forward and fight.”
His son, Samon, the Young Duke, bravely requested to go outside the walls, even though his body had not yet fully recovered from the flogging.
The appearance of the Claudio Duke Family was worthy of being an example to all.
At this point, when everyone was only watching and backing away, they were the only ones stepping forward before the Rebels without hesitation.
In the meantime, the knights of the Duke's house raised the flag of the Claudio Duke Family beside the national flag of Baldina in perfect order.
The teal flag, fluttering here and there in the wind, revealed itself vividly.
“I, Claudio, shall resolve this national crisis of Baldina. Mother, entrust the command of the Royal Capital forces to me—!”
Just then, the sound of galloping hooves, *clatter, clatter*, echoed.
A single soldier on a white horse climbed atop the Castle Walls in one breath. The skill with which the rider controlled the horse while climbing the steep stairs was top-tier.
“Uncle, what on earth are you saying?”
Then, a clear voice echoed.
The small soldier threw off the helmet. With a *thud*, as the helmet rolled on the ground, silver hair cascaded in waves.
“Princess Her Highness?”
Had they not said she fled?
What happened?
The people's eyes widened.
However, no matter how they compared, it was nothing compared to the shock of the Regent Duke’s family.
The Regent Duke almost gasped in horror.
“Me—Medeia, how are you....”
How? Why here?
“You should be by now....”
Far away from the Royal Capital, captured by the Rebels over there?
His eyes, which had grown as large as lanterns, showed no sign of shrinking.
Catherine and Samon, who were with him, also wore expressions of disbelief. It seemed they couldn't even grasp what had gone wrong or where.
Samon flinched.
“Samon, I cannot go that fast. The memory of falling from a horse is so terrible that I can barely even hold the reins.”
He recalled a time when Medeia had worn a tearful face at the hunting grounds.
But now, jumping down from the horse, she did not look afraid at all.
No, rather, the way she handled the armor and the horse looked incredibly natural. Like a general who had spent a lifetime on the battlefield.
‘Could it be....’
Even as he thought it was absolutely impossible, it was when a bizarre intuition pierced through Samon.
“Forgive me, Uncle.”
Medeia, having dismounted, headed first toward the Regent Duke.
“You provided a safe escape route to flee from the Rebels, but I simply could not follow it.”
Escape route? The people’s ears perked up.
What did this mean? Was it not different from what the Regent Duke had said just a moment ago?
“Am I not the Princess of Baldina? No matter what hardships or disasters strike, I have a duty to protect this place until the very end, until this country falls.”
Medeia lifted her chin and looked around slowly, as if scanning every inch of the Royal Capital's interior and exterior.
Her gaze was soft as she looked toward the interior of the capital where the soldiers were, and sharp as a well-honed blade when she looked toward the exterior where the Rebels were.
“Hoakin said you had fled in fear.”
At the Queen Dowager’s question, she tilted her head.
“Fled? Uncle personally came to my palace, informed me of the secret passage, and even provided a knight from the Duke’s house. There must have been some misunderstanding.”
As if asking if that weren't the case, Medeia looked at the Regent Duke.
“You, y-you...!”
The Regent Duke’s face turned as pale as his mind, which had gone blank.
It was then.
“You greedy dogs of the Royal Family! Behold! The true reality of the Royal Family you were protecting!”
From beyond the Castle Walls, a thunderous command was heard from the Rebels.
[When the flag of the Duke's family flutters on the Castle Walls, reveal the kidnapped Princess to the whole world.]
It was the signal the Regent Duke had delivered in advance as an instruction, keeping in mind that communication would be difficult once the Rebels entered the Royal Capital.
“Leader, the flag of the Claudio Duke Family has been raised.”
“Good. The signal has come. Now! Bring the sacrifice!”
Horols, the leader, who could not have known of the unexpected situation atop the walls where Medeia had appeared, remembered that implicit signal and stepped onto the promised stage.
‘No!’
The Regent Duke screamed inwardly.
Though he could not know the detailed inner workings of why Medeia was here, it was certain that his plan had gone horribly wrong.
He hurriedly signaled to the knight to lower the flag.
“We have captured the Princess of Baldina!”
However, Horols’s shout, heard from far away, was faster.
A slender girl with a sack over her head was dragged out, her hands bound.
